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SCIENCE LETTER FROM PARIS. 763 
of the year. France is the classic land of this disease and Paris its head center. 
Naturally, Dr. Besnier has concentrated his attention on Paris, where one-twelfth 
of the deaths, or 1,200 per year, are due to typhoid fever. Now the number of 
these deaths are not regularly divided as to the seasons—during spring the 
deaths from the malady are less than one-half what they are in autumn; the maxi- 
mum of mortality is during the months of July and October; twelve per cent. of 
the persons afflicted with typhoid fever succumb—that is to say, eighty-eight are 
cured. To well combat the fever not only the diagnosis ought to study the indi- 
viduality of the patient, the intensity of the disease, but also the season—summer 
temperature develops while augmenting the malady, and autumn maintains it in its 
aggravated form. Atmospheric influences, concludes the Doctor, are momentous 
factors in typhoid fever, but they do not produce all their effects nor become 
fruitful, only when encountering local and individual conditions of a favorable char- 
acter. 
Sydenham said that if any one would devote his life to finding a cure for 
corns, he would merit the thanks of posterity and of humanity at large. The 
skin is a soft, delicate membrane, very elastic; its color is rose with the infant 
and with the adult, following individuality, race, climate and season; it is very 
fine on the eyelids, but relatively thick on the palm of the hands and the soles of 
the feet. Skin consists of two layers—epidermis and the other more profound; 
the dermis. Everywhere there is a section of unctuous matter save on the palm 
of the hands and the sole of the foot; it is by the orifices that the perspiration ex- 
udes. Acorn is a superficial tumor on the epidermis, with a root which pene- 
trates more or less profoundly into the dermis—often deeper still; hence, why 
the ancients called corns clavi pedum, or feet nails, on account of their resemblance 
to ordinary nai's. The we/¢ is the commonest form of a corn; it is a combination 
of layers of the epidermis produced by unequal pressure of a boot or the irregu- 
lar plait of a stocking; it is also the result of professional work. ‘The monks that 
wear sandals are martyrs to such corns. A welt differs from a corn in being on 
the surface, where it always remains; the corn is conical and pierces downward ; 
often certain of these excrescences become deformities. In 1599, Marshal La- 
vardin brought to Paris a man having a horn on his head as long as a goat’s; in 
18s5< there was a Polish girl, aged 15, who had sixteen corns growing on differ- 
ent parts of her body —one springing even from the knee. Dr. Decaisne says 
that, relatively, our feet are not less deformed than those of Chinese ladies—the 
imprisonment of the foot being only the difference of degrees. Paring is the cure 
for welts; extraction for corns; caustic agencies ought to be aveided.—F. C. 
Lieut. R. M. Berry, of the United States navy, has been ordered to coin- 
mand the steamer Mary and Helen on the proposed Arctic expedition in search 
of the Jeannette. Secretary Hunt furnished Lieut. Berry with a list of the naval 
officers who volunteered for the service, and he will be guided by any preferences 
he may entertain in the make-up of the detail of officers who will serve under him. 
