558 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



THE VAPOR-BATH IN HYDROPHOBIA. 



According to Dr. Buisson, of Lyons, an almost certain cure 

 for the bite of a mad dog consists in subjecting the patient 

 daily to the influence of a vapor-bath, heated to 134 to 144 

 Fah r., for seven successive days, for the purpose of throwing 

 him into a profuse perspiration, and thus eliminating the poi- 

 son through the skin. When the disease has actually declared 

 itself, it will be sufficient to take one vaj^or-bath, in which 

 the temperature is made to rise rapidly to 98 Fahr., and 

 then slowly to 127, the patient keeping his room until the 

 case is complete. A few hot bricks placed in a pail of water 

 over which the patient sits on a cane-bottomed chair, a large 

 blanket covering him in. from his shoulders down to the floor, 

 can be easily improvised, and is said to answer the purpose 

 of a vapor-bath admirably. This remedy is the result of the 

 personal experience of Dr. Buisson, he having been subjected 

 to the attack of a rabid dog, and affected with all the symp- 

 toms of hydrophobia. Having a theory in regard to the ef- 

 ficiency of vapor-baths in such cases, he tried the experiment, 

 and found that when the temperature reached 125 Fahr. the 

 symptoms disappeared as if by magic. Since then he has 

 treated more than eighty persons bitten by mad animals, and, 

 according to his account, has not lost a single case. 18 A, 



May 1, 1874, 1C 5. 



REMOVAL OF CARBONIC ACID FROM WELLS AND CELLARS. 



Recently ignited charcoal absorbs about thirty-five times 

 its volume of carbonic acid in twenty-four hours. A pan of 

 glowing charcoal, therefore, lowered into a well or cellar con- 

 taining carbonic acid, soon ceases to glow, and begins imme- 

 diately to absorb the gas. By testing the air, from time to 

 time, by lowering a lighted taper into it, and renewing the 

 coal from hour to hour as long as necessary, all the carbonic 

 acid may be rapidly removed. 34 (7, 1874, xn., 53. 



CARBOLATE OF AMMONIA FOR MALIGNANT PUSTULES. 



Dr. Declat, who attaches great importance to carbolic acid 

 in one combination or another as a remedy, has lately urged 

 with much earnestness the virtues of carbolate of ammonia in 

 treatment of malignant pustule or charbon. This substance 



