112 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 183 



(July 21) on ' The significance of coincident 

 weather-conditions,' in which he points out that 

 the recent tornadoes in Kansas City and Madrid 

 were nearly simultaneous, that the late ' sirocco ' 

 in Dakota accompanied intense heat in southern 

 Europe, and that many other examples of corre- 

 sponding weather may be found in widely separat- 

 ed localities. From this basis he concludes, with- 

 out any sufficient examination of the dissimilar 

 weather that so generally prevails in widely 

 separated localities, that "the common cause 

 which originates wide-spread atmospheric con- 

 ditions of exceptional character . . . can be none 

 other than variations in the condition of the sun." 

 This can hardly mean that the appearance of a 

 spot on the sun at once brings forth tornadoes on 

 the earth : tornadoes are known to arise under 

 much more local conditions ; and the coinci- 

 dence of their occurrence in Kansas and Spain is 

 most trivial when it is recollected that the large 

 disturbances in which the tornadoes spring up 

 probably came from remote beginnings, unequally 

 distant in time and place from these points of 

 action. The coincidence is especially trivial in 

 vievv of the great amount of non-coincidence it 

 has to balance. Yet if this be not the meaning, 

 the suggestion is simply a vague truism, of no 

 value from its very antiquity and indefiniteness. 

 No one wiU deny that the sun is at the bottom of 

 aU our weather-changes ; but who will explain 

 the full control that it exerts, and follow the pro- 

 cess from beginning to end ? 



Theories of this kind have a remarkable resem- 

 blance. They pass at once from near effect to a 

 remote cause, impatiently bridging over with 

 wide-spanning assertions a whole world of process 

 that lies between. They fail to see behind the 

 immediate facts, and discover the long train of 

 events leading up to them. They represent the 

 theory of special creations on the inorganic side 

 of nature. They always include a convenient 

 corollary of about this form : "the disturbing in- 

 fluence due to changes in the condition of the sun 

 may be modified to some extent by local con- 

 ditions, so that it will not always manifest itself 

 in the same way in every part of the earth." 

 What with an entire lack of definition of the 

 sun's disturbing influence, a complete assortment 

 of ' local conditions' on the earth, and a glorious 

 variety in our weather, coincidences may be 

 found without limit. Finally, there is the unfail- 



ing presumption of novelty. " Studied in this 

 way, meteorology becomes a science. The mere 

 collection of miscellaneous facts without refer- 

 ence to underlying causes gives no insight, and 

 reaches no conclusion ; " but the new theory 

 " may serve at least to direct our inquiries, and 

 may open up new and unexpected fields of re- 1 

 search" — just as if the ideas of his letter had I 

 not been written over and over again, until their 

 truth and error are almost as old as the beautiful 

 hills around Dr. Veeder's home ! 



The poisoning of 143 persons in Michigan, 

 followed by a similar accident in Charleston, 111., 

 by which fifty persons were made sick, both 

 attacks being attributed to ice-cream, has incited 

 chemists throughout the country to examine criti- 

 cally the ingredients employed, in order to dis- 

 cover if possible which one is accountable for the 

 poisonous effects. As has already been stated in 

 Science, Professor Vaughan of Michigan charges 

 it upon tyrotoxicon, a new poison which he has 

 discovered, and which he believes to be produced 

 during the decomposition of milk. Professor 

 Bartley of the L. I. college hospital has investi- 

 gated a number of cases, and gives as his opinion 

 that the deleterious effects produced in these cases 

 of poisoning by ice-cream is due to the gelatine 

 which is now largely employed by manufacturers 

 of ice-cream to give body to their product. If 

 this gelatine is of poor quality it readily under- 

 goes decomposition. Dr. P. A. Morrow, in the 

 Medical record, July 24, 1886, refers the poisonous 

 effects to the flavoring extract, and finds that in 

 all the reported cases vanilla has been used for 

 this purpose. He has found a number of refer- 

 ences to similar poisoning-cases in French and 

 German literature, which toxic phenomena have 

 been spoken of as ' vanillism.' In Europe for years 

 the vanilla used in flavoring ices and pastries has 

 been recognized as in some cases poisonous. Or- 

 fila more than thirty years ago recorded such 

 cases. Whether these poisonous effects are due 

 to some principle in the vanilla bean itself, or to 

 cardol, which is an oil used as a coating to pre- 

 vent the deterioration of the bean, or to the too 

 early gathering of the pods, is still a matter of 

 dispute. It is to be hoped that the .cause of the 

 frequently occurring poisonings may be soon de- 

 termined on, that ice-cream may not cease to be a 

 part of the bountiful feasts provided at church 

 picnics. 



