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science. 



[Vol. VII., No. 155 



been thouglit to be an exciting cause ; but such 

 cases are due, the author believes, to the partial 

 stagnation of the blood in the lung. In such rare 

 cases where the disease first appears in the right 

 lung, the author believes it to be owing to some 

 malformation or aneurism, whereby this lung 

 receives a less quantity of blood than the left. 



Dr. Brehmer gives a history of five hundred 

 cases in full, — cases in the offspring of non-con- 

 sumptive ancestry, of those suffering under scrofu- 

 lous or allied evils, and cases due to heredity. 

 Other interesting results are perceived from the 

 study of these cases. An unquestionable inter- 

 relationship appears between consumption, men- 

 tal derangement, epilepsy, and deaf -mutism. The 

 researches of Professor Bell upon deaf -mutism 

 have, the present writer believes, substantiated 

 the relationship of this last defect with other 

 defects, and also show its heredity. May not all 

 these proceed from the same general cause, — 

 the transmission from parent to child of abnormal 

 or deficient organs, which are ultimately due to 

 impaired nutrition or unfavorable environment? 

 That such effects do not follow deprivation 

 alone, is apparent. Too great culture or luxu- 

 rious habits certainly seem to be exciting causes. 

 How much they are owing to nervous influence 

 is a problem of interest. It is a w^ell-established 

 fact that wild animals kept in confinement are 

 especially liable to phthisis. The most highly 

 bred strains of domestic stock are likewise prone 

 to tuberculous disease. 



That consumption is contagious in the ordinary 

 sense of the word, the author emphatically de- 

 nies. It is true that the bacilli are rarely found 

 in the atmosphere, except in large hospitals, where 

 many cases of the disease are treated ; but the 

 author contends that a person not predisposed 

 may expose himself with the utmost impunity to 

 the contagia without becoming infected. As an 

 evidence, is adduced the fact that in Gobersberg, 

 during the last forty years, many thousand cases 

 have been treated ; nevertheless, the mortality 

 from this cause among the inhabitants of the 

 place has actually decreased by about fifty per 

 cent from that of the preceding forty years. 

 A century ago, in Naples and in Portugal, legal 

 enactments placed this disease under the most rig- 

 orous ban. It was looked upon and treated as one 

 of the worst pestilential diseases, and every thing 

 connected with it pronounced unclean and danger- 

 ous. For fifty-six years were these rigorous laws 

 enforced, to the great discomfort of the people, 

 but without result : there was no decrease in con- 

 sumption. He disclaims the prevalent opinion 

 that married people will contract the disease from 

 one another. Indeed, according to his experience, 



it is very rarely indeed that both husband and 

 wife die of consumption. It is worthy of note, 

 however, that whenever facts seem to warrant 

 the assumption of contagion between husband 

 and wife, it is usually the wife who suffers. 



The author believes that the operation of all 

 these causes is such that morphological changes are 

 brought about, enabling one years, even decades, 

 in advance, to predict with great probability 

 which members of a given family will be afflicted 

 with pulmonary consumption, and which will 

 remain healthy. When acquired peculiarities 

 through generations have become fixed, then, and 

 in this sense only, does pulmonary consumption 

 become hereditary. 



Should these views of the causation of consump- 

 tion be sustained, the question of contagion, or 

 rather non-contagion, in another decade will no 

 longer be disputed, and then the possibility of the 

 conveyance of phthisis from man to man, in any 

 other way than by direct inoculation, will be 

 looked upon only as a superstition. When such 

 definite conclusions have been reached, we will at 

 last be in a position to study rationally the all- 

 important problem of prevention and treatment. 



N. W. 



An important investigation into the chemical 

 constitution of the venom of the Indian cobra 

 (Naja tripudians) formed, says the Lancet, the 

 subject of a paper read before the Royal society, 

 on Dec. 16, by Dr. R. Norris Wolfenden. It has 

 been alleged that the venom of this snake contains 

 an alkaloid and a principle known as ' cobric acid.' 

 Dr. Wolfenden has been unable to verify either of 

 these assertions ; indeed, he denies the existence 

 of both substances. He further shows that the 

 venom loses its power when the albuminous bodies 

 are removed or otherwise rendered inert. Mix- 

 tures containing the cobra poison, when treated 

 with metallic salts that precipitate albumen, were 

 found harmless. Wolfenden, like Weir Mitchell 

 and Reichert, has found three poisonous pro- 

 teids in the venom. The largest quantity of 

 proteid was a globulin that had asphyxiating 

 properties ; and a smaller quantity of syntonin, 

 possessing similar properties, was also detected. 

 A form of serum albumen existed in minute pro- 

 portions, and this w as ascertained to have Remark- 

 able powers, paralyzing small animals. It has been 

 objected that the possession of poisonous qualities 

 by a serum albumen is a unique fact, but Schmidtf 

 Mulheim and Albertoni have found ordinary pep- 

 tones to be toxic when in jected into the blood, 

 causing various nervous disturbances, lowering 

 the blood-pressure, and preventing the coagula- 

 tion of the blood. 



