April 13, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



179 



they give from the immediate necessities of the organism. Touch, 

 the most immediate and least inferential of the senses, is least sub- 

 ject to illusions ; while sight is so very much so, that the blind 

 often say they have an advantage over the seeing in being free from 

 visual illusions. The illusions of bodily motion are much nearer 

 to those of touch than to those of sight, and yet they can under cer- 

 tain conditions be induced through visual impressions. Of this the 

 writer has recently had two interesting examples. He was stand- 

 ing upon the floor of a railroad-depot, the boards of which were 

 laid with a considerable open space between them ; and the shadow 

 of an electric light was moving up and down by the swinging of 

 the light in the wind. Looking at the floor, it seemed as though 

 the shadow were stationary, and the floor-boards moving. From 

 this it followed that the person on it was moving too, and the 

 writer distinctly felt the swinging sensation : in fact, his attention 

 was called to the phenomena by this feeling of motion. The other 

 observation was as follows : while riding in the cars and looking 

 out of the window, the trees and all are seen to move in the oppo- 

 site direction. If, now, one looks in a mirror so situated that it re- 

 flects the passing landscape, which, however, must not be visible 

 except in the mirror, one has the illusion of moving in the oppo- 

 site to the real direction of motion, owing to the reversal of the im- 

 age in the glass. In both these cases an immediate bodily sensa- 

 tion is induced by a more or less unconscious inference through 

 visual sensations. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Scarlet-Fever. 



One of the most valuable communications which we have re- 

 ceived in answer to the series of questions which were propounded 

 relative to scarlet-fever in Science of Dec. i6, 1887, is that from the 

 pen of Dr. Henry B. Baker, secretary of the State Board of Health 

 of Michigan. The arrangements which Dr. Baker has instituted 

 for obtaining information from every town and village of the State 

 are so thorough and complete, that the deductions made from the 

 statistics thus obtained are especially valuable and trustworthy. 



Dr. Baker does not believe that scarlet-fever ever arises de tiovo, 

 but, judging from researches by Dr. Klein and others, thinks it is 

 possible that the pre-existing case may have been a cow or some 

 other animal, and not a human being. There is no doubt in his 

 mind that scarlet-fever is a communicable disease ; and he gives 

 the following instances which have come under his own personal 

 observation, tending to prove this communicability : — 



{a) A child about four years old was taken sick with scarlet-fever 

 a few days after putting on a cloak made in a room in which was 

 a little girl convalescent from scarlet-fever. 



(b) A young woman came into the (small) residence in which a 

 child was sick with scarlet-fever, remained less than an hour, rode 

 several miles into the country, where in a few days she was taken 

 sick with scarlet-fever. 



(c) Members of the family into which was introduced the young 

 woman mentioned above, in a few days were taken sick with scar- 

 let-fever, and one of them died. 



In reference to the communication of bovine scarlet-fever to man, 

 either by contagion or the milk of affected animals, he has no infor- 

 mation except that which has already been given relating to the 

 Hendon dairy, of which he says that the evidence of scarlet-fever 

 being communicated from diseased milch-cows is given by Mr. 

 Power and Dr. Klein, who traced outbreaks of scarlet-fever to milk 

 received from diseased covi's on the Hendon farm in England. 

 Milk from these cows was distributed by all the distributers of milk 

 from the Hendon farm except one, and this was the only district 

 supplied by milk from this farm which was not affected with scar- 

 let-fever. Dr. Klein obtained from these cows a particular microbe 

 identical with the micrococcus found in persons affected with scar- 

 let-fever. Other cows inoculated with the micrococcus from scar- 

 let-fever patients became affected with a cutaneous and visceral 

 disease similar to that which affected the Hendon cows. We have 

 already (Science, Feb. 10, 1888) referred to the fact that these ob- 

 servations of Power and Klein are disputed by Professor Crook- 

 shank, who investigated the matter for the English privy council. 



