November 30, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



259 



do not need special characterization. The special purpose of each 

 is indicated by its name. The special mode of conducting each for 

 accomplishing its purpose will depend upon many details beyond 

 the scope of this discussion. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Distribution of Consumption in NeM7 Hampshire. 



The extent and distribution of consumption in New Hampshire 

 are admirably set forth in a paper by Dr. Irving A. Watson, the 

 secretary of the board of health of that State. The prevalence and 

 fatality of this disease are illustrated by a number of diagrams. 

 From the figures quoted by the author of the paper, it appears that 

 during the three years 1885-87 there were in the State 2,432 deaths 

 from consumption. It is interesting to compare with this the 

 deaths from other forms of disease. From heart-disease there 

 were 1,536 deaths; pneumonia, 1,526; apoplexy and paralysis, 

 1,421; old age, 1,347; cholera infantum, 918 ; cancer, 637 ; ty- 

 phoid-fever, 464; diphtheria, 411. 



From a careful study of consumption in New Hampshire for the 

 past six years, but more especially from the registration returns of 

 the years 1S85, 1886, and 1887, the following conclusions are ar- 

 rived at : — 



1. The disease prevails in all parts of the State, but is apparently 

 influenced by topographical conditions, being greater at a low ele- 

 vation with a maximum soil-moisture, than in the higher elevations 

 with a less moist soil. The prevalence of other diseases also af- 

 fects the death-rate from consumption. 



2. That the season has only a small influence upon the mortality 

 from this disease. The popular idea that the fatality is greatest in 

 the winter is shown to be erroneous, the greatest number of deaths 

 occurring in May. 



3. That the mortality is considerably greater in the female sex. 



4. That no age is exempt from this disease, but that the least 

 liability of its development exists between the ages of two and fif- 

 teen, and the greatest between twenty and thirty. Advanced age 

 does not assure any immunity from the disease, as is generally sup- 

 posed, but the smaller number of decedents is due to the fewer 

 Hving persons of that advanced period of life. 



5. The death-rate from pulmonary consumption is relatively 

 much the larger among the foreign-born. 



6. The average death-rate from consumption for the years 1SS5, 

 18S6, and 1887, is 12. 86 per cent of the total mortality of the 

 State. In Massachusetts, for the ten years ending 1886, deaths 

 from consumption averaged 16.10 per cent of the total mortality ; 

 and in Rhode Island, for a period of twenty-five years, ending 

 1884, 16.30 per cent. This shows a greater freedom from the dis- 

 ease in New Hampshire than in the two States mentioned. 



AlCOHOLIS:\I. — Dr. Lewis D. Mason discusses, in the Quar- 

 terly Joicrnal of Inebriety, the etiology of dipsomania and heredity 

 of alcoholic inebriety. He has collated a large amount of testimony 

 bearing on this subject ; and from this, and from his own experi- 

 ence, which has been very large, he draws the following conclu- 

 sions : first, alcoholism in parents produces a degenerate nervous 

 system in their children, and subjects them to all forms of neuroses, 

 — epilepsy, chorea, paralysis, mental degeneracy, from slight en- 

 feeblement to complete idiocy and insanity ; second, alcoholism in 

 parents produces a form of inebriety in their children known as 

 dipsomania, which in the large majority of cases is inherited in the 

 same manner that other diseases are inherited, and w-e can with 

 propriety and correctness use the term ' alcoholic or inebriate 

 diathesis ' in the same sense that we use the term ' tubercular di- 

 athesis,' or other terms indicating special tendencies to other inher- 

 itable diseases. 



