322 



sciEJsau. 



[Vol. Vlir., No 192 



pound toluene. From the latter is obtained the 

 new substance known as saccharine, which is 230 

 times as sweet as the best cane-sugar, one part of 

 it giving a very sweet taste to a thousand parts of 

 water. 



— Pleuro-pneumonia is reported to be raging 

 w4th unprecedented violence among cattle in 

 Montgomery county, Penn. Eighteen cases have 

 occurred in one township. 



— Recent evidence obtained in one of the ice- 

 cream poisoning cases in Michigan, known as the 

 Lawton case, confirms the views expressed by Dr. 

 Vaughan, that it was due to tyrotoxicon. It ap- 

 pears that the cream was frozen in an old wooden 

 buUding, which had been previously used as a 

 meat-market, but had been unoccupied for some 

 time, and was in a most unsanitary condition, ad- 

 mirably adapted to pollute the cream and render 

 it poisonous. 



— Cholera appears to be on the increase in 

 southern Europe. Our last report announced its 

 presence at Pesth, where, since that time, numerous 

 cases have occurred. Sardinia is now said to be 

 infected. 



— At a recent meeting of the state board of 

 health of Michigan, an analysis was presented of 

 five hundred deaths, at ages between eighteen and 

 sixty-five, which occurred in the Michigan mutual 

 life-insurance company during eighteen years. 

 The chief causes of death, in order of frequency, 

 were lung consumption, pneumonia, typhoid-fever, 

 apoplexy, heart-disease, cancer, Bright's disease, 

 and quick consumption. The average age of the 

 decedents from typhoid-fever was 38.5 years ; 

 from lung consumption, 40.17 ; from apoplexy, 

 51.10 ; from cancer, 48.90 ; and from Bright's 

 disease, 54.50. Those who died from consump- 

 tion were of more than average height, of light 

 w^eight, and had a small expansion of chest. The 

 average height was 5 feet 11 inches, while the 

 weight was but 189.45 pounds, and the expansion 

 of the chest but 2.93 inches. This character of 

 organization should lead its possessor to great care 

 in his mode of life and surroundings. While, of 

 course, it does not necessarily denote a tendency 

 to tuberculous disease, it is at least a suggestion 

 which is well worth attention and consideration. 



— Some faint idea of the prevalence of small- 

 pox in London last year can be gained by the 

 statement that eleven thousand persons sufi'ering 

 with this disease or recovering from it were trans- 

 ported by steamer between London and Purfleet, 

 where the floating hospital was located. This 

 hospital had at one time four hundred patients 

 within its walls for treatment, and not infrequently 

 a hundred would seek admittance, being carried 



from the city by one of the three steamers which 

 were assigned to this service. 



— The Massachusetts state board of health re- 

 ports that their chemist has found the following 

 adulterations : milk, adulterated by the addition 

 of water and coloring-matter, and by the abstrac- 

 tion of cream ; spices, addition of starch and 

 other foreign powders ; cream-of -tartar, substitu- 

 tion of starch, gypsum, and other cheaper sub- 

 stances ; baking-powders, alum ; honey, substitu- 

 tion of cane-sugar and glucose ; molasses, addition 

 of glucose and presence of tin ; maple sugar and 

 sirup, presence of glucose ; confectionery, terra 

 alba, poisonous coloring-matter, fusel oil, and 

 arsenical wrappers ; canned fruits, vegetables, and 

 meats, presence of metallic poisons. Opium, 

 cinchona, and other drugs have also been found 

 adulterated. Since 1882, when the law was passed 

 providing for the inspection of food and drugs, 

 one hundred and seventy-five complaints have 

 been made to the courts for violation of its pro- 

 vision. 



— Prof. W. H. Pickering and assistants wit- 

 nessed the ecUpse of the sun, Aug. 29, at Grenada ; 

 and of that event the professor writes, "The 

 eclipse passed off successfully, and we lost only 45 

 seconds out of the 226 through clouds. I had 

 eighteen assistants selected from the islanders, 

 and they all did very well. I think my results 

 will be very satisfactory." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*i,* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



The source of the Mississippi. 



In the issue of Science for Sept. 24, Mr. Pearce 

 Giles, in advocating Captain Glazier's claim to the 

 discovery of the true source of the Mississippi, says, — 



" There is nothing to be found in Schoolcraft's 

 narrative to show that he penetrated south of Itasca. 

 He speaks of an inlet to Lake Itasca leading fi-om a 

 smaller lake to the south, but clearly did not visit 

 that smaller lake, and hence did not ' discover ' it. 

 Nor was it known to exist by Mr. Nicollet, who came 

 after him. The latter explorer states that there are 

 five creeks falling into Itasca. Captain Glazier dis- 

 covered six, the sixth originating in a lake (not a 

 lakelet) about five miles to the south of Itasca. This 

 lake was not known to Nicollet. It lies nearly due 

 south of the western arm of Itasca. He visited the 

 others (which are mere ponds), but missed the most 

 important one, probably owing to difiiculty of access, 

 the soil around it and for some distance from it being 

 extremely swampy, and its inlet to Lake Itasca com- 

 pletely hidden by the densest vegetation. Such an 

 inlet could not have been known to exist, except 

 from the information of the Indian whose hunting- 

 ground was in the immediate neighborhood. Th6 

 ' infant Mississippi ' flows from this lake, unknown 

 until Captain Glazier forced his way into it in 1881." 



Elsewhere Captain Glazier has told us that this 

 lake is "about a mile and a half in greatest diam- 



