254 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 349 



tage of giving a very real interest to the facts, of being in harmony 

 with current psychophysical and neurological conceptions, and of 

 suggesting further experimental inquiry by the results of which it 

 can be substantiated or refuted. 



A point unnoticed in the original essay may be here appended. 

 If we compare the gradual increase in the motor times from 1. to 

 VII., we find the greatest difference (.169 of a second) in passing 

 from I. to II. ; that is, when, instead of re-acting by one certain 

 motion, we re-act according to circumstances by any one of five, — 

 an evident increase of motor complexity. Next, in passing from 

 II. to III., we find a smaller increase of .066 of a second easily ex- 

 plicable by reflecting that we have already had practice in consider- 

 ing the fingers as " one," " two," " three," " four," " five ; " and so 

 the connections are easier, while the associations with lupus, etc., 

 are new. In passing from III. to IV. we have an additional motor 

 complexity in the fact that each of the association tracts is sub- 

 divided into three sub-tracts, and the expectation of the intended 

 movement is accordingly less definite. The time increases by .075 

 of a second. When these tracts become divisible into an indefinite 

 number of strands, it does not seem to complicate matters, and from 

 here on the motor times are the same. A similar comparison of 

 the increase of sensory times and of the percentage of error will be 

 equally instructive. 



An account of further experiments by Dr. Miinsterberg will be 

 given in a future number of Science. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Effects of Alcohol upon Longevity. — The British 

 Medical Association appointed a commission to inquire and ascer- 

 tain the average age of three classes of drinkers ; to wit, total ab- 

 stainers from alcoholic beverages, moderate drinkers, and sots. 

 The commission reported its observations upon 4,234 deaths, 

 divided into five categories : i. Total abstainers ; 2. Habitual, 

 temperate drinkers, — those who consume a moderate amount 

 of alcoholic liquors; 3. Careless drinkers, — those who do not 

 mean to get drunk, but are simply imprudent drinkers ; 4. Free 

 and habitual drinkers ; 5. Decidedly intemperate drinkers, — sots. 

 According to this classification, the average age reached by each 

 of these categories is as follows: first class, 51 years 22 days; 

 second, 63 years 13 days ; third, 59 years 67 days ; fourth, 57 years 

 59 days ; fifth, 53 years 3 days. From this the curious fact is 

 brought out that the teetotalers are the shortest lived, the sots 

 having but a slight advantage over them in the average duration of 

 life. The moderate drinkers reach the most advanced age. 



The Food Treatment for Insomnia. — Dr. Eggleston says, 

 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that most 

 students and women who are troubled with insomnia are dyspeptic, 

 and he has found it easy to successfully treat such cases without 

 medicine. They are instructed to eat before going to bed, having 

 put aside work entirely at least an hour before. If they are not 

 hungry, they should simply be instructed to eat ; and if they are 

 hungry, they should eat whatever they want. A glass of milk and 

 a biscuit is sometimes all that can be taken at first, or a mashed 

 potato buttered. In a short time the night appetite will grow, and 

 the appetite will then need no particular directions. If possible, 

 the night meal should be taken in another room than the sleeping- 

 apartment, and for men in the city it will be found advantageous 

 to go out to a restaurant. The idea of going out for something to 

 eat, and having to wait a short time for it, will excite the appetite. 

 Before eating, however, a bath should be taken, preferably cold or 

 cool, which should be given with a sponge or stiff brush, and the 

 body thoroughly rubbed off with a coarse towel afterward. The 

 bath need not be more than five minutes in duration. After the 

 bathing and rubbing, or after eating, a moderate amount of exer- 

 cise should be taken. For this a few minutes with Indian clubs or 

 dumb-bells is sufficient. Further than this, the patient should go 

 to bed at the same hour every night, and arise at the same hour 

 every morning. There is a popular superstition that grown people 

 should not eat immediately before going to sleep ; that it will give 

 them indigestion or nightmare, or both. Dr. Eggleston cannot see 

 why adults should be so very different in this respect from babies. 

