Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-01-04
POPULAR SCIENCE.
SMALLPOX.

SMALLPOX.
When persons who have had the
smallpox, whether they get well or die,
the room in which they have been I'LL
should be disinfected. The floor should
be washed in chloride of lime and water
or carbolic acid and water. The paper
should be thoroughly removed by mos
tening with carb0nic acid aud water or
with Condy's fluid and water. The
room should then be fumigated by burn
ing sulphur in an iron dish, the fire
place, crryices in windows and doors be-
ing closed by putting paper over them.
The room should be exposed TO the sui
nhur yapor for ten or tweve hotns; or
the room may be fumigated in the same
way with chlorine vapor, which Is pr-
duced by pouring oil of vitriol on com
mon salt and oxide OF manganese.
After the room has been fumigated IL
should be limewhited, and the doors ana
windows kept open for week or a fort
night before being again occupied
Science and Health.
PoISoNs IN OUR FOOD.
The use of beer, generally recognized
as a wholesome drink, has become much
less general because of the suspected use
of harmful bitters and grape sugar. A
large piece of this so called grape sugar,
taken from the hands of a youth in this
city, who said his father manufactured
it, proved upon analysis to contain
quantity of sulphuric acid, enough TO
destroy some half dozen sets OF good
teeth. AS this sugar is largely used in
adulterating cane sugar, candles ana
numerous other articles of luxury the
necessity further comment Is unnecessary.
Yeast powders are made and sold here
which contain soluble salts of alumln-
ium. The use of tin in sugar, of barita
i'm numerous articles of food to increase
their weight are barely concealed. The
agreeable odor of caramel in the neigh
borhood of the coffee mills tells its own
tale, and to expand the wonderful cheap
ness of the beautiful iellies now in such
common use we should have to go
further than our matutinal friend Rag
Bones,r and pursue through the Won
derful transformations worked by
modern chemistry the bones from our
garbage box, favored and colored by the
waste products from the gas works,
back again to our tables as currant jelly
for our famous canvas backs and red
heads, and, perhaps, meet in our sugar
bowls our old shirts transformed into
very palatable sugar. When in WASH
ington recently / asked the Chinese
Ambassador what was the punishment
for food adulteration in China. He re-
piled, Death. "-A Paper Read Before
Inc MARYLAND Acddenly Of Sciences.
A REMARKABLE WOUND.
An instance of singular tolerance ola
severe wound Of the brain was recently
communicated by NJ. Bubrisay to the
Societie de Medicine de Paris. A man,
aged forty-four, in an attemptat suicide,
sent a small dagger through his skull
into the brain. The weapon was ten
centimetres long and one wide, He
had held the dagger in his left hand
and given it with his right several blows
with the mallet, believing that he
would fall dead at the first blow. To
his profound surprise he felt no pain and
observed no particular phenomenon.
He struck the dagger i'll all about a
dozen times. Theman was drunkard,
but was sober at the moment ofthe at
tempt. When seen about two hours
later the handle of the dagger was pro-
ieGting from the skull at the junction Of
the postertor and middle third, alittle to
the right of the middle line, and in a
transverse position. The whole blade
was imbedded, except a part one CEN
timetre in length, for half an hour un.
successful attempts were made to get
the degger out. The patient was placed
on the ground, two vigorous persons
fixed his shoulders, and aided by a
strong pair of carpenters pincers, re-
peated attempts were made, but with
out success. The patient and assistants
were raised offthe ground, but the dag
ger was immoyable. These attempts
caused no pain, More powerful me-
chanical instruments were then en-
ployed. The patient, who walked we'll,
and complained of no headache, was
taken to a coppersmith's and by strong
pincers, the handle of the dagger was
fastened to q chain which was passed
over cylinder turned by steam power.
The pincers, used for drawing out tubes
of copper, ware so made that the more
they were pulled the tighter they grasp
ed. The man was then fastened to
rings fixed in the ground and the cylin-
der was gently set in motion. At the
SGCOllu lulll NlS ueSSSA SeAhN ONS' ~
blade measured ten centimetre i'll
length, of which nine had entered the
interior of the skull. The patient, who
mad submitted with the greatest cool
ness to these maeuvres, sufferedno pain
or inconvenience. Some drops of blood
escaped, and in few minutes after
ward the man was able TO walk away
to O hospital, where he remained in bed
for ten days, but without fever or pain.
He then returned to his work, and the
wound gradually healed. NJ. Dubrisay
endeavored by post mortem expert
ment to ascertain what parts of the
brain had been injured. He drove the
dagger into the head Oft cadaver in
the same situation, and to the same
depth, and found that, without injurlng
the superior longitudinal sinus, it had
passed into the cerebral substance just
behind the ascending parietal convOlu.
ton, ard thus behind the motor zone;
the point had not reached the base.
The difficulty in extraction had been
due solely to the fixation of the instru-
ment by the edges of the wound i'll the