SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
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observations. Believing, as I do, that tbe evils of our town smoke are in a 
much larger degree due to tbe gases wbicb result from our coal consumption 
than to tbe black smoke wbicb is tbe one thing generally complained of and 
legislated against, it occurred to me that one of these gases, wbicb has a most 
pernicious influence upon vegetation, and wbicb can hardly be favourable 
as a constant breathing medium to animal life, could be made visible in its 
efiects to tbe eye. This is sulphurous acid gas, a very considerable product of 
tbe combustion of coal, containing 2 per cent, sulphur on an average. Tbe 
experiments I have made have been repeated some 15 to 20 times, and in 
two locabties j tbe results are evident, and they show that tbe substance is 
present in tbe air to a considerable extent.” — Scientific Opinion, March 10. 
Morphia as an Antidote to Atropia. — The following case, reported in tbe 
Ally. Med. Cent. Zeit. No. 80, has been going through tbe provincial papers, 
and is no doubt reliable. A strong little boy, aged three and a half years, 
drank more than tbe half of a solution of a grain of atropia in three drachms 
of distilled water. He immediately succumbed to tbe poisonous influence. 
An eighth of a grain of morphia was injected under tbe skin of tbe foot. 
In ten minutes tbe beneflcial efiects of tbe morphia began to be manifested, 
and in a few hours tbe patient was out of danger. Tbe pupil remained 
dilated for some days. 
Irfiuence of Common Salt in assistmg the Absorption of certain Substances, 
— L'Institut for March contains an account of a paper read before tbe 
Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, by MM. Zabeline and Wassilewski, 
On tbe Influence of Chloride of Sodium on tbe Absorption of Tribasic 
Phosphate of Lime and Metallic Lon.” Tbe authors bad conducted their 
experiments on dogs. Tbe facts seem to justify these two conclusions: — I. 
Phosphate of lime when introduced into tbe stomach with caseine is found 
to be absorbed in greatest quantity when tbe food contains much chloride 
of sodium. 2. Chloride of potassium, while it helps tbe organism to 
absorb iron more quickly than chloride of sodium, also assists in removing 
this metal through the secretions more rapidly than the former. 
The Pathological Development of Lichen. — Scientific Opinion, March 17, 
in a report of a recent meeting of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, states 
that Herr Dr. Kohn described some of his microscopic observations on the 
lichen of scrofulous subjects. This morbid alteration of the skin attacks 
only young patients, and manifests itself in numerous flat nodules, arranged 
in groups, and as a rule more frequent on the trunk than other parts. These 
nodules last for several months, and when they disappear, they leave a 
cicatrix and an accumulation of pigmentary matter. The essential patho- 
logical character of this morbid condition is the existence of an exudation 
of cells within and around the hair follicles and the accompanying sebaceous 
glands. In the first stages these cells may be seen lying in the vessels, then 
they make their way to the base of the sebaceous glands, and ultimately 
they gain the interior of the follicle, and completely fill it, expelling the 
normal secreting cells. 
Ein'ors of Architects as to Ventilation. — Dr. Edward Smith, who read a 
very lengthy and interesting paper on ventilation before the Society of Arts 
(February 24), states that architects in regard to this point fall into error: 
I. In not duly estimating the practical limits of the law that heated air 
