78 
POPULAR SCIENCE REYIEW. 
SEA-SICKNESS.* 
K. CHAPMAN has here enlarged his pamphlet on the use of the spinal 
ice-bag in the treatment of sea-sickness, and in doing so he has added 
fresh cases to his record and has considerably extended his observations on 
the physiological aspects of neuro-therapeutics. So far as the author’s 
() priori arguments are concerned we consider them unsound — not more so 
til an the great mass of such physiological reasoning, but dangerous, because 
all hypothetical arguments — and they are of this order — are objectionable. 
They are ingeniously put, and there is a categorical sequence about them 
which is pleasing, but they show many fallacies. For instance, we might 
remark in answer to Dr. Chapman’s belief that ice applied to the spine dimin- 
ishes the temperature of the sympathetic ganglia, that this statement is 
an assumption without a shadow of proof. It may be a convenient hjqio- 
thesis, but we could urge very different hypotheses which would meet the 
facts just as well. Indeed, it seems to us extremely improbable that ice 
applied to the spine can have any such effect. We might raise similar 
objections to many others of Dr. Chapman’s physiological views, but we 
refrain from doing so, because we think that his system of therapeutics 
must be taken as-an empirical fact, and judged on its own merits. Now 
we have no experience of our own to offer on the subject, but we must 
confess that there seems to be more in Dr. Chapman’s mode of treatment than 
some physicians will allow. The cases that the author records are both 
numerous and authentic, and though cases do not always prove the value 
of a therapeutic method, yet they should induce us to give Dr. Chapman’s 
plan a trial. This is what we would ask of our professional readers. The 
cases reported in the present work are of much interest, and they cer- 
tainly go far to assure us of the active influence of the spinal ice-bag in 
relieving the sjTuptoms of sea-sickness. Dr. Chapman writes with a 
force and vigour not always found in medical works, and even those who 
differ from him in opinion will find his book both clever and attractive. 
Sea-sickne.s8 and how to prevent it,” &c. By John Chapman, M.D., 
M.R.C.r. Second edition. London : Triibner, 1868. 
