64 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 522 



of the peculiar germ living and producing harmful effects is very 

 small. This broad statement is applicable to all liinds of infec- 

 tious intestinal disease. 



Very interesting is the study of tuberculosis. According to the 

 latest authorities, consumption is dependent upon three factors: 

 First, decreased vitality, antagonizing powers, or what you will. 

 This we have spoken of, and in what manner it is induced or 

 transmitted. Second, an active inflamatory condition. This 

 may be pneumonia, bronchitis, laryngitis, or the like. Third, 

 the presence of the bacillus tuberculosis. Without these three 

 there can be no consumption. It is the usual thing, in the exam- 

 ination in the dead-house, to find evidences in the lungs that the 

 subject had at some time a commencing consumption, but the 

 vitality had been so great that nature had encapsulated the in- 

 fected part with tissue of high vitality and the condition became 

 inocuous. The fatality from tuberculosis, then, is dependent on 

 a decreased vitality, and we must look to a proper kind of diet 

 and a consequent increase in the general antagonizing power of 

 the body for the remedy. 



Those diseases dependent on or induced by suboxidation are 

 very many. A few only will be mentioned by way of illustra- 

 tion. If we take a proteid molecule (CjjHiioNjgO^sS) and .at- 

 tack it by 139 molecules of oxygen we will have the normal oxi- 

 dation and the usual excretory products given oS, namely, urea, 

 uric acid, kreatinine, carbon dioxide, water, and a molecule of 

 sulphuric acid appearing as a sulphate. If attacked by 136 oxy- 

 gens only we have the same but with an increase in the amount 

 of uric acid. At this stage we have a condition present which is 

 at the bottom, probably, of more diseases than any other. So that 

 we consider the presence of an abnormal quantity of this acid in 

 the renal excretion to show a condition of suboxidation of the 

 nitrogenous elements of the food-stuffs. Had the nutritive 

 compounds been completely transformed within the system they 

 would have been eliminated as urea — a compound very soluble 

 and easily handled by the organism in proper amounts. But such 

 not being the case we find that the failure in its elimination gives 

 us many diseases. People who have this condition are greatly 

 disposed, by the antecedents or isomers of this acid in the tissues, 

 to congestive conditions of all the structures where such com- 

 pounds exist, but more especially the naso-pharyngeal mucous 

 membrane and the intramuscular planes. They suffer from 

 dyspepsia, functional disturbance of the liver, palpitation of and 

 peculiar feelings about the heart, bronchial affections, often 

 iritis, eczema, and a number of peculiar symptoms generally 

 known by the obscure terra, neurasthenia. They are most sen- 

 sitive to changes in temperature and atmospheric density, de- 

 claring they cannot live in certain localities, and, in fact, suffer 

 from general bodily derangement. We look at uricaemia in this 

 wider and more general way and recognize its influence in con- 

 nection with many of the vague abnormalities of childhood. 

 Some observers have found as high as 30 per cent of the chil- 

 dren — especially those confined at school — troubled with neuras- 

 thenic and other incomplete expressions of defective metabolic 

 action. A very large percentage of the nervousness and ill- health 

 of young women has this condition as one of their chief aetiologi- 

 cal factors. 



In an article on the ' ' Pathology and Rational Treatment of 

 the Uric Acid Condition," in Merck's Bulletin of last year, it was 

 shown that the prevalence of uricaemia was very great and 

 because of the almost universal habit of partaking of food whose 

 nature as a nutrient compound is bad and whose quantity far 

 exceeds the physiologicaldemands, especially during early youth, 

 some degree of uriceemia under twenty years is almost the gen- 

 eral rule. Let us look at the frequency of uric-acid calculi and 

 the age when they most frequently occur. From a large number 

 of cases of calculi found in the bladder by English observers, 88 

 per cent were of uric acid. In America the percentage is about 

 78. If we take the cases of Civiale, Coulson, and Thompson, 

 numbering in all 10,467, we find that 6,534 or 62J per cent were 

 under twenty years of age. In the statistics of 3,574 cases in 

 this country, 4,986 or 58 per cent were under twenty. 



