564 
POPULAK SCIENCE BEVIEW. 
produced results in the treatment of disease that remain no longer to be 
doubted. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Poisonous Mushrooms. — The Academy of Medicine in Paris proposes to 
offer again, in 1864, the Orfila Prize of £160 for the best essay on poisonous 
mushrooms. Last year three unsuccessful competitors were in the field. 
The points for inquiry are the following : Give their characters, especially 
such as may be generally appreciated ; examine what effects are produced 
upon the poisonous or eatable qualities by cultivation, climate, seasons, 
soil, or exposure ; how to separate their toxical principles ; indicate their 
physical and chemical properties ; show the means of detecting their pre- 
sence in cases of poisoning ; examine whether the poisonous principle can 
be separated, and the means of procuring this ; its action upon the organism, 
and the remedies that would be opposed to it. 
Cottage Hospitals. — These useful institutions, many of which have been 
established in different parts of the country during the last three years, 
continue to flourish. The reports that are issued give encouragement for 
their foundation in other localities, where the poor are very liable to severe 
accidents, as in some of the mining districts. 
Cranley Village Hospital has six beds ; thirty patients were admitted 
last year, and were treated at a cost of £176. 8s. 2d., leaving a balance of 
income of £49. 6s. lid. in hand. Each patient cost £5. 17s. 4d. ; the 
maintenance of each bed about £30 per annum. Each patient was under 
treatment for an average period of two months ; and the report shows that 
a weekly contribution of 3s. 6d. for each patient is almost enough to find food 
and drugs. 
The Water of the Thames. — The question of the purification of the 
Thames is yet by no means settled ; indeed, without some further inquiries 
and legislation, it may possibly turn out to be a gigantic failure. The 
District Board of Works of Fulham has memorialized the Metropolitan 
Board of Works, and made objections to the plan which has been proposed 
by their Board of deodorizing 9,500,000 gallons daily of the sewage of the 
western districts of the metropolis at Land’s End, Fulham, and casting it 
into the Thames. 
Dr. Letheby has recently issued a report on the waters of the Thames, 
in which he points out many facts of great value. He finds the middle of 
the river is invariably charged with a larger proportion of soluble matters 
than the water near the shores. The saline matters vary from 32 to 100 
grains in the gallon ; and in certain summer and autumn months, when 
the evaporation is greatest, it reaches even to 150 grains in the gallon. He 
finds that when, from a diminished rainfall, the supply of water in the 
river is mainly from the sea, the mixture of sewage water with the sea 
water gives rise to a very unpleasant odour and very offensive decomposi- 
tion. The suspended matters in the water of the river are much increased 
at the time of the equinoxes. These investigations of Dr. Letheby are 
worthy of attention in relation to the main-drainage scheme. They show 
that at certain times of the year the discharge of sewage at Barking Creek 
will again return with the upward tidal current, and may be prejudicial 
or dangerous to health from the surface evaporation of so large a bulk of 
