M. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 553 



ing from eating the flesh of these animals are traceable di- 

 rectly to this condition. To this statement a rejoinder is 

 made, however, that when a crab or lobster finds one of its 

 members injured, it has the power of shedding it at will, and 

 that if much disturbance or distress were caused by the peg- 

 ging in question, the remedy referred to would be applied. 

 Formal complaint against the practice has been laid before 

 the Lord Mayor of London, who has promised to have a care- 

 ful investigation made, upon which he will issue his decision 

 as to the legal practice for the future. The same custom ex- 

 ists largely in the United States, although we are not aware 

 that the suggestion has been made that any unwholesome 

 condition is thereby produced in the flesh. 



In further reference to this subject, we are informed that 

 in the city of Boston lobsters are never brought to market 

 alive, but are always boiled on the shore almost immediately 

 after being caught, and in that state offered for sale. The 

 practice, however, is very different in New York, where they 

 are brought in alive with the claws pegged. Careful inquiry 

 has, it is said, revealed the fact that cases of disease from 

 eating lobsters in Boston are extremely rare, and, indeed, are 

 almost unheard of, while the contrary is the case in New 

 York, many instances being known of sickness resulting from 

 the use of lobsters as food. 2 A, July 23, 62. 



REMOVAL OF FEECKLES. 



Freckles, so persistently regular in their annual return, 

 have annoyed the fair sex from time immemorial, and various 

 means have been devised to eradicate them, although thus 

 far with no decidedly satisfactory results. The innumerable 

 remedies in use for the removal of these vexatious intruders 

 are either simple and harmless washes, such as parsley or 

 horse-radish water, solutions of borax, etc., or injurious nos- 

 trums, consisting principally of lead and mercury salts. 



If the exact cause of freckles were known, a remedv for 

 them might be found. A chemist in Moravia, observing the 

 bleaching effect of mercurial preparations, inferred that the 

 growth of a local parasitical fungus was the cause of the dis- 

 coloration of the skin, which extended and ripened its spores 

 in the warmer season. Knowing that sulpho-carbolate of 

 zinc is a deadly enemy to all parasitic vegetation (itself not 



A A 



