560 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



lessness. Dr. Anstie, however, admits that, in aged persons, 

 the bromide sometimes aggravates the symptoms it was in- 

 tended to relieve. He states that he has experimentally 

 proved the uselessness of bicarbonate of potassium and ni- 

 trate of potassium, in cases of epilepsy, given sometimes in 

 full doses, and maintains that it is the combination of bromine 

 with potassium that is necessary to produce the desired ef- 

 fects. 20 A.February 14, 1874, 185. 



AGENCY OF MILK IN SPREADING TYPHOID FEVER. 



Considerable interest has been excited in medical and sani- 

 tary circles by the occurrence of an epidemic typhoid fever 

 in London, which, after careful investigation, was distinctly 

 traceable to the supply of milk from a certain dairy. It was 

 found that the proprietor of this establishment had died of 

 typhoid fever, and that other indications of its presence were 

 appreciable. 



It is well known that impure water is the chief vehicle for 

 the transmission and communication of this disease, but there 

 was no reason to suppose that the milk had been diluted with 

 water; and it is now thought that the prime cause of the in- 

 troduction of the poison germs was due to the fact that the 

 milk-pans were washed in infected water. 19^4, October 23, 

 1873,199. 



HYPODERMIC INJECTION OF CHLORAL. 



An operation was lately performed for the removal of the 

 calcaneum, at the hospital in Bordeaux, in which anaesthesia 

 was produced by injecting 22 grammes of a solution of chlo- 

 ral one part to three of water by a capillary puncture into 

 one of the radial veins. At the end often minutes the anaes- 

 thesia was complete, the patient falling into a profound sleep ; 

 and although the operation lasted twenty minutes, and was 

 extremely painful, the subject slept during the whole time. 

 He was roused by the passage of a rapidly intermitting elec- 

 tric current between the left side of the neck and the epigas- 

 trium. 12 B, May 30, 1874, 466. 



REMEDIAL ACTION OF THE AILANTUS. 



The ailantus, as an ornamental and shade tree, has of late 

 years gone into disrepute on account of the offensive effluvi- 



