The

were inoculated intra-peritoneally. milk was found to be virulent in II Out of 20 cases, the animals suffering from miliary tuberculosis of the peritoneum, spleen, and liver. Tubercle bacilli were found only once in the milk, the udder being at the same time diseased with tuberculosis. Positive results were also obtained in cases in which the udder was wholly sound.

In the same year, Ernst made similar researches and experiments with 36 tuberculous cows presenting no symptom of udder disease. In 114 examinations of milk taken from different cows, the microscopical evidence of tubercle bacilli was found in only 17 cases. Inoculation experiments with rabbits and guinea-pigs showed the milk to be infectious in 28.57 per cent of the cases.

From this brief summary, it is clearly shown that tubercular and splenitic bacilli may be transmitted through the milk of animals affected with these diseases.

Some other experiments have been made for the purpose of determining whether bacteria are capable of passing from the blood into the secretion of the mammary glands. Wissokowitsch injected. rabbits with cultures of micrococcus tetragenes and bacillus cuniculicida, but was not able to prove in either case, the existence of bacteria in the milk. Pernice and Scagliosi, however, obtained, in four cases, by injection of a bitch with staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and of guinea-pigs with bacillus anthracis and bacillus subtilis, a secretion of the injected microbes through the milk, while other experiments entirely failed.

Finally, I wish to mention some cases in which milk has been found to contain bacteria without the possibility of the transmission of the germs from the blood of an animal into the secretion of the mammary glands. Krueger, who examined bacteriologically the milk of a cow diseased with inflammation of the udder, and suspected also of murrain, found neither tubercle bacilli nor other microorganisms peculiar to milk, but a cluster of cocci, from which, by inoculation, the cultures proved to be staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. Krueger, therefore, charges the latter with being the cause of the inflammation of the udder. Furthermore, Lehmann reported, at the 17th Assembly of the German Society of Public Hygiene, experiments by which it was proved that

cows' milk contains germs which have found their way into the udder, and especially those parts which were first deprived of their contents. Leopold Schulz, who, at Lehmann's suggestion, made researches relating to the origin of milk bacteria, found that after thorough disinfection of the udder, and of the hands of the milker with sublimate, followed by washing with sterilized water, one c. cm. of the milk contained from 200,000 to 400,000 microbes. He investigated, further, whether this great number of microbes could not be explained by the supposition that the germs accumulated in the ducts of the mammary glands, and proved by separate examination of the first and last portion of the milk, that very great difference in the number of fungi was observable. Similar experiments have been made with the goat, with the same result.

RELATION OF THE CHOLERA BACILLUS TO FRESH FRUIT AND OTHER FOODS.

DR. A. KOENYOEKI furnished the following article to Klinische Hydrotherapie:

The Board of Health of the German Empire publishes the following results of extensive experiments concerning the relation of the cholera bacillus to fresh fruit and some other foods :

Fruit.-1. The bacillus of cholera exposed to the cut surface of sour fruit, as currants, raspberries, cranberries, billberries, sour cherries, Italian peaches, or apples, remained vital from one to six hours, the vitality of the bacillus increasing according to the order in which the fruits are heré named. On sweet fruits, as strawberries, gooseberries, pears, and plums, the bacillus retained its vitality from one to five days; on apricots, twenty hours; on cucumbers, from five to seven days. In these experiments the bacilli and the fruit were kept at the same temperature.

2. At a temperature of 37° C. the relation of the bacillus to sour fruit remained the same; on sweet fruit the vitality of the bacillus was as follows: On cherries, six hours; on pears, from five hours to four days; on plums, from six hours to two days, on cucumbers, from three to four days.

3. The cholera bacillus exposed on the cut surface of dried fruit (without specification of temperature) died in less than one day on cherries, apricots, plums, and currants, and within two days on peaches.

4. Under the influence of sunlight the bacillus died, on white currants, in one and one half hours; on cherries and plums, in two hours; on apricots and red currants, in five hours.

5. In a moist state the bacillus remained vital on the surface of the above named fruits from one to two days.

Beverages. The cholera bacillus died. in white wine after five minutes; in red wine and apple wine, after fifteen to twenty minutes; in different kinds of beer, after from one to three days; in cold tea, after one hour; in a smaller quantity of tea, only after one to four days; in cold coffee, after two days; in cold coffee with the addition of rye and chickory, after five hours; in milk, after twenty-four hours; in milk boiled, one hour, only after ten days.

