The author begins his communication with a short exposé of experiments instituted by him on the noxious action of light on bacteria which had been repeatedly ascertained by former observations. By extending the field of his investigations to the bacteria suspended in water, and by varying the secondary conditions, such as access of air and the like, in many ways, he was able, with the aid of the gelatine plate culture, to demonstrate conclusively a powerfully disinfecting action of light on all bacteria hitherto examined,b. typhi, coli communis, hyocyaneus, cholera vibrio,—and on some bacteria of putrefaction. Thus in water which in the beginning of the experiment showed in 1 ccm. ca. 100,000 germs of b. coli communis, was entirely free of any germ after a single hour of direct action of sunlight. Diffuse daylight also displayed a considerable disinfecting action, although not quite as strong as direct rays. Not even the addition of alimentary substances would impair this action.

"The author draws from these facts some important conclusions connected with the practical value of light as a disinfectant: :

"1. All former experiments on the life of bacteria in water, which have failed to take into account the influence of light, have lost their conclusiveness.

"2. The often discussed and ventilated self-purification of rivers and lakes in connection with a decrease in the number of living bacteria, finds— without excluding the auxiliary action of other elements a satisfactory explanation in the disinfecting action of light. The author recommends the practical application of these theoretical results by eventual intromission of sewerage waters of cities into flat clarifying basins provided with a white comentation.

"We may add that in many species of

According to Unna, this is the only germ found in soft chancre, and he has seen it in every soft chancre studied microscopically by him. It has been found in the ulcerated tissues, but not in simple ulcers nor in the initial ulcerated sores, nor in the pus. A cultivation of this micro-organism should be made to verify the very reasonable conclusion arrived at, that this bacillus is the cause of soft chancre.

Dr. Ducrey, some years ago, reported having discovered a germ in soft chancre, and that he reproduced it with certain lesions by inoculation of the pus. But pus of this kind (as pus of other kinds for that matter) has too many different microbes, and such inoculations are practically valueless.

The Growth of Cholera Bacilli on Gelatine.-The growth of cholera germs on gelatine is characteristic, and can scarcely be confounded with that of any other germ. Almost all of the varieties of bacteria from the dejecta fail to liquefy gelatine. The comma bacillus liquefies it so that within 24 hours small spots of liquefaction are seen to appear, and the surface appears as if it had been punched in different places with a pin ; lastly, if the microscope reveals commashaped germs, the diagnosis is practically settled.

In some rare cases, the following method devised by Schottelin may be adopted to verify the diagnosis:

Mix the dejecta to be examined with two or three times its bulk of meat-juice broth, and keep at a temperature between

88° and 90° F. for about twelve hours. The cholera bacilli will form a delicate scum on the surface of the fluid. They live there in order to get oxygen. Particles of this scum may be stained at once, and then gelatine plate cultures made in order to disprove or verify the results of this first liquid culture.

There has been in vogue a chemical test with mineral acids to the effect that the dejecta of cholera patients in contact with them would produce a kind of red color so called cholera-red. It has been found, however, that other germs in the fæces in contact with mineral acids produce the same reaction.

Bacteriological examinations should be made shortly after the passage of dejecta from the bowels; for if allowed to remain awhile, especially in warm weather, other bacteria will soon destroy or mingle with the cholera bacilli, and will render positive diognosis difficult.

The microscopical examination should always be made with the greatest care, and the gelatine cultures should be resorted to as the most positive means of diagnosis.

Origin of the Poison of Arrows.Dr. LeDantec found, in 1890, that the arrows of Oceanica were poisoned with the earth from marshes, in which, it was supposed, the bacilli of tetanus and some septic vibrio were to be found. The theory was that the exposure of these arrows to the sun destroyed the septic vibrios, which are less resisting to sun heat than the tetanus germs, but allowed the latter to live. The arrows, on the study of which these conclusions were arrived at, were very old, and all produced tetanus. Dr. LeDantec had to inoculate very sensitive subjects, namely, young guinea-pigs, to get the desired results.

Recently he has made new studies on the subject, with fresh arrows brought to him from the New Hebrides. With the poison found on the point of these arrows he was able to produce the Pasteur septicæmia, and demonstrated the existence of the germs by inoculations of cultures and various bacteriological studies. The fresh arrows contain large quantities of the germs of septicemia, which predominate over all others, and it is doubtless a fact that if these arrows were exposed to the sun a long time, the septic germs would die and leave only those of tetanus.

By the way, it may be interesting to know that though there has never been a horse in the New Hebrides, the germ of tetanus exists in the marshes. Thus the theory of the equine origin of tetanus receives a very severe blow.

