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SCIENCE. 



[Vou X. No. 255 



which this institution has accomplished. " When it is considered," 

 he continues, " what splendid technical training the workshops and 

 manufactories of England have afforded, there will appear to be very 

 good reasons why, originally, technical schools were not so exten- 

 sively instituted in England as on the continent." The speaker 

 pointed out that England was, taken as a whole, after all not in 

 such a deplorable state with regard to technical education, and 

 then described that education as of two kinds, general and 

 special. " General technical education may be said to be that ne- 

 cessary in all large centres of population, being the preparation for 

 such callings as engineering, architecture, medical science, and 

 other professions which a certain percentage of the inhabitants will 

 always follow, besides training of another kind suitable to the arti- 

 san class. Special technical education is that necessary in a locality 

 where there are special industries, instances of which will readily sug- 

 gest themselves." The remainder of the address was devoted to 

 considering the educational work of Liverpool and its technical re- 

 quirements. This brief abstract will suffice to show how diverse 

 are the means of approach to the manual training problem which 

 are being followed in England and in this country. 



PHYSICAL TRAINING. 



The American Association for the Advancement of Physical 

 Education held its third annual meeting in Brooklyn on Nov. 25, 

 and was well attended. Prof. Edward Hitchcock of Amherst Col- 

 lege presided. Papers were read by him, and also by E. H. Fal- 

 lows of the Adelphi Academy. The title of the latter paper was 

 ' Physical Training in Elementary Schools in the United States,' 

 being an extract from the report of the Board of Health of New 

 Hampshire. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Jun., of Cornell University, 

 read a paper on the uses of physical measurements to the individual. 

 In the attempts to establish anthropometry on a scientific basis the 

 weight of individuals was first taken as a standard, but this had to 

 be abandoned, and he thought we could now say with a certain 

 degree of exactness that human measures increase with the height. 

 It is extremely difficult, if not indeed practically impossible, to 

 secure the exact dimensions of any man. Especially is this so 

 when it is attempted to obtain the measurements of the chest and 

 shoulders. Six experts might examine the same individuals, and 

 their measurements would probably all differ. The testing of lung 

 capacity is very variable, some individuals giving results which are 

 of value, while others do not use the thoracic muscles at all, but 

 simply bring into play the muscles of the pharynx. Some foreign 

 countries, recognizing the difficulties in the way of obtaining exact 

 measurements of parts which were liable to vary, had adopted the 

 length and breadth of the head, ear, foot, and linger, and the height 

 of a man in the sitting position, as the best, making use of them in 

 descriptions of criminals. Dr. Hitchcock thought that to determine 

 the physical powers of an individual, good judgment on the part of 

 the examiner was of great value. In fact, a good judgment without 

 measurements he regarded as better than good measurements 

 without judgment. 



Dr. Savage, director of the Berkeley gymnasium. New York, and 

 Dr. Sargent of Harvard University discussed Dr. Hitchcock's paper. 

 The latter said that while some foreign nations had done more in 

 obtaining and recording measurements of parts of the human body, 

 the United States was far ahead in true anthropometry, that is, the 

 measurement of the whole man ; but this subject was still in its 

 infancy, and it would be folly for the association to publish views 

 which in the present inexact state of the science of anthropometry 

 might and probably would be controverted in a short time. He 

 did not think it was proper for an association which had had but 

 two or three years' experience to express views which might be 

 taken by the world at large as a basis for physical education. For 

 his part he regarded it as a life-work, and he proposed to remain 

 silent until he had arrived at results which he could swear by. Dr. 

 Hitchcock of Amherst differed with Dr. Sargent. No science ever 

 approached exactitude except through a long course of mistakes 

 and subsequent corrections. 



The next paper was on military training as an exercise, by Dr. J. 



W. Seaver of Yale College. He took the ground that while mili- 

 tary training was well adapted to the adult, it was not the best for 

 the young. The element of sport or fun which characterized the 

 active life of all animals in their early years should not be wanting 

 in the exercise of the human young. General Molineux of Brook- 

 lyn, in the discussion of this paper, said that although colleges, by 

 their well-equipped gymnasiums, had done much for their students, 

 they had done but little for the masses. He hoped to see physical 

 training adopted in the public schools, and urged the association to- 

 do all in its power to accomplish that object. He thought that 

 military training even for the youth was very valuable, not only as- 

 a means of developing their strength but as fitting them for the de- 

 fence of their country, a duty which they might be called upon to 

 perform. John S. White, LL.D., head master of Berkeley School, 

 New York, took similar ground with General Molineux, but be- 

 lieved that calisthenics and military drill should be combined in the 

 development of youth. At the termination of the discussion the 

 association adjourned. 



AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION.' 



One of the most instructive papers read before the American 

 Public Health Association at its recent meeting at Memphis was 

 that of Dr. E. M. Hunt, Secretary of the State Board of Health of 

 New Jersey. It is entitled ' The Prevention of Microphytic Dis- 

 eases by Individual Prophylaxis.' It is so full of suggestion, and 

 the subjects which it discusses are matters of such general in- 

 terest, that we reproduce the paper z'n toto. \ 



[Paper by Dr. E. M. Hunt.] 



During the last twenty-five years no subject has been more 

 prominently before the students and practitioners of hygiene than 

 the consideration of new methods, or new applications of old meth- 

 ods, for the prevention of disease. 



This inquiry, to some extent, involves investigation into the 

 specific entity of disease. But a still more hopeful direction of in- 

 vestigation is to find out what fertilizes it or makes it more likely 

 to be severe, what sterilizes it or makes it more likely to be mild, or 

 what will make the human system resistful to the sedation or prop- 

 agation of the disease, so that it will not occur. 



The first great discovery in this direction was that of the modi- 

 fying influence of inoculation. 



It could not have been merely the cathartic and the changed diet 

 of a few days that reduced the mortality from inoculated small-pox 

 to such a minimum. The prevalence of the custom was at once 

 the certification of the terror of the caught disease and the inno- 

 cency of the conferred or inoculated disease. Yet it was the same- 

 disease without any effort at attenuation. 



It was the introduction of the virus into the skin or areolar tis- 

 sue, instead of by inhalation, that seemed to result in modification. 

 Its approach was through the periphery, instead of by a central and 

 vital organ. The chief safety was in the fact that the involvement 

 of the lungs and the secondary fever were avoided. 



Somehow, by the metastasis or diversion or mode of attack, the 

 System grew tolerant of the malady, and was able to throw it off 

 with comparative harmlessness. 



It has fallen to my lot frequently to see the same remarkable 

 mitigation in the inoculation of cattle with the virus of contagious 

 pleuro-pneumonia. 



When the infection is Conveyed by the breath, it seizes upon the 

 lungs and pleura. Frequently, in three days after it is manifested, 

 the spongy organ of two or three pounds has become so solidified 

 with tenacious lymph that it has a weight of thirty pounds, and 

 death is the speedy result. 



But introduce this virus into the muscular tissue of an extremity 

 and all symptoms are more gradual. There are local swelling, the 

 throwing-out of lymph amid muscular tissue, and slight constitu- 

 tional disturbance ; but the lungs escape, and fatal cases are ex- 

 ceedingly rare. Not only this, but other animals will not contract 

 the' disease, and immunity is secured. These facts as to the effect 

 of the different modes of conveyance of a disease have their prac- 

 tical bearings, and still invite investigation. 



^ Continued from Science of Dec. 2. 



