Various

“ The country about this interior basin is heavily wooded, and spars of 75 feet can be obtained in generous numbers. Were it not for the native inhabitants, mosquitoes, and flies, the interior would present conditions charming enough to tempt any lover of nature. It is the abundance of these invincible foes which make interior life a burden and almost an impossibility. To these inhabitants alone Grand Falls has ceased to chant its melodious tune. ”

“ It was written of him, "The noblest eye which ever nature made is darkened—an eye so privileged, and gifted with such rare powers, that it may truly be said to have seen more than the eyes of all that are gone, and to have opened the eyes of all that are to come." ”

“ In infancy, when the child is developing, the one great avenue to the unfolding, or more properly speaking, the development, of the intellect is through the eye. The eye at this period holds in abeyance all the other senses. ”

“ At this time the subject of color blindness had not awakened the attention of practical observers, and had the fact been known that between three and four per cent. of the whole male population are color blind, some other mode might have been devised to indicate the positions of vessels at night than by showing red and green lights."
If it is so very important to have sailors with good color perception, where, at least, four men are on the lookout, how much more important is it to have our engine drivers with perfect color perception, where one man alone watches the signal of safety or danger. ”

“ A child at six years of age who is forced to study all day or even a part of a day will not run the same race that one will who commences his studies at ten—all things being equal. The law prescribes that so much time must be devoted to study, so many forms must be passed, so many books must be read, so many pages of composition written—all probably in badly lighted rooms, or by artificial light. ”

“ If the hope is entertained of building up a science of education, the medical profession must combine with the profession of teaching, in order to direct investigation and to collect material essential to generalization. Without such co-operation educational workers must continue to flounder in the morasses of empiricism, and be content to purchase relative safety at the cost of slow progress, or no progress at all. ”

“ Every current rising and falling in the neighborhood of a telephone line within a region, say, of 100 yards, whether the wire conveying it be underground or overground, induces in the telephone circuit another current, producing in the telephone a sound which disturbs speech, and if the neighboring wires are numerous and busy, as they are on our roads and railways, these sounds became confusing, noisy, and ultimately entirely preventive of speech. ”

“ Myopia or short-sightedness among the Germans is growing at a tremendous rate. While I do not believe that the German children perform more work than our own children, there is one cause for this defect which has never been touched upon by writers, and that is the shape of the head. The broad, flat face, or German type, as I would call it, has not the deep orbit of the more narrow, sharp-featured face of the American type. The eye of the German standing out more prominently, and, in consequence, less protected, is thereby more prone to grow into a near-sighted eye. ”

“ The fond parents finding that the vitiated air of the city is making their once rosy-cheeked children turn pale, seek a remedy in the fresh air of the country. The children find their way to city schools; this necessitates traveling so many miles a day in railway cars. The children take this opportunity of preparing their studies while en route to the city, and here is where they get their first eye-strain. Children have the example set them by their parents or business men, who read the daily papers on the trains. ”

“ The change in the scenery, too, is noticeable, becoming more magnificent and grand. The mountains, which are bolder and more barren, approach much nearer to each other on each side of the river, and at the base of these grim sentinels the river flows silvery and silently. The Mouni Rapids, through which the water passes from Lake Waminikapon, presented the next obstacle to further progress, but the swift water here was soon passed, and well repaid the traveler with the sight here presented almost unexpectedly to his view. ”

“ There is a very important defect in vision which should be detected as early in life as possible, and that is color blindness. The boy who is a color blind will always remain a color blind, and as forty in every 1,000 of the male sex are color blind, it is essential that they know their defect, and train their course accordingly. It would be to the advantage of all boys to undergo such an examination once in their school life; a color blind would be useless where the selection of color entered into his life work. ”

“ Civilization is the progenitor of many eye diseases.
After a boy has grown to that age when it becomes necessary for him to begin the education prescribed by the wise men, obstacles are placed in his way to aid again in causing deterioration of vision. It is not so much the overcrowded condition of our school rooms as the enormous amount of work that causes deterioration of sight. Our children begin their school life at a time when they are too young. ”

“ Nature always compensates in some way. I grant that the present demands of civilization could not be filled by the far sighted eye, but the evil which is the outgrowth of present demands does not stop when we have reached the normal eye, but the cause once excited, the coats of this eye continue to give way, and myopia or a near sighted condition is the result.
Among three hundred Indians examined, I found when I got to the Creeks, a tribe which has been semi-civilized for many years, myopia to be the prevailing visual defect. ”

“ The growth of our railway system is constantly increasing. We have to-day probably 150,000 men employed in this service. The boys attending public schools to-day in a few years will have to fill the ranks of these men. How important for these boys to know that they have not this defect. If the forty boys in every 1,000 are found, what is to be done with them? The engraver, the wood cut engraver, the etcher, all wish apprentices. I am also informed that these occupations pay well. It requires talent to fill them, and here is an opening for the color blind. ”

“ If a boy had a talent for drawing or engraving, and were color blind, he would make a success of his life, whereas if he would attempt to mix paints of different colors he would be a failure.
I shall not dwell upon the scientific part of color blindness, nor discuss either the Young-Helmholtz or the Hering theories of color defect, but shall deal with its practical use in everyday life. ”

“ Of what value is the application of therapeutics if the human economy is so lowered in its vital forces that dissolution is inevitable? Is it not better to prevent disease than to try the cure after it has become established, or has honeycombed the constitution? ”

“ Light throws into action certain cells of that wonderful structure of the eye, the retina, and an over stimulus perverts the action of those cells. The result is that by this over-stimulation the seeds of future trouble are sown. Let the adult gaze upon the arc of an electric light or into the sun, and for many moments, nay hours, that individual has dancing before his vision scintillations and phosphenes. ”

