June 16, 1882.] 



• KNOWLEDGE 



43 



oHiprwiso it would be difficult to explain the immnnity, such as it 

 is, enjoyed from a disease so prevalent as tubercle, for it is estimated 

 that one-seventh of the total mortality arises from it. And further 

 than this, there is a stern necessity now shown to us to admit and 

 attempt the discovery of a means of alleviating the disastrous conse- 

 quences that follow on the general distribution of tuberculous disease. 

 In this respect there must henceforth bo no unwise or careless 

 compromise with sentimcntalism. Koch has contributed to our 

 knowledge of the history of disease a discovery which bids fair to 

 rank second in importance only to Jeni.er's ; and on the use wo 

 maybe able to make of the facts already demonstrated must largely 

 depend tlie influence it may exert on the destinies of the human 

 taoo.— Medical I'ress. 



ON SOME CRITICS. 



IN a magazine like this, in which correspondence has been fre ely 

 admitted, articles by those who have been invited to treat of a 

 special subject because of their special study of it, are exposed to 

 criticism, and, in some cases, to useful correction. We cannot 

 always find room for letters conveying such criticisms, although the 

 effect of the criticisms, sent as they are to the writer criticised, 

 may bo fully felt in our pages. Some writers of letters complain of 

 this as unfair, apparently imagining that these pages are intended 

 to be an arena for controversies, and our chief editorial duty to be 

 the regulation of such encounters. Then many of tlie criticisms 

 which thus reach us are so worded that, even if our object were to 

 make Knowledge a fighting field, the real unfairness would be in 

 inserting them in full. For instance, instead of pointing out that 

 some word or expression, used ]ierhaps by one of our ablest con- 

 tributors, is open to misconception, a critic will calmly take it for 

 granted that it was used under a misconception, and carefully 

 explain (for instance) to Mr. Grant Allen some elementary botanical 

 matter, or tell F.K.A.S. that a planet must be carefully distinguished 

 from a fixed star, or Dr. Wilson that a whale does not, as he mis- 

 takenly imagines, walk on four legs. Now, in such cases as these, 

 it would not be foir, either to our contributors or to Knowledge, to 

 insert letters in full ; or, in fact, to do other than send them to the 

 writer criticised, so that whatever germ of useful suggestions they 

 may contain may bear fruit. 



For my own part, a long experience in such matters lias made 

 mo tolerably indifferent to criticisms of this sort, where I know 

 that the paper criticised represents the result of honest work and 

 thought, while the error corrected (or imagined) is in reality trifling. 

 But writors of such criticisms must not bo surprised if at times 

 a recognised authority on some subject is not particularly well 

 pleased to receive a letter telling him gravely about the most ele- 

 mentary matters in his own special branch of research. Still less 

 must they be surprised, if, without expressing any annoyance, a 

 writer thus absurdly criticised emjiloys a littlo sarcasm, more or less 

 humorous, or tries whether his "friendly critic" likes a little of 

 the same sort of criticism himself. I fancy, for instance, that in 

 answering recently a criticism relating to his remarks on " Blood 

 Corpuscles," Dr. Wilson by no means supposed his critic diil 

 Dot know how to spoil the word "inaccuracy"; but, as that 

 critic had explained that certain corpuscles are not round (that is, 

 not globular), but circular. Dr. Wilson thought it as much to the 

 point to explain to his critic that a certain word (misspelt, no 

 doubt, through hurry, not of malice prepenec) should be spelt in a 

 particular way. The critic writes very angrily to me, as the .<!up- 

 posed corrector of his spelling, on this point, lie does not at all like 

 it to bo supposed that ho cannot spell ; but he does not seem to 

 have thought that perhaps Dr. Wilson might not much like to be 

 addressed as though he did not know the ABC of his own special 

 •nbject. 



So with tho quadruped and mammal question raised by Dr. 

 Fisher, and touched on by a number of correspondents. It is ono 

 thing to suggest that some reader might be misled by tho word 

 quadruped being used as synonymous with mammalian ; another to 

 write in a tone implying that Dr. Wilson has yet to lenrn that men 

 have not four legs, and that frogs have (excejjt sometimes when 

 "fiends, in form of boys, have hunted them from mnrsliy joys"). 

 Nor can I see why his statement that ordinary quadrupeds possess 

 a collar-bone (especially in a passage specially intended to show 

 how two distinct collar-bones have been developed from the/iircu- 

 lum, tho intcrclaviclc being tho "found link") slionld expose a 

 Professor of Biology to the rudeness (for such it really is, however 

 innocently intended) of being told that certain quadrupeds have 

 no collar-bones. !f critics who write thus would ask themselves 

 how they would like some casual, and, perhaps, too general expros- 

 aioii of llicir own, to bo interpreted as implying gross ignorance 

 in a subject about which, perhaps, they ai'e exceptionally well 

 nformed, they will see how unfair It would bo to suffer their letters 



to appear in full, though the suggestion that such and such a" 

 expression may bo misunderstood might by itself bo a very useful 

 one. 



