282 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



dency of the epiglottis. As a rule, longevity is rare among such 

 persons, for they are liable to those diseases of a congestive char- 

 acter which influence the heart, brain, and liver. The cause of 

 all this is eating food, especially flesh, cooked in oil, which tends 

 to the destructive processes in the system, and induces premature 

 old age, although the individual may appear to be the personifl- 

 cation of comparatively good health. The extensive use of oil in 

 the south of Europe has the same eff'cct in giving rise to con- 

 gestive diseases and diminished longevity. Pendency of the epi- 

 glottis, associated wiiii the sanguineo-oleaginous expression, is of 

 serious import. The persistent use of oil, therefore, as an article 

 of diet, is pernicious, unless in persons of spare habit of body, 

 delicate constitution, and liability to disease wherein its employ- 

 ment would prove useful. 



HAT FEVER. 



Helmholz says, in *' Virchow's Archiv," that since 1847 he has 

 been attacked every year, at some time between May 20th and 

 the end of June, with a catarrh of the upper air-passages. These 

 attacks increase rapidly in severity; violent sneezing comes on, 

 with secretion of a thin, very irritating fluid; in a few hours there 

 is a painful inflammation of the nose, both externally and inter- 

 nally ; then fever, violent headache, and great prostration. This 

 train of symptoms is sure to follow if he is exposed to the sun and 

 heat, and is equally certain to disappear in a short time if he with- 

 draws himself from such exposure. At the approach of cold 

 weather these catarrhs cease. He has otherwise very little ten- 

 dency to catarrhs or colds. 



For five years past, at the season indicated, and only then, he 

 has regularly succeeded in finding vibrios in his nasal secretions. 

 They are only discernible with the immersion lens of a very good 

 Ilartnak's. The single joints, commonly isolated, are character- 

 ized by containing 4 granules in a row ; each two granules being 

 more closely connected, pairwise, and the combined length equal- 

 ling 0.004 mm. The joints are also found united in rows, or in 

 series of branches. As they are seen only in the secretion which 

 is expelled by a violent sneeze, and not in that which trickles 

 gradually forth, he concludes that they are probably situated in 

 the adjoining cavities and recesses of the nose. 



On reading Binz's account of the poisonous efl'ect of quinine 

 upon infusoria, he determined to try it in his own case, lie took 

 a saturated neutral solution of quinise sulph. in water = 1 : 740. 

 This excites a moderate sensation of burning in the nasal mucous 

 membrane. Lying upon his back, he dropped 4 ceutim. of the so- 

 lution, by a pencil, into each nostril ; moving his head meanwhile 

 in all directions, to bring the fluid thoroughly into contact W'ith 

 the parts, until he felt it reach the oesophagus. Relief was imme- 

 diate. He was able, for some hours, freely to expose himself to 

 the heat of the sun. Three applications a day suflSced to keep 

 him free from the catarrh, under circumstances the most unfavor- 

 able. The vibrioncs, also, were no longer to be found. 



