Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/523

Rh -published work on "Corals and Coral Islands" is given a catalogue of about forty islands in the Pacific which have been more or less elevated since the formation of their reefs. Of these, several are lagoon islands.

Penrhyn's Island has an extensive lagoon and a total elevation of 50 feet above the sea.

Tougatabu and Hapaii are elevated atolls of coral; both have lagoons; the one on Hapaii is now a salt lake 1½ mile long.

Of the elevated islands as given by Prof. Dana, the amount of elevation is from one or two feet to 600 feet in two instances.

The island of Mengaia is girted by a coral-reef 300 feet high.

Others have 25 feet, 60 feet, 90 feet, and 300 feet of elevation.

These reefs were formed as reefs are now being formed, near the surface of the ocean, and their great thickness is accounted for by long but slow subsidence of the land. But it is equally certain that important elevations must have followed in the instances given of elevated atolls and reefs. It is not contended that the elevation is as general as the subsidence was. Nevertheless, instances of elevation occur in various parts of the Pacific, but the amount is not uniform even with islands not very distant from each other. The fact appears to be, that in some cases single islands, in others groups of islands, as the Gilbert Group and part of the Tonga Islands, have risen after an indefinite period of subsidence, and this seems so well established as to be scarcely open for discussion.

Chloral-Hydrate in Hydrophobia.—The Lancet for April 20th contains an interesting account of a case of hydrophobia, where the disease was controlled, and terminated in recovery, under the use of hydrate of chloral. The patient was an active business-man, about forty years old, who had been bitten on the hand by his own dog some four or five months previous to the attack. The wound was cauterized at the time, and little more thought of it, until about a fortnight before the disease developed.

The patient states that he first felt a pricking sensation about that part of the hand which had been bitten, followed in two or three days by swelling, and a pain striking up the whole arm, which afterward became numb. He thought it was rheumatism. These symptoms increased, and he began to decline in health. His appetite failed; he had chills and heats, with an occasional headache; felt confused, anxious, and irritable; was easily startled and alarmed. When walking along the streets he would suddenly stop or turn round, and did not know the reason why. If a bird flew out of a hedge, or any unusual noise occurred, he felt agitated. When at chapel the Sunday previous to his being laid up, he experienced a sudden impulse to spring forward and jump over the front of the pew, and he restrained himself from the attempt by laying hold of the seat with both hands. The attack was characterized by the usual hydrophobic symptoms, great difficulty of breathing and of swallowing, distress at the pit of the stomach, convulsions, frightful struggling and howling, wild expression of countenance, frothy discharge from the mouth, and on one occasion a strong propensity to bite. The paroxysms succeeded each other at intervals of about ten minutes, and perceptibly grew worse as they continued. Shortly after being called in, the attending physician, who relates the case, began the administration of chloral-hydrate in twenty-grain doses. After the third dose, the violence of the symptoms began to moderate; the fourth dose was followed by still greater improvement, and the fifth dose put the sufferer to sleep. This soporific effect was kept up by giving the same dose of the chloral at longer intervals. For the next twenty-four hours nothing of any consequence occurred, with the exception of slight twitchings of the face and jerkings of the arms and legs during sleep. These were allayed at any time by an extra dose of the chloral. Beef-tea, mutton-broth, common tea, or water-gruel, was given him occasionally, which he swallowed without much objection when fairly roused up. During the next three days the somnolency was kept up by the medicine, with only a few twitchings showing themselves. On the morning of the fifth day he awoke out of a gentle slumber, and said to his wife, "I feel as if I should like to bite somebody." This was the last symptom