Falsification of Wine in Brazil. It appears, from a small pamphlet referred to in the Lancet by Dr. Campos da Paz, of Rio de Janeiro, that the manufacture of the imitations of wines and liquors flourishes unchecked in Rio, and forms a more or less important industry. The replies, based on analyses, which were returned by the local official chemists to inquiries submitted by Dr. Campos da Paz and Dr. Freire, show that extensive and systematic falsification of a kind likely to be seriously injurious to public health is practiced. Indigo-carmine, dinitro-cresylate of potassium, aloes, chloroform and the compound ethers of valeric, butyric and caproic acid, oxalic acid and amyl alcohol are among the ingredients used in this branch of misapplied chemistry. The Advantages of a Sea Voyage. The benefit to health following upon a sea voyage is, according to Dr. Burney Yeo, due to the following causes : 1. Perfect rest and quiet, a thorough change of scene, and perfect and enforced rest from both mental and physical labor. 2. The life in the open air, and the great amount of sunshine enjoyed, it being quite possible to spend fifteen hours every day in the open air. 5. The purity of the sea air, no organic dust or impurities--the air of the open sea being the purest found anywhere. 4. The great humidity of the atmosphere and the high barometric pressure, which are considered to exercise a useful sedative influence on certain constitutions. 5. The exhilarating and tonic. effects of rapid motion through the air--the sea-breezes are constantly blowing over the ship. These breezes increase evaporation from the skin, and impart tone to the superficial blood vessels.--The Nineteenth Century. Diphtheria Conveyed by Cats. A physician of Kansas writes that last Winter he was called to attend a little 3-year old girl suffering with diphtheria. Upon careful inquiry it was found that she had not been exposed to the disease, although there were some cases within a mile of her father's house. He incidentally learned that there was a sick cat in the house, which had been fondled by the little girl some days before. The cat died shortly after its playmate became sick, and a second cat also became sick and was killed. Suspicions were aroused that the disease was conveyed by the cat, and inquiry revealed the fact that one farmer had lost seventeen cats, and another fifteen, with some throat trouble. One of the farmers stated that he had examined the throats of some of the cats, and found them covered with a white membrane. The little girl died and her little brother a few days later had a severe attack of the same disease. Cats are disposed to run from house to house at night, and one diseased cat may be the means of carrying diphtheria to half the cats in the neighborhood, they in turn carrying it to the children whom the parents are taking every means to protect from danger. It is well to keep an eye on the cats in times of diphtheria. ARTICLES. Constituents of Food. The amount of solid matter in the different kinds of food used should be kept in mind as completely as possible. The following table exhibits the proportion of solid matter and water in 100 parts each of the following articles of diet: One of the most gifted and practical of sanitarians was the late Sir Edwin Chadwick, of London, who recently died at the age of 90. What faith is to the Christian religion, soap and water are to the Gospel of Health. He believes that the immunity that nurses and internes of hospitals have from infectious diseases comes largely from their daily baths. He said lately; "I cannot tell you how strongly I believe in soap and water as a preventive of epidemics. If an epidemic were to occur I would proclaim and enforce the active application of soap and water as a preventive." Dr. Chadwick states that by this simple means he has been able to greatly reduce the mortality of the Indian army, and that the death rate has been reduced from sixty-seven to twenty per thousand. He has rather a novel theory in regard to air purification, which is highly endorsed by M. Eiffel, which consists in the erection of lofty towers in the cities by means of which the life and health-giving ozone of the upper regions may be pumped down so as to exert its beneficial influence upon the inhabited strata of air. It is said that while there is plenty of ozone at the summit of St. Paul's cathedral there is none at the base. He thinks that hygiene so taught in the schools as to impress upon the children and the coming generations the advantages of soap and water as applied regularly and frequently to the body, would be vastly more important to the world than time spent in acquiring a knowledge of the dead languages. We heartily concur in this opinion, and reiterate the declaration so often made, that the greatest, and almost the only essentials to good health, are pure air, pure water, pure soil and clean bodies. as new. Filling for Old Nail Holes. The following method of filling up old nail holes in wood is not only simple, but is said to be effectual. Take fine sawdust and mix into a thick paste with glue, pound it into the hole, and when dry it will make the wood as good One correspondent says he has followed this for 30 years with unvarying success in repairing bellows, which is the most severe test known. Often by frequent attachment of new leather to old bellows frames the wood becomes so perforated that there is no space to drive the nails, and even if there was the remaining holes would allow the air to escape. A treatment with glue and sawdust paste invariably does the work, while lead, putty and other remedies always fail. Gingerette. A popular cold weather beverage abroad is prepared as follows: To one quart of syrup add the acid solution and all the essences and coloring; well mix by agitation. Add. remaining quart of syrup, and shake well together, and, if necessary, pass through flannel bag, when it is ready for bottling. Color, deep sherry. Drugs versus Hygiene. That delightfully concise and expressive paragraphist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, is credited with having said, "Give me opium, wine and milk, and I will