puscles are as much alive as monads, for in the body, or when put on a glass slide and kept at the temperature of the body, they exhibit movements, which can be seen by high powers.

show whether the fluid or stain is blood or not, and whether it is the blood of a mammal. The red vegetable colouring matters, such as cochineal, logwood, &c., in solution give with ammonia a deep crimson tint; others, such as

The blood also contains in solution oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid, as well as a free alkaline carbonate.

The Coagulation of the Blood and its Physiology is not within the scope of this work.

The Blood in Disease.-The contagious particles of fever and other contagious diseases exist, without doubt, mostly in the blood. The blood of scarlet fever and typhoid has been injected into rabbits, and produced in them a fatal feverish disease; in the one case with a redness of the skin, in the other Peyer's patches were involved.

The blood from a person suffering from measles has also been injected, but without result (CORE and FELTZ). In relapsing fever, smallpox, rheumatism, septicemia, puerperal ever, and typhoid, bacteria have been discovered (See BACTERIA); and Dr. Lewis, in 1871, made the remarkable discovery of animalculæ, or an entozoon in the blood, existing in countless numbers. See FILARIA SAN

GUINIS HOMINIS.

A theory has also sprung up, that vertebrate blood in a peculiar state of decomposition causes and generates scarlet fever; hence, whether true or not, it is well to see that no slaughter-house is established near a public or private school. See FEVER, SCARLET.

In a medico-legal point of view, the distinguishing of human blood from that of other animals, from iron-mould, and from other stains, is of the greatest importance. A microscopical examination will generally suffice to

change into a blue or green. The iron-moulds and red paints containing iron will at once respond to the usual tests for iron.

A commission composed of MM. Mialhe, Mayel, Lefort, and Cornil have reported lately (1873) on the best methods of examining blood stains; the following are their results (Chemical News, Dec. 5, 1873):

1st, When the stain is of recent date, or supposed to be so, the red corpuscles should be particularly examined, and every care taken to preserve them without change. The stains must not be washed with water, so that the hæmatin may not be altered. After insisting on the microscopic characters of the blood stains, isolated or compared with those of various animals, the Commission enumerate with care the fluids which are destructive or preservative of blood corpuscles. Among the first, water, and particularly hot water, acetic, gallic, hydrochloric, and sulphuric acids; and of alkalies, potash and soda, even in weak solution, and ether and chloroform, and many other re-agents, so alter the blood corpuscles as to cause them to entirely disappear. Alcohol, chromic and picric acids, and bichromate of potash, preserve the corpuscles, though they alter their form. The preservative fluids are those whose

composition approach nearest to serum, such as the

iodised serum of Schultze, an excellent preparation made with amniotic fluid, to which are added a few drops of the tincture of iodine, so as to give it the colour of white wine; or better, a fluid composed thus-white of egg, 30 grammes; distilled water, 270 grammes; and chloride of sodium, 40 grammes; or even a fluid containing 0.5 per cent of chloride of sodium, or 5 or 6 per cent of sulphate of soda. If the stains be wetted and softened by these fluids, and then examined, white and red corpuscles and fibroid particles will be observed,

2nd, In more difficult cases, when the microscope,

owing to the alterations which time has effected in mination by the spectroscope and chemical analysis enables us to arrive at precise results. The use of these means, being less known and also more delicate, requires special study.

the hæmatin, can give but vague information, exa

(1) Spectrum Analysis-Colouring matters have the power of absorbing certain coloured rays of white light-the same always for the same substance. This is the principle on which spectroscopic examination is based. If into an analysing tube filled with water a few drops of a solution of hæmoglobin be introduced, till it has the colour of peach-blossoms, the luminous rays of the spectrum passing through this fluid present two bands of absorption, in the lines D and E of Frauenhofer, in the yellow and the green. The same fact would be observed if a few drops of blood were substituted for hæmoglobin in the analysis. In a case of doubt, the hæmoglobin of the blood could be reduced by adding to this latter a reducing body. Destroyed hæmoglobin has a different spectrum from oxygenated hæmoglobin;

a single absorption band, as large as the two former bands united, and a little to the left of Frauenhofer's line D.

(2) In blood in a state of decomposition, or which has been treated by acids or caustic alkalies, hæmoglobin is changed into a new substance; hæmatin is formed, which, combined with hydrochloric acid, gives characteristic crystals. In order to obtain them we must proceed thus:-A small fragment of dried blood is placed on a glass slide, it is dissolved in a drop of water, and a minute portion of sea-salt is added. It is covered with a thin slide, and pure acetic acid is made to pass between the two slides, and it is heated over a spirit-lamp to boiling point; acetic acid is again added, and it is heated afresh, and this is repeated till the crystals are obtained. They are rhomboidal, of a dirty brown colour, quite characteristic, and require to be seen with a magnifying power of three hundred or four hundred diameters. With the smallest quantity of blood these two reactions can always be produced-the spectrum examination and the crystals of hydrochlorate of hæmatin; and they are so certain, that

the existence of one alone enables one to affirm the presence of blood.

