The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-02-14
written for the CITIZEN,

written for the CITIzEN.l
1t has been long understood that cir
culating libraries offer a ready means
of spreading disease. After expert
ments to determine whether the dam
ger has not been exaggerated, two |
French doctors-Drs Cazal and Ca
trim-declare that the risk is really |
very great, leaves of books soiled by
pus of boils or pneumonia, or by the
membrane of diphtheria, proving to be
capable after several days of transmit
ting these maladies to animals inocu-
lated with bouillon in which small bits
of leaves had been soaked. The disin-
lection of the books is matter of some
difficulty. The vapor of formic aide
hyde in which calcium chloride had
been dissolved was effective except
with typhoid fever germs, and COM
plete and perfect disinfection was had
by exposure to high-pressure steam.
The steam, however, was destructive
to the covers of books, although it did
not injure unbound books.
The peasants of Northern Italy are
victims of a peculiar malady known as
pellagra. The direct exciting cause
is believed to be the SUMS rays in
spring, but the patients are predispos-
ed by hereditary poverty, malaria, and
especially by eating diseased Indian
corn. In the south of Italy, where no
maize is grown, the disease is unknown.
PeIlagra is marked by peculiar in-
flammation of the skin, sometimes
with vesicles and pustules, the consti-
tutional symptoms being diarrhea, gid
diness, backache and cramps, and it
may continue from one to sixty years.
Madness is common among the pa
tents. So many recent acts of vio-
leDce have been due to this cause, in
fact, that radical measures by the gov
ernment have been urged. Prof. Lem
broso and others have long been seek
ing a method ~ checking the pellagra,
and as far back as 1882 a farm of 80
acres was established as pellagra hos
pital near Venice.
The limit of yield in flour suitable
/ for light and digestible bread is found
by French analysis to go or rs per
cent. of the wheat
X x
An inquiry into the physical charac-
terisiics of persons from different Sec
lions of the British Isles, the subjects
studied being largely Cambridge under
graduates, was published by DIR. Bed
doe in 1894. Mr.. r. j. Holton Smith
has continued the investigation in q
more complete manner in measure
ments OF 900 more students, making
the number of individuals compared
nearly 1000. The proportions of the
head are so nearly alike in the differ
ent classes of persons that on first
| CHANGING over the records it appears
that the upper classes of the various
races that have given rise to the pres
ent population have entirely fused to-
gether, but Mr.. Horton Smith finds
evidence in the stature aud the color
of the eyes that the mixture is incOm-
plete STILL The Welsh are about eight
inches shorter than the English
They are also a slighter race, and they
weigh less, are less muscular and have
smaller breathing capacity. The Eu-
glish, in turn, are about seven inches
shorter than the Scotch, weigh about
flour pounds less, and are less strong.
fThe percentage of dark eyes varies con-
siderably, being 3476 among under
graduates from the west and south
west, 49, rs among those from the east,
and only 1888 among those from the
southeast.
Is, OneGerman factory is now tuning
out Salons of storage batteries daily.
| ..4NlA demand has been increased by
recent ingenious improvement of the
lead plates, WHICH are made extremely
I nNlPus by theMNknixture of graduated
tsp414ice stone, whose air expands when
| The Mead is meNed aud forms an in
6nite number OF cells in the metal.
The porosity is so great that a plate of
by % inches in size can absorb 81
ounces of water.
! Fogs play so important part in de-
BEGINNING the character of a health re-
lsoft that Welsh meteorological urges
Ipsa1ie adoption of scale for their meas
kprement. With observations upon CON-
1icuous objects at known distances,
records of the density of fog should be
made as asscurate at least as records of
wind and cloud.
A French experimenter, Camille Da-
IeSCcs HAS lpnHu CuHL Tic germ III the
| | hens egg is not destroyed by an cleo
! trio current that would kill an adult
fowl, but that the germ is so modified
| in most cases that monstrOsity will
be Matched from the egg.
The peculiar rays by which Prof. w.
Rontgen, of the University of Wurz-
burg, has photographed through wood,
flesh and metal, seem to differ from
the cathode rays, which Hertz found
would pass through thin metal films.
but to be produced by them. When a
vacuum tube is excited by an induc-
tion current, the visible cathode raps
pass in straight line from the cathode
to the glass of the tube. The place
where they reach the glass is the GEN.
ter of what the discoverer calls the
arrays, which are invisible, affect the
Photographic plate, excite tiuorescence
in certain substances, pass through va
rious substances opaque to ordinary
light, and are neither broken by
prisms aud lenses nor reflected. I'M
like the cathode rays, they are not
turned aside by a magnet. If the ex-
cited vacuum tube is covered by
niece of black cardboard no LIGHT il