The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-05-04

IMPORTANT progress has recently been
made in enabling Englishwomen to OBJ
tain a medical education. Some of the
leading colleges and universities had
opened their doors to women students
but none of the hospitals would permit
the women to enter for clinical instruc-
ton. Nature announces that the Royal
Free hospital in Gray's Inn road has at
last granted this privilege. It is said to
have come just in time to prevent the
breaking up of the London school of med
icine for women. The trustees of that
school had resolved to close it unless this
concession could be obtained, to rec
ommend the pupils to seek instruction
elsewhere than in England.
THE neglect of Capt. Mares to issue
lime-juice ratiOns to the sledge parties
of the arctic expedition is still the theme
of much discussion in the English news
papers. The Sanitary Record approves
the opinion of Surgeon Colan, that if
anything should have been omitted, the
rum and not the lime,juice should have
been left behind. Capt. Mares admits
that in future case of the kind he
would certainly so modify the arrange
ments as to admit of sending lime-juice. !"
y3
with the suggestion that an agreeable
way to modify the arrangements +"
would be to send both the rum and the
lime.juice, with little sugar. The re-
suit weuld be punch in the polar re-
gions.
Prof. PoLTTzER recently put before
the Medical society of the Vienna Gar
rison some new proof of the use of both
ears in determining the direction of
sound. People who are deaf in one ear
make strange mistakes when hunting, as
they are apt to suppose that any sound
comes from the direction toward which
the ear they hear with may happen to be
turned. A neat little experiment. easily
tried, is devised by Prof. Politzer.
Above the top of the head of person
whose eyes are bandaged a watch, tick
ing loudly, is to be passed. The blind
folded person will be unable TO say GER
tainly whether the watch is above, be-
fore, or behind the top of his head
When one of his ears is closed, the
watch seems to him to be nearest to the
other ear, and this impression will still
be perceptible even though the bandage
be removed from his eyes. The source
of sound is in general referred to a point
on the night or left, according as either
ear hears most loudly.
THERE has been much said recently
about the powers of potassium xanthate
as an antiseptic. A correspondent of the
Boston Journal of Chemistry makes
some remarkable statements concerning
this salt. New wine was treated with it,
and some months afterward was found
to possess its original taste and sweet
ness. The wine was then "drunk in
considerable quantity by different per-
sons without the slightest injurious effect
following" Such a declaration as to
any wine may strike believers in total
abstinence with surprise. P otassium
xanthate Is said to be easily and cheaply
prepared; only small quantities need be
used, and no harm seems likely to ensue
from taking it, except in the few cases
of disease where any potassium salt
would have a bad effect. Vegetable
juices and saps clarified by means of a
small addition of this salt have remained
without mold or fermentation after eight
months exposure to the air.