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Slept in a Coffin.

A Racine, Wis., undertaker recently made an unusual discovery when he opened his place of business. A burglar had gained entrance by breaking through a rear window. Finding nothing of value to carry away, the thief built a warm fire in the stove, moved a coffin up and then got into it and slept all night. The trimmings and sides of the interior of the coffin were smeared with blood, showing that the culprit had cut himself.

Transmission of Typhoid Fever by the Fingers.

The general public have a somewhat vague idea that typhoid fever is always caused by bad drinking water, yet we have so high an authority as Dr. Roberts Bartholow for believing that the nurse of one sick may carry the germs under the finger nail, from which they may be transmitted to the food of another, thus causing the disease, which tends to argue in favor of disinfectant cleanliness on the part of all those who come into contact with the sick.

Hot Water for Children.

Hot water is highly useful in the digestive disorders of children. A child will live for several days with nothing else to eat, and be in much better condition than with a demoralized digestive tract. On hot water it will live comfortably, and scarcely seem to miss the mother's milk. With a colicky baby the hot water frequently acts as an anodyne, putting it to sleep. If it seems distressed after nursing, the hot water relieves the pain, even if it be caused by an over-filled stomach.

Malaria on the Line of the Caucasian Railway in 1889.

A very grave form of malarial fever prevails along the line of the Caucasian Railway. It is often the case that every employé at the stations is attacked by it. Quinine is inefficacious. In 1888 there were 66,965 persons taken ill along the line of railway, and of these 41,069 were cases of malarial fever. In the Summer and Autumn the quotidian typhoid form and irregular intermittent fevers prevailed; at the close of the Autumn and during the Winter, tertian and quarternian fevers.

Fruit at Meals.

A ripe melon

As a rule, a fruit dessert in the evening and after a mixed meal ought only to be lightly indulged in, for the average stomach will but rarely tolerate a heavy influx of such cold and usually watery aliment as fruit. This is not the case if the fruit is eaten before or between the meal courses. eaten with salt or butter, before or immediately after the soup, can be freely indulged in. Experience teaches us that stewed or raw fruit may be largely taken between the courses. In many parts of the Continent this custom prevails; the Germans eat stewed fruit with many meats, and in warmer climes such fruits as grapes, plums, figs, melons and sweet lemons are habitually eaten with all kinds of dishes or as palate refreshers between the courses.

The Plague in Persia.

The plague has appeared in Persia at the village of Kalé-Darapéhan, eight hours' travel from Kermanshah. A dispatch received from the Ottoman sanitary representative at Kermanshah under date of June 14th, gives the population of Kalè-Darapéhan at 280 inhabitants. Up to the date named, 42 cases of plague have been reported, Of these 26 were fatal. The symptomotolgy was as follows: Engorgement of the inguinal and axillary ganglions, temperature 40°, anthrax, and a bluish eruption on the skin.

For Tired People.

Beat two or more eggs, the whites and yolks separately, add a little sugar, and, if you wish, crumb crackers into the dish and eat it. This will often agree with the stomach when it rejects other food. It is easily assimilated, and can be taken without an appetite, without hindering the organs of digestion. Excessive mental or bodily fatigue renders the stomach incapable for the time of performing its office, and this simple dish will recuperate the strength until the person is rested enough to eat heartily.

Jack, the Ink Slinger.

A curious form of monomania has appeared in New York city recently. A quiet and apparently respectable married man developed a fondness for throwing ink on women's dresses, particularly on pretty dresses. He would follow his victim along the street, and when a favorable opportunity arrived throw the ink, which was concealed in a pipe, upon the dress. More than fifty cases of spoiled dresses were reported before the man was discovered. He was promptly condemned to six months in the penitentiary. He is a monomaniac.

The Only Rebel Hanged.

For more than a quarter of a century intelligent physicians have known that water contaminated with the stools of a typhoid fever patient would produce typhoid fever in those who drank it. A most horrible abuse of this knowledge was used to destroy the lives of Union prisoners during the war of the rebellion. Wurtz, an educated physician, arranged the prison-pen, at Andersonville, on the side of a hill; a stream wound round the hill into the ravine below. He established the privies at the upper corner of this pen, near the river, where the soakage from these closets would run into the river, and compelled the men to get their water supply from the lower corner from this contaminated source. If any prisoner attempted to dig for fresh water, he was shot. The prison for the officers was in the ravine below, where the only water was this saturated from the privies. Wurtz's boast was that "he was killing more men at Andersonville than Lee at the front." Wurtz was the only person the Government hung after the close of the war.-Dr. Johnson, in Brooklyn Medical Journal.

La Grippe in India.

The Indian Medical Gazette says, the local names which this disease has acquired in its travels are almost as many as the countries visited. It is now prevalent in India. It first appeared in Bombay, and in Calcutta it is called the Bombay fever. Soldiers, artisans, clerks, police and prisoners have been attacked. The severe symptoms of pneumonia and capillary bronchitis which accompanied the disease in cold climates have been rare in India. Where relapses have occurred the disease has been alarming on account of the extreme debility following the attack.

Salt in Milk for Children.

Dr. A. Jacobi (Arch. of Ped.) says that the addition of sodium chloride prevents the solid coagulation of milk by either rennet or gastric juice. The cows' milk ought never to be given without table salt, and the latter ought to be added to a woman's milk when it behaves like cows' milk in regard to solid curdling and consequent indigestibility. Habitual constipation of children is influenced beneficially, since not only is the food made more digestible, but the alimentary secretions, both serous and glandular, are made more effective by its presence.

Juice That Won't Inebriate.

