Alo'cioberPSm' }    Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.  523 
and  believes  the  inclination  of  mothers  to  teach  their  children  baby- 
talk  cannot  be  too  severely  condemned;  as  they  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  this  method  of  speech  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  change  it. 
He  points  out  that  girls  suffer  less  from  the  more  severe  forms  of 
speech  defects  than  boys,  and  some  authors  have  even  doubted  the 
existence  of  female  stutterers,  while  Coen  of  Vienna,  places  the 
number  at  only  1*5  per  cent,  of  the  whole  number  affected.  He 
says  that  children  should  not  be  allowed  to  associate  with  stammer- 
ers, as  the  children  may  not  only  be  influenced,  but  there  is  also  a 
tendency  to  aggravate  the  defect  in  the  case  of  the  stammerer. 
THE  CONGENITALLY  BLIND  AS  OUTLOOK  MEN  AT  SEA. 
The  Dublin  Journal  of  Medical  Science  for  August  quotes  the 
Lyon  Medical  for  July  17th  as  stating  that  the  frightful  catastrophe 
of  the  sinking  of  the  steamship  "  Bourgogne "  recalls  a  lecture 
delivered  some  years  ago  by  Dr.  Dufour,  of  Lausanne.  This  cele- 
brated oculist,  interested  in  the  means  of  securing  a  livelihood  for 
the  unfortunate  blind,  passed  in  review  all  the  callings  which  might 
make  use  of  the  extraordinary  power  of  hearing  with  which  these 
persons  are  endowed.  Among  others,  he  declares  that  all  swift 
vessels  should  have  on  board  two  men  born  blind  to  serve  as  out- 
look men  in  foggy  weather.  Dr.  Dufour  asserts,  as  a  result  of 
experiments  made  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  that  the  acuteness  of 
hearing  in  these  persons  is  such  that  they  can  easily  recognize  at  a 
great  distance  the  noise  of  a  moving  vessel,  and,  a  fortiori,  the 
acoustic  signals  which  it  may  make  with  the  object  of  furnishing 
exact  information  as  to  its  position  and  course. 
The  suggestion  is  a  valuable  and  a  practical  one. — N.  Y.  Med. 
Jour.,  August  20. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
DETERMINATION  OF,  MANGANESE  IN  PLANTS. 
P.  Richard  gives  a  colorimetric  method  (Compt.  rend.,  1898,  p. 
550)  for  the  rapid  determination  of  manganese  in  plants  and  humous 
soils.  The  plant  or  soil  is  incinerated,  fused  with  sodium  or  potas- 
sium carbonate,  a  little  nitric  acid  is  added,  and  then  placed  in  a 
test-tube  with  a  little  minium  or  lead  bioxide,  water  containing 
some  nitric  acid  added  and  the  solution  boiled.  The  rose  color  of 
the  solution  indicates  manganese. 
