246 



BGmNc:E. 



[Vol. Vni., No. 18& 



from abstractions and generalities ; and, if his 

 views are to be controverted, they must be met 

 with correspondingly practical objections. His 

 treatment of the subject shows a large experience 

 with the every-day life of the women of the 

 present time, and will well repay most thorough 

 and careful perusal. 



Writer's cramp is an affection which, until a 

 very recent date, has been looked upon as in most 

 cases incurable. Fortunately, however, for those 

 who suffer from this disease, means are now 

 known to exist not only for its amelioration, but 

 for its permanent cure. The difficulty is one which 

 is not, as its name imphes, confined to writers. 

 It may occur in any individual whose occupation 

 brings into constant play one set of muscles : thus 

 the pianist, the telegrapher, and the ballet-dancer 

 may suffer from these cramjDs or from an inability 

 to perform the acts peculiar to his occupation. 

 The cramps are merely symptoms of a diseased 

 condition, the exact seat of which is a matter of 

 dispute ; some locating it in the brain, others in 

 the spinal cord, while there are those who regard 

 the nerve-centres as in no wise affected, but trace 

 the source of the affection to the nerves themselves. 

 The method of treatment which has been found 

 most successful consists in the application of gym- 

 nastics, combined with massage, to the affected 

 muscles. The rubbing, and sometimes a gentle 

 striking of the muscles with a wooden bar, together 

 with regular movements of the fingers or other 

 defective part, are continued for several weeks, 

 during which time not more than one hour daily 

 is devoted to these exercises. During five years, 

 Wolff, who has given special attention to this affec- 

 tion, has treated 277 patients. Of this number, 245 

 were writers ; 32 were pianists, violinists, telegra- 

 phers, and painters. 157 were cured, 22 improved, 

 and 98 not cured. 



Dr. S. W. Abbott, of the state board of health 

 of Massachusetts, in the Boston Medical and surgi- 

 cal Journal, Aug. 12, descjibes the method em- 

 ployed by Professor Walpert in testing the air of 

 inhabited apartments to ascertain the amount of 

 carbonic acid present. The air-tester of Walpert 

 consists of a simple rubber bulb, of known capa- 

 city, connected with a glass tube, which is con- 

 stricted at its further end. The bulb is filled with 

 the air to be examined, and this air is then forced 

 through a measured quantity of lime-water until 

 the opacity produced by the formation of lime- 



carbonate is so great as to obscure a black mark 

 upon the bottom of the test-tube containing the 

 lime-water. With very foul air, the bulb having a 

 capacity of twenty-eight cubic centimetres, and 

 the quantity of lime-water being three cubic 

 centimetres, the mark is obscured after filling 

 the bulb ten or fifteen times ; while, if the air is 

 as pure as it should be, the lime-water will be- 

 come turbid only after the bulb has been filled 

 thirty or forty times. Professor Walpert has pre- 

 pared a table which indicates approximately the 

 amount of carbonic acid present when the bulb 

 has been filled from one to sixtv times. 



The principle upon which this tester is based is, 

 of course, not new. It is, however, a much more 

 convenient method than that recommended by 

 Angus Smith, in which bottles containing lime- 

 water were employed. All these methods are de- 

 fective, necessarily so perhaps, for the reason that 

 they all take it for granted that the amount of 

 carbonic acid is a true exponent of the degree of 

 purity of the air. This is, of course, erroneous. 

 An air containing no more carbonic acid than that 

 of the Alps, may, on account of organic impuri- 

 ties, be much more deleterious than one holding a 

 large amount of carbonic acid, but without the 

 organic contamination. There is much reason to 

 hope that biological methods, with plate and other 

 cultures, will help to solve this difficult question 

 of practically ascertaining whether a given atmos- 

 phere is or is not contaminated to such a degree 

 as to be prejudicial to health, and in what the 

 danger consists. While the chemists and biologists 

 are at work upon this problem, we shall still be 

 confined to the estimation of carbonic acid present 

 in the air, as an indication of its purity, and are 

 glad to learn that Dr. Abbott has found Walpert's 

 air-tester convenient in form and size, portable, 

 and sufficiently accurate to meet the wants of the 

 sanitarian. 



THE CHARLESTON EARTHQUAKE : S03IE 

 FURTHER OBSERVATIONS. 



Further and more reliable observations and 

 reports seem to confirm the substantial accuracy 

 of the coseismal lines given in the map issued with 

 the last number of Science to an even greater 

 extent than could have been reasonably expected. 

 The most disturbing element in compUing that 

 map was the time of the earthquake at Charleston, 

 as given by all the press reports and the signal- 

 service observer at that city, 9.54 p.m. The most 



