June 29, 1888.] 



SCIENCR 



307 



which had lain dormant in Osaka the preceding year, there being 

 no trace of a fresh introduction. Osaka, in the autumn of the pre- 

 ceding year, had been invaded by the disease from Nagasaki ; but 

 after some thirty days of prevalence the epidemic gradually declined 

 with the approach of the colder season, though it did not then en- 

 tirely disappear. One or two cases kept occurring continually over 

 into the next year, until, on the 2d of January, there were five cases 

 reported in the western and southern districts of the city and in the 

 ku of Sakai. On the 3d, five more cases were reported in the three 

 ku of the west, south, and north, and the ku of Sakai. From this 

 time forward, the number of cases gradually increased until the 

 approach of the warmer season, toward the end of April, when it 

 had spread all over the city, where it raged up to the end of Octo- 

 ber. During the epidemic, there were ninety-nine days in which 

 the daily number of cases reported was over one hundred, and four 

 days when there were two hundred. Indeed, it was the most se- 

 vere epidemic ever known in Osaka. 



" The situation of Osaka is such that it undoubtedly favors the 

 propagation of an epidemic ; for the water of the Yodo River, being 

 conducted through the city by canals in various directions, besides 

 furnishing a convenient roadway for transportation and water traf- 

 fic, also receives the contents of the drains of the city, while at the 

 same time it supplies the city with drinking-water. 



" The wells, keeping the same level with the canals, freely com- 

 municate with each other, and thus the drinking-water of the city 

 is more or less mingled with the water of the drains. Such, then, 

 being the situation of Osaka, when an epidemic appears, the same 

 convenience for the transportation of goods furnishes an easy me- 

 dium for the propagation of disease. It is not strange, then, that 

 since the tenth year of Meiji (1S77), whenever an epidemic prevails, 

 the city has been a centre of the epidemic. Moreover, in the pre- 

 ceding year there was much rain after the spring, until finally, in 

 June, the Yodo River overflowed its banks, inundating the streets 

 and houses. Hence the city was rendered very filthy, in consequence 

 of which the concealed germs found a favorable nidus, from which 

 the disease appeared with the return of the warm weather, and 

 finally ravaged the whole city. It is also to be borne in mind, that, 

 as Osaka is the commercial centre of Japan, and has free commu- 

 nication in every direction, it is likely to become the cradle of epi- 

 demics, and therefore whatever has made its appearance in various 

 other localities has had its origin directly or indirectly in Osaka." 



Drunkenness as a Disease. 



Dr. Godding, superintendent of the Government Insane- Asylum 

 in Washington, has written a letter to one of the committees of 

 Congress, in which, while showing that it would be unwise to con- 

 fine inebriates with insane persons, he makes the following inter- 

 esting remarks : — 



" Inebriety as a disease is distinct from insanity. Inebriates re- 

 sent being placed with the insane ; nor are the insane, as a rule, 

 proud of them as associates. Insane from the poison of drink, as 

 they undoubtedly are while the liquor is in them, they now and then 

 get committed to hospitals for the insane, and in their detention 

 during convalescence they afford interesting though unprofitable 

 psychological studies. Dissolute in habit, and idle in life, they are 

 uncomfortable from the start. They are usually fault-finding and 

 impatient at their detention, denouncing every body and everything 

 about them. When quiet and seemingly at ease in their lot. they 

 are studying how to smuggle in whiskey, or effect an escape. In 

 them moral honesty and generous impulses are sadly wanting, 

 and a condition of settled discontent characterizes the enforced 

 abstinence of their hospital life. What they need is occupation and 

 prolonged treatment in an industrial home, where they can be kept 

 at work at enforced labor under the supervision of a judicious phy- 

 sician. As a rule, confinement in idleness does them little or no 

 good." 



The Vacuum Air-Ship again. 