 It may be true that digestion is carried on slowly during sleep, and 



that the digestive function is less active, but here one need not be 

 in a hurry for the completion of the operation. The average per- 

 son should be in bed seven or eight hours, which is time enough 

 for the digestion of almost any thing edible. In our American life,, 

 he thinks, the digestion carried on through sleep probably has the 

 better chance for thoroughness. 



Parasites of the Blood.— A Russian scientific observer 

 some years since discovered in the blood of birds animate bodies, 

 of the nature of parasites, to which he has given the name of 

 Polimitus, presenting a striking resemblance to the organisms- 

 described by M. Laveran as existing in the blood of persons at- 

 tacked by malarial fever. Subsequent researches have shown that 

 the presence of microbial parasites of animal origin in the blood is 

 much more common than had been suspected, more especially in' 

 cold-blooded animals. Of warm-blooded animals, carnivora are 

 more liable to be invaded by these intruders than others; but it is 

 comforting to learn, that, for the most part, their presence does not 

 appear to entail any particular inconvenience. According to The 

 Medical Press, only four or five out of three hundred birds ex- 

 amined died ifi consequence of lesions caused by the parasites,, 

 and the pathological appearances were then identical with those 

 observed in the subjects of malarial fever. 



Execution by Electricity. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences a communication from Mr. Edison was 

 read respecting the use of electricity as a means of inflicting capital 

 punishment. He is of opinion that an alternative current will 

 cause death without pain, but he adduces no experimental evi- 

 dence in support of that contention. The matter was referred ta 

 the medical section of the Academy, which is to have the assist- 

 ance of M. Marcel Desprez, the electrician, in drawing up a report 

 on the subject. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 

 Strength : How to get Strong and keep Strong, with Chapters on 

 Rowing and Swimming, Fat, Age, and the Waist. By 

 Richard A. Proctor. London and New York, Longmans, 

 Green, & Co. 12°. 75 cents. 

 Here is a somewhat lengthy title, and one recalling those of a 

 hundred years ago, when in the titlepage were generally revealed 

 the author's tenets, be they in religion or the sciences. Mr. Proctor 

 defines the strength to which he refers as that which it is well that 

 all actively employed members of the human family should have. 

 The average man or woman is so engrossed in his struggle for ex- 

 istence, that he has no time and energy to give to keeping his body 

 in good working order in all^ its parts. It may be that it works 

 well enough under ordinary circumstances, but after a few years of 

 inattention any effort at unusual exertion reveals a softened muscle 

 here, or a stiff joint there, that had not been suspected. How by 

 a due but not excessive amount of exercise to find these weakening 

 parts, and to bring them back to healthful vigor, is one of the 

 author's objects. ^ 



But in the chapters on reducing fat, on nature's waist and fashion, 

 on learning to swim, and on other cognate subjects, are to be 

 found some good advice, and some suggestions likely to prove 

 fruitful of discussion. 



The Reconstruction of Europe. By HarOLD MurdoCK. New 

 York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 12°. $2. 

 This work is an account of leading political events in Europe 

 from the establishment of Louis Napoleon's empire in 1850 to the 

 close of the Franco-German war in 1871. The introduction by 

 John Fiske gives a general survey of the great political movements 

 of the century, and Mr. Murdock then takes up his theme at the 

 downfall of the French republic of 1848, and the defeat of the other 

 revolutionary attempts of that time. Attention is given almost ex- 

 clusively to international affairs, and both diplomatic and military 

 manoeuvres are described at length. The work is well written, 

 though sometimes with little too keen an eye to dramatic effect, 

 and with less philosophical insight than might have been wished. 

 Too much space is given to unimportant military details to the ex- 

 clusion of political events of much greater consequence, a fault that 

 is specially noticeable in the earlier chapters. Moreover, we do 