(3) The third process, though not so exact as the preceding, ought nevertheless not to be neglected. If to a very small quantity of blood dissolved in a little water be added a few drops of tincture of guiacum and of binoxide of hydrogen, a persistent blue colour is immediately produced; but this very sensitive reaction can be obtained with other organic matter -nasal mucus, saliva, &c.; it therefore only gives a probability. We must proceed in the following manner-A tincture of guiacum is prepared with alcohol at 83 degrees, and guiacum resin; a mixture of sulphuric ether and binoxide of hydrogen is also made, and enclosed in a stoppered bottle, and kept under water in the dark. This preparation is less liable to change than pure oxygenated water. The object stained with blood, if it be white, is put into a little cup, then moistened with water to dissolve out the blood stain, and washed in distilled water; this water is then submitted to the action of these reagents. If the thing stained be coloured, and the stain little or not at all visible, it must be moistened, and then pressed between two or three sheets of white botting-paper, and tried first with the guiacum. If the stain be of blood, a reddish or brown spot will form on the paper. One of the sheets should be treated with ammonia, and the stain will become crimson or green. A second sheet, treated with tincture of guiacum and ozonised ether, will give a blue colour more or less intense, according to the quantity of the blood,

To recapitulate― (1) If the stains or scales of blood appear recent, the corpuscles may, after the necessary precautions, be examined under the microscope, and their presence, diameter, &c., observed, which will enable one to diagnose the origin of the blood, whether human or animal. (2) If the stains be old and the blood changed, the reaction with the tincture of guiacum would make the presence of blood probable; but its actual presence cannot be affirmed without spectrum examination, or the production of crystals of hydrochlorate of hæmatin; one of the two is sufficient. It is unnecessary to add, that these reactions do not show whether the blood is human or animal

Dr. Richardson has succeeded, by the use of very high powers and careful measurements, in proving that it is possible, in skilled hands, to distinguish between human and animal corpuscles.

Blood-Boiler-The boiling of blood or offal gives rise to very offensive organic vapours; if established near dwelling-houses, the urban authority should see that the offal is boiled in closed coppers, and that the fumes are carried off into the furnace-fire, so as to be consumed.

The trade of a blood-boiler comes under the category of an offensive trade, and as such cannot be established without the consent of an urban authority. —(P. H., s. 112.)

The urban authority may make bylaws respecting blood-boiling.-(P. H., s. 113.)

On complaint by the medical officer cf health, or by any two legally qualified practitioners, or by any ten inhabitants in the district of an urban sanitary authority, that any building or place for boiling offal or blood is a nuisance, or causes any effluvia injurious to the health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, proceedings may be taken by the authority as described under TRADES, OffenSIVE, &c.-(P. H., s. 114.)

Board, General, of Health-The General Board of Health has ceased to exist; its powers were transferred by 21 & 22 Vict. c. 77, s. 1, to the Local Government Board. See LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD.

Board, Joint-See DISTRICT, UNITED.
Boat-Racing--See HEART DISEASE.

Boats-An urban authority may license the proprietors of pleasure-boats and vessels, and the boatmen or other persons in charge, and may make bylaws for regulating the numbering and naming of such boats and vessels, and the number of persons to be carried therein, and the mooring places for the same, and for fixing rates of hire, and the qualification of such boatmen or other persons in charge, and for securing their good and orderly conduct while in charge.-(P. H., s. 172.)

Body - Searcher-A body-searcher was one who formerly examined the bodies of the dead in order to report on the cause of death. It was an important office at the time of the plague, and was performed by the chirurgeons, who were paid twelve pence out of the goods of the party searched. At one time it was, however, intrusted to two old women, much to the damage of the bills of mortality.

In France there are verificateurs de décès, their office being almost identical with that of the old body-searcher; they inspect each dead

person, and give a certificate, for which they get a fixed sum.

Boil (Furunculus)—A circumscribed round hard swelling, depending on inflammation of one spot of the true skin, and of the deposit therein of unhealthy lymph; usually attended with the acutest pain and tenderness, and ending in suppuration, with the discharge of pus, flakes of softened lymph and small sloughy shreds of areolar tissue, which form what is called the core. It may be caused by blood disorder, from unwholesome food, or from unknown epidemic, atmospheric causes, or from depressing influences generally.

Living for some time in an impure atmosphere has, without doubt, frequently caused an eruption of boils; and drinking unwholesome water may have produced the same result. In 1848 a remarkable and curious endemic occurred in the vicinity of Frankfort. Dr. Clemens (HENTE'S Zeitschrift für Nat. Med. 1849, vol. viii. p. 215) made an exhaustive inquiry into the cause of this outbreak, and came to the conclusion that the complaint was caused by drinking water containing sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which was set free in some large chemical works, and was washed down by the rains into the brooks from which the drinking-water was derived; but as sulphides, and the Harrogate waters, which contain sulphuretted hydrogen, are now known to be the best remedy for boils, it admits of grave doubt whether Dr. Clemens'

conclusions are correct.

