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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time, and the prospect for the continuation 

 of the supply is cheerful. " Look," the au- 

 thor says, " at the burning gas-wells of Baku, 

 where the gas escapes by fissures in the soil, 

 and has been blowing and burning for cent- 

 uries, and all for nothing thus far. There 

 appears to be no diminution in their flow, 

 while from the Chinese historical records it 

 appears that natural gas has been evolving 

 in more than one locality for at least a thou- 

 sand years, and I expect the same here. It 

 comes from regions far below the deepest 

 coal mines, and may continue to flow when 

 some mines are exhausted." 



Geography-teaching in Russia. The 



object of a paper in the British Association, 

 by Dr. H. R. Mill, on Geographical Teach- 

 ing in Russia, was to give an idea of the 

 method of instruction as prescribed by the 

 official syllabus enforced in government and 

 private schools. The books are generally 

 illustrated by black and white maps, and by 

 diagrams of great interest and ingenuity, ex- 

 emplifying statistics in graphic form. It is 

 characteristic of the Russian system to go 

 deeply into statistics. The absence of pict- 

 ures in the instruction books is noticeable, 

 but subjects are treated exhaustively. Great- 

 er attention is paid to ethnography than in 

 the system of any other country, because, 

 probably, of the many races among which 

 the subjects of the Czar are divided. Rus- 

 sians are in the habit of regarding Asia 

 rather than Europe as nearest to them. 



Coffee-drinking. Dr. Mendel, of Ber- 

 lin, has recently published a clinical study 

 on Coffee Inebriety. His observations 

 were made upon the women of the work- 

 ing population of Essen, a town in Prus- 

 sia, Department of Dusscldorf. He found 

 large numbers of women who used over a 

 pound of coffee a week. The leading symp- 

 toms are profound depression, frequent 

 headache, and insomnia. A strong dose of 

 coffee relieves this for a time ; a partial loss 

 of power over the muscles occurs, and an 

 increasing aversion to labor. The heart's 

 action becomes rapid and irregular. Dys- 

 pepsia of an extreme nervous type is pres- 

 ent. Brandy offers only a temporary relief. 

 The face becomes sallow and the hands and 

 feet cold. Acute inflammation is likely to 



occur; an injury to any part of the body is 

 the starting point for inflammation of an 

 erysipelatous character. Melancholy and hys- 

 teria are common symptoms. Many opium 

 and alcoholic cases have an early history of 

 excessive use of coffee. 



The Dangers of the Present Mode of 

 Burial. Human effluvium from the living 

 body, taken into the lungs or stomach, 

 is a weil - recognized cause of disease. 

 That it is not, at the least, equally so 

 from the body dead, especially when it 

 is putrescent, is difficult to believe. The 

 following, taken from Johnson on Trop- 

 ical Climates (American edition, p. 83), is an 

 illustrative case : " An American merchant- 

 ship was lying at anchor in Whampoa Roads, 

 sixteen miles from Canton. One of the crew 

 died from dysentery. He was taken on shore 

 to be buried. No disease of any kind had 

 occurred in the ship during her voyage from 

 America to the river Tigris. Four men ac- 

 companied the corpse, and two men began 

 to dig the grave. Unfortunately, they pitched 

 upon a spot where a human body had been 

 buried two or three months previously (as 

 was afterward ascertained). The instant the 

 spade went through the lid of the coffin a 

 most dreadful effluvium issued forth, and the 

 two men fell down nearly lifeless. It was 

 with the greatest difficulty that their com- 

 panions could approach near enough to drag 

 them from the spot and fill up the place 

 with earth. The two men now recovered a 

 little, and with assistance reached the boat 

 and returned on board." Both died one 

 on the evening of the fourth and the other 

 the morning of the fifth day of a malignant 

 fever, with symptoms resembling plague. 

 The other two men, who were less exposed, 

 were similarly affected, but recovered. That 

 the poisonous emanations inhaled in this case 

 would have been any less dangerous if swal- 

 lowed with the subsoil water in the vicinity 

 can be surmised by those only who believe 

 inhumation of the dead to be without dan- 

 ger to the living. 



An Early Form of Telegraphy. Among 

 the early devices for conveying information 

 to a distance by means of signals the follow- 

 ing is very ingenious. It was used by a 

 Grecian general, ./Eneas, who flourished in 



