3IO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 4O1 



bestowed on their bodies, survivals of which belief linger on 

 at the present day. According to Mr. Hunt, in his " Ro- 

 mances of the West of England," fishermen dread to walk 

 at night near those parts of the shore where wrecks have 

 taken place. It is afiirmed that the spirits of the drowned 

 sailors haunt such localities, and many a fisherman has de- 

 clared that he has heard the voices of dead sailors " hailing 

 their own names." This idea is not confined to this coun- 

 try, but is found in various parts of the world. 



THE HABIT OF WASHING. 



No practice, no custom, however long established, has ever 

 been allowed a permanent right to respect, or even to exist- 

 ence. Sooner or later its turn will come to be weighed in 

 the critic's balance, and its quality will have to be proved. 

 Let us quote, as a recent illustration, the habit of daily 

 bathing, the utility of which has, of late, though not for the 

 first time, been seriously questioned. The reasonableness of 

 doubt in such a matter, and under ordinary circumstances, 

 does not, we confess, says Lancet, commend itself to our 

 judgment. Whether the opponents of ablution fear the 

 shock of cold immersion, or whether they dread the cleans- 

 ing stimulation thus applied to the excreting skin surface, 

 iheir objection must appear to most persons possessed of or- 

 dinary health and vigor to threaten impairment of both by 

 fostering uncleanliness. If, on the other hand, it is too free 

 application of heat by Turkish and other warm baths which 

 appears objectionable, we will not deny that there is here a 

 possible ground for complaint. Let it not be supposed that 

 we ignore the curative influence or the cleansing property 

 of this method when used with judgment. It has undoubt- 

 edly its fitting time and places if rightly applied. It is no 

 less true, however, that experience has often proved the 

 -mischievous effects of its misuse — in case, for example, of 

 cardiac weakness or general exhaustion. Cold bathing in 

 like manner is not without its occasional risks. It is not 

 suitable for persons enfeebled from any organic cause, though 

 mere nervous languor is often braced and beneSted by it. 

 It has no proper place among the habits of those who are 

 subject to chronic visceral congestions. As regards one ad- 

 vantage derived from bathing, i.e., its cleansing property, 

 there is no reasonable ground for difference of opinion. Man, 

 -whether savage or civilized, appears, as a rule, to have no 

 doubt oil the subject. Wherever we find him with water 

 accessible he is a bather. Less practiced by one people than 

 another though it may be, there still is commonly recogniza- 

 ble a constant habit of ablution, and this fact in itself attests 

 at least an almost universal belief in the necessity of ensuring 

 cleanliness by means of washing. Nor can we find reason 

 to doubt the general soundness of this belief. In bathing, 

 temperature is, of course, a chief consideration. For the 

 Tobust, cold immersion followed by rapid friction is a valua- 

 ble tonic of nerve, skin, and heart function. For less 

 vigorous constitutions — those, for example, which have 

 been tried by disease, and those of young children — the ad- 

 dition of heat up to the temperate point is only judicious. 

 With some persons a warm bath is a daily luxury. Not- 

 withstanding its efficacy as a means of cleanliness, however, 

 this custom is, or ought to be, discredited by its inevitable 

 action as a nervous depressant, which places it in an unfa- 

 vorable position compared with the more bracing practice of 

 cold effusion. The benefit derived from bathing, therefore, 

 is likely to assert itself- in spite of all adverse criticism, and 

 its mismanagement, which is only too common, should not 



be suffered to condemn it in the eyes of any judicious and 

 cleanly person. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In an Austrian periodical, says the Lancet, a regimental sur- 

 geon named Thurnwald makes an interesting comparison between 

 the wounds caused by the new s-niall calibre bullets and those 

 caused by less recent forms of projectiles. His verdict is favora- 

 ble. The soft parts are less bruised, and the bones less shattered. 

 At fighting distances the bullets hardly ever remain in the body, 

 and the wounds are smooth, clean, and of small diameter — con- 

 ditions giving fair chances of recovery. 



— At the end of 1890 a census was taken of the population of 

 the Austrian capital, which showed {Brilish Medical Journal, 

 Aug. 39, 1891) that it contained 1,380,917 inhabitants, being an 

 increase of ratber more than 23 per cent as compared with the 

 enumeration made ten years before. The proportion of the sexes 

 was 51 C3 per cent of females to 48.37 per cent of males The 

 number of persons fufiering from mental or physical infirmity 

 was 3,964, of whom 983, or 24 7 per cent, were blind; 980, or 34.7 

 per cent, were deaf and dumb; 1,627, or 41.04 per cent, were 

 idiots or insane; and 374, or 9.44 per cent were cretins. Of the 

 whole number, 53.13 pet cent were males, and 46 87 per cent 

 were females. The excess of males as compared with females, 

 however, holds good only as regards cases of deaf-mutism, insan- 

 ity, and idiocy; the cases of blindness are equally distributed be- 

 tween the sexes, and as regards cretinism, the fair sex leads easily, 

 the respective percentages being 39 3 malf s to 60.7 females. On 

 comparing these figures with those of the census of 1880, it will be 

 seen that while blindness has diminished by nearly 10 per cent, 

 aud deaf-mutism has remained stationary, insanity and cretinism 

 have increased by 32 per cent. This increase is greater in the 

 female sex than in the male, in the proportion of 43.03 to 23.2 per 

 cent. Of the 983 blind persons, only 31, or 6 per cent, were born 

 blind; the causes of the condition are said to have been blennor- 

 rhea neonatorum (in 14 cases), small-pox (in 11), other affections 

 (in 393), and injury (in 17). Of 381 deaf-mutes not inmates of 

 public institutions, 137, or 83.3 per cent, became deaf and dumb 

 after birth. Of the cretins, 63.4 per cent are between ten and 

 thirty years of age, and 31 per cent can do ordinary household 

 work. 



— At a recent meeting of the Asiatic Society of Japan in Tokio, 

 a paper full of curious and interesting information of the condi- 

 tion of the blind in Japan was read by Professor Dixon. In early 

 ages the blind were regarded as unlucky or imcanny, and their 

 condition was one of great misery, until one of the imperial 

 princes was born in this state. His father collected around him 

 a number of blind to amuse him, and when, on attaining ma- 

 turity, he was appointed governor of three provinces, he took 

 with him blind men to assist him, and for about three centuries 

 the administration of these provinces was always in the hands of 

 the blind. This prince also introduced the practice, which pre- 

 vails at the present day, of the blind shaving their heads. During 

 the civil contests of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries between 

 the families of Taira and Minnamoto the blind officials were 

 everywhere ejected, and those afflicted with loss of sight fell into 

 their early condition of distress and misery. In course of time 

 orders were issued to the local authorities to provide for the blind 

 in their districts, and now they receive the attention and educa- 

 tion usual in all civi ized countries. The members of the blind 

 guild, which has long existed, commonly followed two occupa- 

 tions, music or chanting and shampooing or massage, those who 

 practised the former being of a higher grade and frequently en- 

 joying much popular favor. To this day all towns and villages 

 in Japan have their blind shampooers, who go about after night- 

 fall with a strange, musical cry. The less skilful among the mu- 

 sicians become professional story-tellers. The higher official 

 grades, which were at one time opened to the blind, were eagerly 

 sought after; those who held them were provided with special 

 marks of their oflBce, and during civil wars blind musicians were 

 frequently employed as spies. The art of shampooing as prac- 