Probably the unhealthy boils or ulcers so common in India, especially in the north-west, and along the frontier, are connected with bad water. Since the waters of the Jumna were used, instead of the impure well-water, the "Delhi" boil has much decreased in frequency; yet, on the other hand, from Fleming's observations, there appears to be a doubt whether the water was really to blame. Dr. Alcock, apparently a disciple of Dr. Clemens, would have us believe that the frontier ulcers in India are caused by the evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen; but the evidence he has produced to support his theory is hardly of a satisfactory or convincing kind.

Bole-A kind of clay, often highly coloured by iron. It usually consists of silica, alumina, iron, lime, and magnesia. It is not a well-defined mineral, and consequently many substances are described by mineralogists under this name.

Armenian Bole is of a bright red colour. It is often employed as a dentifrice, and in some cases is administered medicinally. It is used for the adulteration of cocoa, anchovies, potted meats, fish, and sauces.

Bones in the dry state contain about 333 per cent. of animal, and 667 per cent of mineral matter, and on an average they yield about 19 per cent. of their weight of gelatine and fat. It is impossible to make a nutritious soup out of bones alone.

The late Mr. E. Smith was certainly in error in saying that 6 lbs. of bones, broken small and boiled in water from 9 to 10 hours, will yield a soup that contains the nutritive elements of 2 lbs. of meat as far as carbon is concerned, and of 1 lb. of meat in respect of

nitrogen; for although this may be so as regards the actual weights of carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters, yet it is far otherwise with their nutritive powers. In the wellknown experiments of the French gelatine commission, it was found that the soup or jelly from boiled bones would not support the life of dogs, although raw bones in like proportion would; from which it is evident that there is a great difference in the nutritive power of the gelatinous tissue and its cooked products. Gelatine, in fact, has never been discovered in the blood of animals, nor is it a constituent of eggs or milk, which are the two primary foods from which the tissues of the young are formed. It would appear, then, that gelatine is not an essential article of diet, although it is probable that gelatinous tissue undergoes digestion by being converted into peptones.

The following is the process recommended by Proust for making the best of bones in hospitals, gaols, and similar establishments. The bones, crushed small, are to be boiled for fifteen minutes in a kettle of water, and the fat (which is fit for all common purposes) skimmed off as soon as cold. The bones are then to be ground, and boiled in eight or ten times their weight of water (of which that already used must form a part) until half of it is wasted, when a very firm jelly will be obtained. Iron vessels should alone be used for this purpose, as jelly and soup act upon copper, brass, and other common metals.

For the manufacture of gelatine, the bones of the skull or the small bones of the feet of animals are generally used. The bones are boiled when fresh, since they do not when dry so readily give up their fat by boiling; they still contain fat, but it appears by the process of drying to become infiltrated into the bony tissue.

In all manufacturing operations on bones, foul odours and complaints are likely to arise, (a) from the heaps of bones having shreds of desh in a state of putrefaction; (b) from the multitude of rats nearly always frequenting the heaps; (c) from the offensive organic vapours in the various manufacturing operations. The vapours should always be led by a special fue into the furnace-fire, and there consumed.

from the boracic acid found in the lagoons of Tuscany.

The crystals are slightly efflorescent; they are soluble in half their weight of boiling and twelve parts of cold water. When heated strongly, borax swells up, becomes anhydrous, and melts below redness into a clear transparent glass, which has the property of dissolving many of the metallic oxides.

Borax is used in the arts as a flux in the making of enamels, in the fixing of colours on porcelain, and by the refiner in the melting of gold and silver.

M. Schnetzler (Comptes Rendus, vol. 1xxx. p. 473) has made several experiments, which show that solutions of borax have considerable power in arresting the growth of vegetable cells and the putrefaction of animal sub

stances.

Experiments made by submitting the leaves of Elodea Canadensis and Vaucheria clavata, the spores of the grape fungus Oidium Tuckeri, and the cells of yeast, moulds, &c., to the action of concentrated solutions of borax, showed in each case coagulation and death of the protoplasm.

In like manner, solutions of borax were found to be fatal to the Infusoria, Rotifera, Entromostraca, and to the larvæ of frogs.

Ripe grapes and currants, after being kept two years in a concentrated solution of borax, showed no sign of mouldiness or fermentation; they were not, however, edible.

Meat placed in tins containing a concentrated solution of borax, acquires, after some weeks, a peculiar and disagreeable odour, but does not putrefy. A pound of beef thus kept a year and a half was of a yellowish colour, but as soft and tender as fresh meat. Meat placed in a similar solution, in hermetically-sealed tins, was perfectly preserved.

These experiments are worthy of extension and repetition.

Boroughs The word "borough," for the purposes of the Public Health Act, 1875, means any place subject, for the time being, to the 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 75. The sanitary authority of a borough, whether a local board or a town council, is now designated an urban sanitary authority.

Borrowing Powers-See LOANS.

Bosh Butter-A very inferior kind of butter, made up in Hamburg, and sent over here to adulterate other butters with.

BUTTER.

See

Bothriocephalus Cordatus-A parasitic worm affecting the human intestines, first described by Leuckart. It is common in dogs, but rare in man. The following diagram

G