Coloration of Micro-Organisms that Remain Untouched by the Process of Gram.-M. Nicolle, of the Pasteur Institute, has discovered a method by which it is possible to color germs that resist the process of Gram. This method is based on the property of tannin to render insoluble the methyl-blue fixed on a preparation. He operates according to the following method:

The sections of the tissues, hardened by alcohol, are put in contact with Loeffler blue of Kuhne blue from 1 to 3 minutes. They are then washed with water, and treated with a 1-per-cent solution of tannin, which acts almost instantaneously. The sections are then immersed in water, dehydrated with absolute alcohol, and then they are cleared by treatment with essence of cloves or bergamot, and mounted in Canada balsam or xylol after washing in xylol.

In sections thus colored, the microorganisms appear in a very deep blue tint, and the tissues are not so much colored. If a contrast more marked than this is desired, the sections should be treated slightly with acetic water, that is, water containing a few drops of acetic acid. By this process, the germs of glanders, typhoid fever, hog cholera, pseudo-tuberculosis, chicken cholera, and soft chancre (Unna's germ) may be readily colored.

When are Cured Diphtheritics Safe? - Roux and Yersin (Pasteur's Laboratory) announced some time ago that the bacillus of diphtheria may be found in the pharynx of persons who have suffered from the disease, as long as five weeks after their apparent recovery and the disappearance of the diphtheritic membrane. Since then, other equally accurate investigators have, by actual inquiries, confirmed this statement. Tobieson (Centralblatt für Bakt. u. Parasiten Kunde) made examinations of forty-six cases of diphtheria, in which he found the germs of this disease at various periods after the disappearance of the membrane.

FOR a generation, Americans have been

brain, nerve, and gland tissue is made, and this, in turn, gives still worse digestion and consequently still worse blood, worse brain, and worse nerves; and thus we have formed a vicious circle, or spiral, working ever in a downward direction.

An eminent English physician, recently writing concerning the debility commonly connected with the state of neurasthenia, or nervous prostration, for that, in common parlance, is the real meaning of the term, finds the cause of this state in the high-pressure system of life which prevails. at the present time. He says so many

When the writer was first in Europe, a number of years ago, the remark was made to him by an eminent English physician, "I suppose you have to deal chiefly with dyspeptics in America." Admitting this to be true, we were glad, for the sake of American medical science, to be able to assure him that medical work in this country was not quite so monotonous as he had been led to believe. We are doubtless all tired of being called a nation of dyspeptics, and it may be a relief to know that a new disease, supposed to be characteristically American, has been discovered.

The late Dr. Beard, of New York City, formulated a group of symptoms which he thought indicated an individual disease, and to which he applied the term neurasthenia. American physicians have found this disease so common in this country, as compared with its frequency in the people of other nationalities, that it has also come to be called the American disease. Strictly speaking, neurasthenia is not a disease, but only a symptom, or a group of symptoms, resulting from a. diseased condition, the root of which, in the great majority of cases, is found to be disordered digestion. It is not singular, then, that neurasthenia has followed so closely upon the heels of dyspepsia. Bad digestion results in impoverished

new malady, and in so forcible a way, that we take pleasure in quoting the following paragraphs from the article referred to, in the British Medical Journal:

"A very large proportion of the adult population in large cities, I would say almost one half, have an organization incapable of living at the high rate of pressure by which the material success of the capital lacking individual can alone be attained in these days. Some are wise enough to perceive this, forego their success, and retain their modicum of health. Others are not so far-seeing, but fretfully attempt to keep pace with their stronger neighbors; but the result is a succession of arduous leaps instead of a steady running along life's road, till by degrees the leaps get smaller and smaller, ending finally in an utter breakdown, from which oftentimes there is no complete rallying, and the rest of life is one of peevish invalidism, or at best but one of senile energy.

"To most of us, however, it is not given to choose the amount of work we shall perform; unfortunately we find ourselves set to labor beyond our strength before we are aware of the weakness of that strength. When we discover our weakness, we have but Hobson's choice remaining to us, either to fall out of rank altogether and begin life afresh, or else to continue the uphill struggle against

high pressure with an organization fitted. only for low-pressure exertion. To impress upon us, disciples of medicine, the manifest unwisdom of this course, is no more difficult than it would be to explain to an engineer the folly of giving a low-pressure engine high-pressure work to perform. But with the laity it is far different; to women, young people, and uninstructed males, I can understand that even the mechanical engin er would have difficulty in explaining the dangerous. madness of using a low-pressure engine for high-pressure work; and if so, can we wonder that the best instructed and best balanced laic minds, with the intensity of necessitous desire obscuring their dimness of vision, should fail to be convinced by us, who are the engineers of their frail humanity, that its frailty is incapable of high-pressure action? Hence we mourn over lives prematurely blighted, over lives broken down and finished when they should but have reached their prime. Hence also the unaccountable perversion to peevish irritability of some tempers, previously well under the owners' control. Hence the sudden outbursts of puny anger over the merest of trifles which go so far to embitter and alienate domestic love. Hence the half mad rushings to excess in tea and alcohol and various other stimulants with which the poor debilitated one still trusts to bolster up his broken strength a little longer. Hence, later on when the fight is recognized as hopeless, the fatal indulgences in the various nepenthes which help one to forget the misery of chronic invalidism,that consciousness of never again being able to do a good day's work.

