May 15, 1891,] 



SCIENCE. 



277 



a temperature of fifteen to twenty degrees above boOing water, or 

 by a long- continued boiling, or by a series of short boilings on 

 successive days. 



9. Such mUk has the taste of boiled milk. This taste appears 

 at about the temperature of 160° F. Hence has arisen the 

 method of pasteurization of milk. By this method it is heated to 

 a temperature of 155" P. for a short time, and then cooled. This 

 greatly delays the fermentations, and also kills the pathogenic 

 germs that may be present. 



10. In our large cities the popularity of sterilized mUk is rapidly 

 increasing, especially in the case of milk given to patients troubled 

 with diseases of the digestive organs. 



11. A cooling of milk immediately after it is drawn from the 

 cow is of the greatest assistance in delaying the fermentation, 

 and is probably the most practical method which can be recom- 

 mended according to the present state of our knowledge. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Sneezing One's Teeth Out. 



The report of the physician in charge of the Ningpo Missionary 

 Hospital for the past year, says the British and Colonial Druggist, 

 contains some interesting observations on tooth-drawing in China. 

 Dr. Daly remarks that Chinese teeth are much more easily ex- 

 tracted than those of Europeans. The native dentists are said to 

 possess a wonderful powder, which is rubbed on the gum over the 

 affected tooth. After an interval of about five minutes the patient 

 is told to sneeze, whereupon the tooth falls out. Dr. Daly has 

 ofiEered a reward of $100 to any one performing the operation in 

 this way in his presence, on condition that he is allowed to choose 

 the tooth and examine the mouth before and afterward. So far 

 no one will consent to perform the operation on these conditions. 



Alcohol and Digestion. 



From experiments made on himself by Dr. Eichenberg, says the 

 MIedical and Surgical Reporter, some further knowledge of the effect 

 of alcohol on digestion is obtained, which contrasts strongly with the 

 teetotal lecturer's experiment showing how digestion in a glass ves- 

 sel is retarded by alcohol. Dr. Eichenberg found that a small dose 

 of strong alcohol — e.g., brandy — shortens the time that food in 

 general, whether animal or vegetable, or a mixture, remains in the 

 stomach by more than half an hour. A similar but not quite so 

 marked an effect is produced by a dose of diluted hydrochloric 

 acid or mustard. Pepper and condurango diminish the time the 

 food remains in the stomach by about a quarter of an hour. Beer 

 and an infusion of rhubarb had no efiect. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer'' s name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



On request^ twenty copies of the number containing his communication will 

 be furnished free to any correspondent. 



American and European Meteorology. 



From time to time discussions have appeared in foreign journals 

 comparing weather conditions and laws of storms in Europe with 

 those in America. These have often shown a remarkable differ- 

 ence between the results announced abroad and those found in this 

 country, and It has been a matter of great dilflculty to determine 

 the exact cause of the discrepancies. In the matter of the recent 

 animated discussion as to the temperature at some height in the 

 atmosphere in high areas and storms, it has been suggested already 

 that most of the differences are due to the fact that in Europe the 

 ordinary paths of storms are far to the north-west, over Iceland ; 

 and in consequence none of the conditions experienced in this 

 country, on the passage of a storm over a mountain, could be 

 studied in the south-east quadrant of storms in Europe (see this 

 journal, June 6, 1890, p. 346). A very interesting illustration of 

 this point has just appeared in Meteorologische Zeitschrift for April. 

 Dr. Hann reviews a paper by Professor Russel, "Prediction of 



Cold- Waves,'' originally published in the American Journal of Sci- 

 ence for December, 1890, and closes with the following words: — 



"Of the fact, that the principal cause of cold in winter is local 

 heat-radiation at the earth's surface, the author has no foreboding 

 {Ahnung: there seems to be no exact English equivalent), which 

 indeed can scarcely be believed, since his own discussion sets it 

 forth with such certainty. This discussion has only a negative 

 value in that it shows how one, in setting up a rational system of 

 weather forecasting, should not go too far in its seeming certain- 

 ties." It is not my purpose, nor is it necessary, to defend Pro- 

 fessor Russel in his position; but Dr. Hann's view is founded on 

 so faulty a process of reasoning from known conditions in Europe 

 to those which are supposed to exist in this country, that it should 

 not be allowed to pass without comment. 



