Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-04-04
THE WORLD OF SCIENCE.
REGENT ACHIEVEMENTS OF THOUGHT,


In Switzerland a machine has beer
invented which is able to thread need
les at the rate of thirty thousand an
; hour. The machine is automatic, aho
works by steam Operators grasp the
needles one by ope and in the twink
ling of an eye they are threaded and
the thread is cut off at the desired
length.
The Oregon Agricultural Experiment
station is making vinegar from prunes.
If it proves satisfactory to consumers,
it's manufacture will be of great value
to western prune growers as an outlet
for the very small prunes and those
which partly ferment in drying
Prunes, being very Sweet will produce
a large quantity either of alcohol or
of vinegar The vinegar produced from
prune Juice in Oregon is said to be so
strong as to require its dilutlon by
one half to bring it down to the com
mercial standard.
Essences are coming back into favor
as disinfectants. The bactericide prop
critics of large number of them have
been established and their power has
| been found much greater than had
hitherto been supposed. Among the
most active of these essences are card
anon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender,
organum, wallfiowers, geraniums,
French NORWOOD and extract of tube
rose. In less than an hour, by the
simple use of their vapors, microbes
are killed, such as those of pus, of
cholera and the intestipes. The ac-
tivity of these microbes is visibly di
unfinished after being subjected to
these vapors for six minutes.
} DR.. Tere, a medical man of much re-
pute in Vienna, advocates as an etfec-
tive remedy for rheumatism the satu-
rating of the patients body with the
venom of bees. For the purpose he ex-
tracts the venom, treasuring 1t up IN
quantity, and applying it artiticlally
in the way of punctures. He POUNDS
this treatment on his discovery that
rheumatic patients do not suffer from
bees sting to anything like the same
degree as other people When the pa
tient suffers himself to be stung re
peatedly, his immunity against the
poison of the bee becomes complete,
and he feels no pain whatsoever.
What is more, he gets cured of his
rheumatism.
Surgeons have recently performed an
unusual operation on little boy in /
New York who had deformed nose
the first eight years of his life which /
caused him great suffering in his at !
tempts to breathe. One nostril was en-
tirely closed and the other so dwarfed /
and distorted that as he grew older he |
strangled and had commissions through .
his inability to get air. Physicians
finally decided to attempt the boring
of a new nostril and the building up
of a new nose. They cut open the left
nostril and chiseled through mass of
bone to the base of the nose at the left
eye and then established an opening
through the natural nasal channel
down to the throat. Then they folded
back the skin over tiny wooden splin-
tiers and fashioned the nose on this
framework in the shape it would be
if normal. The boy can now breathe
through both nostrils freely and the
physicians are watching the case with
great interest.
The Medical Times speaks of wood
alcohol as fatal and insidious poison
whose virulence has been almost un- I
until recently. 1t is now so
purified and deodorized as to be easily
mistaken for grain alcohol and is used !
or many purposes for which ordinary =.
llcohol is employed as its cost is less
han half that of the latter. 1t is there
ore not surprising that it is often
as a beverage. The quantity \
equired for the production of toxic eff
ects varies from half an ounce to one :
lint, but mere inhalation of the vapor y
While using it at work will sometimes
AXE effect. In cases of such poisoning =
lot fatal, the symptoms are acute gas J
ric pains, vomiting, headache, delir :
um, Inconsistencies and an affection
+ the eyes resulting in permanent e.
Kindness. In fatal cases the symp- .
oms are moro pronounced, and blind y
ess followed by Inconsistencies are NJ
noted. The alcohol causes :.
Inflammation of the optic nerve which %
ledical treatment neither prevent. or
ures. The important conclusion a
hat the country is flooded with a sub Ii
lie poison even more dangerous to Wis
IN than to life itself, since, whenever b
toxic amount of wood alcohol has :,
cen taken land this amount. as al
eady stated. may be very small, we q
lust expect a blindness more or less
0mplete The only means of meeting
lch a calamity is by informing people
idely of the danger and by carefully
beling the poison with the "szull
I'd bones. - 20