302 



8CIUJ^c:ej. 



LVoL. VIII., No. 191 



sucking'lhe wound (usually the patient himself) to 

 spit out all the matter so sucked, and to freely 

 wash out the mouth with water ; should the 

 wound be a punctured -wound, make a crucial 

 incision, promote and encourage bleeding, and 

 treat as above." Mr. MackeUar condemns the 

 use of nitrate of silver, and says the pain caused 

 by the phenol is of short duration. 



— La nature recommends the following method 

 of cutting thick glass tubes : wind an iron wire 

 half a millimetre in thickness around the glass 

 tube, and connect it with a galvanic battery of 

 sufficient power to raise the wire to a red heat ; 

 then put a few drops of water near the wire upon 

 the glass ; the latter will then crack in the direc- 

 tion of the wire, and, the thicker the glass, the 

 more exact will be the fracture. 



— Ten thousand cases of cholera occurred in 

 Japan during the first six months of this year, of 

 which 7,803 were fatal. During the preceding 

 six months, 13,000 cases occurred, with 7,152 

 deaths. The disease is now prevailing in Osaka 

 and Yokohama, the mortality varying from sixty 

 to seventy-five per cent. 



— The monthly bulletin published by the New 

 York state board of health contains the following 

 vital statistics : the reported mortality throughout 

 the state during the month of June was 6,336, of 

 which 35.3 per cent were under five years of age : 

 1,220 deaths were due to zymotic diseases, or 

 193.65 in 1,000 total mortality ; the ratio per 1,000, 

 of deaths from typhoid-fever, was 6.20 ; from 

 diarrhoeal diseases, 73.80 ; from croup and diph- 

 theria, 60.32 ; from consumption, 144.60. 



— The examination and criticism of the last 

 annual report of President Eliot of Harvard, that 

 Prof. Andrew F. West of Princeton published in 

 the Independent, has been issued in pamphlet 

 form. It is chiefly devoted to refuting President 

 Eliot's arguments in favor of the elective system 

 as practised at Harvard. 



— The collection of Memoires et documents 

 scolaires publies par le Musee pedagogique, under 

 the auspices of the department of public instruc- 

 tion in France, is to be enriched by a learned and 

 curious Repertoire des ouvrages pedagogiques du 

 xvi^ Steele. 



— The Journal des eeonomistes has been pub- 

 lishing articles describing the principal .economic 

 publications of the world. In a recent issue, M. 

 Maurice Block, member of the institute, reviewed 

 the publications other than French, and gave a 

 most flattering notice of the Political science 

 quarterly recently started by the faculty of the 

 school of political science, Columbia college. 



— Where accuracy is desired in the measure- 

 ment of liquids, ' spoons ' and ' drops ' should be 

 discarded. The ordinary teaspoon, which is 

 presumed to hold a dram or sixty minims, in 

 reality holds eighty, and can with a little care be 

 made to hold one hundred and twenty minims, 

 or twice what is ordinarily attributed to it. A 

 drop is also a very indefinite quantity, — a fact of 

 which any one can satisfy himself by dropping an 

 equal number of drops of molasses and alcohol 

 into a measure of known capacity, and comparing 

 the amounts. The size of the drop is also mate- 

 rially affected by the vessel from which it is 

 dropped. The ' minim ' is a definite quantity, 

 sixty of these making a dram, and should always 

 be used, especially in dispensing medicine. 



— The Journal of reconstruction states that an 

 infant loses from three to six ounces in weight 

 during the first four to six days after birth ; by the 

 seventh day it should have regained its birth- 

 weight ; from that to the fifth month it ought to 

 gain about five ounces per week, or about six drams 

 a day ; after the fifth month, about four drams a 

 day ; at the fifth month it ought to have doubled 

 its birth-weight, and in sixteen months quad- 

 rupled it. 



— Carl Meyers made from the fair-grounds in 

 Franklin, Penn., on Wednesday, Sept. 8, the first 

 ascension known with natural gas, the balloon 

 rising just one mile, and sailing about one hour. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*t*CorresiJondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in alt cases required as proof of good faith. 



Psychophysics. 

 Mr. Htslop, in his article on ' Psychophysics ' in 

 Science for Sept. 17, charges the writers on that sub- 

 ject with laying claim to a scientific accuracy which 

 they do not possess. Any such charge as this mani- 

 fests so plainly a misconception of what psychophys- 

 ics really professes and attempts, that a word of 

 defence seems to be in place. The conclusion was 

 drawn from the alleged incorrectness of Fechner's 

 mathematical statement of the psychophysic law. 

 From some admissions of M. Ribot regarding the 

 same, Mr. Hyslop concludes that "such admissions 

 prove fatal to any such exactness as is enjoyed by 

 the physical sciences." Aside from the question of 

 the truth or falsity of Fechner's statement of the law 

 (Mr. Hyslop queerly admits that it is true), let it be 

 observed that psychophysics, so far from professing 

 to bo a mathematical science, does not profess to be 

 a science at all ; but it does modestly claim to pursue 

 a scientific method. This method, which, as Wundt 

 explains, is peculiar to the physical sciences, is the 

 experimental method. It does not differ from the old 

 psychology, as Mr. Hyslop thinks, so much in hav- 

 ing discarded introspection. Any psychology, even 

 physiological psychology, must, by the nature of the 

 case, be introspective. It differs fundamentally in 

 this : that whereas the old psychology assumed the 



