July i8, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



37 



was succeeded by the pebrine, which swept the silk-growing dis- 

 trict irresistibly, until a discovery was made which provided a 

 practical escape from its ravages. This discovery was a new and 

 certain method of detecting the disease in the chrysalis, or moth, 

 which lays the eggs that serve as the seed for next year's growth 

 of silk-worms. By the time, however (1880-81), that this rem- 

 edy was generally known and practised, the situation had become 

 in other respects almost hopeless. After the war of 1871, wages 

 and the cost of living had greatly increased. Selling prices for 

 farm produce of all kinds, which had formerly been ample, were 

 no longer sufiBcient, in many cases, to pay the cost of production. 

 The price of cocoons, which at one time had been as high as eight 

 francs a kilogram, fell to six, and then to four francs, and even 

 less. Discouraged by disease and low prices, thousands of farm- 

 ers rooted up their mulberry-trees for fire-wood, and devoted the 

 ground to vines and other forms of culture. The skilled women, 

 who had formerly gathered the leaves for the silk-worms, and 

 reeled the cocoons, bad gone to other employments at higher 

 wages than the languishing silk-industry could afford to pay. By 

 this time French manufacturers no longer depended upon home- 

 grown silk. 



During recent years important discoveries in the chemistry of 

 silk-manufacture had enabled the spinners, by skilful dyeing and 

 '•loading" their goods with gums and mordants, to use inferior 

 grades of Japanese, Chinese, and Italian fibre in place of the su- 

 perior organzines which had given the fabrics of Lyons and the 

 ribbons of St. Etienne their lustre and renown. It is urged that 

 the manufacturers were protected by high import duties; but the 

 raw material which fed their looms was, and still remains, duty 

 free. It is said that the weighting and loading of French silks 

 have been carried to an extent which has injured their reputation, 

 and not only disgusted French consumers of such goods, but 

 raised the question whether the use of so much low-grade Asi- 

 atic fibre has been, after all, a blessing to the manufacturers of 

 France. 



There is now a new and steady demand for better material, and 

 the question has now arisen, "Why not protect the native silk- 

 growers, and raise it at home?" It is argued that it is solely due 

 to the competition of foreign cocoons, and the increasing use of 

 low qualities of silk loaded with fraudulent dyes, that French 

 silk culture has languished since Pasteur's discovery conquered 

 the malady which had threatened its existence. The peasants of 

 France, who hatched more than a million ounces of silk-worm 

 eggs in 1872, used less than a quarter of that quantity in 1886. 



In conclusion, Consul Mason says, "The government, which 

 had increased the duties on wheat and cattle, left the agricultu- 

 rists without protection, and, seeing no hope of relief, many have 

 given up the strnggle, and either emigrated to South America, or 

 flocked to the already overcrowded cities and towns. There are, 

 in this consular district, six rural departments in which the popu- 

 lation is steadily decreasing, and this decadence of agricultural 

 prosperity involves a serious menace to France." 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Oxygen-Gas in Pneumonia. 



In an article on the value of oxygen-gas in pneumonia, in the 

 Lancet, May 24, 1890, Dr. John Chambers says that during the 

 early months of last year, as a practising physician in the United 

 States, he met with many cases of the disease, occurring chiefly 

 in adults and men of middle age. These symptoms in the cases 

 observed were due directly to the deficient aeration of the blood. 

 They were marked by difficulty of breathing, together with weak- 

 ness of the heart's action. The faulty aeration is recognized 

 almost at its onset by the livid hue of the lips, of the ears, and the 

 finger-nails. This condition is well known to every physician, 

 and, as it is the token of immediate danger to the patient, it is 

 important that the best measures be taken to overcome, if possi- 

 ble, the difliculty. In pneumonic cases in young and old, pre- 

 senting symptoms of deficient blood aeration, the inhalation of 

 oxygen-gas has, in Dr. Chambers's hands, proved to be a remedy 

 of remarkable power. Under its use, the lips recover their red- 



ness, the breathing becomes easy, and the toneless heart is 

 strengthened in its action. 



