BACTERIOLOGICAL NOTES.

[THE notes appearing in this department are abstracts or translations prepared expressly for MODERN MEDICINE AND BACTERIOLOGICAL WORLD, from original sources.]

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Haftkine's Phenated Vaccines against Cholera.- Dr. Tamamcheff, of Tiflis (Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, No. 10, page 713), presents a résumé of the experiments with this carbolized vaccine in producing immunity against Asiatic cholera. This vaccine is prepared as follows: Two cultures of minimum and maximum strength are prepared in the usual way known to bacteriologists. These cultures are made on gelatine prepared in the ordinary way, placed in test-tubes 16 c. long and 11⁄2 c. in diameter, set so as to give an inclined surface about long. The quantity of vaccine produced in a tube of this dimension in 24 hours at a temperature of 35° C., constitutes a unity of measurement. When the culture is complete, 6 c. c. of a 1⁄2 per cent aqueous solution of carbolic acid is poured into the tube; the culture of the surface of the gelatine is scraped off with a glass. rod or a drawn glass tube, and the mixture is shaken until a uniform emulsion is obtained. This emulsion is gathered in six globules of glass, sealed at the lamp, containing thus, I c. c. of emulsion corresponding to % of the total of each tube of culture, which is a proper dose for an adult. After a little while the microbes are killed by the action of the antiseptic, and from that moment the vaccinal fluid contained in the little glass bulbs may be treated like any other pharmaceutical preparation, that is, it may be preserved and shipped.

Besides this the carbolization presents the advantage of attenuating the local irritation, etc., consecutive to the hypodermic inoculation. Thus treated, the vaccine does not produce induration. The strong vaccine introduced does not cause necrosis. The object in view in the injection experiments with carbolized vaccine, first, was to discover the degree of immunity conferred by these vaccines; secondly, to compare this immunization with that conferred by living vaccines; thirdly, to determine in what measure carbolization attenuates the toxic action of anti-choleraic vaccines. The conclusions arrived at are as follows:

First, the carbolized vaccines of

Haffkine retain their immunizing property during at least 18 days after preparation. Second, the immunity conferred by them. seems to be in no way inferior to that obtained with living vaccine. Third, the toxicity of anti-choleraic vaccines is much reduced by the carbolization, as manifested not only by the attenuation of the local reaction consequent on the inoculation, but also by the diminution of the effects produced by intraperitoneal injections. Fourth, the febrile reaction produced in the human body by the carbolated and living vaccines is strictly analogous, which permits the conclusion that there is a complete analogy between the immunizing action of these two kinds of vaccines.

Erysipelas of the Face Complicating Typhoid Fever.- M. N. Eisendrath (Archives Medicale Belges, Sept., 1892, p. 186) relates four observations of erysipelas of the face having appeared as complications of typhoid fever. The former disease appeared in every case during convalescence of the latter (between the 21st and 27th days). Death occurred in each case. It is argued by the author that the entrance of the microbes occurs through erosions in the mucous membrane of the sphenoidal sinuses and occasionally perhaps by buccal ulcerations. In the cases in question, it is very probable that small nasal ulcerations served as ports of entry, for in both cases there was abundant epistaxis. It is believed by some authorities that such complications are not due to the germs of erysipelas, but probably to the germ of typhoid fever

itself.

Does Immunity against Vaccine for Charbon Cause Immunity against Tuberculosis? M. Perroncito (Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie, XL, page 436) had observed that in stables where vaccination of cattle against charbon had been practiced, tuberculosis, which decimated cattle to a certain degree every year, disappeared about the same time as charbon. In order to find the meaning. of this coincidence, he made the following experiments:

Two cows were vaccinated against charbon and then inoculated several times with virulent charbon virus, to reinforce their immunity. They were after

ward inoculated with pure cultures of tuberculosis. Two months later these cows were killed, and found entirely free from tuberculous manifestations. One cow attacked with advanced tubercles, was vaccinated against charbon and afterward with charbon virus; after two months the tubercles were all found calcified.

