382 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



insanity, rickets, tubercles, struma, or de- 

 basing constitutional condition of any kind. 



Tehicles of lufection. A number of 

 cases of the transmission of contagious dis- 

 eases by means of clothing, articles of fur- 

 niture, and other objects that had been in 

 contact with persons stricken by such dis- 

 eases, are brought together by a writer in 

 Chambers's Journal, in order to show the 

 great importance of thoroughly disinfecting 

 such vehicles of infection, before making 

 use of them again. The author, Mr, Wil- 

 liam Chambers, in the first place quotes 

 Sir James Simpson's remedy for hospital- 

 infection, namely, building such establish- 

 ments of cast-iron, and casting them anew 

 when contaminated. A servant-girl in 

 Morayshire died of scarlet fever. Her 

 clothing was sent back to her parents, but 

 en route the box lay over for a few days at 

 a railway-station. On reaching its destina- 

 tion, the contents of the box were dispersed 

 among friends and neighbors. The chil- 

 dren of the station-master, who had played 

 around the box, and every recipient of the in- 

 fected clothing, were stricken with the fever. 

 Again, the clothing of a soldier who had 

 died of cholera was sent home to his friends. 

 While the garments were " in the wash," a 

 man was employed on the roof of the cot- 

 tage, repairing the thatch. He inhaled the 

 poisonous fumes of the washing, and died 

 of cholera. Scarlet fever cf a malignant 

 type appeared in a family at Carlisle, and 

 two of the children died. In this case, the 

 carrier of the infection was a retriever-pup, 

 which had been reared in a house where 

 scarlatina was present. It is stated in a 

 pamphlet by Dr. McCall Anderson, of Glas- 

 gow, that a peculiar disease was introduced 

 into a family in that town under the follow- 

 ing circumstances : Some mice, caught in a 

 trap, were seen to have on the head and 

 front legs crusts of a sombre yellow tint, of 

 circular form, and more or less elevated 

 above the level of the neighboring healthy 

 parts. A depression was noticed in the 

 centre of each crust, and the parts where 

 these had fallen off were ulcerated, and the 

 skin appeared to be destroyed througliout 

 the whole thickness. These mice were 

 given to a cat, which soon exhibited, above 

 the eye, a crust similar to those on the 



mice. Later still, two young children of 

 the family who played with the cat were 

 successively affected with the same disease, 

 yellow crusts making their appearance on 

 several parts of the body, on the shoulder, 

 face, and thigh. Other instances are cited 

 by Dr. Anderson, where mice, affected in 

 the same way, had transmitted the disease 

 to the human subject, both indirectly 

 through cats, and directly through the mice 

 themselves having been handled by chil- 

 dren. 



Practif.ll Edacation. A correspondent 

 of the Moniteur Indusiriel Beige communi- 

 cates to that journal a description of a 

 school of practical instruction, situated in 

 one of the suburbs of Paris. The writer 

 exhibits to us a system of education in 

 which the future occupations of the pupils 

 are kept steadily in view, and where every 

 step of progress in study marks an advance 

 in real knowledge. A few instances will 

 best show the method of instruction. Sup- 

 pose a lesson in botany is to be given, and 

 that the special subject is some textile 

 plant. The pupil sees, in the botanic gar- 

 den attached to the school, a few stalks of 

 hemp growing. The botanic characters of 

 the plant are explained to him ; he is told 

 how it grows, and what are the conditions 

 favorable to its growth ; then he is shown 

 how it is treated in order to obtain the 

 fibre, how the latter is spun, woven, etc. 

 In giving instruction on minerals, a like 

 course is followed. For instance, the sub- 

 ject is iron-ore : various kinds of ore are 

 exhibited; the processes are explained, 

 by means of models and designs, of the 

 reduction of iron and its manufacture. So 

 in mechanics : models of machinery are 

 shown and explained ; better still, the pu- 

 pil is taken to the workshops where he sees 

 various kinds of machines in operation. 

 His understanding of things is tested by 

 questions, and by being required to draw 

 the objects he has been looking at, and to 

 explain their working. Topography and 

 geography are taught in the same common- 

 sense way, the pupil being led to map out 

 an ever-widening area. He begins with the 

 plan of the school, then gives its relative 

 position in the commune, in the canton, in 

 the arrondissement, and so on. The great 



