26o 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 304 



smoking a cigarette and a cigar or pipe. In the two last mentioned 

 the smoke is simply drawn into the mouth and expelled directly 

 therefrom or through the nose, while the experienced cigarette- 

 smoker will inhale the smoke ; that is, draw it to a greater or less 

 extent into the air-passages, and in some cases to the greatest 

 depth of the lungs, and thus the absorption of the carbonic oxide 

 and other gases will take place very rapidly, causing more or less 

 deoxidation of the blood, and thereby impairing its power to build 

 up the wasting tissues of the body. Acting upon this theory. Dr. 

 Dudley proceeded to experiment on animals, and obtained for the 

 purpose some mice. The animal to be experimented with was 

 placed in a glass bell-jar, into which the smoke of a cigarette mixed 

 with air could be drawn as rapidly as desired by means of a labora- 

 tory aspirator. In the first experiment the smoke was purified as 

 much as possible ; and the atmosphere breathed by the animal was 

 practically oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic oxide. The cigarette 

 was loosely inserted in the end of a tube having two bulbs. 

 These bulbs contained a solution of potassium hydrate to absorb the 

 carbon dioxide and any acids or condensable bodies. A tube was 

 provided containing solid potassium hydrate broken into smalUuraps, 

 which retained any carbon dioxide that may have escaped the 

 bulbs. The animal was placed in the bell-jar and the apparatus 

 connected together. An aspirator was turned on so as to draw a 

 slow current of air through the apparatus. The cigarette was then 

 lighted, and in twenty-two minutes the animal was dead. On ex- 

 amination of the blood of the animal by the spectroscope, it was 

 found that all of the oxyhasmoglobin had been converted into car- 

 bonic-oxide-haemoglobin, which showed that carbonic oxide was 

 the cause of the death. This experiment was repeated, and the 

 result was the same : the animal died in twenty-five minutes, and 

 the spectroscope revealed the same condition of the blood. A 

 third experiment was made without the bulbs. The tube carrying 

 the cigarette was connected directly. In this case the animal died 

 in six minutes, and the examination again showed that the carbonic 

 oxide was the immediate cause of death, proving that it was the 

 most noxious constituent of the tobacco-smoke. The time required 

 to produce death in the last experiment was about one-fourth that 

 required in the first and second. This was probably due to the 

 fact that in the latter the smoking was done more rapidly than in 

 the preceding, owing to the lessened resistance in the apparatus, 

 and the difficulty encountered in reducing the force of the aspira- 

 tor. In each case, however, the amount smoked up to the time of 

 death was about the same, — one and one-fourth cigarettes. From 

 these experiments the following conclusions are drawn: i. That 

 carbonic oxide is the most poisonous constituent of tobacco-smoke ; 

 2. That more injury results from cigarette than cigar or pipe smok- 

 ing, because, as a rule, the smoke of the former is inhaled ; 3. That 

 cigarette-smoking without inhaling is no more injurious than pipe 

 or cigar smoking ; 4. That the smoke of a cigar or pipe, if inhaled, 

 is as injurious as cigarette-smoke inhaled ; 5. That the smoke 

 from a Turkish pipe, if inhaled, is as injurious as that of a cigarette 

 inhaled. 



The Sightseer's Headache. — Of the lighter penalties which 

 pleasure entails, none probably is more widely known and felt, or 

 more persistently endured, than the sightseer's headache. It is 

 nature's tax levied on the comfort of that great body of busy idlers 

 to which we all at some time or other belong. In reference to this, 

 the New York Medical Record states that it is endemic among 

 the frequenters of museums, picture-galleries, and exhibitions, 

 varying somewhat perhaps in different cases in its precise causa- 

 tion, but associated always in a manner significant of its origin 

 with the habits of the observant loiterer. The circumstances in 

 which it arises afford the most reliable clew to its true character. 

