July 20, 1S88.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



69 



acid a blue salt would be formed, so no a priori reason- 

 ing, no knowledge of chemical constitution, can predicate 

 what will be the special organ on which any given poison 

 will act, nor, even supposing that the organ upon which 

 the chemical activity of the drug will be exerted be known, 

 what will be the nature of such chemical action. The 

 science of drugs, like the science of chemistry, is, and 

 must ever remain, an experimental science. 



And, be it remembered, the poisons of the toxicologist 

 are the medicines of the physician. Physiological action 

 is a subject-matter for experiment. Let the guard be 

 jealously set and as rigidly maintained to prevent cruelty 

 to animals ; but ask yourselves, whether to rob the higher 

 creation of life and health rather than that one of the 

 lower creation should suffer, be not a refinement of 

 cruelty — the cruelty of cruelties ? 



Two general observations are suggested. And this 

 first : The later age history of poisoning is the history of 

 a profession. This profession we find closely associated, 

 not only with the profession of medicine (the art of heal- 

 ing), but with witchcraft, incantation, and charms. The 

 threefold arts of poisoning, witchcraft, and medicine, 

 moreover, become so closely allied to religion, as to claim, 

 each and all, the shield of a sacred sanction and the 

 protection of a Divine voice. Even that very word 

 rfidp/uaKif, the Greek for ' a dispenser of medicines,' is the 

 same word used to imply 'a witch' and 'a poisoner.' 

 The modern scientist has once and for ever shattered the 

 bond that united science with superstition. It was a 

 special ministry of science to teach men that in the 

 preparation of medicines the pharmacist required no stuffed 

 crocodile to preside over the mysteries of his laboratory, 

 nor incantation to give virtue to his drugs. 



And this secondly : The villanies of the early poisoners 

 can never again be practised in the light of the science of 

 the nineteenth century. Science can and has done what 

 legislation could never do. I claim that a science 

 which, like a blood-hound, can track with cunning scent 

 the minutest atom of a poison in the body, is helping 

 forward the day when poison shall cease to be the 

 instrument of a secret treachery, because there are 

 eyes it cannot hope to evade, and a science whose in- 

 vestigations it will not dare to defy. 



Insect Powders. — These powders, according to a com- 

 munication from M. de Tartaglia to the Echo Universe/, 

 are made from the pyrethrum of the Caucasus, which 

 grows spontaneously in Dalmatia and Albania, and is 

 now the subject of an extensive and lucrative commerce. 

 The plant loves light, calcareous soils, free from damp. 

 The planting is effected in spring and autumn, preserving 

 a distance of two feet between the plants, and carefully 

 removing weeds. The produce for the first year is 

 insignificant ; the second year it repays all expenses, 

 and the third year the plants are covered with flowers. 

 The crop from 2g acres of ground is 10 cwt., and is 

 worth at present about ^200 per cwt. Why is its cul- 

 tivation not attempted in Australia or at the Cape ? 



Sulphonal, the new Soporific. — This newly- dis- 

 covered compound, though itself free from smell or taste, 

 is manufactured from mercaptan, one of the most mal- 

 odorous products known. According to the Medical Press, 

 the manufacturers of sulphonal have, in consequence, 

 some difficulty in finding a place where they may carry 

 on their business without the risk of proceedings for 

 creating a nuisance. 



THE GROWTH OF CHILDREN. 



UNTIL recently it was supposed that the growth of 

 children, and in an analogous manner, of other 

 young mammalian animals was a perfectly continuous 

 process. Accurate measurements and weighings have 

 shown, however, that such is by no means the case, and 

 that, on the contrary, human growth takes place in 

 certain periods, with intervening times of cessation. 



Some interesting data have been recently collected by 

 Malling-Hansen, Principal of and Chaplain to the Royal 

 Institution for Deaf-Mutes at Copenhagen, and have 

 been communicated to Humboldt by Prof. Gadd. 



In this establishment, 130 children — boys and girls 

 — have been daily weighed and measured since the 

 beginning of the year 1884. 



In the weights three main yearly periods of increase 

 may be distinguished — a maximum, a mean, and a mini- 

 mum. The maximum period begins in August and ends 

 in the middle of December, lasting four and a-half 

 months. The mean period lasts from the middle of 

 December to the end of April, tour' and a-half months. 

 The minimum period extends from the end of April to 

 the end of July, three months. During the maximum 

 period, the daily increase of weight is three times as 

 great as in the mean period, and almost all that is gained 

 in this mean period is lost again in the minimum period. 



The increase in height likewise exhibits three main 

 periods, a minimum, a mean, and a maximum. The 

 minimum period begins at Copenhagen in August, and 

 lasts until about the end of November, about three and 

 a-half months. The mean period extends about four 

 months, from the end of November to the end of March. 

 The maximum period lasts from the end of March to the 

 middle of August, four and a-half months. 



In the mean period the daily increase in height is 

 twice as great, and that in the maximum period two and 

 a-half times as much as in the minimum. 



The true period of growth, if we take both height 

 and weight into account, extends from the end of March 

 into December, and may be divided into two parts ; 

 firstly, the maximum increase of height, and then the 

 maximum growth in weight. 



During the latter period, the growth in height is so 

 trifling that it may be regarded as a pause in growth. 



The mean periods of increase both in height and 

 weight coincide for the greater part of their duration, 

 but the growth in height is during this period relatively 

 more considerable than the gain in weight. 



In like manner the minimum period for weight and 

 the maximum for stature are chiefly coincident. The 

 maximum period of growth is the pause of gain in 

 weight, and is even attended with a loss in this respect. 



The periods of height begin and close about a fort- 

 night earlier than the weight-periods. 



The periods of stature follow in an inverse order 

 from the weight-period. The development of stature 

 rises gradually from the minimum through the mean to 

 the maximum, and sinks then suddenly to the minimum. 

 The increase of weight rises at once from the minimum 

 to the maximum, and sinks them slowly through the 

 mean period down to the minimum. 



The fluctuations of the periods of weight are much 

 more considerable than those of the height periods. 



One centimetre (3-8th inch) in height corresponds in 

 the maximum weight period to an increase of 6 lbs. 

 3 ozs. (?) in the mean period to 16 ozs., and in the 

 minimum period to 17 ozs. 



