94 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[June, 1889. 



tractoi's were nothing but disks of metal, 

 which were applied to diseased parts of tiie 

 body with most wonderful effect. The cures 

 performed by these instruments were e<iual to 

 anything accomplished l)y the modern mind- 

 healers, and they were entlorsed by the high- 

 est scientific authorities of the time. When, 

 however, -wooden disks, painted to reseml)le 

 metal, were substituted, with<jut the know- 

 ledge of the patients, exactly the same results 

 followed their application, and "Perkinsism" 

 suffered a sudden decline in popularity. 



A large proportion of hypnotic and simi- 

 lar occult manifestations may be safely 

 attributed to the imagination of the "sub- 

 jects," and their intentional or unintentional 

 deception of the experimenter. It is certainly 

 the case that the more rigid the scientific tests 

 and precautions which are applied, the less 

 remarkable and positive are the results 

 obtained. Nevertheless, we must believe 

 that there is some basis of fact upon which 

 they rest, after all possibility of error has been 

 eliminated. The reports of the French inves- 

 tigators are very unsatisfactory upon this 

 point, and, in fact, as far as we know, there 

 has" never been but one thoroughly scientific 

 investigation made of these phenomena — that 

 by Mr. Crookes, of London, some years ago. 

 There is such an atmosphere of fraud and 

 deception, as well as popular prejudice, about 

 the whole matter, that scientists ma\' well he 

 pardoned their reluctance to investigate it ; 

 but nothing is unworthy of the true student of 

 Nature, and we are confident that in the years 

 to come, some of the most important scientific 

 discoveries will be made in this hitherto ne- 

 glected field. 



THE VALUE OF SUNSHINE. 



That the sun sends us heat and light, is 

 obvious to everyone, but the wonderfid radi- 

 ant energy which is constantly reacliing the 

 earth from the great central member of our 

 system, contains other forces, some of which 

 we recognize, and, probably, others of which 

 we still remain in ignorance. That there is 

 chemical or actinic power among them, every 

 photograph is a proof, as well as the fading 

 or darkening of dye-stufls under their influ- 

 ence, and the more the subject is studied, the 

 more complex seems the message which 

 comes to us across the celestial spaces, with- 

 out wire or battery to transmit it. 



The physiological and hygienic influence of 

 sunshine cannot be doubted. Whether they 

 are due to the actinic radiations, or to other 

 manifestations of energy having a more posi- 

 tive action upon the anima. organism, may 

 be considered uncertain, but that there is such 

 an action is a well-known fact. Vegetable 

 life cannot exist without light. The potato 

 sprouting in the cellar instinctivelv sends its 

 shoot in the direction of the nearest crevice 

 through which a ray of light may find its way, 



and the plumule of the sprouting seed, no 

 matter in what position it may have been 

 originally planted, grows upwards towards 

 the light and air with absolute certainty and 

 exactitude. Every gardener knows that 

 direct simlight, and plenty of it, is afjso- 

 lutely necessary to his plants, if they are to 

 flourish and bear flowers, and the shade of a 

 few small trees is enough to destroy even 

 such vigorous plants as the grasses of our 

 lawns. 



Mankind are constituted with greater adap- 

 tability to varying conditions, but they, never- 

 theless, are dependent in a great degree on 

 the health-ffivinjj influences of simshine. 

 Children raised in the dark, fog-laden 

 atmosphere of a large city like London, are 

 puny and sickly, and cannot obtain the 

 l)odily development and vigor of the more 

 fortunate child of the suburban or rural dis- 

 tricts. The inhabitants of large cities live 

 under unfavorable conditions, and must be 

 constantly recruited from the country, in 

 order to increase in numbers. 



But even in localities where sunlight is 

 always to be obtained, its benefits are not 

 always appreciated. Too often it is shut out 

 from houses and living rooms, for fear of 

 injury to carpets or upholstery. The extent 

 of this injury is much less than is generally 

 supposed. Most modern dyes will lade in 

 time, and a strong light only accelerates the 

 change in a small degree, but, in any case, it is 

 better to have the carpets fade rather than the 

 occupants of the rooms, and the health-giving 

 action of the sunbeams should not he dis- 

 pensed with because the same action may 

 decompose the dyes with which the furniture 

 is colored. It is impossible to have too much 

 sunlight or fresh air ; every living room and 

 every sleeping room, when possible, shoidd 

 face the south, and the radiant energy of tiie 

 Sim will be found to induce such a healthful 

 and vigorous physiological action of all the 

 organs of the body, that many doctor's and 

 druggist's bills will be saved, and, in a short 

 time, bring about that greatest blessing of life 

 — a state of good health. 



