34 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may occur if the liver is enlarged or congested, for then it seems 

 to drag upon the suspensory ligaments when the patient lies 

 upon the left side, and thus he is obliged to turn round that the 

 liver may be supported by the ribs. If a heavy meal has been 

 taken shortly before retiring to rest the person may be unable to 

 lie upon his left side because the stomach drags upon its pyloric 

 end. On the other hand, if the stomach is distended by flatu- 

 lence, the gases sometimes will not escape while the patient is 

 lying on his right side, and he must either be raised into a sitting 

 posture or be turned on his left side to allow the gas to eructate 

 by the oesophagus and the tension in the stomach to be relieved,* 

 for the oesophagus joins the stomach at such an angle that when 

 the patient is on his right side the gases appear to accumulate and 

 not to find an exit through the oesophagus, but when he is on his 

 left side they pass upward with comparative ease. This, of 

 course, is a matter of very slight moment to patients who are 

 able to move readily, because they adjust their own position at 

 will and soon find out which is the most easy one for them. But 

 when a patient is so weak that he is unable to move himself he 

 is frequently allowed to lie flat on his back and to suffer much 

 from abdominal distention and even from difficulty of breathing, 

 due to the diaphragm being pushed upward, when he might be 

 relieved by simply sitting him up for a few minutes or turning 

 him over on his left side. 



In this short paper I have made no reference to many other 

 postures in disease, neither have I attempted to discuss the post- 

 ures due to trade, nor have I attempted to make the paper 

 complete. I have merely tried to give an illustration of an easy 

 method of recording posture in a tolerably precise and easily un- 

 derstood way, and have attempted to connect external signs 

 with physiological conditions as an illustration of the method 

 of tracking which I mentioned in a former paper in the hope of 

 inducing others to prosecute the same line of work. — London 

 Lancet. 



Forecasting the future of psychology, Prof. Charles Eichet anticipates, with 

 regard to comparative psychology, that we may some day arrive at the reason of 

 madness and crime, with all the important social solutions which that knowledge 

 would carry with it. With regard to transcendental psychology, we possess, he 

 said, numerous gifts often or almost always imperfect, which allow the supposi- 

 tion that human nature has extraordinary resources, and that it contains forces 

 which it does not even suspect. The author hoped the day would come when all 

 these scattered gifts would be realized. 



* I have found this practice useful. The explanation I have given of its utility was, 1 

 think, suggested to me several years ago by John Haddon, M. A., M. D. 



