Lr 3 ¢ uL § 3 RA \ 2075 BIO g DTS 9) e BY <td 4 Lf ore J ES mee JOLTING T "BAD EYE" ; AVE you a "bad eye"?--not the kind called an "evil eye," that, according to superstl- tion ages old, has the power of bewitching, but an optic whose physical limitations make you: & "slow reader"? If you have such a pair of eyes then you should have them "jolted." Recently afinouncement was made that the educational department of Springfield, Mass., Lad decided to increase the reading capacity of the school children; and that Prof. Colin A. Scott, head of the department of education at "Holyoke College, would direct the work. How Prof. Scott is' accomplishing his purpese with the aid of a machine--a device of cogged wheely and slidiffy 'shutters and speed controls that fight be called an "sye-jolter," is described in Fopular Science Monthly by Raymonde G. Doyle Early tests showed that the reading capacity of both children and adults varies greatly, It was praved that if 22 per cent. of al] the people in the United States cannot read at all, thero are probably not more than 25 per cent. who find any comfort in reading evep the newspaper. Graduates of high schools were able to read na- terial as difficult as the ordinary news items at the average rate of 310 words a minute. Some read as slowly as 150 words a minute, while others progressed as rapidly as 'Te 450 words a minute. Those who read more rapidly, it was found, were usually able to give as good an account' of what they vead, and of course a ger ac- count, than those who read more slowly. Ultimately Prof. Scott fond that the rate of comprehension was a large factor in determin- ing speed reading. Another point made clear by the tests was that certain me- chanical habits are formed. by children, and that some of them inferfere with both speed and comprehension. Among them was. the habit of fully pro- nouheing words mentally while reading silently. The rapid reader never does this, al- though he cannot get along without some pronunciation. He telescopes or slurs his words, a great advantage in silent read- ing, but @# drawback in that it tends to make the individual 'a slipshod speaker, . The next step was the de- termination that the rapid reader had rn great positive advantage, chiefly because impressions passed befoye his mind quickly and crowded to- gether into one focus, thus unifying within the span of a few seconds the different elements that went to make up a thought. Then Prof. Scott gave his attention to the movements of the eyes as they pass over the ma- terial read. "The reader," he says, "usually assumes that his eyes glide evenly over the line unless he should be stopped by something not properly seen or understood. Accurate observation, however, shows that this is.not the casé. Line). "A good reader takes in'12 or 18 letters in one glance, In order to do this, the eyes rest for a fraction of a second, usually about one-third of a second. They then move rapidly to the next section, and so on. "These sections doubtless overlap somewhat on the edges and are of slightly irregular lengths. The eyes move a certain dis- tance and then stop, whether the distance moved is exactly the same as on the previous section or not. Tho line of travel is along the upper por: tion of the line, but the cen- tre of the resting-point may be, not a letter or a word, but a blank 'space. This makes no difference to the vision, since it is a certain section that is seen, not suc- cegsively, but at once. In an ordinary newspaper . line, a rapid reader will make only three stops, and will thus be reading about 850 words a minute. . A slow reader, on the other hand, makes as £3 The Top Photograph Reeords the Movements of an Eye Reading a Magazine Line. The Dots and Hesitant Lines at the Left Indicate Difficulty in Starting. The Well-Definod Shifts Show That the Line Was Read in Four Sections. The Lower Photograph Shows the Reading of a Newspaper Line (Half the Length of the Magazine After One Faloe Move, the Eye Traveled Over the Line in Six Jumps, Taking About Twelve Letters at a Jump. many as seven and more stops and reads perhaps only 160 words a minute." As a result of his highly important observa- tions, Prof. Scott has drawn the conclusion that about half of the glow readers continue to be slow even when the material read could be compre- hended 'by thea much more rapidly. Not lack of comprehension, but the persistence of a "bad-eye habit," prevents thei? reading rapidly, At this of his work Prof. Scott began to see a Plimimer 6f hope. He invented a machine to correct the "bad-eye habit" of slow readers. Prof. Scott's machine exposes a section