662 FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



nis; in ancient times this region was occupied by comfortable and commer- 

 cial populations ; to-day it is a series of dried up salt lakes, but which for- 

 merly communicated with the Mediterranean, by a strait at the depth of 

 the Gulf of Gabes. These communications have been choked u\) with sand 

 80 that what was once an active centre of navigation is a desert now, where 

 not a trace of former civilization can be found. According to Eoudaire, 

 the area to be flooded is 10,000 square miles, to be fed by a canal 110 miles 

 long ; the estimate for the main and lateral canals is about fr. 1,400 millions. 

 It was urged, that an immense evaporation, 39 million cubic yards during 

 24 hours, and double during the period of the sirocco, or equal in total vol- 

 ume to the quantity of water which flows in the Ehoue at Lj'ons would 

 occur. ^Now the current produced by this evaporation would so erode the 

 banks of the canal, that the channel would silt up, and finish by being- 

 choked with sand. It was also alleged, that the evaporation of the water in 

 the inland sea, would leave such a deposit of salt, as to make it poisonous for 

 fish, and finally, it was more likely the rain calculated to fall from the great 

 evaporation, would take place, not on the*desert as was exj)ected, but on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean and the neighboring mountains. 



AVhich is the most contagious, measles or scarlatina ? These two eruptive 

 fevers hold the first rank in being transmitted, not only by actual contact 

 but by vicinity, the breathing of a common air or the usage of common ob- 

 jects. ISTot to mention vehicles, the leaves of a book read by a convalescent 

 preserve the contagious principle; the folds of a garment also transport it 

 as in the case of Hildenbrand, who brought scarlatina from Vienna to Po- 

 dolia. where the disease had never been known, in an infected coat that he 

 had never worn since eighteen months. Dr. Dumas dissents from the gen- 

 eral opinion, that scarlatina is more pre-eminently contagious than measles ; 

 the latter malady attacks in a wholesale manner, [scarlatina strikes dis- 

 creetly, is eclectic, often picking out in the same family one child and 

 sparing the rest, the parents almost habitually escaping. Contagion by 

 measles is mostly contracted when the disease is in full eruption, or when on 

 the decline ; in scarlatina it is more uncertain, but is generally late. The 

 question is asked, When will a Jenner appear to vaccinate for the measles 

 and scarlatina? 



M. Dransert draws attention to the singular oscillation of the ej-eballs, 

 which in some individuals suffering from the affection, move from 50 to 100 

 times per minute, with a rythmical regularity from one angle of the eye to 

 the other, or from downwards upwards. This perpetual motion of the eye- 

 balls is attributable to the fatigue of the muscles, and in the case of the Au- 

 zin miners, is the consequence of their habit of looking upwards when at 

 their work ; an excessive action of the muscles is thus produced, a kind of 

 spasm ; the afflicted when he walks, generally has the head thrown back, 

 to relieve instinctively the^^muscles destined to raise the eye. Intemper- 



