November 8, 1889 ] 



SCIENCE. 



317 



stun the victim, and burn tlie parts in contact with the wire ; in 

 oriiers they have been Icnown to produce permanent paralytic ef- 

 fects (of such cases, however, there are only two on record) ; in 

 still other instances almost instantaneous death results ; while 

 sometimes a mental shock is produced, which affects the system 

 just as other shocks do, causing conditions known as traumatic 

 hysteria or neurasthenia. 



The number of fatal accidents from electrical currents during 

 the past ten years has been variously estimated at from loo to 

 200. 



The electrical current burns or not, according to the dryness of 

 the skin and clothes and the consequent degree of resistance. With 

 a dry skin there is more burning, less penetration, less shock, and 

 iess danger of death. With a wet skin and good connections there 

 is little burning and more serious internal effect. Dr. Biggs has 

 noted that most of the fatal electrical accidents have occurred- on 

 or after rainy days. 



Dr. William C. Thompson recently reported a curious case of 

 traumatic hysteria. A man, aged fifty, not long ago saw an Italian 

 killed by an electric wire. Two weeks later, while walking along 

 the 'street, an electric wire which had just been cut fell, and struck 

 his head. He grasped it in his hand, and fell down. He says 

 that he knew nothing until a few hour? later, when he found him- 

 self in the hospital. He then had right hemiplegia and hemi- 

 ansesthesia, including the senses of' smell and taste. There was 

 limitation of the visual and auditory fields, bone deafness, pharyn- 

 geal ansesthesia, and all the stigmata of typical hysteria. The 

 wire which struck him was a " dead " one ; and the blow was 

 slight, and caused no contusion. 



The fact is, that the practical introduction of electricity has been 

 attended with much less fatality than that caused by gas, steam, 

 railroads, and many other of the inventions of modern life. For 

 example : in France, among 223,000 railway employees, there is an 

 annual average of 239.5 killed and 1,850.4 wounded ; in Germany 

 there are 1.35 per 1,000 of railway-servants killed, and 3.09 per 

 1,000 wounded; in England the annual mortality is 2.43 per cent ; 

 in the United States among 41S.957 employees, in 18S0, there were 

 923 killed and 3,617 injured, — a higher rate than anywhere in 

 Europe (United States Census). In coal-mining the ratio in France 

 is 1.56 per 1,000 of killed, 8.87 per 1,000 of wounded. 



Some of the points which Dr. Dana wished to make in the article, 

 which is published in full in The Medical Record, are, the extraor- 

 dinary increase now going on in the practical application of elec- 

 tricity, there being already nearly $100,000,000 invested in lights 

 and power alone ; a practically new class of injuries met in connec- 

 tion with the new industries. Such injuries have been heretofore 

 produced only by lightning, and they have been consequently rare. 

 These injuries are not numerous or serious as compared with those 

 met with in connection with other great industries. There have 

 been in ten years only about 100 deaths in the whole world from 

 artificial electrical currents. The railroad kills annually over 2,500 

 people (2,541 in 1880), and injures about 6,000, in the United States 

 alone. Electrical currents produce three kinds of severe accidents : 

 they kill at once ; or they burn severely ; or, by the mental and 

 physical shock, they cause traumatic neurosis. Usually if they 

 burn severely they do not kill : hence, practically, the rule is, if 

 ■contact with electrical wires does not kill, the victim gets only a 

 burn or a harmless shock. In very rare cases the current seems 

 to affect the nerves or nerve-centres, causing paralysis. The min- 

 imum current safe to receive is not definitely known. Probably 

 eight hundred to one thousand volts of continuous current, and a 

 third less of alternating current, would not be fatal. The wires for 

 lighting and for power carry the more dangerous currents. 



The Behavior of the Germs of Cholera, Typhoid- 

 Fever, AND Tuberculosis in Milk, Butter, Whey, and 

 Cheese. — Among the numerous labors of the Reichsgesundheit- 

 samt has been that of determining the behavior of certain germs 

 of disease in various articles of food. Milk is one of the most com- 

 mon articles of diet ; and one of the health-olTice collaborators, L. 

