this publication, which appeared eight months before Prof. Karl Fraenkel's communication on the same subject, Dr. Ferran claims the priority of the discovery. The Spanish bacteriologist's claim, together with the pièces justificatives, having been submitted to Prof. Karl Fraenkel, has been frankly acknowledged by him to be well fouuded. He says (in a letter published in the Deutsche med. Wochenschr. of December 27th) that after reading Dr. Ferran's paper he has been able to convince himself that the Spanish worker had in fact, in April, 1890, reported the result of prolonged experiments on the immunization of guinea-pigs against infection with diphtheria bacilli, adding, "there can therefore be no doubt that in this question decisive priority belongs to him.”

Prof. V. Babes, of Buda-Pesth, also lodges a claim on his own behalf. He points out, in the same number of the Deutsche med. Wochenschr., that whereas the first communication by Drs. Behring and Kitasato on the immunizing power of the blood serum of artificially immunized animals in the case of tetanus was published in 1890 in the Deutsche med. Wochenschr., No. 49, 1890, he, in co-operation with Dr. Lepp, had established the same principle as regards "a not less important infective disease" (hydrophobia) in 1889, in a paper published in the Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, July, 1889. Prof. Babes, however, admits that to Behring belongs the credit of applying the principle to diphtheria. All he claims for himself is that he took a definite part in laying the foundation stone of the great and solid structure which Behring and his fellow-workers have raised.-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

MYASTHENIA GRAVIS PSEUDO-PARALYTICA.-(Jolly.)

Under this title

is described a peculiar condition in which fatigue of voluntary muscles is readily induced by exercise. A search through literature reveals but fifteen cases belonging to same clinical category. In eleven of these termination was fatal; in some of remainder improvement occurred, while in others the outcome was not known.

Symptoms were at first supposed to be of bulbar origin; but autopsies have failed to substantiate hypothesis, In one case degenerative changes were found the whole length of cerebro-spinal nervous system, from ocular nuclei to sacral cord. It is probable that the cases thus grouped together are of several different kinds. While in some structural changes are present, there are others where no such changes are demonstrable.

The characteristic phenomenon is undue readiness of fatigue of voluntary muscles; their function is not lost at once, but movements at first well performed are gradually effected with greater and greater difficulty, and finally become impossible. The disturbance is less pronounced after rest. Nutritive changes do not occur. Spinal curvature may result from involvement of vertebral muscles. The motor derangement is not confined to any group of muscles, but often involves those supplied by the bulbar nerves, and sometimes those of extremities also. Death is likely to ensue from dangers

attendant upon dysphagia and interference with respiration. The reflexes as well as sensibility are preserved, and muscles respond normally to faradic currents of ordinary intensity. To tetanizing currents they behave as they do to volitional impulses the tonic contraction grows gradually feebler and feebler until it finally ceases altogether. Degenerative reactions do not appear. Diagnosis is from pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis and progressive muscular atrophy; but there is neither enlargement nor wasting. The condition appears to be the antithesis of Thomsen's disease, congenital myotonia, in which there is difficulty in movement after a period of rest, gradually subsiding with the persistence of volitional impulse. Therapeutically the most important indication is rest; both exercise and electric stimulation are to be avoided. Particular attention is to be directed to the general nutrition.-Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift.

PUERPERAL POLYNEURITIS.-Lunz (Deutsche med. Wochenschr.), after relating some cases, concludes that most depend directly on local infection, and consequently belong to pyemic and septic polyneuritis. A second variety of polyneuritis may appear during pregnancy or after delivery; it comes under the cachectic type of this nerve disease, due in these cases to disturbed nutrition following uncontrollable vomiting, complete loss of appetite, or flooding. There remain instances of polyneuritis which can not be traced to local infection or cachexia. Profound anemia, psychical disturbance, exhaustion, all due to labor, or the overloading of the blood from the reabsorption of waste products, set up inflammations of nerves. There is no uniform type, but puerperal resembles diphtheritic polyneuritis. Just as a mild attack of diphtheria, confined to the fauces, is sometimes followed by polyneuritis severe enough to endanger life, so slight septic infection after birth may result in an equally serions form of that nerve disease.-British Medical Journal.

