July 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



Ill 



physical chemistry ; and that no person shall 

 he excluded from admission by reason of his or 

 her nationality or sex. 



NERVOUS DISEASES AND MODERN LIFE. 



The Century Magazine for May contains an 

 article by Dr. Philip Coombe Knapp, in which 

 he claims that there is no definite scientific 

 basis for the common assumption that nervous 

 diseases are increasing and that they are more 

 prevalent in America than elsewhere. The 

 fact that relatively more people are in asylums 

 for the insane than formerly is probably sim- 

 ply because a larger proportion of the insane are 

 now cared for in asylums and the better methods 

 keep them alive longer. The increase in deaths 

 due to diseases of the brain is not so great as the 

 increase in deaths from heart and kidney dis- 

 eases. The relative increase of deaths from all 

 these diseases is the corollary from the de- 

 crease in deaths from preventable causes — in- 

 fection, filth, bad habits and the like. 



The a priori argument that the conditions of 

 modern life predispose to nervous disease is 

 not very convincing to those familiar with the 

 state of things in the past, when life, family 

 and fortune were often in daily jeopardy. The 

 energy and restlessness of the typical American 

 may betray a lack of culture and refinement 

 but it does not show physical degeneracy. 

 The mean is dependent on the extremes and 

 we find Americans the best athletes, whereas 

 when we wish to see the most interesting cases 

 of hysteric and nervous diseases we must go to 

 Paris or Vienna. We might expect to find, and 

 do find, in America good physical and mental 

 traits, due to their origin from energetic emi- 

 grants and the admixture of races. As Dr. 

 Knapp writes : ' ' We should not then chatter 

 glibly about the increased nei'vousness of 

 our age, due to the greater demand which the 

 conditions of modern life make upon the human 

 brain. It is not a matter to be settled by a few 

 phrases or by tables of very general and 

 questionable statistics. We are by no means 

 certain that there is any increased nervousness, 

 and even if it do exist we do not know 

 whether it is due to these greater demands or 

 to injury or infection. It is also doubtful 

 whether the conditions of modern life make as 



great demands upon the brain as did the con- 

 ditions of life in the past. Finally, without 

 more evidence in its favor, we must regard the 

 belief in the greater nervousness of Americans 

 as an error." 



GENERAL. 



We venture to call attention in this place to 

 the advertisment of the publishers on page iii., 

 asking for back numbers of this Journal. It is 

 a matter for congratulation that more copies 

 have been sold than had been expected by the 

 publishers, and it is a matter of editorial interest 

 that subscribers who wish to complete their sets 

 for binding should be able to secure the lacking 

 numbers. 



The death is reported, by cablegram, of Dr. 

 August Kekule, professor of chemistry in the 

 University of Bonn. 



We have already called attention to the 

 seventy-ninth meeting of the Swiss Society of 

 Naturalists, which meets at Zurich from the 

 2d to the 5th of August. Lectures have been 

 arranged for the general meetings as follows: 

 Prof. Kolliker on the ' Arrangement of the 

 Microscopic Elements in the Cortex of the 

 Brain;' Prof. Bamburger on 'Chemical Energy;' 

 Prof. Henri Dufour on the 'Study of Solar 

 Eadiation in Switzerland;' Prof. Shroter on the 

 'Flora of Lakes.' Special papers will be read 

 before fifteen different sections. 



The Imperial University of Kasan (Russia) 

 announces the Lobatchefsky prize of 500 roubles 

 to be awarded every three years for works on 

 Geometry, ' those on non-Euclidian to have 

 the preference.' Works in competition must 

 be sent in before October 22, 1896 (old style). 

 The prize will be adjudged October 22, 1897. 



There will be held during the month of Sep- 

 tember a meeting of Austrian chemists who 

 have had an academic education, in order to 

 consider the formation of a society for the con- 

 sideration of subjects that concern technical 

 chemistry. 



It has been proposed, according to Nature, 

 that some token of esteem be presented to Prof. 

 N. Story-Maskelyne in recognition of his dis- 

 tinguished services to mineralogical science, 

 and to commemorate his long connection with 



