December t8, rSgi.] 



SCIENCE. 



339 



— A. great deal of misapprehension is oft"n found to exist in the 

 popular mind in regard to matters of eating and drinking; the 

 cause of thi- to some extent is to be traced to old time sayings, 

 which have come down to us in the form of a concentrated infu- 

 sion of somebody's opinion upon a subject of which he or she was 

 vrofuUy ignorant. One of these misapprehensions to which we 

 may refer is as to the tnjuriousness of taking fluid with meals. 

 One frequently hears it laid down as a maxim that " it is bad to 

 drink witli your meals, it dilutes the gaslric juice.'' By way of 

 explanation we may remark, says the Medical Press, that " it im- 

 plies that the fluid taken is harmful." Whence this sagacious 

 postulate originally came we cannot tell ; it has quite the ring 

 about it of au inconsequent deduction formed by a person whose 

 presumption of knowledge was only exceeded by a lamentable 

 ignorance of the subject. Medical men often find much difficulty 

 in dealing with these museum specimens of antiquated science, 

 for even educated persons are disposed to cling to the absurdities 

 -of their youth. Upon this matter Mr. Hutchison remarks in 

 the last number of his ylro/iwes ; "I observe with pleasure that 

 the verdict of general experience and common sense has been con- 

 firmed by scipntific experiment in the matter of taking fluid with 

 meals. Dr. Tev. O. Stratievsky of St. Petersburg, after elaborate 

 trials, has found that fluids materially assist the assimilation of 

 proteids, and announces the following conclusion, which it is to be 

 hoped no future experiments will controvert — on the whole, the 

 widely-spread custom of taking fluids during or just before one's 

 meals, proves to be rational and fully justified on strict scientific 

 grounds. To take fluids with the meals is almost as important an 

 adjunct to disestion as is the mastication of solid food preparatory 

 to swallowing it. It is obvious, however, that there is a limit to 

 the amount of fluid one can swallow with impunity — not to 

 «peak of comfort — just as much with meals as at other times." 

 It would be dangerous to create a general impression that fluid is 

 good with food irrespective of quantity. It is, moreover, a well- 

 ascertained clinical fact that an excess of cumprandial fluid does 

 retard digestion in certain people, and gives rise to discomfort in 

 most. A little attention to one's sensations in such matters will 

 far better Hx the desirable limit than all the " data" in the world. 



— A meeting of the honoi'ary council of advice in connection 

 with the Crystal Palace Elertrical Exhibition, which is to be 

 opened in London on Jan. 1 next, was held recently at the Man- 

 sion House. j\Ir. Gardner, the secietai-y of the Crystal Palace 

 Company, read the report of the directors, in which the}' referred 

 to the El=ctrical Exhibition at the Palace in 1881, and to the 

 enormous strides which had since been made in the industry. The 

 exhibition in 1881 was recognized as the pioneer of electrical en 

 gineering in England, and it was confidently 'oelieved that the 

 exhibition of 1893 would be remembered in history " as showing 

 that the infant Electra has grown to years of maturity, ar.d is ca- 

 pable of further aiding science, commerce, and the world at large." 

 The space available had been over-applied for, and every section 

 of the industry would be well represented. Invitations would be 

 issued to public bodies throughout the United Kingdom to visit 

 the exhibition, where the various systems of electric lighting 

 would be on view, and in this direction alone \ery great 

 saving of expense to the authorities would be effected, and other 

 advantages must, the directors believed, also accrue. On the. 

 motion of Mr. W. H. Preece, the following gentlemen were ap- 

 pointed to act as a committee of experts in connection with the 

 exhibits: Professors W. Grylls Adams, W. E. Ayrton, W. Crookes, 

 D. E. Hughes, A. B. W. Kennedy, J. Perry, and Sihanus Thomp- 

 son, Major P. Cardew, Sir J. N. Douglass, Mr. W. B. Esson, Mr. 

 Gisbert Kapp, and Mr. Preece. 



— The temperature of the rivers of central Europe has been 

 recently investigated by Herr Forster of the Society of Geogra- 

 phers at Vienna University, says Nature; the monthly and annual 

 means being obtained from thirty-one stations. He distinguishes 

 (with reference to river and air temperature) the following types: 

 ^a) Glacier rivers. These are always warmer than the air in win- 

 ter, and much cooler in summer; on the average of the year they 

 are about 1° colder, (b) Glacier rivers modified by lakes, and 

 rivers from lakes in general. These are, except in the spring, 



warmer than the air, therefore warm?r on the general average. 

