xxxiv 
Notes  and  News. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharra. 
\  November,  18S9. 
ferring  the  oil  from  their  clothes  and  hands  to  other  individuals.  To  accom- 
plish this  object  special  suits  should  be  worn,  and  the  hands  should  be  washed 
several  times  a  day  with  an  alcoholic  sugar  of  lead  solution  (alcohol  (50  or  75 
per  cent.)  nearly  saturated  with  sugar  of  lead).  Bathing  in  hot  water  with 
strong  soap-suds  is  recommended.  The  clothing  must  also  be  well  washed, 
and  it  is  always  well  to  remember  that  towels  may  be  a  means  of  conveying 
the  oil. — Bull.  No.  20,  U.  S.  Depart,  of  Agric,  Division  of  Botany. 
Jefferson  Medical  College. — The  exercises  at  the  formal  opening  of 
the  new  Medical  Hall,  Jefferson  Medical  College,  were  attended  by  an  enthu- 
siastic assemblage,  Dr.  Thomas  A.  Emmet,  a  distinguished  graduate  of  185 1, 
presided.  The  address  of  the  evening  was  delivered  by  Phineas  S.  Conner, 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Ohio  Medical  College.  Following  Dr.  Conner, 
Surgeon-General  George  M.  Sternberg,  U.  S.  A.,  made  a  short  address.  Before 
the  exercises  a  banquet  was  given  by  Hon.  William  Potter  to  the  members  of 
the  Faculty,  Board  of  Trustees  and  to  the  guests  of  the  evening. 
A  Memorial  to  Dr.  MUELLER. — It  is  reported  that  a  memorial  to  Dr. 
Mueller,  who  lost  his  life  while  studying  the  plague  a  year  ago  in  Vienna,  is 
about  to  be  unveiled. — Boston  Med.  and  Surg.  Rep.,  1899,  p.  351. 
No  Right  to  Terminate  Life. — The  question  of  whether  or  not  the  phy- 
sician ever  has  the  right  to  terminate  life,  either  that  of  a  patient  hopelessly 
ill  and  suffering  intense  agony,  or  that  of  a  newly-born  monstrosity,  has  been 
very  interestingly  discussed,  from  an  ethical  rather  than  from  a  legal  stand- 
point, before  the  Medico-Legal  Society.  Legally  speaking,  no  such  right 
exists. — N.  V.  Med.  Jour.,  1899,  p.  529. 
The  Moth-Bale  and  Mosquitoes.— A  moth-ball  rubbed  upon  a  mosquito 
bite  has  considerable  efficacy  m  allaying  the  itching.  Moreover,  when  rubbed 
upon  the  face  and  hands  it  seems  to  keep  the  mosquitoes  away. — Ibid.,  p.  533. 
A  Fertile  Hybrid  Pigeon. — C.  O.  Whitman,  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
is  reported  to  have  succeeded  in  raising  a  fertile  hybrid  pigeon.  This  means 
the  making  of  an  entirely  new  species  of  pigeons,  and  is  a  scientific  achieve- 
ment which  has  been  supposed  impossible.  The  mother  of  the  hybrid  bird 
was  a  Japanese  turtle  dove,  and  the  father  a  common  rough  pigeon. — Med. 
News,  1899,  P-  468. 
Dangerous  Flowers. — M.  Domingos  Freire  {Journal  de  medecine  de  Paris , 
September  3d),  as  a  result  of  researches  instituted  by  him  on  flowers,  shows 
that  flowers  can  afford  a  resting  place  to  saprophytic  and  pathogenic  microbes, 
and  thus  become  a  source  of  contamination.  He  thinks,  moreover,  that  some 
relation  exists  between  the  colors  of  flowers  and  the  pigment  elaborated  by  the 
microbes  which  find  shelter  in  them.  The  rosy  tint  of  the  Rothschild  rose  is 
similar  to  that  of  a  plate  culture  of  Leptothrix  ochracea  before  it  arrives 
at  the  brick-red  stage.  The  egg-yolk  yellow  colonies  of  Micrococcus  cruci- 
formis  he  finds  to  be  of  the  same  tint  as  that  of  the  coloring  matter  on  the 
anthers  of  the  Hibiscus  rosa  sinensis  Furthermore,  many  kinds  of  mi- 
crobes that  the  author  would  term  "  osmogenous  "  reproduce  odors  resem- 
bling those  disengaged  by  the  essences  of  the  plants  in  which  they  live. — 
N.  Y.  Med.  Jour. 
