EDITORIAL. 
5 
“ Microbian poisons act as vegetal alkaloids. That is why, 
after spontaneous or experimental infections, paraplegia is so 
frequent. 
“ Comparative pathology is not less important for the thera¬ 
peutist, for the hygienist and the physician. Most ordinarily one 
is satisfied to define what on healthy animals are toxic doses and 
also the effects of the different drugs. It would be good to com¬ 
plete by experiments upon animals those preliminary discoveries. 
Comparative therapeuty has already rendered valuable services. 
It is a veterinary medicine that has taught us the specific treat¬ 
ment of actinomycosis by iodide of potassium. And it is useless 
for me to remind you that it is to comparative pathology that is 
due one of the greatest discoveries of prophylaxy, by which the 
antivariolic vaccination has wiped out one of the most horrid 
of the human diseases and has inspired the modern researches 
with preventive vaccination. 
“ All those facts, briefly considered, will be sufficient to dem¬ 
onstrate the importance of comparative pathology, which can 
be still more appreciated by the study of the infectious diseases 
common to man and animals, such as anthrax, glanders, rabies, 
Maltese fever, foot and mouth disease, and tuberculosis.” 
* 
* * 
Peroxide of Hydrogen. —That this preparation is ex¬ 
tensively and advantageously used in medicine since years is a 
positive fact. But can it be applied in every instance, in every 
case, and are these indications where it is contraindicated or 
where, instead of being advantageous, it is useless and dange*-- 
ous? In the Journal de Medecine et de Chirurgie Pratiques, 
Prof. Lucas Championnere, a French surgeon of world-wide rep¬ 
utation, treats of this question with the authority attached to his 
name: 
“ Surgeons who in our days use oxygenated water to take 
the place of other antiseptics have two notions in view, one of 
which is perfectly wrong and can bring to them serious effects. 
