March 2, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



103 



of persons who handle rags, but absolutely numerous enough to 

 show that unvaccinated workers in rags are exposed to an actual, if 

 not imminent, danger of infection from this source. 



2. The source of this infection is more frequently domestic than 

 foreign rags, though the disease has been caused by the latter- 

 This possibility of infection through imported rags accords with 

 what is known of the tenacity of life of the variolous poison. 



3. Among the rarer means whereby cholera is transmitted are 

 textile fabrics infected with choleraic discharges. There is evidence 

 that clothing from cholera patients, and possibly clothing merely 

 packed in an infected locality, has, when transported to a distance 

 and there unpacked, caused the disease in those who have handled 

 it, thus starting a fresh cholera focus. A proper distinction exists 

 between clothing, on the one hand, recently removed from the 

 body, and again, not long after, put on to the body ; and rags, on 

 the other hand, which, if transported to this country, are certain to 

 have undergone a carefully discriminative sorting and drying, and 

 to have spent a considerable time in warehouse and on ship- 

 board. 



4. The statement that cholera has been transmitted by paper- 

 rags rests upon a solitary case, of v/hich the details are not com- 

 plete, and on the reliability of which some of the highest authorities 

 on cholera have cast doubt. If the case be accepted, it is one of 

 infection by dotnesiic rags, carried only fifty miles from their place 

 of collection. 



5. An epidemic affection, known as ' rag-sorters' disease,' appears 

 to have broken out on three or four occasions in European paper- 

 mills. It was probably, though not certainly, the disease called 

 ' anthrax.' 



6. Authenticated instances are not to be found in which the other 

 infectious diseases — typhus and typhoid fevers, scarlet-fever, 

 measles, and diphtheria — have been transmitted through rags '< 

 though it is to be said that such evidence, supposing the fact to 

 exist, would be very difficult to get. Neither do the mortality tables, 

 as shown by registration reports, show a preponderance of deaths 

 from these diseases in the paper-making towns. 



7. There is no evidence to show that rag-sorters as a class are, 

 except for occasional cases of small-pox and a certain amount of 

 pulmonary irritation from the dust of improperly ventilated rooms, 

 less healthy than other persons engaged in in-door manual occupa- 

 tions. 



8. Despite the fact that cholera is not known to have ever been 

 conveyed to this or any other country in foreign-baled rags, it is a 

 reasonable precaution to prohibit the landing in any United States 

 port of rags gathered in epidemically infected localities, in view of 

 the possibility that among such rags there may have been thrown 

 articles of infected clothing which have not been sufficiently dried 

 and aired, or have not occupied enough time in their transportation 

 to be devoid of danger. Such prohibitions should be limited to the 

 time and place of epidemic infection ; but all necessary precautions 

 should be taken to make sure that rags shipped from a healthy 

 port were not gathered or baled in an infected place. 



9. As the only safeguard against the occurrence of small-pox 

 among operatives, paper-mill owners, whether ' incorporated com- 

 panies ' within the purview of the statute or not, should make evi- 

 dence of successful vaccination an absolute prerequisite to the em- 

 ployment of any person in the mill, and a re-vaccination at regular 

 intervals (not merely on the occurrence of an epidemic in the neigh- 

 borhood) a condition of being retained in their employ. 



10. As the contagion of small-pox, phthisis, and perhaps other 

 diseases, is capable of being inspired when the particles carrying it 

 are suspended in the air in the form of dust ; and as dust, even 

 when it carries no contagion, is irritating to the respiratory pas- 

 sages, — every mill should have, in connection with each table in 

 the rag-room and in the dusting-room, a ventilating system, pref- 

 erably consisting of flues connected with an exhaust-fan, so that 

 the dust, as fast as it is disengaged, may be withdrawn from the 

 air. The success which attends the working of such an apparatus, 

 in some mills where it is in use, is a sufficient warrant for its gen- 

 eral introduction. 



11. A law similar to that of Great Britain (Section 125 of the 

 Public Health Act of 1875), imposing a penalty on the selling or 

 giving-away of infected rags from persons sick with any dangerous 



disease, seems desirable. Public institutions and private house- 

 holders should be obliged (and not, as at present, simply advised) 

 to insure the disinfection of the more valuable articles, and the de- 

 si ruction by fire of all rags, that have been thus exposed. 



