age can be purified by spreading it over the land and allowing it to deposit its impurity in the soil. This is done by Berlin, Germany. The sewage is pumped by great steam pumps fifteen miles away, onto a large tract of land, which it fertilizes, and the surplus water is drained off comparatively pure. Some New England towns have a similar plan. But in order to supply ourselves with pure water we shall ultimately have to resort to distillation. This is the one perfect remedy, and the sooner we learn it the sooner shall we be able to furnish ourselves with absolutely pure drinking water.

Forestry and Health.-Every person who has any interest in this matter should be a member of some organization which has for its object forest culture and preservation. He should do this, if for no other reason, because of his duty to encourage this phase of hygiene. It is customary to consider this question from economic and sentimental standpoints, but the preservation of our forests has a most decidedly sanitary aspect, and the health of our present and future citizens, in a large degree, depends upon a sufficient number of trees. The preservation of an uncontaminated watersupply is one part of the good gained. The Governors of Pennsylvania and New York are heartily in favor of preserving our forests. New York State has obtained control of about 1,000,000 acres of forests, and private owners interested in the same cause have 1,200,000 more, making between two and three millions in all saved from destruction in one state. This is a good beginning, but not enough. Every town should have its forests; indeed, every farm. The farmer may be the true forester by preserving a natural proportion of wood-land on his farm, by cultivating trees of the right sort on hills and on more or less barren or worn-out land.

Tobacco Poisoning.-The Evangelical records the sudden death of William M. Singerly, editor of the Philadelphia Record, from the use of the cigar. Dr. Bernardy, who was Mr. Singerly's family physician, visited him the day before his death and found him then in fairly good condition, with no weakness or pain, expecting to go down to his office the next day. But the end came suddenly, and without a word the strong man fell back dead. The explanation of the sudden death, which will apply to thousands of similar cases, is given by Dr. Bernardy as follows:

"Mr. Singerly was an inveterate smoker, and for years had suffered from what was known as a 'tobacco heart.' I forewarned his family that some day he would die suddenly in just the way he did.

He knew that his heart was weak, but always laughed at the thought of danger. The end has come, however, in just the manner I had predicted and expected."

The rest of the world of smokers, who are also diligently cultivating the treacherous "tobacco heart" will read this account of a smoker's sudden death from the effects of tobacco, then light their cigars and pipes and go puffing on their way to death as if nothing had happened. They, like Mr. Singerly, only laugh at the warning of doctors and friends. They will stop laughing when they are dead!

Cremation in Paris.-In 1882 a crematory was established in Paris with facilities for the reception of 3,000 urns with the ashes of the dead. This space was exhausted in ten years and another building erected, which is now full. To meet the wants of Parisians who prefer cremation a still larger one is now being built, which will furnish niches for many thousands more. There are about twelve cremations daily in this great city.

Fasting in Pneumonia.-Something can and needs to be said frequently on the advantage of abstinence from food in the treatment of a class of diseases, notably in fevers, pneumonia, and derangements of the digestive organs, among which must be classed the liver complaints, the fountains of so much bodily ailment. Notwithstanding the encouragement extended to fasting practices by sacred writings, ascetic examples and religious observance (precepts which may well have had a therapeutic as well as a ceremonial significance among pastoral peoples) the fasting habit makes but little headway among more civilized nations. As bearing on this point, a recent experience tempts me to offer a short account for whatever of instruction it may have for those who still cling to the time-honored fashion of coddling the sick with beef teas, jellies and confections, that a hearty stomach might disdain.

For many years, and from causes dating far back and somewhat obscure, at intervals of a few months, I have been subject to a stoppage of the functions of the ileum, involving, sooner or later, a paralysis of liver, spleen and derangement of kidneys. Such an attack I found approaching last January, and while I was preparing to enter a hospital for the purpose of an exploratory surgical operation, in order that the defective section of the intestine might be cut out, a sharp onset of pneumonia supervened, with high fever and general depression. My consultant very wisely decided that

the risk of surgery was now too grave and we had better fight it out on the oft-tried lines of fomentation, irrigation, perspiration and abstinence from solids as well as drugs. The result was a more complete object-lesson than I had expected or hoped for. For some time previously I had eaten but little, and at once dropped to a diet of one-half gallon of distilled water per day, flavored with the strained juice of from six to eight oranges, hot or cold as temperature dictated. continued this for fifteen days, without noticeable loss of strength of mind or body, and with a steady daily improvement in symptoms, temperature lowering from 103 to 98, pulse 92 to 70, and respiration 25 to 18. Not being provided with sympathetic household help, I was my own attending physician and trained nurse; and in order to inspire courage in them, as well as to keep the control of the case in my own hands, I refused to lay up, but kept about and even made excursions to the city, when ordinary prudence would have confined me to bed, greatly to the consternation and foreboding of my small family.

