Scientific.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2218, 25 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

Scientific.

Some Curbs fob Sea-sickness.— A very good remedy for sea-sickness is chloral, 1 i but whether it acts by. simply; benumbing | the nerve's of the stomach, or by reducing the susceptibility' of the, whole nervous system, we do not know. At all events, | a passenger may take thirty grains of chloral at Dover, fall into a drowsy, half oonscious state, and find himself free from sickness. Sometimes one or two drops of pore chloroform taken in a wine1 glass of water will prove efficacious. Hypodermic injections of morphia are oc- ' casionally resprted to, but their use is not justifiable until other remedies have been tried and failed. The substance known as petroleum, mineral naphtha or rock ' oil, enjoys a high reputation in the treatment of sea^siokness. It should be taken on going on board, a drop or two on a small piece of sugar, and repeated every two or three hours. A pill containing three drops of creosote is another good remedy. Ipecacuanha wine, in drop doses, which proves so successful in the treatment of many kinds of vomiting, would probably succeed in sea-sickness, although we are not acquainted with the records of any cases in which it has been tried. Recent experiments seam to show that cocaine is a promising and harmless remedy against sea-sicknpss. An authority on the subject recommends that the drug be administered in docos of £ to £ of a gram, dissolved in water ( I in 10) three times a day, with a small piece of ice. A surgeon on board one of the vessels of the White Star line recently informed us that in obstinate cases he had often obtained relief by the use of iced dry champagne. It is essential, he says, that the wine should be dry, for sweet champagne only makes matters worse. In the Levant the daily internal use of iron is a very common cure for seasickness? Sailors, when suffering from this complaint, obtain their iron in a. very primitive manner, for they scrape off a portion of the rust adhering to the anchor and anchor-chain, and then swallow it in a little water. —Family Physician. Casting Glass. — It is reported that M. F. Siemens, has perfected the process for casting glass as if it were a metal, and that in a short time an experiment will be made with the material to ascertain how far it will serve for railway sleepers. In addition to its toughness And endurance, the glass cannot be affected by the atmosphere like other materials. The process is said to resemble the one in use for producing cast iron, ,bnt, instead of sand, finely pulverized porcelain is used for the molds. The material it obtained by depositing molten glass on plates of metal, and causing the mass to cool quickly, The quickness will d«pend on the character of the metal employed for the plates. When iron plates are used the glass produced is about three times as strong as ordinary glass, but with copper, which cools quickly, the standard of strength rises to eight times. Cut glass will not be more expensive than cast iron.