NOTES. 



575 



IVcrvc-Vibration as a Remedy. Dr. J. 



Mortimer-Granville writes in the " Lancet " 

 that enlarged experience in nerve-vibration, 

 as a means or method of treating disease, 

 has confirmed his belief in its value, and 

 he has no longer any hesitation in recom- 

 mending its adoption by the profession. He 

 has employed it in a very considerable 

 number of cases, differing widely in their 

 nature and characteristics, and, although he 

 has had many failures mainly, as he be- 

 lieves, from errors in diagnosis, and mis 

 management in the application of the treat- 

 ment " the net result has been such as to 

 place beyond reasonable question the fact 

 that, in precisely applied mechanical vibra- 

 tion of nerves and nerve-centers, we have 

 a means of eliciting function and stimulat- 

 ing nutrition which surpasses for directness 

 and rapidity of action any other system or 

 method extant." Regarding the principles 

 of the practice, Dr. Mortimer-Granville be- 

 lieves that, in the treatment of neuralgia, 

 percussion acts simply by interrupting a 

 morbid series of vibrations and substituting 

 for it another series which is not morbid. 

 Its success is by no means certain ; but it 

 deserves a trial, and particularly in cases 

 which would otherwise be treated by nerve- 

 stretching. The method is believed to be 

 of the highest possible value for the rous- 

 ing of torpid nerve-centers and eliciting 

 function from the several organs of the 

 body. Every organ " may, in the absence 

 of disabling organic disease, be made to 

 perform its proper function by exciting the 

 nerve which supplies it with energy by 

 mechanical vibration. In this way I have 

 seen the liver unloaded, and what seemed 

 to be inveterate torpidity of the intestines 

 remedied in a few successive vibrations. I 

 have now under treatment the case of a child 

 who was six weeks ago to all appeai-ance 

 an idiot, but who has already devel- 

 oped so much cerebral activity and growing 

 intelligence, under the influence of specific 

 center and nerve-vibration, that I entertain 

 the strongest hope of his ultimate awakening, 

 and a fair approach to the normal state. 

 A surprising amount of success has attended 

 percussion in cases of obstinate and what 

 was supposed to be irremediable deafness. 

 ... In neurasthenia, neurasthenia, and 

 even commencing sclerosis of the spinal 



cord with loss of tendon reflex, the most 

 remarkable effects are produced by apply- 

 ing the percuteur over the spinous processes 

 of the appropriate vertebra?." 



OMtaary. Science, in California, lost 

 by the death of the Hon. Benjamin B. Red- 

 ding, State Fish Commissioner, in August 

 last, one of its most active promoters. Mr. 

 Redding was a Regent of the University of 

 California, and President of the Board of 

 Trustees of the California Academy of Sci- 

 ences. He took great interest in all scien- 

 tific work, especially in the paleontology of 

 the Pacific coast, and was an indefatigable 

 collector of prehistoric and aboriginal relics. 

 He was also a member of the Geographical 

 Society of the Pacific, and read before it in 

 April last a paper describing a visit to the 

 Galapagos Islands, made in 1850. A list 

 of his contributions to current literature 

 since October, 1877, contains the titles of 

 more than eighty papers, nearly all of which 

 had a scientific bearing. No record is pre- 

 served of his previous contributions. His 

 papers have been described as always full 

 of original facts, clearly and simply ex- 

 pressed. Mr. Redding was fifty-eight years 

 old. 



NOTES. 



A powerful magnetic storm prevailed, 

 both in the United Slates and England, 

 shortly after the middle of November, 

 reaching its intensity in both countries on 

 the 17th. It was described by American 

 electricians as unlike any disturbance here- 

 tofore known, and as acting upon the wires 

 in strong waves, which produced constant 

 changes in the polarity of the current. In 

 England, Mr. Preece pronounced it the 

 most terrific storm he had ever witnessed, 

 after thirty years of observation, aud de- 

 scribed it as characterized, like the Amer- 

 ican storm, by alternate waves of great 

 strength. The storm was accompanied, in 

 both countries, by brilliant auroras on the 

 night of the 17th. French accounts repre- 

 sent the storm as equally remarkable on 

 the Continent. 



The death is announced of Dr. Franz 

 Ritter von Kobell, Professor of Mineralogy, 

 and keeper of the mineralogicnl state col- 

 lections at Munich, Bavaria. He was sev- 

 enty-nine years old, and was well known 

 through his numerous mineralogical publi- 

 cations. 



