POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



709 



danger M. Gautier advises avoidance of 

 everything that can raise a dust of leaden 

 compounds, of all unnecessary direct contact 

 with lead and its preparations, scrupulous 

 care for the cleanliness of person, clothing, 

 tools, face, and mouth, and observance of 

 general hygienic rules and temperance. 



Disadvantages and Advantages of Bac- 

 teria. In a paper on " Bacteria in Healthy 

 Individuals," Surgeon George M. Sternberg, 

 of the United States Army, considers the 

 question, which many have been ready to 

 ask, If bacteria are such terrible things, 

 how is it possible that we can exist upon 

 the earth, surrounded and infested as we 

 are by them ? " Certainly," says Surgeon 

 Sternberg, "there would be an end to all 

 animal life, or rather there would never 

 have been a beginning, if living animals had 

 no greater resisting power to the attacks of 

 these parasites, which by numbers and rapid 

 development make up for their minute size, 

 than has dead animal matter." The obvi- 

 ous answer to the question, that living ani- 

 mals have the required superior resisting 

 power, is supported by Pasteur's researches, 

 which show that it depends very much upon 

 certain well-defined circumstances whether 

 the same bacterium is a harmless parasite 

 and commensal of man and animals, or an 

 active agent promoting disease and decay. 

 " Nature," says Dr. Sternberg, " has placed 

 in the living tissues of animals a resisting 

 power against the encroachments of bacte- 

 rial organisms invading and surrounding 

 them, which is sufficient for ordinary emer- 

 gencies. But when the vital resistance of 

 the tissues is reduced, on the one hand, by 

 wasting sickness, profuse discharges, etc., 

 or, on the other hand, the vital activity of 

 the invading parasitic organism is increased, 

 the balance of power rests with the infini- 

 tesimal but potent micrococcus. . . . Exper- 

 iment has demonstrated that, by some un- 

 known mechanism, the ordinary bacteria 

 of putrefaction, and, under certain circum- 

 stances, even pathogenic organisms, may be 

 introduced directly into the circulation with- 

 out the production of evil consequences, and 

 that after a short interval microscopical ex- 

 amination does not reveal their presence in 

 the blood." There is compensation for the 

 damage wrought by bacteria, which is de- 



scribed by Dr. Sternberg with some exaggera- 

 tion, and hardly sufficient consideration of 

 the power of the normal chemical forces of 

 nature, in these words : " On the other hand, 

 but for the power of these little giants to 

 pull to pieces dead animal matter, we should 

 have dead bodies piled up on all sides of 

 us in as perfect a state of preservation as 

 canned lobster or pickled tongue, and there 

 being no return to the soil of the materials 

 composing these bodies, our sequoias and 

 oaks would dwindle to lichens and mosses, 

 and finally all vegetation would disappear, 

 and the surface of the earth would be a bar- 

 ren and desolate wilderness, covered only 

 with the inanimate forms of successive gen- 

 erations of plants and animals." 



Variable Stars. Professor A. Ritter at- 

 j tempts, in his recent work on the " Appli- 

 ' cation of the Mechanical Theory of Heat 

 to Cosmological Problems," to explain the 

 1 origin and nature of variable stars by sup- 

 posing that, stable as they appear to our 

 i limited vision, the planetary systems are 

 . subject to ceaseless recurring changes, in 

 the course of which they go through all the 

 phases of cosmical evolution. The speed 

 I of the revolutions of the several members 

 of the systems being constantly retarded by 

 the resistance of the ether, they eventually 

 yield to the attraction of the central body 

 and fall into it. The concussion generates 

 heat enough to resolve the whole mass into 

 a vapor or gas which diffuses itself through 

 space till its surplus heat is so dissipated 

 that the attractive force is able to overcome 

 its power of expansion, when the vapors 

 begin to contract, and consequently to de- 

 velop heat anew. The internal heat of the 

 contracting body at last becomes strong 

 enough to overcome the force of gravita- 

 tion, and a new expansion begins. The 

 gaseous sphere is thus subjected to a move- 

 ment of rhythmical pulsation, the tempera- 

 ture increasing with the contractions and 

 diminishing with the expansions, and will 

 appear from a distance, if the variations in 

 temperature reach a certain degree, alter- 

 nately bright and dark, or as a variable 

 star. The duration of the pulsations will 

 vary according to the size of the body, and 

 the period will bear a certain relation to its 

 density ; so that we may deduce one of the 