Not until some days after the disappearance of the fever and the restoration of something like the normal function of the lungs, liver, kidneys and bowels, did the desire for food return. Then I made a gradual advance from milk, gruels, baked apples, to cereals and vegetables. The inconvenience of the fasting was not at all serious nor painful, while at the same time it gave opportunity for a thorough clearing out of the circulatory system. The loss in weight may have been ten or fifteen pounds and every ounce of it better spared than retained; but I must have looked as if doomed, as the bystanders thought it was a case for the coroner. They view it

differently now.

I

Cases of pneumonia at the thawing season of the year are so frequent, many of which prove fatal, even to persons who are otherwise robust, the percentage of deaths in our best hospitals under the older treatment being rarely less than 35, that it seems to me a change to the methods of refrigeration and fasting is indicated. have known a sufferer to be well-fed and dosed with quinine, morphine, strychnine, digitalis and whiskey, two or more of the poisons at once! Is it any wonder that patients die? Ever since the discovery that the ravages of this and other maladies are due to a microscopic organism, one-half of the medical profession has run eagerly after some germicide or antitoxin culture as remedies. Inasmuch as all persons exposed to the infection or miasm do not

equally succumb to it, nor with the same severity, it is evident the resisting power of the organs is one large factor in the problem. This, as we now know, is an affair of clean, pure blood. How is this to be assured? Not necessarily by eating at all times; occasional abstinence may be useful too, in the way of purifying the blood, without which healthy tissue cannot be kept.

R. T. COLBURN, Elizabeth, N. J.

BOOK NOTICES.

Alaska, Its Future, by Bushrod Washington James, published by the Sunshine Publishing Co., Philadelphia, we find a most interesting and instructive work. Mr. James writes from personal knowledge, having written much of the book "on the spot." It tells us of the area, needs, methods of reaching the gold fields; their discovery and extent; the scenery, productions, inhabitants; the fur seals, rivers, missionaries and indeed everything about that country one needs to know to be intelligent about it. In view of the recently aroused interest in this land, the book will undoubtedly have a large circulation. well illustrated with maps and pictures, and costs $2.

Neglected Past, Its Brilliant

It is

Distilled Water.-One of the strong points of the "Ralsto Health Club" is the drinking of pure distilled water, not only for preserving the health, but for curing many of the ills that flesh is heir to. We take pleasure in calling attention to a very simple apparatus for family use manufactured by the Hygeia Still Co. of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., which will furnish the purest water at trifling

cost.

Vick's Garden and Floral Guide for 1898 comes as regularly as the rising sun and is always bright and useful. It is profusely illustrated, has 120 pages, and is sent free to all who order it. Address James Vick's Sons, Rochester, N. Y.

Any

Notice. We often send sample copies of this Journal to those not subscribers, hoping, of course, to interest them in it. person receiving this number, not now a subscriber, may send $1.00 and be credited from July, '97, to Dec., '98, in all eighteen months. See prospectus on another page, also list of books. The science of hygiene, or the art of preserving health and perfecting life, is the coming science. There is no better investment than in its knowledge.

That sex

can be controlled in butterflies, I think I have demonstrated by careful experiment the past season. Accident first prompted this experiment. Two years ago the past summer I was feeding a few larvæ of Papilio Asterias for the cabinet, when one of my specimens wandered from its food and rested upon a book to undergo its transformations. Not feeling inclined to give up the book to this purpose, I placed the larva on a fresh stem of caraway. ⚫. Upon removing it from the book I found its feet were entangled in silk, and that it was in position for a chrysalis, but not yet fastened; so I was surprised to see it commence eating. It continued eating some days longer, before changing to a chrysalis. I then tried

others in the same way, and also took off quite a number of larvæ, shutting them away from food. Some of the larvæ that I deprived of food in this first experiment died, but all that completed their transformations were males, while those that I induced to go on feeding, by tempting them with the best and freshest food, proved to be females.

This season (1872) I commenced with the larvæ the 17th of June and continued feeding broods of different ages through the month of July. Early in July I had about two hundred larvæ feeding at the same time. The room in which I conducted my experiment faced east and south, and toward noon of each of those excessively hot days in the early part of July, it was several degrees warmer than the outside air. The food-plant, on which I fed the various broods, was placed in jars of water, which were set in a large box partly filled with earth, the whole being covered with deep blue mosquito