of printed line as it would be seen by a good reader, covers it up, and exposes the next section at ATHLETICS and OES the athletic giri make a healthy D mother? For some time this question has been" debated by doctors of the leading nations, but ft ehme up in an acute form when the plonéers of agitation against athletics for girls held a conference in London the other day and condemned games as tending te be injurious to the next generation To such dimensions is the campaign against femining athletics growing, that it is considered likely colleges Will shortly revise their games and that the present craze for violent exe; among all classes of British girls will be struck a fatal blow, The chief blow to the "muscle girls," a¥ they are in London, was ¢enlt by Miss Cowdry, .a 0 principal who has had experience of ' girly for three generations. She sy oil "The to hockey, cricket, f 3 oo ers in after life. Sometimes the sufférs and sometimes the mother, and some-. times one of them dies. The Victorian girl was better physically than the modern girl, A great wany girls brought up on present methods of physical training sre bad tempered and soured in later life," : : . Equally sweeping in her criticisms was Miss Radmar, fs of a London institution for the physical development of girls. "The typical athletic girl of today," she said, "with her wide hips and over-developed chest, is not elegant or fine. She is a degenerate. Big wnuscles are out of place in a girl She should be educated to do the soft and gentle things of life." Medical support was given by 'Dr. Arabella . Kenealy, a celebrated English doctor, who says: "Athletic woken produce female offspring main- iy. Seldom do they have sons and these are apt to be puny and delicate." ; On the other hand, there is an Influential boy of medical opinion in favor of athletics for girls. Dr. Mary Scharlieb, the famous woman surgeon, gays: "Much of this criticism is nonsense. Ath- ietics are exceilent for girls, provided care is taken over them," "Thess criticisms are merely part of a plan to women back to their old-fashioned at- nosphere," coniments Dr. Jane Walker. "Ath- sities are exceedingly good for girls." The lie bout puny children was nailed to the counter cars ago. Investigations were made concerning he families of athletic women who had been to txford or Cambridge. It was proved that they nad had beautiful, healthy children--and plenty 'of them. The trouble is that some fimid mothers are beginning to be fussy about their girls, and there is danger of healthy exercise' being inter: fered with." Or 'Sloan Chesser, another well-known wom- said thers was a tendency to over gel > on emphasize the values of athletics for both sexes. "Boys and girls can play pretty much the same games until the age of 14 or 15," she said. "Girls seem to be as good as boys until then, but after that age the boys become relatively stronger, and other types of exercise appear to, be better for girls. Dancing is a much better' form of exer- cise for girls than Swedish drill, and I am also in favor of eurythmics." The view of big business concerns employing huge numbers of girls (most of whom in England provide their personnel with grounds for games) is expressed as follows by a member of one com- pany: "The most efficient members of our staff are those who indulge in games. We have never found that the health of the business girl suffers from tennis, hockey or football." It is pointed'out that there exists a class of woman school teacher who wants girls' schools run on the lines of boys' schools; especially in the playing field. Sex jealousy is held to be at the root of the mischief. The muscular develop- ment produced in girls hy violent exercise may be undesirable, but more than any question of aesthetics is the risk of nervous strain and physi- cal exhaustion, and the probability that the child- bearing capacity of the woman of the future will be dangerously curtailed. i Finger- Nail Music sng the Finger-Nail as a Phonograph. Needle. start'it revolving, then, instead of using the needle, rest your finger-nail with gentle pressure on the disk, as shown in the illustration, and you will hear the piece reproduced, but not very loud, says the Illustrated World. A corner of a card will produce Pa a record on the talking machine and Exposes a Bection of Printed Line, sovers It Up, and Then Exposes the Next Section. If the Pupil Reads Slowly, the Machine Is Geared Up to a Higher Rate of Speed, Literally "Jolting' His Eyes Along. whatever rate may be found comfortable for the pupil. If, howeyer; the pupil reads slowly, the maching can he'geared up