5i4 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
written legibly in French, Flemish, or Latin, and addressed, post-paid, to 
Dr. E. Lesseliers, rue Basse, 23, a Gand. 
Statistics of Suicide. — M. Legoyt, who has written a very extensive 
work on this subject, is of opinion (1) that suicides increase more rapidly 
than either the population or general mortality in all the following coun- 
tries : — Bavaria, Hanover, France, Mecklenburg, Prussia, the kingdom of 
Saxony, and Sweden. (2) Contrary to the usual opinion, England ranks 
lowest in the scale , as regards frequency of suicides. Denmark and North 
Germany stand highest, and France occupies a middle position. (3) 
There are generally about thirty suicides of women to a hundred of male 
suicides. (4) The number increases with age up to about sixty or seventy 
years. (5) The number is smallest in January and greatest in July. 
(6) Women are more influenced by moral agencies, men. by material ones. 
(7) Among married persons the number of suicides is smallest; it is 
larger among the unmarried, and attains its greatest limit among those 
who have been separated or divorced. (8) In Prussia it has been calcu- 
lated, that of every million of inhabitants the Protestants give 153 suicides, 
the Jews 51, and the Catholics only 47. (9) Suicides are far more frequent 
in large towns than in other portions of the country. Of all the conclu- 
sions deducible from the foregoing statistical account, the most astounding 
one is, that suicide is generally and rapidly increasing ; and this the 
author supposes to be due to the natural consequences of the intensely 
civilized (?) condition into which we are passing. — Vide V Union Medicale , 
May 12th. 
New Instrument for Teaching Students the Sounds of the Heart. — This 
peculiar machine, invented by Dr. Collongues, has been described by 
M. Velpeau. It consists of a hollow bust of plaster of Paris, on whose 
anterior surface are placed ten openings, and whose posterior surface pos- 
sesses two apertures — each opening having attached to it a label bearing 
the name of a “ bruit.” To these foramina several india-rubber tubes pass. 
Air is made to travel along the tubes, and according to the pressure exerted 
and the calibre of the tube the special sound is developed. We doubt very 
much that Dr. Collongues’ invention will be found of great practical 
utility. — Vide Comptes Rendus, April 25th. 
The Heart's Recoil. — Mr. Hiffelsheim would have us believe that at each 
moment when the ventricles contract and drive the blood into the 
arteries, the double jet of liquid thus produced necessarily determines a 
movement of the heart itself in the opposite direction to that assumed by 
the currents. The return of the organ to its proper position prior to 
each pulsation, is simply the result of the reaction of the adjacent elastic 
structures. lie has been unable to ascertain how this recoil influences 
the other movements of the heart, but hopes to do so on some future 
occasion. — Vide Comptes Rendus , May 9th. 
Increased Secretion of Urea in Bright's Disease , brought about by the Action 
of Electricity. — There can be little doubt that electricity is now becoming an 
extremely important therapeutic agent in the hands of those who understand 
how to use it. M. Namias tried its effects in a case of Bright’s disease of the 
kidney, and as he states, with the most beneficial results. He applied the 
electricity for about half an hour each day, directing the current through 
the loins, and he found after forty-eight hours that not only was the 
