April 8, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



339 



of California. The cominission has deposited 

 during the last few years a large supply of young 

 shad in the Colorado River, and the Albatross 

 will visit the Gulf of California partly with the 

 view of ascertaining the results of this work. The 

 Thetis, which will cruise in Alaskan waters, will 

 also make investigations, and the results of the 

 work in arctic waters will be ioiportant in con- 

 nection with the investigations of the Albatrops. 



— Capt. C. E. Button, chief of the bureau of 

 volcanic geology of the geological survey, will 

 read a paper at the next meeting of the National 

 academy of sciences, which occurs the third week 

 in April, embodying the results of the study of 

 an immense mass of data upon the Charleston 

 earthquake. The recorded rate of motion of 

 earthquakes of history varies from three thousand 

 to nine hundred metres per second. The data 

 upon the Charleston disturbance prove conclu- 

 sively that its earth-waves travelled between four 

 thousand and five thousand metres a second, 

 while French journals containing observations 

 upon the Riviera shock give rates almost as high. 



— It is believed that the departnaent of agricul- 

 ture's new departure in setting up machinery in 

 Washington for winding the silk from cocoons 

 will result in considerable extension of the silk- 

 growing industry in this country. Great interest 

 is manifested in the experiments, and the demands 

 for copies of the bulletin on silkworm culture has 

 made it necessary to issue seven or eight editions. 

 Officials of the department say that the requests 

 for silkworm eggs greatly exceed those received 

 in any previous year since the department began 

 their distribution. As a consequence, it is ex- 

 pected that large quantities of American-grown 

 silk will be placed on the market this year. 



— Commissioner of Agriculture Col man has re- 

 turned to Washington from a recent trip to Lou- 

 isiana to investigate the field for experiments in 

 cane-sugar making by the diffusion process. He 

 speaks highly of the mammoth plantation of 

 Governor Warmouth, which has been selected for 

 the work, and says, that, if the experiments in 

 Louisiana are successful, the planters will be 

 enabled to compete successfully with the beet- 

 sugar interests beyond a doubt. Cane which 

 would ordinarily yield eighty pounds to the ton 

 will yield a hundred and forty pounds under the 

 new process. 



— A curious instance of lead-poisoning is re- 

 ported in the Medical npws by Dr. Bid well of Vine- 

 land, N J. The patient had been distilhng do- 

 mestic wine, using a coil of lead pipe for the 

 worm of the still. Some of the wine had under- 

 gone acetic fermentation ; and the acetic acid, 



being less volatile than the alcohol, had distilled 

 only at the last of the process, when, trickling 

 through the lead pipe, it had taken up and carried 

 with it the poison as sugar-of-lead. The patient 

 had observed a slightly sweetish taste in the 

 brandy which came over last. Some similar 

 cases of lead-poisoning have recently occurred in 

 England, due to the same cause ; the acids of 

 home-made wines having acted upon the glaze 

 of the earthenware vessels in which fermentation 

 has taken place. 



— The assumed fact that plumbers escape dis- 

 ease and infection from the inhalation of sewer- 

 air is often referred to as indicating the harmless- 

 ness of this air or gas. Were all the facts known, 

 this view would undoubtedly be much modified, 

 A recent occurrence in England would seem to 

 prove that men who follow this trade are not so 

 exempt as is generally supposed. An inquest was 

 held during the past month in Liverpool on the 

 body of a plumber's apprentice who had been en- 

 gaged during the previous week in repairing pipes 

 which connected with a sewer. Quantities of gas 

 came through these pipes, and at the time the 

 young man complained of pain and sickness : in 

 forty hours he died. The medical evidence was 

 to ihe effect that death was due to the inhalation 

 of sewer-air, and the jury rendered a verdict to 

 that effect. 



— Dr. Goto, of the Kakaako leper ho?pital in 

 Japan, is said to be able to cure leprosy. Patients 

 are bathed daily in warm water containing an in- 

 fusion of Hichiyon hark, Aesculus lurbinata, and 

 sulphur. They are fed on a generous diet, and 

 take internally the bark of the Hoang-nan tree, 

 besides iron, quinine, and other well-known reme- 

 dies. He reports that five of his patients are ' al- 

 mo>t cured,' nineteen are improving, and seven- 

 teen are relieved. 



— From the British medical journal we extract 

 the following in reference to the duration of in- 

 fectiousness in the diseases named : measles, from 

 the second day. for exactly three weeks ; small- 

 pox, from the first day, under one month, prob- 

 ably three weeks ; scarlet-fever, at about the 

 fourth day, for six or seven weeks ; mumps, un- 

 der three weeks ; diphtheria, under three weeks. 

 While these may be reliable averages, we doubt 

 very much whether any one can fix the exact pe- 

 riod during which any of these diseases may be 

 communicated, as is here done with measles. Some 

 excellent authorities believe, that, even before 

 some of these diseases make their presence known, 

 persons exposed may contract them. 



— Professor Dennis of New York recently made 

 a number of interesting observations to test the 



