96 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. Vlll., No. 183 



possibility of preventing or curing parasitic dis- 

 eases, such as tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, 

 etc. 



At the last meeting of the Academy of medi- 

 cine M. J. Rochard gave some very interesting 

 notes concerning the consumption of alcohol in 

 France. During the last forty years, the annual 

 quantity of alcohol which is used for drink has 

 nearly doubled, but the evil which has resulted 

 therefrom has more than doubled. This is due, 

 according to M. Eochard and others, to the im- 

 pure quality of many alcoholic drinks or liquors, 

 and to the fact that amylic alcohol is often added 

 to ethylic. It is well known that amylic alcohol is 

 a dangerous and deleterious liquid, and even in 

 small quantities a real poison. Since 1880 the 

 number of cabarets, or wine-shops, has become 

 very great : the number is 320,000, and it is cal- 

 culated that there is one cabaret to twenty-five 

 persons. The great abundance of deleterious alco- 

 hol may be explained in part by the decrease of 

 production of ordinary wines, due to the ravages 

 of phylloxera. The result is, that a great amount 

 of Spanish or Italian wines of inferior quality are 

 brought into France : as they have no taste, alco- 

 hol is added, and almost always amylic alcohol is 

 used. As the senate asked the opinion of the 

 Academy of medicine concerning the question, 

 the academy has answered as follows : First, the 

 addition of alcohol ought to be forbidden ; sugar 

 only ought to be added during the fermentation 

 process. Government ought to prevent all intro- 

 duction into France of alcoholized wines, and pre- 

 vent the traffic in wines containing over twelve 

 degrees of alcohol : twelve degrees must be the 

 utmost allowed, instead of fifteen as at present. 

 Lastly, the number of cabarets ought to be much 

 diminished, and they ought to be very well and 

 frequently inspected. Such is the course proposed 

 by the Academy of medicine. The different con- 

 clusions adopted by a special committee will be 

 discussed at the next meeting, and the opinion of 

 the academy will then be sent to the senate. In 

 our next letter we shall let you know the result of 

 this discussion. 



In another recent meeting of the same society, 

 M. Andouard of Nantes communicated an inter- 

 esting note concerning some cases of excellent 

 preservation of dead bodies, notwithstanding ex- 

 posure. It has long been well known that corpses 

 become mummified in dry sand or earth, or in 

 heated deserts. It may be so in constantly heated 

 rooms ; but it has not been ascertained yet that 

 a dead body exposed to open air can also escape 

 decomposition, or rather putrefaction. It is well 

 known, however, that in Toulouse, for instance, 

 dead bodies are very well preserved in open air. 



when they have been entombed for a year or two in 

 an hermetically closed vault ; that at the great St. 

 Bernard pass in Switzerland the bodies of the 

 travellers killed by avalanches, or frozen during 

 their journey, as well as those of the monks who 

 live in the refuge of the pass, are never buried, 

 but simply laid out in smail buildings or under- 

 ground cellars ; and they never decompose, on 

 account of the dryness of the air, and the cold 

 which always prevails, — a very singular and in- 

 teresting sight which travellers ought not to forget 

 to ask for when they cross the pass in summer. 

 But in both of these cases there is a reason for 

 non-decomposition. In the first, corpses become 

 saponified by remaining in dry air; in the second, 

 cold is the agent of preservation. 



M. Andouard recently met with a case in which 

 a young girl remained a whole year in the place 

 in which she was murdered. The body, one year 

 after death, was so very well preserved that it was 

 thought that some chemicals or antiseptics had 

 been used. In fact, none had been used ; and the 

 preservation of the body — in a cellar — was due 

 to the fact that the temperature was low, that 

 ventilation was very imperfect, hardly possible 

 even, and that the cellar was very dry. In fact, 

 there was in this case a natural combination of 

 the conditions favorable to non-decomposition. 

 The changes in the tissues of the corpse were very 

 curious. The body had lost a great deal of weight. 

 The skin was hard, dry, and rigid. Muscular and 

 vascular tissues underneath had aU disappeared : 

 in place of these was found a sort of fibrillar sub- 

 stance, of a spongy nature, made up of dried 

 cellular and conjunctive tissues, and of a sort of 

 dust. This dust was the result of an incalculable 

 amount of dead acarii and of their eggs ; and the 

 presence of these insects is the reason for the 

 preservation of the body. They absorbed all 

 liquid and putrescible structures. M. Andouard's 

 paper is a very useful one, and it would be very 

 interesting to meet with other similar cases. In 

 fact, the decomposition process of dead bodies, 

 either bui-ied or unburied, is not very well known, 

 and the matter is worth studying. 



Professor Mosso of Turin has recently made 

 known, in the Archives italiennes de biologic, many 

 interesting results of his experiments on the respi- 

 ratory function. His conclusions are new, and the 

 facts he has discovered had hitherto escaped ob- 

 servation. First of all, he noticed that there is 

 no regular respiratory rhythm, but that there are 

 some pretty regular irregularities in the way we 

 breathe. During heavy sleep, these irregularities 

 are very noticeable, when Marcy's pneumograph is 

 used. There are regular series of deep and strong 

 insjDirations, followed or separated by series of 



