Chapter 9

In the chapter entitled "Das insektenleben in arktischen ländern," which Dr. Christopher Aurivillius contributes to the account of A.E. Nordenskiöld's Arctic investigations, published this year in Leipzig,[2] the author says: "The question of the mode of life of insects and of its relation to their environment in the extreme north is one of especial interest. Knowing, as we do, that any insect in the extreme north has at the most not more than from four to six weeks in each year for its development, we wonder how certain species can pass through their metamorphosis in so short a period. R. McLachlan adverts, in his work upon the insects of Grinnell Land, to the difficulties which the shortness of the summer appears to put in the way of the development of the insects, and expresses the belief that the metamorphosis which we are accustomed here to see passed through in one summer there requires several summers. The correctness of this supposition has been completely shown by the interesting observations which G. Sandberg has made upon species of lepidoptera in South Varanger, at 69° 40' north latitude. Sandberg succeeded in following the development from the egg onward of some species of the extreme north. _Oeneis bore_, Schn., a purely Arctic butterfly, may be taken as an example. This species has never been found outside of Arctic regions, and even there occurs only in places of purely Arctic stamp. It flies from the middle of June onward, and lays its eggs on different species of grass. The eggs hatch the same summer; the larva hibernates under ground, continues eating and growing the next summer, and does not even then reach its full development, but winters a second time and pupates the following spring. The pupa, which in closely related forms, in regions further to the south, is suspended free in the air upon a blade of grass or like object, is in this case made in the ground, which must be a very advantageous habit is so raw a climate. The imago leaves the pupa after from five or six weeks, an uncommonly long period for a butterfly. In more southern regions the butterfly pupa rests not more than fourteen days in summer. The entire development, then, takes place much more slowly than it does in regions further south. Sandberg has shown, then, by this and other observations, that the Arctic summer, even at 70° N., is not sufficient for the development of many butterflies, but that they make use of two or more summers for it. If then more than one summer is requisite for the metamorphosis of the butterflies, it appears to me still more likely that the humble-bees need more than one summer for their metamorphosis. With us only the developed female lives over from one year to the next; in spring she builds the new nest, lays eggs, and rears the larvæ which develop into the workers, who immediately begin to help in the support of the family; finally, toward autumn, males and females are developed. It seems scarcely credible that all this can take place each summer in the same way in Grinnell Land, at 82° N., especially as the access to food must be more limited than it is with us. The development of the humble-bee colony must surely be quite different there. If it is not surely proved that the humble-bees occur at so high latitudes, one would not, with a knowledge of their mode of life, be inclined to believe that they could live under such conditions. They seem, however, to have one advantage over their relatives in the south. In the Arctic regions none of those parasites are found which in other regions lessen their numbers, such as the _conopidæ_ among the flies, the mutillas among the hymenoptera, and others."--_Psyche._

[Footnote 2: Nordenskiöld, A.E., Studien und forschungen veranlasst durch meine reisen im hohen norden. Autorisirte ausgabe. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1885, 9 + 581 pp., 8 pl., maps, O. il.]

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A YEAR'S SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS IN NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES.

[Footnote: Volunteer report presented to Nebraska State Medical Society, May, 1885, at Grand Island, Neb.]

By L.A. MERRIAM, M.D., Omaha, Neb.,

Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine in the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Lincoln, Neb.

The records of the Nebraska State Medical Society show that the only report of progress on nervous and mental diseases ever made in the history of the society (sixteen years) was made by the writer last year; and expecting that those appointed to make a report this year would, judging by the history of the past, fail to prepare such a report, I have seen fit to prepare a brief volunteer report of such items of progress as have come to my notice during the last twelve months. I have not been able to learn that any original work has been done in our State during the past year, nor that those having charge of the insane hospital have utilized the material at their command to add to the sum of our knowledge of mental diseases.

Last year I said: "There is a growing sentiment that many diseases not heretofore regarded as nervous (and perhaps all diseases) are of nervous origin." This truth, that all pathologico-histological changes in the tissues of the body are degenerative in character, and, whether caused by a parasite, a poison, or some unknown influence, are first brought about by or through a changed innervation, is one that is being accepted very largely by the best men in the profession, and the accumulation of facts is increasing rapidly, and the acceptance of this great truth will prove to be little short of revolutionary in its influence on the treatment of the disease. This is the outgrowth of the study of disease from the standpoint of the evolution hypothesis. Derangements of function precede abnormalities of structure; hence the innervation must be at fault before the organ fails. Hence the art of healing should aim at grappling with the neuroses first, for the local trophic changes, perverted secretions, and structural abnormalities are the effects or symptoms, not the causes of the disease. Dr. J.L. Thudicum has studied the chemical constitution of the brain, and he holds that, "When the normal composition of the brain shall be known to the uttermost item, then pathology can begin its search for abnormal compounds or derangements of quantities." The great diseases of the brain and spine, such as general paralysis, acute and chronic mania, and others, the author believes will all be shown to be connected with special chemical changes in neuroplasm, and that a knowledge of the composition and properties of this tissue and of its constituents will materially aid in devising modes of radical treatment in cases in which, at present, only tentative symptomatic measures are taken.

