Congress. In the afternoon of Sunday, April 22nd, the members of the Congress enjoyed a truly Portuguese entertainment- a gala bull-fight at Villa-Franca. The King and all the royal family manifested their sympathy for the Congress by honoring with their presence the gala bull-fight given in their honor. On Monday evening, April 23rd, the Geographical Society of Lisbon gave an entertainment in honor of the Congress, in the same great hall where the opening ceremony had taken place. On Tuesday evening, April 24th, the King of Portugal gave a garden party in the gardens of Las Necessidades Palace. On Wednesday evening, April 25th, a great reception was given in the Town Hall of Lisbon. The formal closure of the Congress took place April 25th, when speeches were made by Professor Müller, of Buda-Pesth, President elect of the Congress, and others. From a perusal of the reports prepared by the special correspondents of the Lancet, the British Medical Journal. and La Presse Medicale, a reader would conclude that the Lisbon Medical Congress was very pleasant to those who had the happiness to attend it. Much of the success of this Congress was doubtless due to the efforts of the Executive Committee, who had been working for three years in advance; much to the efforts of the King and Queen of Portugal; and very much indeed to the willingness with which the Portuguese physicians gave their time and trouble to render the hours passed. by the Congressists in Lisbon as agreeable and instructive as possible. The Portuguese people were also very cordial to the guests who had come from afar to visit their country. In public places, theatres, hotels, restaurants, shops in the streets, they showed great courtesy and eagerness to impart any information required by the visitors. The work done in the sections will doubtless prove interesting reading. Nothing of a spectacular character was introduced. The next meeting of the International Medical Congress is to be at Buda-Pesth, Hungary, in 1909. A strong effort, voiced by Dr. Guiteras, was made to bring it to New York; but the Executive Committee had practically committed itself to accepting the former. The total vote was in favor of Buda-Pesth by a majority of eleven. A decision was arrived at by the Congress denying the rights of membership to dentists. A vote was taken as to whether dentists should be admitted or not in future, and it was determined to exclude them. The feeling on this point was decided and strong, the prevalent opinion being, that a medical congress was only for medical men. J. J. C. EDITORIAL NOTES. A Practical Diagnostic Sign of Death.-Dr. Ott, of Lillebonne, France, uses the flame of a candle, a lighted match, or the flame from a piece of burning wood as a means of producing a diagnostic sign of death (La Presse Médicale, 14 Avril, 1906). The region selected for the test is the anterior surface of one of the forearms, which can be easily bared and is devoid of hair. The bared arm is extended horizontally, its anterior surface turned towards the ground, at such a distance from the latter that the hand of the operator and the source of heat he carries may be freely moved between the arm of the subject of the test and the ground. Should the wind be blowing at the time, a coat held to windward will be a sufficient screen to enable one to realize the experiment. Everything being ready, the flame of a candle is placed beneath the arm of the subject, the elongated tip of the flame lightly touching the skin. The closest attention should then be paid to the spot touched by the flame. In a few seconds a swelling of the skin appears, and then bursts with a slight noise, which is nearly always audible to the bystanders. This swelling is produced so rapidly that it excites surprise the first time it is observed. Two or more trials are necessary in order to accurately recognize its production. An examination of the burned spot reveals an area about the size of half a dime upon which the epidermis is raised. On the borders of this area the shrivelled remains of the burned epidermis are seen; but no liquid appears, no exudate is produced. If this experiment were tried on the body of a living person a blister containing serum or an eschar would be produced instead of a gaseous vesicle. Dr. Ott affirms that, if this test results in the production of a gaseous vesicle which bursts, the death of the subject tested may be pronounced, for a gaseous vesicle can only be produced after the complete arrest of all circulation. The Heart of Rameses II.-Dr. Lortet reported to the Academie des Sciences, Paris (La Presse Médicale, 14 Avril, 1906) the results of his examination of the contents of four Canopic jars bearing the arms of Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks. These jars were recently purchased by the national museums of the Louvre and were said to contain the viscera of that king. In one of the jars the heart of Sesostris was found, and the following is the result of an examination of it made by Dr. Lortet and his colleagues, Professors Hugonencq, Renault and Rigaud. The organ was transformed into an oval plate, nearly 8 centimetres in length by 4 centimetres in width. The substance of the heart had become hard, and of horny consistency, requiring the use of a saw for section. Fine slices made with a razor showed, on microscopic examination, that the horny substance consisted of well-formed muscular fibres, lying side by side, striated and united at frequent intervals by short branches. This special arrangement of the muscular fibres of the heart not being met with in any muscle of the human economy except in the tongue, and the mummy of Rameses II. which is preserved at Cairo exhibiting that organ, Dr. Lortet declares that without any doubt the substance found in the Canopic jar is really the heart of Sesostris, transformed into a horny substance. The hardening was due to the fact that native sodium carbonate. (natron), and various aromatic resinous substances had been used in embalming the heart of the Egyptian king, some 3164 years ago. We understand that there is some question as to whether the heart examined by the French anatomists is that of Rameses II. or not. Goodrich ("A History of All Nations") says: "The reign of Rameses III. (The Great), or Sesostris, a king of the eighteenth dynasty, follows soon after, and is fixed by Manetho's list, as well as by comparison of various monuments, at 1565-1499 B.C. The era of Sesostris, the Egyptian hero, would therefore be 3405-3461 years before our days, instead of 3164 years. There seems to be little doubt, however, that the specimen examined by Professor Lortet and his colleagues belongs to the period of Rameses II., and that it is a heart. The Physiological Effects of Tea as a Beverage. The physiological effects of tea are generally attributed to its alkaloid, theine or caffeine, but Sir Lauder Brunton finds that another ele ment, as yet undetermined, must also be taken into account in estimating the physiological effects of this beverage. For instance, green tea does not contain more theine than black tea, but its action on the nervous system is more marked, an effect which is not due to its greater richness in tannin. As green tea and black tea are gathered from the same plants, the difference observed in their physiological effects may be due to different methods of preparation. The leaves for green tea are heated or roasted slightly, in shallow pans, over a wood fire, almost immediately after being gathered, after which they are rolled with the hands upon a table to free them from a portion of their moisture, and to twist them, and are then quickly dried. Those intended for black tea are spread out in the air for some time after being gathered, and then tossed about with the hands until they become soft and flaccid, when they are roasted for a few minutes and rolled, and having been exposed to the air for a few hours in a soft and moist state, are finally dried slowly over a charcoal fire. The operation of roasting and rolling is sometimes repeated several times, until the leaves have become of the proper color. On account of their finer aroma and more stimulating properties, the teas of Ceylon and India are preferred to the teas of China. the infusion is made in two or three minutes, and if the quantity of tea used is moderate, the Cingalese and Indian teas produce no harmful results. However, it must be understood that they contain more tannin than Chinese teas and are therefore less suitable than the latter for the use of persons afflicted with dyspepsia. Well prepared tea is an innoffensive, healthful beverage, but tea rich in tannin gives origin to dyspepsia. The use of green tea produces disorder of the nervous system, but the source of this injury is thought by Sir Lauder Brunton to be due to some other element than theine. If Does the Inhalation of Lime Produce Immunity to Tuberculosis ?—In the section of Hygiene and Colonial Medicine at the Lisbon International Congress of Medicine (The Lancet, May 19, 1906), Dr. Gaspar Fisac read a paper to show that lime and plaster workers were protected from pulmonary tuberculosis. Many provincial medical men had observed this fact. It would seem that breathing the dust of lime and chalk acted as a preventive; for in the same districts other sections of the population suffered |