Among the most valuable of medicinal agents are blisters, which when applied to the skin; raise the cuticle into vesicles filled with serous fluid. They have for their object the establishing of a counter-irritation or diversion of inflammatory action from a part in which it cannot be reached by remedies, or from some organ where it may do permanent mischief, to some more superficial part of the body The measurement of that part of the skull which holds the brain is stated in cubic inches thus: Anglo-Saxon, 105; German, 105; Negro, 96; Ancient Egyptian, 93; Hottentot, 58; Australian native, 58. In all races the male brain is about ten per cent heavier than the female. The highest class of apes has only 16 ounces of brain. A man's brain, it is estimated, consists of 300,000,000 nerve cells, of which over 3,000 are disintegrated and destroyed every minute.

Color-blindness is a term introduced by Sir David Brewster to denominate a defect of vision owing to which some persons are unable to distinguish certain colors correctly. It is also called Daltonism, from Dalton the chemist, who suffered from the defect, and who gave the first detailed description of it in 1794.

Snoring isn't confined to sleep. Persons with some forms of nasal catarrh snore continually. But a healthy man snores, as a rule, only when asleep, because then he does not control himself. He gets into some position, with his mouth open, and inhales through his mouth. If the mouth were shut he wouldn't snore.

Travelers in arctic regions say that the physical effects of cold there are about as follows: Fifteen degrees above, unpleasantly warm; zero, mild; 10 degrees below, bracing; 20 degrees below, sharp, but not severely cold; 30 degrees below, very cold; 40 degrees below, intensely cold; 50 degrees below, a struggle for life.

Curling is a sport on the ice common in Scotland and Canada, where it is played by all classes of people. Frozen-over lakes and rivers answer for the purpose, but under the auspices of curling clubs, artificial shallow ponds are maintained for the sake of this popular sport; and the bon-spiels, or set matches, are contested with great spirit.

The average duration of human life is about 33 years. One quarter of the people on the earth die before age 6, one-half* before age 16, and only about one person of each 100 born lives to age 65. The deaths are calculated at 67 per minute, 97,790 per day, and 35,639,835 per year; the births at 70 per minute, 100,800 per day, and 36,792,000 per year.

The percentage of illegitimate births for various countries, as stated by Mulhall, is as follows: Austria, 12.9; Denmark, 11.2; Sweden, 10.2; Scotland, 8.9; Norway, 8.05; Germany, 8.04; France, 7.02; Belgium, 7.0; United States, 7.0; Italy, 6.8; Spain and Portugal, 5.5; Canada, 5.0; Switzerland, 4.6; Holland, 3.5; Russia, 3.1; Ireland, 2.3; Greece, 1.6.

Highly arched eyebrows are said to denote vivacity and brilliancy; level brows, strength of intellect; regularly curved eyebrows express cheerfulness, square ones deep thought; irregular, fickleness, versatility, excitability; raised at the inner corner, melancholy; joined over the nose, an unsettled mind. Thick and bushy eyebrows denote physical strength.

The periods of gestation are 11 months for the horse and ass; camel, 12 months; elephant, 2 years; lion, 5 months; cow, 9 months; buffalo, 12 months; sheep, 5 months; dog, 9 weeks; cat, 8 weeks; sow, 16 weeks; the wolf 90 to 95 days. The goose sits 30 days; swans, 42; hens, 21; ducks, 30; peahens and turkeys, 28; canaries, 14; pigeons, 14; parrots, 40.

The stethoscope is an instrument used by medical men in performing an auscultation. It is a hollow cylinder of light wood or guttapercha, the funnel-shaped end of which is placed upon the thorax, abdomen, or other part of the body of the patient, and the other end, to which is attached a circular ivory plate, to the ear of the practitioner. It was invented by Laennec, of Paris, in 1816.

Coma, derived from the Greek, is a term used in medicine to signify a state of more or less profound insensibility allied to sleep, but differing from natural sleep in its character as well as in the circumstances under which it occurs. In coma the patient lies on his back, and is either simply insensible to external impressions, or has a confused and dull perception of them, with restlessness and low delirium.

There are 3,000,000 opium smokers in China. A paper read before the New York Medical Society by Dr. F. N. Hammond presents some important facts. In 1840 about 20,000 pounds of opium were consumed in the United States; in 1880, 543,450 pounds. In 1868 there were about 90,000 habitual opium eaters in the country, now they number over 500,-000. More women than men are addicted to the use of the drug.

The elephant lives 100 years and upward; rhinoceros, 20; camel, 100; lion, 25 to 70; tiger, leopard, jaguar, hyena, 25; beaver, 50; deer, wolf, 20; fox, 14 to 16; monkey, 16 to 18; hare, 8; squirrel, rabbit, 7; swine, 25; horse, 30; ass, 30; sheep, 10; cow, 20; ox, 30; swans, parrots, ravens, 200, eagle, 100; geese, 80; hens and pigeons, 10 to 16; hawks, 36 to 40; cranes, 24; blackbird, 10; codfish, 15; eel, 10; crocodile, 100; tortoise, 100 to 200; whale, 1,000 (estimated).

If the condensed breath collected on the cool window panes of a room where a number of persons have been assembled be burned, a smell as of singed hair will show the presence of organic matter, and if the condensed breath be allowed to remain on the windows for a few days, it will be found, on examination by the microscope, that it is alive with animaculae. It is the inhalation of air containing such putrescent matter which causes half of the sick headaches, which might be avoided by a circulation of fresh air.

Hunger or appetite is generally used to indicate the natural desire for food experienced in health. Its causes are two: (1) A condition of the stomach not yet accurately understood, relieved by taking food; (2) A condition of the system, not relieved till the products of digestion begin to be absorbed into the blood. These are usually present together, but either may act without the other. The stomach condition is that in which the organ is in the most favorable state for digestion, and tends to recur at the habitual meal hours; but often passes off if eating be long deferred, though the need and craving of the system for food remains. Hence the importance of taking food at regular hours.