POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



549 



fine engineer, and is now able to resume 

 his ordinary pursuits. Dr. Patterson had 

 hoped that the strange bone might find a 

 new home for itself in the human arm. This 

 faiUng, he was confident that it would secure 

 perfect alignment and steadiness in the ulnar 

 fragments. In the latter respect the event 

 fully justified his anticipation. He still be- 

 lieves in the possibility of incorporating a 

 foreign bone. 



ineient Hygiene. — It would be matter 

 for a very interesting inquiry to ascertain 

 how it happens that, with regard to many 

 abstruse questions of practreal science, hy- 

 giene for instance, the ancient Hebrews, 

 Romans, Greeks, etc., reached results which 

 for correctness put to shame the ignorance 

 of later times. An illustration of this truth 

 is given in a memoir by Dr. John Spear, 

 lately published in the " Lancet." He first 

 speaks of the precautions to be taken in se- 

 lecting sites for human habitations. From 

 the "Mishna" we learn how carefully all 

 unclean things were removed from the vi- 

 cinity of Jerusalem and the temple ; and 

 the investigations of Signer Perotti in the 

 site of the ancient Jewish capital have shown 

 how complete were the systems of sewers 

 and the means of sewage precipitation and 

 disposal. We find again that the Latin au- 

 thor Vitruvius, in his work " De Architec- 

 tura," supposed to have been written in the 

 reign of Augustus, in giving directions for 

 securing healthy sites for towns, lays spe- 

 cial stress on the necessity of a porous soil, 

 and, in order to secure the ventilation of that 

 soil, on perfect subsoil drainage. The views 

 of Hippocrates on this subject, as also of 

 Pliny and of other classic writers, might be 

 studied at the present day with profit. Thus 

 it would appear that the memorable re- 

 searches of Pettenkofer, in a great measure, 

 serve only to make us acquainted with the 

 laws whicli were perfectly well known to the 

 men of olden time. Then, as to practice : 

 in the ancient cities of the world — Rome, 

 Carthage, Herculaneum, Xineveh, and Alex- 

 andria, we know how well pollution of the 

 soil was guarded against. What most judi- 

 ciously executed works for this and other 

 sanitary objects existed, recent discoveries 

 have revealed. Probably in all these places 

 too, and certainly in Rome, interment with- 



in the city walls was forbidden. . " It is 

 worthy of note," observes Dr. Spear, " that 

 at this period of history pestilences and 

 epidemics were not of common occurrence, 

 and when they appeared they were usually 

 clearly traceable to famine or to war. But 

 to this enlightened and golden age succeed- 

 ed one of darkness and intellectual torpor. 

 Sanitary measures were forgotten or ignored ; 

 filth accumulated in crowded towns ; the 

 practice of intramural sepulture became 

 general. The soil, the air, the water, we 

 read, were impregnated with decomposing 

 matters. As a result we have recorded 

 those most destructive pestilences of the 

 middle ages. The plague, the black-death, 

 fever, and small-pox, swept over the land. 

 . . . Pestilences were ascribed to the plea- 

 sure of Almighty God." 



How to keep coo!. — The experiences of 

 an English visitor to the Paris World's Fair, 

 as recorded in the " English Mechanic," con- 

 vey a useful lesson on the means of enduring 

 without serious discomfort the extreme of 

 summer heat. This geritleman, Mr. D. Win- 

 stanley, writes that he went to Paris in 

 March, the weather then being decidedly 

 cold. As the temperature gradually in- 

 creased he noticed that his ordinary cloth- 

 ing became uncomfortable whenever at 8 

 A. M. the thermometer indicated 10" Fahr. 

 Accordingly, when that temperature was 

 indicated, he made it a rule to adopt linen 

 clothing, and he then enjoyed a com- 

 fortable temperature throughout the day. 

 As summer advanced and the heat increased 

 he never felt hot when clad in linen. Even 

 when the thermometer had risen to 97° 

 Fahr. in the shade, he felt no uncomfortable 

 sensation of being hot, and, furnished with 

 a "havelock," strolled leisurely in the blaz- 

 ing sun for hours, the thermometer indi- 

 cating 125° Fahr., without discomfort, and 

 without consciousness of perspiration. Mr. 

 Winstanley adds, however, that during the 

 hot weather he lived almost wholly on vege- 

 tables and fruits — peas, beans, melons, etc. 

 — using no meat, and above all no fat. He 

 takes occasion to commend the French 

 style of windows in dwelling-houses. "In- 

 stead of our miserable idea of an horizontal 

 section," he writes, "which permits at most 

 only one-half of the window aperture to be 



