2
1255 REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. r Official Reports of tlae Republic of Costa Ríca.-Among the official reports recently presented to the members of Congress of the Republic of Costa Rica there are two relating to the National Institute of Hygiene in San Jos6, the metro- ,polis. The work of this establishment during the past year included a considerable number of chemical analyses as well ,as many histological and bacteriological examinations of urine, fæces, sputum, tumours, &c. Lajvse and ova of the ankylostoma duodenalis were discovered in five out of sixteen samples of fasces. The institute is amply provided with apparatus for the production of the Roentgen rays and for micro-photography. Dr. Emilio Echeverria, the director, mentions incidentally in his report that at the ordinary pressure at San José water boils at 950 C. (203° F.), a circum- stance which of course shows that the town is situated at a ,great elevation. In connexion with the institute there is a department, presided over by Dr. Bojas, for the preparation and inoculation of anti-leprous serum. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Researcla. Part 32, ’Vol. XIII. July, 1897. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co. Pp. 282. Price 3s. 6d.-This book is an elaborate treatise on the use of the divining rod as a means of discovering underground water. The author, Mr. W. F. Barrett, Professor of Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Science for Ireland, states (p. 2) that it was with great reluctance that some six years ago he began to investigate the matter. Ultimately, however, he arrived at the conclusion (p. 24) that" the movement of the rod is not due to trickery nor any conscious voluntary effort, but is a more or less violent automatic action that occurs under certain conditions in certain individuals," and he became so convinced of the utility of the practice that if he had to sink a well he would (p. 240) "prefer to have the spot selected by a good dowser rather than general advice given by a geologist, provided that the depth of the well did not .exceed, say, fifty feet." About 200 pages of the book are - occupied with reports of the proceedings of various water diviners, dating for the most part since 1880. By far the greater number of the predictions were verified by subsequent digging or boring, but several failures as well as much adverse criticism by geologists are recorded. The very copious data collected by Professor Barrett will no doubt be appreciated by those who take an interest in this mysterious question. -- Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Son’s greeting and other cards and booklets for the forthcoming Christmas season are again up to the high standard of excellence for which their pro- ductions have been deservedly famed in the past. The interchange of pleasurable compliments is rendered the more delightful when they can be accompanied by souvenirs t which may justly be termed works of art, and which will themselves be prized for their intrinsic worth apart from their sentimental value. Amongst so much which is so good it is difficult to single out any particular pieces for special mention, but the panel pictures, the Woodland Studies by i Frank Hines, the Turner Portfolio, the Ryland Portfolio, and Yeend King’s Four Studies by Brook and Meadow are s especially worthy of mention. Nor are the children for- gotten: there are many enjoyable pictures to amuse them. JOURNALS AND REVIEWS. Practitioner. - In the November number Dr. H. D. Rolleston describes a puzzling case in which latent ulcer of the pylorus with jaundice simulated malignant disease. The patient was a man, aged twenty-seven years, who died ten days after admission to St. George’s Hospital. Mr. Henry Strachan, senior medical officer of the Public Hospital, Jamaica, has an interesting paper on a form of a Multiple Neuritis prevalent in the West Indies. The f symptoms complained of are numbness and cramps in the hands and feet, dimness of sight, a tightness round - the waist, and occasionally impaired power of hearing. r The main nerves to the extremities are very tender on I pressure especially the ulnar nerve, and along the distribu- E tion of their terminal filaments they may be tracked by linE s of fine herpetic vesicles. Some of the nerves of special sense are also involved, principally the optic nerve, the affection of t which is most frequently retro-bulbar. The muscles of the ’ limbs will waste until the claw hand and foot are marked , features. Recovery from all the symptoms is the rule. , Mr. Strachan considers that the disease is due to the poison . of malaria. There are three other original communications. iThe I I Hero of Medicine " this month is Theodor Schwann. ’ Caledonian Medical Journal.-Dr. Alastair MacGregor, of Shepley, Huddersfield, continues in the October number his remarkable paper on Second Sight, the first part of which has already been noticed in THE LANCET of July 31st, page 258. He describes six cases, four of which were instances of death that came under the observation of his father, a clergyman in the island of Skye, the antecedent phenomena being as follows: (1) a woman saw a vision of her son falling over a rock; (2) a man heard an unearthly cry, twice repeated, proceeding from the direction of his neighbour’s house; (3) three men in a coasting vessel were cursed by an old woman, after which as the vessel sailed away a peculiar, black-looking cloud was seen hovering in the air over it and was recognised by fisherpeople on shore as presaging disaster, which seems to have taken the form of an unaccountable murder; and (4) a woman saw a very brilliant light on a funeral pall, which was spread on a table, and in the middle of the light the image of her niece’s face. Two of the other articles in the journal, entitled respectively the" Macbeths of Islay" and "Medical Herces of the ’Forty-five," are historical and biographical. The Monist.-Professor Ernst Mach, of Vienna, contri- butes an important physiological paper on the sensations experienced during rapid movement and change of position. It is headed I I On Sensations of Orientation and describes numerous observations made by Professor Mach on himself whilst seated in a rotating chair or lying on a board rotating in a horizontal plane. He considers that all the parts of the labyrinth are not auditory in their functions, but that the cochlea is reserved for sensations of tone and the semi- circular canals for the sensation of rotation or angular acceleration, the nerves of the ampullæ being excited by the pressure of the fluid contents of the canal under the influence of inertia ; he makes the further suggestion that, the vestibule, particularly the portion of it known as the sacculus, is the organ of sensation of forward acceleration or of the position of the head. There are five other original articles. ___ WE are requested by the publishers, Messrs. Dawbarn and Ward, 6, Farringdon-avenue, E.C., to call attention to the fact that typographical inaccuracies appear in a book recently sent out by them for review entitled Chemistry for Photo. graphers, by Mr. C. F. Townsend. The errors are being corrected. All persons who have obtained copies beforu Nov. 4th and who return them at once will receive revised copies in their place. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.—At a meeting of the general committee of the British Association held iti London on Nov. 5th Sir W. Crookes, F.R.S., was elected President for 1898, the vice-presidents being the Mayor of Bristol, the Bishop of Bristol, the Earl of Ducie, Sir E. Fry, Sir F. Bramwell, Mr. J. Beddoe, MD.Edin., F.R.C.P. Lond., Professor Bonney, and Professor Lloyd Morgan. It was decided that the meeting in Bristol should be held on Sept. 7th, 1898.
