Vol. XXIII. No. ii.] 



POPULAR SCIETq"OE T^EWS. 



171 



piston rod so long that the piston is not more than 

 fifteen or twenty feet above the water, thus combin- 

 ing the two methods. 



<♦» 



LITERARY NOTES. 

 Selections from Wordsworth, with Notes, hy A. J. 



George, M. A. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 



The.se selections have been made with great care, 

 and comprise manj beautiful extracts from the 

 works of trti well-known "Poet of the Lakes." The 

 author has had unusual facilities for obtaining full 

 and authentic notes upon the poems, which render 

 the work well adapted as a school text-book of 

 literature. 



The same firm also publish two excellent manuals 

 of geography for the use of teachers — Redway's 

 Manual of Geography, and Nichols' Topics in Geog- 

 raphy. Both contain many hints which will be 

 invaluable to those giving instruction in this branch. 



Hygiene and Ptihlic Health, by Louis C. Parker, 

 M. D. P. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia. 

 Price, $2.50. 



This is a most excellent little manual on a very 

 important subject. It is written in a plain and sim- 

 ple style, which those unfamiliar with the subject 

 can easily understand. It will be of especial interest 

 and value to physicians who wish to keep informed 

 of the most recent advances in hygienic and sanitary 

 science. 



n^ediciRe aijd PtjariQacy. 



A WORTHY FORM OF CHARITY. 



The same firm publish The Medical Directory of 

 Philadelphia for 1S89, a work of much local im- 

 portance. 



Mr. Charles A. llobbs is the author of an excel- 

 lent Arithmetic, which is published by A. Lovell & 

 Co., of New York, at $1.00. It comprises many 

 new and useful rules and tables, and the work is 

 worthy the attention of teachers and school com- 

 mittees. 



Institutes of Economics, a text-book for college 

 classes, by E. Benjamin Andrews, D. D., LL. D. 

 Silver, Burdett & Co., Boston. Introductory 

 price, $1.30. 



This is a succint manual of political economy tor 

 the class-room, on a plan thoroughly its own. Its 

 pre-eminent aim is to be a first-rate "teaching-book. 

 The teacher will find in the Institutes, not always 

 accepted but at least sympathetically mentioned so 

 far as these are sufliciently non-technical to be 

 named in a work of this character, the latest views 

 which can with any propriety pretend to be settled. 

 Clergymen, lawyers, and general students, who 

 wish a concise view of what political economy at 

 present is, will find these Institutes their readiest 

 resource. 



A Manual of Chemistry: General, Medical, and 

 Pharmaceutical, by John Attfield, F. R. S. Lea 

 Brothers & Co., Philadelphia. Price, $2.75 

 cloth; $3.25 leather. 



Professor Attfield's standard work is so well known 

 that it is hardly necessary to speak of its many 

 points of exctlhnce. The fact that it has already 

 passed through twelve editions shows the estimation 

 in which it is held. While all the general princi- 

 ples of the science are thoroughly treated, special 

 attention is given to medicinal and pharmaceutical 

 chemistry, including the chemistry of the U. S. 

 Pharmacopoeia — a feature which will render it 

 specially valuable to pharmacists. 



A Text-Book of Organic Chemistry, by A. Bernthsen, 

 Ph. D. Translanted by George M'Gowan, Ph. D. 

 D. Van Nostrand Co., New York. 

 This work will be found a most excellent treatise 

 on the difficult but import.' nt subject of the chemis- 

 try of the carbon compounds. It is written with 

 true German thoroughness, and, although greatly 

 condensed, comprises all the points which it is 

 necessary for the student to become acquainted with 

 at the beginning of his study. The present edition 

 has been specially revised by the author, and in- 

 cludes the results of the most" recent researches. 



Pamphlets, etc., received: Transactions of the 

 Kansas Academy of Science: Proceedings of the 

 Society of Arts of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology ; Sanitation, by J. P. Stevens, M. D., 

 Macon, Ga. ; Experiments on the Reduction of 

 Aluminium, by A. J. Rogers, and the Agricultural 

 Bulletins of the States of Massachusetts and Georgia. 



It is an extremely difficult matter to expend 

 money for charitable purposes in such a way 

 that any real benefit will ensue. It is only 

 too true that ''the destruction of the poor is 

 their poverty," and the more that is spent for 

 benevolent purposes, the greater the amount 

 of apparent misery which calls for relief. 

 London has been described as a city of chari- 

 ties and a city of paupers, and it must.be a 

 very discriminating kind of charity which 

 does not make two paupers in relieving one. 

 There is, however, no benevolent institu- 

 tion which is less objectionable from the 

 above point of view than a free hospital. 

