i895. NOTES AND COMMENTS. i6i 



under his observation. Dr. Goodall, speaking from his experience 

 of the clinical treatment under the Metropolitan Asylums Iloard of the 

 severer forms of the disease, declared that only 22 par cent, had died 

 under the new treatment, while 33 per cent, of those not treated with 

 anti-toxin died. He thought, however, that the new treatment had 

 little mitigating action upon concomitants of the disease, such as 

 albuminaria and paralysis. Professor von Ranke, from Munich, and 

 Professor Baginshi, from Berlin, were enthusiastic about the remedy. 

 Even Mr. Lennox Browne, who has done his best to criticise 

 the new treatment, stated that he was not an opponent of this 

 method. Dr. Sims Woodhead said that the results of the new 

 method were exceedingly favourable, more favourable than his 

 bacteriological work led him to anticipate. 



In fact, the general tone of the discussion was highly favourable 

 to anti-toxin. Those singular critics of modern medicine who attack 

 everything that is new, especially if it have the remotest connection 

 with experiments upon living organisms, were conspicuous by their 

 absence. Without doubt, however, they will be as active as ever in 

 the evening newspapers and in circulars touting for subscriptions. If 

 the great British public would only realise that medical men are 

 actuated, not only by a genuine spirit of scientific truth, but by the 

 knowledge that any delusive statistics will speedily bs exposed by 

 other medical men, they would be the less ready to listen to 

 professional agitators. Whatever be the future of anti-toxin, it will 

 •depend, not upon the shrieks of agitators, but on the statistics of the 

 authorities who employ it. 



The Function of the Supra-renals. 



The new physiology is proceeding with investigation of the 

 "ductless" glands. Everyone knows that the thyroid has been 

 shown to form a secretion which, carried by the blood all over the 

 body, exercises the strongest effect upon the general vital activities 

 of the body. It is concerned chiefly with the metabolism of the 

 tissues. Where the thyroid is absent or diseased, degenerative 

 changes rapidly ensue all over the body ; and those changes may be 

 arrested, or at least palliated, by injection of thyroid juices. Oliver 

 and Schafer have recently been investigating the action of the supra- 

 renal capsules, organs whose function was completely unknown. 

 They find that the supra-renal secretion produces striking physio- 

 logical effects upon the muscular tissue generally, and especially upon 

 that of the heart and arteries. Its action, apparently, is directly upon 

 the muscular tissues : not mediately through the central nervous 

 system. For they found that supra-renal extract had a direct effect 

 upon the pulsation of an excised frog's heart. The same investigators 

 have published a preliminary note {Journal of Physiology, July) upon 

 ihe action of the pituitary body. They find that this mysterious 



