What can a Vegetarian Eat? In a letter to the Medical Press the secretary of the Vegetarian Society says that there is more or less confusion in the minds of many people as to what constitutes the dietary of a vegetarian. It does not consist in an exclusively vegetable diet, for the vegetarian may eat, at his option, all animal products that have not possessed animal life, e. g., milk, butter, cheese, eggs, honey and the like. Free Love and Cesspools. Free love, as between you and your neighbor's wife, may be very agreeable to you; but, as between your neighbor and your wife, is sure to be disagreeable to you. So, a cesspool on the back end of your lot, under your neighbor's dining-room window may be convenient for you, but a cesspool on your neighbor's lot, under your dining-room window, is not entirely satisfactory to you. -Wight. The Influence of Light on Development. An English scientist has been making experiments to determine the important part which light plays in the development of animal life. A dozen tadpoles were confined in a box, from which every ray of light was excluded. The result was that only two of them developed into frogs, and those were short lived. The others increased considerably in size, but never left the tadpole form. Scarlet Fever. A bright little girl four years old died of scarlet fever recently in Maine, and the secretary of the local board of health writes that the infection was taken in playing with old clothes or a doll where they had been in a chamber since the same disease was in the same house more than a year ago. It is dangerous to let a single infected article escape a thorough disinfection during and after the prevalence of this disease. Drugging Crying Children. A young mother remarked to us recently that her babe had been quite restless at first, but now she always gave it "drops," and this made it rest. This mother, with thousands of others, is making the sad mistake of putting her child to rest by drugging it. The "drops" of which she speaks, contain opium, in one or the other of its various shapes, and thus a stupor is induced in the child which may dull its natural brightness for life, possibly making it a half idiot. Little children seldom cry unless they have pain. They get pain. by being fed to excess. The normal, common sense method of relieving the pain and stopping the crying, is not by drugging the child, and dulling or destroying its sensibility, but by feeding it less at a time and more frequently. -National Educator. Hygienic Breakfast Cakes. One pint of fresh oatmeal, one quart of water; let it stand over night. In the morning add one teaspoonful of fine salt, one tablespoonful of sugar and the same of baking powder, and one pint of Graham flour. If above proportions make a batter too stiff for griddle cakes, add more water. If gems are preferred instead of cakes, the addition of a little more flour is all that is required to produce an extra article. The Latest Banquet Feature. At Paris dinner-tables the latest feature for dessert is the practice of putting on the table small receptacles called marmites, or "pots," in which are inclosed nuts, bonbons, and any other trifle that the hostess pleases. Each guest takes a pot, and before opening it trades it for that of some one else. The fun comes in when the results of the trades are known, and some are found to have swapped a pot filled with candy for one containing something of value. Meteorology and Disease. There would seem to be good reason for believing that there are certain definite relations between certain meteorological conditions and the prevalence of particular diseases. What these relations are we, as yet, know very little about. But it would seem as though this was a promising field for research. If we can definitely ascertain what atmospheric conditions favor the production of a certain disease, we are in a fair way to learn how to antagonize the onslaught of such a malady. Buttering Bread by Machinery. The latest and most unique electrical invention is a machine for buttering bread. It is used in connection with a patent bread cutter, and is intended for use in prisons and reformatory institutions. There is a cylindrical-shaped brush, which is fed with butter, and lays a thin layer on the bread as it comes from the cutter. The machine has a capacity of cutting and buttering 750 loaves of bread an hour. The saving of butter and of bread, and the decrease in the quantity of crumbs is said to be very large. Hurried Dinners. When a crude mass of inadequately crushed muscular fibre, or undivided solid material of any description, is thrown into the stomach, it acts as a mechanical irritant and sets up a condition in the mucous membrane lining that organ which greatly impedes, if it does not altogether prevent, the process of digestion. When the practice of eating quickly and filling the stomach with unprepared food is habitual, the digestive organ is rendered incapable of performing its proper functions. Either a much larger quantity of food than would be necessary under natural conditions is required, or the system suffers from lack of nourisment. Chocolate and Cocoa. Chocolate and cocoa, according to Dr. A. N. Bell, are much less potent as disturbers of the nervous system, and are proportionally more wholesome as a beverage than tea or coffee, besides possessing specially nutritive qualities, which render them much more sustaining; and there can be little question but that a general substitution for tea, especially of that cheap, oversteeped, secondedition kind, which is the too common beverage of overworked women in various avocations of life, would be promotive of health. A Warning to Chloroform Inhalers. A man in New York recently met with death because he did not understand the simple principle of capillary attraction. He had been in the habit of taking chloroform to quiet his nerves. One night he dipped a towel in the anæsthetic and placed it over his face when he went to sleep. But one end of the towel reached to the end of the bowl containing the chloroform, and gradually absorbed the liquid and carried it up to the sleeper's face. In the morning the bowl was empty and the man was dead. Brandy Drops. The artificial lives led by so many of our city girls of this day and generation prove such a tax upon their vitality that some artificial stimulant seems to them a necessity. Hence have the confectioners come to manufacture a chocolate drop, containing each a small quantity of brandy. If we spur a jaded horse, he will be stimulated into