POPULAR MIS CELL ANY. 



x 39 



began to cut its way year after year, century 

 after century, millennium after millennium. 

 As the waters of Lake Ontario began to sub- 

 side, the height of the Falls increased. The 

 upper stratum of rock is Niagara limestone, a 

 hard rock, but beneath it is a stratum of Niag- 

 ara shale. It is the slow undermining of this 

 shale that causes the Niagara limestone rock 

 to break off from year to year and the Falls 

 to recede. How long it has taken the Falls 

 to go back from Lewiston I do not know. 

 They are going now at the rate of three or 

 four feet a year. At that rate some ten or 

 twelve thousand years would have done the 

 work. The lowest estimates are from seven 

 to eight thousand years. I for my part am 

 inclined to favor the higher estimate. Well, 

 they are still going backward. What will be 

 the final result ? They may go back to the 

 lake ; but the Niagara limestone is growing 

 thicker and thicker, and may finally extend 

 to the bottom of the fall. In that case the 

 rock would not break off, but would wear 

 away and form a rapids. In any case, if the 

 Falls should recede to Lake Erie, at the pres- 

 ent rate it would take at least twenty thou- 

 sand years, and, of course, we can not be 

 very strongly personally interested." 



Cause of Seasickness and Remedies for 



it. — The inducing cause of seasickness, ac- 

 cording to the studies of Dr. Herbert Dam- 

 vers, is a mechanical irritation of the walls 

 of the stomach due to contact of parts not 

 usually in apposition with one another. The 

 effect of this is to produce reflex stimulation 

 of the vomiting center in the medulla and 

 directly a subacute gastritis ; diminished 

 blood-supply to the head and neck (as seen 

 in the extraordinary pallor of the face) ; and 

 a disturbance of cerebral circulation, result- 

 ing in a general nerve starvation, which is 

 evidenced by headache of neuralgic intensi- 

 ty. The author would for clinical purposes 

 group all cases into three divisions, accord- 

 ing as head symptoms or gastric symptoms 

 largely predominate, or head and gastric 

 symptoms are combined in nearly equal de- 

 grees (mixed cases). The author treats 

 cases of the first group with enemas, fol- 

 lowed by nerve sedatives, and then with 

 measures to raise depressed spirits. In 

 cases of the second group he administers 

 warm water as an emetic, followed by pre- 



scriptions for allaying gastric irritability. 

 For the mixed cases soda and compound 

 tincture of cardamoms or nitromuriatic acid 

 during the day, with a pill of calomel, colo- 

 cynth, and hyoscyamus at bedtime, have 

 been found efficient. These methods of 

 treatment apply solely to large ocean steam- 

 ers, on which the passengers remain a week 

 or more. In the case of short trips on small 

 vessels, in which the motions are different, the 

 author is sure that we have no drug or com- 

 bination of drugs that will act as a panacea. 



Biological Teaching in American Col- 

 leges. — Reviewing the present condition of 

 biological teaching in the colleges of the 

 United States, Prof. John A. Campbell re- 

 marks that we have now advanced to a stage 

 where we can no longer expect much bio- 

 logical research to be done by private per- 

 sons, and must look largely to the colleges 

 for work of a purely scientific character. 

 Many problems are peculiar to the country, 

 arising out of the character of its flora and 

 fauna; while, on the other hand, certain 

 kinds of work find in this country more fa- 

 vorable conditions than prevail elsewhere. 

 Much is still to be done in purely descriptive 

 work. There are many regions to be ex- 

 plored before we will know the entire flora 

 and fauna of the United States, and our 

 knowledge of the life histories, especially of 

 the lower vegetable forms, is in a peculiarly 

 unsatisfactory condition. Co-operation among 

 investigators is especially necessary if the 

 best results to the individual are to be 

 reached ; while specialization of research is 

 equally imperative for the best interests of 

 science. At present, in this country, these 

 two points are not equally guarded, for we 

 do not find sufficient efforts made to resist 

 the narrowing tendency of specialization. 

 Prof. C. 0. Whitman has pointed out the 

 necessity for organization among investiga- 

 tors, and as a result of his efforts there is a 

 much more wide-spread appreciation of this 

 necessity than ever before. There have been 

 advanced lecture courses and courses and 

 co-operative studies in current literature at 

 Johns Hopkins University ever since its 

 foundation. In but few other institutions do 

 the catalogues contain any accounts of such 

 work. But the present indications are hope- 

 ful. The necessity for the work is coming 



