Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/583

 way in which they were traveling ran straight through the open, level fields; neither was any one to be seen on the railway lying at no great distance to the right. Shortly after the occurrence the train from Neuhausen passed by. At some distance on the left are vineyards, where a few laborers were seen, but none of them had firearms, and even if they had they could not have sent a ball as far as the highway. It may be added that the wounded man is a peaceable fellow, having no enemies, so far as he knows. Besides, the missile—as is to be seen from the wound—came from the front, where no human being was to be seen on the broad, straight highway. The anterior wound was two inches inside of and two inches above the capitulum radii, and the posterior wound, which was only five millimetres in diameter, was two inches inside of and one and one third inch above the inner condyle of the ulna. The physician who attended to the case asked my opinion about this enigmatical occurrence; and, on my attributing it either to an air-gun or to a meteorite, he rejected both hypotheses. It could not have been an air-gun, he said, because no such instrument had ever been heard of in that locality; and because, even if such an instrument had been used, no one after discharging it could have concealed himself, owing to the nature of the ground, as already described. As for meteorites, no one had ever known of people being wounded by them. I was not prepared to prove my second hypothesis or to strengthen it by citing analogous instances, though authors had often recorded and described the falling of great stones in fields and through the roofs of human habitations, the bursting of falling stones in mid-air, and the scattering of the fragments. Still the hypothesis seemed to me to be not altogether groundless in the present instance, and it was strengthened by the known velocity of meteoric stones, which is on an average twelve times as great as that of a musket-ball. Then, too, the time of year and the direction of the projectile favor the opinion that the wound was inflicted by some small stray meteorite. Everybody attributed the wound to a ball from a revolver, because there was no other way to account for it. Had one of the two fellow travelers or one of the laborers in the distant vineyards been in possession of a revolver or other firearm, it would not have been easy for him to clear himself of the suspicion of having shot the man. On this ground, if not on account of its general interest, it is much to be desired that such occurrences should be investigated and published, to the end that, by bringing together and discussing the facts, light might be thrown on this interesting but as yet obscure subject.

Cold-Water Baths.—In some remarks on cold-water bathing in cold weather, the London "Lancet" points out the true use of such baths—which is to stimulate the organism to increased activity, and then shows how this effect is best obtained. A great mistake is made when any part of the body is immersed in cold water and left to part with its heat without any guarantee that the energy of heat-production so severely taxed can respond to the requirement. It may easily happen that the internal heat-production will be exhausted, and if that occurs harm has been done. The obvious principle of health preservation is to maintain the circulation in its integrity; and while the error of supposing that clothing can do more than keep in the heat generated within is avoided, it is not less needful to guard against the evil of depriving the body of the heat it has produced. The furnace should be supplied with suitable fuel, i. e., nutritious food; the machinery of heat-production, which takes place throughout the organism not in any one spot or center, should be kept in working order, and nothing conduces to this end more directly than the free use of the cold douche and the shower-bath; but the application ought to be restricted to a few seconds of time, and, unless the evidences of stimulation—redness and steaming of the surface—are rapidly produced, the effusion should be laid aside. The use of cold water in cold weather is a practice which must be governed by rules special to each individual case. Whether the practice recommended be that of plunging the feet in cold water before going to bed, to procure sleep—which the "Lancet" denounces as "a reckless prescription founded on a physiological fallacy"—or any other use of cold water, the only safe course is to seek the counsel