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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 350 



simply gets a cold in the head. As for the horses, they very prob- 

 ably escape scot free in the absence of any special or general varia- 

 tion in the tissue tendencies. 



While we recognize clearly enough that certain diseases are 

 largely influenced by inherited tendencies, there are others, and 

 these the majority, in which the influence of heredity is more or 

 less indistinct ; but it is as certain as any thing of the nature of a 

 deduction can be that the conduct of a particular organism, in the 

 face of morbid influences, is determined largely by inherited quali- 

 ties of tissue, even when the susceptibility is difficult or impossible 

 to make out. The problem before us is to discover and elucidate 

 the natural laws which govern and regulate the transmission of 

 mental and physical qualities, or, in the words of Mr. Lewis, " the 

 paths along which forces travel to their particular results." We 

 are already in possession of a large number of facts and observa- 

 tions bearing upon the "how," though the "why" still remains, 

 and is likely to remain, unfathomable. These relative individual 

 differences of bone tissue-cell, organ, membrane, and vessels, which 

 are admitted by all competent authorities, really form the foundation 

 of all sound views in pathology ; and the more they are recognized 

 and appreciated, the more will the art of medicine acquire scientific 

 exactitude and increased usefulness to humanity. In the words of 

 Sir James Paget, better treatment will follow better diagnosis, and 

 better diagnosis will certainly follow a more exact pathology. 



Pea-Soup as a Substitute for Beef-Tea. — Dr. Ris of 

 Kloten, Switzerland, says The British Medical Journal of Sept. 

 28, emphatically recommends pea-soup as an excellent substitute 

 for beef-tea for invalids, convalescents, and more especially for 

 patients suffering from cancer of the stomach, or diabetes mellitus. 

 Take pease, water, and sufficient amount of some vegetables suita- 

 ble for soup, and one-half per cent of carbonate of soda, and boil 

 the whole until the pease are completely disintegrated ; then let 

 the soup stand until sedimentation is complete, and decant the 

 fairly clear, thin fluid above the deposit. The product is stated to 

 resemble a good meat-soup in its taste, to be at least equally di- 

 gestible, and at the same time to surpass the very best meat-soup 

 in nutritive value. The latter statement may appear surprising, 

 but the author reminds us that pease (as well as beans or lentils, 

 either of which may be used instead of pease) contain a considera- 

 ble portion of legumen ; that is, a vegetable albumen which is 

 easily soluble in a faintly alkaline water, is not coagulated by heat, 

 is easily absorbed, and equal to the albumen of eggs in its nutri- 

 tiousness. 



Malarial Fever in Eastern Massachusetts. — The re- 

 sults of a study on this subject by Charles H. Cook, M.D., of 

 Natick, are, (i) that the disease seems thus far to have been lim- 

 ited to the cities and towns along the Charles and Sudbury Rivers 

 and the branch of the Blackstone ; (2) that it seems to have trav- 

 elled to the east rather than to the west, that is, in the direction of 

 the prevailing winds rather than against them ; (3) that it seems to 

 have developed and increased in seasons below the average tem- 

 perature equally well as in those above ; (4) that some of the 

 marked outbreaks occurred in cold and wet periods, as well as in 

 hot and dry seasons ; and (5) that an " essential," as given by at 

 least one authority, — namely, that there must be an average tem- 

 perature of at least 58° F. for .twenty-four hours to develop the 

 disease, — does not hold good in this analysis ; neither does an- 

 other "essential" of an average temperature of at least 65" F. for 

 twenty-four hours to produce an epidemic. 



Transplanting of a Chicken's Cornea.— Dr. Gravenigo, 

 of the University of Padua, is said to have successfully performed 

 an operation which hitherto has been vainly tried by various ex- 

 perimenters, both in France and elsewhere. The operation con- 

 sists in the grafting of a chicken's cornea into the human eye. In 

 the successful case reported by Gravenigo the graft is said to have 

 united quickly, and formed a cornea which was very transparent, 

 shining, and convex. 



