SODA, A REMEDY FOR BURNS AND SCALDS. 663 



and attests the faculty it has of suiting itself to those external condi- 

 tions which are most favorable to its life-habits. We see also how the 

 plants of the earth have undergone improvement in regard to the 

 length of their life under the influence of external conditions and by 

 means of their power of variation, and can conceive how development 

 of this kind can and will go on ; for a cessation of the process is not 

 possible. 



It is true that not only certain species but whole genera and whole 

 families as well appear now to be firmly fixed as to their life-habits 

 and the longevity of their individuals ; such plants, in view of the cer- 

 tain mutability of external conditions must either become migratory, 

 or, if they can not change, must eventually give way to better adapted 

 kinds. Other species, on the contrary, are capable of improvement ; 

 their individuals vary among themselves as to the habit and duration 

 of their life, easily adapt themselves to changing conditions, and are 

 able to adopt other life-habits. These changes in life-habit are accom- 

 panied step by step by a morphological adaptation of the organs, and 

 thus from species having a definite term of life may be developed new 

 species with other terms of life. The formation of annual species 

 appears especially to be making a j)i*ogress which began when a peri- 

 odical took the place of a uniform climate. These species are, on ac- 

 count of the abundance of their rapidly maturing fruit, capable of a 

 rapid improvement, and have had their spread facilitated since the ap- 

 pearance of man, who by his methods of cultivation makes the ground 

 fit for them in places where they otherwise would not thrive. 



SODA, A EEMEDY FOE BURNS AND SCALDS. 



Br F. PEPPEECOENE, L. E. C. P. 



ACCIDENTAL burns and scalds, even when not very severe, ex- 

 tensive, or dangerous, commonly cause so much pain for an in- 

 definite time, depending probably as to duration and severity a good 

 deal on the age of the sufferer, and on the greater or less degree of 

 sensitiveness of the individual's skin or constitution not forgetting 

 I the feverish reaction, and the dangerous internal secondary inflamma- 

 tions that are apt to follow in some cases that any easily applied and 

 quickly available remedy and relief, without perhaps the immediate 

 necessity of calling in professional assistance, will be acknowledged as 

 a boon by most p>ersons ; and especially so, when it is remembered 

 that the sooner the agonizing burning pain in the part can be allayed, 

 the less chance there is of dangerous secondary effects, besides slough- 

 ing, etc., so severely trying to children and old persons. 



The usual first applications to these painful injuries, whether so- 



