58 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[Jan. 26, 1883. 



(Pur ^Jnintrov Cornrr. 



IS IT POSSIBLE TO GKOW GIANTS? 



[Oil the staff of the New Ynrk Times tlioro is a humorous writer 

 who from time to time throws off a loader dealing with some quaint 

 quasi-scientific notion, blandly quoting Mill, Darwin, Iluxlcy, 

 Spencer, Tyndall, and others (including the Editor of Knowledge), 

 in pretended support of his odd fancies. The following amusing 

 squib is from the pen of this clever writer, though sent to us as a 

 scientific communication over the name of the Medical Press and 

 Circulur.—li. A. P.] 



THIS question has received almost a solution. According to the 

 iVt'ie York Time.i, " the incubator of M. Tarnier has succeeded 

 in raising infants who, at the end of six months, weigh 81- lb., and 

 whose weight at birth six months previously was only 10 or 12 lb. 

 The incubator of M. Tarnier is framed on the model of the one for 

 hatching eggs scientifically. The immense success which attended 

 the artificial incubation of chickens in France attracted the atten- 

 tion of the learned, ingenious, and obstetric physician. He was 

 attached to a hospital for foundlings, and although the position 

 gave him an admirable opportmiity for experimenting with new 

 medicines, he was a humane man, and he was annoyed at the large 

 number of foundlings who died within the first six months of their 

 hfe. The majority of those admitted to the hospital were weak 

 and sickly, but in that respect they did not differ from all sorts 

 of French infants. Dr. Tarnier felt that it was a reproach to 

 medical science that Freuch infants could not be cultivated with as 

 much success as French chickens, and he resolved to try what 

 artificial incubation, if it so may be called, would accomplish if 

 applied to infants. 



" The doctor constructed a child-incubator on precisely the model of 

 the ordinary chicken-incubator. It was a box, covered with a glass 

 side, furnished with a soft woollen bed, and kept at a temperature of 

 85 degrees Fah. bj the aid of hot water. He selected as the sub- 

 ject of his first experiment a miserably-made infant — one, in fact, 

 that had rashly insisted upon beginning the world at an injudi- 

 ciously early jicriod. This infant was placed in the incubator, 

 provided with a nursing bottle, and kept in a dark room. To 

 the surprise of the doctor, he ceased to cry on the second day 

 after he was placed in the incubator, and although it had 

 previously been a preternaturally sleepless child, it sank into 

 a quiet, deep sleep. The child remained in the incubator for 

 about eight weeks, during which time it never once cried, and 

 never remained awake except when taking nourishment. It grew 

 rapidly, and when, at the expiration of sixty days, it was removed 

 from the incubator, it presented the appeai-ance "of a healthy child 

 of a year old. Delighted with the success of this experiment. Dr. 

 Tarnier next selected an ordinary six months old infant, addicted 

 to the] usual pains and colic, and exhibiting the usual fretfulness 

 of French infants. The child conducted itself while in the incubator 

 precisely as its predecessor had done. It never cried ; it spent its 

 whole time in sleep ; and it grew as if it had made up its mind to 

 embrace the career of a professional giant. After six weeks' stay 

 in the incubator, it was removed and weighed. During this brief 

 period it had doubled its weight. It had become so strong and 

 healthy that it resembled a child three years old, and it could 

 actually walk when holding on to a convenient piece of furniture. 



" These two experiments satisfied Dr. Tarnier of the vast advan- 

 tages of artificial child-incubation. He immediately proceeded, 

 with the permission of the authorities of the hospital, to construct 

 an incubator of the capacity of 400 children, and in this he placed 

 every one of the 3G0 infants who were in the hospital on the 10th 

 day of February last. With the exception of one who died from 

 congimital hydrocephalus, and another who was claimed by its 

 repentant parents, the infants were kept continuously in the 

 incubator for six months, when they were removed in consequence 

 of having outgrown their narrow beds. The result will seem 

 almost incredible to persons who are unfamiliar with the reputa- 

 tion of Dr. Tarnier, and have not seen the report made to the 

 French Government by a select committee of twelve. 



