947

neuritis in the course of the nerve. Treatment has, unfor-tunately, little effect; and if recovery follows, it takes

place spontaneously, and accompanies improvement in thepatient’s general condition. As to the neuritis which occursin motor nerve branches, leading to paralysis of ocular

muscles, thab he believes to resemble that following diph-theria, and to be for the most part similarly transient inits effects.

-

THE RETIREMENT OF DR. BLAXALL, R.N.

WE recently announced that a vacancy in the medicalstaff of the Local Government Board had occurred and hadbeen already filled. The vacancy was due to the resignationof Dr. Francis H. Blaxall, and all who knew him will feelthat he cannot be allowed to commence that retirementwhich he has so well earned without a very cordial and

sympathetic leave-taking. Dr. Blaxall has had a distin-

guished career, which commenced by active service as

’surgeon in the Royal Navy. In this service he received

special honourable mention in connexion with hisduties in the Baltic Fleet during the Crimean War,he rose to the position of Fleet Surgeon, and he addedto the sanitary history of that service by literarycontributions, such as his Report on the Epidemicof Malarious Fever in the Mauritius. In April, 1870,he joined the Medical Department of the PrivyCouncil, and subsequently to the formation of the LocalGovernment Board he, in addition to carrying out otherwork of considerable value, was selected to assist in theformation and administration of port sanitary districts. Inthis latter task, whether temporary measures owing to

risk of impending cholera were concerned, or whether thepermanent constitution of the authorities was in question,his previous naval experience was of the utmost value.After a long and honourable public service Dr. Blaxallhas been advised to avoid the inclemency of the ap.proaching winter in England, and he is hence aboutto start for one of our Mediterranean colonies. Dr.Blaxall carries with him into his retirement the aifectioBas well as the esteem and regard of his colleagues, andwe heartily wish him restored health and that happinesswhich he so fully merits. -

HANDWRITING AND HYGIENE.

IT will be remembered that at the late International

Congress of Hygiene and Demography, in Section 4, whichwas concerned with the Hygiene of Infancy and School-life,a resolution was passed in .favour of the teaching of

upright penmanship, or vertical writing, on the groundthat spinal curvature and short sight are caused by thefaulty position of the youthful student, which is neces-

sitated by the slope of the letters. We can all of usremember the trouble of learning to write, and the mentaland physical toil which the making of our first pothooksand hangers involved. The number of muscles put inaction when a person is writing is prodigious, and it is

probable that in beginners every muscle of the body mustyield its assent before the graphic symbols trickle from thepen. The fingers, wrist, elbow, and shoulder must all beheld steady. The spine must be rigid and fixed below aswell as above. The pelvis must be firm, and to this endthe child often gets a support by its feet from the legs of thechair. The thorax is more or less rigid, and its movementsare determined more by the work of the hand than therespiratory needs. Lastly, the knit brows and the pro-truding tongue are unconscious muscular acts which serveto mark the effort, both of body and mind, which the childundergoes when learning to write. It is notorious that in

writing our individuality asserts itself in spite of th(

pedagogue. We are taught certain rules for sitting at thf

desk and holding the pen, which we ultimately learn toneglect, and finally write in a fashion of our own..

The great drawback of writing as an exercise for childrenis the fact that it involves one half of the body only, and the.necessity of fixing the spinal column causes the child

instinctively to loll upon its left side while the right arm i&

working. To what extent the asymmetry of posture is.caused by the fashion of sloping the letters it would bedifficult to say, but there can be no doubt that the

writing master ought to carefully watch the attitude ofthe child and endeavour to’make it sit square to the deskand maintain the spinal column vertical. Every child !should have a footstool to give firm support to the feet, andthe seat should not be slippery, so that the fixation of the-pelvis may be easy. Vertical writing is very legible, and ifit diminishes to any extent the tendency to sit " lop-sided,"’it ought to be encouraged. The true remedy for the evilsproduced by learning to write seems to us to be to teach thechild to use both hands, and to practise alternately witheither hand. Vertical writing lends itself more readily toambi-dexterity than does sloping writing, and there can beno doubt that a clerk who could write with equal facilitywith either hand, and could rest one side of the body whilethe other was working, would be little liable to writer’s.cramp and similar troubles. Seeing how enormous is the-muscular effort involved in giving the hand sufficient,

steadiness, and that the brain fag is scarcely less than the-muscle fag, it goes without saying that writing lessonsshould at first be of very short duration. Ten minutes with;each hand ought to amply suffice.

TREATMENT OF MIGRAINE.

IN the Archiv fiir Psychiatrie, Band xxi., Heft 1,Dr. Neftel has a paper on this subject, of which an abstractappears in the Neurologisches Ccntralblatt. He regards the.condition as a vaso-motor neurosis, but has nothing new t<&thorn;

say about the etiology. As to treatment between the attacks,the circulation must be carefully attended to and keptactive. Constipation must be got rid of, which is best effected’by the use of diminishing doses of mineral waters and bythe use of electricity to the abdomen. Muscular exercise-must also be prescribed, and subsequent temporary rest, andnothing should be eaten or drunk until at least half an hourlater. Then a cup of freshly boiled water, he says, will befound wonderfully refreshing. The systematic use of

electricity to the head is strongly recommended, andDr. Neftel finds that in some cases the constant current, in.others the interrupted, is beneficial. For the attacks:.themselves electricity also is recommended, together withergotin for plethoric patients and salicylate of soda for-anaemic sufferers, or a large dose of quinine for either class.

PROCURSIVE EPILEPSY.

THE variety of epilepsy to which this name is applied is.of great medical interest and of no little medico-legal’importance. Dr. John Ferguson of Toronto, in a recentnumber of the New York Medical Journal, cites a number-of cases which have come under his own observation, andhe formulates a theory to account for the symptoms. Thevarieties of the disorder are three in number: (1) those,in which the procursion or "run" constitutes the entire’attack; (2) those in which the procursion immediately pre-cedes an ordinary attack of epilepsy; and (3) those inwhich the procuration follows the attack or fit. The last

variety is said to be very rare. In the cases recorded

by Dr. Ferguson, one noticeable fact is the frequencywith which short procursive attacks give place in thecourse of time to ordinary severe epileptic fits. It is.also to be noticed that not unfrequently peculiarities,of manner, apparently unimportant, such as slight and