Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-14
EDITORIAL NOTES.

An interesting suggestion for keeping dam aged ships from sinking has been made by MT. J. V. Buchanan, an Englishman. He proposes that steamers should be built with extra strong air-tight decks and bulkhsads, to be filled with compressed air, and in case of rent in the bottom or side the whole steam power should be used to pump air in- to the hold, thus expelling the water and re- storing the vessels buoyancy.
 A German society has been inquiring into every story which comes to it's ears concern ing persons said to have been buried alive, or even resuscitated after competent physicians had pronounced them dead. After thor oughly investigating hundreds of rumors and reports they fail to find 8 single instance of the kind. It is unfortunate that such stories gain credence, as they occasionally cause great distress in the minds of bereaved persons and more frequently dread in the minds of those morbid persons who fear such fate.
 The great climatic cycle has been made a matter of special and protracted study by M. Adolphe d'Assier. According to his re- gently published calculation, based on the assumption that the coincidence of the esrth's perihelion passage with the summer solstice, every twenty-one thousand years, marks the regular recurrence of a northern glacial period, the last glacial period cul- minated in 9210 B. O.; the alternating peril cd of greatest northern warmth occurred A. D. 1850, and the ice period that is now ap- preaching will reach it's greatest height A. D. 11750. Evidence of the slow cooling dur ing the last six hundred years is regarded as being manifested in the changes recorded in the northern limits of the growth and ripen- ing of certain fruits.
 The life of railroad men does not seem to be very healthy nor enjoyable. According to M. Duchesne, railroad men improve in health during the first four years, but at the end of ten years they are tired out, in fifteen they are actual sufferers, and very few can remain in the service after twenty. These general conclusions have been supplemented by Dr. Lichtenbag of Buda-Pesth, who found from examination that out of 250 railroad employees, ninety-two, or more than third, suffered from disease. Engine drivers are especially liable to rheumatism and pneu- 
 monia, and after some years' service a certain proportion of them become dull of sight and hearing. Others suffer from a mild form of spinal concussion, muscular feebleness and continuous pains in the limbs. They are l also apt to develop peculiar mental state a sort of cesebral7 irritation-with excessive nervousness and morbid sensations of fear. { ! Germany is making substantial progress And in nothing is the movement more
 marked than in the provisions making fol the insurance of workingmen by compulsion The legislation on this subject already exist ing provides, it may be recalled, for insur- ance against sickness and accident; and the
 next step contemplated is the bringing about of compulsory provision for the care of per-
 manent disability from old age or othel
 cause, The bill for this purpose is now be-
 fore the Reichstag, having been considerably
 modified since it was introduced, first by the government, which itself proposed it, and
 second, by the commission to which ths
 Reichstag referred it. The notifications ars
 all in the direction of more liberal provision
 for the workmen, who are to pay only one
 third of the assessments, while the othel
 two-thirds are to be paid by the employer
 and the government. This means, of course