standstill. Since then the writer has seen many cases of this kind, in varying degree and from different causes. At one time it has been a woman with uncontrollable vomiting, who became more and more anæmic from starvation until the mind wandered. Another time it has been a wife who had been so plunged in grief from the death of her husband that she could not eat. The insanity is only temporary in all these cases, for as soon as food is eaten and digested, the brain rapidly recovers its functions. Under the same heading may be classed the insanity of pregnancy and lactation; the brain cannot work properly without phosphates, but these are taken up to such an extent to provide bones for the child that the mother's brain is deprived of them. As soon as phosphates are furnished in abundance the woman rapidly regains her reason.

The importance of sunlight and fresh air is well known, but its bearing upon insanity is perhaps not so well understood. And yet we may safely say that the brightest and happiest woman would eventually become melancholic and even insane if she were kept in a room from which every ray of sunlight had been excluded. The superintendent of a large and successful sanitorium states that patients who are despondent almost to the verge of committing suicide, show the most remarkable improvement within a few days after being placed all day in the sun parlor. Many of the mild cases of insanity which are cured in sanatoriums, principally by sunlight, fresh air, and nourishing food, would probably otherwise have found their way to the asylum.

It is interesting to note that Dana attributes the insanity of women at the menopause to starvation of the brain cells, owing to senile degeneration of the arterioles, which diminishes their calibre, and consequently allows less blood to pass through them. If such was the case, little or nothing could be done for these patients. But it bears on our subject to remark that Skene, who has given this subject much attention, states that in his experience the insanity was due to overwork, childbearing, and lactation, with insufficient food and sleep. How often do we find just such conditions among the farmers' wives, who contribute such a large contingent to the insane asylums.

Insanity from poisoning of the brain. It will be convenient to subdivide the causes of the poisoning under four heads: 1, poisoning from defective action of the kidneys; 2, from defective action of the liver and bowels; 3, from defective assimilation or combustion, so that chemical products are formed in large quantities, which should not be formed at all or at most only in very small quantities; and 4, from septic poisoning. Insanity is a well known termination of disease of the kidneys, but the discussion of it is more suited to a technical journal. But the second cause, autointoxication, is so common that it should be better understood. The writer fully believes that the systematic keeping clear of the

intestinal tract would save hundreds from the asylum and reclaim hundreds of thousands from that semi-insane state known as melancholia. The word itself expresses the condition. The failure of the liver to keep the blood free from black bile keeps the patient constantly on the border of insanity. Their intense despondency frequently leads them to suicide. A course of cholagogue cathartics, and the correction of the diet so that the intake shall not greatly exceed the output soon makes a marked difference in their mental condition. One patient, who did not know her husband and refused to recognize him, completely regained her sanity after a month of such a treatment, so that she was able to return to her home and take care of her house, although previously she had to be taken care of by a trained nurse.

Contagiousness of insanity. I have already expressed a strong conviction that insanity was not hereditary; if it were so a much larger proportion of those now in the asylum would have had insane parents; not insane uncles and aunts, but insane parents. Moreover, it is not logical to say that everything which happens to a person is hereditary because it happened to his father and mother. It was also stated that in insanity, as in consumption, the idea that it was hereditary has been one of the greatest obstacles to treatment, so that, instead of being one of the most amenable, it has come to be considered one of the most hopeless. "If it is hereditary," people say, "then it is bound to come no matter what they may do. Therefore why do anything?" Believing that heredity was one of the factors which had least to do with it, the writer was pleased to notice an article by Dr. Vallee, superintendent of the Beauport Asylum, Quebec, that he believes that many cases of insanity are contagious, in the sense that one member of a family may by imitation of the insane actions of another member gradually become as insane as the first one.

Explosion of the theory of the heredity of drunkenness. This too prevalent disease is generally supposed to be hereditary. But the writer is convinced that what has been taken for heredity is simply a matter of imitation. He knows of several families where the father was a confirmed drunkard long before the children were born, and yet not one of those children care for alcohol; in fact, they loathe it. These children were for the most part educated away from home. In another family, where the father only took to drink after all the children were born, the five boys were brought up with the constant example of a drinking father before them, and four of the five have become drunkards. If drunkenness was recognized as contagious instead of hereditary many a family might be saved from this disease, either by isolating the drunken father or by sending the children away when practicable.

If more attention were paid to training and environment and less to heredity, there would be fewer consumptives, fewer people with cancer, fewer drunkards, and fewer murderers.

Abstracts, Queries and Answers.

A Remarkable Case of Puncture of the Medulla.

Dr. A. H. Traver reports in the Albany Medical Annals a most remarkable case of death in a little girl, following the accidental puncture of the medulla by a hairpin.

R. B., aged 8, fastened up her hair in the back of her neck by means of a common wire hair pin and lay down on a bed to sleep. While asleep she rolled out of bed, striking on the floor. She called her sister and told her that her hands felt funny, and asked her to rub them. While her sister was rubbing her she again said, "Why don't you rub my hands; you are not rubbing them!" This frightened her sister, and she called in a neighbor, who, in raising the child, found the hairpin penetrating the back of the neck about two-thirds of the length. The hairpin was removed with some difficulty. She was taken to the hospital where, on examination, it was found there was a complete paralysis, of both motion and sensation, of the body from the neck down.

In the neck, just at the border of the hair, could be seen the two small skin punctures caused by the hairpin. The child died soon after reaching the hospital. There was no autopsy performed owing to the strong objections of the child's parents.