CAUTION IN The Use of ANIMAL EXTRACTS.—In a previous issue reference was made to beneficial results having been noted in a case where the injection of a preparation of the supra-renal capsule was used for curative purposes. We therefore consider it our duty to draw the attention of our readers to recent researches made in England by Dr. Oliver, of Harrowgate, which point to a great danger attending the use of such remedies.

We are indebted to Dr. Addison, of Guy's Hospital, London, for the first hints regarding the connection between certain diseases which always proved fatal and certain conditions discovered in the supra-renal capsule after death; but it was Brown-Séquard who first demonstrated that the total removal of these bodies had a fatal result, accompanied by an alteration in the blood. which rendered that fluid poisonous to other animals.

More recently Dr. Oliver has discovered that, in both alcoholic and watery extracts of the supra-renal capsule, a most potent substance is produced.

If only as much as a grain by weight of this organ be extruded with

alcohol and allowed to dry, and then be redissolved in a little water or salt solution, the most extraordinary results will follow if this fluid is injected into the blood of a dog.

It will raise the pressure of the blood within the arterial system to an enormous extent, so that, from a blood-pressure which would be sufficient to balance a column of some four inches of mercury, the pressure may rise so high as to be equal to a column of mercury of twelve or more inches, such result being obtained by a very minute dose. As Dr. Oliver states, we have here to do with a substance as potent, although in a different direction, as strychnia.

These facts we make known in the hope that they may serve as a caution to those making use of the organs of animals in their practice, as they clearly point to the conclusion that the whole subject must be investigated further before such remedies can be administered without the greatest caution. Medical Record.

MENSTRUATION.-E. Tenison Collins in a paper read before the sixtysecond annual meeting of the British Medical Association, on the Nervous Impulses Controlling Menstruation, said: With respect to this phenomenon I think the uterine mucosa undergoes progressive construction for the reception and retention of the ovum. Failing this, having reached its highest state of development, it degenerates and becomes a foreign body, and so acts as a stimulus generating afferent impulses to the utero-ovarian center, the reception of which is followed by inhibition of vaso-constrictor and development of viscero-motor discharges. On this point Mr. Christopher Martin says:

"In the intermenstrual periods the organ is under the control of anabolic nerves, engaged in a constructive metabolism, preparing a decidua, building a nest for the expected egg. But, should impregnation not occur within a definite period, the katabolic nerves assert their influence and menstruation occurs. The actively growing cells of the endometrium undergo a rapid destructive metabolism, the fabric of the half-formed decidua tumbles to pieces, the turgid capillaries burst and pour out the menstral flow, which Sweeps away the useless debris."

Here, again, the discharges of automatic nervous impulses are suggested as the cause of the cell destruction, not that the cells having fulfilled their function decay, and so become the irritating means by which the vessels are reflexly dilated. The irritant also sets up reflex uterine contractions, and so the blood, according to Dr. Champneys, is squeezed out of the distended capillaries and washes away the degenerated cells. This theory of morbid material acting as the stimulus is, I venture to think, a more practical solution of the uterine congestion than the somewhat vague theory of Leopold and others that it is due to "ovarian influence." Sometimes after impregnation menstruation continues for a time, showing that the uterus does not always adapt itself to its normal physiological contents, but treats it tem

porarily as a foreign body, and the so-called abortion habit may thus be possibly accounted for. In pregnancy the presence of the ovum causes vascular dilatation and later muscular contractions, both of which favor the marvelous development of the uterine substance. Further proof of this reflex theory is seen in ectopic gestation, when the false decidua is expelled and hemorrhage occurs. Mr. J. W. Taylor has also demonstrated, in his recent paper "On Intraperitoneal Hematocele," that the hemorrhage is commonly from the abdominal ostium in unruptured tubal pregnancy; the hyperemia being evidently caused reflexly by the presence of the foreign body in the tube, as a developing ovum necessarily is.-British Medical Journal.

