474 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. IV., No. 94. 



co-oidinated musculature of fair young maidens 

 to serve and return the ball ! The reason is 

 plain enough to the pla}-er ; but, put in physi- 

 ological terms, it supports the view I have 

 suggested as to the aesthetic function of the 

 muscular sense. 



The muscular mass of the human s} T stem is 

 a large one. It makes up forty per cent of the 

 total bodily weight ; and leaving out the skele- 

 ton, which has a mechanical function only, we 

 are two-thirds muscle. Besides, it is supplied 

 throughout with the nerves which excite it, and 

 with sensory nerves, which notify the brain at 

 once of use and misuse, sickness and health. 

 There may be a fair state of health, but 

 there can be no exuberant vigor, none of the 

 lust}' joie de vie, without perfectly nourished 

 and perfectly functioning muscles. Thus, when 

 over-used or poorly nourished, we have the 

 sensations of fatigue, weariness, and malaise, 

 such as are complained of by thousands of 

 underfed and underworked persons. Further- * 

 more, as the muscle retires, the nerve comes to 

 the front, and we get our nervous women, who 

 are the products, in large part, of insufficient 

 or improper muscular exercise. 



There are a few pathological facts in connec- 

 tion with lawn-tennis which may be briefly 

 noted : — 



Ever}' new invention and every new sport 

 has its accidents and diseases. For some time 

 English medical journals have had letters about 

 'lawn-tennis arm,' 'lawn-tennis elbow,' and 

 'lawn-tennis leg.' The cause of these troubles 

 is generally simple. ' Tennis arm ' is caused by 

 a rupture of some of the fibres of the pronator 

 radii teres. The front of the fore- arm is 

 tender, perhaps swollen, while pronation and 

 flexion are difficult. In some forms of ' ten- 

 nis arm' the musculo-spiral nerve, as it passes 

 around the elbow, gets pinched and injured ; 

 then there is weakness in extension and in 

 'back-hand' strokes. In 'lawn-tennis wrist' 

 the anterior part of the annular ligament is 

 stretched, and there is probably a little in- 

 flammation of the grooves in which the flexor 

 tendons run. 



' Lawn-tennis leg ' is due to rupture of some 

 of the muscles of the calf in swift and power- 

 ful serving. The muscle ruptured is thought 

 to be the plantaris longus. 



These ' legs ' and ' arms ' are more apt to occur 

 in middle age and among too ambitious begin- 

 ners. The}' are not of frequent occurrence, and 

 are not dangerous. Rest, rubber bandages, 

 friction, and electricity are sure to bring about 

 a cure. C. L. Dana, M.D. 



New York. 



LATE NEWS FROM THE NORTH-WEST. 



Late advices from Alaska state that the volcano 

 on Augustine Island, Cook's Inlet, continues to 

 show signs of activity by smoke, noises, and earth- 

 quake shocks of light intensity. About the time of 

 the eruption last autumn, between the 23d of Sep- 

 tember and the 18th of October, eight shocks were felt 

 at Port Etches, in Prince William Sound. At Kas- 

 siloff, on the eastern shore of Cook's Inlet, at the 

 mouth of the river of the same name, on the 14th of 

 November, 1883, a tidal wave flooded the salmon- 

 canning establishment of Cutting & Co., and washed 

 away a considerable strip of bluff along the shore for 

 several miles. 



Edward Langtry, one of the early explorers of the 

 Lewis branch of the Yukon, in the'Chilkat country, 

 has been prospecting on the Kuskokwim and Nusha- 

 gak Rivers during the past year, and intends to re- 

 main another season. 



News from the explorers of the Copper or Atna 

 River indicates that they were in July detained at a 

 point where the river passes through a narrow canon, 

 and a glacier abuts upon it. This glacier, extending 

 over the surface of the stream, nearly closed it to 

 navigation, and an arrangement had just been com- 

 pleted with some of the natives, who were to assist 

 the party to cross the glacier. 



News has been received of the return of Lieut. 

 Stoney from his explorations on the Kowak River, 

 emptying into Hotham Inlet, Kotzebue Sound. He 

 had ascended this river, which has been known for 

 thirty years, but never surveyed, to a distance which 

 he estimates at four hundred miles, which is proba- 

 bly meant to include all irregularities. He did not 

 reach its source, as his instructions forbade him to 

 winter there. He has forwarded a report to the Navy 

 department. A party from the revenue - steamer 

 Corwin has also ascended the river this season, 

 and in 1881-82 Messrs. Jacobsen and Woolfe ex- 

 plored its course for some fifty miles. The former 

 has just published at Leipzig an account of the jour- 

 ney under the editorial supervision of Dr. Woldt, a 

 work which has not reached us. The following year 

 Lieut. Stoney, furnished with a boat and party 

 from the revenue-steamer Corwin, Capt. Healy, on 

 which he was a passenger, made some praiseworthy 

 investigations at the mouth of the Kowak and the 

 entrance of Hotham Inlet. These gave rise to some 

 unfounded reports in the daily press that the river 

 was a new discovery. The extent of the stream, 

 leaving minor curves out of account, cannot much 

 exceed two hundred and fifty geographical miles ; but 

 it runs through an almost unknown region, and the 

 official reports will, no doubt, add materially to the 

 geographical knowledge of that part of Alaska. 



A trading-post has been established at Yakutat 

 Bay by the Alaska commercial company, — the first 

 which has existed there since the destruction by 

 the Indians of the old Russian settlement of ' New 

 Russia' about eighty years ago. The natives have 

 always been treacherous and unreliable. The estab- 

 lishment will be conveniently situated for any adven- 



