BIOLOGY. 273 



substances which will prevent their becoming red-hot, are dan- 

 gerous to the health. 



MM. St. Claire Deville and Troost have shown that the air in 

 contact with the external surface of a cast-iron stove may become 

 charged with a proportion of carbonic oxide equal to .0007 to 

 .0013 of its volume. Experiments on rabbits show that carbonic 

 oxide has the property of expelling a part of the oxygon con- 

 tained in the blood; and that the small amount of .0004 will 

 cause the expulsion of .45 of the oxygen of the blood. Though 

 sheet-iron stoves are less dangerous on this account, they are not 

 so harmless as Dr. Garret supposes, as they are open to the 

 grave objections of the sudden elevation of temperature of their 

 external surface, and of then decomposing the carbonic acid of 

 the air. It has long been admitted as a fact in science, that iron 

 at a red heat decomposes carbonic acid, takes a portion of its 

 oxygen, and transforms it into carbonic oxide. The experiments 

 showed that the amount of carbonic oxide formed was notably 

 less in a moist than in a dry air ; this justifies the common use of 

 vessels filled with water on stoves and furnaces. — Comptes RenduSj 

 May 3, 1869. 



BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 



The public health in large cities is very apt to be endangered 

 by prevailing practices in regard to the disposition of the dead ; 

 and one of the most dangerous, because almost universal and dis- 

 regarded, is the long time which is permitted to elapse between 

 death and burial. This time is made longer than formerly, from the 

 necessity of placing cemeteries at considerable distances from 

 cities, by the facilities offered by railroads for bringing back the 

 dead to their native places, and by the increasing dread of pre- 

 mature interments. It becomes, therefore, important to protect 

 the living from cadaveric emanations, especially in times of epi- 

 demic disease, by various disinfectants and antiseptics, and her- 

 metically sealed receptacles for the dead. In this way many days, 

 sometimes weeks, intervene between the death and the burial. 



The danger of burying the dead in the midst of dense popula- 

 tions has been shown by the sad experience of most of the large 

 cities of Europe. The grave, unless the ground be too limited, is 

 much better than the tomb ; in the former the earth absorbs and neu- 

 tralizes the products of decomposition, while the emanations from 

 the tomb, by their imprisonment, acquire frequently a dangerous 

 intensity ; this is especially true of the old and absurd custom of 

 placing the dead under churches frequented by the living. Anti- 

 septics, therefore, and all contrivances for retarding decomposi- 

 tion, should, unless in a few exceptional cases, be discouraged ; on 

 the contrary, the return of dust to dust, of organic matters to 

 their elements, by the natural agencies of the soil, should be 

 hastened by committing the body to the earth, of such extent and 

 depth as readily to absorb and neutralize all liquid or gaseous 

 products. To avoid all possibility of contamination, the ceme- 

 teries should be as far as possible removed from human habita- 



