904 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Xovcmhcr 1. i'ilS. 



League, has recently invented a special 

 respirator consisting of a silver-gilt 

 frame to be placed in the nostrils and 

 holding a thin layer of cotton wadding 

 saturated with menthol or some similar 

 medicament. However, the mere inser- 

 tion of loose wadding in the nostrils 

 forms a very effective filter. Such a 

 filter is also recommended for the simi- 

 lar ailments known as " horse-colds " 

 and " railroad asthma," which are occa- 

 sioned by minute particles of the 

 horses' skin or of human skin. Tin)' 

 as these are, they are sufficient to allow 

 an alien albumen to penetrate the 

 mucous membrane, and thus carry its 

 potent poison into the circulation of the 

 blood. Such " colds " are attended by 

 fever and headache, and, as in hay fever, 

 the repetition of the attacks tends to 

 increase susceptibility instead of to im- 

 munity. 



This super-sensibility to foreign albumens, 

 or annphylaxia, is a very serious and, in- 

 deed, dangerous trait, wliieh may have very 

 grave or even fatal consequences for its vic- 



tims in some circumstances. Thus tlicrc may 

 be an anaphylaxia towards cow's milk, which 

 may produce the most serious symptoms of 

 poisoning in infants to whom it is given. 

 If the attempt is repeated after some time, 

 these symptoms become increasingly more 

 acute, until death may follow the third or 

 fourth attempt to force the food on the 

 child. 



Even so, there is an anaphylaxia towards 

 egg-albumen, which most persons find quite 

 unobjectionable. If the merest trace of white 

 of egg be put on the tongue of such a 

 person, the tongue reddens and swells; even 

 the throat may become inflamed, and there 

 may be diflficulty of swallowing and vomit- 

 ing. 



In this connection the author cites an 

 instructive case at law. A Munich firm 

 placed a substance called Piero on the 

 market, advertising it as a meat-albu- 

 men. Later they found it convenient to 

 supplement their product by egg-albu- 

 men. Some of this was used by a fier- 

 son anaphylactic towards egg-alDumen. 

 This led to an investigation and a suit 

 for damages against the firm for food 

 adulteration, the outcome of which was 

 an award of heavy damages. 



HUMAN HEALTH. 



Science Progress contains a very 

 hopeful article, by Bernard Houghton, 

 on " The Outlook for Human Health," 

 and opens encouragingly when he 

 writes : " Mankind, or at least the edu- 

 cated portion thereof, have within the 

 past half -century entered into a new 

 and very beautiful world." If medical 

 knowledge can dispel " the cloud of 

 ignorance " from men's minds then the 

 writer sees all things going well for the 

 body politic as well as for the indivi- 

 dual. His conclusion will please the 

 Eugenist : — 



In this hygienic Utopia the sufferer from 

 chronic ill-health will incur much the same 

 opprobrium as for instance the "open and 

 notorious loose livers" of our forefathers; 

 whilst to be compelled to undergo — save for 

 an accident — a surgical operation, that will 

 rank as a criminal offence, stamping the 

 patient with all the stigma of a convicted 

 felon. And since the mind reacts in an 

 amazingly close degree to the health or sick- 

 ness of the body, we may justly look forward 

 in this Utopia — if, indeed, such a one be 

 possible — to a nigher and brighter .spirit in 

 civilised man, with less selfishness and cruelty 

 and a largely increased measure of altruism, 

 public spirit, and all that makes for a healthy 

 and prosperous community. 



News of the World.1 



MAGIC OP SCIENCE. 



A poor fisherman realised a. terrible genie from 

 a jar which he had found. As a reward, the evil 

 penie threatened to slay the fisherman. But th« 

 latter artfully induced the genie to go back int« 

 tho j.ar, when he at once replaced the lid, and e« 

 saved himself from destruction. 



From 1871 to 1880 the average annual deaths in 

 England and Wales from all forms of tubercu- 

 losis numbered about 70,000. In 1911 they had 

 fallen to 53,000. Allowing for the increase in 

 population, the number of deaths in 1911 would, 

 had the death-rate of 1871 to 1880 continued, have 

 been about 103,000; 50,000 livea, therefore, wer« 

 saved in the course of one year.— .Vr. Asquith at 

 tho Conference of the National Association for 

 Prevention of Consumption. 