I have already given in this journal (Feb. 37, 1891, p. 121) a 

 statement of the conditions accompanying cold-waves in this coun- 

 try, and it seemed wise to make a partial study of cold-waves in 

 Europe. To this end I first selected out all the cases during De- 

 cember, January, February, and March, in the years 1881-89, 

 which showed a fall of 10° C. (18° F.) in twenty-four hours at 

 Vienna, Austria. It should be noted that the cold-wave discussed 

 by Professor Russel was a fall of at least 30° P. in twenty-four 

 hom-s, and a temperature reaching 36° or below over an area of 

 at least 50,000 square miles. Dr. Hann says he does not under- 

 stand this 36°, and suggests that it may mean 36° below zero I 

 This is most extraordinary, and shows how extremely deficient is 

 the knowledge on this subject in this case. No cold- svave of this 

 character has occurred in this country in the last ten years. Dr. 

 Hann probably has in mind the cold of a Siberian winter, where 

 temperatures of — 70° are often experienced. The following com- 

 prise all the temperature-falls of 18° F. at Vienna: (1) Jan 14, 

 1881, from 25° F. to 7°; (3) Dec. 29, 1883, from 48° to 30°; (3) 

 Jan. 31, 1884, from 50° to 33°; (4) Feb. 38, 1886, from 36° to 7°; 

 (5) March 3, 1888, from 33° to 15°; (6) Feb. 13, 1889. On exam- 

 ining the weather-maps for these dates, it was very quickly found 

 that there is absolutely no comparison between the temperature- 

 falls in Europe and those in this country. In most of the six 

 cases there was a high area to the south, and almost a calm ; the 

 conditions were favorable for radiation from the earth ; but in no 

 single case was there a cold-wave. In (4) there was a high area 

 to the north ; but here only one other station, out of fifty-eight all 

 over Europe, reported a fall of 18° P. In not one of these cases 

 was there a fall of temperature over a large region, but it was 

 almost entirely confined to single localities in a very large region, 

 and was manifestly due, as Dr. Hann suggests, to radiation from 

 the earth. In this connection it will be an interesting contrast to 

 give a summary of cold-waves in this country found by Pi-ofessor 

 Russel between the years 1880 and 1889, statistics of which have 

 been published in the "Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer 

 for 1891." The total number counted is 619, or an average of 62 

 in each year. Five of these cold-waves had a fall of 20° F., ex- 

 tending over a region more than 1,000,000 square miles in extent, 

 and in eighty-seven cases the same fall occurred over more than 

 500,000 square miles. 



It is well known that our cold-waves are due to the rather rapid 

 passage across the country of a storm which is followed by a high 

 area. Wherever the cold air may come from, only a very small 

 proportion of it is due to heat-radiation, the principal cause sug- 

 gested by Dr. Hann. It seemed advisable to study the storms and 

 high areas passing over Europe. I took out all the cases in which 

 these conditions were near Sonnblick during all the months 1887- 

 89. There were fourteen storms and twenty-six high areas. Of 

 these, only one storm, on Oct. 23, 1889, had any thing like the 

 characteristics of storms in this country. In all the three years 

 there was not a single high area that was similar to those experi- 

 enced here. The evidence furnished by this study was most re- 

 markable, and showed that no comparison whatever can be insti- 

 tuted between these conditions and their accompaniments in the 

 two countries. 



In 1884 there was established a high-level observatory at Ben 

 Nevis, in Scotland, over 4,000 feet in height. A great deal has 

 been expected from this observatory, lying as it does almost in 

 the pathway of depressions unheard of in any other part of the 