JOHN BRIGIIT'H MEDICAL AND 

 SANITARY VIEWS. 



TiiK British Aledical Journal VAyi of the 

 late Mr. Bright : 



"It must be lonfesstd, liovvovcr, that his attach- 

 ment to the most extreme doctrines concerning the 

 freedom ol" trade, sometimes blinded him to tiie 

 necessity of imposing restrictions in tlie interests of 

 the health of the work-people, or of the public 

 health. He was, in fact, m(jre often an antagonist 

 of sanitary legislation than one of its promoters, 

 and he did not approve of giving protection to the 

 medical profession in its otlicial relations. He was 

 also an opponent of some of the provisions of the 

 various factory acts and labor regulation bills. 

 That antagonism was due to an honest endeavor to 

 prevent injustice to the manufacturer, as well as 

 hardship to the factory hands. His ideas upon such 



subjects were governed by his attachment to the 

 principles of free trade." 



On these and similar points, we are in- 

 clined to place more faith in the judgment of 

 the eminent statesman, than in that of the 

 editor of the British Medical Jourr.al. 

 Governmental interferenee has certainly been 

 tried sufficiently to show that invariably It 

 benefits no one, but, on the contrary, is an 

 injury to all classes affected by it. 



[Original in The Popu'ar Science NiWh.] 

 MILK, AND SOME OF ITS PRODUCTS. 



BY JOHN CROWELL, M. U. 



Milk is the most popular, the most simple, as 

 well as the most nutritious of any of the articles of 

 food used by the great mass of human. kind. It is 

 easily attainable, and it contains the necessarv ele- 

 ments for sustaining life. This is especially true of 

 cow's milk, containing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 and hydrogen, combined in fairly equal pro- 

 portions in the form chiefly of water, casein, 

 albumen, fat (or butter), lactose, and numerous 

 salts. Having these chemical qualities, it is 

 possible to sustain life for a long time upon an 

 exclusively milk diet. This, however, soon becomes 

 wearisome, and gastro-intestinal derangements are 

 apt to result after a few weeks. In this exclusive 

 use, there often follows a disagreeable nausea, and 

 the smell and taste of the milk causes great loath- 

 ing. This disagreement is caused from the fact 

 that there is too much nitrogenous matter in pro- 

 portion to the carbo-hydrates, and in order to obtain 

 surticient carbo-hydrates, too much protein is taken, 

 which greatly interferes with the process of diges- 

 tion. But, although an exclusive milk diet seems 

 essential in the first years of human life, it is not 

 sufficient for adults. It is usually omitted from the 

 dietary of athletes in process of training, and in 

 many persons it causes derangement in digestion, 

 resulting in constipation and other disagreable con- 

 ditions. On the other hand, it is often used with 

 the most satisfactory results in cases where no other 

 form of diet can be tolerated, and in almost any febrile 

 condition its use is of the first importance, especially 

 where the nitrogenous metabolism is great. The 

 lime required for the complete digestion of milk, in 

 its normal process, is three hours. Oftentimes the 

 milk of the cow disagrees with the stomach, and, 

 especially with infants, cannot be tolerated. This 

 is owing to a variety of causes, as contamination 

 by disease-germs from the cow, poisonous foods 

 eaten by the cow, extraneous disease-germs, pollu- 

 tion of the milk by the dealer, souring or decompo- 

 sition of the coagiila formed in the stomach, when 

 the gastric juice fails to disintegrate the casein within 

 a reasonable time, owing to the weak state ol that 

 organ. Whenever, therefore, a child is unable to 

 retain the milk that is ordinarily given to it, inquiry 

 should be made into the sources from whence the 

 milk is obtained, and it will often be found that the 

 trouble lies with the habits of the cows. These ani- 

 mals, especially in the dry weather of late summer, 

 often seek low places in the meadows and eat pois- 

 onous hei-bs and grasses ; and sometimes the simple 

 change in the character of the feed will be a suffi- 

 cient cause to affect the milk and render it unfit for 

 use. 



The most evident difterences between human and 

 cow's milk are, that woman's milk is sweeter, it 

 contains less butter and casein, and the casein 

 forms in much smaller clots and is more quickly 

 dissolved. The milk of the mother is normally 

 alkaline, while the reaction of cow's milk varies, 

 and it may be acid. 



