188 



POPULAR SCIEI^CE I^TEWS. 



[December 1888. 



been large drinkers of milk, and their temperatures 

 respectively were over 103, and the pain was ex- 

 cessively severe when they came under treatment. 

 By putting them on a diet of thin water gruel suit- 

 ably flavored, and a mixture containing ten grains 

 of salicylate of soda, to be taken in half a tumbler 

 of weak lemonade every two hours until relieved, 

 in every case the symptoms had almost disappeared 

 within thirty-six hours; and the urine, which had 

 been dark and loaded, at the same time became 

 clear. 



Dr. George M. Sternberg says that in yellow- 

 fever the urine and the vomited matters are highly 

 acid. The intestinal contents also have an acid 

 reaction. He therefore proposes an alkaline treat- 

 ment, and gives the following formula: — 



R . Sodii bicarb 150 grs. 



Hydrg. clilorid. corrosiv 1% gr. 



AquiB puriE 1 quart. 



M. Sig. 



The patient to take about one and three-quarters 

 ounces every hour, ice-cold. 



The house physician at the Garcini Hospital has 

 sent {Medical Record) a report of twelve cases 

 treated by the alkaline and bichloiide method, and 

 it appears that all of them recovered. 



While these twelve cases were being treated, eight 

 cases were treated in the same institution by other 

 methods, and five of the eight died. 



Dr. Woltering of Munster, Wurtemberg {All- 

 gemeine Med. Cent. Zeilung), recommends the more 

 extensive use of gluten bread, both on account of 

 its extremely nutritive qualities as an article of 

 diet, and its very low price. He claims that pure 

 gluten bread is three times as nourishing as meat, 

 and that bread made with the addition of forty per 

 cent of gluten contains more albumen than hare or 

 chicken of the best quality. 



The phonograph, as an instrument of precision in 

 preserving voice and heart sounds, forms the sub- 

 ject of comment in the New York Medical Record. 

 [t states that Dr. William Porter of St. Louis has 

 made some practical observations in this field. He 

 found that not only are different voice sounds pre- 

 served distinctly, but also that, by attaching an 

 ordinary stethoscope to the phonograph, some of 

 the cardiac sounds could be easily recognized after 

 they had been recorded by the new invention. 

 The murmur of a case of mitral insufliciency was 

 especially well reproduced. 



The Record indulges in the following: " We 

 may be able to buy cylinders of cardiac murmurs, 

 aneurismal bruits, foetal heart sounds, etc , at 

 " list price, twenty per cent off," just as we now 

 buy charts, manikins, and models." 



Dr. Box all {Medical Press) calls attention to the 

 incompatibility of certain antiseptics when mixed. 

 He has ascertained that mixtures of corrosive 

 sublimate and iodine, iodine with carbolic acid, 

 and carbolic acid and olive oil, produce chemical 

 changes which materially affect the properties of 

 the original constituents. He found, moreover, 

 that soap and glycerine are, as a rule, bad vehicles 

 for antiseptics. Perchloride of mercury, iodine, 

 salicylic acid, and permanganate of potassium are 

 changed or precipitated by admixture with soap. 



Dn. Salkowski {Medical /Ves.s) writes concerning 

 the use of chloroform for the preservation of sam- 

 ples of urine for analysis. A six-per-mille solution 

 was found by him to effectively prevent the growth 

 of micro-organisms, and he recommends it to be 

 added to pathological liquids and for preserving 

 anatomical specimens. He also suggests the em- 

 ployment of such a solution internally as a disin- 



fectant and as a mouth-wash, and observes that it 

 could be advantageously added to solutions for 

 hypodermic use. 



Drs. H^noque and Fridel, Paris, state that 

 the extraction of a tooth may be rendered painless 

 by spraying the neighborhood of the external ear 

 with ether. 



The ansesthesia of the trigeminus so produced 

 extends to the dental nerves, and thus renders the 

 production of general ansesthesia needless. 



DEGEJfERA.TIOK OF THE HUMA^T TEETH. 

 The law of retardation exhibits itself in the 

 teeth of the higher races of mankind in a highly 

 inconvenient manner. The greatly developed brain 

 requires all the available room in the skull ; there 

 is no space left for the attachment of muscles for a 

 powerful jaw. Cooked food also causes a degen- 

 eracy in the development of the jaw. There is con- 

 stantly no room left for either the wisdom-teeth or 

 the second upper incisors; the wisdom-teeth are 

 retarded, often cause great pain, and decay early. 

