makes a particular application to the case of the operation for appendicitis, which he regards as a curious instance of an event that is good for the individual, but bad for the race, thus forming an exception to one of the fundamental rules of evolution. He says:

"Since the old theory of foreign lodgments-grape stones and the like-in the appendix as the cause of the trouble has been proven false, at least in a vast majority of cases, we are forced to consider appendicitis a disease, an inflammation of a particularly serious nature, yet no more accidental in its origin than are similar congestions in other parts of the body. But scientists tell us that diseases of all sorts-at least the predisposition to them— are transmissible; that they run in families, and that the probability is greater that the children of diseased parents will fall heir to the particular maladies of the latter than that the children of unaffected parents will be troubled by them. It is true that in the case of appendicitis, recent acquisition as it is to the catalogue of bodily ills, we have no exact data in support of the belief that it is transmissible, yet reasoning from analogy we have every right to believe that it is so. A hereditary predisposition to many other forms of inflammation similar in all respects except that of the part affected has been fully demonstrated, and the inference is certainly a logical one that appendicitis is no exception to the rule.

"But under the conditions of nature such a transmission of disastrous predisposition is taken care of through the early death of the individual with the consequent impossibility of passing them to the descendants. If death comes before the period of maturity is reached, the lack of offspring means the total annihilation so far as the race is concerned, of disastrous consequences in that particular line of descent. If it comes early in maturity, such annihilation is not absolute, but only relative, the danger to the race increasing with the length of life as measured by the number of children. In any event nature demands death without offspring on the part of the individuals possessing racially disastrous predispositions. Yet that is what the prolongation of life through surgical intervention controverts. All danger of death from the particular diseased part, so far as the individual is concerned, is removed

without lessening seemingly one whit its disastrous effects upon the race. A long life is assured so far as the particular disease is concerned, and, all other things equal, a correspondingly large family with all the laws of heredity potent, so far as the probable transmission of the difficulty is concerned. To believe that the surgical removal of the diseased part does away with the probability of the transmittal of the disease would be to accept the theory of the transmission of mutilations. This few thinking persons, familiar with the field of scientific thought, are willing to do."-The Literary Digest.

Palmar and Plantar Hyperidrosis.

M. G. Lyon (Revue de thérapeutique médico-chirurgicale, quoted by Nord médical for November 1, 1903) recommends the following:

a R Decoction of walnut leaves..

Alum or borax ...

b R Potassium permanganate

Water...

c R Tincture of benzoin

Formadehyde.

Water....

1,000 grammes

(33 ounces).

10 grammes (ounce).

25 centigrammes (3 grains).

1,000 grammes (33 ounces).

10 grammes (150 minims);

15 grammes (225 minims); 1,000 grammes (333 ounces).

The feet or hands should be bathed in any of the foregoing. If, instead of being cold and cyanotic, the members are warm, cold water should be used and the following applications used subsequently:

a R Ichthyol of each...... 2525 grammes (6) drachms);

Lanolin

Water..

b R Naphthol .

Glycerin..

Alcohol..

M. Use as a lotion twice daily.

15 grammes (33 drachms).

grammes (75 grains); 10 grammes (150 minims); .100 grammes (3 ounces).

Iron perchloride.
Glycerin..

M. Lotion.

30 grammes (1 ounce); 10 grammes (2 drachms).

Besides baths and lotions, powders may be used, the following being a good example:

R

Potassium permanganate.....2 grammes (30 grains);

Salicylic acid..

Bismuth subnitrate.

Talc....

M. Dusting powder.

5 grammes (75 grains);

.30 grammes (1 ounce);

60 grammes (2 ounces).

Inside the shoes may be placed filter paper soaked in the

.30 centigrammes (4 grains);

120 grammes (3 ounces).

Potassium permanganate......1 gramme (15 grains);
Distilled water..

M. Foot application.

N. Y. Medical Jour. and Phila. Med. Jour.

Effect of Muscular Effort on the Blood.

