Vol. XXV, No. 9.] 
POPULAR SCIEl!TOE l^EWS. 
141 
session of the jewels were perhaps numerous, 
they must invariably have been unsatisfactory, 
especially to the toads. 
The eagle stone was considered an excellent 
thing to wear during pregnancy, and the swallow- 
carried in its stomach stones of great medicinal 
value. 
The brain of the tortoise was supposed to con- 
tain a wonderful stone, which was efficacious in 
extinguisliing fire, and when placed under the 
tongue, would produce prophetic inspiration. 
Another stone possessing the latter property was 
to be found in the eye of the hyena. 
The head of the cat, however, was thought to 
contain what would undoubtedly have been the 
most wonderful and most desirable treasure of 
all, could it have only had a real instead of an 
imaginary existence, for that man who was so 
fortunate as to possess this precious stone would 
have all his wishes granted. 
[Specially Compiled for Populab Sciekce News.] 
MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 
PROGRESS. 
by maurice u. clarke, m. d. 
Care of the Eyes During School Life.— 
] . ITie liffhting of the work. — So long as languages 
are taught with grammars and lexicons, exercises 
to read and exercises to write; so long as mathe- 
matical demonstrations and calculations have to 
be traced out on slate and paper ; so long as natu- 
ral history furnishes objects for minute inspection, 
to supplement text-booli studies ; in a word, so 
long as that part of education which is ol)tained 
through scliool life demands the unremitting ap- 
plication of the powers of vision, the paramount 
(juestion in the location and planning of every 
sciiool building should be, where and how can be 
obtained the best possible light for every pupil? 
But even where this requirement is met in the 
building, and still more where it has ))een ignored, 
there is need of constant supervision of the illu- 
mination. The adjustment of shades, the arrange- 
ment of seats for various exercises, or for exer- 
cises at various times of day, the especial favoring 
of those whose limits of endurance are compara- 
tively narrow, the suspension of certain exercises, 
or the resort to artificial illumination at dark hours 
or on gloomy days, demand constant, watchful, 
intelligent care. 
2. The prevention or correction of faulty methods 
of using the eyes. — This includes the care of the 
general position of the body ; the position of the 
head and eyes and book, frequent relaxing of the 
accommodation and convergence by looking oft" 
from near work into distance; the arrangement 
of hours to avoid the excessive coutinuance of any 
one kind of effort ; and care not to make great re- 
quirements of the eyes during periods of general 
exhaustion or lowered nutrition. 
3. The use of glasses, including the recognition 
and careful measurement of ametropia or hetero- 
phoria, with their proper correction or treatment ; 
and the study and management of cases of special 
weakness of accommodation and convergence. 
4. The adaptation of the size of print or other 
objects looked at, to the visual power of the individ- 
ual. — Remembering that the work attempted must 
be strictly confined within those individual limits, 
no matter how narrow they may be, it may be 
well to note here that it lessens the brain effort of 
application to have the retinal image large and 
vivid, as well as distinct. It is this temptation to 
render the task easier for the attention, tliough 
harder for the accommodation and convergence, 
that prompts children to hold the book or other 
object excessively near. So it is important, es- 
pecially for young children, to give a retinal 
image much larger than is necessary for distinct 
vision at the working distance. There is great 
physiological reason for the large type of horn- 
book and primer. 
5. The care of the general nutrition and health. — 
It should never be forgotten that the visual appa- 
ratus is a part of the body, influencing and influ- 
enced by all other parts, and suffering with them 
from external injurious influences. 
A consideration of these requirements that are 
to be met shows that, in the matter of lighting, 
the avoidance of vicious methods of using the 
eyes, the selection of properly printed books, the 
teaching the children to write letters and figures 
of good size, and the recognition of the individual 
limits of endurance, there is need of the constant 
intelligent supervision of each individual school 
and scholar. — Am. Lancet. 
Pathology of Grief. — lliat severe mental 
distress or fright sometimes produces physical 
disease, and occasionally even death, is an admit- 
ted fact, although the way in which it acts has 
hitherto been but little studied. In order in some 
measure to supply the deficiency in our knowl- 
edge regarding this matter Dr. G. Bassi has re- 
cently made a number of observations on animals 
whicii apparently died in consequence of capture. 
Birds, moles, and a dog which had succumbed to 
conditions believed by Dr. Bassi to resemble those 
known among human beings as acute nostalgia 
and a "'broken heart" were examined post- 
mortem. Generally there was hyperemia, some- 
times associated with capillary hefnorrhages of 
the abdominal organs, more especially of the 
liver, also fatty and granular degeneration of 
their elements, and sometimes bile was found in 
the stomach, with or without a catarrhal condi- 
tion. The clinical symptoms were at first those 
of excitement, especially in the birds, these being 
followed by depression and persistent anorexia. 