Allowance should also be made for printing errors, especially 

 where every facility is given for their corroction. It should be 

 remembered that whereas in tho case of a book every page is 

 usually corrected twice at least by tho author, in a weekly maga- 

 zine the author has only one opportunity of correcting proofs, and 

 in tho case of papers published under pressure of time, not even 

 that. Some errors creep into daily and weekly papers, through 

 accidents, the result of necessary haste, even when extreme care has 

 been taken to correct them. For instance, Dr. Haviland's intro- 

 ductory paper. No. 30, was read neither by the author nor 

 myself, because when the printer's foreman told mo "it bad 

 not been seen by the author," I unfortunately misunder- 

 stood him (there was some noise of machinery at tho time) 

 to say " it had been seen by the author." Again, at p. 11 I added to 

 the paragraph about Wells' Comet, a remark relating to "the 

 comet which is now near the sun in tho skies," meaning tho one 

 seen during the recent eclipse. In the proof of this, a comma 

 followed tho word "comet," by which tho sense was entirely 

 altered, my remark seeming to apply to Comet Wells. This was 

 altered, and because such alterations aro not always made, special 

 attention was called to the point, and tho matter reached the 

 printing-machine correctly set up. But hero, unfortunately, the 

 sentence caught the eye of the machine-reviser, who, in bis friendly 

 anxiety to see everything right, restored the obnoxious comma, and 

 made me seem to talk nonsense (for which I have been taken to 

 task by no less than eleven correspondents). This, of coarse, was 

 sinii)ly ei-ccs de zcle, and I could only feel grateful, annoying 

 though the mistake was in itself. It is not always so ; for instance, 

 I was not altogether grateful when, a fow years back, I found that 

 a compositor had altered tho words " linos, bauds, and striaj near 

 the violet end of spectrum," into " links, bonds, and 8tri|)cs for the 

 violent kind of spectres." Eicuard A. Pkoctob. 



Vebbal Caeping. — " However, it is not for mo to talk. have 



made mistakes enough in conversation and in print. I never find 

 them out until they are stereotyi)ed, and then I think they rarely 

 escape mo. Uow one does tremble with rage at his own intense 

 momentary stupidity about things he knows jicrfoctly well, and to 

 think how he lays himself open to the impertinences of the cap- 

 iatore.1 vcrhorum, those useful but humble scavengers, whoso busi- 

 ness it is to pick up what might offend or injure, and remove it, 

 hugging and feeding on it as they go." — Wendell Holmes, in " Tha 

 Autocrat of tho Breakfast Table." 



Recoteuv fuom a Bboken Neck. — John CoUery, a San Francisco 

 teamster, about five months ago, tried to drive his team through a 

 barn-door, and in so doing had his head forced down on his breast 

 until his neck was broken. Police Surgeon Stambangh found that 

 the seventh cervical vertebra was fractured, and that tho spinal 

 cord had been stretched nearly two inches. As tho fatality in such 

 cases is estimated at nine hundred and ninety-nino in cne thousand, 

 everybody gave up hope of his recovery. Hocently, however, a 

 reporter met CoUery on tho street, who stated that he was aln\ost 

 as well as before tho accident, except for a slight stiffness iu his 

 right side. After his removal to his home ho was laid flat on his 

 buck, with a sort of fence about his head and neck which kept him 

 immovable for over two months. Both tho body of tho vertebra 

 and tho arching lamina wore discovered In be broken, and tho o|)ora- 

 t ion of joining them together without pinching tho spinal cord whore 

 it had saggod between the rugged edges is described as one of tho 

 most diflioult ever performed. For a month the patient lay on his 

 back, completely jiaralysed in one-half of his body, and with but 

 littlo feeling in tho other. If he moved in tho 'slightest degree 

 during tho first fnrtnight, ho could plainly feel tho jagginl edges of 

 tho bone grate together, and for hours after such an attempt he 

 was content to lio on Ills hard bed without attempting to move a 

 musclo for fear that the spinal cord should be cru.'^hod, and hi4 

 existence ended in a twinkling. The stralghtcst position atlniuabls 

 was re<piii-ed, and Dr. Stambaugh was compelled to refuse the 

 piitient a mattress, forcing him to lio on a wide pbnk. Collory 

 says that before his eight weeks of enforced quietness were oudod, 

 ho thought that boartl was made of adamant, from its hardness. 

 Tho most dangerous time he experienced, he says, wivs one day 

 when nil attendant told him that n ninn whose neck could stand 

 breaking as his had, was not born to be liangtHl. His desire to 

 laugh was irresistible, and tho shaklng-up his nierrinieut gave him 

 caused Ills fastenings to burst, and the fracture came near lioing 

 ruptured nfi-osh. The paralysis has now almost entirely disap- 

 peared, and Dr. Stambaugh says that Collory will be oble to go to 

 work within six months.— fVoiii I.tnlie'tlthittnited. 



