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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



at Dubuque, Iowa, commencing Wednesday, 

 August 21st, at 10 o'clock a. m. On the 

 evening of the same day a formal reception 

 will be extended to the Association by 

 United States Senator Wm. B. Allison, of 

 the reception committee ; after a response 

 from the Association, Prof. Asa Gray, re- 

 tiring president, will deliver his address, 

 and give up the chair to his successor, Dr. 

 J. Lawrence Smith. The British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science will 

 convene this year at Brighton ; the first 

 general meeting is appointed for August 

 14th, at 8 o'clock p. m., when Prof. Sir 

 William Thomson, F. R. S., will resign the 

 chair, and Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F. R. S., 

 will assume the presidency, and deliver an 

 address. The forty-fifth annual session of 

 the German Society of Naturalists and Phy- 

 sicians will be held in Leipsic, commencing 

 Monday, August 12th, and ending Sunday, 

 August 18th. 



Providence in Physical Affairs. The 

 Archbishop of York lately stated, at a 

 meeting of the supporters of the Palestine 

 Exploration Fund, that the progress of the 

 human mind is from vagueness toward pre- 

 cision. In conformity with this tendency, 

 it has been proposed to arrive at more pre- 

 cise ideas in regard to the efficacy of prayer 

 in affecting the course of physical events. An 

 anonymous letter, proposing a plan by which 

 this may be done, was sent to Prof. Tyndall, 

 who approved the suggestion, and forward- 

 ed the communication to the editor of the 

 Contemporary Review, in which it has just 

 been published. 



The writer states that prayers are regu- 

 larly offered by the Church, designed to se- 

 cure preservation from pestilence, famine, 

 and battles, the fertility of the soil, and 

 weather suitable for the growth and preser- 

 vation of vegetable products, for the pro- 

 tection of all that are in danger, and for the 

 preservation of travellers and of sick per- 

 sons. He proposes to test the efficacy of 

 this influence, and to determine its degree, 

 by a grand experiment, and selects the case 

 of "sick persons "as best suited for his 

 purpose. His plan is thu3 stated : 



The following appears to me to indicate 

 the manner of conducting the inquiry : it ' 

 should be pursued on a system somewhat 

 analogous to that which is pursued by the 



Faculty, when a question arises as to the 

 value of any particular mode of treating dis- 

 ease. For example : a new remedy has been 

 proposed, or is said, on high authority, to 

 be efficacious, and, as authority does not 

 suffice in medicine, further than to recom- 

 mend a given course, and never to prescribe 

 it, the remedy is carefully tested. Usually 

 a hospital or a ward is assigned for the pur- 

 pose. All the patients suffering from the 

 disease to be treated are, during a certain 

 period, divided into two classes, and all are 

 subjected, as far as possible, to the same 

 conditions, that single one of treatment 

 alone excepted. The ages, sexes, and many 

 other particulars of the patients, are taken 

 into account, and duly noted. The one 

 class is treated by the old system, and the 

 other by the new remedy. When a very 

 large number for in large numbers only is 

 there truth has been thus dealt with, the 

 results are compared, and the value of the 

 remedy can be definitely expressed ; that is, 

 its influence above or below that of the old 

 treatment, as the case may be, will appear 

 in the percentage of recover}', or of other 

 results. 



Now, for the purpose of our inquiry, I 

 do not propose to ask that one single child 

 of man should be deprived of his participa- 

 tion in all that belongs to him of this vast 

 influence. But I ask that one single ward 

 or hospital, under the care of first-rate phy- 

 sicians and surgeons, containing certain 

 numbers of patients afflicted with those dis- 

 eases which have been best studied, and of 

 which the mortality-rates are best known, 

 whether the diseases are those which are 

 treated by medical or by surgical remedies, 

 should be, during a period of not less, say, 

 than three or five years, made the object of 

 special prayer by the whole body of the 

 faithful, and that, at the end of that time, 

 the mortality-rates should be compared with 

 the past rates, and also with that of other 

 leading hospitals, similarly well managed, 

 during the same period. Granting that 

 time is given, and numbers are sufficiently 

 large, so as to insure a minimum of error 

 from accidental disturbing causes, the ex- 

 periment will be exhaustive and complete. 



Alcoholic Hallucinations. Dr. Magnan 

 has been investigating the psychical and 

 physiological effects of alcoholism upon the 

 lower animals, and has described the symp- 

 toms of hallucination that followed in cer- 

 tain cases of prolonged alcoholic action. He 

 had drugged certain ill-fated dogs for some 

 time with liberal doses, and from the fif- 

 teenth day to the end of the experiment 

 the following is what he observed : 



One of the dogs remained almost unaf 

 fected by the protracted action of alcohol ; 



