SCIENCE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2361, 25 May 1899, Page 54

SCIENCE NOTES.

, fact that by force of circumstancea they find ' themselves arrayed among the army of specialists. Others, however, glory in it, and • maintain that all advance in medicine is, and -it is 6aicl that a M. Joubert ha? disco- must be, the outcome or its divibion into vered a substance which has the property of special departments, and •" this they are absorbing the bad, unbieathable gases and thoroughly backed by public opinion. Heart, water vapour from air in a close chamber lungSj liver; eyes, nose, ears; uterine ailrontaining persons or animals. It is to be ments, sexual ailments, mental ailments ; opehoped -the news is true, for it would be very iative surgery in every possible form— each ■useful in crowded roomo and public halls. ( operator being specially known and run after Two Frenchmen have discovered by experi-; for some 1 particulai- operation; the ordering Went that sodium peroxide has '•his power. ' of massage, the prescription of baths; Rout, The peroxide absorbs water vapour given off skin diseases, the removal of superfluous hair ; by the lungs, and becomes caustic' soda, which, down almost to chiropody, professional work of course, absorbs the carbonic acid pat ex } i s chopped up into little sections, -each with baled in breathing. A small quantity of per- j its little group of " experts," who, in regard oxide 'is, able to keep the air of a closed box ,to 'their own minute specialties, are imor apartment respiraWa fm- a comparatively | mensely wise, but take to themselves no shame long time. , 'in confessing foolishness concerning every- - One of the marked ieaturea of tho mcdi- thing else. So far so good ; all is within the «me of to-day' is the tendency exhibited by profession, and we must not complain. But Us profesaors to devote their energies to cer- this sort of thing brings its own Nemesis. It tain- limited departments of practice. Many is impossible to go on narrowing down the $here are, no doubt, who, even while so do- < field of the various specialties to the extent ing, feel »' certain regret at such a limitation that is now being done without tempting *f their field of work, and take no pride in ib.9 ' the screat publio to whom we bow co readily.

and who, in truth, have in their pockets the fees on which we live, to ask, Can it really be necessary that the man who practises cue of these minute specialties should not only have been taught the anatomy and physiology of the whole human frame, but should havo obtained a complete legal qualification in medicine, in surgery, and in obstetrics? That a fallacy underlies such a suggestion is, cf course, obvious, and everyone who knows the complexity of the human frame and the interdependence of its various parts recognises at once that no one should be allowed to meddle with it who does not know all about it. But to the public this is not so plain, and one of the little pin pricks with which the medical profession is now being punished for having chopped up the medical art into such little fragments is that unqualified persons are picking up these fragmentary specialities, and are using them to their own advantage. — The Hospital.

— A more or less heavy fall of snow is not wivhout its effect upon the public health in an unfavourable direction, due in general to an augmentation of respiratory diseases. In towns a fall of snow is particularly disagreeable since it soon settles down on the pavements of our streets and in the roadway into a highly-chilling muddy slush. It is the readiness and eagerness with which slush absorbs heat in the act of liquefying which renders it so dangerous to the health of those who are obliged to walk through it. Again, it is a notorious fact that however proof a leather boot may be against rain, it seldom proves a barrier against the percolation of water derived from the melting-'of snow. This is probably due to the effect of the intense cold of snow making the leather, go to speak, cri6p instead of supple, owing to the oil in the leather which makes it supple becoming congealed. In this way probably leather loses its most valuable quality. A useful precaution is to grease the boot outside with an oil of comparatively low irfilling pomt — as, for example, goose grease or some mineral oil. A fall of snow, howeier, is not without some compensatory advantages. It rapidly clarifies and purifies the air. An analysis of snow shows the presence of an enormous proportion of organic impurities and bacteria which are swept cut of the air by the descending particles. Again, the friction of snowflakes with the air gives rise to the formation of ozone. The smell of ozone in the air after a fall of snow is very marked. Lancet.

—In the last volume of the report of the medical officer to the Local Government Board there is a record of some observations made by Dr Klein and Mr Mervyn Gordon upon the microbes associated with scarlet fever which deserve more attention than they seem to have received. ... It appears, according to Dr Klein's investigations, that the streptococcus scarletina?, which is always present in the throat secretion of persons acutely ill of scarlet fever, is even in the later stage of this malady, and after convalescence has been fully established, apt to be found in the throats of patients and sometimes in their nasal discharges, if the latter be present. Cases are mentioned in which it was found at intervals of six and nine weeks respectively from the date of the attack, and this even after the microbe had seemed to be absent from the secretions for a time. Clearly this is a matter of considerable importance in relation to the question of when a patient is to be considered free from infection. — The Hospital.