832 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1040 



THE NEW ORLEANS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The regular monthly meeting of the New Or- 

 leans Academy of Sciences was held in Stanley 

 Thomas Hall, Tulane University, on Tuesday, Oc- 

 tober 20. President W. B. Gregory presided, with 

 a large attendance of fellows and members. The 

 president announced that during the summer a 

 room had been furnished and equipped in the 

 Stanley Thomas Hall for the library of the acad- 

 emy. The paper of the evening was read by Dr. 

 C. C. Bass, professor of experimental medicine, 

 on "Pyorrhea Alveolaris. " The speaker said in 

 part: 



Pyorrhea alveolaris is almost a universal dis- 

 ease. It begins in childhood or early adult life in 

 practically all people. It is usually unrecognized 

 by the patient until one or more teeth get sore 

 and loose in the socket. By a long suppurating 

 process thp peridental membrane, which holds the 

 tooth in place, is destroyed, and the tooth is lost. 

 This process goes on from year to year and tooth 

 after tooth is lost, until finally all are removed by 

 the disease or by necessary dental operation. 



The cause of the disease has been found to be 

 ameba 'buooalis, which destroys the peridental 

 membrane, separating the tooth first from its gum 

 and later the alveolar process or bony socket. 



Emetine hydrochloride injected hypodermat- 

 ically one half grain daily for three or four days, 

 destroys the demonstrable ameb» in most eases 

 and great improvement and cure of mild or early 

 disease results. The treatment should be repeated 

 one or more times in most eases, however, after 

 an interval of one to four weeks. All patients and 

 perhaps everybody should apply ipecac to their 

 normal or diseased gums by brushing the teeth 

 once a day with a wet brush on which one or two 

 drops of fluid extract of ipecac are placed. The 

 ipecac (from which emetine is made) should pre- 

 vent the disease and apparently may cure it where 

 not deep seated. 



There was considerable discussion of the paper, 

 in which Drs. Belden, Wallace, Wood, Mann and 

 others took part. A unanimous vote of thanks 

 was accorded the speaker at the end of his in- 

 teresting paper. 



E. S. Cocks, 



Secretary 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



At the 475th regular meeting of the society, held 

 October 21 in the Public Library, Dr. D. S. Lamb, 



editor of the WasMngton Medical Annals, deliv- 

 ered an address on ' ' Sanitation in Ancient Civili- 

 zations. " The need of sanitation was especially 

 shown by the histories of epidemics; for instance, 

 the black death of the fourteenth century de- 

 stroyed, it is said, about 25,000,000 persons. Pure 

 water was one of the first necessities. Man must 

 have availed himself at first of the use of springs, 

 lakes and streams; later he dug wells and built cis- 

 terns, and still later built aqueducts. Old artesian 

 wells are found in Asia Minor, Persia, China, 

 Egypt, Algeria and even the Desert of Sahara. 

 There were ancient aqueducts in Palestine, Greece, 

 Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. Rome at one time 

 had nineteen aqueducts, fourteen of which were 

 large and had a total length of 359 miles. When 

 the king of Persia traveled, he bad the water 

 boiled before drinking it. Among the Hebrews 

 waste was buried or burned. The Romans built 

 great sewers or cloacae, several of which are still 

 in use. At one time the sewers were cleaned out 

 at a cost of a million dollars. 



The dead, after battle, were usually buried in 

 large pits or burned. To open such pits or church 

 vaults and old burial grounds sometimes caused 

 sickness and even death. The Egyptians embalmed 

 the dead. Infants were often buried beneath the 

 habitation. The dead were generally cremated in 

 ancient Mexico, and in Rome from 450 B.C. until 

 the spread of Christianity. In Greece the dead 

 were buried near the houses of the living. Indian 

 mounds in the United States contain the bodies of 

 the dead. Hot-air baths and sweat baths were 

 found among the ancients. Soap was mentioned 

 by Pliny about A.D. 25 and was said to have been 

 brought from Germany. The Hebrews were re- 

 quired by religious regulations to be clean in per- 

 son, clothiag and houses. The Romans had many 

 public baths free to all. The Greeks bathed daily. 

 The Hebrews attempted to segregate the lepers. 

 Circumcision was common among the Egyptians 

 and in many other parts of the world. Among 

 the Hebrews it was a religious ceremonial. The 

 Egyptians tabooed some articles of food, believing 

 that diseases were contracted through them. The 

 Hebrews had many rules of diet with the force of 

 religious injunctions; especially as to meat, the 

 animal was to be slaughtered in a certain way, 

 with much attention to detail. 



Daniel Polkmak, 



Secretary 