 (e) Mountain rivers. Like glacier rivers, these are warmer in 

 winter and cooler in summer than the air, but the difference, es- 

 pecially in summer, is not nearly so great; sofhat, on the average 

 of the year, it is ap[>roximat?ly 0°. (d) Flat country rivers. 

 Their temperature is. throughout the year, higher than that of 

 the air; and the annual average difference is over 1°. .Sometimes 

 a different relation between river and air temperature is founfl in 

 the upper part of a river and in the lower, and transition-types 

 occur between those above indicated. 



— A new system of wood-paving that is now being tried in Paris 

 makes use of pieces of oak about four inches long, split up simi- 

 larly to ordinary kindling-wood. The sticks are laid loosely on 

 end in fine sand on a bed of gravel from four to four and one- half 

 inches thick. A layer of fine sand is spread over them, and they 

 are alternately watered and beaten several times. In about forty- 

 eight hours the water has coinplelely penetrated the wood causing 

 it to swell info a compact mass, which is capable of supporting the 

 heaviest traffic, according to reports. 



— Elderly persons tell surprising stories of the old-time fear of 

 giving cold water to fever patients. This has long since passed, 

 and they now are permitted to drink freely. Still further than 

 this, starting principally from the theoretical consideration that 

 the poisonous products of the action of disease- producing hac teria 

 in the infectious diseases may be got rid of by washing t!iem out, 



. a few physicians have tried the administration of drinks in very 

 great quantities, — much more than the patients would voluntarily 

 call for. For instance. Dr. Valentini of Konigsberg (Ueutsche 

 Med. Woch., xvii , 914) directs the nurses to give the typhoid- 

 fever patients milk, bouillon, and water in quantities that would 

 appear impracticable if mentioned. In addition to it all he has 

 latterly given 200 grams of sugar of milk dissolved in a litre of 

 water as a food and to increase the diuretic effect. The results, 

 we are told, are surprising. The concentrated renal secretion is 

 diluted and increased and, even at the acme of the disease, its 

 quantity is maintained at much above wliat is usual in fever. In 

 milder cases the diuresis is kept somewhat above the normal. The 

 patients were more comfortable than before the beginning of the 

 treatment, and all the cases terminated favorably. 



— Dr. Ermling contributes to a recent number of Globus an 

 interesting paper on tlie Nurhagi of Sardinia. There are said 

 to be more than 3,ij00 of these prehistoric buildings in the island. 

 They are almost all in fertile districts, and are built in .groups 

 which are separated from one another by wide and generally bar- 

 r-in spaces. According to many archseologists, the Nurhagi were 

 tombj; but the late Canon Spano, in his " Memoria sopra i Nur- 

 hagi di Sardegna," published in 1854, contended that they were 

 dwellings and places of refuge, and this view is accepted by Dr. 

 Ermling. In a trench closed with asphalt, under the ruins of a 

 Nurhage near Teti, various bronze st-ituettes, swords, spear-heads, 

 and axes were discovered lately by shepherds. These treasures, 

 according to Nature, are now in the museum of M. Gouin, a 

 Frenchman, in Cagliari. Some of the objects have been analyzed, 

 and it has. been found that the chemical composition of the bronze 

 statuettes is not the same as that of the axes. The statuettes 

 consist of copper 90 3, tin 7.4, iron 2.1; the axes, of copper S7.4, 

 tin 12.0, lead 0.5, with traces of iron. 



— Mr. James Shaw writes to Nature as follows: " I labor un- 

 der the peculiar inconvenience of having a right eye of normal 

 power and a short-sighted left eye. The numerals on the face of 

 a clock five-eighths of an inch high are visible to the right eye at 

 twelve feet distant; but in order to discern them as clearly with 

 my left; eye I require to bring that organ of vision as near to the 

 figures as eight inches. On looking at my gold chain hanging on 

 my breast in dayliglil and with both eyes, the chain colored yellow 

 and towards the left, is perceived by the right eye, while a steely 

 blue chain, another, yet tbe same, is perceived about an inch to the 

 right and a little highsr up. By artificial light the sawie phe- 

 nomenon presents itself, but the difference of color is not so appa- 

 rent; the yellow to the right is only dimmer. Again, when a 

 page of Nature is being read with the short-sighted eye, there ap- 



