480 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 123. 



tion between the muddy discharge of the Mis- 

 sissippi, following the right or west bank, and 

 the clear water from the Ohio along the left or 

 east bank, is apparent at times to the eye 

 for twenty or thirty miles, and to the sediment 

 trap for ten times this distance. At Columbus, 

 twenty miles below Cairo, the amount of sedi- 

 ment per unit of measure has been observed 

 three or four times greater on the west than on 

 the east side of the river. But these compara- 

 tive surveys show that the caving on the right 

 or west bank, washed by the muddy water, is 

 greater, both in length of bank and in area 

 and bulk, than it is on the opposite shore, 

 where the water is undercharged with sediment. 

 The length of river from which this conclusion 

 is drawn (230 miles) is thought to be great 

 enough to eliminate any local or abnormal in- 

 fluences on velocity, or material of bank. 



B. M. Harrod. 



AMERICAN CLIMATOLOGICAL ASSO- 

 CIA TION. 



The second annual session of the American cli- 

 niatological association was held at the hall of the 

 Academy of medicine in New York, May 27 and 28; 

 the president, Dr. A. L. Loomis, in the chair. This 

 association was organized a year ago in Washing- 

 ton, for the study of climatology and diseases of the 

 respiratory organs. 



In the opening address, on the afternoon of the 

 27th, the president expressed the opinion that the 

 scope of the society's work ought to be enlarged, so 

 as to include the study of affections of the vascular 

 system and other diseases, as well as to investigate 

 more systematically the subjects of sanitaria and of 

 mineral springs. This suggestion was afterwards 

 adopted. 



In Europe the study of these subjects had gone 

 much farther than in America, and it was becoming 

 more and more common for European physicians to 

 treat their patients by prescribing residence for great- 

 er or less time at sanitaria especially adapted to their 

 diseases. That such was not the case in America 

 was not due to the lack in this country of the cli- 

 mates which possessed the necessary beneficial quali- 

 ties, but to the lack of systematic study of the subject 

 by the medical profession, as well as to the imperfect 

 provision for the wants of invalids at our health 

 resorts. The attempt to remedy these deficiencies 

 was one of the main objects of the association. 



As a model of what was desirable to encourage in 

 the way of sanitaria, the president described one in 

 the Adirondacks, devised to meet the wants of inva- 

 lids of limited means, where, for a small sum, accom- 

 modation is provided in cottages for two or four 

 patients, with a common dining-hall; also tents, etc., 

 for those who are able to camp out ; the whole under 

 the charge of a medical board and an attending 

 physician. 



After speaking of the causes of pulmonary phthisis, 

 Dr. Loomis said that the objects to be accomplished 

 in the treatment of the disease are two, — to improve 

 the general condition of the patient ; and to stop the 

 local disorder in the lungs, preventing the entrance 

 and multiplication of the bacilli tuberculosis. Good 

 climate is a potent means of accomplishing both 

 these ends. Good climate means pure air, and it 

 must be determined by clinical experience. 



The amount of moisture in the atmosphere is not 

 an index; for the only dampness injurious to the 

 phthisical patient is that exhaled from the soil, laden 

 as it is with organic matter. The nature of the soil 

 is therefore of prime importance. It must be light 

 and porous, admitting of good drainage. A clayey 

 soil is necessarily bad. 



Dr. Beverly Robinson of New York read a paper on 

 antiseptic inhalations, instancing cases in which he 

 had obtained decided benefit, especially in the way of 

 alleviating cough by this method of treatment. The 

 vapor of antiseptics was applied by means of a res- 

 pirator worn over the nose or mouth, or both, from 

 one to two hours a day in some cases, and nearly all 

 the time in others. 



' Catarrhal affections of the nasal cavities as a cause 

 of pulmonary phthisis,' was the title of a paper by 

 Dr. W. C. Jarvis of New York. The position taken 

 was, that consumption can be traced, in many in- 

 stances, to a catarrhal condition of the larynx, which 

 in its turn is induced by the irritating effect of 

 the discharges from the pharynx and nasal cavities, 

 the catarrhal condition in this situation being due to 

 a deflected nasal septum. In the discussion which 

 followed, it became evident that the members pres- 

 ent were not in accordance with Dr. Jarvis' s novel 

 views. 



The event of the evening session was the presenta- 

 tion, by Dr. H. F. Williams of Brooklyn, of his pneu- 

 matic cabinet, with histories of cases of consumption 

 treated therewith. The cabinet consists of an air- 

 tight iron safe, with a plate-glass front, perforated 

 near the middle with an opening about an inch in 

 diameter, through which passes a rubber tube, so 

 arranged that the patient can hold the end of it in 

 his mouth as he sits upon a low stool in the cabinet. 

 When the cabinet is closed, this tube forms the only 

 means of communication with the external atmos- 

 phere. The patient having taken his seat, and placed 

 the end of the tube in his mouth, the door of the 

 cabinet is closed, and the air within slightly rarified 

 by means of a few strokes of an air-pump. By this 

 process the body is surrounded by a rarified atmos- 

 phere, while the respiratory passages are in commu- 

 nication with the outer air: the patient is therefore 

 breathing from an atmosphere of greater density than 

 that surrounding his body, with the effect of expand- 

 ing the chest, bringing the lower part of the respira- 

 tory organs into play, and affording valuable exercise 

 of muscles of respiration. Dr. Williams also claims 

 that with its aid antiseptic sprays and vapors can be 

 carried much deeper into the lungs than by any other 

 m ethod . The paper an d demonstrations excited much 

 interest, and a number of gentlemen expressed them- 



