LESTERINE, THE NEW ANTISEPTIC PREPARATION. 375 



will recall, that distinguished investigator of microscopic life demonstrated the 

 living virus of chicken cholera, and proved that by suitable cultivation it could 

 be so attenuated or shorn of its malignant quality that it would produce only a 

 feeble disturbance of the animal organization, which yet sufficed to protect the 

 animal as thoroughly from the more virulent disease as the latter could in case it 

 was not fatal. More recently Professor Pasteur has investigated in a similar way 

 the virus of the splenic fever of cattle, more widely known as anthrax and the 

 Siberian plague ; and at the late medical congress in London he gave an account 

 of a series of discoveries in this new field, which not only add immensely to the 

 scientific assurance of the efficiency of vaccination among men, but put into the 

 hands of cattle owners the means of arresting a disease as destructive to domestic 

 animals as small-pox ever was to humanity. He also demonstrates a general 

 method of preparing virus vaccine, based on the attenuating action of oxygen 

 and the air, which makes it probable that a virus can be prepared which, while it 

 thoroughly protects against small-pox, will be less open to objection than human- 

 ized or even bovine virus, since the possibility of conveying at the same time 

 any syphilitic or septic taint will be entirely obviated. 



Already these investigations have resulted in the attenuation of four kinds 

 of virus, bringing under control as many types of malignant disease. 



As a proof of the protective efficiency of the attenuated virus, Professor 

 Pasteur described the following experiment. He took fifty sheep and vaccinated 

 twenty-five of them. A fortnight after all of the fifty were inoculated with the 

 most virulent anthracoid microbe. The twenty-five vaccinated sheep resisted 

 the infection ; the unvaccinated twenty-five died of splenic fever within fifty 

 hours. Within fifteen days after these results were made known more than 20,- 

 000 sheep and a large number of cattle and horses were vaccinated in and around 

 Paris. — Scientific American. 



LISTERINE, THE NEW ANTISEPTIC PREPARATION. 



We are glad to call the attention of our readers to a new and valuable con- 

 tribution to antiseptic surgery. It is called Listerine, and the thought suggesting 

 the name is indeed a happy one. It is a combination of the essential constitu- 

 ents of thyme, eucalyptus, baptisia, gaultheria, and mentha arvensis. Besides 

 these, each fluid dram contains two grains of refined and purified benzo-boracic 

 acid. These substances, carefully prepared and combined in a solution of uni- 

 form strength, cannot fail to do good service in the treatment of all affections re- 

 quiring an antiseptic. 



The preparation is convenient, safe and agreeable. Locally it will be found 

 of realy value as a dressing for wounds, ulcers, and abscesses. It may also be 

 employed as a constituent of solutions for atomization in lung affections and of 

 gargles in throat diseases, while internally it must prove efficacious in all forms 

 of fermentative indigestion. 



