u6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gout, or they will never be free from untoward symptoms, and 

 will become miserable. Water-drinking at this stage of our 

 social evolution is not, I feel very sure, the summum bonum for 

 humanity. 



The tendency to drink whisky, now so common, is not all due 

 to medical prescription, as is often alleged. If good wines were 

 readily procurable at fair prices, especially at hotels, more would 

 be drunk. People resort to whisky because they know it is com- 

 monly to be depended on, whereas wine is dear and bad, and they 

 seek at once to relieve their digestion and save their purses. They 

 take far more alcohol, and lose the wholesomeness of the many 

 other good things to be found in a moderate use of honest and 

 sound wine. " Cheap claret " has done no good in England, but 

 much harm, and intelligent persons now hardly know the differ- 

 ence between a vintage of the Me'doc and the abominable stuffs 

 that issue from Bordeaux, gathered from all other wine-growing 

 countries, and called " claret." This has been well termed " red 

 ink at a shilling, or, it may be, six shillings, a bottle." These 

 compounds are disastrous to digestion, and it is small wonder that 

 invalids and others resort to whisky. Real Me'doc wine is never 

 advertised for sale, but consumers have now ready means of 

 knowing where to procure it. 



The present agitations in favor of temperance, which should 

 rather be termed efforts to abolish all alcoholic drinks, have, I 

 believe, led members of our profession to neglect this important 

 part of the subject of dietetics, and prevented their gaining an ade- 

 quate knowledge of the nature and qualities of wine, a knowledge 

 every physician should possess. Were this more commonly in 

 possession, we should not hear such discrepant statements respect- 

 ing wines dogmatically laid down by members of our profession. 



Perhaps I should offer an apology for many of the remarks I 

 have ventured to make in this communication, both because I 

 have set down little that is new, and may also have appeared to 

 uproot some well-grown opinions. I will only add, however, that 

 I believe I have stated nothing that will not be found to be true 

 and helpful in the daily practice of our art. — The Practitioner. 



A novelty in scientific photography is the photograph of a meteor, which was 

 obtained by Mr. John E. Lewis, of Ansonia, Conn., while trying to photograph 

 Holmes's comet. The path of the meteor is shown as a bright, clear-cut, almost 

 straight diagonal line running across the plate, and reaching across about eighteen 

 degrees of the heavens. Where the line enters the field it shows minute varia- 

 tions indicating irregularities in the amount of the meteor's light ; the rest of the 

 line is sharp and level, and of about the breadth of a lead-pencil mark. At every 

 point it appears brighter after only an instantaneous exposure than any of the 

 stars, which were subjected to an exposure of thirty-three minutes. 



