— I05 — 
On the value of spices for nutrition, Liebreich^) makes some 
communications; we would select for special attention those which deal 
with mustard. The action of mustard in the process of digestion is 
probably almost exclusively that of mustard oil, which in small quantity 
acts as a bactericide, without, however, disturbing the functions of the 
digestive ferments. In the presence of niustard oil, therefore, the 
digestion proceeds normally; but if a change in the digestion occurs 
through putrefaction-bacteria, the vitality of the latter is arrested or 
destroyed in the presence of mustard oil, by which the chemical force 
of the digestion is promoted in a marked degree. In addition to this 
function of the mustard, it has the property of producing an increased 
secretion of the gastric juice by the irritating action of the essential 
mustard oil. The mustard oil is becoming resorbed, and is also capable 
of exerting in small non-toxic quantities a more distant desinfecting 
action on the blood and the other tissues. 
The medicinal applications of turpentine oil mentioned by KoT3ert 
in our last Report, can now be supplemented by the following. 
Cher on 2) directs attention to a method of subcutaneous injection 
of turpentine oil for producing local abscesses (so-called sterile suppurations) 
in septicaemia which had already been employed in 1891 by Fochier. 
In his experiments Cher on followed exactly Fochier's directions by 
injecting in the flank or arm i cc of a sterilised solution of turpentine 
oil. In the majority of the cases observed, a local reaction became 
apparent 5 to 6 hours after injection by the occurence of inflammation, 
and after a few days the collection of sterile pus could be observed. 
The ulcers rarely opened spontaneously, but were cut open as soon 
as the skin commenced to shrivel up, even when complete absence of 
fever was not observed. As soon as the evolution of an abscess was 
arrested, and the diseased state still apeared to be serious, a second 
injection was made and a further abscess produced, and so on. The 
therapeutic value of the process can be estimated from the recorded 
clinical observations of puerperal fever. Although with some of the 
patients treated according to this method the injections of turpen- 
tine oil did not have the desired effect, because they had been made 
at too late a stage, and the patients died, — yet in the cases which 
recovered the recovery must undoubtedly be attributed to the use of 
the injection. In all the cases where recovery took place, there were 
observed on the day of the injection or on the following day, a 
diminishing of the fever and of the pulsations, and an improvement 
in the general condition. In view of the harmless character, the ready 
^) Therap. Monatshefte 18 (1904), 65. 
^) L'obstetrique 7 (1902), 398. 
