7H 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion of the turtle's shell. In the original 

 codex, as before remarked, this portion is 

 colored blue. In this attitude the flat plas- 

 tron forms the drumhead, so to speak, the 

 carapace acting as a resonator. I am sure 

 that Mr. Saville will agree with me that Mrs. 

 Nuttall's attribution is the correct one. 



Edward S. Morse. 



Rebreathed Air as a Poison. — The fol- 

 lowing extracts are taken from an article by 

 Dr. John Hartley, in the Lancet : " The fresh- 

 air treatment of consumption " appears to be 

 made up of three essential factors : (1) the 

 discontinuance of the supply of bacilli from 

 without ; (2) the supply of an abundance of 

 nutritive material to the tissues; and (3) the 

 supply of an abundance of fresh air uneon- 

 taminated by the products of respiration. 

 This seems to mean that the tissues, if not too 

 enfeebled, may be trusted to deal with the 

 bacilli already present if their metabolism is 

 kept going at high pressure. Fresh air is now 

 the " official " remedy in the treatment of tu- 

 bercle. Why is it so ignored in the case of 

 other diseases ? Has the pneumonic or bron- 

 chitic no need of special ventilation because 

 his microbe is of a different breed ? The air 

 was intended not only for phthisical patients 

 or patients suffering from pneumonia but for 

 all — diseased and healthy alike — and it is 

 still the natural medium in which the poi- 

 sonous products of tissue metabolism ex- 

 creted by the lungs are further broken down 

 and rendered harmless. Dr. A. Ransome 

 has done great service not only by his on- 

 slaught on " air sewage " but also by his 

 coinage of the term ; for a thoroughly good 

 opprobrious epithet resembles a good wall- 

 poster in its power of arresting and enchain- 

 ing the attention of the many. It was long 

 ago pointed out that certain constituents of 

 expired air are intensely powerful nerve 

 poisons. These considerations should surely 

 make us look on rebreathed air and sewer 

 gas, not as mere carriers of accidental poi- 

 sons, such as influenza and pneumonia and 

 the like, but as poisons per se, and I wish to 

 be allowed to record a few very imperfect 

 observations made by myself during some 

 years past chiefly on the subject of re- 

 breathed air, with certain inferences which I 

 think tend, however feebly and imperfectly, 

 to show that the poisons we expire have per 



se very definite effects on tissue metabolism 

 and need not a mere perfunctory admixture 

 with fresh air but very large and very con- 

 tinuous dilution before they are rendered in- 

 nocuous — that is to say, innocuous to all ; 

 for while some persons appear to be almost 

 immune, others seem intensely susceptible. 

 The first observation I will allude to was 

 made in the autumn of 1896, in cool weather. 

 T had to take a long night journey by rail aft- 

 er a long and hard day's work. The train 

 was full and the compartment I entered was 

 close ; so, as I was tired and fagged, I sat in 

 the corridor by an open window, well rugged 

 up, throughout the journey. The comparts 

 ment was completely shut off from the corri- 

 dor by a glass door and windows, through 

 which I could freely inspect its occupants. 

 Two remarkably fresh-complexioned, whole- 

 some-looking young fellows got into the 

 compartment at York. They formed a re- 

 markable contrast to the pallid and fagged- 

 looking travelers already there. The win- 

 dows and ventilators were carefully closed, 

 and the newcomers, with the rest, settled off 

 to sleep and slept soundly for nearly four 

 hours, with the exception of a few minutes' 

 interval at Grantham. When aroused on 

 nearing London they, like the other occu- 

 pants of the compartment, were haggard and 

 leaden-hued, their fresh color was entirely 

 gone, and they looked and moved as if ex- 

 hausted. I examined my own face in the 

 lavatory mirror at the beginning and end of 

 the journey and could see but little alteration 

 in my color ; if anything, it was rather im- 

 proved by the end of the journey. The sec- 

 ond case occurred early in 1897. I was 

 asked to see a woman, aged about forty-eight 

 years, who had been treated in a neighbor- 

 ing town for many weeks for bronchitis 

 and asthma following influenza. She had 

 relapsed about a week when I first saw her. 

 She was then sitting up in bed ; her face 

 was leaden-colored, her skin was clammy 

 and sweating, with a feeble, quick pulse, and 

 the heart sounds were indi-tinguishable ow- 

 ing to wheezing; there was some crepitation 

 at the bases. The temperature was about 

 101° F. The weather was cold, but after 

 wrapping her up, with a hot bottle to her 

 feet, the window was well opened. Her 

 color improved in a few minutes and the 

 sweating ceased soon after. But it and the 



