508 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ture in such persons, when the external con- 

 ditions favor the withdrawal of the bodily 

 heat. Alcohol produces a dilatation of the 

 peripheral vessels, whereby more blood en- 

 ters the skin and contributes to raise its 

 temperature. If the body be well clothed 

 and protected from external influences likely 

 to abstract heat, the reduction of its warmth 

 is inconsiderable ; but if exposed to cold 

 and placed under circumstances favorable 

 to the abstraction of heat, there is a rapid 

 loss of warmth from the blood circulating 

 in the skin. The lowest temperature met 

 with by Reincke lower than in any re- 

 corded instance in which the individual 

 survived was the case of a man thirty-four 

 years old, picked up in the street about 

 midnight in February, when the tempera- 

 ture of the air was 30 Fahr. He was in a 

 state of complete alcoholic coma, respond- 

 ing to no stimulant. At 8 a. m. his tem- 

 perature, in redo, was only >15, but at 12 

 m. it reached nearly 82. At this period 

 reaction began to show itself, and he could 

 mutter a few words. From this point the 

 heat of the body gradually increased and 

 had reached the normal point the following 

 morning. 



Houses for the Industrious Poor. The 



problem of cheap and commodious housing 

 for the worthy poor continues to occupy 

 the attention of philanthropists. We have 

 already made mention in these columns of 

 the bequest made by the late George Pea- 

 body for the erection of improved tene- 

 ment-houses for the industrious poor of Lon- 

 don. The trustees of the Peabody fund 

 have recently completed twelve of these 

 buildings, capable of accommodating 1,000 

 persons. In each building there are twenty- 

 two tenements, consisting of one, two, or 

 three rooms, with a separate entrance for 

 each. The rooms are of good size, those of 

 the three-roomed tenements being as fol- 

 lows : Kitchen, fifteen by twelve feet, a bed- 

 room, sixteen by fourteen feet, second bed- 

 room, sixteen by twelve feet, the rent being 

 5s. 9d. per week. The rent of a two-roomed 

 tenement is 4s. 6d., and for one room 3s. 

 There are several cupboards and a meat-safe 

 inside, and a coal-bin in the passage outside. 

 On each flat is a laundry with every con- 

 venience ; this is used by the tenants in 



turn. There is also a bath. The rules to 

 be observed by the tenants are but few in 

 number, and intended merely to secure 

 cleanliness and good order. No one is al- 

 lowed to occupy these buildings who earns 

 more than thirty shillings per week. 



Present Condition of the Suez Canal. 



M. de Lesseps, on his return to Paris, after 

 a five months' visit to Suez, communicated 

 to the Academie des Sciences the details 

 of his observations upon the present state 

 of the isthmian canal. Port Said he found 

 to be in no danger at all of being filled up 

 with sand. The dredging-machinc suffices 

 to keep the channel clear. Moreover, it 

 does not fill up so rapidly as has been sup- 

 posed, for the work done last year still 

 remains, and two very large ships have 

 recently navigated the canal without diffi- 

 culty one of them drawing over twenty 

 feet of water. In winter the current of 

 the canal sets in toward the Mediterranean, 

 owing to the excess of water in the Bitter 

 Lakes ; in summer the current is in the op- 

 posite direction. Since the construction of 

 the canal there are frequent showers on the 

 Red Sea, whereas, previously, rain was un- 

 known there a very extraordinary thing 

 indeed, if it can be shown to be a fact. 

 This rainfall, says M. de Lesseps, has start- 

 ed vegetation even on the Asiatic shore of 

 the Red Sea, where the infiltration is only 

 of salt-water. 



Prehistoric Relies at the Centennial Ex- 

 position. Mr. Ernest Ingeisoll, natural his- 

 tory editor of Forest and Stream, has com- 

 menced in that journal a series of letters on 

 the Philadelphia Exhibition. In his first let- 

 ter he describes the collections of American 

 prehistoric relics exhibited by the Smithso- 

 nian Institution and by various States, es- 

 pecially Ohio. For the purposes of general 

 illustration, the Smithsonian collection he 

 pronounces the best ; but the State collec- 

 tions possess greater interest for the ar- 

 chaeologist, as embracing many unique ob- 

 jects, only casts of some of which are to be 

 found in the Smithsonian display. In the 

 Ohio collection, the first object which at- 

 tracts attention is an immense axe of green- 

 stone, sixteen and a half inches long. The 

 arrow-heads and spear-points chiefly of 



