190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



backward and forward upon the leg it will relieve fatigue, but the relief 

 is greater when the leg is firmly grasped and the hand moved gently 

 upward so as to drive onward as much as possible any fluid which may 

 have accumulated in the limb, and, the grasp being then relaxed, the 

 same process should be repeated. 



But, while the lymph is thus most readily removed by the pumping 

 action of intermittent pressure either of the hand without or of the 

 muscles alternately contracting and relaxing within, it seems to us 

 probable that this process may also be aided by steady, constant press- 

 ure from without. No doubt it is impossible for such a steady pressure 

 to take the place of the regular pumping action produced by the alter- 

 nate contraction and relaxation of the muscles when in action, yet it 

 will have a somewhat similar action, though to a very much less extent. 

 For at each beat of the heart, as Mosso shows, the entire limb is dis- 

 tended by the blood driven into the vessels, and during the pauses be- 

 tween the beats it again becomes smaller. Each pulse, therefore, by 

 distending the whole limb and each individual muscle, will press out a 

 little of the fluid contained in the fasciae in the same way as the con- 

 tractions of the muscles themselves ; and it seems to us probable that 

 it is the aid which is afforded to this process, by the gentle pressure ex- 

 erted on the outside of the legs by a seat which supports them along 

 their whole extent, that renders such a seat so peculiarly restful and 

 agreeable. For an easy-chair to be perfect, therefore, it ought not only 

 to provide for complete relaxation of the muscles, for flexion and con- 

 sequent laxity of the joints, but also for the easy return of blood and 

 lymph not merely by the posture of the limbs themselves, but by equa- 

 ble support and pressure against as great a surface of the limbs as pos- 

 sible. 



Such are the theoretical demands, and it is interesting to notice how 

 they are all fulfilled by the afore-mentioned chair in the shape of a 

 straggling \A/, which the languor consequent upon a relaxing climate 

 has taught the natives of India to make, and which is known all over 

 the world. — Nature. 



-♦♦♦- 



LANGUAGE AND THE EMOTIONS. 



By Dr. CHAELES WALDSTEIN. 



THE following passage in De Quincey's " Walking Stewart " is 

 well worth noticing : " The character of a nation may be judged 

 of in this particular, by examining its idiomatic language. The French, 

 in whom the lower forms of passion are constantly bubbling up from 

 the shallow and superficial character of their feelings, have appropriated 

 all the phrases of passion to the service of trivial and ordinary life, and 



