i 
FTbrJuaryPih92im1  Current  Literature.  149 
constituent  of  human  blood.  Fifty  years  ago  the  Berlin  physiologic 
chemist,  Salkowski,5  reported  the  presence,  in  this  fluid,  of  a  sub- 
stance that  was  identical  in  behavior  with  formic  acid,  but  the  ob- 
servation received  little  if  any  further  experimental  consideration. 
Among  the  persons  whose  blood  was  examined  by  Stepp  were 
several  diabetics.  These  afforded  the  surprise  of  yielding  negative 
results.  Little  if  any  formic  acid  could  be  detected  in  their  blood, 
which  gave  evidence  of  pronounced  hyperglycemia.  As  the  de- 
struction of  sugar  is  profoundly  disturbed  in  such  cases,  Stepp  has 
offered  the  tentative  suggestion  that  formic  acid  may  be  a  stage 
in  the  usual  metabolism  of  carbohydrates — a  stage  that  might  not 
be  represented  when  the  normal  transformations  of  the  latter  are 
interfered  with.  Thus,  the  problem  of  the  physiologic  significance 
of  the  traces  of  formic  acid,  commonly  present  in  both  blood  and 
urine  of  man,  has  become  a  by-product,  so  to  speak,  of  the  investiga- 
tion of  the  toxicity  of  methyl  alcohol. 
CURRENT  LITERATURE 
SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  ABSTRACTS. 
Research  on  Antiseptics. — Richet  describes  personal  research 
on  different  antiseptics,  estimating  their  potency  by  their  action  on 
the  lactic  ferment  in  milk.  The  vitality  and  activity  of  the  ferment 
can  be  measured  easily  and  with  precision,  by  the  amount  of  lactose 
transformed,  that  is,  of  lactic  acid  produced.  The  most  striking 
feature  of  the  results  was  the  amazing  potency  of  extremely  minute 
quantities  of  the  antiseptics.  Even  as  little  as  ten  thousandths  of  a 
milligram  to  the  liter  is  not  without  action.  He  recalls  that  the 
phenomena  of  fecundation  and  immunization  occur  with  quantities 
so  minute  as  to  be  beyond  our  measuring  instruments.  Another 
fact  brought  out  by  his  research  is  that  whenever  an  antiseptic  (and 
probably  also  a  drug  taken  internally),  has  proved  successful,  then 
is  the  moment  to  change  to  another.  As  soon  as  the  bacteria  have 
had  their  proliferation  checked  by  the  antiseptic,  change  to  another 
will  continue  the  checking  work,  while  if  the  same  antiseptic  is  con- 
5  Salkowski:  Vir chows  Arch.  f.  path.  Anat.,  50:  174,  1870.1 
