210 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [September 10,187a, 
WATER SUPPLY. 
Professor Frankland, in his report on the quality of 
the metropolitan water supply during the month of Au¬ 
gust, states that all the samples taken were clear and 
transparent when drawn from the mains of the compa¬ 
nies, except that supplied by the East London Company, 
which contained suspended particles among which living 
organisms were foimd. The water abstracted by the 
Chelsea and Lambeth Companies from the Thames below 
its junction with the Mole exhibited nearly twice as 
much previous sewage or animal contamination as that 
abstracted by the other companies above the junction. 
The water supply of Birmingham appears to be in much 
need of the improvement for which powers were obtained 
in the last Session of Parliament. The analysis by Dr. 
Alfred Hill of the supply to the borough on the 3rd inst. 
shows that it was “ highly charged with nitrogenous or¬ 
ganic matter,” and that it was also “ turbid and bright 
green with minute vegetation.” Dr. Frankland urges 
that until the new supply is provided every exertion 
should be used to render the quality of the present sup¬ 
ply less objectionable, by sand filtration for the removal 
of suspended impurities. The proportion of chlorine in 
the Birmingham water has increased from 1*41 part in 
100,000 on the 10th of May to 744 parts in 100,000 on 
the 3rd inst.— Registrar-General's Report. 
THE AMMONIA CURE FOR SNAKE-BITE. 
Professor Halford, of the University of Melbourne, in 
a paper read before the Medical Society of Victoria, has 
reviewed at length the history of twenty cases of snake¬ 
bite treated by his method of injecting liquor ammoniac 
into the veins during the last eighteen months. The 
British Medical Journal says that these cases were all 
in the hands of different practitioners in the colony, 
who have each reported on them. Recovery followed in 
seventeen cases. In thirteen of these, the practitioners 
in attendance expressly report that the patients were in 
a dying condition, and, in their belief, would soon have 
died, but for the employment of this remedy in the man¬ 
ner prescribed. The method employed was that intro¬ 
duced by Dr. Halford, and first brought to the know¬ 
ledge of the profession here by him, in its pages, through 
Mr. Paget; viz., by injecting dilute ammonia—say, at 
the least, thirty minims of the liquor ammoniac B. P., 
specific gravity 959—into a superficial vein; the vein 
being first exposed, and its coats pierced with the nozzle 
of a hypodermic syringe. Dr. Dempster, Dr. Rae, Dr. 
Langford, Mr. Dallimore and Dr. Meyler, each in his 
own words, and from the observation of separate cases, 
describe the curative effect as being immediate, and the 
recovery from collapse to be so rapid and startling as to 
be “ almost magical.” This method of treatment, of 
which such remarkable effects are detailed, has been 
sharply criticized; but Professor Halford successfully 
vindicates the claim of the snakes to be considered highly 
venomous—almost as much so, he intimates, as some of 
his London critics. They included the tiger-snake, the 
brown and black snake of Australia, which are affirmed 
to be as deadly as the cobra and rattle-snakes of India. 
Strong testimony to the efficacy of the treatment in 
saving life was borne by Australian practitioners who 
took part in the discussion, and vindicated Professor 
Halford’s claim to be considered as the discoverer of a 
means of rescuing many from an otherwise inevitable 
death. 
The Medical Times and Gazette , speaking of an article 
which has appeared in the Melbourne Argus on Professor 
Halford’s claims in respect to his treatment of snake-bite, 
and referring to the misstatements on this subject in an¬ 
other medical journal, says, “It is almost impossible to 
understand how those statements could have been made 
and persevered in so ungenerously and unjustly.” 
The Victims of Scarlet Fever. —It is to be hoped 
that the plain manner in which the British Medical 
Journal has put before the public the price we pay for 
legislative inaction in sanitary matters will lead to such 
strong pressure upon the Homo Secretary before next 
session that he will be compelled to lift a finger for the 
preservation of our lives. Four hundred and seventy 
thousand persons have died of scarlet fever and its allied 
disease, diphtheria, in the last twenty-two and a half 
years. Had these victims of one type of zymotic disease 
been soldiers whose lives had been sacrificed on the 
battle-field to inefficiency at the War Office, the whole 
nation would quiver with indignation; yet there can be 
little doubt that by far the larger proportion of those 
who have died of scarlet fever might have been alive 
now but for the utter inefficiency of our complicated 
sanitary laws and the neglect of domestic legislation 
which it is the business of the Home Office to initiate. 
One simple measure alone which we have before pointed 
out would probably have saved half if not three-fourths 
of the lives thus wasted. Disinfecting establishments in 
each district are the first steps necessary to put a stop to 
this horrible mortality. Under present arrangements 
bedding and clothing are allowed to spread infection far 
and wide. Among the poor, in nine cases out of ten, na 
steps are taken to disinfect these articles, and among the 
wealthier classes the very steps taken to purify the bed¬ 
ding of scarlet-fever patients only serve to disseminate' 
the infection more widely, for the upholsterer who takes 
away the mattresses mixes them with other goods of tho 
same kind, and for every family whose furniture is thus 
purified probably another family is attacked. Then, 
again, those who are able to afford it have the walls of 
the room in which the patient has been lying stripped 
of their paper, but no care is taken to see that the paper 
itself is destroyed. Until we have disinfecting establish¬ 
ments, with proper officers attached to them to see to 
these matters, fever will continue to spread and carry off 
its thousands; and until we have a Home Secretary who 
will make it compulsory on local authorities to take 
such measures as are dictated by common sense and ex¬ 
perience for preventing the spread of infection and 
enforcing better house arrangements with the view of 
reducing the chances "of disease, we shall still continue to 
die of scarlet fever at the rate of not less than 40,000 a 
year, that being the estimated number of deaths for 
last year, a rate which is annually increasing at com¬ 
pound interest.— Rail Mall Gazette. 
The Defence of Paris. —The Journal OJficiel pub¬ 
lishes the following note:—“The Minister of Public 
Instruction has appointed a committee of savants , who are 
to concert with the military authorities means for apply¬ 
ing to the defence of Paris all the latest results of phy¬ 
sical and chemical science. M. Berthelot, Professor of 
Organic Chemistry at the College de France, is President 
of the Committee. Two Deputies, MM. Dorian and 
Genelot, represent the Corps Legislatif. The first meet¬ 
ing of the committee was fixed for Saturday, September 3, 
at tho Ministry of Public Instruction. Persons who 
may have communications to make or plans to suggest 
are requested to apply to M. Berthelot. Another com¬ 
mittee, specially charged with the medical questions re¬ 
lating to the defence of Paris, is being organized under 
the presidency of M. See, Professor of the Faculty of 
Medicine.” The Opinione Nationale comments upon the 
foregoing notice:—“We entirely approve the arrange¬ 
ment thus proposed. Since scientific barbarism is being 
hurled against us, it is the task of civilized science to 
defend us.”— Times. 
Thebolactic Acid. —Buchanan has obtained from 
opium an acid possessing the composition of lactic acid. 
According to his results, it appears to be identical with 
ordinary lactic acid. It does not affect polarized light, 
and in this respect differs from the acid discovered by 
Wislicenus.— German Chemical Society. 
