ILLUSTRATIONS IN A NEWSPAPER.

1449

graathnothers did. For this relief credit is due to the ensure the success of the Congress committees have been development of exercise among women and to the use of the formed in the various countries which will take part in the bicycle and the motor-car. But, as Mr. Lane points out, the ’ Congress, and the following scientists have already consented use of a corset constructed to aid instead of to weaken the abdominal muscles is a matter which concerns the medical profession in a marked degree, and it may be that in time the influence of medical men who study the matter will enable fashion to go hand in hand with good sense.

as presidents of the committee in each country :r Professor Lenard (Germany), Professor Exner (Austria), Professor Oetvos (Hungary), Professor Castillo (Spain), Professor Barus (United States), Professor Langevin (France), Professor Rutherford (Great Britain), Professor Blaserna (Italy), Professor Birkeland (Norway), Professor Lorentz (Holland), Professor Ferreira da Silva (Portugal), Professor

to act

THE FATE OF THE LONG-HEADED BLOND RACE.

Hurmuzescu

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland was particularly happy in its choice of Professor Guatav Retzius of Stockholm as Huxley lecturer for the i current year. He is a son of Anders Retzius, who in 1840 divided mankind according to the shape of their heads into Gentes Doliahoeephalae and Gentes Braehyeephalae, and thereby laid the foundation on which the great superstructure of modern craniology has been reared. In delivering the Huxley lecture at the new premises of the Institute in Great RussellTHE

l’rofessor Lebedew

(Kussia),

l’ro-

Butcher, Holyrood, Ealing, London, W,

street, Professor Retzius dealt with the increase of knowthe origin and distribution of European which had attended the application of the methods introduced by his father. A recent survey of recruits for the Swedish Army revealed the fact that 87 per cent. of the Swedes are "long-headed," while 73 per cent. have fair hair. Professor Retzius regards his fellow countrymen as a pure representation of the North European race-a race still found in Scandinavia, North Germany, and Britain, but at one time spread widely over Europe-from earliest neolithic times downwards. They may be regarded as the aborigines of Europe, not, as at one time widely believed, Aryan invaders from Asia. Professor Retzius agrees with those who take a gloomy view as to the future of this ancient race. The qualities which made them great in the past are just those that unfit them for the routine life The round-headed darkof an industrial civilisation. haired race which has replaced them in central Europe has gained its victory by the possession of superior industrial qualities, a superiority that threatens ultimately to overwhelm the fair-haired North European stock. Professor Retzius is not one of those who believe that an industrial mode of life can alter the shape of the head or colour of the hair; the evidence in support of such a hypothesis is altogether unconvincing. Such questions, of the very greatest importance to industrial nations, can be settled only by a comprehensive physical survey of the people.

(Houmania),

fessor Arrhenius (Sweden), and Professor Guye (Switzerland). Communications regarding the Congress may be addressed to Professor Rutherford or Dr. W. Makower at the University of Manchester, but anyone wishing to become a member of the Congress should communicate his intention directly to the general secretary, Dr. J. Daniel, 1, Rue de la, Prévôte, Brussels. Communications relating to the Biological and Medical Section should be addressed to Mr. W. Deane-

I

ledge regarding

ILLUSTRATIONS IN A NEWSPAPER.

races

-

AN

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AND ELECTRICITY.

RADIOLOGY

WE are informed that arrangements have been made for International Congress of Radiology and Electricity to take place at Brussels in connexion with the exhibition to be held there in 1910. The Congress, which will meet on Sept. 6th, 7th, and 8th, will be held in three sections. In the first section, general questions of terminology and methods of measurement in radio-activity and subjects connected with ions. electrons, and corpuscles will be dealt with. The second section will be divided into various subsections, dealing respectively with fundamental theories of electricity, the study of radiations (including spectroscopy, chemical effects of radiations, and other allied questions), radio-activity, atomic theory, cosmical phenomena (including atmospheric electricity and atmospheric radio-activity). The third section will be biological and will be devoted to consideration of the effects of radiations on living organisms. The section will deal with purely biological questions as well as with the use of various radiations for medical purposes, both for diagnosis and therapeutics. In order to an

I

IN another column will be found an account of an interesting case of fracture of both patellse by direct violence in a patient under the care of Mr. William Sheen. The first illustration to this article is of a more frivolous nature than, generally characterises our pictures, but we have admitted itfor the very good reason that it gives at a glance the exact method, a rather complicated one, in which the injury was brought about. The original sketch was not, of course, intended for reproduction in the columns of a scientific journal. In providing illustrations for articles for the scientific press it must be remembered that the object of the author should be not, in the first case, to produce an artistic result, so much as to give a picture which will show exactly what the writer means to express. It is quite possible tocombine extreme technical accuracy with perfect artistic feeling-a good example of this is Turner’s drawing of a windmill given in Vol. IV. of "Modern Painters," in contrast with another drawing of the same subject by Stanfield -but for artists of a meaner kind it is generally necessary to subordinate artistic finish to accuracy of detail or even to make the illustration semi-diagrammatic, especially in pic-tures dealing with anatomical or surgical subjects. We have been led to make these remarks both on account of the clever sketch accompanying Mr. Sheen’s paper and also because of a series of articles now running in our contemporary the author, written by Mr. W. B. Plummer, on "The Art of Illus" trating. Many of our contributors from time to time have thought us captious with regard to the photographs, drawings, charts, and diagrams with which they havesupplied us for the purpose of illustrating their articles, because they have not been familiar with the processes of reproduction. Everybody cannot know everything, and thetechnicalities of illustration for the press may not concern medical men very closely. But the tendency of medical men. being more and more towards illustrating their articles, we recommend to those who are interested the study of Mr. Plummer’s instructions. In these the mysteries of the line.block, the advantages and disadvantages of the wash drawing, and the necessity of using certain materials. are all explained in a very clear manner. We may to two refer little matters which havebriefly us from a frequently prevented reproducing drawing or a chart exactly in the form in which it has reached us. A chart may be drawn so that the curve will reduce to a thirdor even less of the original size without losing clearness, but only if the figures or the letters written upon it have been’ drawn on a scale to allow of the reduction. As a rule, the-