The theory suggested by Dr. Bassi is that the 
nervous disturbance interferes with the due nu- 
trition of the tissues in such a way as to give rise 
to the formation of toxic substances — probably 
ptomaines — which tlien set up acute degeneration 
of the parenchymatous elements similar to that 
which occurs in consequence of the action of 
certain poisonous substances, such, as phosphorus 
or to that met with in some infectious diseases. 
In support of this view, he points out that Schule 
has found parenchymatous degeneration in per- 
sons dead from acute delirium, and tliat Zenker 
found hemorrhages in the pancreas in persons 
who had died suddenly; he refers also to some 
well-known facts concerning negroes in a state of 
slavery, and to the occasional occurrence of jaun- 
dice after fright. He hopes that these hints may 
induce medical officers of prisons and others to 
study both clinically and anatomically this by no 
means uninteresting or unimportant subject. — 
GaillariPs Medical Journal. 
Shedding Bones. — The following story is re- 
lated by a correspondent of the Medical Standard : 
The following case was reported to the East Ten- 
nessee Medical Soeiety by Dr. Bell, of Parrotts- 
ville. The patient is seventy-one years of age, 
seemingly in perfect health, a well-preserved 
woman of medium height, average weight, and 
normal in every other respect. Twenty-one years 
ago the exfoliation of bone began in her fingers, 
and has during the succeeding years continued 
until slie has twice shed ulna and radius, hu- 
merus,' scapula and part of Inferior maxillary. 
I'Tiis shedding occurs spontaneously without pain, 
hiemorrhage, suppuration, inflammation, or in- 
convenience. On one occasion when churning she 
shed the radius. There is no deformity, supina- 
tion, pronation, extension, flexion and circum- 
flexion being perfect. The bones shed (about six 
hundred pieces) were, on careful inspection by 
the society, found to be entirely natural. She 
has given about one hundred pieces of bone away 
as souvenirs. Th(f woman is conscious of the 
pending expulsion of a bone about ten minutes 
before it takes place, and a perfect bone is always 
left in its stead. The bone malies its way out, 
always on the posterior side, and the wound heals 
by first intention though at the " exit of the 
bones " were numerous small .scars. Half of the 
radius is expelled at one time, the articulation 
being perfectly natural. There is no history of 
scrofula, cancer, or other disease. She has lived 
in the country, and has never been exposed to 
chemicals nor ever been poisoned. She lias al- 
ways been in comfortable circumstances and is 
cheerful. 
The Bacilli of Malaria. — Dr. Andreas has 
recently publislied an interesting treatise on the 
comparative number of the bacilli of malaria in 
the ail- at different times of the day. His experi- 
ments, which were conducted in the Observatory 
of Moncalierl, and reported in the Medicinische 
Neuigkeiten, were carried out by meaus of small 
rubber ballons tilled with liydrogen. On to these 
balloons he fastened a small box holding prepared 
glass slides, which box he was able to open by 
means of a cord, after the balloon haci reached 
the desired height. Microscopical examination of 
the slides showed that in the early hours of the 
day the swarms of bacteria were close to the 
ground and In large numbers ; later, at about 9 
o'clock in the morning until about 3 in the after- 
noon, they would rise until they reached a consid- 
erable lieight, and from that time would again 
gradually sink to the ground. The number of 
bacilli in the air was almost exactly in proportion 
to the rise of temperature, while in direct opposi- 
tion to the amount of humidity in the atmosphere. 
It is evident, therefoie, that the condensation of 
the watery vapors in the air causes the falling of 
the bacilli, and for this reason th", morning and 
evening hours are the most dangerous in malarial 
districts. 
The Etiology of Acute Suppuration. — An 
interesting review of Steinhaus's exhaustive work 
on this subject closes with the following para- 
graph, which is of surgical interest : 
"That, so far as our present knowledge is to be 
relied upon, we are justified in believing that sup- 
puration in the living tissues Is the result of some 
certain chemical action, which may be combined 
w itli the presence of bacteria, or may be obtained 
from pure chemical substances without the pres- 
ence of micro-organisms." 
Whether this is merely of theoretic interest or 
not, and that practically in clinical work all sup- 
puration Is due to microbes, is still a question un- 
answered. It is of especial interest in regard to 
cold abscesses, whose pathology is still unsettled. 
Steinhaus also claims to have demonstrated that 
the action of the same micro-organisms varies 
greatly in different animals, thus explaining many 
apparently contradictory experimental results. — 
Boston Med. and Surg. Jour. 
Influence of Food on Physical Character. 
— Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as offering 
the following sentiments regarding this topic: 
