N. MATERIA MEDIC A, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE 619 



common. The true cause, according to this writer, consists 

 of metallic impurities in the water ; and he thinks he can 

 show that goitre occurs most where the water is ferruginous, 

 especially where the iron is derived from the decomposition 

 of iron pyrites. 15 A, August 24, 1872, 240. 



LINDEMAN ON GREG AETNA IN CHIGNONS. 



The l^ritish Medical Journal publishes an abstract of an 

 article by Dr. Lindeman upon th6 parasite bodies {Gregarini- 

 dce) found in the false hair and chignons usually worn by la- 

 dies. These grow at the extremities of the hair, and form 

 little lumps, visible to the naked eye. Each of these lumps 

 represents a colony of about fifty psorasperms, which are orig- 

 inally spherical, but become flattened and discoid by recip- 

 rocal pressure. Under the influence of heat and moisture 

 these swell, and the granular contents are converted into lit- 

 tle spheres, and then into pseudonavicellse, which are little 

 corpuscles having a persistent external membrane, and in- 

 closing one or two nuclei. These become free, and float in 

 the air, and penetrate into the interior of the human organ- 

 ism, reaching the circulatory apparatus, and, according to 

 the doctor, producing various maladies, not the least of 

 which are affections of the heart, Bright's disease, and pul- 

 monary complaints. Dr. Lindeman remarks, with the exact- 

 ness of the mathematician, that in a ball-room containing 

 fifty ladies forty-five millions of navicellge are set free, and 

 he urges the propriety of abolishing false hair on this account. 

 18 A, Se2:^tember 6, 1872, Q45. 



METHYLENE ETHER AS AN ANESTHETIC. 



Dr. Richardson, who is indefatigable in the introduction 

 of new remedies, especially those having anassthesia for their 

 object, furnishes an account of some recent experiments with 

 methylene ether, or ethyl, from which he concludes that this 

 substance bids fair, on the whole, to hold a permanent place 

 in surgery. He says that it is rajnd in producing its effects, 

 and that the sleep induced is gentle, rarely attended with 

 convulsive movements, and easily recovered from. He 

 thinks that fewer deaths will occur from its use than from 

 chloroform, or even methylene bichloride, and that it may 

 prove equally safe, with common ether, over which it possess- 



