242 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



SCIENCE IN FINLAND. 



Besides the National University at 

 Helsingsfors, which had nineteen hun- 

 dred and twenty-nine students in 1894, 

 with the number increasing regularly, 

 Finland has several scientific and other 

 learned societies. The Finnish Society 

 of Sciences, founded in 1838, has publish- 

 ed, besides its regular volume of trans- 

 actions, a series of works on nature, eth- 

 nography, and statistics of the country. 

 Among its later achievements is the 

 foundation of a central meteorological in- 

 stitute, which is assisted by the govern- 

 ment. It has, besides, taken part in a 

 number of international polar expedi- 

 tions, and has established a station at 

 Sodankyla, in Lapland. Other societies 

 are the Natural History Society (Societies 

 pro fauna et flora fenni at), founded 182 1; 

 the Society of Finnish Literature, the 

 Finno - Ugrian Society, the Finland 

 Historical Society, the Finnish Archae- 

 ological Society, two geographical so- 

 cieties, a medical society and a legal so- 

 ciety. Among Finlanders distinguished 

 in science and letters have been Lonnrot, 

 grammarian and collector of the national 

 literature , Ahlqvet, another able gram- 

 marian ; Hallstrom, physicist ; the il- 

 lustrious astronomer Argelander ; the 

 mathematicians Lindelof, Schulten and 

 Mittag-Loffler, the last editor of the in- 

 ternational journal Acta Mathemaiica ; 

 the explorer Nordenskiold, who removed 

 to Sweden in 1857 to escape trouble on 

 account of an address he had made at a 

 students' iestival ; the botanist Nylan- 

 der ; the zoologist Nordmann ; and the 

 surgeon Estlander. Swedish literature 

 is also distinguished by several Finnish 

 names of great writers ; Finnish literature 

 is very ancient, although it has only re- 

 cently begun to receive special attention. 

 The later poets and romancers have dis- 

 cussed in the fresh and spontaneous old 

 poetry of the ancient folklore, a nearly 



inexhaustible mine of rich images and 

 striking epics. Finland has further pro- 

 duced eminent artists in various lines. 

 The full story of the achievements of this 

 too little known country of the far north 

 is told in the book "La Finlands au 

 XIX sieel," which the writers and artists 

 of the country have combined to make 

 up, published at Helsingfors, in French, 

 in 1894. — The Popular Science Monthly. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE PHYSICIAN 

 AND SURGEON. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his study of 

 "Professional Institutions" from the 

 evolution point of view, in the June num- 

 ber of the Contemporary, is not compli- 

 mentary to the modern physician or 

 surgeon, whom he regards as the lineal 

 descendant of the medicine man of savage 

 races. " The continuity of beliet and of 

 usage," he observes, " is even still 

 shown in the surving interpretation of 

 certain diseases by the Church and its 

 adherents ; and it is even still traceable 

 in certain modes of medical treatment, 

 and certain popular convictions connect- 

 ed with them. The notion that the 

 demon who was causing a disease must 

 be driven out, continued, until recent 

 times, to give a character to medical 

 practice, and even now influences the 

 conceptions which many people form of 

 medicines. The primitive medicine-man, 

 thinking to make the body an intolerable 

 habitat for the demon, exposed his 

 patient to this or that kind of alarming, 

 painful or disgusting treatment. He 

 made before him dreadful noises and 

 fearful grimaces, or subjected him to an 

 almost unbearable heat, or produced un- 

 der his nose atrocious stenches, or made 

 him swallow the most abominable sub- 

 stances he could think of. Not only dur- 

 ing mediaeval days, but in far more 

 recent days, the efficiency of medicines 

 was associated in thought with their dis- 



