Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 23.djvu/379

Rh brain, as the mercury would rise and fall in a barometer, under like conditions; and Dr. Barker considers it the result of the sudden changes in the relations of the fluids and solids in the body.

Whether or not the individual is to be sick, and the duration and extent of his sickness, seem to depend to a certain extent on the general condition of the system, and also somewhat upon wholly unknown conditions, in many cases the most robust yielding the first. In this connection it is an interesting fact that children under three or four years are almost invariably exempt from sea-sickness, although ordinarily they vomit so much more readily than adults.

This is no place for the discussion of remedies. Bromide of sodium is the prominent one just at present, and probably does lessen the nervous susceptibility somewhat; but let its advocates read the glowing testimonials in favor of Chapman's ice-bags for the spine, nitrite of amyl, champagne, chloral, and all the rest. The belt to support the abdomen seems a rational remedy, but it was first proposed for that use in 1814, and but few to-day have even heard of it, and it seems fair to assume that suffering mankind would not have discarded a really efficient remedy.

In conclusion, what I have tried to show is, that the stomach is not the cause of the disorder, although generally the seat of it; that the organs irritated seem to be the semicircular canals of the ear, or the abdominal viscera, or both, which become full of blood and cause vomiting, which seems rather an effort of Nature to equalize the circulation than any desire on the part of the stomach to rid itself of its contents.



HE subject of this evening's discourse, "Meters for Power and Electricity," is unfortunately, from a lecturer's point of view, one of extreme difficulty; for it is impossible to fully describe any single instrument of the class without diving into technical and mathematical niceties which this audience might well consider more scientific than entertaining. If, then, in my endeavor to explain these instruments and the purposes which they are intended to fulfill, in language as simple and as untechnical as possible, I am not so successful as you have a right to expect, I must ask you to lay some of the blame on my subject and not all on myself.

I shall at once explain what I mean by the term "meter," and I shall take the flow of water in a trough as an illustration of my 