Scientific Notes

Woodville Examiner, Volume 3, Issue 281, 3 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific Notes

The skull resists the ravages of time better than any other bone, and the reason for it is a question which puzzles nauralists. The fact has been noted on opening the graves of mould builders, while the skulls of buffalo, elk and other animals on the Western plains are in a fair state of preservation long after the other bones have entirely decayed. A French physician asserts that he has discovered a soporific whose effect can be exactly limited to the time required. This will, he says, enable travellers comfortably and confidently during a journey. He measured his doses by miles. Thus you can take a fifty-mile dose before starting on a railway journey, and open your eyes, pleasantly refreshed, at your proper station. The Lancet and some other medical journals favor Prof. Buisson's treatment for hydrophobia in preference to Pasteur’s. It is alleged by its advocates that Buisson’s method effects cures even after rabies has developed. The treatment consists mainly in vapor baths, draughts of hot borage solution, and injections of pilocarpine, inducing profuse perspiration. At a recent meeting of the Berlin Anthropological Society, Prof. Virchow stated that the German Colonial Society had smt circulars to all European colonies situated in the tropics, requesting observations to be made regarding the question of the acclimatization of Europeans in the tropics, the result of this inquiry to be communicated to the German Naturalists’ Association at their next annual meeting in September. An exhibition of objects required in fitting out scientific travellers for their journeys will also be held at the same time as the meeting of German naturalists.

A disinfecting compound for purifying the atmosphere of the sick room has been presented to the Berlin Medical Society. Oils of rosemary, lavender and thyme, in the proportions of ten, two and a half, and two and a half parts, respectively, are mixed with water and nitric acid in the proportion of thirty to one and a half. The bottle should be shaken before using and a sponge saturated in the compound and left to diffuse by evaporation. Simple as it is, the vapor of this compound is said to possess extraordinary properties in controlling the odors and effluvia of offensive and infectious disorders,