The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-03-03
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL NOTES.
Cold as a Promoter of Mortality.

Cold as Promoter of Mortality.
The effect of low temperature on mortal
ity was recently discussed by the Scottish
Meteorological society, the statement being
made among others that during December,
January and February the mortality in the
case of females rises to II 2 above the aver
age, but to not more than 7.S per cent among
males. According to DR.. Buchanan, one OF
the participants in this discussion, there are
not sufficient data as yet to decide how much
of the excess is due to SEX how much to occu-
patton, and how much-say to their boots
and other fashions. And further, he states
that comparison of the meteorological with
the mortality returns shows in a striking
manner the influence of particular types OF
weather in largely increasing or diminishing
| the number of deaths from particular dis.
eases. Periods of unusual cold, for instance.
combined with dampness, in the end of au-
tumn, have a prportionally increased NOR
tally from scarlet and typhoid fevers; of
cold with dryness in spring, have an in
creased mortality from brain diseases and
whooping- cough; of cold in winter, have an
enormously increased fatality from all bron.
chial affections; and of heat in summer, pre-
sent a startling, and, in many cases, an APP
palling death rate from bowel complaints.
RELATION OF THE LIVER TO THE GEN.
ERAL SYsTEM.-Professor LeConte ex-
presses his belief that the waste tissue is
carried by the blood to the liver and is
there separated into liver-sugqr and urea, or
some substance which rapidly changes into
urea. Experiments made by Schiff support
this theory by proving that venous blood is
| soon fatal 10 animals if the liver is tied, but
if not so the liver if free to act the poison
ing being due to decomposed tissues in the
blood. Combustion takes place in the ca
pillaries of the tissues under the influence OF
venous force, as the blood remains for a
longer time in the capillaries of the tissue
| than in any other organ. The blood acts as
a reservoir not only of oxygen but of food,
and, if waste, the food taken in to-day is
not used to build up tissue to day, but is
taken into circulation in the blood and the
blood forms tissue and regenerates itself
from the supply of food-so tissue wasted
to-day is carried by the blood to the liver
there decomposed into sugar and urea, and
SO eliminated perhaps the day after, or even
| longer.
PHYSICIANS FEES REGULATED BY LAW.
The fees which physicians may charge in
| Prussia for their services is regulated BY law
and according to the most recent ordinance.
the charge for a first visit to a sick person il
fixed at two marks Us cents standing for a
mark and one mark for each subsequent
visit; where, however. several persons be-
| longing to the same family and dwelling in
the same house have to be treated at the same
time, then, for the second and each succeed.
ing person, only the half of those fees respec-
lively is to be charged-the same rule is to
apply to boarding schools and similar insti
| buttons, also to prisons. When there is a
consultation of several physicians about the
treatment of sick person, including their
personal visits, each physician is to receive
for the first consultation five marks, and three
marks for each subsequent similar consulta-
ton. On the occasion of the first visit to the
physicians residence for his medical advice,
one mark and half. For the administration
of chloroform, ETC., when necessary for the
treatment of the patient, three marks.
ELECTRIC EXAMINATION OF THE BoDY.-
An improvement in the application Of the
electric light to spectrum, so as to provide
means for direct illumination and examine
ton of the internal parts or cavities of the
body-as the urethra, bladder, larynx, ESQ
phagus, stomach, uterus and outer auditory
passage-has been brought forward by a
| Dresden (laxony) inventor This method
and the instruments constructed for CARRYING
| IL Jul, duOru, IL IL dllegeu, the possibility OF
producing the source of light into the in
ternal parts or cavities themselves or exam
lining the part directly, or its reflected image.
Lenses, or lens systems, for charging the
field of view may, it is stated be employed
in combination with the instruments. The
source of light employed consists in planti-
mum wire made incandescent by an electric
current, The white heat of this wire is
taken up and made harmless by means of
cold water current flowing along the current
| wire.
TYNDALL's DEFINITION OF THE BRAIN
The human brain, according to Professor
| Tyndall's recent definition, is the organized
| register of infinitely numerous experiences
received during the evolution Of life, or ra-
ther during the evolution of that series of
organisms through which the human organ
ism has been reached; the effects of the
most uniform and frequent of these expert
ences have been successfully bequeathed,
principal and interest, and haveslowly mount
ed to that high intelligence which lies latent
in the brain of the infant. Thus it happens,
says Tyndall, that the European inherits
from 20 to 30 cubic inches more of brain
than the Papuan-thus it happens that fac
ulties, as Of music, which scarcely exist in
some inferior races, become congenital in
those that are superior; thus, too, it happens
that out of savages unable to count up to the
number of their fingers, and speaking Ian
guage containing only nouns and verbs, arise
at length Newtons and Shakespeare.