gradually, almost im- perceptibly:™6 a higher rate. The machine has proved that the shutting off of an exposed-section of a line, the exposure of the .next section, and so on, does not interfere with the creation in the reader's mind of an im- pression of what he has seen. The impressions "overlap," and the full im. port of the text is grasped easily. Now, if the reader had heen left to struggle along in his own way under the handicaps of a mechanical defect in eye movement, 'what would have heppened? Undoubtedly he would have hesitated and lingered on this one line, and di: vided it into four or fivé or possibly six sections. But the abrupt shutting off of the first section of the line compelled him to shift his eyes to the next. Literally, his eyes were "jolted" along when his own inclination was to go slowly, Gradually the eyes become accustomed to | being forced to jump ahead, and they jump of themselves. The reader becomes oblivious to the motion of the shutter, and at the ehd of six weeks is able to read without it at about the same rate ag with it, ; | with sunshine." - |. di OCTORS and psychologists arc witnesses to D the fact that many housewives have be- come dangerously deprossed- and melan- choly while living in a dark apartment, this mel- ancholy and: depression bordering on and produe- ing definite physical allments. Take this same woman and transplant her to a sunshiny kitchen, a light Bedroom and living room and her physical as well as mental health quickly changes. any authenticated cases can be cited to prove this statement. One might at first say that the woman be- edthes depressed because of Rousework--that she doesn't like it, and wants to live in a hotel anc play away her time. This is not true. She may need a rest for a time, but it is not her dislike of housework that, as a rule, makes her ill, yet she doesy't realize this. There are two factors which a writer in The Mustrated World points out as being prominent mainly in causing the blues and physical as well as mental depression. First, the physician gives the pathological cause of dark rooms and dark colors on the walls a% an explanation, The sun cannot get in its bactericidal work on dark rooms The woman becomes a victim of an excess of defl- nite germs in the air. If she does not succumb to pneumonia, she suffers with vague sore throats, a general lassitude, and weariness. With this las- situde comes a'hieavy dose of the blues. With the blues comes a general distaste for life, a distaste which makes her think for the time being that it is housework which is the basis of her trouble She falls a prey to self-pity. and. despair, "Give the woman a rest," says the physician: "and then a bright apartment or house floode This sounds like excellent ad. vice--much better; one would think, than mers Pink Kitchen to Banish the Housewife's Blues tonics. The psychologist, however, adds something else. 'While he realizes that the sunshine is es- sential he claims that a still quicker and better. cure can be obtained by the study of the colors of the rooms in the apartment after the sunshine has been admitted. The mere suggestion to select her own colors will cheer up any woman. For her rest and relaxation in her living room give her the neutral shades of blue, gray and tan with an occasional. brightening spot such as a yellow vase, a rose shaded lamp, Take away the brilliant or dull reds and browns unleas they can be neutralized by softer colors of tan or gray. Her bedroom Is distinctly a matter of her yersonal chdice,.for unless she spends much time in this room it will not affect her habitual mental thought, as will the rooms in which she spends the greater part of her waking hours." This is ane of the perversities of modern home decoration, But the kitchen is a different matter. Real estate agents and paper hangers nave too long had the say of what color shall be pat on the walls of this room where the housekeeper spends so much of her time and uses so much of her out- put of energy. Grays, greens and r shades of blue seem to be the favorite colors for decorat. ing the kitchen. And grays and greens are not the happiest of colors in their effect on the house wife, declares the psychologist. The quieting ef- foet of gray and blue is all right in the living room, but in the kitchen the ideal is to secure a stimulating color: Pink is the one chosen for jts happiest effect on the worker when she enters this room on a dark winter morning to prepare breakfast and to do the necessary cooking for the day. It will dispel the feeling of dreariness. The kitchen, therefore, trimmed in pink, is the latest recommendation for