 Heim of Wiirzburg, has lately concluded a lengthened inquiry into 

 the relations of the bacilli of tuberculosis, cholera, and typhoid- 

 fever to it, and its products, whey, butter, and cheese. That milk 



is a favorite medium for dissemination of disease is well known ; 

 and Koch, among others, has shown that it is peculiarly adapted 

 for this purpose. As regards cholera, the germs of the disease 

 were still viable after remainhig for six days in milk that had un- 

 dergone no antisepticizing processes : in milk of the same character 

 that had been kept in the ice-chest, on the other hand, no living 

 bacteria were found at the end of three days. This part of the in- 

 quiry shows that cholera bacteria remain active in fresh milk the 

 whole length of time it is customary to keep it, and that they do 

 not lose their dangerous quality for some days after the milk has 

 become sour. The same germs were found active under some 

 circumstances, even at the end of a month. In ordinary strong 

 cheese they did not retain their viability over a day, neither did 

 they in unripe cheese. The bacilli of typhoid were alive and capa- 

 ble of development in milk at the end of thirty-five days, but no 

 longer so at the end of forty-eight days ; in butter they remained 

 active between three and four weeks, in cheese only three days, 

 and in whey only during the first day. Tubercle bacilli remained 

 capable of development for ten days in fresh milk ; in milk gradu- 

 ally undergoing decomposition they lost their power in a period 

 varying between ten days and four weeks. In butter, on the other 

 hand, they retained their full power at the end of four weeks ; in 

 whey and cheese, after two weeks, but not after four weeks. The 

 practical importance of the investigations is so obvious as scarcely 

 to need pointing out ; and their bearing on the use of milk, the 

 preservation, carriage, preparation, and sale of it and its products, 

 is equally obvious. Something has been done, much remains to 

 be done, to stop the ravages of disease ; and the labors of Dr. 

 Heim are another step forward. 



Sterilized Milk delivered to Patients in their 

 Dwellings. — Since Aug. i, sterilized milk has been furnished to 

 children under treatment at the Philadelphia Polyclinic. The milk, 

 says Medical News, is sterilized by the Visiting Nurse Society 

 of Philadelphia, and taken to the child by the nurse in attendance, 

 in the bottles in which it is prepared. Milk and bottles are furnished 

 the parents at cost. The results have been excellent. 



Health OF New York and London CoiMPAred. — Some 

 interesting points of comparison 'between the health of London and 

 that of New York are summarized in The Boston Medical and 

 Surgical Journal. The deaths in London last year numbered 

 78,848, or 18.5 per 1,000; in New York, 40,175, or 26.33; ^"^ 'i 

 Paris, 22.6 per 1,000. The birth returns for New York are incom- 

 plete ; but the birth-rate in London was 30.7 per 1,000; in Paris, 

 27.0. The male births in Paris were 30,723 ; the female births, 

 29,913. In London the numbers were, males, 66,629; females, 

 64.451 : but in the total population of London there is a majority 

 of 250 females. Premature births in New York numbered 1,155 i 

 in London, 2,099. To be equal, the figures referring to New York 

 should only be a third. New York compares unfavorably with 

 London in the matter of suicides. There were 247 in New York, 

 and 400 in London. Between 800 and 900 persons take their own 

 lives in Paris every year. In New York 1,138 were killed by acci- 

 dents ; and in London, 2,516. There were only 1,892 deaths from 

 bronchitis in New York, while in London there were 10,085. But 

 while some hundreds die every year in London as the result of 

 idleness and obesity, 61 deaths were recorded last year from starva- 

 tion. A decreased death-rate is invariably accompanied by a lower 

 birth-rate. The deaths in London last year were the lowest on 

 record ; the births, the lowest since 1841. In the western districts, 

 where the wealthy reside, and where the degree of comfort is high, 

 the deaths fell to 16.4. and the births to 25.5 ; but in the impover- 

 ished and overcrowded east, where the poor never get a breath of 

 fresh air, and are huddled together in unhealthy alleys, the deaths 

 rose to 27.2, and the births to 36.5. The people least able to sup- 

 port children are the most prolific ; and the higher the degree of 

 social comfort and well-being, the less the increase of population. 



Mineral Waters. — The Paris correspondent of the Boston 

 Medical and Surgical Journal says, that, of the numerous interna- 

 tional congresses that have been held in Paris since the opening of 

 the exhibition in May last, there has been none more important or 

 interesting than the Congress of Hydrology, which has just ter- 

 minated its meetings. The object of this congress was to eluci- 



