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NATOCRE 
[ Oct. 29, 1885 
competition announced by the “ Society for the Preven- 
tion of Blindness in London,” and to which the prize of 
80/. offered by the Society was awarded. The book may 
be described as contiining a succinct exposition of the 
chief causes of blindness, and an endeavour to render 
them intelligible to non-medical readers ; the object being 
to obtain the cooperation of the public in the removal of 
these causes, in so far as that desirable end may be 
attained by improved hygiene, and by a better knowledge 
of the most favourable conditions of ocular work. 
The causes of blindness which may fairly be said to 
be thus remediable, even including under blindness high 
degrees of defective vision, are two in number—namely, 
the purulent ophthalmia of new-born infants, and the 
progressive short-sight which is not uncommon in schools. 
The former is a disease which might frequently be pre- 
vented, which is always curable if treated in good time, 
but which, if neglected, is almost certain to destroy the 
sight ; and to neglect of its early stages among the poor, 
and in remote country districts, probably four-fifths of the 
blindness which occurs among children in this country 
may be ascribed. Several months ago the Ophthalmo- 
logical Society of the United Kingdom, moved thereto by 
Dr. McKeown of Belfast, sent a deputation to the Home 
Secretary to call the attention of the Government to the 
dangerous character and the easy curability of this affec- 
tion, and to urge that steps should be taken, through the 
instrumentality of the Registrars of Births, to diffuse a 
more general knowledge of the importance of early treat- 
ment. Partly through the opposition of the Registrar- 
General, the deputation met with no encouragement ; and 
the information given by Dr. Fuchs is therefore as 
opportune as it is valuable, and might with great advant- 
age be communicated to the poor by clergymen, school- 
masters, and others. It may be said, however, that many 
of his recommendations apply chiefly to countries in 
which the employment of midwives is more general than 
in England. 
The progressive short-sight of the educational period is 
a matter which has lately attracted much notice in all 
civilised countries, and Dr. Fuchs has nothing to say 
concerning it which is original. He presents, neverthe- 
less, a brief and convenient summary of the facts, and a 
good description of the methods of school lighting and 
fitting which are most to be commended. This part of 
his volume may be studied with great advantage by any 
teachers and managers to whom the more systematic 
treatises upon the subject are either unknown or in- 
accessible. The book contains one serious error, which, 
in the English version, has been slightly modified by a 
mistranslation. Dr. Dudgeon writes, with reference to 
the provision for instruction about eye diseases in the 
medical schools of Great Britain and Ireland—“ There 
are eye departments in all the large hospitals, but as a 
rule no regular lectures on ophthalmology are delivered.” 
The word rendered “ ophthalmology ” is in the original 
not “ophthalmologie,’ but “ augenheilkunde,’ and the 
correct translation would be “the treatment of dis- 
eases of the eyes.” On this subject, that is to say, 
upon so much of ophthalmology as has any direct 
bearing upon the duties of the medical practitioner, 
systematic lectures are delivered in every medical school 
in the United Kingdom ; and it is difficult to believe that 
the translator could have been unacquainted with the 
fact. “Ophthalmology,” of course, takes a much wider 
range, and embraces branches of optics and of physiology 
with which the practitioner, unless a specialist in eye 
disease, has neither time nor reason to concern himself. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Among the Rocks round Glasgow: A Series of Excursion- 
Sketches and other Papers. By Dugald Bell. Second 
Edition. (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1885.) 
THIS volume furnishes a good example of what a busy 
man can do in his few intervals of leisure. The volume 
is mainly based on notes of excursions kept by the author 
while acting as secretary to the Glasgow Geological 
Society. It affords a fairly accurate idea of the geologi- 
cal structure of the country round about Glasgow, and 
of the principal features of interest which the rocks of the 
district present. The excursions extend as far as Stirling, 
take in the course of the Clyde and not a few districts 
on its banks. Many of the papers are pleasant reading ; 
and even geological specialists may find something in the 
pages to interest and inform. 
Three Martyrs of Science of the Nineteenth Century. 
Studies from the Lives of Livingstone, Gordon, 
and Patterson. By the Author of “Chronicles of 
the Schénberg-Cotta Family.” (London: S.P.C.K., 
1885.) 
THE author of this volume tells the story of these three 
remarkable lives very pleasantly and instructively, more, 
however, from the religious than the scientific standpoint. 
A very fair account is given of the work accomplished by 
Livingstone in Africa, though the author does not seem 
to be quite aware of the value of the geographical work 
accomplished by Gordon on the Upper Nile. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[ The Editor does not hold himself responsiblefor opinions expressed 
by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 
or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications, 
[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 
as short as possible. The pressure on his space ts so great 
that tt ts impossible otherwise to insure the appearance even 
of communications containing interesting and novel facts.) 
Upper Wind Currents over the Equator 
THE importance of an accurate knowledge of the general 
circulation of the atmosphere over the equator is so obvious and 
so little known that the following observations, taken on a 
voyage from Aden to Australia in February, 1885, will be of 
interest :— 
Over the north-east monsoon, north of the line, the surface 
wind was east-north-east, while the low clouds came from due 
east. No high cirrus was ever seen. 
In 2° N. lat. the surface wind lowest clouds came from 
N.N.E., the next layer of cirro-stratus from E. rather fast, while 
the highest cirri drove very slowly from E.S.E. 
In about 1° S. lat. the surface came from N.W. (the N. W. 
monsoon), small flecks of low cloud from N.E., while some high 
cirri moved from E. at a moderate rate. 
In 5° S. lat. the surface wind still blew from N.W., the 
lowest cumulus moved from N.N.W., the next layer of cirro- 
stratus from N., while a still higher layer of cirrus came slowly 
from E. or E.S.E. 
In 10° S. lat. the surface wind came still from N.W., and the 
clouds at moderate altitude from S.E. 
Inthe ‘*Doldrums,” which we only reached in 13° S, lat., 
the surface wind was from S. and the clouds from S.E. 
After we entered the S.E. trade, while the wind came from 
S.E., the clouds drove from S., and when about 25° S. lat. the 
trade drew into I. ; the clouds came from S.E. 
The relation of upper to surface winds in the N.E. monsoon 
is just what might have been expected ; but the discovery of an 
