232 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 348 



nated, in a great part at least, by the previous breathing of it by 

 themselves or by other occupants of the house. This course, I be- 

 lieve, might be pursued in any part of our common country. I am 

 certain that I know of patients who have become well, and able to 

 attend to the business of life, under this course. May we not also 

 at times send our patients over short distances in open vehicles, in- 

 stead of thousands of miles off in ill-ventilated cars to an entirely 

 different climate ? Have any of us ever sufficiently tried this open- 

 air journeying at home, so to speak ; that is, in the region of the 

 country where the patient lives, wherever that may be ? 



Certainly this proposed course has at least two sound physio- 

 logical principles in its favor : viz., a gentle exercise, for many 

 hours in each day, of the whole frame ; and an almost perpetual 

 change of air drawn in with each respiratory act, as occurs while 

 driving in a carriage open at the front, and in walking. I have no 

 objection to drugs, properly chosen, and I almost always adminis- 

 ter them ; but if the choice were given me to stay in the house and 

 use medicines, or to live constantly in the open air without them, I 

 should infinitely prefer the latter course in case of my being threa- 

 tened with pulmonary consumption. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Typhoid-Fever should be reported to the Health-Officer. 



Typhoid-fever is a disease which the State Board of Health 

 of Michigan has declared to be " dangerous to the public health," 

 and as such it comes under the law requiring physicians to report 

 to the health-officials. Any physician who shall neglect to immedi- 

 ately give such notice " shall forfeit for each such offence a sum not 

 less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars." After Oct. i, 

 any householder who shall refuse or wilfully neglect immediately 

 to give such notice shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 is liable to a fine of one hundred dollars, or, in default of payment 

 thereof, may be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not 

 exceeding ninety days. 



It seems important that the people generally shall understand 

 this new law, which applies to scarlet-fever, diphtheria, small-pox, 

 and all such dangerous diseases, as well as to typhoid-fever ; but at 

 this time of the year typhoid-fever is usually most prevalent, and it 

 is especially dangerous in times of drought : therefore the safety of 

 the people may now be greatly promoted by having every case of 

 typhoid-fever reported to the health-officer, who is by law (Section 

 I, Act 137, Laws of 1883) required to promptly attend to the re- 

 striction of every such disease. A new law, which takes effect 

 Oct. I, makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, 

 for the health-officer knowingly to violate that section of the law, or 

 for any person knowingly to violate the orders of the health-officer 

 made in accordance with that section. But the actual penalties 

 which are incurred by the violation of these laws are the death 

 penalties to many of the people, about one thousand being lost in 

 Michigan in each year from typhoid-fever. The saving of a large 

 proportion of these lives is the real reason for the effort, in which 

 it is hoped all the people will join, for the restriction of typhoid- 

 fever and other dangerous diseases. 



How MUCH SHOULD A CiTY PAY ITS HEALTH-OFFICER .' — 



The Michigan State Board of Health has recently published a 

 paper by its secretary. Dr. H. B. Baker, in which he asks the ques- 

 tion how much the average city or village can afford to pay its 

 health-officer. He answers this question in this way : " Statistics 

 which cannot be questioned prove, that, in those localities in Mich- 

 igan where the recommendations of the State Board of Health are 

 carried out, about eighty per cent of the deaths from diphtheria and 

 scarlet-fever are prevented by the thorough isolation of all infected 

 persons, and the thorough disinfection of all infected persons, things, 

 and places. Statisticians usually value a person in the prime of 

 life as worth to the community about one thousand dollars." Dr. 

 Baker thinks that in a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants a health 

 officer can easily save the lives of two children and one grown per- 

 son in each year, and he concludes that such a village can well 

 afford to pay its health-officer two thousand dollars for the pre- 

 vention and restriction of scarlet-fever, diphtheria, and typhoid- 

 fever — and make money by the transaction. 