Tobacco. The bacillus died on the moist end of a cigar after seven hours; on chewing tobacco and rolled tobacco, one to one and a half hours; on snuff, after one day.

Sweetmeats.- On almonds, chocolate, sugar, etc., the cholera bacillus died after twenty-four hours; on biscuit, after one to four days.

Bread and Butter. On fresh slices of coarse rye and white bread, the bacilli remained alivę, if the bread was uncovered, from one to one and a half days; if the bread was kept under a glass bell, the bacilli sometimes remained active for a week. On the surface of slightly rancid butter they remained alive, under different circumstances, from four to six days; in the inside of the butter, from one to two days.

Fish. On salted and smoked herring the bacilli remained active less than twentyfour hours; on fresh flounders, haddock, and carp, sometimes from one to three days.

Effelmann has also made experiments in this line on different objects, and has obtained the following results :

On printing paper the bacilli remained active at least seventeen hours; on letter paper inclosed in an envelope, twentythree and one half hours; on postal cards, twenty hours. On copper and silver coins and on all metallic plates, the cholera

bacilli perished in a very short time,from twenty to thirty minutes. On dry materials, linen or woolen, they remained active from one to four days; on wet or moist linen, they increased, which is proved by their being found in great numbers on places which had not been protected..

Flies remained infectious at least two hours after having been in contact with moist cholera substance, and would infect meat or milk, if the occasion offered. On dry human skin, the cholera bacilli remained alive at least one hour, but never two hours.

All these experiments prove that the cholera bacillus possesses a greater vitality than many at first believed.

Influence of Bicarbonate of Soda on Digestion.- Dr. Gilbert communicates, to a recent meeting of the Biological Society of Paris, the results of experiments which he has made upon dogs for the purpose of determining the influence of bicarbonate of soda on the digestive process. He used two solutions consisting of five and twenty grams of bicarbonate of soda to a liter of water, respectively. His observations were as follows: 1. The large doses of bicarbonate of soda taken at meal time gives the gastric contents an alkaline reaction, which remains for half an hour, and then becomes acid. During the first fifteen minutes there is an increase in the total chlorine; during the chlorine; during the first half hour, while the contents of the stomach are alkaline, combined chlorine is entirely absent, but makes its appearance when the stomach contents become acid. The evident effect of the bicarbonate of soda is to delay the digestive process for at least half an hour. 3. Small doses of the same compound produce similar, though less, effects, reducing the acid of the stomach contents, the effect continuing for three fourths of an hour after the dose is taken. 4. When the soda is administered after or before a meal of meat, it results in producing a considerable increase in the production. of hydrochloric acid. Prof. Hayem showed that small doses of bicarbonate of soda, administered before a meal, increased the amount of total chlorine and free hydrochloric acid, but that the opposite effect was produced if the soda

2.

required for the operation upon both sides is not more than five minutes. The operation very rarely indeed exceeds ten. or twelve minutes, and can be done without administering ether, a hypodermic injection of cocaine being sufficient in ordinary cases. The writer generally employs ether, however, for the sake of expediting the operation, as one must necessarily proceed somewhat more slowly when the patient is not under an anæsthetic.

When the operation is performed in the manner indicated, complete success may be expected in at least ninety-five per cent of all cases operated upon, provided a proper selection of cases is

made.

Influence of Nervous and Muscular Exertion on Temperature.Prof. Bouchard, in a discussion before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, calls attention to the fact that the slightest muscular exertion is sufficient to raise the temperature several degrees in a patient who is already suffering from fever, as in a typhoid convalescent. He also calls attention to the fact that mental and nervous influences frequently cause a rise of temperature. The visits of friends, in surgical cases, not infrequently cause a rise of temperature. Opposition to the treatment on the part of the patient has a similar effect. A child that had violently resisted the employment of the thermometer was found to have a temperature of 109.9°, as determined by a thermometer in the

rectum.

The Influence of Fatigue upon Stomach Digestion.- Salvioli recently examined the effect of fatigue from muscular activity upon the gastric juice of fistulous dogs. The secretion of gastric juice was induced in dogs which had been starved for twenty-four hours, by causing them to swallow indigestible cheese and stroking the mucous membrane with a glass staff, the hydrochloric acid being taken up by the absorbent, and not introduced through the fistula. After some hours of work, the absolute quantity of gastric juice, as well as the amount of solid substance which it contained, and the amount of hydrochloric acid, were found to be decreased.