 The second incisors appear in startling and unex- 

 pected places, and often (in America especially) do 

 not cut the gum at all. Professor Cope says that 

 " American dentists have observed that the third 

 molar teeth (wisdom-teeth) are in natives of the 

 United States very liable to imperfect growth or 

 suppression, and to a degree entirely unknown 

 among savage or even many civilized races." The 

 same suppression has been observed in the outer pair 

 of superior incisors. This is owing, not only to a 

 reduction in the size of the arches of the jaws, but 

 to successively prolonged delay in the appearance of the 

 teeth. In the same way, men and the man-like apes 

 have fewer teeth than the lower monkeys, and these 

 again fewer than the insectivorous mammals to 

 which they are most nearly allied. When this dif- 

 ference in dentition has been established, civilized 

 man may claim to place himself in a new species, 

 apart from low savages as well as from high apes. 

 — Popular Science Monthly. 



HUMORS. 



Patent-Medicine Man (to editor of religious 

 newspaper): "You made a nice mess of that 

 testimonial advertisement! " 



Editor: "How ">" 



Patent- Medicine Man: "John Smith wrote, 

 ' Your Live-forever Pellets are doing me a great 

 deal of good. Send me another box,' and I told 

 you to give it a prominent place." 



Editor: "I did, — immediately preceding the 

 death-notices." 



Patent-Medicine Man : " Yes, and the first death- 

 notice on the list was that of John Smith ! " 



A Wicked Urchin's Strategy. — A nine- 

 year-old Eagleville (Conn.) boy was belated at 

 Coventry, several miles from his home, the other 

 night, and, being afraid to go home in the dark, 

 put his Y'^ankee wits to work. Pretty soon a doctor 

 of the place was informed by a small boy that a 

 well-known citizen of Eagleville was very ill with 

 typhoid-fever, and wanted him to come to him im- 

 mediately. The doctor said he'd go after supper, 

 and asked the lad to join him at the table. The boy 

 did so, and soon after was snugly tucked in by 

 the side of the doctor in his carriage, and rolling 

 homeward. When they arrived at the house of 

 the alleged sick man, the boy scrambled out; the 

 doctor followed, and knocked at the door. The 

 citizen himself, in his usual health, opened it. He 

 hadn't been sick, and hadn't sent for the doctor. 

 Then they looked for the boy. They couldn't find 

 him. He had had his supper, and ride home, and 

 was well out of the way. 



Ci)e popular ,S>ficnce ^tW. 



IH'ltLISHKI) MONTHLY BY T!IK 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS COMPANY, 



19 Pearl Street, Boston. 

 ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, IN ADVANCE. 



SETH C. BASSETT, 

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SPECIAL NOTICE. 



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Remittances will be duly credited on the printed address label 

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Pn&Itebertt' Column. 



Every sentence sliould be strictly punctuated. 

 Millions may depend on a comma. Esterbrook's 

 Pens are admirable for the purpose. 



Extract of report from the celebrated physician 

 Erasmus Wilson: — 



Several cases of incipient consumption have come 

 under my observation that have been cured by a 

 timely use of Liebig's Liquid Extract of Beef 

 Tonic (Colden's). 



Erasmus Wilson, M.D., F.K.S. 



The rapidly increasing busine.ss of Mr. Bbadlee 

 Whidden has rendered a change of location necessary, 

 and he may now be found at No. 18 Arch Street, 

 Boston, only a few doors from his former place of 

 business. He makes a specialty of publishing and 

 selling scientific books of every description, whether 

 relating to natural or physical sciences. 



The preparations of the Health Food Companv 

 are worthy of a trial by tliose desiring any special 

 form of nutriment adapted to abnormal or diseased 

 conditions of the system. The Gluten Flour con- 

 tains, in a concentrated form, the nutritive qualities of 

 ordinary flour, and contains but a small quantity of 

 the starchy elements which are contra-indicated in 

 diabetes. This flour is favorably spoken of by that 

 eminent phy.sician, the late Dr.Austin Flint, in his 

 work on clinical mediciue. 



"Mr. David Boyle, manufacturer of the twenty -ton 

 Boyle Ice Machine u.sed here, sold another machine 

 at Vicksburg, Miss., last week, and now has a hundred 

 and thirty machines of his manufacture in use in the 

 United States, and several in the West Indies. It is 

 the finest ice matOiiue in the world, and Capt. Frank 

 Hicks says the two now in use by the Distilled Water 

 Ice Company are as good as when purchased, and have 

 never gotten out of repair." — Pine Blaff (.\rk.) Press- 

 Eayle. 



♦ — 



Thay'er's Nutritive is a combination of valuable 

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No difference of opinion exists among Iiigh medical 

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 that so happily meets the general want as Housford's 

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