Connecticut western news., 1877-07-13
SCIENTIFIC,

Dangers from the Dead.-That, the dead should kill the living seems a paradox; yet nothing is more true. In deed, we venture to say that every year, ln. our land, corpses more people than assassins do. Not only have intramu- ral interments poisoned whole blocks and quarters, not only has drinking water contaminated by graveyards yearly spread disease and death through country hamlets, but, before the pro cess of decomposition commences, there is often 3 great and pressing danger from infectious disease. We quote recentinstance:
 "Df. Goldie, the Medical Officer of Healtlrfor Leeds, England, in his re- port to the local authority, states that every one of thirty people who atten- ded the wake of an Irish girl, who recently died in that town from typhus fever, were attacked by the same disease, and no fewer than nine of the cases ended fatally"
 So strongly have the needless dangers of exposure at funerals i'm pressed the medical mind, that the issued a circular recommending that no public or church funerals should be given to persons dying of either dlph- theria, scarlet fever, measles, or whOOp- ing cough.
 In Chicago ,Ralso, where scarlet fever and diphtheria have been severe this i past winter. the recommendation of one hundred medical men in council was in these words:
 FThere should be no public funerals of any patient who has died os any in fections or contagious disease. Re- member that the separation of the sick person from the we'll is the most certain means of preventing the spread of the disease"
 A writer in the Baltimore Physician aud Surgeon, last December, went so far as to advocate the passage of law on the subject (the average American man looking upon flaw" as the cure all on every occasiOn). He thought it should embody the following pfo- 1. Whenever any one dies of cOnta- giOus disease, the publication an nilo lounc- ing the death, should state the cause of death. -'' S'~-.'' | 2 3. No person except immediate family should be permitted to attend the funeral, and the handling and bury ing the body should be intrnSted to persons who devote themselves to that business.
 | 3. A sufficient number of carriages
 
 of attending these funerals, and the hiring them for other purposes should be prohibited, under the severest pen alties. ....-.
 These are good suggestions, but people should learn and obey them out of natural sense of sanitary propriety, not out of obligation to statute.- Medical and Surgical Reporter ~= | <,1:c. n;nka -tT1, .> .; o of California occupies the same place that white pine or cork pine does here, and is about equal to It as finishing lumber. It is used almost exclusively for sash, doors, and inside blinds. For all uses where soft, white, straight grain is required, there is no wood on the slope equal to it. The heart is durable for shingles, crossties, and the like. Shingles made from heart sugar pine are free from some of the objec- tions attaching to those made from redwood. ..sz... -.-.--s-e5
 Yellow pine.is used in the place of the sugar for some purposes; it has a soft, white and even grain, but works harder and is frmer wood. Much of itresem bles sugar pine so closely as to be barely distiuguishable. Some of it is as handsome as many of the Orna- mental woods. For building lumbeG and fencing it is preferred to sugar pine.
 Spruce, which is sometimes called red fir, is strong timber adapted for joists and scantling, and all work re- quiring strength and durability. It stands exposure to the earth and weather very we'll and resem bles Puget Sound lumber quite closely; it makes good plank for sidewalks, platforms. ship plank, car floors and frames, and similar work.
 The fir is white, close grained wood, free from pitch or Odor, useful for ceiling scantling. and wainscOting and makes good box lumber.-NOrth- aOestern LuDa6ermGn.
 4 Torpedo that IraUels 375 Miles Gn Hoaw.-The most terrible invention for warfare that has ever been devised-it we may trust the reports of our English contemporaries recently been sub- mitted to the Admiralty by a clergy man, the Rev. c. NJ. Ramus. The Whitehead fish torpedo has already proved its capability of travelling be- heath the surface of the sea at the rate of 20 miles an hour; but the "rocket foat," as the new machine is called, surface at the rate of 275 miles per hour for a distance of four miles. The apparatus is timber or iron vessel, the bottom .of which is series of in- clined planes. In the head is the ex- plosive, and enough gun cotton can be carried to blow up the largest iron claC in existence, while the rocket, by the combustion of which the craft is i'm pelled, is laid along the deck. The , vessel is said to be easily guided by { rudder of very thin sheet metal. : If the. coming British experiment. substantiate the fore going, it would seem that armor-plated ships have hat their day, and that the naval vessel O the future should be of cork.