SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 Although the geneeal public has ceased to 

 be interested in the subject of cholera, which two 

 years ago was the engrossing topic of daily con- 

 versation, the medical profession has not ceased 

 to investigate its methods of growth and propaga- 

 tion whenever the opportunity has offered. A 

 most important contribution has been made by 

 Macleod and Miller, as a result of their labors in 

 Shanghai during the past year. They found 

 Koch's comma bacillus in twenty-five out of 

 twenty-seven cases, and satisfactorily account for 

 its absence in these two cases. In cases of diarrhoea 

 and dysentery the bacillus was absent. The germ 

 was destroyed on drying, but when kept moist was 

 capable of growth after four months. Experi- 

 ments are now being made upon guinea-pigs with 

 a view of producing the disease in them if possi- 

 ble. Emmerich and Buchner, who have been 

 studying cholera in Sicily, are of the opinion that 

 the cholera germ finds its way into the body by 

 means of the inspired air. The opinion commonly 

 held, and among those of this opinion is Koch 

 himself, is that it is through the mouth and 

 stomach that the germs find then- entrance. 



The faith cure has succeeded in drawing to 

 its ranks many individuals who, afflicted with in- 

 curable or imaginary diseases, have consulted 

 regular physicians without obtaining any thing 

 more than temporary benefit. From time im- 

 memorial this class has been a large one, and as a 

 consequence the weapon ointment of Hildanus, 

 the tar-water of Bishop Berkeley, the metallic 

 tractors of Perkins, and the magnetic belts of 

 Wilson, have, each in its turn, had their devotees 

 and enthusiastic advocates. Rev. Dr. Buckley, 

 editor of the Christian advocate, in an article con- 

 tributed to the Century, declares that the tendency 

 of faith-healing is to produce an effeminate type 

 of character which shrinks from pain, and concen- 

 trates itself upon self and its sensations. He thinks 

 that it destroys the ascendency of reason in the 

 soul, and that it tends to mental derangement. It 

 might also be added, that such a belief, if general- 

 No. 189.— 1886. 



ly accepted, would at once put a stop to all study 

 and scientific investigation, and relegate us to the 

 dark ages. The law which is from time to time 

 enforced against the medical pretender and 

 charlatan should be invoked to aid in the expul- 

 sion from the state of all, by whatever name they 

 are known, who for mercenary purposes traffic in 

 the innocence and simple-mindedness of the weak 

 and the sick. 



The higher education of women was dis- 

 cussed by Dr. Withers Moore hi his recent ad- 

 dress to the British medical association. Inas- 

 much as his hearers were physicians. Dr. Moore 

 wasted no time with an introduction, but at once 

 went to the root of the matter by stating that the 

 proper function of woman was to act as a pro- 

 ducer of men, for she is the only means by which 

 man can be brought into the world. The func- 

 tions of gestation and maternity require a great 

 outlay of physiological force, and, if this force is 

 used up in other work, the offspring of the world 

 must suffer, as must also the woman herself. 

 There are two channels of expenditure of physio- 

 logical force of the woman, — the terrible strain 

 of higher and professional education, the training 

 for competition with men in the most sevei'e ex- 

 ercises of the intellect ; and the expense of being 

 properly trained for motherhood. 



The saying, ' Educate a woman and you educate 

 a race,' is full of promise if rightly interpreted ; 

 full of dire disaster, if it be applied to the mind 

 to the exclusion of the body. Excessive mental 

 labor is a cause of sterility ; and whatever does, 

 or tends to, render women infertile is prejudicial 

 to a nation. Young women at the present time 

 think that they must do men's work, though there 

 is no necessity for it, and when they have not the 

 constitution to do a woman's proper work. If 

 girls were more properly taught at school the true 

 physiology of woman, this would be in a great 

 measure stopped. We cannot turn man into a 

 woman, nor fit him to perform a woman's duties ; 

 no more can we fit woman to perform the work 

 and duties of a man. Dr. Moore's address deals 

 with this all-important question from an exceed- 

 ingly practical stand-point, and is singularly free 



