86 
Varieties. 
/  Am.  .Tour.  Phaim.  » 
j.      Feb.,  1881. 
Alcohol  and  Digestion. — M.  Leven  ("Boston  Jour,  of  Chem.") 
claims  that  75  grams  of  brandy  to  200  grams  of  meat  completely  arrest 
digestion,  while  25  grams  in  the  same  quantity  facilitate  digestion.  Dr. 
Rabuteau  finds  ethylic  alcohol  far  less  injurious  than  amylic. — Ibid. 
Mountain  fever,  Dr.  Alfred  Wise,  visiting  physician  to  the  Infirmary 
for  Consumption,  writes,  in  the  "British  Med.  Jour.,"  is  one  of  the  dangers^ 
in  the  "high-altitude  treatment"  of  phthisis  now  so  fashionable. 
Pep.tized  Milk  as  Food  for  Infants  and  Invalids. — Nunn  recom- 
mends the  following  modes  of  pre^Daring  this  valuable  food:  Take  one 
pint  of  milk  at  80°F.,  add  a  teaspoonful  of  rennet  solution  or  10  grains  of 
pepsin,  and  keep  the  mixture  at  80°F.  When  coagulation  is  complete,  but 
before  the  whey  has  begun  to  separate,  beat  the  whole  up  smooth  with  a 
whisk  or  beater,  and  pass  through  a  fine  milk-strainer  to  insure  the  minute 
division  of  the  curd.  This  preparation  appears  to  keep  equally  as  well,  or 
better,  tlian  raw  milk,  remaining  apparently  unchanged  for  twenty-four 
hours  if  kept  cool.    Dilute  and  sweeten  for  feeding  as  usual. 
By  this  method  coagulation  is  complete,  and  no  further  change  of  that 
nature  is  requisite,  the  weakened  stomach  of  the  invalid  receives  the 
necessary  nutriment,  carrying  with  it  its  own  digestive  principle. — Buffalo. 
Med.  and  Surg.  Jour.^  Dec,  1880. 
Whv  we  Eat  Oysters  Raw. — Dr.  William  Roberts,  in  his  interesting- 
lectures  on  the  digestive  ferments,  says:  "The  oyster  is  almost  the  only 
animal  substance  which  we  eat  habitually,  and,  by  preference,  in  the  raw 
or  uncooked  state,  and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  there  is  a  sound  phy- 
siological reason  at  the  bottom  of  this  preference.  The  fawn-colored  mass 
Avhich  constitutes  the  dainty  of  the  oyster  is  its  liver,  and  this  is  little  less 
than  a  heap  of  glycogen.  Associated  with  the  glycogen,  but  withheld  from 
actual  contact  with  it  during  life,  is  its  appropriate  digestive  ferment — the 
hepatic  diastase.  The  mere  crushing  of  the  dainty  between  the  teeth 
brings  these  two  bodies  together,  and  the  glycogen  is  at  once  digested  with- 
out other  help  by  its  own  diastase.  The  oyster  in  the  uncooked  state,  or 
merely  warmed,  is,  in  fact,  self-digestive.  But  the  advantage  of  this  pro- 
vision is  wholly  lost  by  cooking,  for  the  heat  emi^loyed  immediately 
destroys  the  associated  ferment,  and  a  cooked  oyster  has  to  be  digested,, 
like  any  other  food,  by  the  eater's  own  digestive  powers." — Amer.  Med.. 
Monthly,  Nov.,  1880. 
What  is  the  Natural  Food  of  Man? — As  an  abstract  truth,  the 
maxim  of  the  physiologist  Haller  is  absolutely  unimpeachable:  "Our 
proper  nutriment  should  consist  of  vegetable  and  semi-animal  substances 
which  can  be  eaten  with  relish  before  their  natural  taste  has  been  dis- 
guised by  artificial  preparation."  For  even  the  most  approved  modes  of 
grinding,  bolting,  leavening,  cooking,  spicing,  heating  and  freezing  our 
food  are,  strictly  speaking,  abuses  of  our  digestive  organs.  It  is  a  fallacy 
to  suppose  that  hot  spices  aid  the  process  of  digestion :  they  irritate  the 