Returning to the same method of investigation, we find that if 

 only 129 oxygen elements are used we have the condition known 



as oxaluria. If we fall still further below the normal and have 

 but 94 elements of oxygen to attack the proteid we have lactic 

 acid formed, and rheumatism, neuralgia and the like as the 

 result. If we have but 76 elements to attack the proteid mole- 

 cules, we have as one of the products of incomplete metamor- 

 phosis glucose, and thus either temporary or permanent diabetes. 



Has not enough been said to show that suboxidation is a dan- 

 gerous if not fatal condition ? Why should we multiply difficult 

 chemical explanations for known clinical and every-day facts ? 



Brights diseases are probably more often caused by the same 

 condition than any other. You really call upon the kidneys to 

 do more work than normally in taking care of increased quanti- 

 ties of refuse matter because of the large quantity of food in- 

 gested and at the same time place it upon decreased nutrition. 

 The result is, you have first a functional derangement which it is 

 possible to disperse, and then an organic condition which it is 

 impossible to remedy. Those who understand the science of 

 proper feeding and apply that which they know to their cases of 

 Bright's get results satisfactory both to their patients and them- 

 selves, otherwise their patients inevitably get worse and die early. 



The accumulation of fat in the tissues, or obesity, is a patho- 

 logical or diseased condition. All the fat that is added to the 

 body above five per cent of the total bodily weight is usually the 

 result of an abnormal physiological condition of the nutritive 

 system. Obesity is the result of an incomplete oxidation of the 

 proteids with the formation of fat as one of the by-products re- 

 sulting from an imperfect metabolism of such bodies. This is 

 sub-;tantiated by fully recognized chemical laws. It is Professor 

 W. H. Porter who says that "while this abnormal amount of 

 adipose tissue may perhaps to the ordinary eye beautify the 

 macroscopic appearance of the individual, it is no guarantee of a 

 sounder constitution or a higher vitality in the microscopic and 

 chemical construction of the bodily tissues, generally it indicates 

 the reverse or that a pathological condition is hidden beneath this 

 superficial beauty." 



We have not spoken of a large number of diseases in which an 

 incorrect diet is an important factor in their continuance, space 

 will not allow; enough has been said, however, to call attention 

 to certain facts of great importance. First, we should under- 

 stand which kind of diet is the best suited to furnish to the body 

 the elements which it requires daily; second, the constituents 

 of the diet should be such as will give nourishment to the hodj- 

 and use but a minimum of vital force in its preparation; third, 

 the quantity ingested daily should be such as will maintain an 

 equilibrium between production and destruction, this is deter- 

 mined by a study of the renal excretion; fourth, auto-intoxica- 

 tion by products of decomposition and fermentation in the intes- 

 tines is prevented by the application of the above facts ; fifth, 

 entrance of deleterious agents into the en tero- hepatic circulation 

 is prevented by preventing hepatic derangement; sixth, suboxida- 

 tion is a dangerous condition, and has as its sequelae a definite 

 line of disease processes. 



In conclusion, we desire to impress upon the mind that there 

 exists a very intimate relation between imperfect alimentation 

 and organic or functional derangement, and that as we are 

 understanding more about diet and the proper food principles 

 forming it each year, we appreciate its enormous importance. 



We are rewarded when supplying a scientific course of diet 

 and regulating the same by a conscientious study of the renal 

 excretion, by seeing abnormal processes of the body give place to 

 normal, acute diseases decrease in mortality, convalescence 

 speedy and complete, and chronic conditions ameliorated, and 

 comfort replacing pain and annoyance. 



SNOW-ROLLERS. 



BY DR. E. W. CLAYPOLE, AKRON, OHIO. 



In the early part of last year I received from a former student 

 a letter telling me that in the place where he is now residing 

 (Milledgeville, Fayette County, O.) a very curious phenomenon 

 had been observed. After a light fall of snow the ground was 

 strewn with small balls, light and fragile, the like of which no 

 one could recollect having previously seen. 



