M. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 547 



while the earlier experiments were rather unsatisfactory, 

 later experiences have been more favorable. Quite recently 

 the subject has been investigated in Hamburg, where 2500 

 pounds of water were combined with 125 pounds of chloride 

 of calcium and 125 pounds of common salt; and this was 

 distributed carefully in two applications over a surface of 

 1500 square yards, so as to make the entire surface moist. 

 The first result was simply a positive inky smell, unaccompa- 

 nied by the development of any saline crust, such as had 

 been noticed previously. As a question of economy, it was 

 found that the cost of this amount of saline material for one 

 application was at least thirty times as great as one of pure 

 water ; or, in other words, thirty waterings with pure water 

 could be made at the same expense. In reference to the use 

 of ordinary sea-water for streets, it is thought that this is 

 advantageous only where it is cheaper than fresh water, the 

 development of an unpleasant smell being quite marked in 

 most cases. The city of Newport, Rhode Island, is watered 

 by contract with sea-water, and it is said that the odor rising 

 from the streets thus watered is sometimes almost insupport- 

 able. 14 (7, CCL, 86. 



WHEAT Vet'SUS FLOUR. 



In Dr. Moftatt's paper on " Geological Systems and En- 

 demic Disease," before the British Association, after pointing 

 out that anemia, goitre, and phthisis were more prevalent 

 among the inhabitants of the carboniferous districts than 

 among those living on the new red sandstone, he stated that 

 analysis showed that the wheat grown upon the carbonifer- 

 ous system was deficient in phosphates or nutritive salts ; 

 and that a man who consumed a pound of Cheshire wheat 

 per day took in nine grains more of phosphoric acid than one 

 who took a pound of wheat grown upon the carboniferous 

 system. The deficiency also of the nutritive salts in the 

 bread compared with those in the wheat was very remarka- 

 ble, and it was no doubt owing to the removal of the bran 

 from the flour with which the bread was made. Medical 

 men, he said, could not too much impress upon the minds of 

 the public the importance of using flour made from the whole 

 of the wheat, or " whole grain." Professor Church, of Ciren- 

 cester, has lately found*in entire wheat 2.12 per cent, of ni- 



