SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
319 
most successful and simple, is termed the Anti-Mildew ” Grain and Seed 
Protector, and was introduced a short time ago (twelve months) by Messrs. 
Adutt Finzi, & Co., 24 Mark Lane, London, being the invention of Mr. 
Jean Methodios Joannides, a Greek subject, agricultural engineer and late 
Greek consul of Guirgevo, in W allachia, and for many years connected with 
the corn trade. The value of this apparatus is considerably enhanced by its 
capability of being employed at the present time for three distinct purposes, 
namely : — 1. In ships on their voyages. 2. In granaries, warehouses. 3. 
For stacks of hay or clover. 
Are Hot-Air Stoves Injtirious to Health — This question is answered by 
the “Scientific Press ’’ of San Francisco, which alleges that they are when 
made of cast-iron. It says, “Furnaces for heating dwellings should never 
be made of cast-iron, as is generally the case, for the reason that the un- 
healthy gases of combustion — carbonic acid and carbonic oxide— readily 
permeate such iron when hot, and are thus distributed through the dwelling 
to the great detriment of health. The furnace should be made of wrought 
iron exclusively — boiler iron, through which, when properly put together, 
not a trace of those deleterious gases passes. The expense is greater, but 
not sufficient to outweigh the health consideration. Wrought-iron furnaces 
are largely supplying the place of cast-iron ones in our Eastern cities. In 
cold countries, especially, this matter, as a sanitary question, rises to great 
importance ; and, indeed, it is quite time that more regard was paid to the 
character of the air we breathe in our dwellings, school-rooms, and public 
buildings.” 
MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
, Poisonous Inoculation with Dead Blood. — The “ Lens,” in a recent number, 
! quotes M. Davaine’s experiments on this subject. It is well known that 
medical men are often seriously injured by accidentally cutting themselves 
I with instruments that have been recently used for dissecting purposes. The 
! wounded part swells, and mortification often ensues, necessitating ampu- 
; tation and sometimes causing death. In order to determine the poisonous 
I properties of this putrid blood, M. Davaine communicates the result of 
several experiments upon rabbits. The liquid used was the blood of an ox 
! that had been ten days slaughtered. This, by subcutaneous injection, he 
I administered to his subjects in varying quantities, obtaining by successive 
: dilutions with water the most infinitesimal attenuations. Killing one 
j animal, he would take its infected blood and force the same into the veins 
I of another, and so on until he reached what he terms the twenty-fifth 
•; generation. On this last experiment he says : “ Four rabbits received 
I respectively one trillionth, one ten-trillioiith, one hundred- trillionth, and 
i one quadrillionth of a drop of blood from a rabbit belonging to the pre- 
I ceding generation that had died from the effects of a one-trillionth dose. 
\ Of the four, but one animal died — that which received the one ten-trillionth. 
\ It appears then, that the limit of transmissibility of the poison in the rabbit 
reaches the one-trillionth part of a drop of decayed blood.” 
The Election to the Royal Society. — This is not strictly medical, for many 
other professions besides medicine supply candidates for the fellowship of 
