Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-12-13
THE WORLD OF SCIENCE.
RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS OF THOUGHT

RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS OF THOUGHT.
A New Sleep Theory Bread Baked by
Electricity-A Curious Mountain Stream
in Utah - Perfumery Antiseptic "A New
Hard Flooring Open Air for Consumption.
"God to simple things is very near;
How He reveals Himself in special wise
To unsophisticated hearts and eyes;
Speaks surer, sweeter, from the wayside flower,
Than from the proudest sign of human power,
And in such language as child may read
Utters all truth that mortals seek or need
james Buckham.
A new model rifle prepared for the
United States army will be the hardest
hitter in the world. Its bullets will
have an initial velocity of 1890 feet
per second Could it continue, such
a shot would be felt around the world
in little over half day.
A new possibility in the field of
electricity has Just been forcibly il
Illustrated in Cincinnati, where a bust
ness man controlling two score or so of
retail and wholesale groceries, has in
augurated movement for cheap bread
by establishing large bakery for the
baking of bread by electricity. This
movement may develop into gigantic
war upon the National Biscuit com
pany.
Submarine divers have not yet sue
ceeded in reaching 200 feet below the
surface with all the advantage of
armor, air supply and weights to sink
them. The effort has been made to
reach wreck in 240 feet of water.
! no re Stata mt nj 40
diver began to experience serious
trouble At 200 feet, after suffering
terribly, he lost consciousness and was
hauled up. Divers cannot work much
| below 100 feet.
The latest achievement in surgery is
an artificial larynx The patient using
it has been presented before the Acad-
envy of Medicine in Paris. He was able
to eat and speak. The apparatus con-
sists of vulcanite reproduction of a
larynx, adapted above the trachea. A
rubber diaphragm replaces the CLOTHS.
1t vibrates, but gives only one note.
The patients speech is, therefore,
monotone. A metallic grating pre-
vents the ingress of solid food. Liquor
falls into funnel and is conducted to
the esophagus, An anterior orifice
facilitate respiration.
The Rocky Mountain Sanitarium is
now in full operation near Denver,
Col. Consumptive patients are there
treated in tents on a l0-acre lot, five
miles from Denver. Each patient has
a tent with small stove in ii and
plenty of clothing and is obliged to
maintain an outdoor life summer and
winter. There are 10 or 20 patients
there and all are gaining rapidly. The
hope of the promoters of the scheme
is to establish a great Sanitarium for
all consumptives who 90 to Denver for
relief, and there cure them and rid the
city of the serious menace.
4 German chemist is reported to
have found means, by mixing sawdust I
with certain chemicals, of producing
d flooring which is as hard and smooth /
as marble or concrete, and yet elastic +
and warm to walk on. 1t is stated to ]
be tireproof, imperyious and sound =.
deadening, and, although laid down T
for some years, to have in no instance T
shown signs of bulging or cracking I
1t is laid down in a moist state with
out seams, and there by allows of the
corners and sides being rounded off,
an important device from a hygienic
point of view. Ii hardens fully in IS
hours.
Based on the premises that the de-
gree Of alkalinity in the blood of GER
tain lower animals as the horse. dog
and cat, is greater than that of man
and that it is causatiye factor in
their immunity from certain diseases,
DR.. Emil Schmitt of New York city
has suggested the use of salts derived
from the blood ash of horses and he
reports cases of puerperal septic@mia
and cerebro-spinal meningitis thus
treated. The author suggests a new
trend of thought which will attack dis
ease at its very foundations. altering
the composition of the blood and
body juices so as to make them unin-
habitable for germs. Infusion of the =
salt solutions together with venesec
ton to rid the body of some of its
toxins is recommended.
A rather startling theory as to the
cause of sleep lately put forward by a
young psychologist is attracting con-
siderable attention. This student be-
ieves that a gland or certain glands
in the system secrete a narcotic sub
stance: that this substance is stored \
III llt EIdDU VI HldHhS uulll at ttH-
ate times mainly influenced by habit f
and "tiredness' of the individual-it b
5 thrown into the circulation, and =
hereby causes the phenomenon of y.
deep. There is no direct evidence of
he correctness of this theory, but he
efers to lately discovered fact that
he urine of health secreted in waking
hours always contains narcotic sub
tance, and he urges the point in sup 7
,ort of his theory. The existence of II
UGH glands is difficult to deny.
The use of scent upon the person is
f Oriental origin, the object being -
imply to please the sense of smell. 1t
las, however, a sanitary value not
generally recognized. 1t should be
that the basis of all per
umes is an essential oil of some kind,
erived either from flowers or leaves
r artiticially by synthetic process.
n either case the essential oil is a
owerful antiseptic and possesses dis |
injecting properties not less in degree H
han those of carbolic acid itself. Pine
il. eucalyptus oil and turpentine act
eadily in this manner-a fact which
accounts for the saluhrity of
he aid of pine forests and eucalyptus
'oods. The liberal use of scent on
ne handkerchief is calculated to make