 Among these, temperature, atmosphere, and strain both of 

 body and mind, though commonly combined, play their several 

 parts in varying degrees of activity. The influence of a v/arm and 

 close atmosphere as a cause of headache is too well known to re- 

 quire more than a passing notice. The torpid congestion of tissue 

 which it tends to induce, and from which the brain is not exempted, 

 is familiar to most of us as a morbid process too often illustrated 

 in our painful experience. It contributes its proportion, doubtless, 

 toward that total of Jiialaise which affects the visitor to a crowded 



picture-gallery or assembly-room, and culminates in the localized 

 ache which renders the slightest mental effort a weariness. The 

 very general prevalence of this variety of headache, however, and 

 its independence in many instances of any vitiation of atmosphere, 

 teach us to look for its explanation in other causes. The effort of 

 mind implied in long-continued observation, even though this does 

 not involve the strain of study, has probably an appreciable though 

 a secondary influence. Fatigue certainly has an important share 

 in its production ; but it is with most persons rather fatigue of 

 muscle than of brain. The maintenance of the upright posture 

 during several hours of languid locomotion, the varied and frequent 

 movements of the head commonly in an upward direction, and the 

 similar and equal restlessness of eyes whose focus of vision shifts 

 at every turn as a new object presents itself, form a combined 

 series of forces more powerful in this respect than the sunlight and 

 frequent changes of mental interest and attention by which they 

 are accompanied. The muscular strain implied in these move- 

 ments is necessarily very considerable. It affects more or less 

 every member of the body ; but the distant localization of the re- 

 sulting ache has probably much to do with the unusual activity of 

 the cervical extensor and rotator muscles, and of the muscles 

 which move the eyeball. Whatever the minor influences at work, 

 therefore, there can be little doubt that mere fatigue is primarily 

 accountable for this most general form of headache, and that rest 

 and nourishment are most reliable antidotes. The utility of stim- 

 ulants for this purpose is necessarily temporary and deceptive. 

 One improvement on existing arrangements ought to be of real as- 

 sistance to the suffering sightseer if more generally introduced by 

 responsible authorities. The comparative scarcity of seats in many 

 places of amusement has often been noticed. It would be much 

 to the public advantage if this want were supplied. For the at- 

 tendants at exhibition- stalls a chair for occasional use is an abso- 

 lute necessity. 



Diphtheria spread by Cats. — Domestic animals have often 

 not only been suspected but found guilty of spreading infection. 

 In his report on the recent sustained prevalence of diphtheria in 

 Enfield, England, Dr. Bruce Low of the medical department of the 

 local government board incidentally states that during the con- 

 tinuance of the epidemic cats were observed to suffer in consider- 

 able numbers from illness ; and in December, 1887, and in Jan- 

 uary, 1888, there was a large mortality among those animals, — so 

 much so, that the attention of the dust-contractor was directed to 

 it. He stated that never in his previous experience had he seen so 

 many dead cats in the dust-heaps. Some households, seeing their 

 cats ill, destroyed them. Though there were no known cases of 

 diphtheria occurring in the practice of the veterinary surgeons at 

 Enfield, yet they saw many cases of ' influenza ' at this time among 

 animals. The foUov/ing is an illustration of the possible connec- 

 tion between diphtheria in childr-en and in cats : A little boy was 

 taken ill with what turned out ultimately to be fatal diphtheria. 

 On the first day of his illness, the cat, which was in the room at 

 the time, licked the vomit on the floor. In a few days (the child 

 meanwhile having died) the animal was noticed to be ill, and, her 

 sufferings being so severe, and so similar to those of the dead boy, 

 the owner destroyed her. During the early part of its illness, this 

 cat had been let out nights in the back yard, as usual. A few days 

 later the cat of a neighbor, who lived a few doors farther off, was 

 noticed to be ill. It had also been out in the back yards at night. 

 The second animal, which, however, recovered, was the pet and 

 playfellow of four little girls, who, grieved at the illness of their 

 favorite, nursed it with great care. All four girls developed diph- 

 theria, the mother being convinced that they got it from the cat ; 

 and, indeed, no other known source of contact with infection could 

 be discovered. It is easy to imagine cats catching infectious dis- 

 eases like diphtheria, when we remember how often milk and other 

 unused food from the sick-room is given to the cat, or by some 

 people thrown out in the back yard for the benefit of their 

 neighbors' cats if they have none of their own. It is a frequent 

 occurrence to see children carrying cats in their arms, and even 

 kissing them. It is obvious, that, if the cats were ill with diph- 

 theria, the children, under such circumstances, would almost in- 

 evitably contract the disease. 