cure all diseases to which flesh is heir," from which wise remark we might infer, did we not already know that Dr. Holmes is not an ardent advocate of drug-dosing. No more is any intelligent, thoughtful physician. There are certain drugs, with a specific action, each peculiar to itself, which at times are absolutely essential, but it would be better for humanity were most of the drugs that are described in our bulky books devoted to this subject left to the obscurity from which commercial enterprise has dragged them. We must clearly understand that drugs cannot cure; they possess a potency, and since they do not cure, this potency must in very many cases do harm. Nature alone can cure, and the remedies which nature uses are the remedies suggested by the sanitarian; they are not drugs. As it is at present, the public demand drugs and the physician must, therefore, order them or be set down as an ignoramus and lose his patients. Just as soon as the people are willing to be treated by natural remedies and to stop drug-dosing, just so soon will the physicians conform to their wishes. It is a gratifying sign of increasing intelligence among the people that this happy period is fast approaching. Food for Children. In those cases where we have an irritation of the stomach and bowels, evidenced by a looseness of the bowels, perhaps some vomiting, unhealthy-looking passages, and, it may be, want of appetite, the following diet will prove very useful: This is to be concentrated by boiling to one pint, strained and sweetened. The result is a mucilage readily taken by children. The patient should be given small quantities of this mucilage at frequent intervals, and no other food administered until the passages assume their normal color. Be More Careful. There is too much carelessness in letting children visit other children who are sick before it is definitely known whether they have an infectious disease or not. Even when it is announced of the sick child that "it is nothing but a slight sore throat," the prudent mother should hesitate before sending her child to the sick chamber and into a possible danger lying in ambush. Scarlet fever and diphtheria sometimes put off their characteristic appearance and masquerade in the form of a "slight sore throat," retaining, however, their capability of communicating infection which may reproduce the diseases in their more usual and more frightful forms. The truth of this is emphasized every year in the histories of outbreaks in our own State. A word to the wise is sufficient, it is said, but we find that the word needs frequent repetition-Sanitary Era. The National Museum of Hygiene. Under the auspices of the Medical Department of the United States Navy, there is located in Washington a "Museum of Hygiene," regarding which Medical Inspector Wells says that the experience of the past year has demonstrated more fully than ever the necessity and value of a museum of this character. The health reports of States and cities received at this office indicate the widespread interest taken in sanitary science. The increase of visitors and applicants for special hygiene reports, the addition of sanitary appliances by inventors, the visits of students from the colleges and universities for study and observation, the contribution of books and pamphlets, are all evidences of the growing influence of the museum. During the year a circular letter was sent to every large hospital and asylum in the country, calling attention to the collection being made of waste-pipes long in use, and this has brought some very interesting specimens, particularly from insane asylums. Such a museum constitutes a most valuable "object lesson" in hygiene, and we have always felt that every large city should harbor a similar institution. Statistics of Leprosy in the United States. In view of the general impression that leprosy is spreading in this country, it is desirable, in the interest of public health, to obtain accurate information on this point. The undersigned is engaged in collecting statistics of all cases of leprosy in the United States, and he would ask members of the profession to aid in this work by sending a report of any case or cases under their observation or coming within their knowledge. Please give location, age, sex and nationality of the patient, and the form of the disease-tubercular or anæsthetic, also any facts bearing upon the question of contagion and heredity. Address DR. PRINCE A. MORROW, 66 West 40th Street, New York. Relative Mortality in Certain Cities as Influenced by Influenza. A study of the table of total number of deaths in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris, in December, 1889, and January, 1890, admits of important conclusions as to the proportion of the influenza epidemic in the four cities, the increase of mortality having been conditioned upon the complications and consecutive diseases of influenza. It is shown that the disease was mildest in Berlin, stronger in Vienna, very violent in Amsterdam, and most intense in Paris. The following table exhibits the number of deaths in each thousand of the inhabitants of the four cities during the months of December, 1889, and January, 1890: Causal Theories Concerning Choleraic Outbreaks. The French Society of Hygiene has received from Dr. Tholozan, honorary member of the society, some precise information with regard to the outbreak of cholera in Mesopotamia. He asserts that cholera lingered in this region during the Winter in a light, sporadic form, to break out with violence with the first heat of Summer, and that, in view of this fact, "the theory that choleraic epidemics can be controlled and subdued by restrictive measures must be abandoned." The unexpected appearance of cholera in certain small localities in the province of Valencia, Spain, is also fatal to the "tradition which makes all cholera epidemics originate on the banks of the Ganges." The partisans of a theory which reigned supreme from 1867 to 1887, and which was affirmed by every international congress of hygiene and by the academies of sciences and of medicine, will find it difficult to deny that the cholera which appeared in the |