364 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



THE UTILITY OF BEAN IN BREAD, AS TENDING TO AID INTESTINAL 



EVACUATIONS. 



It appears certain that constipation is more frequent than formerly. One 

 great cause of this is our mode of sifting corn, the result of which is, the 

 extraction of all the bran contained in the flour, when done, as it now is, to 

 20 or 25 per cent, instead of 10 or 12 per cent., which used to be the amount 

 removed twenty years ago. M. Mouriet considers, that in the internal part 

 of the pellicle there exists a ferment which renders starch fluid, and which 

 has the property of converting this substance into sugar, which otherwise 

 would be rejected by the intestines as unassimilable. Thus, if bread in which 

 the bran is left is not so nourishing as bread which is deprived of it, this 

 inferiority is compensated for by qualities which are important with respect 

 to digestibility ; it is also more rapid. Moreover, whether from its fermenting 

 properties, or by a mechanical effect of the ligneous matters which it con- 

 tains, it has the effect of increasing the peristaltic movement of the intestines, 

 and consequently of aiding their evacuations. Bran has at all times one ines- 

 timable advantage over medicinal drugs: it does not fatigue the digestive 

 organs, and frustrate the intestinal contraction, which is, to the degree 

 desired by nature, necessary for the regularity of the functions. Finally, it 

 has not the disadvantage of medicinal substances, of losing its efficacy from 

 habit, and thus requiring increasing doses to keep up its action. Liebig says, 

 that the separation of bran from the flour is rather injurious than useful to 

 nutrition. In many parts of Germany, and almost all over France, the pea- 

 santry use the bran with the flour, and there are no people whose digestion 

 is in a better state. It should be remembered, too, that by using unbolted 

 flour for bread, we increase the product at least a fifth or sixth. Journal de 

 Chimie Medicate. 



MORTALITY FROM CHLOROFORM. 



It appears that the mortality in the London hospitals has increased since 

 the introduction of etherization from 21 to 33 per cent. ; or, to vary the ex- 

 pression, instead of amputation being fatal in a less proportion than 1 in 4 of 

 those operated upon, it now proves fatal to 1 in 3. Is not so enormous a 

 sacrifice of life too high a price to be paid for anaesthesia, even granting that 

 this cannot be otherwise obtained with perfect safety ? Is life to be held as 

 nothing when compared to pain ? Medical Times and Gazette. 



ON THE CAUSE OF THE FLUIDITY OF THE BLOOD. 



One of the most valuable papers brought before the British Association at 

 its last meeting, was one by Dr. Richardson, on the cause of the fluidity of 

 the blood. The point of Dr. R.'s researches consisted in the discovery of the 

 volatile alkali, ammonia, as a constituent of the living blood, and its escape 

 from blood abstracted from the body. The author related a long series of 

 demonstrative experiments, all proving not only that ammonia was present 

 in the blood, but that upon its presence the solubility of the fibrine, and 



