226 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 275 



cavities were Icept clean by a mild antiseptic solution, the frequency 

 of diphtheritic inflammation would be decidedly reduced. 



In the discussion which followed, Dr. A. Jacobi, president of the 

 academy, said that he believed it to be true that the diphtheritic 

 poison could remain in the mucous membrane, and particularly in 

 the neighboring lymphatic glands. Persons with a healthy mouth 

 and pharynx were less easily infected than those who had catarrh 

 of any form. The slightest scratch might give rise to erysipelas, 

 and the same was true of diphtheria. One point in the prevention 

 of diphtheria was of great importance : everybody had seen cases 

 in which the patient was apparently about getting well, but sud- 

 denly had a new attack ; and the attacks might thus be renewed 

 four or five times. This was due to infection from the curtains or 

 other things in the room occupied by the sick. In these cases pre- 

 vention of renewed attacks was possible. If there were only two 

 rooms, the child should be transferred from the one to the other at 

 intervals of a few days, and the vacant room cleansed and thoroughly 

 ventilated, and, if possible, disinfected. Dr. Holt believed that 

 enlarged tonsils favored the development, and made the attack 

 more severe. 



Diphtheria carried by Turkeys. — Dr. Paulinis, in the 

 Bulletin Medical, reports a most interesting epidemic of diphtheria 

 which occurred in Skiatos, one of the Grecian isles, in the year 

 1884. The population of this island at the time was about four 

 thousand. Dr. Bild, an old practitioner, is the authority for the 

 statement that for thirty years no case of diphtheria had been known 

 on the island. In June a child aged twelve years was attacked 

 with diphtheria, and died. Seven other cases occurred in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood : five of these died. The disease extended, 

 until, within a period of five months, one hundred persons were at- 

 tacked, of which number thirty-six died. Three weeks before the 

 sickness of the first child, a flock of turkeys arrived from Salonica. 

 Two of these were sick on arrival, and each of the others was sub- 

 sequently attacked. Dr. Paulinis found in the throats of the sick 

 ones patches of false membrane. The glands of the neck were 

 swollen, and in one bird the disease had extended to the larynx, 

 making it hoarse. One of the turkeys, after recovery, had paralysis 

 of the legs, and was unable to walk. Although there had been no 

 immediate contact between the sick birds and the first child at- 

 tacked, still the distance between them was slight, and a wind had 

 been for some time blowing in a direction favorable to the trans- 

 portation of the disease. Dr. Paulinis believed that the disease 

 was contracted from the turkeys, its germs being carried by the cur- 

 rents of air. 



Lead in Water. — From a report on the recent progress in 

 public hygiene by Dr. Samuel W. Abbott to the Boston Medical 

 and Surgical Jou7-nal, we abstract the following : In Sheffield, 

 England, cases of lead-poisoning have been very frequent ; during 

 the past winter there has been an alarming increase, the number 

 amounting to several hundred. On inquiry, it was found that these 

 were quite exclusively among the population supplied from the high- 

 service reservoir, in the water of which lead was found in quantity 

 varying from half a grain to one and a quarter grains per gallon. 

 This water was found to be distinctly acid, claimed to be of vege- 

 table origin, arising from the peat upon the moors. To neutralize 

 this acid, and thus prevent its dissolving the lead in the pipes, blocks 

 of limestone have been placed in the conduit by the water com- 

 pany. The public analyst does not approve of this, saying that too 

 much limestone will injure the water, and render it as liable to act 

 on lead as if it had not been thus treated. He advises that the lime 

 be introduced regularly and constantly in powder, or as milk of lime. 

 Charcoal filters have been efficacious in removing the lead, in con- 

 sequence of the phosphates contained in the animal charcoal used, 

 forming an insoluble phosphate of lead. 



Pure Water for Vienna. — Since the introduction into 

 Vienna of a pure water-supply, the mortality from typhoid-fever 

 has been greatly reduced, as well as that from other diseases. Since 

 1880 there has not been a death from dysentery in the city. Up to 

 1861 there were ten thousand wells in use in the city, and also pub- 

 lic and private aqueducts bringing water from the Danube Canal. 

