Febrttabt 25,^ 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



187 



hectolitres of alcohol consumed annually, scarce- 

 ly 25,000 hectolitres are pure ethylic alcohol made 

 from grapes, — and other alcohols are real poisons, 

 as may easily be shown. To kill an animal it re- 

 quires about 7 grams of ethylic alcohol per 

 kilogram of the animal's weight, while of amylic 

 alcohol it requires only about 1 gram. To pro- 

 duce death in a man of 80 kilograms weight, it 

 would require 620 grams of the pure alcohol, but 

 only 88 of the other. Alcoholism is therefore pro- 

 duced seven times sooner with the latter than 

 with the former. 



It is now fifty years since the first railroad was 

 built in France, and the fiftieth anniversary is 

 being celebrated in the Bois de Vincennes. But 

 the railroad companies prefer to wait and celebrate 

 this anniversary during the exhibition of 1889, so 

 it is likely that the present celebration will be a 

 failure. 



At a recent meeting of the Academy of 

 sciences, M. Hayem of the medical school read 

 a paper on the phenomena noticed in the head 

 of an animal after decapitation, with or with- 

 out transfusion of fresh blood. As soon as 

 the head is separated from the body the eyes 

 move convulsively, and a look of wonder and 

 anxiety is noticeable on the face. The jaws sep- 

 arate with force, and the tongue seems to be in a 

 tetanic state. There appears to be some conscious- 

 ness of what is going on, but this does not last 

 more than three or four seconds. The eyes then 

 shrink into the head, and some spasmodic efforts 

 at breathing are made ; the nostrils expand, the 

 mouth opens, the tongue is retracted towards the 

 fauces. This respiratory effort is repeated three 

 or four times, but the senses seem to be inactive, 

 and the will is lost. These phenomena last one or 

 at most two minutes, and the head then becomes 

 utterly inert. If preparations have previously 

 been made so that the head after separation con- 

 tinues to receive a fresh supply of blood, the vol- 

 untary manifestations persist as long as the blood 

 supply is sufficient, — that is, for half an hour or 

 so. When a blood-supply is furnished after the 

 head has become entirely motionless, the phe- 

 nomena are as follows : some contractions, very 

 week and feeble, take place, especially in the 

 muscles of the lips ; then some respiratory efforts ; 

 reflex actions of the eye, first weak, then well 

 marked, but the eyelids remain drooping ; the 

 senses are quite asleep, and no will is manifested. 

 Of course, the longer the period between decapita- 

 tion and the restoration of blood supply, the longer 

 the time before these phenomena are ajjparent. 

 In conclusion, it may be assumed that decapi- 

 tation does not produce instantaneous death. 

 Conscious life and feeling continue for a few sec- 



onds. Whether or not pain is felt during this 

 brief period cannot be ascertained, most likely not, 

 owing to the rapid death of nervous elements, 

 with which alone ^sensation is concerned. 



M. J. Schoenfeld has recently devised an in- 

 genious method of wi-itten communication be- 

 tween blind persons and those who can see. In- 

 stead of printing the letter p, for instance, in relief 

 as in other systems, a combination of pointed pro- 

 jections or stops, — as we will call them for con- 

 venience, — is used. These stops are of conical 

 form, such as may be produced upon one side of 

 a piece of paper by pressing lightly upon the other 

 side with a sharpely pointed pencil. The number 

 of stops used is six, an-anged in two parallel 

 columns of three each, thus '■'■ , and numbered 

 consecutively from one to six, 1, 2, and 3 running 

 dow^n the first column, and 4, 5, and 6 down the 

 second. In this system the letter o is represented, 

 thus [• , and r thus •• , — and as these signs are 

 in relief they may be read as well by the eye as 

 by the touch. The letter o, as we perceive, is a 

 combination of the stops numbered 1, 3, and 5, — 

 2, 4, and 6 being omitted. The letter r is com- 

 posed of the Slops numbered 1, 2, 3, and 5 ; and 

 so on, each letter being represented by a different 

 combination of two or more of the stops. By the 

 aid of a list of all the combinations used and of 

 the letters to which they correspond, this system 

 is easily learned, and it may be as easily read by 

 the blind as the relief print now used. 



A very useful though little known laboratory in 

 Paris is that devoted to anthropometry, as applied 

 to the identification of criminals. It is popularly 

 called the ' Feet-bureau.' The reason for this 

 peculiar name will be found farther on. In this 

 laboratory every criminal, when taken into cus- 

 tody, is submitted to a thorough anthropometrical 

 examination. He is divested of all clothing, and 

 the form and dimensions of his head, face, fingers, 

 feet, body, etc., are accurately noted down, and 

 his face is photographed. There is already a col- 

 lection of some sixty thousand photographs, and 

 how can any particular photograph in this large 

 collection be quickly found when required ? This 

 is the way M. Bertillon, the able director of the 

 bureau, has classified them, so that he can readily 

 find a photograph by which to identify any crim- 

 inal whose picture is in the collection. The photo- 

 graphs are divided into three groups, accox'dingto 

 the age of the criminal. Each of these groups is 

 subdivided into three classes, according to the 

 height of the person. A further subdivision of 

 these classes is based upon the length of the head, 

 and a final subdivision is governed by the length 

 of the feet, — hence the name ' feet-bureau.' By 

 this arrangement any desired picture among the 