Tobacco-Smoke as a Disinfectant. — It has long been a 

 cherished theory, at least of smokers, that the fumes of tobacco 

 were to a certain degree disinfecting in their action. To put this 

 theor)' to a test, Dr. Vincenzo Tessarini, of the University of Pisa, 

 has recently conducted an investigation into the action of tobacco- 

 smoke upon micro-organisms. He devised an apparatus consisting 

 of two funnels placed with their mouths opposed, and sealed with 



paraffine. To each small end of the funnels tubes were attached, 

 suitably arranged so that a cigar could be placed in one end. while 

 the bacteriological smoker inspired at the other. The smoke was 

 thus drawn into the large space made by the funnels, in which was 

 a plate with various cultures of micro-organisms ; control cultures 

 were also used. The microbes were subjected to the smoke for 

 from thirty to thirty-five minutes, during which time from 3! to 4* 

 grams of tobacco were used. The micro-organisms tested were 

 the spirillum cholera Asiaiicce, spirillum Finkler and Prior, bacil- 

 lus anthracis, bacillus typhi abdominalis, bacillus pneumonice, 

 staphylococcus pyogejictis aureus, and bacillus prodii^iosus. The 

 kinds of tobacco used were the large Virginia cigars, the large 

 Cavour cigars, the small Cavour cigars, the best cigarette tobacco. 

 The results show that tobacco-smoke has the effect of preventing 

 the development of some micro-organisms entirely, and of retarding 

 that of others. The Virginia cigars seemed to have the most pow- 

 erful effect, while cigarette-smoke had only a retarding influence^ 

 and did not entirely check the growth of any form. By first draw- 

 ing the tobacco-smoke through water, it was found to have lost its 

 germicidal properties. 



Fatigue from Use of the Telephone. — At the meeting of 

 the American Otological Society in Washington, Dr. Clarence J. 

 Blake of Boston read a paper on the influence of the use of the tel- 

 ephone on hearing-power. He thinks that this influence must be 

 injurious, because the extremely low intensity, as demonstrated by 

 experiment, of the sounds to be caught from the telephone, com- 

 pelled a strain of the ear which soon fatigued it, and made it es- 

 pecially liable to injury by the accidental sounds of comparatively 

 high intensity, which were constantly liable to be heard. Dr. C. H. 

 Burnett said he had seen several patients who believed that the 

 continued use of the telephone had impaired their hearing. Dr. O. 

 D. Pomeroy gave the case of a patient who said the use of the tel- 

 ephone fatigued her very much, and she thought had made her 

 decidedly worse. 



Disinfecting Letters. — The American Analyst describes 

 as follows the method adopted by the United States Government 

 for the disinfection of letters coming from districts in which yellow- 

 fever prevails. Letters from the stricken section are fumigated in 

 a novel way, so that there is little or no chance for the disease being 

 brought northward. The letters are all stopped when they reach 

 the quarantine lines. Each letter is put under a machine with a 

 long arm attached, and this is provided with little teeth punctured at 

 the ends. A powder that is used for fumigating purposes is forced 

 through the arm and down through the teeth. The arm comes 

 down on each letter, and, while the little teeth are perforating the 

 letter, the powder is blown in between the sheets, disinfecting the 

 letter thoroughly. We had understood that after the perforations 

 were made the letters were exposed to the fumes of burning sul- 

 phur. If the Analyst is correct in its statement, it would be a sat- 

 isfaction to know what the powder is which thus disinfects the 

 letters so thoroughly. So far as we know, there is no powder which 

 has this power w-hen employed in the manner described, and, until 

 we receive further information, we shall look upon the whole pro- 

 cess with distrust. 



Cigarette-Smoking. — The poisonous effects of cigarette- 

 smoking have been experimentally determined by William L. 

 Dudley, M.D., professor of chemistry in the Vanderbik Universit)' 

 at Nashville. He describes his methods in the Medical News of 

 Sept. 15, 1 888. The fact that cigarette-smoking produces physio- 

 logical effects differing to some extent from those of the cigar led 

 him to make his experiments. The frequently ascribed causes of 

 the difference — that of the adulteration of cigarette tobacco with 

 opium and other drugs, and also the presence of arsenic in the 

 paper — are for many reasons unsatisfactory and insufficient. It 

 is true, no doubt, that the tobacco in many of the less expensive 

 brands is adulterated with cheap drugs and artificial flavors, and 

 that in the more expensive grades opium may be used ; but it is 

 equally true that many cigarettes are made of tobacco which is free 

 from sophistication. The presence of arsenic in the paper is en- 

 tirely out of the question. There is a difference in the methods of 