RESULTS OF EXTIRPATION OF POISON GLANDS IN SNAKES.-(Phisalix and Bertrand.) Experiments were undertaken to determine whether the toxicity of the blood of poisonous reptiles is due to an inner secretion of the poison glands, the toxicity of the blood being then dependent on absorption by the blood from the poison glands; or whether the glands act simply as a filter, extracting the poison from the blood. If the first were true, the toxicity of the blood would be much diminished by extirpation of the glands; if the second were true, the toxicity would be much increased. A large number of poisonous snakes suffered the operation of extirpation of the poison glands, the results proving beyond question that the first hypothesis is the correct one, that the toxicity of the blood is dependent on absorption from the secretion of the poison glands. After operation the toxicity of the blood was found steadily to decline for about fifty days; then it began gradually to increase, becoming about normal again in two and one half months. This is translated by the authors as indicating a slow vicarious re-establishment of gland function, and as direct proof of internal secretion of the poison glands.-Academie des Sciences in Paris.

FATHER DENZA.--One of the greatest of climatologists was, on the 14th of December, struck down by apoplexy in the Vatican, in the person of the Padre Denza, founder of the Italian Meteorological Society, and, by special appointment of Leo XIII, director of the "Specola Vaticana." A Neapolitan by birth, Francesco Denza was a theologian by profession, but a mathematician and astronomer by choice. Enrolled in the Order of the Barnabites, he early revealed his scientific gifts, turning his attention to the study of the air currents and embodying some of his most interesting observations in a celebrated monograph entitled "La Climatologia della Valle d'Aosta." His account of the origin and character of the "scirocco" wind-the scourge of the Mediterranean littoral-is also well known; and of late years he had bestowed much thought on the genesis and propagation of earthquakes, particularly in Southern Italy. In fact a treatise on the subject, all but completed, lies among his posthumous papers, and will, it is understood, shortly see the light under the editorial care of one of his colleagues in Rome.-London Lancet.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME.-At a meeting of the Section on Public Health of the New York Academy of Medicine, held January 9th, Dr. Andrew J. Currier read a paper on "Corporal Punishment for Certain Forms of Crime," in which he advocated the whipping-post, especially for wife-beaters. Mr. Elbridge T. Gerry, President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who took part in the discussion of this paper, thought that flogging should also be used in the case of men convicted of assaulting little girls, and read the draft of a bill which he had prepared for presentation to the legislature. This bill provides that any person who is convicted of a felony which involves injury to the person of the victim may, in the discretion of the court, be sentenced to not only the penalties provided now by law, but also to be flogged. The number of strokes, which are to be administered on the bare back with a whip or lash, is not to exceed forty, and such punishments are always to be given in the presence of a physician.-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

THE TRANSMISSION OF TUBERCULOSIS BY A BRASS HORN.- Dr. Addison S. Thayer, in the Journal of Medicine and Science, reports the cases of three young men, whose family history was good and who were themselves physically sound, who became infected with tuberculosis by using, as members of a brass band, a second-hand horn hired from a dealer. The possibility of tubercle bacilli being deposited in the convolutions of a horn to the danger of subsequent players can not be denied. The three users of the horn in question were the only members of the band who did use it. Two of them are now in Colorado and one in Southern Pines under climatic treatment for tuberculosis. To make the chain of evidence complete it is only necessary to take the horn to pieces and find tubercle bacilli in the dried spittle in its convolutions and joints.-Ibid.

ABNORMALITY OF GENITAL ORGANS.-Prof. Englisch (Vienna) reports an unusual anomaly of the genital organs. Patient presented a hypospadia, the canal being open almost the entire length of the pars pendula back to the scrotum. The glans and corpora cavernosa were completely divided to a point 2 c. m. behind the corona glandis; in erection the two parts became completely separated, coitus only being possible by supporting them together by means of a condom. In this way the patient had become the father of one child. Patient was subjected to operation; the two parts of penis were united and a urethral canal constructed to the head of penis. Behind there remained still a small fistula. In literature there has been reported only one other such case.- Wiener Klinische Rundschau.

GUAIACOL CARBONATE.-Hölscher (Berl. klin. Woch.) has used this substance with good results in one hundred cases of phthisis in addition to the sixty cases reported some time ago. He first draws attention to the advantages of this preparation over creosote or even pure guaiacol. The digestive functions are not disturbed. The amount absorbed into the blood