Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/148

136 more so, M.Cartaillac, in a paper in the Anthropological Section, on primitive burial rites, maintained that the custom of letting corpses entirely decompose before giving them a definitive burial had been a very prevalent one. Of the excursions, one contemplated to Mount Douon, which is in German territory, was prevented by the jealousy of the German officers, who were not acquainted with the nature of the Association, and feared it might be a political body. The meeting of the Association for 1887 is appointed to be in Toulouse, and that for 1888 in Oran, Algeria.

Regimen for Inebriates.—Dr. Joseph Parrish, in his address as president, at its last meeting, of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, analyzed the English system for the care of persons of this class as exemplified in the "Habitual Drunkards Act," and described the five retreats that have been licensed under the act, together with several retreats under the voluntary system which have not taken out licenses. The licensed retreats are: Dalrymple House, Rickmansworth; Tower House, Westgate-on-the-Sea; Old Park Hall, Wall-sail, Staffordshire; High-shot House, Twickenham; and Colman Hill House, Halesowen, Worcestershire. These institutions gave good accounts of their operations, but seemed to regard themselves, generally, as still in the experimental stage. The reports from the voluntary retreats are more varied, and some of them furnish suggestions. The "sister in charge" of one house, a woman's home of the Church of England, believes that "one year is necessary for a cure. To tide over the broken-down condition, and remove physical disability, requires at least six months, and the last six months are needed to restore and establish the moral and religious character." Dr.James Greenwood, whose institution is of twenty-five years' standing, says, as a result of his experience, that "bad cases of confirmed inebriety can only be cured by compelling total abstinence for a period of not less than twelve months." He has been tolerably successful, though some cases have taken two years to cure; "but from six to twelve months is usually sufficient." He can more readily obtain patients and induce them to place themselves under treatment by considering them merely as visitors come to reside with him for a time as a private medical man. Dr.James Stewart, late surgeon in her Majesty's navy, says: "Having attendants is a choice of evils; I do not have them. To place a man of intelligence and culture in the care of an ignorant and possibly a rude hireling, is therapeutically wrong. All sources of irritation should be avoided .... I consider the first three months of a patient's residence should be given to physical renovation. The second three months should be employed in learning to enjoy life without the usual accompaniment of alcoholic stimulants .... The third three months, they should learn to do just as sober and upright people do—to live like other people—and, the longer they continue to accommodate themselves to the new life, the better for them and for all concerned .... Rest, abstinence, and tonics, establish a cure." Two rules, recognized as cardinal by all the retreats and homes but one, arc—that no intoxicating drink shall be introduced on the premises under any circumstances, unless ordered as a medicine by the medical superintendent; and that no drug of any kind shall be taken by the patients except with the consent of the physicians.

How Water becomes Oxygenized.—In a paper on "The Relations of Air and Water," which he read before the American Association, Professor W.H.Pitt observed that "water falling through air, as, for instance, a small stream poured from a pitcher into a basin of water, will carry down air with it beneath the surface. The air is carried down by adhering to and mechanically mixing with the falling water. Now, as oxygen has greater adhesive property for water than nitrogen, the proportion of these two gases carried along by water in its fall is undoubtedly different from that which exists in the common atmosphere. Water, then, has a selective affinity for oxygen and very little comparatively for the inert nitrogen of our atmosphere. An application of this principle on a magnificent scale may be seen in the great storms of water falling from the clouds to the earth. We may then expect, for a short time at least, and in appreciable