N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 639 



even in winter. Cholera is not only produced by drinking 

 such water, but milk, beer, meat, etc., treated with it, become 

 similar sources of the disease. 8 C^Aj^ril IV, 1873, 125. 



POISONOUS AVOOLEX GOODS. 



Dr. Haoar states that a number of cases have occurred in 

 Berlin where colored woolen garments, worn next the skin, 

 have j^roduced a peculiar kind of poisoning. Violet-gray 

 woolen stockings, after having been worn less than six hours, 

 caused redness of the skin and permanent pustules, in con- 

 nection with feverish symptoms and constipation. The same 

 results followed after the stockings had been treated with 

 boiling water. Similar symptoms were produced by gray 

 Avoolen shirts, next the skin, and by the red binding of others. 

 He considers the aniline colors as a rule poisonous in their ac- 

 tion upon the skin, as has been established in regard to coral- 

 line, in spite of all denials ; the exceptional character of a 

 lew in this respect being difficult to establish. He recom- 

 mends, therefore, that woolen garments colored with aniline 

 colors should not be worn next the skin, and suggests, as a 

 test for these colors, that a portion of the wool be heated to 

 boiling, in a test tube, with 90 per cent, of alcohol, and if the 

 latter acquire a red, violet, or violet-blue tint, the coloring 

 matter is susj)icious. 1 C\ 1873, (Si. 



PUTREFIEES AND ANTISEPTICS. 



Dr. Dougall, of Glasgow, has lately published a pamphlet 

 on putreiiers and antiseptics, the result of an examination of 

 the principal substances that have been presented for con- 

 sideration in such a connection. His experiments were made 

 to ascertain (1) whether putrefaction can be accelerated by 

 adding certain chemicals to fresh organic fluids; (2) the rel- 

 ative antiseptic powers of difterent bodies, as shown by their 

 preventing the appearance of fungi and animalcules in organ- 

 ic fluids with which they are mixed ; and (3) the relative 

 aerial antiseptic powers of difierent volatile bodies, as evinced 

 by their preventing the appearance of fungi and animalcules 

 in organic fluids exposed, to their vapors, and by their action 

 on vaccine lymph. 



Under the first head it was ascertained that the alkalies 

 and alkaline eartlis and their salts (with a few exceptions) 



