The Optical Test for Pregnancy Bloodplasma and serum of the pregnant woman break up placental albumen or peptone prepared from such albumen, and this breaking up process can be demonstrated by the polarization apparatus. Abderhalden (Abst. in Centralblatt f. Bacteriologie 55, 25, 3) claims that this optical test is perfectly reliable in cases of doubtful pregnancy, not only in women but in domestic animals. This breaking up of placental albumen depends upon a reaction between the fluids of the foetus and the mother which sets in at an early stage of pregnancy. GIFFORD. Melena Neonatorum Unger reports nine cases of this grave affection; only one of the infants died notwithstanding the enormous losses of blood. One child recovered without medication; prompt recovery in three cases followed a single injection of 2 c. c. of the mother's serum, while injection of gelatin and gelatin by the mouth and rectum displayed little if any effect. One infant recovered after one injection of 5 c. c. of a 2 per cent. solution of gelatin; another after six such injections in three days, and another after repeated adminstration of gelatin by every route plus an injection of horse-serum; another recovered after an injection of gelatin and calcium chloratum by the mouth. In the fatal case treatment had been by gelatin and ergot by the mouth. Artificial Milk Produced from Soya Beans An artificial milk manufactured from soya beans, which is said to contain all the elements of the best cow's milk and can be used for the same purposes, was shown to a gathering of scientists in London. The artificial milk is said to be more digestible than ordinary milk and its cream more nourishing. It can be used for all cooking purposes and good cheese can be made from it, but it will not produce butter. As it is germfree it will keep longer than cow's milk. The discovery is the work of three Germans who spent three years in perfecting it. The process of manufacture is simple and always produces the same result. It is not touched by hand or exposed to atmospheric influence until it is poured into bottles for delivery. The milk can be sold at 3 pence a quart (6 cents), which is 2 cents cheaper than the cost of London milk, and the cheese at 3 pence a pound. The Ether Narcosis by Intra-Muscular Injections We have become more or less familiar with the idea of giving ether by the rectum or by the intra-venous method; and now comes Descarpentrier (Abst. in Zentralblatt f. Ohrenheilk 1912, p. 411) recommending that for serious operations on the head and throat, the ether be injected into the muscles of the buttocks. He uses altogether about as many c. c. of ether as the patient weighs in kilos, injected in several doses of 5-10 c. e. each, at intervals of 2 minutes. The eyes should be kept closed and nervous patients should be given a few drops of chloroform, in addition. Descarpentrier has seen no bad effects beyond a slight haemoglobinuria and some pain at the seat of the injections. GIFFORD. A Tracheotomy Tube Worn for Fifty Years. At the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr. St. Clair Thomson showed a tracheotomy tube which had been worn by a woman off and on, for sixteen years. Frequently the tube was not changed more than once in two years. Altogether, she had worn a tube for over fifty years. The patient did not suffer from bronchitis more than any other old people and died of senility at the age of 81. While the value of nasal respiration cannot be questioned. this case shows what a wonderful compensation nature can ac complish and that in certain cases of laryngeal stenosis it may be wiser to put up with a tracheotomy tube than risk uncertain operations. In the discussion which followed, the case was mentioned of a coachman who wore a tracheotomy tube for seventeen years and drove about in all weathers. Sir Felix Semor corroborated the statement that tracheotomy tubes could be worn for an almost indefinite time without fear of bronchitis. The Value of One-Sided Eye Lesions in the Localization of Brain Tumors As is well known, Horsley has made a strong plea for the importance of a comparative study of the eye-lesions of the two sides in deciding as to which side a brain-tumor is on. He found the tumor on the side of the most markedly affected eye in 95% of his cases. Martin found the same coincidence in 74%, Williamson in 85%, and Holmes in 75%. On the other hand Leslie Paton, after a careful study of a large material, concluded that we were not justified in reaching a practically certain conclusion as to the affected side of the brain, from the difference in the eye-symptoms of the two sides. Now Mohr (Klinische Monatsblatter f. Augenheilkunde, Oct. 1912) has again surveyed the whole field and reaches the following conclusions: Strictly one-sided choked disk is rare, but in the 41 cases observed it occurred on the side of the tumor in only 56.9%. In double sided affection of the nerve (choked-disk or nueritis), the tumor was found on the more markedly affected side in 70.8%. The rare cases of one sided optic neuritis showed the tumor on the affected side in 80%. Affections of the retina (hemorrhages etc.) were found more marked on the side oppoosite to the tumor (i. e. the opposite of what Horsley found). In cases which showed choked-disk on one side and atrophy on the other the tumor was found on the side with the atrophy in every case, but the number of such cases was only 10. Where exophtalmos was observed, it was found in 85% on the side of the tumor. GIFFORD. The Sterilization of the Unfit by Means of the X Rays (Archives of the Roentgen Ray, August, 1912, No. 145.) "One of the greatest problems which confronts humanity is that of dealing with the ever increasing