SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
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■work at the needle. That which proves it is this : that amongst twenty- 
eight women, from eighteen to forty years 'of age, working from three to 
four hours a day at the sewing-machine, it was impossible to find any dis- 
order which might be attributed to its use. M. Decaisne, by the conclusions 
which, he has drawn from a close observation of the use of the sewing- 
machine, refuted some of the objections made with regard to it; but he 
overlooked altogether the gravest side of the question, which is, that most 
of the women employed at those machines work, not from two to three 
hours, but from twelve to fifteen hours a day ; for it is only by this excessive 
work that sewing-machines become remunerative to them and their em- 
ployers. Dr. Decaisne thinks that in selecting a machine it is best to employ 
those in which the pedals are worked isochronously, and not alternately. 
The New Prcelector in Physiology at Cambridge . — Dr. Michael Foster has 
been elected to this post at Trinity College, Cambridge. Scientific men 
will congratulate both Dr. Foster and the University on the selection made. 
A New Remedy for Intermittent Fever. — The Wiener Medizinische Wochen - 
schrift of May 14 publishes, says the British Medical Journal, the results of 
a number of observations made regarding the effect of a new remedy for 
intermittent fever. The remedy is the tincture of the leaves of the Euca- 
lyptus globidus, a plant of the natural order Myrtacce. In 1869 Dr. Lorinser 
made some experiments, the results of which he published ; but he was 
brought to a standstill by the want of a supply of the medicine. The plant 
has since been cultivated by Herr Lamatsch, an apothecary ; and a sufficient 
quantity of tincture has been made from the leaves to supply a number of 
medical men in the districts of the Theiss and the Danube, and in the 
Banat. The records of fifty-three cases of intermittent fever in which the 
Eucalyptus was administered have been communicated to Dr. Lorinser. 
The Chair of Physiology in Prague has been filled up by the election of 
Herr Hering, the well-known investigator of the liver. It had been pre- 
viously held by the late distinguished biologist M. Purkinje. 
American Opium. — The Journal of Applied Chemistry, in a recent number, 
states that Mr. C. Wilson, of Monkton, Vermont, sowed, in the spring of 
1868, rather more than six and a quarter acres with opium poppy seed. 
The yield from the gathered juice of the poppy heads or capsules was 640 
pounds, which, when dried, became marketable opium. For this the grower 
obtained prices ranging from $ 8 to $10 per pound, from druggists and phy- 
sicians in New England. The opium furnished 6 25 per cent, of morphine. 
It is stated that Professor Proctor thinks, with greater care in obtaining the 
pure juice of the capsules, the opium might be made to yield ten per cent, 
of morphia. The proportion of this alkaloid which the best Turkey opium 
is capable of affording varies from nine to fourteen per cent. 
The late Sir James Y. Simpson. — Medicine has sustained a heavy loss 
during the quarter in the death of the celebrated Northern physician and 
archaeologist who introduced chloroform into practice. 
Artificial Teeth. — The following account of the mode of making teeth is 
from one of the United States’ scientific journals, and it may suggest some- 
thing to those interested in such matters : — “ It is stated that at least 
3,000,000 of teeth are annually made in this country alone. The first 
operation, according to the method of manufacture pursued at one of the 