1450

lettering of charts is so small that on reduction the details worlnng in the stokehold ot ttlis vessel, steaming at about become illegible. The other matter is a question of colour. 10 knots. This critical temperature must vary in each ship Many charts are sent to us drawn on squared paper under varying local conditions, such as rate of steaming, posiprinted in blue. As the blue does not photograph at tion and kind of furnace, use of forced draught, &c. ; and all the curve is practically useless, as it appears on probably also varies with the individual, the seasoned stoker’s a perfectly blank background. Again, in a chart dealing critical temperature being higher than that of the unseasoned with say, pulse, respiration, and temperature, some con- man. No stoker needed treatment for heat-stroke until the wetOn Sept. 8th this was tributors send them in drawn in black, red, and blue. A bulb temperature averaged 87° F. chart drawn thus, if photographed, shows only two black found to be the temperature of the stokeholds in use, whilst curves corresponding to the red and the black, while the in the engine-room it varied from 87° to 96°, so that in both blue curve does not at all. show unless Therefore, original departments the conditions were critical and cases of heatit is intended to have the chart printed in colours, the stroke were to be expected. Even on deck the wet bulb difference in the curves should be indicated by dotted or reached 85° from 4 P.M. to midnight, the dry bulb broken lines. These few explanations will show the reason registering 91°. 13 cases of heatstroke occurred, with 1 why certain drawings cannot be published, and will also, we death. Of the three most severe cases, one (a ward-room hope, enable those who wish for the publication of drawings servant) had fallen asleep with his head exposed to the full

I

or charts to avoid technical and delay.

errors

which

cause

both trouble

-

THE HEALTH OF THE NAVY IN 1908: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSES OF HEAT-STROKE. FROM the

the health of the navy in 1908 it is a continuous improvement, satisfactory the figures for 1908 showing lower ratios of sickness, invaliding, and mortality than in the preceding five years. It is regrettable, however, to find that venereal affections show no diminution, in contrast with the considerable decrease that has occurred in this class of disease in the army during the last few years. On the other hand, the saving of inefficiency and suffering in the reduction of Malta fever in the Mediterranean command has been most satisfactory ; the admission-rate was 0’ 61 per 1000, whereas in the preceding five years it had been 14’ 67 per 1000; the disease has been practically extinguished in the navy well as the army in Malta. as The appendix contains an interesting report by Staff-Surgeon Oswald Rees, "Body Temperature and the Causation of Heat Stroke," with detailed observations of physiological conditions as found in the stokehold and engine-room of a cruiser in the Red Sea during September. We regret that this should be the only contribution of original research, and, indeed, the only matter in the whole volume that is not purely statistical. The report itself, as distinct from the tabular material, is hardly anything but a ’l’ésumé of the figures ; it cannot be described as their essence, but rather as an emt’l’aotum emsiooatissim111n, devoid of any savour or aroma of interest. As we remarked on the occasion of the similar report for 1907, it seems to us a pity that so much labour should be expended in the compiling of returns and official reports without any practical lesson being deduced from them by the experts best qualified to judge of their significance. In Staff-Surgeon Rees’s report reference is first made to Dr. J. S. Haldane’s researches on"critical"temperatures, and an account is given of the author’s experiences during the passage of H.M.S. 1’ox through the Red Sea on her way to the East Indies station in the month of September. StaffSurgeon Rees and Surgeon G. A. S. Hamilton for a certain period spent the first dog-watch of each day (i.e., 4 P.M. to 6 P.M.) either in the stokehold or engine-room. It was found to be impossible to carry out observations on the stokers, therefore the medical officers experimented on themselves. They imitated the actual work of the stokers-which is very severe while it lasts, but intermittent, and carried on in a brisk current of air (150 to 600 linear feet per minute), but exposed to intense heat and glare-by climbing up and down a ladder in front of the furnaces. Under the conditions of the experiment it appeared that 830 to 840 F. was the I critical" wet bulb temperature for both observers, when

report

on

to find that there is

blaze of the sun; the second was a cook who had been exposed to the heat of a galley fire ; the third was an engineroom artificer, exposed to the engine-room temperature, complicated by a heavy meal of "butter beans"which 11 he had bolted. Of the other cases the determining cause seems to have been ’fright’ pure and simple, as there was a perfect panic among the young stokers." following practical conclusions are drawn : the necessity for (1) careful observations on wet and dry bulb temperatures in engine-room and stokehold in the tropics ; (2) the provision of ventilating fans in engine-room ; (3) the taking of external wet and dry bulb observations so that when the former reaches 80° F. all the crew may sleep on the upper deck or in a free-air current; (4) instruction as to causation of heat-stroke so that over-eating, and so on, may be avoided; and (5) energetic treatment of heat-stroke itself by iced bath combined with cold lavation of the bowel. Staff-Surgeon Rees thinks that possibly the amount of meat in the sailor’s dietary may be reduced and carbohydrates substituted as soon as the wet-bulb temperature reaches 80° F.

The

THE

REQUIREMENTS AND THE REGULATION OF SIGNALLING BY COLOUR.

AN article with the above heading appears in the -4me?’M’
unimportant coasting steamer. In addition, specific lights employed in army signalling and, Dr. Oliver informs us, in geodetic survey work. For ready recognition of colour perception many plans have been suggested. First, direct comparison of pigment colours popularised by Holmgren’s wool are