The Sandwich Island Leper Colony. — The leper colony 

 on the Sandwich Islands contained a hundred persons in 1884. At 

 present the number is smaller, and most of them are men. The 

 government, according to recent reports, contributes one hundred 



thousand dollars a year toward the expenses of the colony, and 

 three years ago the king personally inspected it. The average du- 

 ration of the disease is eleven years, and the mortality fifty-eight 

 per thousand. The local physician. Dr. Hoffman, is'a victim of the 

 disease. 



The Foods of Different Peoples. —Many nations, many 

 dishes ! Some articles that are esteemed as delicacies by certain 

 nations are regarded with disgust by others. According to the 

 Pacific Record, the Turk is seized with violent trembling at the 

 very idea of eating oysters. The American Indians look upon an 

 invasion of grasshoppers as a mark of especial favor from the 

 Great Spirit, and make the best of such a time to lay up a store of 

 provisions for the future. Buckland states that among certain 

 people a mixture (rf fish nearly putrefied and soapsuds is preferred 

 to the best butter. In Canton and other Chinese cities rats are 

 sold at ten cents a dozen, and a hind-quarter of dog is more ex- 

 pensive than mutton or beef. Some of the East Indians eat ser- 

 pents dried in the oven, but despise the flesh of rabbits. Lizard- 

 eggs are a delicacy in the islands of the Pacific, and many people 

 besides the aborigines of the Argentine Republic esteem the flesh 

 of the skunk. Ants are eaten by many peoples, and in Siam a 

 curry of ants' eggs often tickles the palates of the wealthy. The 

 silk-worm is eaten with relish by the Chinese, and a dessert of 

 roast snails is considered a fitting termination of a feast in New 

 Caledonia. 



The Dread of Death. — Sir Lyon Playfair, in a letter to 

 Junius Henri Browne, author of a paper with the above title, says, 

 " Having represented a large constituency (the University of Edin- 

 burgh) for seventeen years as a member of Parliament, I naturally 

 came in contact with the most eminent medical men in England. 

 I have put the question to most of them, ' Did you, in your exten- 

 sive practice, ever know a patient who was afraid to die ? ' With 

 two exceptions they answered, ' No." One of these exceptions was 

 Sir Benjamin Brodie, who said he had seen one case. The other 

 was Sir Robert Christian, who had seen one case, that of a girl of 

 bad character who had a sudden accident. I have known three 

 friends who were partially devoured by wild beasts under appar- 

 ently hopeless circumstances of escape. The first was Livingstone, 

 the Great African traveller, who was knocked on his back by a 

 lion, which began to munch his arm. He assured me that he felt 

 no fear or pain, and that his only feeling was one of intense curi- 

 osity as to which part of the body the lion would take next. The 

 next was Rustem Pacha, now Turkish ambassador in London. A 

 bear attacked him, and tore off part of his hand, and part of his. 

 arm and shoulder. He also assured me that he had neither pain 

 nor fear, but that he felt excessively angry because the bear grunted 

 with so much satisfaction in munching him. The third case is. 

 that of Sir Edward Bradford, an Indian officer now occupying a 

 high position in the Indian office. He was seized in a solitary 

 place by a tiger, which held him firmly behind the shoulders with 

 one paw, and then deliberately devoured the whole of his arm, be- 

 ginning at the end and ending at the shoulder. He was positive- 

 that he had no sensation of fear, and thinks that he felt a little 

 pain when the fangs went through his hand, but is certain that he 

 felt none during the munching of his arm." 



Cholera in Asiatic Turkey. — Bagdad and Bussorah have 

 been visited by an epidemic of cholera. The disease was first 

 noticed in obscure inland spots, whence it spread to the port of 

 Bussorah, near the head of the Gulf of Persia. 



Tobacco and Insanity. — The essay recently read before the 

 San Francisco Medical Society by Dr. Shiels, on tobacco and its 

 effects, was one deserving of exceptional credit, as well for the 

 thoroughness of his investigations as for the general fairness of his 

 conclusions. The doctor addressed a series of questions to the 

 members of a leading New York medical society individually, and 

 upon their answers his deductions are mainly based. The general 

 trend of the decisions of this medical tribunal is that smoking in 

 excess is bad, which few will be found to dispute. The question,. 

 " Have you ever seen a case where the brain was permanently af- 

 fected by the use of tobacco 1 " elicited a symphonious chorus of 

 noes all along the line, disturbed only by the solitary demurrer of 



