POPULAR MISCELLANY 



S7-i 



eddies or give the wind an upward direction. 

 To be subject to transportation by the atmos- 

 phere, rocli materials must be finely commi- 

 nuted ; and the author has ascertained by ex- 

 j'erimeut that the average largest diameter of 

 quartz particles that can be sustained in the 

 air by ordinary strong winds is about one 

 tenth of a millimetre. But the capacity of 

 the air for transporting particles below this 

 size is very great, and is estimated to be per 

 cubic foot at an average velocity of five 

 miles an hour, one thousandth that of water. 

 The whole atmosphere over the Mississippi 

 Valley, if the wind blows ten times as fast as 

 the river runs, may transport one thous.and 

 times as much dust. Atmospheric currents 

 being loaded, for the most part, only to the 

 extent of an insignificant fraction of their 

 capacity, their sediments will be better sorted 

 the fine material will be more completely 

 separated from the coarse than deposits 

 from water currents, which are more often 

 loaded to their full capacity. That deposi- 

 tion of dust will take place where wind is 

 caused to slacken its speed is self-evident, 

 and is observed every day in the accumula- 

 tion of dust on the windward side of a closely 

 built-up street. 



Boarding; Schools and Infection, The 



Agency of Boarding Schools in Disseminating 

 Infectious Diseases was the subject of a paper 

 by Dr. Clement Dukes at the Congress of the 

 British Institute of Public Health. The au- 

 thor charges boarding schools with not hav. 

 ing exercised sufiicient care in the protection 

 of society against sanitary detriment from in- 

 fluences they might control. The conditions 

 of boarding schools, with their regular vaca- 

 tions and occasional leaves of absences, are 

 such that there is almost a perpetual to-and- 

 fro communication between them and the 

 home. Then, when pupils become ill they 

 are sent home, if practicable ; and when gen- 

 eral illness breaks out in the school, those 

 who have as yet shown no symptoms of it, or 

 only the beginnings of them, are sent home 

 These pupils, possibly bearing the seeds of 

 infection, travel in the public conveyances in 

 contact with unsuspecting passengers, or to 

 be followed by such, to whom disease may be 

 communicated. The spread of infectious dis. 

 eases by boarding schools is admitted to be, 

 unfortunately, to a certain extent, necessary 



by virtue of the existing system and the sus- 

 ceptibility of the pupils. Beyond this, such 

 diseases are often disseminated ignorantly 

 and thoughtlessly by the operation of motives 

 in which such result is not contemplated, or 

 wantonly. As remedies for the evil the au- 

 thor suggests bills of health to be given by 

 parents on sending their children to school 

 and by teachers on sending pupils home ; and 

 that schools should make adequate provision 

 for the treatment of illness of their pupils 

 and for the retention of all patients till they 

 are absolutely free from infection. 



Blistaken DiaiO^noses. Common Diseases 

 Mistaken or Mistreated is the subject of an 

 address recently delivered before a medical 

 society by Dr. J. F. Goodhart, of Guy's Hos- 

 pital. It concerns the diagnosis and treat- 

 ment in every-day practice of cases which 

 practitioners must see regularly, which are 

 yet frequently mistaken and mistreated. In- 

 fantile scurvy, for instance, is a very common 

 complaint, but is often not recognized, and 

 allowed to pass as rickets or rheumatism, or 

 injury, or temper. Another disease which, 

 although very common, varies much in se- 

 verity and in the mode in which the pain 

 manifests itself, is angina pectoris. It is 

 often mistaken for indigestion, neuralgia, 

 rheumatism, flatulence, etc., and fatal results 

 have often followed from the wrong treat- 

 ment having been adopted. Other instances 

 of error occur in the confusion of the passage 

 of urates with that of uric acid, in the adoption 

 of a rigid form of dieting to get uric acid out 

 of the system, when it is the individual that 

 should be treated, and his malady, individual- 

 ized in him, through him ; and in the treat- 

 ment of renal colic and chlorosis. The author 

 emphasizes the fact that many of the meth- 

 ods and aims of medicine are faulty by reason 

 of the ready assumption that their bases are 

 unassailable ; that men are constantly driven 

 back upon their o^vn experience, and com- 

 pelled not to accept it but to question it. 



Tests for Old Plnmbins:. The tests usu- 

 ally applied in inspecting old plumbing work, 

 as named by William Paul Gebhard, are the 

 peppermint test, the smoke test, and some- 

 times an air-pressure test. The water test is 

 not practically applicable to plumbing work 

 in actual use, because it necessitates the dis- 