As to the method of using the gas, a few words may be added. 

 A supply of pure oxygen-gas can be easily obtained from the lab- 

 oratory of a chemist. It is collected in a receiver, and can be 

 conveyed a considerable distance without loss of gas. In the im- 

 mediate use it is better to fill a rubber bag from the tank than to 

 give the gas directly to the patient. The rubber bag should have 

 a capacity of one or two gallons, and be provided with a stop- 

 cock at one end. To this a short rubber tube ending in a mouth- 

 piece can be readily attached. The mouth-piece is applied over 

 the mouth of the patient, the valve of the bag is turned, and the 

 whole or any portion of the gas in the bag can be inhaled at a 

 single dose. As the gas is heavier than air, its escape from the 

 bag will be facilitated by holding this above the level of the 

 mouth, and slight pressure upon the bag will still further assist 

 in the inhalation. From half a gallon to a gallon of gas can be 

 given every half-hour with perfect safety, and with great relief 

 to the sufferer's symptoms. Such doses have been continued for 

 four days and nights, with the most satisfactory results. Life 

 has certainly been saved in many cases when it has seemed that 

 death was inevitable. When cardiac weakness is urgent, an ex- 

 cellent and safe tonic is found in sulphate of strychnia, which 

 may be given in doses of one-eightieth of a grain every four or 

 six hours, until a decided change in the condition of the pulse is 

 manifest. When this occurs, the strychnia is omitted, but may 

 be of use again in a day or two if the pulse should fail. The re- 

 lief in desperate cases, where asphyxia is threatened, is so marked 

 that it is astonishing physicians have not more generally used this 

 simple remedy. The use of oxygen-gas imposes a great deal of 

 labor on physicians and nurses. With a little training, however, 

 the nurse soon learns to give the oxygen, thereby relieving the 

 physician. Two nurses should be employed, — one for the day, 

 and one for the night. 



An Epidemic of Pulmonary Phthisis. 



Dr. Marfan, chief of the medical clinic of the Faculty of Medi- 

 cine of Paris, gives, in the Semaine 3Iedicale, Oct. 23, 1889, the 

 details of a localized epidemic. In an important business-house 

 in the centre of Paris, twenty-two persons were employed about 

 eight hours a day. One of them, aged forty, employed at this 

 place for twenty-four years, had been phthisical for three years, 

 when he died on the 6th of January, 1878. He coughed and spat 

 upon the floor for three years, and did not leave his work till 

 three months before his death. From that time, out of twenty- 

 two persons employed, fifteen have died. One only died of can- 

 cer: the remaining fourteen died of pulmonary tuberculosis. One 

 year before the death of the first person, who appears to have 

 been the starting-point of the epidemic, two employees, who had 

 been connected with the same business for more than ten years, 

 began to cough and spit upon the floor. They died in 1885. Be- 

 ginning with the end of 1884, the deaths followed each other at 

 closer intervals. 



Dr. Marfan states the unsanitary conditions of the apartment in 

 which these persons were employed. It was small, and the cubic 

 air-space was less than ten cubic metres (350 feet) to each person.' 

 It was badly ventilated, badly lighted, and the gas was burned a 

 part of each day, especially in winter. The floor was of wood, 

 uneven, cracked, and very dirty. The first victim of phthisis, 

 and those who followed, spat directly on the ground; and the 

 sputa, becoming dry, was converted in this already unhealthy 

 apartment into a poisonous dust. The room was swept each 

 morning; and sometimes the employees arrived before the sweep- 

 ing was finished, and while the dust was still floating in the air. 

 It was difficult to sweep the room thoroughly, since the tables 

 were fixed to the floor. It appears very probable that the swal- 

 lowing and inhaling of this tuberculous dust was an essential 

 factor in the propagation of the disease. 



The proprietors of the place where the deaths occurred removed 

 and burned the floor, and so rapidly waa the work accomplished 

 that the reporter had no time to coUect a sample of the dust from 

 the cracks in the floor for the purpose of experiments upon ani- 

 mals. A new floor was laid, which was waxed and treated from 



