114 



♦ KNOAVLEDGE ♦ 



[Arc:. 7, 1885. 



kind -wlietlier the victims shall all mew like cats, as did 

 a whole convent fnll of nuns in Italy, or imagine them- 

 selves monkeys, and try to climb the pillars of the 

 churches, as happened to congregations in Ireland, or 

 shout " Glory ! " and roll on the ground, as do the negro 

 ecstatics at Southern revivals. 



The Convulsionaries of St. Medard belonged in the 

 same category. They were seized with a furious desire 

 to be beaten, and so transported were they by their hal- 

 lucinations that they actually endured the most violent 

 blows, not only without sustainini;' permanent injuiy, but 

 without showing the least cxh mal Iimoh. In the Irish 

 epidemic, half a century ago, tin | i .i|i|. cf w liole parishes 

 were affected, and it was ul-s. i \ i I i li:ii \n lim those who 

 passed from an infected villn-^' n. luir uliich had pre- 

 viously escaped, the epidemic was siiread by contagion, 

 just as a zymotic disease might have been. 



In revivals this element of contagion is very powerful, 

 and this is one of the most marked characteristics of 

 liysteria. Merely looking at a person in a convulsion 

 will often throw sensitive persons into a i^recisely similar 

 state. The phenomena, however, have nothing to do 

 with the will or the understanding. They are physical, 

 not mental, and it is for this reason that they do not pro- 

 duce any permanent effects. The common experience of 

 lay observers respecting the after effects of spasmodic 

 revival meetings is simply a confii-mation of the scientific 

 conclusions. The evangelists who operate by means of 

 trances and exciting the emotions of their hearers power- 

 fully often produce very striking effects, but cannot 

 expect any lasting changes in their subjects. 



There is mischief in the delusion which confounds 

 hysteria with religion, for the consequences of this 

 mistake are of a kind to disgust sober and rational peojjle, 

 while they aiford opportunity for ridicule to tmbelievers, 

 and disturb and expose to bad influences the weak men 

 and women who accept them for what they are not. A 

 little sound education in physiology and the elements of 

 medical science would dissipate the hallucination that 

 the evidences of diseased condition are analogous with 

 the proofs of religioiis conviction. — New York Tribune. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHING. 



By W. Mattieu Williams. 

 XIV.— THE SEBACEOUS FOLLICLES— EIDER-DOWN.; 



THERE is one more function of clotliing which I 

 suspect is better performed by flannel than by any 

 other clothing material, though I can only supply specu- 

 lative reasons for this conclusion ; direct experiment is 

 wanting. 



Besides the glandular apparatus for secreting the 

 sweat, the skin and subjacent tissue contain other glands 

 or follicles, in which hairs and feathers are elaborated 

 from material supplied by the blood. To the sides of 

 these glandular hair-producing sheaths are attached by a 

 little tube or " duct " the sehaceous follicles which secrete 

 an oily liquid that is poured into the subcutaneous hair- 

 sheath by means of the ducts. This ajiparatus lubricates 

 the hair and the quill portion of the frailin- by .sn|iplyi)i._r 

 a natural soapy pomade, which israthiT aiiunlant m >- nir 

 animals, notably the sheep whose wool is \ i ry -ivasy. (n- 

 I may say soapy, as the "yolk" or ''siiiiit " with which 

 it is so largely .supplied is partially saponified by potash. 

 The oldest of living chemists, the centenarian Chevreul, 



published in 1828, an analysis of raw merino wool, in 

 which he found : — 



rare wool 31-23 per cent. 



Soluble siiint 32-7-i 



Insolable suint Hod 



Earthy matter 2710 ,, 



This is a maximum quantity. Some other woolts 

 contain but 10 or 12 per cent. In all eases (he ijuantity 

 is considerable. At [avM-ni tlen ;,,v works at Kheims, 

 Elbaaif, Fourmier, aial \ rr, h r il,:,i eMiaei annually 

 about 1,000 tons uf earl" nan ,.f p.|:..-.h fr.iiii niw WOol, 

 besides the fats. Oiu- maiiarneuirers shamefully waste 

 this product, especially now that hy means of bisulphide 

 of carbon it may be so ehiajily ami )irofitably removed. 



The lubricating of the hair is the function usually 

 ascribed to the sebaceous follicles. Assuming this to be 

 correct, we come upon a curious anomaly in the struc- 

 ture of the human body. We there find sebaceous 

 follicles more fully developed at the roots of certain very 

 minute downy hairs than at those of the stouter and 

 longer hairs. I shall be quite in the fashion of the day 

 if I plunge at once into evolutionary speculation con- 

 cerning these, by describing them as "survivals" of the 

 once luxurious fur of our remote ancestors ; and ascribing 

 the special luxuriance of sebaceous follicles on our noses, 



behind, and by the sides of the nostrils, to the 



• d.'Vel 



■abo 



lie 



hot 



iipon the skin, attaches to itself dust particles, ic, form- 

 ing a varnish that is unpleasant to contemplate, and pre- 

 sumably mischievous, if not removed. Besides this, an 

 interesting and disagreeable microscopic object is liable 

 to be hatched and nourished amid the neglected secre- 

 tions of these sebaceous follicles. This is a large-bodied 

 creature, with eight short legs projecting from the fore 

 part, and bearing the name of acarus folliculorum, alias 

 demodex folliculorum, alias entozoon folliculorum. 



That the removal of this greasy secretion is better 

 performed by the contact of woollen fibres than by those 

 of linen or cotton is, I think, presumably proved by the 

 facts above described concerning suint, and the experience 

 of manufacturers of woollen fabrics ; that of the fuller 

 especially. 



My admiration of Rumford and his wovk must not 

 stand in the way of impartial eritieisni. Aj'i'lying this 

 to his experiments on the relatixe heat-resisting pro- 

 perties of various clothing materials (see iS'o. G), a weak 

 point becomes evident. He packed the sixteen grains of 

 the different clothing materials uniformly into the same 

 sjiaee around the bulb of his passage thermometer. This 

 was (lesiralih_ ai lirsi, -when his object was to determine 

 the r(l;.ii\r ediiil nri m-j- |Mi\ver of the materials them- 

 laii al'n r he liml I iv these experiments discovered 

 \vas not the n sistance of the fibres themselves 

 passage of heat, but that of the air which 

 nprisoned, a further question was presented. 



selves, 

 that it 

 to tht 

 they : 



this 



still 



unanswered, i 



How much of 



leh 



nducting air can a given quantity of 



■ lihres respectively grasp and hold eu- 

 a sullicieiit urip to check the convection 

 rhy alone the L,'aseous matter carries heat ? 

 i-, the experiments, in order to become 



,ni:iii\c ami practical, should be so con- 

 le:i\r the lilircs or the fabric externally 



■ .1 i r rat In r than enclcsed in the glass globe 

 le bulb of the passage thermometer. 



a find time and opportunity I hope to carry 