Experiments on this subject by P. B. Hawk, first reported in The American Journal of Physiology, indicate that such effort directly influences the proportion of globules in the blood. Hawk counted the globules in the blood of various persons before and after periods of physical exercise, both short and prolonged. Says the Revue Scientifique: "The results were very uniform. In all cases the number of globules, both red and white, was increased. As a considerable increase may always take place in a very short time, following only a few minutes of exercise, it seemed to the American physiologist that it might be opportune to investigate the mechanism of increase. The hypothesis, according to which the increase is due to a multiplication of cells, can scarcely stand before the fact that a considerable increase may require only a few seconds. We can scarcely suppose a concentration of the blood, due to transpiration through the skin or lungs, for the same reason. Mr. Hawk adopts a third hypothesis, regarding the augmentation as due to the penetration into the blood of numerous globules which, in a state of rest, remain in different parts of the body, outside the blood-current, or, at any rate, immobil

ized in certain organs. In these conditions the increase of globules, due to exercise, would be only apparent, and there would be no real augmentation. On the other hand, it would seem to be shown by Hawk's experiments that muscular exercise really results in a destruction of the red globules, which becomes apparent only after a certain time following the disappearance of various effects that would seem to indicate an increase."-Translation made for The Literary Digest.

Pneumonia a "Reportable" Disease.

Such is the amendment to the sanitary code of New York City. The order is said to be the first in the records of health departments anywhere, and marks both a recognition of the infectious nature of the disease and of its increased ravages in late years. These conclusions have long and persistently been emphasized by the Health Department of Chicago, but there has generally been an altogether too slow decision to make the administrative order to report cases of pneumonia, just the same as those of measles, smallpox, scarlet fever, etc. At last the logical and necessary step has been taken, and other cities will doubtless soon follow the example of New York. The increasing prevalence of the disease in that city is shown by the following excerpt from the report of the register of records:

If such ratios obtain in general, there can be no question of the infectiousness of pneumonia, and of the necessity of notification and public control.

Am. Medicine.

Life's Elements in the Sea.

The New York Sun, April 17, published the following cable dispatch: "Ten years ago the injection of salt water as a restorative to patients dying from loss of blood aroused general interest. The discovery of the quality of salt water probably suggested to the French savant, M. Quinton, a long and patient research concerning salt water, the conclusion of which throws unexpected light on and adds support to the Darwinian theory of evolution.

M. Quinton maintains that sea water is the natural source from which, as Professor Haeckel believes, elementary bodies rise which develop into all the species, including the human. The environment wherein the anatomical elements of living creatures exist is neither more nor less than a marine one. Our tissues and cells continue to exert their functions in a fluid, the composition of which bears the closest resemblance to that of sea water.-Med. Record.

Wood Silk.

News comes from abroad that an Englishman has patented a method of making imitation silk from wood. A plant erected near Sydowsaue, Germany, is at present turning out 50 pounds of skein silk a day, which product can be increased in quantity to 2,000 pounds. The silk is soft in texture, and cream in color. Each thread is made up of 18 single strands; a single strand is hardly perceptible to the naked eye. In strength, the real silk is two-thirds stronger than the imitation. When woven into pieces, the new substitute is said to have the appearance of real silk. How this new article will compare with the genuine, in the matter of wear and price, it is impossible at present to state. The manufacturing process is likewise undiscoverable. It is asserted, however, that the pulp undergoes a chemical process and is pressed through very fine tubes, by hydraulic pressure, forming the single strands which go to make up the thread -Scientific Am.

The Dangers of the Trendelenburg Posture. Kraske admits the great value of this procedure in many operations involving the lower abdomen, but calls attention to the fact that it is sometimes attended with certain positive risks. In cases of myocardial degeneration the backward pressure of the column of blood in the inferior vena cava may induce an acute serious dilatation of the heart. He has had two such cases in his own work. When there is a large amount of fat in the omentum and mesentery, the intra-abdominal viscera may become permanently dislocated. In two cases of suprapubic lithotomy done in the Trendelenburg position intestinal obstruction followed. The great increase of pressure on the liver occasionally causes a congestion of the portal circulation