The House Committee on Ventilation and Acoustics recommends 

 the passage of the bill, referred to in Science recently, making an 

 appropriation to build a vacuum air-ship. The conditions of the 

 grant of seventy-five thousand dollars are, that a like sum shall al- 

 ready have been spent upon the construction of the air-ship, and 

 that the secretary of the navy, after an investigation, with the aid 



of a board of engineers, into the plan of the construction of the 

 proposed air-ship, and into the principle upon which it is proposed 

 practically to operate it, shall be satisfied that there is reason to 

 believe the air-ship will prove a success in attaining the ends for 

 which it was designed. The last payment is to be made after a 

 successful trial trip has been made. Dr. A. de Bausset, the inven- 

 tor of this vacuum air-ship, proposes to make it in the form of a 

 tube, air-tight, and cone-shaped at the ends, of steel of sufficient 

 strength to withstand the pressure~of the circumambient air when 

 a vacuum has been produced by pumping all the inside air out of 

 the ship. He says of his plan, " Steel ^If of an inch in thickness 

 has been tested, and has been proven capable of sustaining a press- 

 ure double that of the atmosphere. A cylinder 46 yards in diam- 

 eter, with a total length of 218 yards, if made of this steel, will 

 weigh 260,680 pounds : the volume of air contained in it weighs 

 719,709 pounds, giving an ascensional force of 459,029 pounds if 

 the vacuum were complete." He relies upon an electric motor and 

 a compound exhaust-screw to propel and guide the vessel when 

 afloat. 



Mr. George W. Melville, chief of the Bureau of Steam-Engineer- 

 ing, of the Navy Department, has written to Dr. de Bausset as fol- 

 lows : " I have the honor to inform you that I have looked over 

 many of your computations, and find them correct, and also that 

 the principle and theory of your aeroplane are in the main correct ; 

 but I have not sufficient time to properly study the details of con- 

 struction of the vessel, which would be necessary in order to pass 

 judgment upon it." 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 



Tests of the Tudor Accumulator. 



Professor KohlrauSCH has carried out some experiments on 

 the Tudor accumulator which are not uninteresting. The follow- 

 ing is part of the data obtained : — 



Wei,^ht of plates 29.3 lbs. 



Surface of four positive plates 1.29 sq. ft. 



Volume of acid 6 pts. 



Specific gravity, charged 1.147 



Normal charge rate 5 amperes 



Normal discharge rate 6.5 " 



Internal resistance, charged 015 ohms 



" " discharged 02 '* 



Capacity per pound 1.6 ampere-hours 



The two cells that were tested had been in continuous use from 

 November, 1881, to December, 1887. During the tests they were 

 charged and discharged thirty-four times, and between charge and 

 discharge a period of fifteen hours was allowed to elapse. Six ex- 

 periments showed a total capacity of 47 ampere-hours, an effi- 

 ciency of 82.4 per cent for energy, with a drop of 12.6 per cent in 

 electro-motive force. After this several tests of an abnormal char- 

 acter were made. The cells were charged, and then left alone for 

 various periods of time. There was a loss of about 7 ampfere-hours 

 at first, but after this there was no further loss in a week. When 

 charged with a current of 8 amperes, and discharged at 10 am- 

 peres, the total efficiency was 64.7 per cent. When discharged 

 through a constant resistance, with a current beginning at 50 am- 

 peres, they gave 23,5 ampere-hours and 40.5 watt-hours ; the cur- 

 rent falling from 50 amperes at the start to 40 ampferes at the close, 

 and the electro-motive force from 1.8 volts to 1.3 volts. They were 

 then recharged, and discharged with 90 amperes at the commence- 

 ment and 62 amperes at the end. After this enormous strain, the 

 cells, when recharged, gave their normal discharge just as at first. 

 Lastly, they were run down for four days, starting at i ampere, 

 until the electro-motive force had fallen to 0.2 volts, and the specific 

 gravity of the acid to l.i. The cells were then recharged, and on 

 discharge gave 46.8 ampere-hours, with a total efficiency of 80 per 

 cent. The tests show a length of life of the cell, and a power of 

 resisting abnormal discharge and discharge rates, that is in advance 

 of any thing yet recorded. The storage capacity is, however, low 

 as compared with more recent cells. As, however, it is in length 

 of life and the allowing of heavy discharge rate that the ordinary 

 battery is mainly deficient, these experiments encourage us to be- 

 lieve that in a few more years storage-batteries will have reached 

 the point where their application to traction in cities will be almost 



