2G8 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ficd doo;, which I have recovered from a subterranean temple of Upper 

 Egypt." Druggists' Circular, 



INFLUENCE OF FOODS. 



Dr. Edward Smith, of the Hospital for Consumptives, Brompton, England, 

 contributes to the Proc. Royal-Medico-ChirurgicaJ Society a paper entitled 

 " Practical Deductions from an Experimental Inquiry into the Influence of 

 Foods." He considers the use of arrow-root and other fashionable foods 

 (consisting merely of starch and water) in preference to the cereals (wheat, 

 etc.), as utterly indefensible, even in cases of exhaustion. He draws the 

 distinction between the action of that diet which increases the vital power, 

 and that which merely tends to prevent the loss of it; and considers that 

 beef-tea, wines, and brandy, can act only in the latter mode, while the 

 cereals act in the first-named manner. Milk and the cereals he asserts to be 

 the most perfect form of food, and approves of the use of skimmed rather 

 than new milk in cases of fever. The great value of animal substances in 

 diet, as increasing the respiratory process in addition to the supply of plas- 

 tic material, is dwelt on. In cases of debility, with lessened appetite and a 

 soft, perspiring skin, ''Dr. Smith recommends fat to be applied to the skin 

 rather than taken internally. He approves of sugar and water (the French 

 eau sucree) as an innocuous and refreshing beverage, and thinks that the ill 

 effects of sugar on the healthy system have been greatly exaggerated. Tea 

 causes waste, and is thus injurious to persons under fed. It differs from 

 coffee, chiefly by increasing the action of the skin, and thereby tending to 

 cool the body. He thinks tea and coffee ought to be more commonly used 

 as medicinal agents. The latter he believes to be a valuable febrifuge, and 

 one particularly fitted for cases of nervous excitability. He considers all 

 alcohols to have their chief influence in sustaining the action of the heart. 



NEW DISINFECTING COMPOUND. 



M. Corne and Demeaux, two French surgeons, have recently discovered 

 and introduced a new disinfecting compound of a most simple and effica- 

 cious character. Its composition and preparation is as follows : To one 

 hundred parts of plaster of Paris, finely powdered, add from one to three 

 parts of coal-tar, then mix these two ingredients well into a mortar. To the 

 above add olive-oil in sufficient quantity, so as to reduce the mixture to the 

 consistence of ointment, after which it is to be placed in close vessels for use. 

 The mixture is of a dark-brown color, and has, owing to the presence of the 

 coal-tar, a bituminous smell. The olive-oil employed serves the purpose of 

 binding the powder without dissolving it, so that the preparation retains its 

 absorbing quality when it is placed in contact with a suppurating sore, while 

 at the same time it never dries sufficiently to become in any way inconveni- 

 ent to the patient from becoming hard, and without creating at the same 

 time any irritation ; while its application destroys immediately any bad odor 

 which may exist, and which is as disagreeable to the patient as to the 

 attending physician. As this composition forms a kind of paste or oint- 

 ment, it admits of being spread upon linen, and then placed upon the wound. 

 The application may be immediate, or mediate, according to circumstances; 

 if applied immediately to the sore it does not cause pain and has a detersive 

 action, while at the same time, as it cleanses the wound, it favors cisatrisa- 

 tion. By dressing wounds in this manner with this preparation, Dr. Corne 