Crookshank believes that the disease was cow-pox, and not scarlet- 

 fever, and that, as a natural sequence, the outbreak of scarlet- 

 fever attributed by Klein to the Hendon cows had no connection 

 with them whatever. In Dr. Baker's opinion, a person who has had 

 scarlet-fever is probably liable to communicate the disease to others 

 until after the completion of the process of desquamation (peeling 

 or scaling of the outer skin), which process also occurs to surfaces 

 in the interior of the body, and which, on some external parts, may 

 not be completed for two or three months. But without bathing, 

 and change of clothing or its thorough disinfection, a person may 

 communicate scarlet-fever many months after desquamation has 

 ceased. Cases illustrative of this are recorded on p. 257 of the 

 ' Report of the Michigan State Board of Health for 1885,' p. 275 of 

 the report for 1884, and p. 219 of the report for 18S6. 



Dr. Baker has personally known of instances where articles of 

 clothing, books, etc., have retained infection for a few weeks ; but 

 he has known, by means of reliable information, of the infection 

 having been retained for much longer times. For instance, a trust- 

 worthy physician informed him that a patient of his, being cold, 

 went to a closet and procured a cape worn by his brother one year 

 before, during convalescence from scarlet-fever. In a few days he 

 was himself taken sick with scarlet-fever. Dr. Baker thinks that 

 boards of health should not require reports of cases of scarlet-fever 

 to be made to them unless the people themselves have by law made 

 provision therefor. Nothing is gained by boards of health, or other 

 servants of the people, attempting to dogmatically force people to 

 do what their intelligence, or lack of it, does not lead them to see is 

 right and just. Boards of health should strive to put the facts be- 

 fore the people, and to execute existing laws. 



The people should by law require that prompt report be given to 

 the local health-officer, on the occurrence of a case of scarlet-fever. 

 Proper penalty should be affixed to the violation of this law, and 

 the law should be enforced by the prosecuting attorney. The re- 

 port should be required to be made by every householder, hotel- 

 keeper, keeper of a boarding house, or tenant, who shall know, or 

 shall be informed by a physician, or shall have reason to believe, 

 that any person in his family, hotel, boarding-house, or premises 

 is taken sick with scarlet-fever. The notice should state the name 

 of the person sick, and so designate the house or room in which 

 the person is as to enable the health-officer to enter at once upon 

 his duties of restricting the disease as promptly as the fire depart- 

 ment enters upon the restriction of a fire. The penalty should not 

 be enforced against a householder, etc., if the case is at once prop- 

 erly reported by the physician. Every physician should be required 

 to report to the local health-officer every case of scarlet-fever which 

 comes under his observation. A fee should be paid by the people 

 to the physician who makes such a report for the public good. 



The reasons why notice of scarlet-fever should be given are sim- 

 ilar to those why public notice of a fire should be promptly given 

 by whoever gains the knowledge first. The common safety of life 

 is endangered by keeping such knowledge secret. No one person's 

 or few persons' interests should be permitted to weigh against the 

 interest of humanity at large. 



If the law permits, it is the duty of the board of health to act as 

 promptly for the restriction of the disease as the fire department 

 acts for the restriction of a fire, and for similar reasons : life and 

 property are in jeopardy so long as the case is not isolated. 



The law should require the health officer' (a) immediately to 

 investigate the subject, and, in behalf of the board of health of 

 which he is an executive officer, {b) to order the prompt and 

 thorough isolation of those sick or infected with such disease, so 

 long as there is danger of their communicating the disease to other 

 persons ; (c) to see that no person suffers for lack of nurses or 

 other necessaries because of isolation for the public good ; {d) to 

 give public notice of infected places by placard on the premises, 

 and otherwise if necessary ; (e) to promptly notify teachers or 

 superintendents of schools concerning families in which are con- 

 tagious diseases ; (_/) to supervise funerals of persons dead from 

 scarlet-fever ; (g) to disinfect rooms, clothing, and premises, and 

 all articles likely to be infected, before allowing their use by per- 

 sons other than those in isolation ; {k) to keep the president of his 



In cities so large that this work cannot be done by the health-officer, a sufficient 

 nber of experts should be employed in this work. 



