572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Kilimanjaro in 1859, but gave it up to seek 

 for Lake Nyanza, and died in that attempt. 

 Baron Claus von Decken, in the next year, 

 climbed Kilimanjaro to the height of 8,360 

 feet, and ascertained the total height of the 

 mountain (18,710 feet). Again, in 1862, he, 

 with Dr. Otto Kersten, climbed the mountain 

 to 14,160 feet, and determined its volcanic 

 nature and its situation. Von der Decken was 

 finally murdered by Somaulis, in his fourth 

 expedition up the Juba River. Richard 

 Brenner followed this adventurous traveler, 

 and retraced his last journey. In 18*75 J. 

 M. Hiktebrandt was sent out by the Karl 

 Ritter Stiflung and the Berlin Academy of 

 Sciences on an expedition to the mountain- 

 region, which was fruitful in scientific re- 

 sults. Other important expeditions were 

 made by Clemens Denhardt, in 1878, by Dr. 

 Schweinfurth, and, more recently, by Ger- 

 hard Rolfs and Dr. Nachtigal. Lastly, Dr. 

 G. A. Fischer, who took part in Denhardt's 

 expedition, has gone out under the auspices 

 of the Geographical Society of Hamburg for 

 an exploration of Somauli-land and the Galla 

 country. 



Brain-Health. In a lecture at Edin- 

 burgh, on " The Establishment and Mainte- 

 nance of Brain-Health," Dr. J. Batty Tuke 

 pointed out a certain class of influences 

 acting for good or evil on the brain over 

 which the individual had no control. They 

 were those connected with his antecedents 

 and bringing up. A man might be handi- 

 capped for life by the mistakes or faults of 

 his ancestors ; and, differently from the 

 race-horse, he had to carry weight in the 

 race of life according to his imperfections, 

 not according to his advantages. In respect 

 to this point, every child's future history 

 depends upon the food it gets and on its 

 surroundings, and much upon the mother, 

 whether she be well and vigorous or the 

 contrary. Of other food than mother's 

 milk, the Scotch oatmeal-porridge and milk 

 is a " typical " food, and the best. Tea 

 should be condemned. In education, home 

 influence should never be spared. To send 

 a child away from the family influence into 

 an atmosphere of necessarily strict disci- 

 pline and routine should be the last resource 

 of misfortune. The life of a child so placed 

 is artificial, its individuality is endangered, 



and its experience circumscribed. There- 

 fore, at all hazards, keep the child in the 

 family, and send him no farther than to the 

 day-school. One of the great causes of 

 overstraining in early youth is the vicious 

 system of offering prizes for competition. 

 It deflects the mind of the child from the 

 main aim and object of its study, and often 

 defeats them. Our whole educational sys- 

 tem tends too much in the direction of ab- 

 stract facts and theories, and to produce a 

 sort of brain-dyspepsia or indigestion ; for 

 the child's brain is not given time to assimi- 

 late the food it gets. Among women, idle- 

 ness and ignorance are much more prolific 

 causes of disease than overwork. It is not 

 work, but worry, that kills the brain. The 

 most highly educated and hard-working 

 women the lecturer knew were eminently 

 healthy. Breakdown from overwork does, 

 however, occasionally take place, and the 

 first really important symptom is sleepless- 

 ness. When that sets in there is cause for 

 alarm. Headache also comes on ; and, as 

 soon as a child or young person develops 

 continuous headache, work should be dis- 

 continued at once. Most men working in 

 this department of medicine recognize that, 

 if there is a hope of diminishing the amount 

 of brain-disease, it is to be effected by pre- 

 ventive measures. The lecturer had there- 

 fore directed attention more especially to 

 the transgressions of the father than to 

 those of the son. 



Deformities dne to School-Life. Dr. 



Dally read a paper at the Geneva Hygienic 

 Congress on the " Deformation of the Body 

 during School-Life." The researches of Dr. 

 Chaussier, who found that only 122 out of 

 23,200 newly-born infants examined by him 

 possessed abnormal peculiarities of any 

 kind, indicate that children are, as a rule 

 straight when they start to school. The 

 deformities which they exhibit at a later 

 period may therefore be attributed to the 

 enforced maintenance of one attitude for a 

 considerable length of time. The various 

 parts of the organism of youth are easily 

 displaced, and, if the cause operates con- 

 tinuously, the displacement is liable to be- 

 come permanent. Doctors were exhorted 

 to pay more attention to the medical aspects 

 of school-life. 