“ In point of fact, while we have always clung to the armored citadel, France has discarded the belt altogether, and gone in for speed and light armor, as well as for a much lighter class of armament. Time alone, and the circumstances of actual warfare, can prove which nation has adopted the wisest alternative. ”

“ Without anticipating, however, let me state that the first thing which impressed me about compressed air was its extraordinary effect upon cerebral and cerebro-spinal function.
Those who remain for a certain length of time, not too long, however, in the condensed atmosphere, exhibit a most striking exacerbation of mental and physical vigor. They go up and down ladders, lift heavy weights, are more or less exhilarated, and, in short, behave as though under the influence of a stimulant. ”

“ Schools are absolute manufactories of the short sighted, a variety of the human race which has been created within historic time, and which has enormously increased in number during the present century. ”

“ The professions for which color blindness most seriously disqualifies are those of the sailor and railway servant, who have daily to peril human life and property on the indication which a colored flag or a lamp seems to give. ”

“ It is by the aid of the ophthalmoscope that many obscure diseases are diagnosed, and while it is impossible for every young man who obtains a diploma to become thoroughly proficient in the use of this instrument, yet the eye shows to him many conditions which guide him to the road of successful treatment. Think of a case of optic neuritis—inflammation of the optic nerve—going to an optician and fitting one set of glasses after another until the patient suddenly discovers that blindness is inevitable. ”

“ The overheated rooms of the average American home I am sure have more to do with the growing tendency of weak eyes than we feel like admitting. Look at these frail hot-house plants, and can any one believe that such bodies nourished in almost pestilential atmosphere can nourish such delicate organs of vision, and keep them ready for the enormous amount of work each little eye performs daily? The brain developing so rapidly wills with an increasing rapidity the eye to do increasing duties ”

“ These few preliminary remarks are apropos to what is to follow in the subject which I have selected as the topic for discussion this evening.
Vision is the most useful of all the senses. It is the one gift which we should cherish and guard the most. And at no time in one's life is it more precious than in infancy and youth. ”

“ The next classification was that by the color of the eyes, as black, brown, hazel, gray, and blue. This subject had also attracted much attention of late, and, within certain limits, the results have proved very valuable. The most favorite classification, however, had always been that according to the skulls. The skull, as the shell of the brain, had by many students been supposed to betray something of the spiritual essence of man; and who could doubt that the general features of the skull, if taken in large averages, did correspond to the general features of human character? ”

“ There is no circuit in or out of London on which speech is more perfect than it is between London and Paris. In fact, it is better than I anticipated, and better than calculation led me to expect. Speech has been possible not only to Paris but through Paris to Bruxelles, and even, with difficulty, through Paris to Marseilles, a distance of over 900 miles. The wires between Paris and Marseilles are massive copper wires specially erected for telephone business between those important places. ”

“ Boys should be prohibited from smoking, first by their parents, second by law, but not such laws whose enforcement is a failure, third by placing a heavy fine upon dealers who sell to minors. The pernicious evil of intoxication is no less an evil upon the nervous system of a youth than is the habit of cigarette smoking, but, fortunately, this habit is less common. Having traced from aboriginal man to the present civilized individual the cause of his myopia, what must we do to prevent a further deterioration of vision? ”

“ In the first place, we know that the primary effect of the compressed air upon the organism must be to force the blood from the surface of the body toward the interior, and especially into the cerebro-spinal canal. Or, to express it more succinctly, the blood will be forced in the direction of the least resistance, that is, into the soft organs inclosed by bony walls, which latter completely shut out the element of counter-pressure. ”

“ After the wedding trip the female tears off her wings—partly by pulling, but mostly by contortions of her body—for her life under ground would render wings not only unnecessary, but cumbersome; while the male is not exposed to the danger of being eaten by his cannibal spouse, as among spiders, nor to be set upon and assassinated by infuriated spinsters, as among bees, but drags out a precarious existence for a few days, and then either dies or is devoured by insectivorous insects. There is reason to believe that some females are fertilized before leaving the nest. ”

“ The most rapid form of quick telegraphy requires about 150 currents per second, currents each of which must rise and fall in 1/150 of a second, but for ordinary telephone speaking we must have about 1,500 currents per second, or the time which each current rises from zero to its maximum intensity must not exceed 1/3000 part of a second. The time constant of a telephone circuit should therefore not be less than 0.0003 second.
Resistance alone does not affect the time constant. It diminishes the intensity or strength of the currents only ”

“ What would be thought of a cause which would weaken the legs of that boy so that he would have to use crutches to carry him through life? If civilization be responsible for an evil, let our efforts be put forth in finding a remedy for that evil. ”

“ It is impossible, however, to avoid the conviction that the Dupuy de Lôme would be a most powerful and disagreeable enemy for either of the eight great ironclads of Great Britain now building to encounter on service. The Hood and Royal Sovereign have many vulnerable points. At any position outside of the dark and light colored portions of armor plate indicated in our drawing, they could be hulled with impunity with the lightest weapons. It is true that gun detachments and ammunition will be secure within the internal "crinolines," but how about the other men and matériel between decks? ”

“ Wallace that the chief difference between man and the lower animals is that of kind and not of degree—that man is possessed of an intelligent will that appoints its own ends, of a conscience that imposes upon him a "categorical imperative," of spiritual faculties that apprehend and worship the invisible—yet we must admit that his lower animal nature, which forms, as it, were, the platform of the spiritual, is built up of lower organisms. ”