October 17, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



2'5 



ether purohaseii at open shops and at stores was doled out in 

 wine-glasses. The drinker first washed out his mouth with a 

 draught of cold water, and after that tossed off a wine-glassful of 

 ether '■ nate," as it was said, drinking it quickly, almost at a gulp. 

 Both men and women look part in thi< indulgence, and were 

 speedily brought into a state of intoxication more or less complete 

 The intoxication differs from that produced by alcohol. It is 

 more rapidly induced, and more rapidly dispelled: in fact, the 

 effect of one dose may be developed and cleared off in a quarter 

 of an hour or twenty minutes. The delirium is sharp; the 

 stupor, for a brief period, deep; and the excitement, so long as it 

 lasts, hysterical. 



Particulars were gathered from a trustworthy medical source 

 of several instances in which the narcotism caused by the ether 

 had proved dangerous, calling for the employment of artificial 

 respiration; and evidence was found of fnur actually fatal intoxi- 

 cations, either from an excessive dose, or from asphyxia caused 

 by the entrance of some of the fluid into the glottis, with succeed- 

 ing spasm or obstruction. It was gathered, at the same time, that 

 tolerance to the effects of ether was much less marked than tol- 

 erance to alcohol; and that organic disease from the habitual 

 taking of ether was exceedingly small compared with the ravages 

 and degenerations which alcohol leaves in its train. The explana- 

 tion of these facts is not difiicult: alcohol is so soluble that it enters 

 .the blood freely ; pervades, with the water of the blood, all the 

 'tissues; and is readily retained by them to work out those serious 

 ■osmotic changes which demonstrate its action as the most potent 

 ■of degenerators. Ether, on the other hand, is comparatively in- 

 soluble; and as it boils at the temperature of the body, and is 

 diffused nearly as fast as it is introduced, it leaves few marks of 

 ;mischief, except when it destroys life directly. Occasionally it 

 -gives rise to dyspepsia and lo gastric iriitaiion, with free^ eructa- 

 tions of gases mixed with etherial vajor. But these symptoms 

 .belong to ether topers of a hardened sort, and soon pass off when 

 ithe habit is abandoned. 



Of late years the use of th.e cheaper methylated ether has taken 

 the place, to a considerable extent, of the ethylic ^variety, and 

 ;Some think with more injurious effects; but on this point there is 

 no evidence strictly trusi:w<jrtliy. Officers of the government 

 have at various periods made mquiries in order to see if, by legis- 

 lative action, the habit could be C'OntroUed or prevented ; but as 

 yet nothing has been suggested that has promised success, and the 

 excise officers are helpless, inasmuch as the spirit from which the 

 <ther is made has paid the usual duty previously to the manu- 

 ^factiire. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



Leprosy in Spain, 



Some interesting particulars are given by the British consul at 

 Cadiz, in his last report, as to the San Lazaro Leper Hospital, 

 which has been in existence at Seville for over six hundred years, 

 says the British Medical Journal. The first leper-house in Spain 

 was founded at Valencia, in 1067. The San Lazaro Hospital 

 was founded by Ferdinand III., when he took Seville from the 

 Moors, in 12i8. It is situated about a mile to the north of the 

 city. A decree was issued in 1478, confirming previous enact- 

 ments to the same effect: ''That all persons without distinction 

 residing within the Archbishopric of Seville and the Bishopric of 

 Cadiz, denounced and declared lepers, must go to the Hospital de 

 San Lazaro, Seville.'' This decree was carried out with great 

 iTigor. From the reign of Alfonso X.. down to the last century, 

 iit was the custom for four patients to visit Seville daily on horse- 

 back, begging; and, as they were not allowed to speak to ordinary 

 persons, they attracted attention by means of boards. In 1854 

 •the hospital was put under the charge of the Diputacion Provin- 

 ,cial: the edifice was then little better than a ruin, and contained 

 .only 39 patients. In 1864 the building was repaired. The pa- 

 -tients, who number on the average from 30 to 36, are looked after 

 ;by sisters of charity. From the official reports it appears that the 

 •patients are not all lepers,, cases of cancer and other diseases being 

 ^admitted. 



