FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



857 



ganisms whatsoever. The interior of the great 

 majority of normal nasal cavities is perfectly 

 aseptic. On the other hand, the vestibules 

 of the nares, the vibrissce lining them and all 

 crusts found there, are generally swarming 

 with bacteria. These two facts seem to 

 demonstrate that the vibrissce act as a filter, 

 and that a large number of microbes meet 

 their fate in the moist meshes of the hair 

 which fringes the vestibule. Germs which 

 have penetrated into the nose are rapidly 

 ejected by the action of the ciliated epi- 

 thelium." The nasal mucus is an unsuitable 

 soil for the growth of organisms, and hence 

 is an important factor in that it does not 

 further their multiplication. A pure culture 

 of the acillus prodigiosus was prepared, 

 and a sterilized loopful deposited at a dis- 

 tinct point on the nasal septum well within 

 the vestibule. Cultures were made from this 

 spot every few moments for two hours, with 

 the result of a continually diminishing growth 

 in the culture medium, the sample taken at 

 the end of two hours producing no growth 

 whatsoever. The foregoing facts emphasize 

 the importance of nose-breathing, and the 

 great danger which arises from the habit of 

 breathing through the mouth, and the result- 

 ant unfiltered stream of bacteria which is 

 drawn through the pharynx into the trachea 

 and bronchi. 



Deteriorating Effects of Aleohol. In the 



Fifth International Congress against the 

 Abuse of Alcohol, held at Basel, Switzer- 

 land, in August, 1895, Prof Gauls, of Zurich, 

 and Drs. Smith, of Marbach, and Fiirer, of 

 Heidelberg, read papers on the influence of 

 alcohol on the cerebral substance and its de- 

 teriorating effects even in moderation on the 

 memory and reasoning faculties. Drs. Smith 

 and Fiirer contended that intellectual work 

 is always better during periods of abstinence 

 than when strong drink is even sparingly 

 indulged in. The reports presented by 

 directors of lunatic asylums pointed to the 

 conclusion that lunacy increases in direct 

 proportion to the abuse of alcohol. On this 

 point the preponderance of the sympathies 

 of the meeting was evidently in favor of 

 total abstinence. The influence of alcohol 

 in fostering crime was dwelt upon by MM. 

 Kohlinski, of Diisseldorf, and Marthaler, of 

 Berne, penitentiary chaplains, and was made 



prominent by M. Denis, who endeavored by 

 elaborate statistical returns to show the 

 length to which European countries had 

 gone in combating this source of criminal- 

 ity. France and Belgium, where no serious 

 attempt has been made to restrain the 

 spread of alcoholism, have, he said, the 

 worst record in regard to crime. Switzer- 

 land and Holland, he contended, where the 

 restrictive movement had already begun, 

 had rendered crime " stationary," preluding 

 a reduction in its prevalence as the move- 

 ment became more energetic. Norway and 

 Sweden, as already indicated, could boast of 

 a distinct diminution in their criminal popu- 

 lation, thanks to tljeir control of alcoholism. 



A Correction. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



SIR : On page 575 of your issue for Au- 

 gust, 1895, is the statement, " Prof. Simon 

 Newcomb has been elected by the French 

 Academy of Sciences an associate academi- 

 cian as successor to the late Prof. Helm- 

 holtz." As this fact is apparently ignored 

 in the article on page 561 of the February 

 issue (1896), where it says, "As yet the 

 name of no citizen of the United States has 

 been inscribed on the roll of the foreign 

 associates of the institute, although it is un- 

 derstood that in a recent election to fill the 

 vacancy occasioned by the death of a mem- 

 ber the name of Prof. Simon Newcomb, of 

 Washington, lacked but a few votes of re- 

 ceiving this honor," it is perhaps well to say 

 that the former item is the correct one, and 

 that Prof. Newcomb was elected a foreign 

 associate of the French Academy of Sciences 

 on June 17, 1895. Yery truly yours, 



MARCUS BENJAMIN. 

 WASHINGTON, D. C., February 25, 1896. 



Prof. Rontgen's X Rays. The recent 

 experiments of Prof. Rontgen on the so- 

 called cathode rays from a Crookes, Lenard, 

 or Hittorf vacuum tube, described by him in 

 the Sitzungsberichte der Wiirzburger phy- 

 sikalische-medicinische Gesellschaft, 1895, 

 and translated for Nature, are really only a 

 continuation of the work of Hertz and Le- 

 nard, who experimented with these rays sev- 

 eral years ago, and determined their curi- 

 ous property of passing through substances 

 opaque to the ordinary light rays, and the 



