40 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



By pressing a button, the electric candles can be instantly extinguished or 

 lighted; the light, if too strong, can be modified by adding a chemical — strontia, for 

 example — to the cement, or employing dimmed glass lamps or globes. The light 

 which passes through glass thus dulled resembles that from the moon when at its 

 full, only more intense, since the artificial star is nearer to us. The electric is 

 the only light which can be compared with that of the sun, and, consequently, 

 with that of the moon, which is but the reflection of the sun's; it is complete in 

 the sense that it unites the very numerous and very different rays, whose combi- 

 nation produces upon us the impression of white light. The light from ordinary 

 lamps and gas is incomplete ; the red, orange and yellow rays abound; there are 

 only a few of green, fewer still of blue and none at all of violet. Hence, why 

 the eye cannot recognize by these lights the true colors of a stuff; the contrary 

 is the case with the electric candle. The electric contains more blue and violet 

 rays than solar light, and this is owing to the volatilization of the carbon and the' 

 Voltaic arc, and explains at the same time its wanness, or sickly hue. But these 

 blue and violet rays can be filtrated and transformed into white rays. The elec- 

 tric light radiates no heat nor vitiates the air ; hence, purer atmospheres in thea- 

 ters, etc. It is cheaper than gas by one-third to one-half, and most economical 

 when employed on a large scale — and it is only in this sense that it can be placed 

 in competition with ordinary gas; in every other condition it is simply a luxury. 



Dr. Colin again draws attention to the undiminished mortality from typhus- 

 fever in the barracks situated in Paris and the large cities. This disease alone 

 carries off yearly three soldiers per thousand, or one thousand two hundred in the 

 standing army of 400, 000 men. And this rate continues despite all the severe 

 regulations for securing the comfort and well being of the troops — in the long 

 run, a heavier death-rate than from the cholera. Ordinarily, typhus is most to 

 be dreaded most between eighteen and twenty-four years of age. In the French 

 army the deceases from this malady are most numerous at twenty-two years, and 

 three-fourths of the whole are at the expense of conscripts drawn from rural dis- 

 tricts and thinly populated villages. Dr. Colin attributes the cause to the crowd- 

 ing' together of so many individuals as fatal to life, as monster hospitals are to 

 the sick. 



French surgeons continue to report favorably on the combined employment 

 of morphine and chloroform ; sensibility is not only thus blunted while the patient 

 is undergoing an operation, but he retains also possession of his senses and his 

 intelligence, so far as to be able to answer questions addressed to him. The 

 German doctors apply the name morphioma?iia, to a diseased use of morphia; it 

 is a malady peculiar to the educated and the rich, but above all, to those whose 

 occupations necessitate great mental exertions. Injections of morphine under the 

 skin is the favorite plan for immediately relieving intense pain and sleeplessness ; 

 for a while it becomes a daily necessity, and ultimately a fatal habit. By means 

 of the Pravaz syringe any person can effect the tiny puncture in the skin, and 