Ingenuity of Criminals. — 'Y\\^ Medical Press and Circular 

 finds in an Indian contemporary some curious instances of mis- 

 applied ingenuity on the part of certain habitual criminals in that 

 country. The discovery on a prisoner of a heavy leaden bullet about 

 three-quarters of an inch in diameter led to an inquiry into the 

 object to which it was applied. It was ascertained that it served 

 to bring about the formation of a pouch-like recess at the base of 

 the epiglottis. The ball is allowed to slide down to the desired 

 position, and it is retained there for about half an hour at a time. 

 This operation is repeated many times daily until a pouch the de- 

 sired size results, in which criminals contrive to secrete jewels, money, 

 etc., in such a way as to defy the most careful search, and without 

 interfering in any way with speech or respiration. Upwards of 

 twenty prisoners at Calcutta were found to be provided with this 

 pouch formation. The resources of the professional malingerer 

 are exceedingly varied, and testify to no small amount of cunning. 

 The taking of internal irritants is very common, but would-be in- 

 patients very frequently overshoot the mark, and render recovery 

 impossible. Castor-oil seeds, croton beans, and sundry other 

 agents are employed with this object in view, and the medical 

 officers of Indian prisons have to be continually on the lookout for 

 artificially induced diseases, which baffie diagnosis and resist treat- 

 ment. Army surgeons are not altogether unfamiliar with these 

 tricks, but the British soldier is a mere child in such matters com- 

 pared with the artful Hindoos. 



Regulation of Breathing in Seasickness. — Dr. Ivan A. 

 Mitropolsky of Moscow recommends, on the ground of his own ex- 

 perience, the following simple method for preventing or aborting 

 all symptoms of seasickness. According to The Medical Record, 

 as soon as giddiness, nausea, etc., appear, the author shuts his eyes, 

 and begins to make deep and slow inspirations and expirations. In 

 a few moments (sometimes after three or four respiratory cycles) 

 the symptoms disappear to yield to a comfortable subjective sen- 

 sation. On their re-appearance, the same procedure is repeated 

 again and again. If the recurrence be rather frequent, it is bet- 

 ter to perform the procedure in a recumbent posture (with closed 

 eyes). Since the time the author has begun to practise the method, 

 he never yet suffered from vomiting when on board. In referring 

 to this case in the London Medical Recorder, Dr. Idelson says that 

 Dr. Mitropolsky seems to think that the means proposed by him 

 is novel. Meanwhile, in the British Medical Jou7-nal, March 24, 

 1888, p. 676, he will find a very interesting note by Dr. J. J. Leiser, 

 in which the writer says (i) that seasickness is caused by irregular 

 and imperfect respiration, leading necessarily to an inadequate 

 aeration of the patient's blood, which consequently becomes 

 poisonous to his brain, and gives rise to sympathetic sickness ; (2) 

 that a system of regular, free breathing prevents sickness, or 

 rapidly relieves it ; and (3) that his experiments were successfully 

 repeated by Drs. G. C. Stockman and C. W. C. Prentice, who, hav- 

 ing selected ten suffering passengers, each seated himself with five 

 of them, and "timed the breathing in the following manner: they 

 (the doctors) raised the hand from the knee, indicating an inspira- 

 tion, and down again for an expiration, thus timing the respirations 

 to exactly twenty per minute. At the expiration of one hour the 

 active symptoms in each case had entirely subsided." By this time 

 the doctors had thoroughly educated their patients in the modus 

 operandi of the cure. The cases continued to be permanent 

 " cures " during the remainder of the voyage from Oueenstown to 

 the United States. The writers conclude by asserting that " the 

 cure is infallible in all cases that persist in carrying it out." 



Hot-Air Inhalations in Consumption. — From experi- 

 ments in a number of cases, Dr. E. L. Trudeau of Saranac Lake, 

 N.Y., concludes that (i) the therapeutic value of hot-air inhalations 

 in phthisis is doubtful ; and (2) the evidence obtained by the bac- 

 teriological study of the cases presented does not confirm the as- 

 iumption that inhalations of heated air can either prevent the 

 jrowth of the tubercle bacillus in the lungs of living individuals or 

 diminish the virulence of this microbe when it has gained access 

 to them. 



The Breeding of Sinners. — The French Government hopes, 

 apparently, by promoting marriages between male and female con- 

 victs, to bring back these stray sheep into the fold of morality and 