The whole drift of recent brain inquiry sets toward the notion that the brain always acts as a whole, and that no part of it can be discharging without altering the tensions of all the other parts; for an identical feeling cannot recur, for it would have to recur in an unmodified brain, which is an impossibility, since the structure of the brain itself is continually growing different under the pressure of experience.

Insanity is a disease of the most highly differentiated parts of the nervous system, in which the psychical functions, as thought, feeling, and volition, are seriously impaired, revealing itself in a series of mental phenomena. Institutions for the insane were at first founded for public relief, and not to benefit the insane; but this idea has changed in the past, and there is a growing feeling that a natural and domestic abode, adapted to the varying severity of the different degrees of insanity, should be the place for the insane, with some reference to their wants and necessities, and that many patients (not all) could be better treated in a domestic or segregate asylum than in the prison-like structures that so often exist, and that the asylum should be as much house-like and home-like in character as the nature of the insanity would permit; while exercise and feeding are accounted as among the best remedies in some cases of insanity, particularly in acute mania.

The new disease called morbus Thomsenii, of which I wrote in my report last year, has been carefully studied by several men of eminence, and the following conclusions have been reached as to its pathology: The weight of the evidence seems to prove that it is of a neuropathic rather than a myopathic nature, and that it depends on an exaggerated activity of the nervous apparatus which produces muscular tone, and that it has much analogy to the muscular phenomena of hysterical hypnosis, the genesis of which is precisely explained by a functional hyperactivity of the nervous centers of muscular activity. Until quite recently it was supposed that the rhythmical action of the heart was entirely due to the periodical and orderly discharge of motor nerve force in the nerve ganglia which are scattered through the organ; but recent physiological observations, more especially the brilliant researches of Graskell, seem to show that the influence of the cardiac ganglia is not indispensable, and that the muscular fiber itself, in some of the lower animals, at all events possesses the power of rhythmical contraction.

Several valuable additions to our knowledge of the anatomy of the nervous system have been made by Huschke, Exner, Fuchs, and Tuczek.

Tuczek and Fuchs have confirmed the discoveries of Exner, that there are no medullated nerve fibers in the convolutions of the infant, and Flechzig has developed this law, that "medullated nerve fibers appear first in the region of the pyramidal tracts and corona radiata, and extend from them to the convolutions and periphery of the brain," being practically completed about the eighth year. This fact is of practical importance in nervous and mental diseases, since it is becoming an admitted truth that the histological changes in disease follow in an inverse order the developmental processes taking place in the embryo. Hence the recent physiological division of the nervous system by Dr. Hughlings Jackson into highest, middle, and lowest centers, and the evolution of the cerebro-spinal functions from the most automatic to the least automatic, from the most simple to the most complex, from the most organized to the least organized. In the recognition of this division we have the promise of a steadier and more scientific advance, both in the physiology and in the pathology of the nervous system.

Mr. Victor Horsley has recently demonstrated the existence of true sensory nerves supplying the nerve trunks of nervi-nervorum.

Prof. Hamilton, of Aberdeen, claims that the corpus callosum is not a commissure, but the decussation of cortical fibers on their way down to enter the internal and external capsules of the opposite side.

Profs. Burt G. Wilder, of Ithaca, and T. Jefrie Parker, of New Zealand Institute, have proposed a new nomenclature for macroscopic encephalic anatomy, which, while seemingly imperfect in many respects, has, at least, the merit of stimulating thought, and has given an impulse to a reform which will not cease until something has been actually accomplished in this direction. The object being to substitute for many of the polynomial terms, technical and vernacular, now in use, technical names which are brief and consist of a single word. This has already been adopted by several neurologists, of whom we may mention Spitzka, Ramsey, Wright, and H.T. Osborn.

