270 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 350 



tions : it is fair to estimate the cost of keeping each one at $2 per 

 week, or $104 per year; to which should be added, for clothing, 

 $28 per year, or a total cost of $132. These are the figures given 

 in the report of the Perkins Institution, a Massachusetts asjium 

 for the blind, in October, 1874. It must be remembered, however, 

 that these individuals are not producers : they do not earn what 

 they otherwise would ; and this amount must be added to the cost. 

 Taking the lowest estimate of a man's wages at $1.20 for each 

 working day, supposing that not one among them all could be- 

 come a skilled artisan, and counting the wages of the women at 

 only 40 cents a working day, we find there is a total yearly loss to 

 the community, cost and wages for each man, of $404, and for 

 each woman of $256. This, at the very minimum estimate, 

 amounted in New York, in 1880, to ^1,682,136, and over $25,000,- 

 000 in 1888 for the entire United States. 



If these statements are of as much importance as they would 

 appear, it behooves us at least to inquire what steps can be taken 

 for lessening the increase of blindness. In a paper like this it is 

 possible only to refer briefly to points which are of primary impor- 

 tance, without attempting detail in any respect. At present, 

 however, if we were to suggest a plan, it would be about as 

 follows : — 



First, To popularize with the profession and laity the necessity of 

 some care as to the proper cleansing of the eyes of infants imme- 

 diately after birth ; to impress the importance of this matter upon 

 nurses, hospital attendants, and others ; and, if possible, to teach 

 them to apply to every infant's eyes a suitable solution of nitrate 

 of silver, which need never be stronger than two per cent, and of 

 maximum quality. 



Second, Enactments should be encouraged similar to that re- 

 cently passed by the New York Stats Legislature in regard to the 

 proper isolation and quarantining of children with suspicious dis- 

 eases of the eyes in all residential schools and in large institutions 

 in which children are brought together. Moreover, similar rules, 

 with proper modifications, should be adopted in prisons, reforma- 

 tories, and other institutions for adults. Especially does this hold 

 good concerning soldiers in barracks, and sailors on shipboard. 



Third, By educating the public. The laity should be cautioned 

 as to the contagious character not only of the so-called granular 

 lids, but especially of those severe forms of inflammation of the 

 eye which result from inoculating it with gonorrhoeal matter. This 

 might be accomplished by posting notices in proper places, offi- 

 cially signed by the Board of Health or other proper officers. Other 

 proper notices posted in stone-quarries, machine-shops, etc., would 

 tend to lessen the proportion of accidents to eyes, so frequent in 

 these places. 



Fourth, That steps be taken to prevent the introduction into 

 this country, by immigration, of cases of contagious diseases of the 

 eye. 



Fifth, That renewed efforts be made by the profession to collect 

 data relating to bacteria affecting the eye, especially to the action 

 of the gonococcus, the so-called trachoma coccus of Michel, and 

 other forms of either the normal or diseased conjunctiva. 



In submitting this report the committee is impressed with the 

 fact that any such presentation of statistics and recommendations is 

 entirely inadequate to give a proper idea of the importance of the 

 subject. In order to condense the statement as much as possible, 

 it has been necessary to omit certain phases of the question entirely. 

 The distribution of blindness in different portions of the State ; the 

 relation of certain causes which produce it to altitude, to density 

 of population, and other factors, — have been entirely omitted for 

 the sake of brevity. The bacteriological questions which it involves 

 have been hardly referred to, although considerable data have been 

 accumulated relating to the causes of the disease here, by a per- 

 sonal e.xamination of the same causes as they exist in Egypt, in 

 Finland, and in other countries where blindness is of frequent oc- 

 currence. It is hoped, however, that these few facts, though im- 

 perfectly presented, may arouse some slight interest in the subject, 

 and, in doing so, tend to lessen the number of those most unfor- 

 tunate and most pitiable of human beings, the blind. 



