62 
POPULAR SCIEIsrCE KEWS. 
[April, 1891. 
develop later, but in their earlier stages none can 
be discovered. The treatment in such troubles 
must of course be directed to the supposed cause of 
the amblj'opia. Most of them will get well ; a few 
will not. I may add that in many instances abso- 
lutely no cause for the defective vision can be 
ascertained. In such cases congenital aniblj'ojjia 
is the proper designation, and treatment is more 
than useless. 
Antiseptic Surgery has been somewhat low- 
ered in the general estimation of the profession 
since the publication of Lavvson Taifs remarkable 
success, and another blow given to it was when 
Lister forswore the spray. Mr. J. Knowsley 
Thornton, however, has talvcn up the cudgels for 
it, and in an address on "xVbdominal Surgery, 
Past and Present," recently delivered before the 
medical society of London, he said : I am not 
ashamed still to use the spray, and all the precau- 
tions which have advanced my results in ovari- 
otomy to 1.88 per cent, mortality, as against 
Bantocli's 4 and Taifs 3.3 per cent., and I find 
increased practice and a steady adherence to 
methods which have yielded me good results in 
the past, increase in lilie ratio my success in all 
abdominal operations. Every operator of promi- 
nence improved his results enormously as soon as 
he adopted Listerism ; then, having learnt how to 
be surgically clean, he has found for himself ways 
of attaining this end with more or less success by 
methods differing from those of Lister. The sum 
and substance of it all is, that if we had never had 
Lister to teach us true cleanliness, we should 
never have used antiseptics, flushings, or drainage 
tubes to attain it. The great advance is du& to 
the antiseptic system ; the minor details are merely 
the different ways of attaining the same end — 
asepticit}'. Time alone will show what is worth 
retaining, and what we may safely cast aside. 
The Di.sinfecting Povs^er of Chlohide of 
Lime. — Contrary to the previous statement of 
Koch, Sternberg, and, later, Jager, found that 
chloride of lime possesses decided germicide 
power. In consequence of these contradictory 
results, Nissen undei-fook, at tlie suggestion of 
Koch, a new experimental I'esearch to decide the 
question. The result of this shows that, as a 
matter of fact, chloride of lime has very great 
disinfecting power. At first microorganisms with- 
out spores, and having comparativelj' little resist- 
ing power, were tested, in bouillon culture, by 
Esmarch"s method. As chloride of lime solution 
gives an abundant precipitate with bouillon, the 
cultures were first diluted. The chloride of lime 
solution was added, either filtered or not filtered. 
The result was the same in either case. The 
bacillus of typhoid fever was destroyed in bouillon 
cultures, at the end of five minutes, by 0.12 per 
cent, of chloride of lime; the cholera bacillus and 
anthrax bacilli without spores bj' the same pro- 
portion usually in one minute. Anthrax spores 
of moderate resisting power (killed in three min- 
utes by flowing steam), dried on silk threads, were 
destroyed in fifteen to thirty minutes by a five per 
cent, solution of chloride of lime. 
Putrid fluids and f.neces were very quickly disin- 
fected by the addition of chloride of lime. Bouillon 
which had become putrid was, as a rule, thor- 
ougly sterilized iu five minutes by the addition of 
0.1 per cent. In diarrho-al fa-ces an addition of 
0..5 per cent, of chloride of lime, either in solution 
or as a powder, destroyed the typhoid bacillus 
inside of ten minutes. Xissen tliinks, therefore, 
that chloride of lime is especially suitable for the 
disinfection of bed-pans.— ZeitscAri/i! fur Hygiene. 
Von Bekgmann on Hve.mostasis during Oper- 
ation. — During operation hemorrhage is most 
carefully controlled by means of pieces of gauze, 
which have been rendered aseptic shortly before. 
This gauze is not impregnated with any other 
antiseptic agent, nor is it dipped into any anti- 
septic solution; but it is pressed perfectly dry on 
the bleeding surface and tlien discarded. All 
vessels are secured with torsion-forceps or Pean's 
forceps, and tied with cat-gut ligatures. The 
wound nmst be tlioroughly dry and the hemor- 
rhage completely stopped before the sutures are 
applied. — Jied. Record. 
Hunger and Infection. — It is a well-known 
fact that hunger predisposes to certain diseases, 
but it has Ijcen reserved to two Turin doctors to 
demonstrate the increased liability experimentally. 
Their observations were carried out with the virvis 
of bacillus anthrax on pigeons, a disease to which 
these birds are, under ordinary circumstances, 
refractory. They found, however, that six days' 
total deprivation of food rendered the birds 
amenable to the virus, on condition that food was 
still withheld. If, however, food was given at the 
same time as the virus then they still successfully 
resisted infection. Further, when starvation was 
contitmed for two days after the inoculation, and 
food then given, the development of the disease, 
though not prevented, ran a slower course. Lastly, 
the virus proved capable of infecting birds well 
fed up to the date of inoculation, but starved sul)- 
secjuently. The line of investigation is evidently 
one which admits of further research, but the 
moral is obvious. ^ — Med. Press. 