cheerfuiness. Catching PIDERS spin their webs with the object of catching flies and other delectable insets. If a spider could speak, he would doubtless tell you that it is a long, tedious job, but worth while in the end. Imagine the feelings of the spider of New Guinea when he returns to his web and finds it gene--stolen by cannibals! Mr. Spider hears a splashing in the brook near by. He goes down, and there he sees a woally- headed man-eater catching fish with the web he had so carefully spun but a few hours before. In New Guinea, explorers report, spiders an an large as hazel-nuts, and they have great hairy dark-brown legs about two inches long. The webs they spin are often six feet in diameter and are very strong. The natives soon found this out, and they set up long bamboo sticks, looped at the end, in places where the webs were thickest When the natives returned next day, their flah. Ter Difference in SERUM and VACCINE HE difference between a vaccine and a serum--terms -that are frequently confused --1s simply explained in Holland's Pharma- cy Handbook, quoted as an authority by the Medi- cal Record, as follows: "A serum is 8 product obtained by injecting into an animal, usually the horse, a culture (e.g diphtheria) or the toxin from a culture (e.g. streptococcus) of the organism, Serums may be eubdivided into---(a) Anti-toxic serums, such as diphtheria and tetanus, which are obtained by in. leeting filtered cultures into the animal used to provide the serum; (b) Anti-bacterial serums, such as anti-streptococcus and anti-gonoeocecus, in the preparation of which unfiltered cultures are used. Serums are usually injected in the fiank or between the shoulder blades, the skin having previously been cleaned and the syringe carefully sterilized. Cases are on record where they have beén given intravenotsly with normal saline 80- lution. Ree "A vaccine is a finely divided suspension of killed cultures of a micro-organism which is in- jected directly into the human subject. The ob- ject is to stimulate the individual to elaborate his own antibodies, which results in increased re sistance to the ravages of bacterial In fection. Vaccines are of two kinds: (a) Auto genous--~prepared from the organism isolated from. pathological material taken from the pa- «tient; (b) Stock prepared from virulent cultures of the organism, isolated from other casos ov similar bacterial origin. Vaccines aro admin. istered by subcutaneous injection by means of an all-glass hypodermic syringe. The site of injec. tion may be the flank, thigh, shoulder or hack. The skin is first sterilized by a pledget of eotton wool, saturated with a suitable antiseptic. Briefly, the difference is that with a serum the vpposieg influence to the toxins is produced out- side the human body, while with the vaccine it is produced inside, and the degree of immunity con. ferred is greater with the latter than the former. It should also be noted that the dese of a serum is much higher, from the standpoint of the amount of fluid injected, than in the case of a vaccine. 'With the former the dose usually ranges from 10 c.c. to 50 c.c., while with the latter it is as a rule, not more than 1 c.c." NE of the most interesting discoveries, re- *sulting from the laboratory study of ha- man beings by psychologists, is the almost incredible rapidity with which a child acquires a vocabulary. Scientific investigators have found that the average child from 4 to 5 years of age employs about 1700 words, and, *if proper names are included, the number is more than 2000. The foundation of the intricate language habits of the adult is to be found in the cries of the infant. One investigator has recorded the following sounds during the first-80- days of a child's life: i'M' in conjunction with 'a' as 'ma' (at), 'n'"as 'nga' (nat, 'g' as 'gah,' 'h' as in ha' (at), r' as in burr, very slight sound, and 'y' as in 'yah' (at). Vowel sounds are '0' as in 'owl,' '¢' as in 'fell," '00' as in 'pool,' 'a' as in 'and' and 'a' as in 'father' (relatively rare)." : The first words learned have no more signifi- cance to an infant than those that a parrot utters hve to it.