4 
iSo  Current  Literature.  { 
tinued,  the  bacteria  rapidly  adapt  themselves  to  it.  He  announces 
as  a  guiding  principle  for  all  therapeutics,  "Quand  une  medication  a 
bien  reussi,  il  faut  l'abandonner  et  en  adopter  une  autre." 
We  have  seven  excellent  antiseptics  at  our  disposal,  he  says,  and 
nothing  is  easier  than  to  use  a  different  one  for  each  day  in  the  week, 
from  phenol,  sodium  hypochlorite,  tincture  of  iodine,  silver  nitrate, 
sodium  fluoride  and  creosote  to  hydrogen  dioxide.  Another 
phenomenon  brought  out  by  his  experiments  is  the  strange  irregu- 
larity in  the  action  of  certain  antiseptics.  When  the  same  amount 
of  milk  is  placed  in  a  number  of  different  tubes  to  ferment  and  condi- 
tions are  made  apparently  identical  in  each,  there  will  be  a  con- 
siderable variation  in  the  amount  of  lactic  acid  produced  in  the 
different  tubes.  Sodium  fluoride  is  the  most  regular  in  this  respect, 
the  yield  in  lactic  acid  being  almost  the  same  in  the  whole  set  of 
tubes,  while  mercuric  chloride  sometimes  exaggerates  the  fermenta- 
tion and  sometimes  checks  it  completely.  (From  Medecine,  Paris; 
through  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Nov.  6,  1920.) 
Biologic  Test  of  Vitamins. — Schaeffer  advises  testing  the  food 
in  question  by  adding  it  to  the  J.  C.  Drummond  test  diet  for  white 
rates  or  white  mice.  On  this  diet  the  animals  grow  thin  and  finally 
succumb  in  forty  or  fifty  days,  but  the  addition  of  even  5  per  cent, 
of  a  vitamin-containing  food  arrests  the  decline,  and  the  animals 
begin  to  thrive  with  a  suddenness  actually  amazing.  He  adds  that 
the  avitaminosis  of  young  infants  is  the  most  common  of  all  and  is 
the  hardest  to  differentiate.  By  this  simple  biologic  test  of  the  food 
the  infant  is  getting,  we  can  tell  at  once  whether  it  is  suitable  for  the 
infant  or  not.  The  Drummond  diet  comprises  18  per  cent,  purified 
casein-  56  per  cent,  purified  dextrin;  3.7  per  cent,  of  a  synthetic 
saline  mixture,  and  20  per  cent,  chemically  pure  twice  recrystallized 
lactose,  with  2.3  per  cent.  agar.  (From  Medecine,  Paris;  through 
Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Nov.  6,  1920.) 
Vitamins  in  Cooked  Carrots  and  Navy  Beans. — Miller 
states  that  cooking  carrots  at  100  C.  for  thirty  minutes  caused  no 
reduction  in  the  vitamin.  Neither  was  there  any  destruction  when 
carrots  were  packed  tightly  in  a  jar  and  heated  at  115  C.  for  forty- 
five  minutes.    Cooking  navy  beans  at  120  C.  for  thirty  minutes  de- 
