N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 535 



cided extension of the irritation which attacks the conjunc- 

 tiva and the nasal and i)havyngeal mucal surface. So far, 

 too, from there being any greater tendency to the disease 

 among hay-makers and farmers than any cLass of the com- 

 munity, the afiection appears, in fact, to attack agriculturists 

 and persons of other occupations indiiFerently showing tliat 

 the emanations from forage plants can have, at most, only a 

 very secondary influence in the case. All the symptoms are 

 exhibited at any season, as the result of sudden exposure to 

 cold when the body is in a condition of perspiration, whether 

 subjected or not to dust or other irritating emanations. The 

 disease must be regarded, therefore, as simply a catarrhal 

 fever, influenced and modified in its origin and progress ac- 

 cording to individual peculiarities and by atmospheric con- 

 ditions. 



COCHIX-CHINA DIAERHCEA. 



The Cochin-China diarrhoea annually carries ofi* about 1000 

 men of the French army and navy. According to Dr. Nor- 

 mand, naval surgeon, this disease is produced by tlie presence 

 in the intestines of an enorjnous number of intestinal worms, 

 of the new species, Angidllula stereoralis. It is one fourth 

 of a millimeter in length. Popular Science Monthly^ No- 

 vember. 



INDIAN CORN AND ENDEMIC PELLAGRA. 



In Southern Europe, and especially in Italy, in localities 

 where maize is largely consumed by the poorer classes, pel- 

 lagra has long been prevalent, and has been almost exclu- 

 sively confined to such as subsist for the most part on corn 

 meal. In Cremona one out of every twenty-four of the pop- 

 ulation is thus afilicted, and in Brescia one in forty-one, and 

 the number is annually increasing. The mould Sj^orisorium 

 maidis, detected on grains of corn in 1870 by Bcllardini and 

 Cassati, was suspected as the cause of the disease, as w^ell as 

 the common mould, Penicillhcm f/lauciim,so frequently found 

 on improperly dried and imperfectly stored corn. Accord- 

 ing to the observations of Professor Lambrosa, however, 

 tliere is no connection between those fungi and the pellagra, 

 but the disease originates rather in the rancidity of the fatty 

 oil, richly present in corn meal. He showed that the disease 