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Inoculations practiced with portions of the freshest of these tubercles on guineapigs and rabbits, were without effect. Another tuberculous cow was inoculated the same way, and allowed to run. seemed to recover, and actually gives much milk. A calf to which she gave birth later, began to cough. It was vaccinated against charbon, and is entirely well. Finally, four rabbits rendered immune against charbon by Pasteur's method and subjected to inoculation of strong virus, were inoculated after 16 days with tuberculosis. A month later the glands situated near the point of inoculation were swollen. Another inoculation was made, to which they succumbed in 48 to 50 hours, proving that the immunity against charbon had disappeared, a fact which explained the development of the tubercles. M. Perroncito thinks that vaccination against charbon protects against tuberculosis.

Tuberculocidin.- The Pacific Record gives the following interesting notice of this chemical substance prepared by Prof. Klebs, of Zurich. It is a new preparation of Koch's tuberculin and seems to have a favorable action. Says the Record: "Prof. Klebs thinks he has succeeded in eliminating from tuberculin the injurious matters contained in it, preserving its pure curative substance in an isolated condition. Tuberculocidin differs materially from tuberculin in its mode of action. Neither in animals nor in men, healthy or tuberculous, does it excite fever, even when administered in doses as high as one gram, which, it is alleged, the human as well as the animal organism supports without injury. Any disturbances which may appear are without importance, and pass away rapidly. The very increase of temperature in the body, after injecting a certain dose, is considered to be a sign that it should be augmented in order to obtain a favorable effect; for the high doses reduce fever and suppress the much-dreaded hectic fever, with its diurnal fluctuations of

sometimes as high as 4° C. In its mode of action it also differs essentially from tuberculin, inasmuch as, according to Klebs, the tuberculous tissue is not attacked by it, and the tubercular bacilli are killed directly. On this account it is exempt from the injurious consequences of tuberculin treatment, especially with regard to the further extension of tuberculosis. In animals (guinea-pigs), Prof. Klebs has obtained complete healing; in men, his results were as follows: Perfect cure, 18.6 per cent; improvement, 60 per cent; without improvement, 18.6 per cent; deaths, 2.6 per cent."

The Germs of Cholera and Their Destruction. It has been well established that the germs of cholera are to be found in the soiled clothing and dejections of the sick, and that they contain a great deal of vitality which may be prolonged a very long time, sometimes longer than a year. In a recent discussion before the Academy of Science in France, various methods for the destruction of the germs were recommended, and numerous sanitary measures were presented for the purpose of excluding cholera from European ports. It is noticeable that in many of these plans, or methods, the mode of destruction which seemed to be considered the best was the action

of steam under pressure. This plan had been demonstrated theoretically by the Committee of Hygiene, and practically two years ago, during the epidemic of cholera in Spain, where steaming had been practiced on clothing, etc., before the introduction of the disease from infected districts. This is the system chiefly employed in the United States.

The Bacterium Coli Communis.— M. Lesage, in various communications in France and abstracts made therefrom in Germany, gave it as his opinion that the virulence of this germ depends in a very great measure on the source from which it is obtained. When obtained from the normal intestinal canal, it is not pathogenic for animals; on the other hand, when from a case of diarrhoea, cholera nostras, or infantile diarrhoea, it is markedly pathogenic, and produces similar infections; when from an abscess, its effects are of a local character, and produce a local suppuration. - International Medical Magazine.

IN an interesting article by Dr. Clark, in this number, the great value of anthropometry is pointed out and forcibly illustrated. It cannot be questioned that many facts may be learned by the use of the tapeline alone, in reference to the phys

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ical condition of men and women. Giovanni, of Milan, has recently published, in Italian, a work on the morphology of the human body, which gives the results of a very careful study of some thousands of cases with a view to determining the relation between the external configuration of the body and internal conditions. Some very important facts have been elicited by this method of investigation, which seems to have been carried farther upon a scientific basis by Dr. Giovanni than by any previous investigator. The tapeline certainly affords important information respecting the physical condition of an individual, not only as regards development, but especially with reference

to the static relations of the abdominal viscera.

