HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



127 



tion is not that of a complete preventive of disease, 

 but rather an alteration of its character, a conversion 

 from a malignant horror to a mere outbreak of 

 pimples. Instead of being the most fatal and the 

 most filthy of all diseases, the small-pox, as it 

 appears in vaccinated patients, has become so mild 

 that there are fanatics who actually describe it as a 

 beneficent purifier of the blood. I have heard a lady 

 who is an eminent agitator and a healing medium, 

 but otherwise fairly intelligent, describe a case of 

 chronic life-long suffering as cured by a "refreshing 

 outpour of small-pox." On the other hand, I have 

 witnessed the horrors of malignant small-pox, a whole 

 family — father, mother, and unvaccinated children — 

 all in one room, and all in a condition of superficial 

 putrescence, a sight and stench too horrible for de- 

 scription. This is what Jenner and his contemporaries 

 familiarly beheld, but which the lady above-named 

 and those who are similarly infatuated have not yet 

 seen, but will see presently in Leicester if the agita- 

 tion makes much further progress. 



Pasteur's prophylactic for the cattle plague and 

 rabies appears to act chiefly in effecting an " attenua- 

 tion " of the disease by means of attenuated virus. 

 The demonstration of the efficacy of his attenuation 

 of hydrophobia is difficult on account of the rarity of 

 the disease and the necessary limitation of experi- 

 mental proof, but when cattle plague settles in a 

 district and threatens an extermination like that 

 which occurred in the Cheshire cheese country twenty 

 years ago, nothing is easier than to vaccinate one half 

 of a given number of cattle, and expose them and the 

 other half to the same conditions of infection, and 

 watch the result. This has been done in India. 



In last month's "Journal of the Chemical Society " 

 is printed a paper read at the Society (with the usual 

 omission of the date of reading) by Dr. Peter Griess 

 and Dr. G. H. Harrow, on " The Presence of Choline 

 in Hops." This substance is otherwise named sin- 

 caline, neurine, and amanitine. It is called neurine 

 because it is found in the brain. This name and its 

 existence there have promoted fanciful theories con- 

 cerning its influence, similar to those popularly enter- 

 tained concerning the mysterious or quasi-spiritual 

 potency of phosphorus as an element of brain- 

 matter. 



The writers of this paper find this neurine in hops 

 and beer, and conclude their paper as follows : — 

 "Whether the circumstance that choline is present 

 in beer lias any physiological significance, is a 

 question which we are not in a position to 

 decide ; it is, however, interesting that this never- 

 failing and peculiar constituent of the brain-sub- 

 stance should also be present in one of our most 

 important articles of diet." 



I will not stop to discuss the question whether 

 beer is " an article of diet" I think it better described 

 as a drug, but must protest against the description of 

 this many-named substance, the choline, or neurine, 



or sincaline, or amantinine, as a " peculiar constituent 

 of brain substance." The authors of the paper have 

 misused this word "peculiar." It signifies exclusive- 

 ness, and thus used implies that the substance only 

 exists in the brain ; whereas, as they state in the 

 early part of their paper, it is " a constantly occurring 

 constituent of several parts of the animal body " and 

 " it has also been proved to exist in some plants." 

 Its various names indicate various sources from which 

 it has been derived. Therefore we need not lower 

 the vitality of the mucous membranes of our digestive 

 organs by drinking tonic hop bitters, nor stupefy 

 ourselves with beer, in order to nourish the brain. 

 Cervclli fritti (fried brains) is a standing dish at 

 Italian restaurants. I met a man at the Lepre in 

 Rome who ate that dish there daily in order to 

 strengthen his intellect. The result by no means 

 indicated that even this very direct consumption of 

 neurine was efficacious. 



Another paper read by Mr. H. Brereton Baker at 

 the same society is very interesting and important. 

 As Mr. Baker states, his researches were suggested 

 by some recent experiments of Mr. Harold B. 

 Dixon (Philosophical Transactions, 1884, part 2), 

 showing that a highly explosive mixture of carbonic 

 oxide and oxygen is not explosive when dry. We 

 are so accustomed to regard water as antagonistic to 

 combustion that the mere suggestion that ordinary 

 combustion cannot take place without the help of 

 water appears an extravagant paradox. Neverthe- 

 less this appears to be the case. The experiments of 

 Mr. Dixon and those of Mr. Baker concur, so far as 

 they go, in showing that there can be no fire without 

 water. The difficulty in making these experiments 

 is that of getting rid of the water. " Water, water, 

 everywhere " expresses a great chemical truth. It 

 holds on with desperate tenacity to the air we 

 breathe, and every gas we produce in our labora- 

 tories. I need not here state the particular methods 

 adopted by Mr. Baker to dry the oxygen used 

 in his experiments. They were the best known, 

 and the drying was continued from one to sixteen 

 weeks. 



He subjected purified charcoal and phosphorus to 

 the action of the dried gas, and to ordinary oxygen 

 containing its usual supply of aqueous vapour. 

 These placed in comparison tubes were equally 

 heated. The general result was that in the moist 

 oxygen complete combustion of the carbon and the 

 phosphorus occurred, with brilliant outflash of the 

 latter. In the dried oxygen there was no visible 

 combustion, and examination of the residual gas 

 showed that all the moist oxygen had combined, but 

 only a small and varying proportion of the _ dry 

 oxygen. 



There is fair reason to infer that this small amount 

 of oxidation would not have occurred had the gas 

 been perfectly dry, a condition at present unattain- 

 able. 