Saccharin in Kis.-<ia.— Following the example 
of France and Italy, the Kussian Medical Council 
has prohibited the use of saccharin as an article of 
food. Henceforward the substance will be dis- 
pensed by apothecaries and druggists only on 
medical prescription. 
Supra-orbital Xkiualgia. — An old gentle- 
man was admitted to the hospital, suffering from 
supra-orbital neuralgia so intense ^n character 
that he could neither eat, talk, nor swallow, the 
least movement of his jaws or of tlie supra-orbital 
muscles giving intense pain. Before resecting the 
nerve it was determined to try what electricity 
would do for him, all medical means having been 
exhausted in vain. Improvement began w ith the 
first application of electricity, and within ten days 
he was entirely relieved of all pain or discomfort. 
— Times and Register. 
■ 4^v 
A New Cure for I>i jibacjo. — Some weeks ago 
a keg full of ether was washed ashore on the 
Southern Donegal coast. Those who found it as- 
certaining it was not drinkable, did not know 
what to do with it. One, a fisherman, advanced 
in years, bethought him to try what effect it 
woidd have as a local application in the lumbago 
of his better half. Animated w ith this touching 
impulse, he placed her in position before his 
cabin fire, and proceeded to use the ether as a lin- 
iment, with the aid of the fire's heat. He pro- 
ceeded industriously for a while, the patient only 
complaining that it was "very cowld." However, 
she had not very long to lament on this head, for 
suddenly the ether caught fire, and between the 
bottle he held in one hand, the palmful he had in 
the other, and what was in supehsion about the 
apartment, there was " a tarrar of a noise and the 
divil of a blaze." Both suftered some capillary 
scorching only, but the lumbago is cured— for the 
time. 
The Popular Science News 
Boston Journal of Chemistry. 
A Monthly Journal devoted to the popular 
presentation of all the branches of 
Physical and Natural Science, and 
THE results of THE LATEST DIS- 
COVERIES AND INVESTIGATIONS. 
Popular Science News Company, 
PUBLISHERS, 
5 Somerset Street, Boston. 
SETH C. BASSETT, - Manager. 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 
One Dollar per year, post paid. One Dollar and Twenty- 
five Cents to foreign countries in Postal Union. 
^abll§F;)ep§' ©olan^iji. 
Subscriptions are due for 1891. Those who have paid 
will find their address lahel reads '92. All money received 
to March 25 is credited on this month's label. 
Never begin your correspondence with "I," but iu what- 
ever way you commence a letter, be sure it is written with 
one of ESTERBROOK'8 POPULAR STEEL PENS. 
COLDEN's Liquid Beef Tonic is a flrst-class prepara- 
tion, coutaiuing not only the nutritive qualities of the beef, 
but the permanent tonic properties of iron, quinine, etc. 
For immediate lite-giving properties it can hardly be sur- 
passed.— Dr. C. A. Bryce, editor Southern Clinic, Rich- 
mond, Va. 
One hundred and sixty-flve Artificial Ice Machines 
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Phosphorole, as prepared by Billings, Clapp & Co., 
Is a most valuable combination of cod liver oil, hypophos- 
phities, and unoxidized phosphorus. By combining the lat- 
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system, and a prompt production of the desired therapeu- 
tical effects. 
The Antacidine Tablets advertised by T. Metcalf 
& Co., are a most elegant and useful preparation. The uses 
of limewaterare innumerable, but it is not always possible 
to obtain fresh unslacked lime to prepare it from, and the 
solution is liable to absorb carljonic dioxide and deteri- 
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calcic hydrate can be prepared in any desired quautity as 
often as required. 
One of the most Interesting and beautiful of the Sou- 
venir Spoons, tlie collection of which lias lately become 
such a craze, is the Whittier Spoon, manufactured by H. 
L. Dole, of llaverldll, Mass., and bearing a line represen- 
tation of the birthplace of New England's favorite poet,— 
an ancient wooden building, erected by his ancestors in 
1684, and still standing in a good state of preservation. See 
advertisement on page 5. 
Nicholson's Liquid Bread, sold by the well-known 
Arm of S. S. Pierce & Co., is a most valuable and ellicieut 
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in conditions of general debility and convalescence from 
acute diseases. The small proportion of alcohol con- 
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tracts of malt offered for sale. 
Dr. H. p. Atherton, Great Barrlngton, Mass., says: "I 
have been using and prescribing HORSFORD's Acid Phos- 
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dorsement. I have found it a refreshing and exliilaratiiig 
beverage during summer months. In a case of reformed 
inebriety, I liave observed its restorative effect in toning 
up the system, and correcting tlie nervous derangement, 
of the subject." 