As regards physical strength, however, the tapeline falls short in one very important particular: It gives no definite information respecting the quality of muscular structures, which are the direct source of mechanical energy in the human being. Bone and adipose tissue, as well as the muscular structures, constitute a certain proportion of the volume of the body or any part of it. Much of the data ob

elements without giving the slightest indication of their proportion. It thus appears that the tapeline can give only an imperfect knowledge of quality as regards the muscular structures, and can give no information whatever as regards quality. A limb recently paralyzed may present precisely the same dimensions as the opposite limb, the muscles of which are able to exhibit their fullest energy. An arm may have more than doubled its lifting or striking ability, and yet measure less than before, the increase in the size of the muscle having been less than the decrease of adipose tissue resulting from the training. This is especially true in persons who have passed the age of forty or fifty years. After forty-five, it is difficult, usually impossible, to make the

muscles increase in size by exercise. A great improvement in quality may be effected, but the volume remains practiThis is a fact which is cally the same. easily overlooked by trainers and gymnasts in general, for the reason that the majority of those who devote themselves to gymnastics, or who place themselves in training, are under thirty years of age. In persons under training who are less than twenty years of age, the increase in volume of a muscle, as the result of exercise, may be very great; but in persons who have reached middle life, as before stated, little or no change in volume can be effected by the most thorough or prolonged course of training. The tapeline, then, is of greatest value in the young. It affords almost the only means of studying the question of symmetry in bodily development, and, as such, its value is unquestioned.

The writer's experience in physical training, covering a period of nearly twenty years, has been almost altogether with adults, the majority of whom were in "poor condition," as the result of disease. Many cases have been encountered in which obesity and plethora were

present to a very marked degree. Of course, in these cases, the tapeline affords no useful information whatever respecting the strength of the patient. In many cases, also, a recently developed paresis gave rise to distinct evidence of weakness of one side, or one half of the body, without there being any corresponding or noticeable change in the dimensions of the affected parts. These facts, together with the frequent observation that the measurements of a muscle decreased while the limb was actually increasing in strength, in consequence of a change in the movement of adipose tissue and an increase in the specific gravity of the body as the result of gymnastic training, led the writer, some ten years ago, to devise a method for determining the quality of muscles by testing the actual strength or lifting capacity of the several groups of muscles in the body. A careful study has been made of more than 2000 people of both sexes, and the results have continually confirmed the observations above made, respecting the efficiency of the tapeline as a means of determining either the absolute or the relative strength of a muscle or a limb.

Some of the results of this study the writer has recorded elsewhere. It is only referred to here for the purpose of noting the fact that anthropometry, valuable as it is, within certain limits, needs to be supplemented by some more accurate and positive means of studying muscular quality.

J. H. K.

A NATURAL FEMININE WAIST.

How large ought a woman's waist to be? is a question which intelligent women sometimes ask their medical advisers. This question is, however, distinctly a modern one. Up to within a very short period, the question which the average woman has asked herself has not been, "How large ought my waist to be?" but "How small can my waist be made?"

In addition to the application to the waist of as much constricting force as could be conveniently or safely applied for the purpose of making the waist smaller, women have employed a variety of devices for making the waist appear smaller than it really is, an evidence of the great interest which in the feminine mind centers in smallness of the waist as a desirable feature of the figure.

The writer was much astonished a few years ago to hear a learned Eastern physician, a professor of gynecology in an Eastern medical school, announce himself as a defender of the beauty and naturalness of the small waist in women, in a discussion of a paper relating to the subject. He asserted that from boyhood he had been taught that a small waist was one of the most essential elements of beauty in a woman. The query rose in the mind of the writer, whose paper the speaker referred to was attacking, By whom was this professor taught such a theory? Certainly not by the professor of gynecology at his alma mater, neither by any sculptor or painter of renown, nor by any teacher of art or æsthetics. Such physiological heresies could not come from any scientific source. He had evidently taken lessons from some poor devotee of fashion, or perhaps from the fashion magazines, or the models in the dress-maker's show window.

