106 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March 



cessity for a strict observance of asepsis in the dietary of persons 

 suffering from dilatation of the stomach. 



A dietary of milk foods and farinaceous foods is unquestion- 

 ably best suited for the establishment of asepsis in the alimen- 

 tary tract. The most forcible objection which can be brought 

 ogainst the use of flesh foods, fish, oysters, and cheese, is the 

 readiness with which these substances undergo decomposition 

 in the alimentary canal, and the excellent culture medium thus 

 presented for the development of microbes and their character- 

 istic ptomaines. — Modern Medicine. 



Bacterial Origin of Eclampsia. — Leusden (in Virchow^s 

 Archiv. Bd. cxl, iii, H. i), after examining the various organs of 

 two cases in which eclampsia occurred, says : " I have found 

 nothing which indicates the infectious (bacterial) origin of 

 puerperal eclampsia. The probability is that a toxic substance 

 circulating in the blood is the cause of the eclamptic attacks. 

 The changes in the kidneys are the principal organic lesions. 

 The embolism in the lungs of the placental giant cells is only 

 an accidental coincidence. There are no emboli containing 

 liver cells. The minute necrotic changes in the parenchyma of 

 the liver in both cases could not be connected with the cause of 

 eclampsia. The hyaline (fibrous) thrombi of the lung and liver 

 capillaries are the result of secondary ursemic changes, and are 

 independent of the eclampsia. — Canada Medical Record. 



WSDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



Influence of Lecithin on the Growth of Organisms. — 



Experiments with dogs and other animals show that subcut- 

 aneous injections of lecithin increase notably the number of red 

 corpuscles in the blood. They rise to 800,000 or a million and 

 more above the normal, and the hemoglobin is also increased. 

 This improved condition of the blood comes immediately and 

 lasts a long while. The scientists who have made a special 

 study of this subject are Danilewsky, Selenski and Sostin, and 

 their report to the Academic des Sciences is full of interest. Ex- 

 periments on the egg and larvse of frogs showed that it produced 

 an extraordinary growth in the tadpoles, and these tadpoles 