action, and if a jaded girl refresh herself with brandy, she, also, will be freshened into artificial life, but, in both instances, the ultimate result will be premature and irremediable physical prostration. The Vaccination Controversy in a Nut-Shell. An infant was once brought to a hospital with eyes irrevocably put out and dark for life. The great surgeon to whom it was brought was helpless. All he could do was to find out how such a tragedy had happened. Some such dialogue as the following transpired: Surgeon: How came the child to lose its eyes? Mother: It had smallpox, Sir. Surgeon How came it to get the smallpox? Was it vaccinated? Surgeon: Why was it not vaccinated? Mother: The child before this had very sore arms and I determined I would have no more children vaccinated. This is the vaccination controversy in a nut-shell: Sore arms against boils, carbuncles, ulcers, impaired health, blindness, hideous disfigurement-the frequent sequelæ of smallpox-and enormous loss of life; an utter loss of the sense of proportion, and a perverse preference for the greater of two evils. Test for Cotton-Seed Oil. There is no reason why we should not use cotton-seed oil in lieu of olive oil, so far as health is concerned. However, if you wish to know whether that which you are using as olive oil contains any cotton-seed oil, the following process will settle the question: Mix 1 part of pure nitric acid with 21⁄2 parts of the oil to be tested. Place a clean copper wire in the mixture, and stir thoroughly with a glass rod. The oil, if it contains cotton-seed oil, will turn red in the course of half an hour. Valuable Liquid Glue. Liquid glue possessing great resisting power, and particularly recommended for wood and iron, is prepared, according to Hesz, as follows: Clear gelatine, 100 parts; cabinet-makers' glue, 100 parts; alcohol, 25 parts; alum, 2 parts; the whole mixed with 200 parts of 20 per cent. acetic acid and heated on a water bath for six hours. An ordinary liquid glue, also well adapted for wood and iron, is made by boiling together for several hours 100 parts glue, 260 parts water and 16 parts nitric acid. Good Health and Good Citizenship. Good health not only conduces to longer life and public wealth and happiness, but to good citizenship, says the Iowa Monthly Bulletin. It is not a great boon nor benefit to anyone, nor to the public, for a person simply to live; but to live and to be in good health makes the fortunate possessor a benediction to all, since every one, however humble, in no insignificant sense touches every other person within the State. Hence, whoever contributes anything to the promotion and maintenance of good health is a public benefactor; and whatever of law or deed lessens the danger from preventible diseases and accident is a public benefaction. Amniol for Disinfecting Sewage. Mr. Woolheim, a Londoner, is said to have discovered a disinfectant which far surpasses anything now applied for that purpose. This is "amniol," a gas which, when introduced into a sewer, rapidly destroys the microbes of putrefaction and of disease. The odor in the sewer pipe is almost instantly displaced by that of the gas introduced, and in less than an hour the sewage thus treated is deodorized and sterilized. Dr. Klein has in part confirmed the claims of the discoverer, in so far that one sample of sewage examined by him was found to be absolutely sterile after having been treated by the amniol method. It is to be hoped that further experiments will soon be made with this agent, which will enlighten us as to how long the putrefactive processes can be delayed by it, and the character of microbes it is capable of destroying. If all that is claimed for "amniol" be true, then we will have a new boom in sanitation.-New Orleans M. and S. Journal. An Easy Way to Raise a Reputation. If he dies they will say : 'What A South Carolina physician, asked why he located at Monclova, said: “It is a first-rate place for a doctor. If a man is sick all you have to do is to tell his friends (no matter whether the affair is serious or not) to go to a priest and have him confessed and prepared for death. a good doctor he is, he knew he must die, attended to.' If he recovers they will say: must be. The man was in the last extremity and prepared for death, and he cured him.' So in either event it is a first-rate place in which to achieve a medical reputation." and so had his spiritual interests 'What a capable physician he Rights and Lefts. Dr. Louis Jobert has published a work on the cause and frequency of lefthandedness. No purely left-handed race has ever been discovered, although there seems to be a difference in different tribes. Seventy per cent. of the inhabitants of the Pendjab use the left hand by preference, and the greater number of the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa use the left hand in preference to the right. Dr. Marro, as a result of his study of criminals, has found that from 14 to 22 per cent. of those who have been convicted of crime were left-handed, the highest ratio among people of all classes being only nine in the hundred. How to be Miserable. An excellent recipe for being completely miserable is to think only of yourself, how much you have lost, how much you have not made, and the poor prospect for the future. A brave man with a soul in him gets out of such pitiful ruts and laughs at discouragement, rolls up his sleeves, sings and whistles and makes the best of life. This earth never was intended for paradise, and the man who rises above his discouragement and keeps his manhood will only be stronger and better for his adversities. Many a noble ship has been saved by throwing overboard the valuable cargo, and many a man is better and more humane after he has lost his gold. Transmission of Consumption in Married Life. M. Leudet has occupied himself with collecting some statistics on the question of whether a wife can give consumption to her husband, or a husband to his wife. He has taken III widows or widowers, whose husbands or wives, respectively, have died in undoubted consumption. Out of these 7 were consumptive; but several of them had facts in their previous history, before marriage, showing a consumptive tendency. His inference was, therefore, that the transmission of consumption in married life must be very rare ; even more rare in the upper classes than in the middle and lower. In 80 out of these 112 cases there was a family history which he could follow; and 27 of these showed some members who were consumptive.-The Practitioner. |