"As with the breadwinner, so is it with the housewife, for her duties, to her mind, appear equally imperious and exacting. So is it, too, with the mere pleasureseeker, who often drags a body more fit for bed than dancing, to a weary rout. With children, another evil that of ignorance and fatal unconcern for health,

THE idea that good wine will make good blood is one of the fallacies which seem to be quite prevalent in the medical profession. The composition of wine and blood is about as different as that of any two bodies could be, notwithstanding the fact that red wine and red blood have a slight resemblance in appearance. This incidental fact is really the only foundation that can be discovered for the idea that wine possesses the property of enriching impoverished blood. The only way in which poor blood can be made better, is by an improved quality of food or better digestion. The experiments of Dr. Roberts showed, long ago, that wine hinders rather than helps digestion; and chemical analysis shows clearly enough that wine contains no elements which are essential to good blood, or which are

capable of enriching the blood,— notwithstanding, prescriptions continue to be written for "good porter," "good claret," "good champagne," and especially "good Burgundy." We have this description of the manufacture of good (?) Burgundy, quoting from Thudichum and Dupré :

"Now comes a phase in the production of Burgundy which is unparalleled in any wine product of the country. The fermentation is complete, and the wine has

to be drawn, but it is desired to impart to the wine all the color that can be extracted from the husks. For this purpose, the husks which have been collected in the chapeau have to be thoroughly mixed with the alcoholic fluid. The top

of the chapeau, which is mostly a little rotten and sour, is therefore taken off, and two or three men having laid aside their clothes, mount to the top of the chapeau. The chapeau is so dense that the men can stand upon it for some time; each of the men works a hole with one foot through the crust; he then gets his other foot through, and gradually succeeds with much trouble in causing his body to sink through the crust into the wine below. While thus engaged, the whole chapeau is broken to pieces and worked together with the wine. These men now work the whole of the murk and mix it thoroughly in all directions with the wine for about half an hour. They then emerge from the liquid, covered with a dark red dye, and after wiping their bodies with the shirt they pulled off, they put on a fresh shirt, and re-dress. After the lapse of several hours, the chapeau is again risen as before. During this operation, the men perspire profusely, not only from the intense labor which they perform, but also from the poisonous effect of carbonic acid gas exhaled by the fermenting mass. They are mostly deadly pale or blue; they pant, and hang their heads over the edges of the cuves, gasping for fresh air."

PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN.

J. H. K.

PEROXIDE of hydrogen, known to the chemists as H2O,, was discovered by chemists many years ago, but it remained for Mr. Charles Marchand to produce this remarkable substance commercially so as to make it accessible to every home.

The peculiar characteristic of peroxide of hydrogen is its wonderful affinity for all substances capable of oxidation or combustion by a combination with active

oxygen at ordinary temperature. All kinds of decomposing substances belong to this class. Dead animal and vegetable tissues and vegetable cells are readily destroyed by it, as the peroxide has the property of giving off nascent oxygen, which is active at ordinary temperatures. These properties give to peroxide of hydrogen a value to the physician and surgeon which can scarcely be estimated. They are possessed by no other known substance which is not at the same time corrosive and destructive to living cells, while the peroxide has no effect whatever upon living animal cells, at least in solutions of the strength ordinarily employed. When a solution of peroxide of hydrogen is poured into an abscess, or applied to a discharging ulcer, a brisk effervescence occurs, resulting in the production of foam in greater or less quantities. This is due to the action of the peroxide upon the pus, which it completely destroys, while not acting upon healthy tissues.

There is no remedy so valuable in the treatment of old ulcers, abscesses, and in all conditions in which a disinfecting agent is required, and in which the use of a poisonous substance such as corrosive sublimate is objectionable. Experience has shown its great value in diphtheria, in the treatment of which disease we shall

certainly continue to use it, notwithstanding the recent condemnation of its use by certain physicians who seem to have been actuated by something besides a scientific spirit in their denunciations of this valuable remedy and of its manufacturer.

Thousands of the most eminent physicians are ready to testify to the merits of peroxide of hydrogen, and it is unquestionably one of the most important additions to materia medica that has been

made within recent years. The manufacturer has conferred a boon upon suffering humanity, in making it accessible to thousands of people who otherwise might have been unable to obtain it.

J. H. K.