134 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 396 



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Vol. XVI. 



NEW YORK, Sbptembbr 5, 1890. 



No. 396. 



CONTENTS: 



Beverages. Edgar Bichards 127 j Letters to the Editor. 



The Standard op Living in the Source of the EocKy Mountain 



United States. J.R. Dodge.. IZV Precipitation. G.H. Stone.... lU 

 Professor A. Graham Beirs 



Notes AND News 133 studies of the Deaf 



Health Matters. A. Graham Bell 13.5 



Should Beer be drunk out of Treatment of Snake Bites 



Glass ? 134 Q.C. Smith 136 



A New Butter Substitute 1S4 Temperature in Storms and High 



Is Pair Hair becoming Extinct ? 134 Areas. H. A. Hazen 136 



Denicotinizing Tobacco Smoke.. 134 Among the Publishers 139 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Should Beer be drunk out of Glass ? 

 The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, quoting from a 

 German industrial periodical, says that a spirited contest has 

 for some while been waged in Germany between the beer-glass 

 and the stone-mug factions. Dr. Schultze claims to have estab- 

 lished, by a very extended series of experiments, that beer, by as 

 little as five minutes' standing in any glass, even when cold and 

 in the dark, will be materially affected both in taste and odor. 

 He sustains bis claims by trial tests confirmed by some one hun- 

 dred persons. The change, he thinks, is due to the slight solubil- 

 ity of the glass substance in the beer. This is of further impor- 

 tance from the fact that the glass most generally used contains 

 lead, which has beeo added for its better and more easy manipu- 

 lation in manufacture. From a series of experiments made upon 

 glasses obtained from the leading sources of supply, he determined 

 that one cubic centimetre of beer, by five minutes' standing in 

 glass, dissolved 6 to 36 ten-milliouths of a milligram of the glass 

 substance containing to 48 thousand millionths of a mUligram 

 of lead-oxide. This small quantity of glass substance he claims 

 affects the taste of the beer, and, if it also contains this lead, ren- 

 ders it objectionable from sanitary reasons. He recommends for 

 use as a normal test drinking vessel, whereby one can surely and 

 easily determine the fitness or unfitness of any other vessel, a sil- 

 ver mug gilded upon its inner surface, the beer to be first tasted 

 out of the silver mug, and then out of the other vessel. He gives 

 the following compai-ative scale of fitness for beer vessels as 



made out of different material: All lead-glazed mugs are to be 

 wholly excluded. Covered salt-glazed stone mugs he ranks as 

 good, but tin ones as better, and gold-lined silver mugs as the 

 best. Hard lead-free glass he ranks as poor, but soft-pressed 

 glass as still poorer, and poorest of all lead glass, either pressed or 

 blown. Porcelain, even that made at Meissen, he thinks not ser- 

 viceable. Wood mugs are doubtful on account of the pitch var- 

 nish, which, even if it should not flavor the beer, yet is liable to 

 induce loss of sleep and headache. 



Dr. Schultze's conclusions have been discussed and disputed by 

 Professor Linke, he claiming that, according to Schultze's own 

 showing, 30,800 litres of beer out of the very worst kind of lead 

 beer glass must be drunk within fifty-seven years, in order to false 

 in even one milligram of lead-oxide into the body of one drinking 

 a litre of beer a day. From an average quality of lead glass, it 

 would take 74,000 litres and two hundred and three years to ac- 

 complish the same. Moreover, he claims that Schultze's lead 

 quantities are seventy-six times too great, and that therefore it 

 would require that much longer time to imbibe that small amount 

 of lead. 



A New Butter Substitute. 



According to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, M. 

 Heckel and Schlagdenhauffer have discovered and reported upon 

 a certain Spanish broom-like bush, native of the west coast of 

 Africa, which belongs to the Polygala family, and to which they 

 have given the specific name of butyracea. The native name of 

 the bush is Malonkang or Ankalaki. Its seeds yield 17.5 percent 

 of a yellowish butter-like fat of a very agreeable nutty fl.avor, and 

 which could well serve as a substitute for butter. The fat softens 

 between 28° and 30° C. , beginning to melt at 35°, but does not 

 become fluid below 52°. Upon cooling, it remains fluid for a long 

 time, only beginning to solidify at 3S°, when it regains its origi- 

 nal consistency. Its density at between 35° and 38° C. is 0.904. 

 It saponifies very easily with alkalies, and contains 31.5 per cent 

 olein, 4.8 per cent fi-ee palmitic acid, 57.54 per cent palmitin, and 

 6. 16 per cent myristin. It contains small quantities of formic and 

 acetic acids, but no butyric or valerianic acid, and therefore it 

 does not easily become rancid. 



Is Fair Hair becoming Extinct ? 

 The British Medical Journal concludes an article on hair as fol- 

 lows: "On various grounds, therefore, it would seem as if the 

 fair hair so much beloved by poets and artists is doomed to be en- 

 croached upon, and even replaced, by that of darker hue. The 

 rate at which this is taking place is probably very slow, from the 

 fact that Nature is most conservative in her changes." 



Denicotinizing Tobacco Smoke. 

 According to the British Medical Journal, Dr. Gautrelet, of 

 Vichy, claims to have discovered a method of rendering tobacco 

 harmless to mouth, heart, and nerves without detriment 

 to its aroma. According to him, a piece of cotton wool 

 steeped in a 5 to 10 per cent solution of pyrogallic acid inserted 

 in the pipe or cigar holder will neutralize any possible ill effects 

 of the nicotine. In this way not only may the generally ad- 

 mitted evils of smoking be prevented, but cirrhosis of the liver, 

 which in Dr. Gautrelet's experience is sometimes caused by to- 

 bacco, and such lighter penalties of over-indulgence as headache 

 and furring of the tongue, may be avoided. Citric acid, which 

 was recommended by Vigier for the same purpose, has the serious 

 disadvantage of spoiling the taste of the tobacco. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Source of the Rocky Mountain Precipitation. 



It has often been a question whether more of the moisture of 

 Colorado came from the Gulf of Mexico or from the Pacific 

 Ocean. The fact that the rivers that drain the western slopes of 

 the Colorado mountains, such as the Yampa, the White, the 

 Grand, and the San Juan, are larger in the aggregate than the 

 streams that flow eastward, is proof that the Pacific is better 

 watered than the Atlantic slope. Most of this precipitation occurs 

 during the winter as snow. The snow-fall rapidly increases as we 



