312 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 191 



in this direction. It takes up the question of the 

 population of mediaeval cities, and explains elab- 

 orately the methods of ascertaining such popula- 

 tion. Of actual censuses of the people, we have 

 but two cases, — Nuremberg, in 1449 ; and Stras- 

 burg, in 1475. The first was to estimate how long 

 the corn would last during a siege ; the second, to 

 get at the military strength of the city. With 

 these two exceptions, all our knowledge of the 

 population of mediaeval cities rests on estimates 

 of various kinds. Sometimes we have the num- 

 ber of houses in a city, and can guess at the pop- 

 ulation by reckoning the probable number of 

 people to a house. The old church registers give 

 the births, deaths, and marriages, and from these 

 we can estimate the number of inhabitants. 

 Finally, there are the tax-lists and the army-lists, 

 occasionally a list of persons enjoying citizenship, 

 or statistics of the consumption of the chief com- 

 modities. Our author points out, however, that 

 all these estimates must be accepted very cautious- 

 ly, because we are not accurately acquainted with 

 the relations of mediaeval life so as to reason, for 

 instance, from the consumption of meat in a city 

 to the number of people. 



The actual population of mediaeval cities ap- 

 pears from this scientific investigation to have 

 been astonishingly small. Those imperial cities, 

 which ruled themselves, bade defiance often to 

 the emperor, and played an important part not 

 only in the industrial but in the political life of 

 Europe, we are accustomed to think of as places 

 rich in wealth and population. In the fifteenth 

 century, Nuremberg, Strasburg, and Dantzic, three 

 very important commercial cities, probably con- 

 tained less than 20,000 people each ; Basle and 

 Frankfort, from 10,000 to 15,000 each. In the 

 sixteenth century Augsburg and Dantzic reached 

 possibly 60,000 ; Nuremberg, from 40,000 to 50,- 

 000; Breslau, 40,000; Strasburg, 30,000; Leipzig, 

 15,000 ; and Berlin, 14,000. These were by far the 

 most important cities of the empire. The other 

 so-called cities were villages and market-places 

 running down to from 1,200 to 1,500 people. 



Richmond Mayo Smith. 



A Vienna workman sick with sore tlu-oat 

 was ordered a gargle of chlorate of potash. The 

 prescription called for ' a coffee -spoonful in a glass 

 of water,' although verbal instructions were given 

 that it was to be used as a gargle. The wife of 

 the sick man gave him a teaspoonful of the chlo- 

 rate of potash dissolved in a tumbler of water, re- 

 peated the dose in an hour, and at four and again 

 at five hours subsequently gave half a teaspoonful. 

 After suffering with cramps and diarrhoea, fol- 

 lowed by profuse j)erspiration, the patient became 



unconscious, and died the following morning, 

 twelve hours after taking the first dose. Dr. 

 Fountain, who did much to bring this remedy to 

 the notice of the medical profession more than 

 twenty years ago, in order to demonstrate its harm- 

 lessness, took an ounce, and died seven days after. 

 Dr. TuUy repeated this dangerous experiment on 

 several occasions without any bad results. It is 

 probable that the difference in the results in these 

 two cases was due to the difference in the con- 

 centration of the solution. 



— In 1884 there were 284,115,862 passengers 

 carried by the railroads in New York City ; and, 

 as statistics show an annual increase of twenty 

 miUions in the number of passengers carried, the 

 raih'oads should receive a total of at least 320,- 

 000,000 fares during the present year. At five 

 cents each, this would give sixteen million dollars 

 as New York's care-fare bill for 1886. 



— The herring fishery in Scotland this year 

 presents some features of interest. About a 

 century ago the estuary of the Moray Frith was 

 most sought after, and fishermen, both local and 

 from a distance, caught large quantities of fish 

 there. But in a most unaccountable manner the 

 herrings suddenly disappeared about forty years 

 ago, and were found only in shoals about the 

 entrance of the frith and on the Caithness side. 

 There, also, the inshore fishery became unpro- 

 ductive ; and it was not until new haunts were 

 discovered on the Dogger bank, from thirty to 

 forty miles off the land, that the fishei'y again 

 became abundant. On this bank heavy fishings 

 are obtained, so that the produce of last year's 

 fishing on the east coast was estimated at nearly 

 $7,500,000. Meanwhile, Shetland had yielded but 

 poor returns as a fishing-ground until 1877, when 

 a beginning was made, and in 1885 the fish cured 

 there amounted to 370,000 barrels. This year, 

 however, the fishing at Shetland has been a com- 

 parative failure ; but in the mean time the herring , , 

 has returned to his old haunts in Moray Fi-ith, |l 

 and the fishing on the east side has of late been " ' 

 very successful. The total catch for the present 

 year, up to the middle of August, is estimated at 

 upwards of 250,000 barrels. 



— A new method of preparing fresh fish for 

 transportation to distant markets is being tried at 

 North Sea fishing-ports. The fish are packed in i| 

 steel barrels, in an antiseptic solution of three *• 

 per cent boracic and tartaric acids and salt in 

 ninety-seven per cent pure water, the liquid being 

 forced in under a pressure of sixty pounds to the 

 square inch. Fresh fish thus prepared are now 

 supplied to the London markets from the Danish, 

 Scottish, and Shetland Island fisheries. 



