30 



SCIJENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 206 



A man who walks about the streets, and who 

 receives crowds of visitors daily, may, by the 

 aid of an intelligent friend, obtain food in spite 

 of the strictest surveillance. On the other hand, 

 in these experioients more attention ought to be 

 given to variations in weight, hourly as well as 

 daily, and also to the excretion of urea. If these 

 points were carefully studied, interesting and 

 useful facts could be learned, and a better control 

 of tbe patient secured. Of course, these experi- 

 ments of Succi and Merlatti have brought for- 

 ward numerous imitators, and many Italians may 

 be met here who profess to be able to fast three, 

 four, or even six months. Some, like Succi, pre- 

 tend to possess a marvellous liquor; others, like 

 Merlatti, do not. There is one faster in Brussels, 

 another in London, a third in Algiers, while 

 others flock in to Paris from different towns ; 

 and the daily papers publish a great number of 

 anecdotes of persons of all descriptions and ages 

 and colors who have lived longer or shorter 

 periods of time without taking a morsel of food. 

 But these stories are not much believed in. Many 

 comments have been drawn forth from medical 

 quarters by the fasting experiments mentioned, 

 M. Bernheim of Nancy offering the ingenious 

 suggestion that they may be accounted for on 

 a theory of ' auto-suggestion.' 



A w^ork of much interest was begun some time 

 ago in Cairo, — that of disinterring the Sphinx of 

 Giseh. According to the latest reports, about 

 one-third of the sand in which it is embedded has 

 already been removed. The fore-paws and the 

 right side have been partially brought to view. 

 The paws were not hewn in the stone, as the rest 

 had been, but were built up of bricks, owing, no 

 doubt, to the less solid nature of that part of the 

 stone in which they would otherwise have been 

 carved. Viewed from above, the disinterred 

 part seems inharmonious, but a judgment as to 

 the general effect cannot be formed until the 

 sand is entirely removed. It may then prove to 

 be of less harmonious proportions than such 

 monuments generally are ; and in that case, as 

 M. Maspero thinks, it must be ascribed to an age 

 more remote than that of the pjrramids. 



The conseil general of the department of the 

 Seine decided at a recent meeting that it would 

 be necessary to create a laboratory for the study 

 of contagious diseases of animals. This is for the 

 special purpose of preventing diseased meat from 

 being introduced and sold in Paris. 



A curious lawsuit is pending before the court 

 of justice of Paris. It is especially curious on 

 account of the facts upon which it is based, the 

 pretended discovery of a method of extracting 

 considerable amounts of gold from buhr-stone, 



a siliceous stone of tertiary formation, very 

 abundant in the neighborhood of Paris. One 

 chemist has declared, that, by the aid of this new 

 method, from three to two hundred and forty 

 grams of gold may be extracted from each ton of 

 stone. Another says he has found as high as five 

 hundred grams per ton, besides silver and other 

 metals. On the other hand, civil engineers say 

 they have not found an atom of the precious 

 metal in the stone. Three hundred dollars in 

 gold would certainly seem a pretty good yield for 

 that sort of rock ; but the whole thing seems 

 chimerical yet, and the people who have invested 

 their money in the business say it does not pay at 

 all. They do not believe in the method now, and 

 have begun suit against the inventor to recover the 

 coined gold he extracted from them. 



Professor Lepine of Lyons has published in the 

 Semaine medicale a paper on the physiological 

 action of a newly discovered antipyretic or anti- 

 febrile, studied by MM. Cahn and Hepp of Stras- 

 burg a short time ago. This antifebrile does not 

 affect the healthy organism when given in a fifty- 

 centigram dose. If a greater quantity is given 

 (double or treble the dose mentioned), there may 

 be present some cephalalgia, with cyanosis. When 

 given to feverish patients, it abates the fever in a 

 marked manner. It must be given at the highest 

 point of the daily rise of fever, or, better, an 

 hour before, in caie the precise moment is known 

 beforehand. The dose of fifty centigrams is the 

 one usually preferred. The patient derives great 

 benefit, the body temperature remaining nor- 

 mal or low, the heart pulsating with the same or 

 increased energy, with a general feeling of well- 

 being present. Some very remarkable cures have 

 been effected in cases of typhoid and malarial 

 fever. Professor Lepine speaks very highly of the 

 antifebrile in cases of feber dorsalis as an agent to 

 be used when neuralgic pains — so very rebel- 

 lious and troublesome to the patient — are present. 

 One or two fifty-centigram doses are enough in 

 most cases, and the pains disappear in about half 

 an hour. This fact, a useful one to know, had 

 not been heretofore noticed. V. 



Paris, Dec. 20. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The administration of General Hazen as chief 

 signal officer is to be credited with the organiza- 

 tion and encouragement of our system of state 

 weather-services, which is rapidly extending in 

 all parts of the country. This work is especially 

 in charge of Lieutenant Dunwoody, and local ser- 

 vices are now established in Louisiana, Alabama, 

 Nebraska, Mississippi, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio 

 (by legislative enactment, making an appropri- 