Luys holds that the brain, as a whole, changes its position in the cranial cavity according to different attitudes of the body, the free spaces on the upper side being occupied by cerebro-spinal fluid, which, obeying the laws of gravity, is displaced by the heavier brain substance in different positions of the body.

Luys claims that momentary vertigo, often produced by changing from a horizontal to a vertical position, seasickness, pain in movement in cases of meningitis, epileptic attacks at night, etc., may be by this explained. These views of Luys are accepted as true, but to a less extent than taught by Luys. The prevalent idea that a lesion of one hemisphere produces a paralysis upon the opposite side of the body alone is no longer tenable, for each hemisphere is connected with both sides of the body by motor tracts, the larger of the motor tracts decussating and the smaller not decussating in the medulla. Hence a lesion of one hemisphere produces paralysis upon the opposite side of the body. It has recently been established that a lesion of one hemisphere in the visual area produces, not blindness in the opposite eye, as was formerly supposed, but a certain degree of blindness in both eyes, that in the opposite eye being greater in extent than that in the eye of the same side. Analogy would indicate that other sensations follow the same law, hence the probability is that all the sensations from one side of the body do not pass to the parietal cortex of the opposite side, but that, while the majority so pass, a portion go up to the cortex of the same side from which they come.

Dr. Hammond says that the chief feature of the new Siberian disease called miryachit is, that the victims are obliged to mimic and execute movements that they see in others, and which motions they are ordered to execute.

Dr. Beard, in June, 1880, observed the same condition when traveling among the Maine hunters, near Moosehead Lake. These men are called jumpers, or jumping Frenchmen. Those subject to it start when any sudden noise reaches the ears. It appears to be due to the fact that motor impulse is excited by perceptions without the necessary concurrence of the volition of the individual to cause the discharge, and are analogous to epileptiform paroxysms due to reflex action.

The term spiritualism has come to signify more than has usually been ascribed to it, for some recent authors are now using the term to denote a neurosis or nervous affection peculiar to that class of people who claim to be able to commune with the spirits of the dead.

Evidence obtained from clinical observations has tended of late to locate the pathological lesions of chorea in the cerebral cortex.

Dr. Godlee's operation of removing a tumor from the brain marks an important step in cerebral localization, and cerebral surgery bids fair to take a prominent place in the treatment of mental diseases.

Wernicke has observed that the size of the occipital lobes is in proportion to the size of the optic tracts, and that the occipital lobes are the centers of vision.

Hughlings Jackson has observed that limited and general convulsions were often produced by disease in the cortex of the so-called motor convolutions. The sense of smell has been localized by Munk in the gyri hippocampi, while the center of hearing has been demonstrated to be in the temporal lobes. The center for the muscles of the face and tongue is in the inferior part of the central convolution; that for the arm, in the central part; that for the leg, in the superior part of the same convolution; the center for the muscles and for general sensibility, in the angular gyrus; and the center for the muscles of the trunk, in the frontal lobes. In pure motor aphasia the lesion is in the posterior part of the left third frontal convolution; in cases of pure sensory aphasia, the lesion is in the left first temporal convolution.

The relation of the cerebrum to cutaneous diseases has been studied much of late, and it is now held that the cutaneous eruptions are mainly due to the degree of inhibiting effect exerted upon the vaso-motor center.

The relation of the spinal cord to skin eruptions has been more thoroughly investigated and more abundant evidence supplied to demonstrate the influence degeneration of the spinal cord has in causing skin diseases, notably zoster, urticaria, and eczema.

This rheumatism, pneumonia, diabetes, and some kidney diseases and liver affections are often the result of persistent nervous disturbance is now held. That a high temperature (the highest recorded) has resulted from injuries of the spinal cord, and where the influence of microzymes is excluded, is not a matter of question. In one instance, the temperature reached 122° F., and remained for seven weeks between 108° and 118° F. The patient was a lady; the result was recovery. Hence it cannot be fever which kills or produces rapid softening of the heart and other organs in fatal cases of typhoid. Fever, so far as it consists in elevation of temperature, can be a simple neurosis.

Many other items of progress might be presented did time permit, particularly in the treatment of nervous affections, but this I leave for another occasion.

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SCARING THE BABY OUT.