It is needless to say that such absurd and groundless views were promptly discountenanced by the audience and that section of gynecologists and obstetricians of the American Public Health Association. Nevertheless, the speaker's views represent those of a few physicians, of whom Dr. Wm. A. Hammond may be named as the foremost, since he wrote, a few years ago, an article for the North American Review, in which he made a serious defense of corsets and skirt bands, declaring that the large hips of women were evidently made by nature for the purpose of carrying burdens.

For some years the writer has been collecting data in relation to this subject, and has encountered some very interesting and some very positive facts, which have been recorded in various medical papers,' and which may be very briefly summarized as follows, so far as they relate to the waist proportion of the feminine figure:

1. The anterior line of the trunk in a normal woman is a continuous curve from the upper end of the sternum to the pubes, slightly flattened only at the epigastrium, not at the point commonly known as the waist. A flat or furrowed waist is not to be found among uncivilized women who have never worn corsets or waistbands, but is universal among civilized women over twenty years of age who have worn the conventional dress, and who are not extraordinarily obese. The waist furrow is not infrequently found, even in very stout women, as the result of their extraordinary efforts to "keep the stomach down" by waist constriction. This statement is made upon the strength of hundreds of exact tracings of the outline of the body made by the writer, and may be verified by any one who will take the trouble to look through a collection of photographs or engravings representing the women of barbarous tribes in a seminude condition.

2. The measurement of many hundreds of women of various nationalities,-English, French, German, American, Chinese, East Indian, American Indian, Mexican, and Italian, has afforded the most convincing evidence that the small waist of the half-civilized woman is an abnormality, really a deformity, and as unnatural. as it is ugly and ungraceful. A nude figure with a wasp waist would be condemned as a monstrosity, even by the

11. "Experimental Researches Respecting the Relation of Dress to the Pelvic Diseases of Women." 1889.

2. "The Value of Exercise as a Therapeutic Means in the Treatment of the Pelvic Diseases of Women." 1890.

3. "The Influence of Dress in Producing the Physical Decadence of American Women." 1891.

4. "The Relation of Static Disturbances to the Displacements of the Abdominal Viscera. 1892.

most ardent worshiper of fashion. It is only when draped that the small-waisted woman can by any stretch of the imaginaion be thought to look well. Underneath the drapery of the small-waisted woman is hidden a figure which is positively hideous in its departures from the normal outlines. The collapsed waist, rounded shoulders, protruding belly, and crooked spine of the undressed devotee of fashion who comes to the gynecologist and the orthopedist for repairs, if drawn to life and presented in a comic paper, would surely be pronounced a caricature, and such it truly is. The beautiful proportions of the Venus de Milo, universally conceded to be the finest model of a mature woman's figure which art has ever produced, presents a waist, the circumference of which is exactly 47.6 per cent of the height, little less than the chest measurement taken at the armpits. Prof. Giovanni, of Milan, has shown the natural chest measurement to be just one half the height.

In the careful measurement of 600 adult civilized American women, we found the average height to be 62.6 inches. The average waist measurement in 848 women was 24 inches, or 38.4 per cent of the height.

Dr. M. Anna Wood, director of the Department of Physical Training in Wellesley College, Mass., found the average height of 1500 young women to be 63.2 inches, and the average waist measurement to be 24.6 inches, or 38.9 per cent of the height. We found the proportion of waist to height among unmarried French women from eighteen to thirty years of age, to be 45.4 inches.

Dr. Seaver, of Yale, found the average waist measure of 2000 men to be 29.3 inches, which, compared with the average height 68.6 inches,- gives a waist proportion of 42.7, nearly three per cent less than that of French women, and five per cent less than that of the Venus de Milo.