April io, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



199 



considered as entirely passed. The first cases occurred in the 

 barracks situated in the Baltic provinces, from which place it 

 spread rapidly, the larger garrisons being generally attacked first. 

 There was, roughly speaking, a belt stretching across the country 

 from north-east to south west, in which belt the epidemic seemed 

 to travel, and outside of which the cases were less frequent and 

 severe. A number of garrisons at a distance from this path, that 

 is, in the south-east and north-west, escaped altogether. The time 

 occupied in spreading through the whole army was five weeks, 

 whereas the epidemic of the year 1833 took more than three 

 months. The total number of cases reported was 55,263, of which 

 three-tenths of one per cent were seriously ill, and one-tenth of 

 one per cent died. The Bavarian troops suffered the most. The 

 larger number of cases occurred among the younger men. and the 

 smallest number among the artisans. Many other interesting 

 data are recorded. 



Haemolymph Glands. 



It might be thought, that, after the careful search that has 

 been made in all the tissues of the animal body, it would be 

 almost impossible to find a structure that has up to the present 

 remained undescribed; yet Mr. W. F. Robertson, working under 

 Dr. William Russell, in giving a careful histological description 

 of his so-called haemolymph glands, has opened up a new field for 

 histological and pathological research. From the description 

 given, says the Lancet, the haemolymph glands appear to be a kind 

 of cross between the spleen and the lymphatic glands, as almost 

 all the structures that Mr. Robertson describes may be found in 

 one or other of these organs, although they have never yet been 

 figured as he finds them arranged. Most observers who have 

 noted the existence of the small prevertebral blood-red points have 

 assumed that they were simply lymphatic glands, the cortical 

 spaces of which were distended with blood ; and, although every 

 butcher can point them out, it appears that no one has hitherto had 

 sufficient curiosity to determine him to examine these structures 

 microscopically. The large cells, with their colorless subdivided 

 nuclei found in the sinuses, appear to be somewhat similar in 

 character to the large red-blood corpuscle-forming cells that have 

 been described in the spleen, and even free in the blood circulation, 

 and it will be interesting to note whether it is possible to make 

 out any relation between the cells in the blood and those in the 

 hsemolymph glands. Although at first sight it might appear that 

 Mr. Robertson's observations may lead to further complications 

 in the study of the blood-forming and blood-destroying functions, 

 it is hoped that a careful study of the structures that he has so well 

 described may allow of further light being thrown on these sub- 

 jects. We are gradually drifting further and further away from 

 the idea that special functions are necessarily bound up in special 

 organs. That there is a special development in certain kinds of 

 tissue in special organs, and consequently that certain functions 

 are here carried on more actively, aU will admit; but we are 

 gradually coming to see that such functions as the glycogenic, 

 hsemogenic, and the zymogenic are carried on in every part of the 

 body, and that the various differences as regards these functions 

 in the various tissues are those of degree rather than those of 

 kind. 



Dietetic Employment of Fat. 



W. Zuntz has a paper on the dietetic employment of fat in the 

 Tlierapeutische Monatshefte, October, .1890, an abstract of which 

 appears in the Medical and Surgical Reporter. He was induced 

 to put to the experimental test of some conditions of digestion of 

 fat a preparation of chocolate suggested by Von Mering. The 

 chocolate is so made that it possesses a suflicient quantity of free 

 fatty acids to form a permanent emulsion without in any way 

 injuring the taste of the chocolate. In order to find out whether 

 the digestibility of fat is enhanced by the power to form 

 an emulsion, Zuntz sought to find out what quantity of cacao- 

 butter, with and without the addition of fatty acids, was ap- 

 propriated when administered to dogs. The result was, that there 

 was an increase in digestibility, which was only slight, — two per 

 thousand of the fat, — if moderate quantities of cacao-butter were 



cooked with the rest of the food, but it was considerable if (as is 

 usually the case with cod-liver oil, in order to avoid stomach 

 digestion) the cacao-butter was given some time before the rest of 

 the food, and in somewhat greater quantities. In the latter case 

 there appeared in the stool 9.9 per cent of pure cacao-butter, and 

 only 6.1 per cent of the emulsionized. 



