February 7, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



91 



Here we must note that even in the lower animals we find 

 some of the conditions to the subsequent appearance of self- 

 consciousness in the more gifted intelligence of man. The 

 animal mind has a store of images to a certain extent independ- 

 ent of sensuous impressions. Animals dream, pine for absent 

 friends, seem sub.iect to hallucinations, etc. The brute, too, is 

 able to ' 'establish true analogies between its own subjective 

 states and the corresponding states of other intelligences. ' ' The 

 individual so far realizes its own individuality as to recognize 

 that it is one of a kind, and thus has a rudimsntary or nascent 

 self -consciousness. This in the child is supplanted by a pre- 

 conceptual self -consciousness, which is exhibited by all children 

 after they have begun to talk, but before they begin to speak 

 of themselves in the first person, or show that they realize their 

 own personality. It is the recognition of self as an active and 

 feeling agent, but involves no introspection. At this stage, 

 then, the child has the characteristics just described as common . 

 to itself and the animal, but, in addition, has far better 

 apparatus for sign-making, a better knowledge of others' states 

 of mind, a better faculty of denotative utterance, and so on. 

 Here the interval between denotation and denomination becomes 

 so narrow that the step is easy. "The mere fact of attaching 

 verbal signs to mental states has the effect of focusing attention 

 upon those states; and, when attention is thus focused 

 habitually, there is supplied the only further condition which is 

 required to enable a mind, through its memory of previous 

 states, to compare its ijast with its present, and so to reach 

 that apprehension of continuity among its own states wherein 

 the full introspective consciousness of self consists." Now, 

 this step, though an important one, is not so important as to 

 warrant our supposing it a step different in kind from the other 

 steps of mental evolution, especially if we remember, that, even 

 when self-consciousness appears, the human mind is in an in- 

 fantile condition, and if we take into account the enormous 

 difference in intelligence of a child and of a youth, where a 

 difference in kind is out of the question. 



We must add to this picture of individual development the 

 parallel evidence of racial development. This evidence shows 

 that the several distinctively human steps of thought were in 

 ages past difficult or impossible. Of especial importance is the 

 evidence of language. "Tlie gradual evolution of articulate 

 language has preserved for us a kind of paleontological record 

 of the gradual evolution of conceptual thought, with the result 

 of showing that in the life-history of the human species, as in 

 the life-history of the individual child, this conceptual thought 

 derived its origin from these preconceptual levels of ideation 

 which have already been occupying our attention. ' ' In brief, 

 then, Dr. Romanes concludes, that, on the basis of an exact 

 psychological analysis, the differences between the intelligence 

 of man and brute, though presenting marked contrasts, yet 

 seem to be connected by intermediate stages, which should be 

 regarded as differing in degree rather than in kind, and that 

 this view is strengthened by considering the slow and painful 

 steps of human intelligence, from its beginnings in savagery 

 to its present lofty attainments, at first view so entirely 

 separating, mentally, man from the rest of creation. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Nutritive Value of Boiled Milk. 



That the sterilization of milk, however important, is not 

 without its disadvantages, has been shown by Randnitz and 

 others. To determine the comparative assimilability of proteids 

 and fats from boiled and non-boiled milk. Dr. Evsevy V. 

 Vasilieff of St. Petersburg undertook a course of most careful 

 experiments on six healthy young men, aged from eighteen to 

 twenty-three years. Each experiment lasted six days, during 

 three of which the men received raw milk, and during the other 

 three boiled milk, the daily amount of the article in either 

 case varying between 1,850 and 4,300 cubic centimetres. Tlie 

 following, according to the Provincial Medical Journal, are 



the conclusions deduced by the author from his very instructive 

 researches : — 



1. The assimilation of nitrogenous ingredients from boiled 

 milk is invariably less than that from the raw article. In the 

 case of raw milk the average percentage of non -assimilated 

 nitrogen amounts only to 7.0.5, the maximum to 7.62, and the' 

 minimum to 6.43; while in the case of boiled milk the respec- 

 tive figures are 8.18, 8.79. 7.76. 



