22 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 310 



Schoolhouses should be built in parks, and every thing possible 

 done to make them attractive both outside and within. Ventilation 

 is a matter of prime importance. Among the diseases caused or 

 favored by schools, he places the following : contagious diseases, 

 headaches, eye affections, chorea, and consumption. 



This paper was discussed by several of the members of the as- 

 sociation. Dr. Lindsley of Tennessee said that there were two 

 points which he wished to emphasize : i. Medical men must arouse 

 public attention to the necessity for paid medical inspectors. 2. 

 No text-books of hygiene should be put in the schools, because the 

 masses do not get this education. The majority of children leave 

 the schools before reaching the higher classes where this subject is 

 taught. Hygiene should be impressed upon them by every feature 

 of their environment. 



Dr. Hibberd of Indiana agreed with Dr. Lindsley in the utter 

 impossibility of teaching children in primary schools enough 

 physiology to be of utility. There are many who are grandfathers 

 who do not know what it is absolutely necessary to teach. Teach 

 youth to observe, and what things they should observe. The trus- 

 tees of schools understand the necessity for air, light, etc., but 

 they cannot get the money to provide them. Every schoolhouse in 

 the land should be situated so as to face the best direction of the 

 compass, having air and light in abundance ; but it will cost a great 

 deal of money. 



We must recognize that all children are not exactly alike in their 

 capacity for receiving education ; and the present methods are 

 faulty in teaching all children on the same plan. Due regard must 

 be paid to mental and physical variations, and sound minds and 

 bodies cannot be had until this is recognized. 



Dr. Hamilton, United States Marine Hospital Service, said that 

 the reason that the majority of German children were myopic was 

 due to the employment of the old black letter. German medical 

 text-books are printed in Roman letters, but for political reasons 

 the black letters are generally used. He believed in the necessity 

 for school-inspectors ; and the first thing they should do would be 

 to examine the text-books, the paper of which is often inferior, and 

 the printing but little better. Another feature demanding improve- 

 ment is the sitting arrangement of a schoolroom. All know the 

 country schoolroom, with its four rows of desks, and windows on 

 either side of the room, which imperfectly light the middle rows of 

 desks. 



Dr. Vaughan of Michigan did not believe that all defects in eye- 

 sight in school-children are attributable to the schoolroom. If one 

 enters any family room at night, the father and mother will be 

 found sitting on either side of a table on which the light is, and the 

 children are allowed to sit anywhere. More harm is done young 

 girls by sitting up late at night at parties and dances than by all 

 the alleged confinement in the schoolroom. Dr. Larrabee did not 

 refer to the stairs, which are usually selected as one of the fertile 

 sources of disease in young girls ; but if one watches a woman go 

 upstairs, she does it with her body bent forward, and swinging from 

 side to side, instead of going upstairs erect. The German method 

 of the climbing cure might be employed advantageously in some of 

 these cases. In Michigan most children are better situated at the 

 schoolhouse than at home ; farmhouses, as a rule, from a sanitary 

 point of view, being far from good. The ignorance of teachers on 

 hygienic matters seems to me to be the primary evil. 



Dr. Hibberd believed, with Dr. Vaughan, that the fundamental 

 education should be with the teacher. But the architect must also 

 be remembered. This gentleman usually puts his efforts on the 

 adornment of the exterior of the building, and the interior is suit- 

 ed to this. One cannot get architects to give sufficient attention 

 to the interior of these buildings, because it is their aim to produce 

 handsome work. 



Dr. Vaughan stated that the plans for school-buildings in Michi- 

 gan must be approved by the State Board of Health. 



Electric Light and Eyes. — In the Medical News, Dr. 