 Lack of food or clothing is too often due to 

 the laziness or vices of the suflerers them- 

 selves, and if it is known that they will be 

 freely supplied, either in institutions or by 

 outside relief, there is little inducement to 

 this class of people to become industrious or 

 temperate. But the hospital possesses no 

 attractions in the eyes of such people. In 

 fact, the difficulty, very often, is to induce the 

 patients to leave their unwholesome rooms 

 to go there. There is a prejudice against 

 hospitals among the uneducated, which is, 

 perhaps, not to be greatly deplored ; but no 

 one desires to be ill, and the great majority of 

 cases of sickness are due to causes beyond the 

 control ot the patients. A person once re- 

 ceiving food or clothing from a charitable 

 institution is very likely to apply again, with- 

 out making very strenuous efl'orts to earn 

 them (or himself; but a hospital patient will 

 not purposely contract sickness or disability 

 for the sake of obtaining the accommodations 

 of the wards once more. On the contrary, 

 there is a direct economic gain to the commu- 

 nity, in that honest and industrious individuals 

 are the sooner enabled to become self-support 

 ing, and often, on account of the superior 

 treatinent that can be given them, prevented 

 from becoming a permanent burden through 

 partial or total disability. 



The incidental advantages of hospitals, — 

 such as the education of a corps of trained 

 nurses, the facilities they offer for the advance- 

 ment of medical and surgical knowledge, and 

 the superior accommodations they supply to 

 those able and willing to pay for treatment in 

 cases of serious illness, or where important 

 operations may be necessary, — are all of the 

 highest value, and the establishment of a free 

 hospital is a benefit to a community, which is 

 free from the objections which may be urged 

 against too many charitable and benevolent 

 institutions. 



of "medical institutes," "colleges of physi- 

 cians and surgeons," and similar high-sound- 

 ing but deceptive titles. Often the name of 

 some noted philanthropist is forced into this 

 unsavory connection, to give the idea that the 

 institute is a purely charitable and benevolent 

 affair, and sometimes a "free" prescription 

 is published in the advertisement itself, which 

 gives an impression of great disinterestedness, 

 until it is found that no druggist can furnish 

 the ingredients named in it, and it must be 

 procured of the managers of the institute at 

 an exorbitant price. Some years ago, one of 

 these widely-advertised prescriptions called 

 for an amount of cocaine, at that time almost 

 an unknown alkaloid, which would have been 

 worth at least five times the exorbitant sum 

 charged by the institute for the whole pre- 

 scription ; but lately cocaine has become 

 comparatively common and cheap, and the 

 "staff" of consulting physicians" will be 

 obliged to invent a new alkaloid for their 

 wonderful gratuitous medicine. 



It is hardly necessary to say that all these 

 concerns are frauds of the worst description, 

 and are simply the clever advertisement of 

 some quack doctor with ingenuity enough to 

 vary the usual style of the announcement of 

 his skill to cure all diseases, especially those 

 which have no existence save in the imagina- 

 tion. That they do an extensive and profita- 

 ble business is evident from the large sums 

 which they pay for advertising, for newspaper 

 publishers are generally very practical men, 

 and not inclined to give credit in such cases. 

 Working, as they do, in many cases, upon the 

 fears and imagination of young and inexpe- 

 rienced persons, tiiey have a feady means of 

 filling their pockets at the expense of their 

 unfortunate victims. Some of the letters we 

 have received from the patrons of these men 

 are really pitiful, and show to what an extent 

 this .sort of rascality flourishes. 



The warning has often been given in these 

 columns to avoid all doctors who advertise 

 their practice or their cures in the newspapers, 

 now matter how plausible they may appear, 

 or what inducements they hold forth, and a 

 similar caution may be given in regard to 

 those equally dangerous men who hide their 

 evil designs under the name of a " College " 

 or "Institute." 



MEDICAL INSTITUTES. 

 A NOTORIOUS form of quackery is found in 

 the advertisements so common in the daily- 

 press, and especially in country newsapers. 



[Original in The Popular Scitnce Jf.ws.] 

 HYPNOTISM IN ANIMALS. 



BY ANNA HINRICHS. 



Hypnotism has taken our people by storm. Like 

 that disturbance of the elements in Nature, it burst 

 upon us with an awful intensity. Though it has 

 swept over the country in fitful fury, it has not been 

 of short duration, neither does it result in a peaceful 

 calm. 



The term "hypnotism" is coined from the Greek 

 word hypnos, signifying sleep. It is self-explanatory. 

 A " subject" susceptible to the power of the hypno- 

 tizer becomes his automatic machine. For the time 

 being, the subject is not endowed with the liberty of 

 his mental faculties. His individual will is slave to 