 Although it is not so stated, we infer that these all have been aban- 



doned. As a result of this improvement in the public health of 

 Vienna, it would appear that water is the principal agent in the 

 transmission of typhoid-fever, and that, in order to cause this dis- 

 ease almost entirely to disappear from a large city where it is en- 

 demic, it is only necessary to furnish to the inhabitants water of un- 

 questionable purity, and in sufficient quantity. 



Disinfection of Library Books. — The danger of infection 

 from the use of books from circulating libraries has received intelli- 

 gent attention in England, and means have been devised for their 

 disinfection. The principal on which disinfection is based is the 

 vaporization of carbolic acid by heat, whereby it is claimed that its 

 action is more potent. Heat is applied to the outer casing of an 

 apparatus, which is fully under control, so that a temperature 

 which might injure the books can be avoided. The heat employed 

 is from 150" to 200*^ F., the books being subjected to this tempera- 

 ture for fifteen minutes, and not injured by the process. The ap- 

 paratus is said to be patented. 



Morphine Habit in Paris. — It is said that in Paris thou- 

 sands of women are cutting short their careers by the use of mor- 

 phine. Morphine disks are dissolved in a small bottle of water, and 

 this is placed in a case which includes a tiny syringe. The whole 

 apparatus is of a miniature description, and can be conveniently 

 carried inside the smallest muff. The vice has become so fashion- 

 able that women actually fill their syringes before starting for the 

 theatre, and thus have the means at their disposal, any moment, of 

 injecting themselves with the drug while lounging in ihtfauteiiils 

 or in their boxes. 



Pasteur. — Pasteur and his treatment of hydrophobia — two 

 topics which occupied the attention of the scientific world for so 

 long a time — have hardly received even a mention of late either 

 in the medical or the popular journals. Two of the patients treated 

 by Pasteur for rabies have died during the present year. One of 

 these was a boy, aged four, who was bitten by a mad dog on Dec. 6 

 last, and was under treatment at Pasteur's Institute from the 12th 

 of December, 1887, until the 7th of January this year. He died of 

 hydrophobia on Jan. 23. The second case was that of a woman, 

 aged fifty-two. She was bitten on Jan. 23 of the present year, and 

 was placed under Pasteur's treatment on Jan. 29. She died on 

 Feb. 17 of hydrophobia. 



Illuminating-Gas. — A remonstrance largely signed by the 

 physicians of Massachusetts has been presented to the Legislature 

 of that State against the passage of any law allowing the manufac- 

 ture of illuminating-gas containing more than ten per cent of car- 

 bonic oxide, as the intensely poisonous properties of that element 

 of gas are well known, and are dangerous to health and life. 



Typhoid Vaccination. — Chantemesse and Vidal communi- 

 cated to the Societe de Biologic some interesting observations on 

 vaccination against typhoid-fever, claiming that in mice inoculated 

 with cultures of typhoid bacilli a disease is produced with lesions 

 the same as in human typhoid-fever. Mice inoculated with bouillon 

 in which colonies have lived, but which no longer contain the ba- 

 cilli, resist subsequent inoculation with the most intense typhoid 

 virus. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 

 Central Station Lighting. 



One of the most interesting and important contributions to the 

 question of alternating versus continuous currents for electrical dis- 

 tribution is the paper of Mr. Crompton, read before the English 

 Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians. Mr. Crompton 

 takes up the questions of expense of installation and of working, 

 for two stations ; one using alternating currents, the other using 

 continuous currents and storage-batteries. The estimate for in- 

 stallation differs slightly from that given in a previous paper by the 

 same author, an abstract of which was given in this journal, and 

 enters much more into detail. 



Mr. Crompton considers the cost for 10,000 lamps, to be supplied 

 at one time from the central station. For the batteries the plan he 

 advocates is the establishment of sub-stations where the storage- 

 cells are to-be placed. The lamp-circuits are permanently con- 