Corresponding to the result of the emulsionizable cacao-butter 

 in dogs, the fat of Mering's chocolate proved to be very digestible 

 in men. For three days a moderate diet poor in fat, consisting of 

 bread and lean meat, was given, and in addition a daily quantity 

 of 416 grams of chocolate containing 87 grams of fat. In the 

 faeces appeared only 4.88 per cent of fat; whereas Weigmann, in 

 a series of experiments with ordinary cacao-butter, administering 

 53 grams, recovered 5.5 per cent. In comparison with the most 

 used fats, and those fats prized on account of their being easily 

 digestible, such as butter, lard, marrow, the fat of the chocolate 

 preparation is seen to be considerably superior. 



Eating before Sleeping. 



A recent writer, says the Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation, states that the view that brain workers should go sup- 

 perless to bed is not good advice. Most medical authorities of 

 the day think it wrong. It is a fruitful source of insomnia and 

 neurasthenia (sleeplessness and nervous prostration). The brain 

 becomes exhausted by its evening work, and demands rest and re- 

 freshment of its wasted tissues, not by indigestible salads and 

 "fried abominations," but by some nutritious, easily digested and 

 assimilated articles. A bowl of stale bread and milk, of rice, or 

 some other farinaceous food, with milk or hot soup, would be 

 more to the purpose. Any of these would insure a sound night's 

 sleep, from which the man would awaken refreshed. 



New Medicinal Soaps. 



The Edinburgh Medical Journal, February, 1891, says that 

 Eichhoff of Elberfield, who has already added to the list of 

 medicinal soaps some of real value, and embodying some valuable 

 improvements, has continued his researches into the subject. He 

 reviews the conditions of the skin in which soap treatment is to 

 be recommended. This is specially indicated in cases where the 

 skin is unctuous. The soap removes the excess of fat, while the 

 incorporated drug, if suitably chosen, acts at the same time on 

 the disease itself, and, as Eichhoff thinks, can chase the offending 

 organisms from the ducts of the cutaneous glands. He quotes in 

 support of this the treatment by medicinal soaps of psoriasis, 

 which he regards as parasitic, and of acne, the pustules in which 

 are now believed to be due to the pyogenic micrococci. He 

 praises also the cleanliness, the innocuousness, and the cheapness 

 of this method with the vigor of a true partisan. 



Soaps may be, for convenience, divided into (1) alkaline, con- 

 taining an excess of free alkali; (2) neutral, in which all the 

 alkali is combined with the fatty acids; (3) so-called acid soaps, 

 which are prepared either by the addition of weak acids or by 

 being superfatted, and eventually re-act faintly acid. The alkaline 

 may be used to i-emove masses of scales; while in acute inflam- 

 mations of the skin, or when it is irritable, the neutral or super- 

 fatted soaps are to be employed. The superfatting of the new 

 soaps consists of 2 per cent lanoline, and 3 per cent olive oil, and 

 they are made by Ferdinand Mtlhlens at Cologne. Among these 

 new soaps may be specially mentioned a menthol soap, containing 

 5 per cent of menthol. The local ansesthetic influence of menthol 

 on the skin is well known, and the principal use of this soap will 

 probably be found in lessening pruritus. Eichhoff cites some 

 cases where cure resulted in pruritus senilis and pruritus genita- 

 lium. He recommends, that, should the soap be employed for 

 the head or lace, the eyes should be kept firmly shut, else an un- 

 pleasant, though, he says, not dangerous, coldness of the con- 

 junctiva is perceived. A 5-per-cent salol soap is one which may 

 prove useful in psoriasis. The salol, when so used with water, 

 breaks up into carbolic and salicylic acids, and these in their 

 nascent condition may be expected to act with energy. A 5-per- 

 cent resorcin soap promises to be of advantage in cases where this 

 valuable drug is indicated. 