The history of this case sounds very much like reading the description of death as it is related in the dime novel, [In a novel by Carolyn Wells the villain kills his uncle by puncturing his medulla with a pin. W. J. R.] but nevertheless it is true and shows how easily death can result from a very trivial cause.

Gonorrheal Septicemia With Marked Cardiac Involvement.

Dr. John D. Thomas, of Washington, reports (Med. Record) the case of a young man of 18 who contracted gonorrhea, and used medicines from a drug store which stopped the discharge; the stoppage of the discharge was followed by pains in the joints, fever, chills, finally septicemia with all its symptoms, severe involvement of the heart and death. There seems to be good ground to cease regarding gonorrhea as a merely local affection. It is really constitutional infection. And the fear which our ancient colleagues had of stopping gonorrheal discharge too suddenly seems also to have some justification.

An Early Symptom of Perforative Appendicitis.

Dr. Paul Delbet (Presse Médicale, June 3; Med. Rec. Oct. 17) draws attention to a single symptom by means of which he claims to be able to make an early diagnosis of perforation of the appendix. If the symptoms of a patient with signs of a beginning appendicitis are relieved by ice, rest, and fluid diet, and he is

suddenly attacked with pain during the above treatment, Delbet claims the appendix is perforated and advises immediate operation, even if the patient's general condition is good. He cites numerous cases in which his early diagnosis was substantiated by operation, and urges the wisdom of operating at once when, without interruption of the above treatment, pain suddenly becomes worse after the symptoms had first been improved by the treat

ment.

Several New and Interesting discoveries.

Recent researches by the staff of scientists in the Government service at Washington have brought to light a number of novel facts. They will be presented to the public shortly in the form of bulletins. One of these bulletins, it is predicted, will pave the way for new developments in the realm of bacteriology. It has heretofore been supposed that bacteria do not grow at freezing temperatures. That idea has now been exploded. In their study of cold storage conditions the Government bacteriologists have discovered that germs do thrive and multiply in temperatures below the freezing point, although they are not the identical organisms which abound in the ordinary atmosphere. The cold storage bacteria, indeed, die upon exposure to normal temperatures-hence the difficulty of finding them and the prevailing ignorance of their existence.

Chickens kept in cold storage will, because of the presence of these bacteria, decompose if allowed to remain long enough. The tissues break down. Cases have been discovered by the Government experts where the intestines of chickens have almost been dissolved by the enzymic action of bacteria in spite of the intense and continued cold. The forthcoming bulletin on the subject, soon to be published by the Department of Agriculture, will indicate how long produce may be kept in cold storage without decomposing.

The same group of Government bacteriologists have hit upon a method of detecting cold-storage eggs without tasting or smelling them. Even eggs which have been kept not longer than two or three weeks can be immediately "spotted" by these scientific sleuths, and no longer need a suffering public be imposed upon with "fresh" eggs laid eons ago.

In another department of the Government service an interesting discovery has been made with reference to certain crude drugs. Any one who has had much to do with crude drugs will recall the prickling sore throat sometimes experienced upon chewing certain roots and barks. Various theories have been advanced to explain the phenomenon, but they have never done so satisfactorily. Only recently has a scientific reason been adduced. which solves the problem,

An investigator in the Department of Agriculture has discovered that crystals of calcium oxalate are the mischievous factors. The fine needles are bundled in sacks which burst upon contact with moisture, causing the crystals to shoot forth with considerable force. Upon the microscope this action is plainly visible. One can see the sharp crystals of calcium oxalate literally dart out of their sacks. In the human throat the moisture of the saliva suffices to expand the sacks until they burst, causing the crystalline needles to embed themselves in the mucous membrane and setting up an irritating cough. This explanation of a comparatively puzzling phenomenon is a striking example of what microchemistry has accomplished.-Bulletin of Pharmacy.

Dr. F.-The use of thyroid in eczema is not unknown. A recent publication which appeared we believe in the Scottish Med. and Surg. Journal, reports a series of consecutive cases of eczema in young children successfully treated by thyroid. In the first case, fourteen months old, the baby had suffered from eczema of the face for nearly a year. This had been entirely resistant to the usual applications and internal treatment, nor was hospital treatment more efficacious. Two and a half grains of thyroid, in tablet form was given daily. In a little more than one month the child was entirely well. His cure persisted for nearly a month, when the disease showed a tendency to recur. The second course of thyroid was followed by a permanent cure. The four other cases gave similar results.

Salicin, Urotropin and Methylene Blue.

Dr. J. S. S.-Salicin does exert therapeutically a sodium salicylate effect, but it is much feebler in action and must be given in large doses, say about 30 to 60 grains several times a day. In regard to your query on the action of the urinary antiseptics on bacteriuria we can do no better than to reproduce Dr. Churchman's conclusions (Dr. J. W. Churchman, Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, Vol. 13, p. 189), which are as follows:

1. Administration of urotropin, methylene blue or salol renders the urine inhibitive of the growth of staphylococcus pyogenes, streptococcus pyogenes, B. typhosus, B. coli communis and B. proteus vulgaris.

2. Urotropin and methylene blue are more markedly efficacious (inhibitive) than salol; the choice lies with the first.

3. These drugs effect inhibition of bacterial development rather than destruction of bacterial life. They render urine an uncongenial medium for growth, but not an environment necessitating death.

4. Their effect is weakest on the staphyloccus pyogenes and strongest on the B. typhosus and streptococcus pyogenes.