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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ways more susceptible to these influences 

 than abstainers " ; and it may be stated as 

 a rule that moderate drinkers suffer more 

 frequently from psychical shocks of every 

 form, and are more likely to become inebri- 

 ates from such causes. 



Tine Poison of Cesspools. M. Bouveret 

 has reported on a remarkable case of poi- 

 soning from a cesspool which took place at 

 Lyons. A workman, twenty-one years old, 

 having fallen into a cesspool, was taken out, 

 after having been in it about five minutes, 

 in a state of convulsions. Inhalations of 

 oxygen were administered for several hours, 

 but the convulsions continued with rise of 

 temperature. Transfusion of blood (defi- 

 brinatcd) was then tried without effect, and 

 death took place about twenty-four hours 

 after the accident. The blood was found, 

 on post-mortem examination, to be black 

 and fluid, the lungs and kidneys were con- 

 gested, and the bronchial mucous membrane 

 showed a bright hyperaemia, but no coagu- 

 lation was observed in the pulmonary artery. 

 The chief toxic agent in the contents of 

 cesspools is supposed to be sulphide of am- 

 monium, a poison which acts on the blood in 

 the same manner as carbonic oxide, deoxi- 

 dizing the red globules and making them 

 unfit to perform their functions. Transfu- 

 sion of blood has been performed with suc- 

 cess in cases of poisoning by carbonic oxide, 

 and its failure in the present case has pro- 

 voked the suggestion that cesspools may 

 contain gaseous poisons far more complex 

 and more virulent than sulphide of ammo- 

 nium, the action of which is more profound 

 and complicated. 



Ancient Maya Records. Dr. Daniel G. 

 Brinton, of Philadelphia, has recently come 

 into possession of a number of facsimile 

 copies of the Books of Chilan Balam, or 

 the local records of the Mayas of Yucatan, 

 and has published an interesting account of 

 their character and contents. The name, 

 " Book of Chilan Balam," was applied to 

 all the works of this character, to Avhatever 

 village they might belong, and the different 

 ones were distinguished by adding the name 

 of the village. Only a few of the original 

 volumes remain, most of them having been 

 destroyed by the priests as heretical and 



mischievous ; but a few were afterward 

 compiled over again by natives from their 

 own knowledge and recollections. Parts 

 or descriptions of sixteen of these works 

 remain, not one of which has ever been 

 printed, or even entirely translated into any 

 European tongue. Their contents consist 

 chiefly of astrological and prophetic mat- 

 ters, ancient chronology and history, medi- 

 cal recipes and directions, and, in the later 

 ones, later history and Christian teachings. 

 One of the most valuable features in these 

 records lies in the hints they furnish of the 

 hieroglyphic system of the Mayas, concern- 

 ing which our only information has hitherto 

 been in the essay of Bishop Landa. Some 

 features of Bishop Landa's notes on this 

 subject have been condemned by Dr. Val- 

 entini, as we have already mentioned, as 

 " fabrications," but Dr. Brinton pronounces 

 Dr. Yalcntini's attack " an amount of skep- 

 ticism which exceeds both justice and prob- 

 ability," and he believes that the result of 

 a comparison with the hieroglyphics of the 

 books of Chilan Balam and of the Codex 

 Troano will refute the doubts and slurs that 

 have been cast on the bishop's work, and 

 " vindicate for it a very high degree of ac- 

 curacy." 



Lessons on the Danger of Narcotics. 



The deceased poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 

 was a victim of chloral, which he took for 

 sleeplessness, with the inevitable result. 

 About 1868, his friend Mr. Watts says, in 

 the " Athenaeum," he was attacked with in- 

 somnia, one of the most distressing effects 

 of which as manifested in him was " a nerv- 

 ous shrinking from personal contact with 

 any save a few intimate friends. This pe- 

 culiar kind of nervousness may be aggra- 

 vated by the use of sleeping draughts, and 

 in his case was thus aggravated. ... No 

 man ever lived who was so generous as he 

 in sympathizing with other men's work, 

 save only when the cruel fumes of chloral 

 turned him against everything." Another 

 conspicuous warning against the use of nar- 

 cotics is given in the case of the death of 

 Dr. Thomas Atkinson Elias, a physician of 

 Southport, England, under circumstances 

 which led the coroner's jury to believe that 

 it was caused by an overdose of morphia. 

 It was shown at the inquest that he was 