 George M. Gould discusses the question, "Is the electric light in- 

 jurious to the eyes ? " Before proceeding to the direct answer of this 

 question, he refers to the relation of the electric light to general 

 hygiene. Most every one, he says, has a general impression that 

 the electric light is much superior to other methods of artificial 

 illumination, so far as concerns our general health and comfort, but 



few could give a reason for the faith that is in them. They will 

 come out of a theatre, music-hall, church, etc., with headaches, 

 lassitude, exhaustion, their bodies bathed in sweat, all resulting in 

 colds and a multitude of major and minor affections, and never 

 utter a word of protest or complaint against the culpable and par- 

 simonious management that permits the vitiation, poisoning, and 

 superheating of the atmosphere by a thousand gas-jets. In the dis- 

 cussion of the question as to the injury to the eyes by the use of 

 the electric light. Dr. Gould refers at length to the literature of the 

 subject, and sums up the whole matter in the following conclusions: 

 I. As regards general hygiene, the superiority of the electric light 

 over gas as an artificial illuminant is so overwhelming as to admit 

 of no discussion. It is incontestably the light of the future, and the 

 public should not rest until its meeting-places, such as theatres, 

 halls, reading-rooms, churches, etc., are lighted by the most perfect 

 system at its command. 2. A study of the published cases of in- 

 jury of the eyes by the electric light shows that not one was due to 

 the use of the diffused light as an illuminant. The popular pre- 

 judice against such a use of it is absolutely without justification. 

 All the cases reported were of scientific investigators, etc., or work- 

 men about the light, who approached it very closely, gazed at it pro- 

 tractedly, and without protecting colored spectacles. 3. The ocular 

 injury is due, not to the supposed preponderance in the electric- 

 light rays of violet and ultra-violet (chemical or actinic) waves, but 

 simply to the greater number (intensity) of the usual length light- 

 waves. 4. The symptoms of the ocular injury are possibly immedi- 

 ate temporary " retinal paralysis," blepharospasm, central scoto- 

 mata, chromatopsia, after-images, etc. Within twenty-four hours 

 there come on intense photophobia, lachrymation, ocular pain, a 

 feeling as of foreign bodies beneath the lids, conjunctival hyperae- 

 mia and congestion, pericorneal circles, etc. 5. The attack usually 

 lasts but two or three days ; the prognosis is excellent ; the treat- 

 ment is simply cocaine and atropine instillations and cold or hot 

 compresses. 6. Workmen and experimenters who must approach 

 closely to the electric light should protect their eyes by smoked or 

 tinted glasses, the depth of the tint being greater where the light 

 is more brilliant, the proximity greater, or the exposure longer. In 

 the welding-works the workmen must be particularly careful about 

 this, and must also not expose the skin of the face, neck, and hands 

 to the action of the light. The precaution may not be amiss to ad- 

 vise the curious against testing their eyes by gazing at the ordinary 

 arc and glow lights at short range. 



ELECTRICAL NEWS. 



The Electric Sugar-Refining Process. 



In the last week the daily press, and the stockholders of the com- 

 pany organized to develop the electrical refining of sugar, have 

 learned that the process does not exist, and that a gigantic fraud has 

 been perpetrated. It is just to remark that many of the electro-tech- 

 nical papers have denounced the scheme from the first. With the 

 Keely motor, it demonstrates the fact, that, by making large enough 

 promises, a clever adventurer can get a great many people to advance 

 money to promote the most impossible plans. There are few peo- 

 ple who will not risk a few hundreds, or even thousands, on the 

 promise of making a million in a short time. The refining process 

 in question was secret from the first. Elaborate precautions were 

 taken to avoid publicity, — a fact that should have at once aroused 

 the suspicion of investors. A large sum of money ($250,000 to $350,- 

 000) was given the alleged inventor for the purpose of equipping 

 a factory ; and a few bags of raw sugar, taken to the works and 

 submitted to the process, apparently came out as refined sugar. In 

 reality this was effected in an extremely simple manner, by sub- 

 stituting previously provided refined sugar for the raw in the secret 

 " electrical " chambers. The whole matter illustrates forcibly what 

 we recently said about electrical investments, that while there are 

 such investments which will give better returns than in almost any 

 other industry, yet, like any thing else that is new and not well un- 

 derstood, it has been and still is the means by which a great deal 

 of money has been obtained from trusting investors, from which 

 there will never be any return. 



The Electric Light in Land Warfare. — The London 

 Electrician describes the following experiments made on Hamp- 



