August 7, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



77 



means — by small steam jets or by the evaporation of water. It 

 is sometimes covered with cloths during this stage to prevent dry- 

 ing too rapidly. The rest is a retarding process, and is intended 

 to prevent the sm-face of the macaroni from drying too fast, and 

 to allow the interior to harden. If the macaroni is not allowed to 

 rest at this stage, it is liable to crumble or split. From the rest- 

 ing rooms it is carried to large spacious rooms that have thorough 

 ventilation, either natural or artificial. It is estimated that for 

 each man employed in the steam factories, about 170 to 200 pounds 

 are produced per day. 



REMARKS ON AN ACT FOR THE PREVENTION OF 

 BLINDNESS.' 



"Section 1. Should one or both eyes of an infant become red- 

 dened or inflamed at any time within four weeks after its birth, it 

 shall be the duty of the midwife, nurse, or person having charge 

 of said infant, to report the condition of the eyes at once to some 

 legally qualified practitioner of medicine of the city, town, or dis- 

 trict in which the parents of the child reside. 



"Section 2. Any failure to comply with the provision of this act 

 shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed one hundred dollars, or 

 imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both. 



"Section 3. This act shall take effect on the first day of June, 

 eighteen hundred and ninety-one." 



This act for the prevention of blindness was passed by the last 

 legislature [of Maine], and was signed by the Governor, March 38. 

 The legislature of New York passed an act similar to this one last 

 year, and was the first State to have a law of this nature upon its 

 statute books. Maine follows the lead and has the honor of being 

 the second State in the Union to have such a law. 



It is intended to draw attention more forcibly to purulent in- 

 flammation of the eyes, known also as ophthalmia neonatorum or 

 purulent inflammation of the new-bom. This disease is always 

 caused by contagion or infection. It wiU be seen at once that it 

 can be placed among the preventable disease^, and therefore the 

 prophylactic treatment is one of the most important and satisfac- 

 tory problems in hygiene, because in a large majority of cases the 

 disease can be prevented from spreading. If, however, the disease 

 does spread, and is recognized upon its first appearance, we possess 

 remedies that can be applied by any physician and the disease can 

 be cured at once. It would seem, therefore, that we need some 

 law to call attention to the importance of the early treatment of 

 the infant's eyes that blindness may be prevented, for every blind 

 person represents a certain loss of productiveness to the State, and 

 many are throughout their lives dependent upon relatives or the 

 public for support. 



If from twenty to thirty per cent of blindness in the State is due 

 to neglect of proper treatment of this disease, all will agree that it 

 is time something was done to place the neglect of such treatment 

 upon some responsible person. This act for the prevention of 

 blindness will do another good thing by calling attention to the 

 prophylaxis of this disease. Proper treatment will be instituted 

 before and after the bi^-th of the infant in order that the eyes may 

 not become infected, and thus the sight of many will be saved. 

 To indicate how efiicient this treatment is, it might be mentioned 

 that after Crede had devised his method of prophylaxis for this 

 disease, he had only two cases in 1,600 infants, whereas, before he 

 practiced his method he had 10.8 per cent of the infants affected 

 with it, which in this instance would be equal to 160 infants, some 

 of whom would become blind in spite of the best treatment then 

 known. By Crede's method of prophylaxis and treatment for this 

 disease no infant need become blind. This means the preven- 

 tion of an enormous amount of misery and the saving of an enor- 

 mous amoupt of productive energy in the United States, estimated 

 at not less than $7,500,000 each year. This enormous loss of 

 wealth to the United States is due to the ravages of a disease as 

 surely preventable as any in medicine. Dr. Burnett of Washing- 

 ton estimates that the disease costs the country more in ten years 

 than all the epidemics of yellow-fever and cholera for the past 

 hundred years. 



Dr. E.E. Holt of Portland, Me., in The Sanitary Inspector. 



To itemize this accouct, we find that the cost of keeping a single 

 blind person in our best managed institutions is $132ayetir. This 

 makes the cost of sustenance of our blind from this one disease 

 alone about $2,000,000. If we add to this sum what these blind 

 persons would produce if they were not dependents, and reckon 

 their productive wealth at $1.00 per day on an average, we have 

 the enormous sum of $7,500,000. Maine having about one-fiftieth 

 of the blind of the United States shares about one-fiftieth of the 

 misery and loss of productive energy from this disease, which 

 equals $150,000, according to this estimate. 



It is our duty to do something to prevent this misery and loss 

 to the State. At the clinic of the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary 

 many of the bad results of this disease are seen, persons crippled 

 for life, and these defects of the eye are classified under various 

 names giving little or no idea of their origin. These clinics re- 

 mind one, like those of similar institutions, that not one-half of 

 the misery or loss of productiveness is represented by those who 

 have lost their sight from this disease, for where one has been 

 made blind by it many have been more or less seriously affected 

 in one or both eyes, so that the course of their lives has been 

 changed from one of probable comfort and usefulness to a misera- 

 ble existence. The statistics do not include this numerous class 

 of persons. But they, as well as those who have been made blind 

 from this disease, appeal to our better nature to do something for 

 them. It will need but a short time to cure the affection if the 

 infant is brought, on the first appearance of the disease. We 

 are backward in this country as compared with some European 

 countries. 



In London there is a society for the prevention of blindness 

 which does good work by directing attention more forcibly to the 

 causes which produce this unfortunate disease. 



The Ophthalmological Society of the United Eangdom, which is 

 composed of the ablest men from all parts of England, Ireland, 

 and Scotland, took up this subject in 1884, and appointed a com- 

 mittee of the leading men of the society, who unanimously re- 

 ported that it was a subject for governmental interference. 



In Germany, France, and Switzerland stringent regulations 

 have been adopted, which demand of the nurse or person having 

 charge of an infant to report any reddened or infiamed condition 

 of the eyes at once. Three years ago the American Ophthalmo- 

 logical Society appointed a committee to investigate this subject 

 and make a report, which they did last year. They recommended 

 that each member of the society do all he could to have laws 

 enacted that would call the attention of the public, and particu- 

 larly of those having charge of infants, to the great importance of 

 early treatment of the eyes, should any infiammatory symptoms 

 arise. 



EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES ON MECHANICAL 

 FLIGHT. 



The following is a translation of a communication made by Pro- 

 fessor S. P. Langley to the Paris Acadetny of Sciences on July 13, 

 and published in Nature of July 23 : — 



I have been carrying out some researches intimately connected 

 with the subject of mechanical fiight, the results of which appear 

 to me to be worthy of attention. They will be published shortly 

 in detail in a memoir. Meanwhile I wish to state the principal 

 conclusions arrived at. 



In this memoir I do not pretend to develop an art of mechanical 

 flight; but I demonstrate that, with motors having the same 

 weights as those actually constructed, we possess at present the 

 necessary force for sustaining, with very rapid motion, heavy 

 bodies in the air; for example, inclined planes more than a thou- 

 sand times denser than the medium in which they move. 



Further, from the point of view of these experiments and also 

 of the theory underlying them, it appears to be demonstrated that 

 if, in an aerial movement, we have a plane of determined dimen- 

 sions and weight, inclined at such angles and moving with such 

 velocities that it is always exactly sustained in horizontal flight, 

 the more the velocity is augmented the greater is the force neces- 

 sary to diminish the sustaining power. It follows that there will 

 be increasing economy of force for each augmentation of velocity. 