- Hearing a child make some instinctive sound remotely resembling a word, its parents, 'HOW a CHILD LEARNS to TALK. from 250 to 300 words, and some of the children tested had a command of up to 400 words: At the * end of the third year children have a vocabulary of about 800 words. By the time they are 4 or 4% years old they actually employ about 2000 words. After this age the extent of a child% vo- cabulary becomes more and more dependent on its environment. An interesting factor in the language habits of children is their universal tendency to talk al- 'most continuously. The talking child is, in reali- ty, thinking. It is only after social training has exerted itself that the child abandons "auditory thinking" for "silent thinking." This conception of thought, while not thoroughly established, has at pregent the weight of scientific observation in . its favor. Some adults have never got over the habit of talking or moving their lips while read- ing or thinking. . . Differences 'in the voice of every Individual may be observed from birth. A mothes can dis- tinguish her infant's cry even in a large nursery. FISH with SPIDER'S WEB ing-nets were ready for them --several unsus- Pecting spiders having spun their webs on the bamboo loops, You can hardly blame anyone who demands somewhat more than the unsupported word of a traveler before he believes that a fish-net can be made from a spider-web; yet when a considerable number of independent observers assert that they have seen such nets in common dr others testify to the existence of tropical s of suf 3 a The Natives of New Guinea Set Up Long Bamboo Sticks, Looped at the "¥nd, .and Unsuspecting Spiders Make Fish-Nets by Spinning Their Webs | on the Bamboo Loops ficient strength "to make nets, skepticism muse give way. So at least think Prof, W. Gudger of the State Normal College, Greensboro, N. C., who describes in The Zo-ological Bociety Bulletin, what he calls "the most remarkahla fishing.riet known." "Louis Becke, author of man, interesting books on the life and customs of the South Sea Islanders, says that many years ago he was dis-| cussing the customs, habits and manner of life of the inhabitants of western Polynesia with Dr. J. 8. Kubary, a German naturalist and traveler of high standing. They were at the time travers. ing a path through the mountains of Ponape, ont! of the islands 'of the Caroline Archipelago. lying| northwest of New Guinea. ; \ "It was eatly in the morning, and spiders: webs wih the dew on them were found every where. They were very large, zo much so that occasicnally one of them would obstruct the path of the travelers, and would bave to besbroker through with a stick." ever anxious to have it speak as soon as P hy reiterate that word many times. In this way words like "ma" and "pa" are acquired." Words having a definite association with ob- jects or actions are learned much later, The pro- cess is believed to be as follows: A child desires some object beyond its reach, as, for igstance, a rattle, becomes restless and cries; its mother, en- deavoring to find out the cause of her child's dis- comfort, hands it the rattle, saying, "Baby want a rattje? Here is tootsie-wootsie's rattle." Ie. ceiving it the child stops erying. The same process is repeated many times and gradually the child begins to understand that by saying "rattle" it can "get that particular object much quicker than otherwise. This, to be sure, is only a rough description of langudge acquisition. At thie end of the first year the average child has a vocabulary of about eight 'or nine words. > During the second year there is an increase to NC HE cgestion is often raised by the manu- | factulyrs, and by consumers as well, as to whether or not potatoes which had been peeled had lost their valuable mineral constitu- ents, especially in the treatment necessary to pre- pare them for milling. It has been found, how- ever, by Mr. 0. E. Mangels, of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Uhited States Department of Agrictlture, who reports his investigations in the * Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, that there is no appreciable loss through peeling. He finds that the decrease of potash is almost negligible and since the proportion of the ingredi- ents of the flour are does not re- gard the paring as a worth consideration. "The 'hot drum' process," Mr. Mangels adds, A ------g. > 'How POTATOES Are Made Into FLOUR "is now commonly used by the different compa nles engaged in the manufacture of potato flous The potatoes are washed and unsound potatoed sorted out and discarded. The peel is partially removed by friction paring machines, and the potatoes placed in a steam retort cooker wheres they 'are subjected to cooking by steam at 15 pounds pressure for 15 to 20 minutes. The soft cooked potatoes then pass to hot steam-heated! revolving drums over the surface of which they are spread in'a very thin layer, and are thus quickly dried. The dried potato film is removed from the drum as ft revoives by stripper knives, and the dry flakes are reduced to flour, after which the four 's bolted and the tailings dis.