A valuable discovery, which may have an important bearing on the temperance cause, has, it is stated, been made by Dr. Jones, of Acton Hall, near Berkeley, England. It consists of a chemical process by which the juice of the apple and the juice of the grape can be manufactured into an extremely pleasant non-alcoholic beverage. Cider manufactured by this process can be kept for seven years without fermentation. But another invention of Dr. Jones' will be of more general benefit to the community. It is a method by which beef and mutton can be kept perfectly fresh for as long a period.

Max O'Rell's Coffee.

Max O'Rell, who is said to serve the best cup of coffee in London, learned how to make coffee when he was a soldier in Algeria, and this is his recipe: Take an ordinary saucepan (a small one) and pour into it as many cups of water as you require cups of coffee. Let the water boil, then put in as many tablespoonfuls of ground coffee as you have cups of water; put in sugar to suit the taste at the same time. Wait until the coffee boils, then lift the saucepan from the fire and hold it till the bubbling subsides. Put it back on the fire until it bubbles again; repeat this five times; the fifth time let it remain on the fire a minute or so, when the cream (which seems a better word to use than froth or scum) will rise to the top; then pour out the coffee and let it settle. Above all things, don't stir the coffee. There will be rather an unappetizing-looking sediment in the bottom of your cup when you have done with it, but if you succeed in this process as well as Max O'Rell does, you will have enjoyed a deliciously-fragrant cup of coffee before you see the sediment.

Leprosy Excluded at the Boston Quarantine.

The quarantine authorities at Boston Harbor have intercepted the importation of a case of leprosy in the person of a woman from Sweden. After the true nature of the disease had been clearly made out, the officials not only refused a permit to land, but required the Cunard Company to return the leper to her own country This was done on May 10th. It has now been learned that the diagnosis of leprosy was confirmed by the medical officials at Liverpool upon the arrival of the outcast at that port.

The Liqour Traffic and Native Races.

It is most gratifying to note that the King of the Belgians has given an audience to Dr. Hannay, of the Congregational Union, and Mr. John McKenzie, late assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland, on this subject, in which he expressed hearty sympathy with the views of those who protest against native races being demoralized and destroyed by the traffic in intoxicating drinks, and a confident hope that the conference would adopt some effective measures for the restriction of this traffic. If European nations are not strong enough to impose such restraints on their trade members in those distant regions, so much the more pity.

The Electric Railway as a Sanitary Measure.

The rapid extension of the electric street car system which has taken place (especially in this country) naturally leads to the question of the cause thereof. To have gained such pre-eminence it must be able to do not only what other systems can do, but, still more, it must be able to do it at a decreased cost. Again, removal of thousands of horses from the streets of a city, involving, as it does, the doing away with the noise and dirt, is another distinct gain to its residents. But if one goes still further, and contemplates the difference between a stable housing thousands of horses, and an electric car station of sufficient size to operate a road with the same efficiency, one is at once struck with the advantages on the side of the electric system, which, indeed, are incontrovertible. Instead of a large, ill-smelling building, whose odors are wafted for many blocks (making the tenancy of houses within half a mile almost unbearable, and involving a large depreciation of property in the neighborhood), there is a neat, substantial building, equipped with a steam plant and dynamos, and occupying hardly one-tenth the space required for an equivalent number of horses. Therefore, not only is there effected a removal of the nuisances attached to a stable, but a large saving in the cost of real estate, and the far greater amount involved in the known depreciation of the surrounding property. Besides this, the stables are of necessity required to be in close proximity to the track, whereas, the electric power station which furnishes current to the car, may be situated a mile from the track in some suitable place, as, for instance, beside a river, where, with condensing engines, power may be generated at a minimum of cost.-Exchange.

Cremation of Garbage.

Mr. L. T. Christian, an ardent and intelligent sanitarian of Richmond, Va., writes an earnest communication to The Times, of that city, urging upon the people the importance of erecting a furnace for the cremation of their garbage. We are anxious to heartily endorse Mr. Christian's efforts in this direction. In these days of sanitary enlightenment, the old, crude and dangerous methods of handling the garbage of cities must be regarded as a relic of barbarism.

American Climatological Association.

The annual meeting of the American Climatological Association will be held in Denver, September 2d to 4th, and a successful gathering is expected. The Western Passenger Traffic Association has granted a one fare for round trip rate; tickets to be bought August 31st and September 1st, and good for return till September 25th, which is open to others as well as members. Onethird of the time is expected to be given exclusively to the study of Colorado subjects, and after three days' sessions the visiting physicians are to be given an opportunity personally to investigate the mountain resorts by a series of complimentary excursions.

Corrosive Sublimate Solutions.

We have occasion so frequently to recommend the use of a solution of corrosive sublimate to destroy the germs of disease, that it seems well to give some instructions for its preparation. To make a standard solution, from which the weaker solutions may be made, take four ounces of corrosive sublimate and one pound of sulphate of copper, and dissolve them in one gallon of water. To make a solution of 1 to 500, add 8 ounces of the above to 1 gallon of water.

Remember that these solutions, while most effective in the destruction of disease germs, are, at the same time, highly poisonous.

Disinfection of Rooms in Boston.

The report of the Board of Health of Boston for last year, in speaking of the disinfection of rooms, says: "Our process in such cases, although not always insisted upon, is to close up the apartments to be disinfected, tightly, and to burn four pounds of sulphur to each 1000 cubic feet of space, evaporating water with the heat of the burning sulphur, and keeping the room closed for ten hours. In cases of smallpox this is all we ordinarily do; but in case of diphtheria, scarlet fever and typhoid fever, where the sputa or some other of the secretions may have become fixed and dried upon articles or surfaces in the room, and, moreover, where a stronger germicide is required for the sporebearing germ which is likely to become so fixed, we rub the walls, floors, and other hard surfaces with a solution of bichloride of mercury-1 to 500-and boil one hour articles of clothing and bedding."