SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



AiviERiCAN CANNED GOODS are being imported 

 into Fi-ance so rapidly and in such quantities as to 

 alarm the producers of that country. As a result 

 of this, we shall probably see a revivification of all 

 the instances reported in the daily papers in past 

 years of poisoning from these articles, some of 

 which may have been due to the negligence of 

 those engaged in the canning process, but most 

 of which were undoubtedly due to carelessness or 

 want of thought in the consumer. That the con- 

 tents of some of the millions of cans annually put 

 up for market in the United States should spoil is 

 not to be wondered at, inasmuch as every house- 

 wife has the same experience in her domestic pre- 

 serving ; but in most of the instances where sick- 

 ness has occurred from the consumption of such 

 goods, the color or the taste gave ample warning. 



It is deeply to be regretted that the work of 

 the summer corps of the New York health de- 

 partment was not carried on this year, as hereto- 

 fore. The amount of money which was asked of 

 the board of apportionment was $10,000, the same 

 as in past years ; but for some reason, which was 

 undoubtedly satisfactory to that body, although 

 exceedingly unsatisfactory to the general public, 

 the amount was not allowed, and the poor chil- 

 dren of the metropohs have suffered accordingly. 

 In 1885 this corps, consisting of 50 physicians, 

 entered 28,178 houses of the tenement class, visited 

 113,410 families, and actually treated 3,934 cases 

 of sickness wliich would otherwise have gone 

 through their illness, either to recovery or death, 

 unattended by any physician. Inasmuch as 1,850 

 of these cases were of a diarrhoeal nature, the 

 probability of a fatal termination in the majority 

 was very great : 291 children were found affected 

 with contagious disease, and the necessary steps 

 to isolate and disinfect were carried out, — a sani- 

 tary supervision which would not have been ex- 

 ercised had this corps not been on duty. Besides 

 all this good work, there M^ere distributed 11,579 

 circulars giving directions to poor and ignorant 



No. 187. — 1836. 



mothers as to the care of their infants, and 5,000 

 tickets distributed, each guaranteeing its holder a 

 day on the water under the refreshing influence of 

 the ocean breezes. That such work as this, affect- 

 ing as it does the lives of thousands, should be left 

 undone in a great city like New York, where tens 

 of millions are annually spent for the maintenance 

 of the city government, to save a paltry $10,000, 

 or, what is more likely, to satisfy some personal 

 or political grievance, is Little less than criminal. 

 Brooklyn, during the past year, had the services 

 of a volunteer summer corps, and this year has 

 put in the field a paid corps, which is doing excel- 

 lent service. The action of New York is only 

 paralleled by that of the United States toward 

 the National board of health. 



Professor Lemaistre of Limoges describes a 

 new disease which is at the present time quite prev- 

 alent among the school-children of France. It 

 is known among the common people as perleche, 

 and is contagious. It consists in an abrasion in 

 the corners of the mouth, which become little ul- 

 cers and sometimes bleed: it lasts from two to four 

 weeks. The description given of it corresponds to 

 what is commonly called in this country a ' cold- 

 sore' or 'fever-blister.' In the sore Lemaistre has 

 found a microbe which he calls Streptococcus ph- 

 catilis. These have been found in drinking-water, 

 and it is surmised that they have been transferred 

 to the lips of a person, thence to the edge of a cup, 

 and thus all who used the cup became affected. 

 Professor Lemaistre has examined the 5,500 chil- 

 dren who attend the 32 schools of Limoges, and 

 has found 312, or 1 in 17, affected with this 

 disease. Although Professor Lemaisti'e is con- 

 nected with the Ecole de medecine of Limoges, 

 his explanation is to be accepted with a good deal 

 of caution. It is hardly probable that a new 

 disease has been discovered, or that its method of 

 propagation can be so easily explained. The diffi- 

 culties surrounding the demonstration of the con- 

 nection between microbes and disease are so great, 

 and the men competent to trace the various steps 

 in the process so few, that we shall feel compelled 

 to wait for further evidence before we accept per- 

 leche as a new disease, and this variety of Strepto- 

 coccus as its germ. 