12. As domestic rags comprise more than half those used, and 

 represent a still larger proportion of the mfection likely to be car- 

 ried, it follows that they should participate in whatever disinfection 

 is thought necessary. This fact points to the paper-mill as the 

 proper place for making such disinfection. The sulphur process 

 would doubtless afford the least embarrassment to the manu- 

 facturer ; the bales being opened in a tightly closed room, the rags 

 being spread on racks, and sulphur burned in the proportion of 

 two pounds to each one thousand cubic feet of space. The in- 

 troduction of steam under pressure, the rags being similarly dis- 

 posed, would be the most effective disinfection possible, but would 

 dampen the rags to their injury, unless the moisture were dried out 

 at once with a current of hot air. 



Electrical Bullet-Probe. — At a recent meeting of the 

 New York Academy of Medicine, Dr. Girdner of New York ex- 

 hibited his telephonic bullet-probe. The interesting feature of this 

 probe is that it is operated by a current of electricity extracted 

 from the body of the patient himself, in whom it is desired to locate 

 a metallic missile. The construction of this probe is as follows: to 

 each of the two terminals of a telephone-receiver, an insulated flex- 

 ible wire about four feet long is connected. At the free end of one 

 of these wires a hollow, bulbous piece of steel is attached. At the 

 free end of the other wire is a suitable handle in which a probe may 

 be placed, and held by a clamp-screw. The internal arrangement 

 of the handle is such that a perfect electrical contact exists between 

 the end of the probe and that of the wire which terminates in the 

 handle : the same is true for the end of the other wire and the steel 

 bulb. When a current of electricity is passed through the coil in 

 the receiver by means of the bulb and the probe, each time that the 

 current is made and broken a clicking or rasping sound is heard in 

 the receiver held to the ear. All sounds are shut out except that 

 heard when the bullet is touched ; and the apparatus is so con- 

 structed that both hands are left free. In describing the application 

 of this probe. Dr. Girdner mentioned a case seen in practice, in 

 which a musket-ball had lain between the bones of the leg for 

 twenty-two years. When an ordinary probe was passed, hard sub- 

 stances could be felt in many places, but it could not be told whether 

 they were bone or bullet. The porcelain probe, invented by the 

 distinguished French surgeon, Nelaton, was of no use, as the bullet 

 was so covered by a thick crust of salts of lead as not to be 

 marked when it was rubbed against the bullet. When the telephon- 

 ic probe was passed, no response came so long as bone and other 

 tissues were touched ; but, the moment the probe came in contact 

 with the bullet, a clicking and rasping sound was heard in the tele- 

 phone. During this test the steel bulb was held in the patient's 

 mouth. A more detailed description of the probe, with illustrations, 

 may be found in the New York Medical Record ai Feb. 4, 1888. 



Medical Colleges in the United States. — The last an- 

 nual report of the State Board of Health of Illinois contains some 

 very interesting statistics in reference to medical education in the 

 United States. Since 1886 there have been two new medical colleges 

 established, and two have ceased to exist. There are now 114 

 colleges which exact an educational requirement of intending ma- 

 triculates, as against 45 formerly, there being no change in this 

 respect from the previous year ; 43 colleges now exact attendance 

 upon three or more courses of lectures, as against 22 formerly, — 

 being a gain of two over 1SS6, — and 57 others make provision for 

 a three or four years' graded course. Hygiene in now taught in 

 114, and medical jurisprudence in 112 colleges, as against 42 and 

 61 respectively prior to 1883. There is an increase in the average 

 of lecture-terms from 23.5 weeks to 24.9 weeks during this period; 

 and 114 colleges now have terms of five months or over, and 63 

 have terms of six months or over, as compared with loi and 42 

 respectively. There is only one medical college that has a course 

 less than twenty weeks, the Medical College of Georgia. In 1882- 

 83, out of every 1,000 matriculates, 322 were graduated, taking 

 both the United States and Canada and all schools of practice into 

 the account. In 1886-87 only 294 out of every 1,000 matriculates 



