N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 649 



ic organisms in the poisoned blood noticed by Davaine, as 

 he only met with small, colorless protoplasmic bodies, which 

 could hardly be considered as organisms. He, however, 

 thinks that the increase of intensity in the poison, by trans- 

 mission, favors the view of its being a living contagium, as 

 he was unable to conceive that a material could propagate 

 so rapidly unless organized. At the same time he found that 

 boiling does not destroy the poisonous quality of the fluid. 

 20^,e/imel4, 1873, 628. 



CHLORIDE OF LIME AS A DISINFECTANT. 



Eckstein, a technical chemist of Vienna, after comparative 

 tests with the other disinfecting agents, recommends chloride 

 of lime as decidedly the best for water-closets, cesspools, etc., 

 and attributes its efficacy to its rapid action in decomposing 

 liydrogen compounds, such as ammonia, sulphureted hydro- 

 gen, etc. He regards as the chief objection to its general use 

 its unpleasant eifect on the organs of respiration, and states 

 that this can be remedied, and its action regulated, by envel- 

 oping it in a bag of parchment paper, which acts osmotically, 

 and is decomposed slowly by it. 28 C\ March, 1873, 184. 



ON THE KELATION OF THE WINDS AND HEALTH. 



Dr. Prestel, of Emden, who for over tliirty years has ob- 

 served and discussed meteorological phenomena, has lately 

 collated the results of his own observations with the sanitary 

 statistics of Friesland. He maintains 1. That it is possible 

 to discover the original cause of diseases that are dependent 

 upon climate and the weather, by a proper study of the winds 

 as observed at that place. 2. That, the climatic character of 

 any region is exactly represented by the nature of the winds. 

 3. That from the nature of the winds at various places w^e 

 can determine with much safety their relative salubrity. The 

 winds and the character of the weather are identical with 

 each other for any given month. The sickness, however, de- 

 pends rather upon the climate of the preceding month, evi- 

 dently because in it began the sickness which appears record- 

 ed, perhaps, in the statistical tables of the succeeding weeks 

 or month. The ventilation produced by the winds gives a gen- 

 eral measure of the salubrity of various regions on the earth's 

 surface, and, therefore, a measure of the sanitary value of 



Ee 