number of insane persons, imbeciles and idiots, who are yearly added to our population. While on the one hand there is a tendency for the total birth-rate to decrease, there can be little doubt that it is on the increase among the special individuals whom it should be our endeavor to restrain." "At the present time we have something like 132,000 insane persons in asylums, who are absolutely useless beings, at an average cost of about 14s. 6d." ($3.48 in United States money) "per head, per week, the total sum for the payment of which has to come out of the pocket of the ratepayer. To this number we must add the habitual drunkards, idiots, harmless imbeciles and criminals, who are largely kept in the same manner.' "It is reported that last year 111 women were sent by the Lancashire magistrates to the Inebriates' Infirmary at Langho. These 111 women have brought into the world no fewer than 367 children. More than half of these-to be correct, 205are dead; the remainder, however, will in all probability be brought up and carefully nurtured to help fill our gaols and asylums." "Experimental investigation has taught us that in the X rays we have an agent which can bring about such changes in the sexual organs that complete sterilization results, and in animals this can be done without producing any ill-results, or at any rate any effects which have so far been noticed." "The chief point about this method, to which I particularly wish to draw your attention, is that whie it produces sterilization it does not produce impotency." "At the present time the X rays are only to a very slight extent used by quacks, for the simple reason that they are so fraught with danger that they are afraid of them. There would be little difficulty in drawing up an act for bringing about sterilization of the unfit, and owing to the ease with which it could be brought about, to the painlessness of the operation, and to the fact that impotency does not result, we may assume that a large number of feeble-minded persons who are sufficiently sane to be alive to the necessity would be only too willing to submit themselves for the public good; for the others who are beyond this we need have no consideration. "The matter is of such great and increasing importance that it is well that we should consider it from all its standpoints; and at the present time, when a bill is about to be brought into parliament for the restraint and care of the mentally defected, it has a special importance, and is, perhaps, of even greater importance that the imposing of penalties in the case of marriage with defectives." W. H. MICK (Omaha). Tuberculosis Without Bacilli According to Neumann and Matson (Abst. in Centralblatt f. Bacteriologie 55, 9, 262) cases of pulmonary tuberculosis occur in which no bacilli can be demonstrated by the ordinary method of staining (Ziehl-Neelsen, Weichselbaum), but which plainly show that form of the germ known as the granules of Much. These are demonstrated either by Much's modified Gram method or the method of Much-Weiss. These cases are marked clinically by an unusually mild course of the disease, which frequently appears as a bronchitis with asthma and emphysema, finally with bronchiectasis. In this form it is probable that no caseation occurs, and they would be included in the Phthisis fibrosa of Bard. The granules in the sputum are virulent for guinea pigs, but they show very slight resistence to antiformin; sputum which has been treated with the latter frequently causing no infection; while the untreated specimens of the same sputum produced the disease with great regularity. From a hygienic standpoint these cases are of great importance as the victims are probably one of the chief sources of tuberculosis contagion. They go about coughing up great quantities of the germs without receiving any instructions as to the proper precautions. They generally fail entirely to respond to the ordinary diagnostic tuberculin tests. The occurrence of this variety of the tubercle germ is probably due to a destruction of the normal tubercle bacillus fat, by some antibody; possibly the lipolytic ferment of the lymphocytes demonstrated by Bergel. GIFFORD. Interstitial Poisoning Under the Form of Cerebral Focal Lesion General and severe nervous symptoms from alimentary disturbances are common enough in children but apparently welldefined focal symptoms from the same cause are decidedly unusual. Meyer (Deutsch. Med. Woch. 33, 1912, 1550) reports a case of a 312-year-old child (who had the day before, as on many other days, eaten moderately of sauerkraut), suddenly became unconscious, with fever and convulsions, the latter more marked on the left side. Five hours later seen by Meyer, she lay completely unconscious, with almost constant athetotic movements of the left arm. Occasionally also the left leg and at times all the extremities were attacked. The eyes were turned to the right and slightly upward. Pupils reactionless. Oil had been given and had been followed by very stinking stools, but, as in spite of the focal symptoms the case conveyed the impression of bowel-trouble, thorough irrigation of the bowels was ordered and was followed by the expulsion of stinking particles, some blood dots. Hereupon the convulsions ceased but the coma persisted till the next day, when slight spastic contractions of the left arm and leg were present, and the patient made slight movements of persistence when disturbed. The eyes were no longer turned to the right but moved slowly about with a sligth tendency toward the left. The discharges were still watery, green, and pestilentially stinking. Beside the continued irrigations, salts were given on the first day and castor oil on the second day. By |