N. MATERIA MEDIC A, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 5 95 



reduction is still further increased on removing the cold, if 

 the application has continued for a sufficient length of time ; 

 and, as a consequence of the reduction of the heart's action, 

 the phenomenon of stupor, or sleep, appears, produced either 

 by deficient oxidation or by imperfect removal of carbonic 

 acid. There is also a tendency to congestion of various in- 

 ternal organs, especially of the lungs, and the establishment 

 of a pulse-respiration ratio similar to that of pneumonia. 

 4 D, December, 1872, 445. 



INJECTION OF SEPTICEMIC BLOOD. 



According to a communication from M. Davaine upon the 

 subcutaneous injection of septicemic blood (that is, blood 

 derived from an animal poisoned by putrefied blood), the vi- 

 rus acquires increased intensity and power by passing through 

 the animal organism. This follows as the result of twenty- 

 five series of experiments on rabbits and Guinea-pigs, and 

 the accumulated intensity of power became so tremendous 

 that " the blood of the rabbit killed by the ten-millionth part 

 of a drop was injected into five rabbits in doses of the one- 

 hundred millionth, the billionth, the ten billionth, the one- 

 hundred billionth, and the trillionth of a drop. All died 

 within twenty-five hours." 20 A, September 28, 1872, 356. 



COLD MILK FOR INFANTS. 



Dr. King, of the United States army, strongly recommends 

 the use of cold milk in rearing infants on artificial food. He 

 believes the tendency to gastric and intestinal disorders is 

 much less when the feeding-bottle is kept in cold or ice wa- 

 ter than when the milk is raised to the temperature of moth- 

 er's milk. He has also found that infants relish cold food, 

 and that its eifect is particularly good during the teething 

 period. New York Medical Journal, August, 1872, 207. 



ON THE TIIYSIOLOGY OF SLEEP. 



In an elaborate paper upon the physiology of sleep, Dr. 

 Henry B. Baker takes the ground that the general cause of 

 normal sleep in man and animals is the accumulation in the 

 organism of the products of oxidation, and mainly of car- 

 bonic acid, that accumulation being favored and controlled 

 by reflex action of the nervous system, which thus protects 