Dr. Grangier, surgeon in the French army, writes from Algeria: "A few days after the occupation of Brizerte, when the military authorities had forbidden, under the severest penalties, the discharge of firearms within the town, the whole garrison was awakened at three o'clock one morning by the tremendous explosion of a heavily loaded gun in the neighborhood of the ramparts; a guard of soldiers rushed into the house from whence the sound had come, and found a woman lying on the floor with a newly born babe between her thighs. The father of the child stood over his wife with the smoking musket still in his hand, but his intentions in firing the gun had been wholly medical, and not hostile to the French troops. The husband discovered that his wife had been in labor for thirty-six hours. Labor was slow and the contractions weak and far apart. He had thought it advisable to provoke speedy contraction, and, following the Algerian custom to _scare the baby_ out, he had fired the musket near his wife's ear; instantanously the accouchement was terminated. After being imprisoned twenty-four hours, the Arab was released."--_Cincinnati Lancet._

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"ELASTIC LIMIT" IN METAL.

The _Engineering and Mining Journal_ raises the question whether steel, which is becoming so popular a substitute for wrought iron, will, when it is subjected to continuous strain in suspension bridges and other similar structures, do as well as iron has proved that it can. Recent tests of sections from the cables at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and at Niagara Falls show that long use has not materially changed the structure. The _Journal_ says: "It is a serious question, and one which time only can completely answer, whether steel structures will prove as uniformly and permanently reliable as wrought iron has proved itself to be. In other words, whether the fibrous texture of wrought iron can be equaled in this respect by the granulated texture of steel or ingot iron. In this connection it is interesting to note that the fibrous texture referred to is imparted to wrought iron by the presence in it of a small proportion of slag from the puddling furnace, and that this can be secured in the Bessemer converter also if desired. The so-called _Klein-Bessemerei,_ carried on at Avesta in Sweden for several years past, produces an exclusively soft, fibrous iron by the simple device of pouring slag and iron together into the ingot mould. This requires however a very small charge (usually not more than half a ton), and a direct pouring from the converter, without the intervention of a ladle, which would chill the slag."

The effect of the introduction of slag would seem to be to retrace the steps usually taken in producing steel, viz., to separate the iron from its impurities, and then to add definite quantities of carbon and such other ingredients as are found to neutralize the effects of certain impurities not fully removed.

The most intelligent engineers, after ascertaining by exhaustive physical tests what they need, present their "requirements" to the iron and steel makers, whose practical experience and science guide them in the protracted metallurgical experiments necessary to find the exact process required. The engineer verifies the product by further tests, and by practical use may find that his "requirement" needs further modifications. As a result of all this care, some degree of certainty is secured as to what the material may be expected to do.

No doubt the chemical composition of the slag used at Avesta was known and met some equally well known want in the iron, and thus the result arrived at was one which had been definitely and intelligently sought.

An important factor in selecting material for the cables of suspension bridges is its _true elastic limit_. By this term we mean the percentage of the total strength of the material which it can exert continuously without losing its resilience, i.e., its power to resume its former shape and position when stress is removed. Now, in the case particularly of steel wire as commonly furnished in spiral coils, the curve put into the wire in the process of manufacture seriously diminishes this available sustaining power.

For it is evident that it would be unsafe to subject these cables at any time to a stress beyond their elastic limit. If, e.g., a snowstorm or a great crowd of people should load a bridge beyond this limit, when the extra weight was removed the cables could not bring the bridge back to its normal place, and the result would be a permanent flattening and weakening of the arch.

By a process invented and patented by Col. Paine, the wire in the New York and Brooklyn bridge was furnished _straight_ instead of curved. Now, if a short piece of common steel wire is taken from the coil, and pulled toward a straight position, and then released, it springs back into its former curve; but if a short piece of the straight-furnished wire that was put into this bridge is bent, and then released, it springs back toward its straight position.

It is easy to see that if a curved wire is pulled straight, there must occur a distention of the particles on the inside of the curve and a compression of those on the outside. The inside is in fact strained past its elastic limit before _any_ stress comes upon the outside. Hence, after the wire has been pulled straight, the elastic limit of only a portion of it can be taken into the account in calculating the load that can safely be put upon it. In the case of curved steel wire pulled straight, its ultimate strength was found to be only about 90 per cent. that of similar wire furnished straight by this process. The superior ductility of iron wire in some measure compensates for the distention of the particles on the inside of the curve, and that is a reason why it has heretofore been used for suspension bridges. But with straight steel wire there is no such distention, and its _entire elastic limit_ is available. This elastic limit is 66 per cent. of the ultimate strength, and, besides, that ultimate strength is 10 per cent. greater than that of similar curved wire. Thus if we have a curved steel wire large enough to sustain 1,000 lb. without breaking, a similar straight wire, such as those in this bridge, will hold up 1,100 lb., and 66 per cent. of this 1,100 lb = 720 lb.