3. The same holds true with regard to the assimilation of 

 fats. When fat is ingested in a raw state, the average per- 

 centage of non-assimilated fatty acids is 3.89, the maximum 

 4.85, and the minimum 3.88. In the case of boiled milk, 

 however, the figures rise to 6.01, 6.99, and 4.53 respectively. 



3. Boiling seems to affect especially the assimilation of the 

 fats of milk, since the percentage of tatty acids in relation to 

 the total quantity of dried faeces in those fed on boiled milk is 

 considerably larger than in those fed on non-boiled milk. In 

 the former case, fatty aSids constitute 19.03 per cent of the 

 total amount of dry fseces ; but in the latter, not more than 

 16.81. In other words, when a person ingests his milk boiled, 

 every 100 grams of his dry faeces contain a surplus of fats 

 amounting to 3.33 grams. 



4. Therefore, as regards its nutritiousness, boiled milk 

 represents a decidedly inferior dietetic article, compared with 

 raw milk. 



5. As far as proteids are concerned, the difference in their 

 assimilation may find some explanation in Dr. I. Schmidt's 

 researches, according to which, under the influence of boiling,. 

 cow's milk undergoes important chemical changes, nearly all 

 the albumen and a part of the caseine being transformed into 

 hemi-albumose. Schmidt's analysis proves that raw cow's milk 

 contains 8.55 per cent of caseine, 8.4 of albumen, and 6.1 of 

 hemi-albumose. Under the influence of ten minutes' boiling, 

 the proportion of caseine sinks to 7.59 per cent, that of albu- 

 men to 0.7, while that of hemi-albumose rises to 23.4. 



TeichiNjM in Swine. — Professor E. L. Mark has recently 

 published the results of the examination of 3,064 hogs raised 

 in the vicinity of Boston, Mass. (Report of Massachusetts State 

 Board of Health) . The examination extended over the five 

 years 1883 to 1888. The results show that 14.07 per cent of 

 the males and 10.61 of the females were infected witlr 

 trichinae. Similar examinations of Westerp hogs have shown 

 only from two to three per cent to be infected. Professor Mark 

 reaches the conclusion that this difference is probably due to 

 the character of the food given to those raised in the vicinity 

 of Boston, and presumably in the vicinity of other large cities. 

 Of the fifty-six raisers of the hogs examined by him, fifty- 

 one fed city offal. The source of the infection he believes 

 to be in the uncooked meat found in kitchen garbage. It 

 would be interesting to know the condition, in this respect, 

 of the large number of hogs fed upon this food in and about 

 the other large cities, says the Brooklyn Medical Journal. 



The Pstcholoqy op Epidemics. — Every epidemic carries iir- 

 its train curious exaggerations of many well-recognized charac- 

 teristics, and these frequently call for appreciation and for 

 treatment almost as much as the disease in which they 

 originate. Perhaps one of the most striking of these mental 

 perversities is to be found in the idea that the epidemic is to be 

 treated by "common sense" or by nostra which have been largely 

 advertised, or by specifics which are known to the laity mainly 

 through their frequent mention in the daily press. Those 

 suffering under this delusion feel that it is wholly unnecessary 

 to seek skilled assistance, and they boldly dose themselves with 

 remedies of whose power and properties they are absolutely 

 ignorant. In Vienna, according to the Lancet, it has already 

 been found necessary to forbid the sale of antipyrin, except 

 under doctors' prescriptions, as no less than seventeen deaths 

 were attributed to stoppage of the heart's action owing to over- 

 doses. The freedom with which the prescription of this- 

 remedy has been assumed by the public has long since been 

 viewed with anxiety by the medical profession, and frequent 

 warnings have already fallen upon deaf -ears. 



