362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The toil and misery, disappointment and mortification of skimming 

 broad acres for meager results must give place to farming for profit. 

 The change, when it comes, will be aided to some extent by profes- 

 sional guides and public men, but the foundation for it is within. The 

 farmer is a near neighbor of hard facts, and living in days "when every- 

 thing is questioned, and nothing is taken for granted when every in- 

 stitution in the land has to make good its claim to existence by the 

 results produced he is not likely to be deceived, or to grab any 

 longer at the shadow for the substance. His wealth and happiness 

 consist not in the number of his acres so much as in the principles of 

 his farm practice. He will discover, as many of his confreres have 

 already done, that the future of American agriculture will be deter- 

 mined by the extent to which fundamental truths of science are ap- 

 plied. 







THE CAUSE OF SEA-SICE^ESS. 



By EOBEET W. LOVETT. 



WHEN such an apparently simple disorder as sea-sickness exists 

 in the midst of mankind for at least two thousand years? 

 claiming yearly more victims, and all in sjfite of the best efforts of 

 medical mankind to overcome it, it becomes of interest to inquire 

 whether this is because its true nature has never been understood, or 

 because it is essentially incurable. 



The phenomena of sea-sickness are too well known to need detailed 

 description. Violent and persistent vomiting is associated with it in 

 most minds, and is the prominent symptom in most cases ; but there are 

 also a cold, clammy skin, headache, continuous nausea, great prostra- 

 tion, and indifference, the whole being accompanied by nervous irrita- 

 bility, and, in most cases, intense mental depression. 



Plutarch was, perhaps, the first theorist on the subject. He thought 

 that sea-sickness was caused by the smell of the salt-water ; and, fol- 

 lowing him, men have propounded theory after theory, only to leave 

 us of to-day with a large stock of theories, and but few good results to 

 show for them. 



Perhaps the most acceptable theory to-day is the one which places 

 the origin of the trouble in the inner ear. The ear consists of three 

 parts : the outer of these runs in as far as the drum ; the middle part 

 is inside of the drum, and contains the chain of ear-bones ; while the 

 inner ear is a complicated affair, containing the essential organ of hear- 

 ing. 



As far as we are concerned, the inner ear is a membranous bag 

 filled with fluid, and situated in the solid bone. From the back part 

 of this bag run out three semicircular tubes communicating at both 