LuciEN Howe 1 

 E. V. Stoddard > Co})imittee. 

 , Henry D. Noyes ) 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 

 T/ie New Eldorado ; A Summer Journey to Alaska. By Ma- 

 TURIN M. Ballou. New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co, 

 12°. S1.50. 



Mr. Ballou, who has travelled extensively in various parts of 

 the globe, here gives us an account of a recent trip across this con- 

 tinent and up the coast of southern Alaska. He is a close and cul- 

 tivated observer, though not exactly of the scientific order, and his 

 book is ii^tended rather for popular than for learned readers. He 

 tells his story well, except that he is sometimes too anxious to be 

 picturesque, and occasionally falls into rhetorical exclamations that 

 might better have been omitted. On his journey across the conti- 

 nent he tarried nowhere any length of time save in the Yellowstone 

 National Park, where he spent ten days, and to which he devotes 

 several chapters. The scenery that abounds there, however, is 

 not easily described, and his book contains no pictures nor maps, 

 to supplement the work of the pen. Arrived on the Pacific coast,. 

 Mr. Ballou's party embarked on a steamer and sailed up the coast 

 of Alaska, passing for the most part between the islands and the 

 mainland. The northern parts of the territory were not visited^ 

 though the author gives some account of them taken from other 

 authorities. Alaska has generally been supposed unfit for agricul- 

 tural purposes ; but Mr. Ballou assures us that all the southern 

 part will grow any crops that will thrive on the Atlantic coast north 

 of Chesapeake Bay. Still the agricultural resources of the region 

 as a whole are admitted to be small ; but its fisheries are well 

 known as of great value, its timber abundant, and its mines of gold, 

 iron, and coal, of special importance. All these resources are de- 

 scribed at length by our author, as is also the scenery of the region 

 he passed through. The native inhabitants, however, hardly 

 corr'espond with the natural features of the country. Mr. Ballou 

 says what good he can of them ; but in laziness, fiUhiness, cruelty, 

 and superstition they are like all barbarians the world over. The 

 Eskimo live in the extreme north, while the natives of the region 

 Mr. Ballou visited are similar to the Indian tribes of our older 

 Territories, though superior in intelligence. Since the government 

 has established a few schools among them, they have shown great 

 eagerness to learn, and the increase of such schools is strongly ad- 

 vocated. Mr. Ballou complains that Congress has not done its 

 duty by Alaska, and gives good reasons for this view, and he also 

 thinks that the scientists have been backward in the work of ex- 

 ploration. On his part, he believes that the future of Alaska is 

 bright with promise, and readers of his book will, to some extent 

 at least, share his views. 



Eleme7itary Lesso>is in Heat.^ By S.-E. Ttllman. Philadelphia, 

 Lippincott. 8°. $1.80. 

 The author is professor of chemistry at the United States 

 Military Academy, and prepared these lessons for use at West 

 Point in a short course on heat. The character of the matter pre- 

 sented was determined to some extent by the peculiarities of the 

 course of study at the academy ; but the main point sought was to 

 give the information most likely to be needed, and to give it with- 

 out overloading with details of apparatus and methods of investiga- 

 tion. After a number of chapters on the elementary principles of 

 heat, there follow several on thermodynamics, — not treated math- 

 ematically, — and the influences of heat and cold on meteorological 

 phenomena. 



Oicr Cats and all about Them. By Harrison Weir. Boston 

 and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 12°. |2. 



Mr. Weir is president of the National Cat Club of England ; 

 but before he was that, and before ,the club existed, he was the 

 originator of the cat-show at the Crystal Palace, held in the sum- 

 mer of 1 87 1. 



What they talkof at the Cat Club we may believe to be the 

 " points " of their pets, and the latest trick or show of wisdom in 

 door-opening or wandering home of these same pets. This is 

 what the book tells of. It is a gossipy book, full of stories of the 

 doings of cats, sprinkled with descriptions of the innumerable kinds, 

 with an account of their diseases, and ending with several chapters 

 on trained cats, and cats that have learned to fish. 



The author confesses to having been won over to a love for cats 