" The average age of the infants last February was eight months 

 and three days, the youngest being less than twelve hours old, and 

 the eldest not more than eleven months. Their average weight was 

 10 lb., only one of the entire 360 having attained a wciglit of 32 lb. 

 At the end of six months of artificial incubation the average weight 

 of each infant was 811b., and there was not one who would not 

 have been supposed by a casual observer to be at least eight years 

 old. In other wards, six months of artificial incubation did as 

 much in the way of devclojiing Dr. Tnrnier's foundlings as eight 

 years of ordinary life would have done. The infants were strong 

 and healthy, as well as big ; they walked within a week of leaving 

 the incubator, and most of them have since learnt to talk. These 



results surpassed Dr. Tarnior'g most enthusiastic expectations, and 

 there can be no doubt that his system of artificial child-incubation 

 will be adopted, not only in every cliild's hospital in France, but in 

 every private family throughout the civilised world." 



VVe must make allowanet'S [rather !] [proceeds the Medical Prat, 

 and truly " it will go near to be thought so, shortly"] for some of 

 the statements, which are taken from an American paper. Allow- 

 ing for exaggerations, the incubator of Tarnier may be of use in 

 rearing delicate and premature infants. It is an ingenious 

 application of a principle recognised by agriculturists. 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more."- — Alfred Tzxxysos. 



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STAYS AND STATUES. 



[693] — Supposing that "An Observer" is a male, I really must 

 thank him, on behalf of my sex, for his very high opinion of onr 

 common sense. He says that because Dr. Lewis has stated as a 

 fact that in America "a waist of 19 in. is considered immense, 

 while here it is considered rather small," therefore English women 

 will be induced to order smaller stays than ever. He may ease his 

 mind. I really don't think it is at all probable ; if American women 

 are sn foolish, I see no reason why English women should be. 

 Again, after quoting Dr. Lewis's letter to the effect that " in 

 America a reduction of 10 in. is common, against 7 in. or 8 in. 

 here," ** An Observer" remarks that therefore waists of only 14 in. 

 must be common there. This is mere quibbling. Every physiologist 

 knows that a waist of 19 in. can only belong natnralhj either to a 

 person reduced to a skeleton or to one very much under-sized. 

 And of course Dr. Lewis means that a person whose waist would 

 normally be 29 in. has reduced it to 19 in. This is an extreme case, 

 though quite possible. Few people can grasp the idea of the 

 marvellous compressibility of the waist. I know a young woman 

 who as a girl had a waist of 26 in. ; it is now 20 in., and this 

 wonderful change took place in a little over a year. I need scarcely 

 remark that she is far from being a healthy person. 



After stating that he has inferred (with great acuteness) from 

 Dr. Lewis, that waists of 14 in. are common iu America, " A-n 

 Observer" sa\-s that (as a corollary from this), he is " more in- 

 credulous than ever of any bad effects from such tight-lacing as is 

 practised here now." Really, "An Observer" must have a unique 

 mind. He acknowledges the compressibility of the waist, the length 

 to which women are prepared to go, and therefore thinks that 

 tight-lacing can do no harm ! Wiiy does he suppose our waists 

 are made the size they are ? What does he suppose happens during 

 the cultivation of a waist? "An Observer" has evidently no 

 notion either of anatomy or physiolog}-, and I think it would be 

 advisable if such people left the subject of tight-lacing alone. 



Again " An Observer " says : "And as for 'a third of women's 

 diseases coming from it' (tight-lacing), how do the doctors, who 

 writo in this loose way account for women living on the average 

 some years longer than men ? " I need hardly remark that statistics 

 are, of all things, the most misleading. I question whether women 

 do live longer than men ; but whether they do or do not, they cer- 

 tainly ought to, looking at the circumstances of their daily life. 

 Are women soldiers, sailors, sappers, miners, navvies, or railway 

 servants ? How many deaths are annually reported owing to acci- 

 dents to such persons ? Are women exposed to much danger in 

 any of their daily occupations ? Deaths arising from brain work 



