October 30, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



395 



tower is just above the surface. The side pro- 

 pellers being then set in motion, the vessel can be 

 sunk to any required depth, there being an auto- 

 matic arrangement by which the engines are 

 stopped dii'ectly that depth is exceeded. An 

 automatic horizontal steering gear also prevents 

 the boat from going down or up headforemost, an 

 even keel being preserved throughout all the man- 

 oeuvres. Should a breakdown of the engine occur, 

 the boat from its own buoyancy at once rises to the 

 surface. The motive power is steam, and as long as 

 the vessel is above water the fires can be stoked, 

 the smoke being driven through two channels, which 

 pass partly round the hull and point aft. When, 

 however, the boat sinks, the fires have to be sealed, 

 and reserve steam is used, which is kept at high 

 pressure in two tanks. With this the boat has 

 been driven for five hours at a speed of three 

 miles an hour. Her speed on the surface is eight 

 knots. The crew numbers three, and during their 

 submarine existence, they have to subsist on the 

 amount of air which they take with them in the 

 hull, in which four men have subsisted for six 

 hours without any especial inconvenience. The 

 boat is sixty-four feet long, and the central 

 diameter is nine feet. The enormous utility of 

 such a vessel as this in naval warfare is at once 

 apparent. Moving without the shghtest apparent 

 sign of existence, she can launch torpedoes against 

 hostile vessels, enter a harbor unperceived, and 

 render useless the most comphcated system of 

 submarine mines. The trial at Landskrona was 

 witnessed by officers representing every European 

 power. 



FOURTH CONGRESS OF GERMAN PHYSI- 

 CIANS, 1885. 



The fact that some of the most important work 

 in medical science is being done in Germany, and 

 that at the congress, whose proceedings have been 

 recently pubhshed,^ some valuable additions to 

 medical knowledge were made, warrants a notice 

 in the columns of Science. 



The first subject discussed by the congress was 

 corpulence. Ebstein advanced the opinion that 

 drugs were of little service in reducing the amount 

 of fat, and that an entire change in the regimen — 

 including both change of diet and of the manner 

 of hving — was necessary. Any method which re- 

 duced the general nutrition, and thus removed 

 fat, was a failure : the fat alone must be removed. 

 The method must not require the individual to 

 give up his business during treatment, else it 

 would not be generaUy applicable. The method 



I Verhandlungen des congresses fur innere medicin. 

 Vierter congress, 1885. Herausgegeben von Drs. E. Leyden 

 und E. PfeifEer. 



must be capable of being continued indefinitely 

 without producing unpleasant results, for indi- 

 viduals predisposed to corpulence by heredity or 

 constitution must keep up the diet for a long time. 

 One method is to cut off all fatty foods. But as 

 carbohydrates may be changed into fat in the body, 

 this is not reasonable. The object is rather to 

 prevent the formation of fat in the body. To 

 secure this, it is necessary to regulate the propor- 

 tion of albuminous, starchy, and fatty foods, so 

 that perfect nutrition shall be secured, but no 

 excess of fat produced. The necessary amount of 

 fat for a healthy man is 142 gr. per diem. If this 

 is reduced one-half, a part of the amount necessary 

 for nutrition will be taken from the body to com- 

 pensate for the reduced allowance in the food, and 

 thus the excess of fat may be removed. Under 

 this system the mdividual does not suffer the 

 distress which is felt by those who are cut off 

 from all fatty food, and the results are more suc- 

 cessful and agreeable than those secured by the 

 Banting system. The amount of carbohydrates is 

 to be reduced so that no surplus above bodily 

 needs shall be taken. In the Banting system the 

 diet is chiefly nitrogenous, which often causes 

 indigestion. Ebstein gives nitrogenous food, with 

 the reduced allowance of starch and fat in suffi- 

 cient quantity to keep up the general nutrition 

 and working strength, but not in such amounts as 

 to overload and embarrass the organs which digest 

 proteids. The necessity of muscular exercise of 

 sufficient force to produce free perspiration is in- 

 sisted upon. This system has met with approval 

 in Germany on account of its success. 



Henneberg, in discussing the subject, ap- 

 proached it from a different side, and, by a review 

 of the methods adopted in fattening cattle, sought - 

 to deduce the rules necessary to be observed in 

 avoiding the accumulation of fat in man. The 

 general discussion elicited varying views upon the 

 physiology of digestion, but aU agreed that the use 

 of medicine for reducing corpulence was to be 

 avoided. 



The discovery and demonstration by Lustgarten 

 of a bacillus of syphilis has already been alluded 

 to in Science. 



Measures to be adopted in combating fever 

 formed the topic of one day's discussion of the 

 congress. The weU knovni property of quinine in 

 reducing fever has led to a search for similar 

 properties in organic substances allied to it in 

 chemical constituents. Benzol, cai'bolic and sah- 

 cylic acids, salicin, resorctn, hydrocliinon, chinohn, 

 kairin, thaUin and antipyrin are such substances, 

 and they have aU been foimd of use as anti- 

 pyretics. Many of them have, however, unpleas- 

 ant effects ; so that, at present, salicin, kairin, and 