Cremation at Milan. 

 Two Systems of cremation are followed at Milan, by one of 

 which the body is burned in a furnace surrounded by wood and 

 charcoal, while by the other the combustion is brought about 

 through a number of jets of gas which cast their heat upon the 

 furnace from all sides. VVhen wood and charcoal are emoloyed, 

 as Stated in the Medical Record, about six hundred pounds of 

 wood and one of charcoal are found necessary, and the process 

 lasts two hours. When gas is used, all that is consumable in the 

 body is burned up in less than fifty minutes. The body may. in 

 ordinary cases, be introduced into the furnace with or without 

 the coffin; but, if death has been caused by some infectious dis- 

 ease, the coffin and body must be burned together. The weight 

 of the remains after cremation, in the form of bones and dust, is 

 about four pounds. They are in color pure vshite, tinged here 

 and there with a delicnte pink; and it is a rule never to touch 

 them with the hanJ. The bones, and vestiges of bones (which are 

 for the most part burned into powder), are taken up with silver 

 tongs, while the ashes are removed from the furnace with a silver 

 shovel, to he placed on a silver dish, and then deposited in an urn 

 for retention in the cinerarium. Here the ashes arc preserved in 

 separate compartments, each with a suitable inscription beneath 

 it The cost of cremation is five dollars to a member of the 

 Society for Extending Cremation in Italy, or ten dollars in the 

 case of non-members. 



Child Suicides. 

 The Medical and Surgical Reporter is authority for the state- 

 ment that from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, 1890, 62 children— 46 boys and 

 16 girls— committed suicide in Berlin. Of this number, 34 had 

 attained the age of fifteen, 14 their fourteenth year, 9 their thir- 

 teenth, while 7 were only twelve years of age, and one had not 

 attained the age of seven. In most of the cases the immediate 

 cause for the act remains a secret, but it is supposed to have been 

 due to exceptional severity on the part of servants or teachers. 



Malarious Africa, 

 Malarial-fever is the one sad certaiftty which every African 

 traveller must face. For months he maiy escape, but its finger is 

 upon him ; and well for him if he hajs a friend near when it finally 

 overtakes him. It is preceded for weeks, or even for a month or 

 two, by unaccountable irritability, depression, and weariness, says 

 Drummond in his well-known book. This goes on day after 

 day till the crash comes,— first cold and pain, then heat and pain, 

 then every kind of pain and every degree of heat, then delirium, 

 then the'life-and-death struggle. He rises, if he does rise, a 

 shadow, and slowly accumulates strength fpr the next a'tacEr, 

 which he know? too well, wiil hot di3=ippaiiit Lim. No one '"!^ 

 ever yet got to the bottom of African fever. Its geographical 

 distribution is still unmapped, but generally it prevails over the 

 whole east and west coasts within the tropical limit, along all the 

 ri\ er-couises, on the shores of the inland lakes, and in all low- lying 

 and marthy districts. The higher plateaus, presumably, are com- 

 paratively free from it; but, in order to reach these, malarious 

 districts of greater or smaller area have to be traversed There 

 the system becomes saturated with fever, which often develops 

 long after the infected region is left behind. The really appalling 

 mortality of Europeans is a fact with which all who have any idea 

 of casting in their lot with Africa should seriously reckon. None 

 but those who have been on the spot, or have followed closely the 

 inner history of African exploration and missionary work, can 

 appreciate the gravity of the situation. The malaria spares no 

 man; the strong fall as the weak; no number of precautions can 

 provide against it; no kind of care csn do more than tnake the 

 attacks less frequent; no prediction can be made beforehand as to 

 which regions are haunted by it and which are safe. It is not the 

 least ghastly feature of this invisible plague that the only known 

 scientific test for it at present is a human life. That test has been 

 applied in the Kongo region already with a recklessness which 

 the sober judgment can only characterize as criminal. It is a 

 small matter that men should throw away their lives, in hundreds 

 if need be, for a holy cause; but it is not a small m-atter that man 

 after man, in long and in fatal succession, should seek to overleap 



