August io, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



67 



portions. In electrolyzing this liquid the anode plates are carbon, 

 platinum, or some other substance not acted on by the acid : the 

 cathode plates are zinc, carbon, etc. To keep the saturation con- 

 stant, and to prevent polarization from an excess of free acid, 

 Mr. Watt has devised a system of circulation by which the used-up 

 liquid is restored to its original density in special reservoirs, and is 

 used over and over again. In the treatment of blende or native 

 sulphate of zinc, the ores are first roasted, after which they are 

 pulverized and put in acid, as has been described. The process is 

 said to be more economical than those now in use, but it has not 

 been tested by experiment on a large scale. 



Electric Testing Bureau at Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity. — In a circular that has just been issued by the Johns Hop- 

 kins University is the announcement that an electric testing bureau 

 is to be opened from Sept. i. The circular, besides the announce- 

 ment, gives the general methods of measurement that are to be em- 

 ployed. Such a bureau has been needed for some years. With 

 the rapid increase- in the number and importance of the applica- 

 tions of electricity in this country, the necessity of more accurate 

 methods of measurement has become more and more apparent. 

 In order that such measurements shall be uniform and compara- 

 ble, they must be in terms of the same standards, and these stand- 

 ards should be referred to the system of absolute units, v/hose 

 adoption has been of such benefit to physical science. The in- 

 struments in use for commercial measurements have constants 

 that are liable to change in time ; and electrical resistances, es- 

 pecially those used in accurate researches, should be carefully 

 compared with standards. But besides the comparison of instru- 

 ments and resistances, tests of batteries, dynamos, motors, etc., 

 are to be made. This is an especially valuable feature, for almost 

 every day brings the invention of some new storage or primary 

 battery, dynamo, or motor,,and it is not often that the inventor is in 

 position to accurately test the value of his invention. For those 

 who wish to develop any new discovery, it would be well to have 

 some place of reference, where its value and possibilities can be im- 

 partially determined. The establishment of similar bureaus in 

 France, Germany, Austria, and England has called attention to the 

 necessity of something of the kind here. The applications of 

 electricity in this country are much more important and extended 

 than in any other, and it is to be hoped that this new departure 

 will aid in their development. The Johns Hopkins University 

 seems especially fitted to undertake the work ; for, besides the ex- 

 cellent equipment of the laboratories, the institution has been more 

 or less identified with accurate measurements since the classical 

 determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat, made in 1878 

 by Professor Rowland. More lately important experiments have 

 been made on the determination of the ohm, and the specific re- 

 sistance of mercury. The list of prices given in the circular is 

 reasonable, and the bureau should be well patronized. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The subject of malaria and its causation was thoroughly dis- 

 cussed at the last meeting of the American Medical Association. 

 One of the contributions was from the pen of Dr. Henry B. Baker. 

 His conclusions were as follows : i. Intermittent fever is propor- 

 tional, directly or inversely, to the average daily range of atmos- 

 pheric temperature. 2. The controlling cause of intermittent fever 

 is exposure to insidious changes in the atmospheric temperature. 

 3. In the mechanism of the causation of intermittent fever the chief 

 factor is the delay in there-action to exposure to cool air; this 

 delay, extending to a time when greater heat loss should occur, re- 

 sults in the abnormal accumulation of heat in the interior of the 

 body and in disturbed nervous action, — the chill ; and the final 

 re-action is excessive, because of the accumulation of heat, and 

 sometimes because it occurs at the warmest part of the day. 4. 

 The fever is the excessive re-action from the insidious influence of 

 the exposure to cool air; and it is periodical because of the perio- 

 dicity of nervous action, and because the exposure and the conse- 

 quent chill are periodical, owing to the absence of the warmth 



from the sun at night. 5. Residence in valleys or on lowlands 

 through which or upon which cold air flows at night, and thus 

 causes insidious changes in the atmospheric temperature, favors 

 intermittent fever. 6. In our climate those measures, such as 

 drainage, which enable the soil to retain warmth during the night, 

 and thus reduce the daily range of temperature immediately over 

 such soil, tend to decrease intermittent fever among residents 

 thereon. 7. In the cure and prophylaxis of intermittent fever, 

 those remedies are useful which lessen torpidity ^especially of the 

 liver) and tend to increase the power of the body tore-act promptly 

 to insidious changes in atmospheric temperature. 