The digestive power was also proportionately decreased. Small cylinders of

Hydrotherapy in Gynecology and Obstetrics.Dr. Edmund Tuszkay, of Buda Pesth, commends hydrotherapy as being the most important of all the natural agencies which may be employed in the treatment of disease. He believes the therapeutic value of water to be based upon its efficiency as a means of regulating the temperature, and thus controlling nutrition and functional activity, of which he considers temperature the natural index. He considers hydrotherapy of especial value in gynecology and obstetrics.

The writer attaches special value to exciting sitz baths, which he divides. according to temperature, into very cold, cold, and lukewarm, the characteristics of the temperatures being, respectively, 45 to 59, 60 to 77, and 79 and 80 to 88. In the treatment of pelvic exudates, he obtained excellent results from very cold sitz baths of five to ten minutes' duration, followed by the hot vaginal douche. In cases in which cold baths are contra-indicated, equally good results are obtained by a protracted warm sitz bath followed by a very short cold douche, with the ice-bag, the cooling coil, and other refrigerative means, in appropriate

cases.

Chlorate of Soda for Cancer of the Stomach.- Dr. Brissaud, of Paris, recommends chlorate of soda in eight to sixteen gram doses for twenty-four hours, as a remedy in cases of cancer of the stomach. He was led to this by observing the beneficial results obtained from using chlorate of potash, or soda, in the treatment of cancer and cancroids of the face and mouth. Many cases in which this treatment was employed were greatly benefited. In several cases reported from his own practice and that of others,

the disease seemed to be cured by the use of this remedy. Prof. Lepine calls attention to the danger of using large quantities of chlorate of potash, or soda, in consequence of the injury likely to occur to the hæmoglobin of the blood. The dose mentioned ought not to be exceeded.

Scrofulous Neck.-Prof. Clifford Allbutt read before the late meeting of the British Medical Association a paper in which he maintained that enlargement of the glands of the neck is almost always due to peripheral irritation, the seat of which may be not only the mucous membrane of the mouth, but also of the throat or ear. The disease is, according to Dr. Allbutt, allied to bubo and to the enlargement of the mesentery gland, which occurs in cases of tuberculosis and typhoid fever. Dr. Dowson has shown that the liability to scarlet fever diminishes with the diminution in the size of the tonsils, which decrease with age. The same is true with diphtheria and other maladies which enter the system by way of the tonsils. Scrofulous neck is probably due in most cases to the entrance of pathogenic microbes by way of the tonsils. The way for the entrance of one germ may be prepared by the work of a preceding germ, as, for example, the germs of consumption may follow those of diphtheria.

Tuberculosis in Goats. Until recently the idea has prevailed that goats enjoy immunity from tuberculosis; but Colin and Nocard have recently succeeded in inoculating goats with this disease. Similar experiments have also demonstrated that dogs possess no immunity against tuberculosis, as is generally supposed. M. Cadiot has recently collected forty cases of tuberculosis in dogs. In most of these instances the disease was contracted by the dog through association with human beings. Likewise, a tuberculous dog living in close communion with human beings, might easily communicate the disease to persons with whom it comes in contact, especially to children.

Contagiousness of Cancer. M. Chazin, director of the Laboratory of the Charitie Hospital of Paris, has recently published the results of his experiments,

which he has undertaken for the purpose of settling the question of the contagiousness or non-contagiousness of cancer. His experiments go to show that while auto-inoculation generally succeeds, the disease is not usually communicable from one animal to another, even in those of the same species. Nevertheless the evidence which has been brought forward to show the disease to be due to pathogenic microbes, is so conclusive that the infectious nature of the

disease must be considered fairly well established.

Germs in Mineral Waters.- Dr. Haynes, of Chicago, has been analyzing mineral waters sold in that city, and finds all of them to contain more or less germs; however, very few of them contain a sufficient number to be considered deleterious. The water which does not contain more than 50 to 200 germs per dram is considered pure. Dr. Haynes has also examined Chicago water and finds not less than 8000 germs per dram in any instance, and sometimes more than 30,000 per dram, which would amount to a quarter of a million of germs in every ounce of water, and more than 30,000,000 per gallon.