1887.] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 217 
Referring to an editorial in our August number, in which we urged the 
importance of teaching microscopy in medical schools, the editor of The 
Medical and Surgical Reporter says :—‘ There is no denying the fact that 
many medical men are much less familiar with microscopical work than they 
ought to be. In no regard is this state of affairs more to be regretted than in 
the matter of the diagnosis of affections of the kidneys. The usual method 
of examining the urine only for albumen and sugar is too incomplete for the 
status of medical science in these days. Ifa physician has no microscope, or 
cannot use one, he will miss many a case of kidney disease which he would 
detect if he were better provided or better informed. No doubt a man may 
be a very successful practitioner without using a microscope, but no doubt, 
also, he would be a better physician if he did use one. To do this does not 
require the expenditure of much money or any prolonged course of study, and 
it would be a decided gain in the direction of scientific precision if more 
medical men would buy an instrument of moderate cost, and use it frequently. 
Of course the best way to learn to use the microscope is to have the help of 
a competent teacher, but all that is essential for ordinary practice can be 
learned from books; and any one who will try it will be astonished to find 
what he can accomplish in a little while in this fascinating and useful study.’ 
NOTES. 
The sanitary convention of the Michigan State Board of Health meets at Albion, 
Mich., on December 6 and 7, ’87, L. R. Fiske, D. D., LL. D., presiding. ‘ This is not 
merely a doctors’ convention, but it is for the people generally.’ Among the topics for 
discussion are :—Disposal of waste in Albion by sewerage and otherwise, School Hy- 
giene, Money value of sanitary work, and others. The activity in this State in health 
matters is, perhaps, largely due to the presence there of a most energetic investigator, 
Dr. Vaughan, who has already reached important results from his studies. 
The loss of hair and its cause is considered in a brief paper by Dr. T. W. Mills in 
the Canadian Record of Science (Jy.,'87). Admitting that we seem to be bound toward 
a ‘bald and toothless future,’ the writer considers the two assigned causes, to wit :—First, 
that of Mr. Eaton, who ‘ attributes the growing tendency to loss of hair prematurely to 
wearing tightly-fitting hair coverings, living within doors, and keeping the hair closely 
cropped.’ Mr. Eaton further thinks that the same principle, viz., disuse, will account 
for the early failure of the teeth. Secondly, that of Mr. Gouinlock, who attributes the 
loss of hair to the wearing of hats which constrict the arteries which nourish the scalp. 
Having found these insufficient to fully explain the facts, Dr. Mills is inclined to find 
the prime causes of baldness in the overwork of the brain, the excessive nervous work 
of the man of to-day, as shown in prevalence of nervous maladies which draw off from - 
the blood which should go to the scalp to supply the brain ; that is, the loss of hair is 
one of many indications in the weakness of the other physical systems that man is 
increasing the nervous system faster than the other systems can progress. ‘Bald- 
ness is one more of the many warnings of our day—one of nature’s protests against the 
irregular and excessive activity maintained in this restless age.’ 
More new elements.—The investigation of the so-called ‘rare earths,’ which has 
engaged the attention of Lecocq de Boisbaudran, Crookes, and other investigators, 
has rendered it evident that several of the bodies which had been regarded as ele- 
ments were themselves compounds of two or more elements. In this way, some four 
or five of the supposed elements of the ‘ rare earths’ have been made out to contain 
perhaps ten or twelve different elements, the nature of which has, however, not yet 
been determined chiefly because the material from which they can be obtained is only 
of rare occurrence, and because the separation of the several bodies is excessively 
difficult and tedious, owing to their great similarity. The spectroscope, however, fur- 
nishes the chief guide in ascertaining the claims of any of the bodies to the title of an 
element. 
Gerhard Kriiss and L. F. Nilson have recently studied five of these bodies, namely, 
Ermium, Holmium, Thulium, Didymium, and Samarium, and have skown conclu- 