A paper entitled ' Malaria and the Causation of Fever in the State 

 of New York' was presented by Dr. A. N. Bell of Brooklyn. As 

 a result of his observation and study, he concludes that malaria is 

 coincident with accumulations of organic matter in process of pu- 

 trefaction in alluvial bottoms, on the margins of sluggish streams, 

 low humid borders of stagnant ponds and lakes, the marshy bor- 

 ders of the seashore, and circumscribed local conditions, chiefly arti- 

 ficial, comprehending more or less the same relations to vegetable 

 ddbi'is and other organic matter in process of decay as the outlying 

 conditions mentioned in this connection. While it is not possible 

 in the present state of our knowledge to determine the special re- 

 lations existing between malarial diseases and the geological, ther- 

 mal, hygrometrical, and barometrical conditions under which they 

 occur, those thermal and hygrometrical conditions most promotive 

 of putrefaction coincident with the absence of sunlight are in the 

 highest degree promotive of malarial poison. 



Prof. Tommasi Crudeli sent a letter to the association, expressing 

 the opinion that it was impossible for a person to have ague with- 

 out the presence in his body of the bacillus malaricE. Dr. Ber- 

 nardo Schiavuzzi of Pola, in a written communication, expressed 

 himself a believer in this bacillus, and supported his belief by a 

 statement of experiments on rabbits. Professor Laveran sent a 

 paper on the hetnatozoon malarice. 



Cancer. — The fatal result which almost inevitably attends 

 cancer has caused investigators to search with unremitting zeal for 

 a specific. This search is now prosecuted with more hopefulness 

 than ever, by reason of the belief in many minds that cancer is a 

 specific disease depending on a germ for its causation. One of the 

 remedies from which much was expected was Chian turpentine. 

 Although this has had its advocates in the past, it has never sustained 

 a very high place in the profession generally. Recently it has again 

 come into favor, principally through the reported cures occurring in 

 the practice of Professor John Clay, obstetric surgeon to the Queen's 

 Hospital, Birmingham, England. In these reports are included 

 cases of cancer of the uterus, rectum, and skin. At the same 

 time a trial of the remedy at the London Cancer Hospital has been 

 made, with conflicting results. Dr. Daniel Lewis, surgeon to the 

 New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, reports hopefully of the 

 remedy, but in a communication to the New York Medical Journal 

 says that he has been using it in too limited a number of cases to 

 decide as to its curative properties. Chian turpentine is the prod- 

 uct of a tree, the Pistacia terebinihus. which grows on the island 

 of Scio in the Mediterranean. The turpentine, as it comes to this 

 country, is a soft solid, becoming brittle when exposed to the air. 

 It has an agreeable odor, somewhat like that of turpentine, and 

 very little taste. The remedy is given in the form of an emulsion 

 with mucilage of acacia, a solution of the turpentine having first 

 been made with sulphuric ether. 



Typhoid Fever. — The Paris correspondent of the New York 

 Medical Journal reports that Professor Proust, who holds the chair 

 of hygiene at the faculty of medicine there, has been giving a series 

 of lectures on epidemics of typhoid fever and other diseases pro- 

 voked by the ingestion of meat from diseased animals. One of the 

 most important questions raised is that of whether it has been 

 established that typhoid fever is a specific malady, caused by a cer- 

 tain organism called Eberth's bacillus. In Paris this doctrine has 

 for the most part been accepted since the late studies made by 

 Professor Brouardel and Dr. Chantemesse, who showed that this 

 bacillus could be traced to the water-supply. It will be remem- 

 bered, however, that Murchison held that the typhoid contagium 

 could be developed in any putrid matter, and by this theory it is 



