mined spot, so that trephining at this spot may cause the paralysis to disappear." The experiments of Galvani and his followers on frogs have taught us to estimate the effect of the electric current on nerve and muscle, and shown us how to apply galvanization to the prevention of the paralysis which ensues from the destruction of the motor nerves. The numerous patients relieved of nervous diseases "by this admirable therapeutic agent have no call to speak ill of such vivisectors as Galvani, Aldini, Volta, Magendie, Marshall Hall, Remak, Du-Bois Reymond, and many others, since it is to their discoveries that the relief of their ills is owing. Would Galvani have made his discoveries had he refrained from dissecting frogs? Would the electric current have been applied to atrophied limbs if it had not been found that the action of this current in dogs was salutary and not dangerous?" Certain diseases of the urinary organs have been studied in animals. The treatment of sympathetic ophthalmia by section of the ciliary nerves of the diseased side has been shown to be advantageous by experiment, and the results yielded by experiments on dogs and rabbits have been applied to patients. The correct treatment of cataract has been similarly learned. Encouraging progress is made by vivisection in the study of the formation of callus, of pseudarthrosis, of osseous grafts, of regeneration of bone by periosteum, subjects of great importance in surgery. The vasomotor theory, which plays a large part in the medicine and surgery of the present day, has been established by experiments on the great sympathetic and the rabbit's ear. Dr. Brown-Séquard has furnished useful ideas relating to epilepsy and tetanus from the results of painful experiments on dogs and Guinea-pigs. Trial on animals is useful to determine the action of new medicines, for "we do not wish to experiment on man at the risk of poisoning him, where animals can be employed"; so with poisons. Finally, if we deprive savants of the right to submit living animals to experiment, we shall go back beyond the days of Galen. "If all those who have been relieved—verily made to live again"—says Dr. Richet, "by modern medicine and surgery, could speak, they would confound those who load vivisection with calumny, and they would hold that their own life and sufferings weighed more in the balance than the sufferings of those animals which have been sacrificed in laboratories to the lasting benefit of man."
Compression of the Feet of Chinese Women.—Miss Norwood, an American missionary at Swatow, has published a description of the processes employed to reduce the size of the feet of Chinese women. The binding of the feet is not begun until the child has learned to walk and to do certain other things which she could not well be taught to do afterward. The bandages employed are manufactured for the purpose, and are about two inches wide and two yards long for the first year, five yards long for the subsequent years. The end of the strip is laid on the inside of the foot at the instep, then carried over the top of the toes and under the foot, drawing the four toes with it down upon the sole; thence it is passed over the foot and around the heel; and by this stretch the toes and the heel are drawn together, leaving a bulge on the instep and a deep indentation in the sole under the instep. This course is pursued with successive layers of bandage, until the strip of cloth is all used, and the end is then sewed tightly down. The "indentation" should measure about an inch and a half from the part of the foot that rests on the ground up to the instep. The toes are drawn completely over the sole, and the foot is so squeezed upward that, in walking, only the ball of the great-toe touches the ground. Large quantities of powdered alum are used to prevent ulceration and lessen the offensive odor. At the end of the first month the foot is put into hot water, and, after it has been allowed to soak for some time, the bandage is carefully unwound, "the dead cuticle, of which there is much, being abraded during the process of unbinding." Ulcers and other sores are often found on the foot, and "frequently, too, a large piece of flesh sloughs off the sole, and it sometimes happens that one or two toes drop off." When this happens, the woman considers herself amply repaid for the additional suffering by having smaller and more delicate feet than her neighbors. Each time
