December 3, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



805 



rapid deep breathing at half-hour intervals. 

 A feeling of sluggishness or sleepiness may be 

 almost completely dispelled. I have never 

 noticed any reaction as in the case of most 

 stimulants and altogether it seems to me very 

 satisfactory. 



3. The effect on muscular fatigue is also 

 striking. A difficult arm exercise with heavy 

 weights which I could not repeat under ordi- 

 nary circumstances more than twenty times, 

 I found after four minutes of this preparatory 

 breathing that I could do twenty-seven times, 

 i. e., about thirty per cent. more. This in- 

 crease I found to exist at all stages of fatigue, 

 as might be expected. 



4. The pulse beat goes up very rapidly while 

 the breathing is continued, in my own case 

 from about 65 to 106 after four minutes' 

 breathing. 



Another curious effect which perhaps is 

 worth mentioning is the apparent rapid lapse 

 of time during the latter half of a hard 

 breathing period. This change in the time- 

 sense is very noticeable. 



I might add, in conection with paragraph 

 one, that a friend of mine has found a five- 

 minute limit to the time during which he is 

 able to hold his breath after the preliminary 

 breathing. 



I should not have ventured to describe phe- 

 nomena which are so easily in the reach of 

 every one, had I not found in people at large, 

 and even among scientific men, a surprising 

 ignorance as to their existence. I have seen 

 some very amusing betting on how long it was 

 possible to hold the breath, and have seen the 

 cock-sure bettor laid low by not knowing of 

 this possible resource of his adversary. 



As a mental stimulant, and as a means to 

 increase the time during which the system can 

 do without respiration, violent breathing 

 might find considerable useful application, 

 and daring rescues from suffocation are com- 

 mon enough to make a knowledge of this pos- 

 sible threefold endurance without air of no 

 little value. 



d. f. comstock 



Massachusetts Institute 

 OF Technology, 

 November 3, 1900 



ESPERANTO 



Mr. J. D. Hailman's interesting letter on 

 the use of Esperanto by scientific men' is, I 

 venture to think, somewhat misleading. He 

 says (p. 561) : 



This solution is the world-wide adoption of 

 an international language — a second language 

 which all will learn in addition to their natural 

 tongue. . . . 



The chemist, in order to be moderately well 

 equipped, requires a good reading knowledge 

 of English, French and German. Suppose we 

 take a somewhat extreme ease and assume that 

 after January 1, 1910, under penalty of instant 

 death, all chemical communications must be 

 made in Esperanto, what would be the effect? 

 Apart from the possible creation of a few 

 desirable vacancies, the only result of such a 

 law would be that chemists would have to 

 know at least four or five languages, inclu- 

 ding Esperanto, instead of three or four, as at 

 present. The reason for this is, of course, 

 that the greater portion of the facts and 

 theories which constitute chemistry has been 

 contributed, hitherto, in English, French or 

 German and, in many cases, it is absolutely 

 necessary to have an author's original words. 



The same conditions doubtless apply, mutatis 

 mutandis, to other branches of knowledge. 



I have no desire to obtrude an opinion re- 

 garding the merits and defects of Esperanto, 

 nor to say anything as to the desirability or 

 otherwise of an international language. I 

 believe, however, that it is timely to point out 

 that the adoption of Esperanto will involve an 

 increase to the weight of languages which the 

 scientific worker has to carry and that it will 

 not be an alleviation of his burden. It is only 

 fair to call upon the enthusiastic propagandists 

 of Esperanto to state this fact clearly during 

 their missionary labors. 



J. Bishop Tingle 



McMasteb University, 

 Toronto, Canada, 

 October 28, 1909 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Descendenz und Pathologie. Vergleichend- 

 biologische Studien und Gedanken. By 

 ' Science, October 22, 1909. 



