The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-10-24
Correspondence Baltimore County Union
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,
THE TELEPHONE IN MEDICINE.

A recent interesting exhibition of apparatus in
Paris, by DR.. Boudet, included modification of the
telephone adapting the instrument to variety OF
medical uses. In one form the pulsations of blood
vessels and all sorts of internal operations were
very strikingly made audible, the observer being
able to hear at will the movements in any part Of
the body. Another telephone appliance detected
the presence of stones in the bladder and even
made known their character when present DR..
Boudet also employs the telephone as a measur-
ing instrument for accurately estimating the ner-
vous and muscular excitement in the different
phases of disease.
ANCIENT ASTRONOMY.
About $40 B. c., Thales of Miletus taught the
globular form of the earth, the five zones some Of
the principal circles of the sphere, the opacity Of
the moon and the true causes of lunar eelipses
and predicted an eclipse. About SOC B. c.
Pythagoras demonstrated, from the varying alti-
tudes OF the stars by change Of place, that the
earth must be round, that there might be anti
podes on the opposite part of the globe; that
Venus was the morning and evening star that
the universe consisted of twelve spheres-the
sphere of the earth, of the water of the air, of fire
of che moon, of the sun, of Venus of Mercury OF
Mars, of Jupiter, of Saturn, and of the stars. In
$50 B. c., Aristarchus of Samos maintained that
the earth turned its own axis and revolved
about the sun, which doctrine was regarded BY his
contemporaries as so absurd that he nearly lost
his life.
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
The British Association for the Advancement Of
Science was organized in 1885, the American
Association, in 1S4S and the French Association
in 1872. The members of each of these bodies
include nearly every scientific man of its respec
tive country, and much real progress undoubtedly
results from the interchange if ideas at the an.
nual meetings of the societies
THE PRosAIC PRESENT.
'The age of romance in science" said Prof. J
p Lesley in his presidential address to the Amer
lean Association for the Advancement of Science
us part OF the forgotten past. The new world
has grown gray-headed in fifty years, intolerant
of the responsibility the sportveness the poetry
the music, the superstitons, the affections of its
youth dealing only in hard facts, and in their
causes and consequences; weighing and measur-
ing all things; analyzing all things; collating
comparing and classifying insisting upon in
vestigation at all points; formulating rigid laws
soothing at the unseen and unknowable and
transmitting the fear Of God and the hopes OF
heaven into zeal for the exact determination of
the units of force, and a confident expectation
that railroads will soon traverse all the unoccu-
pied regions of the earth, and malleable replace
wood in the mechanic arts"
MISCELLANEOUS.
Oleoze, the favorite German preparation for
Disgusting the taste of most unpleasant T. remedies,
is said to have this composition One part each
of the oils of lavender, cloves, cinnamon, thyme,
citron, mace and orange flowers, three parts Of
balsam of Peru, and 240 parts of spirits.
Speaking upon the water supply of ancient
Roman towns, Prof. W. II. Corfeld has presented
the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain a strong
argument against attempts to purify water that
has once become foul, commencing the wisdom of
the Romans in drawing the water for their towns
from unquestionably pure sources.
In southern Russia vineyards are freed from
phylloxera by planting hemp near the infected
vines. The parasites are attracted to the hemp
by its strong odor, and the roots prove to be
poisonous to them.
From nearly 400 singers-including no Ger
mans or Italians-Dr. Lennox Browne has Sc
cured testimony that the use of alcohol and to-
bacco Injuries the singing voice.
A German chemist, ]. G. Otto, finds arterial
blood to contain more sugar than the blood of the
veins.
In England is supported to some extent the
theory that direct relationship exists between
scarlet fever and diphtheria and at a recent
meeting of British medical association facts were
presented which tended to show that scarlet fever
had been contracted from diphtheria patients,
and diphtheria from scarlet fever patients.
The American Indians are found by Matthews
to have knowledge of animals and plants in
superior to that of the average white
man, or of the white man who has not made zool-
ogy or botany subject of study.