The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-25

partly from the increased heat thrown
of by the artificial light | partly
from the absence of SUI. ut. Bac-
teriologists find that direct sunlight
is the most deadly enemy which disease
germs encounter. Millions of bacteria
which might otherwise reach the human
system and set up diphtheria, typhoid fever,
scarlet fever and other contagious diseases,
are killed by short exposure to the direct
rays of the sun. The city of Glasgow,
Scotland, has a law prohibiting the
erection of any building which is
higher than the width Of the street
on which it abuts. If the building
be set back from the street line, the dis
lance it has been set back is added to the
height of the building. Where buildings
face a public square in which the
clear space is above eighty feet,
there is no limit to the height i'm
posed. In Marseilles, France, buildings in
streets thirtv-nine feet or more wide are
limited to height of seventy-seven feet;
on streets less than twenty-five feet wide
the height must not exceed sixty-tive feet.
In Rouen, France, the limit is sixtyfive
feet on streets thirty-nme feet wide or
more. While English cities do not theo-
retically limit the height of buildings they
do so practically by prescribing the thick
ness of walls necessary for each ten feet in
height. The greater part of the area of the
lower floors OF very tall buildings would
thus be occupied by walls and piers. The
owners of high buildings in New York are
leasing or purchasing adjoining properties
in order to preserve for their tall structures
the benefits of unimpeded air and light.
One big building of twenty stories has Sc
cured lease of all the land Immediately
surrounding it for term of ninety-nine
years.
THE ToxIc1TY OF SPIRITs.-There has
been a warm discussion in the French
Academy of Medicine on the question of
the relative amount of intoxication man
can derive from various liquors. The sub
ject eventually broadened out into an in
vestiga ton into the poisonous effects of
spirits, champagnes, liquors. etc. One of
the delegates shocked all his colleagues by
declaring that chemical analysis proves all
these beverages and particularly the more
expensive of them, to contain large
quantity of the poisonous substances
known as furfurel and amylic alcohol. He
held that it was safer to drink the ordi-
nary spirits sold over the counter of
a wineshop for few sous to the working
man than to take a comforting petit verre
at franc. To prove this assertion he had
been dosing rabbits. Those to which the
paratively little, but those treated with
''good old cognac" at 81 40 bottle all
died. He maintained that real old cognac
is no more wholesome than the average
brand. A committee of seven has been ap-
pointed to study the question. The tests
of the effects of the various liquids are to
be confined strictly to rabbits, and besides
the main issue of the investigation abun-
dant material should be forthcoming on
the various kinds of inebriation that an
animal is capable of.
EXPERIMENTS IN FLAX GRowING.-Experi-
ments in the growing of fax for fiber have
been decided upon by the Agricultural
Department. This important work will be
begun at once. The experiments will be
conducted at East Ferndale, WASH, in the
extreme northwest county in the United
States. This region Is believed by agri-
cultural officials to be best adapted to fax
growing in view of its damp, moist eli
mate. The best fax raised in this coun-
try, practically all of which is used for oil
purposes, leaving fiber oft of the question,
is said to be raised in the vicinity of Puget
Sound. Nine hundred thousand dollars
is to be expended on the scheme, and DR..
Thornton, the Government agent of the
department, is to be assisted by an expert
Belgian of wide experience in fax culture.
KEROSENE FOR MOSQUITOES. = Another
proof has come to hand of the value of kero-
sene for the destruction of mosquitoes. Pro-
lessor Howard, chief entomologist of the
Washington Department of Agriculture,
while at Ithaca in the spring, was told thai
the college campus was infested to an un-
usual extent by mosquitoes. Searching for
the cause he found lot of holes for fence
posts in which there was stagnant water.
On close examination he found them
crowded with mosquito larve, and he had
kerosene poured into each of the holes.
At once the plague ceased. Several times
the treatment was applied and soon the
Cornell campus, plat containing several
hundred acres and filled with shrubbery,
was practically free from mosquitoes.