calcareous deposits in their joints, or worse still, stones in the kidneys or elsewhere.

We in all probability take into our bodies about the same approximate amount of the sulphate of lime in the water which we drink, but some of us are able to eliminate it, while others are not so fortunate. In opposition to the theory that religious excitement, overwork, business cares and the like are causes of this disease, I have to say that they are only secondary or contributing causes.

If a person goes to church or business and takes a healthy brain, and blood that is not charged with poisonous elements with him, it makes little difference how much the excitement or how great the strain, he would only suffer a fatigue.

If such causes were primary in nature our Wall Street brokers would go insane in a short time.

That some such poison is produced, and is a cause of this disease I am practically certain. I have sometimes thought hereditary syphilis a factor, but to prove such an idea is very difficult.

It is an old story that scrofulous constitutions are due to an inherited or modified syphilis and if that is true we have just as good grounds to claim that it is a cause of insanity and if that theory were true my toxic idea could in that way be supported to a certain extent.

I wish here to say that this paper is one entirely of theory based upon close observation. The idea is thrown out with the hope that brighter minds may take it up, and eventually solve this great problem.

SOURCES OF SUGAR.

BY DR. C. A. KERN.

SUGAR in greater or less quantities is distributed throughout almost the entire vegetable kingdom.

The leaves of the plant are the site of production, which is said to be brought

about by the chemical action of sunlight. Some claim the sugar results directly from the action of the chlorophyl in the plant upon the carbonic acid taken from the air, or upon other carbohydrates such as glucose, starch, etc., which have been previously produced and are transported and stored up in other parts of the plants as reserve material.

On the evening of a sunny day, the leaves of a sugar beet contain about two grams of sugar, of which one gram goes to the root. One kilogram of grapevine leaves contains 16 grams of cane sugar, besides 17.5 grams of glucose, etc. Cane sugar and glucose always appear together in plants and the relative proportion varies according to the presence of different organic acids. Therefore the cane sugar in very sour or acid fruits is inverted by these organic acids. The quantities of sugars found in various fruits are as follows:

Sugar is also found in nuts and almonds, figs, melons, chestnuts, clover leaves, onions, oranges, peanuts, timothy grass, etc.. but not in sufficient quantities for manufacture. The scope of this article is only to consider such plants as were and are used in the production of sugar, and the above list is only mentioned to illustrate the large amounts of sugar found in ordinary food products. It is a well known fact that honey was the sweetening medium before sugar was known, and in this instance the sugar came indirectly from the flowers of all plants.

The oldest sweetening material is undoubtedly the so-called palm sugar from India. This is called "jaggery" or "sharkari," and is made from the juice of palms, such as the phoenix sylvestris, cocoanut

palms, arenga saccharifera, etc. The sugar palms are planted in rows in dry fertile land and produce from the fifth to the thirtieth year. The gathering of the juice commences in November and ends in February. A triangular slit, one inch deep and six inches long, is made under the lowest branches, and a hollow bamboo cane is fastened to the lowest corner of this slit. On the other end of the bamboo is an earthenware pot. The next morning before sunrise this pot contains a thin, very sweet solution of cane sugar. After drawing the juice for three days, the tree must have a rest. One tree can produce from 35 to 40 pounds of sugar in one year. This juice is now boiled down in earthenware pans, sometimes lined with a little lime, and then it is poured into flat dishes made of palm leaves, in which it is dried in the sun. The total annual production amounts to 50,000 tons.

In the temperate climates of North America the maple is the sugar producing tree. The time of gathering is in the early spring, after the snow has gone and when the leaves are sprouting. This period lasts not over five or six weeks. Holes two or three inches deep are bored into the trunk and one end of a pipe is fitted into these holes, the other end running into a vessel. The juice runs freely for several hours, and then after some hours of rest again runs freely. After cold nights and sunny days the trees give off the greatest quantities, as high as 12 quarts. The juice is evaporated and, after skimming down, is poured into square molds. The manufacture of maple sugar was first carried on by the Indians, especially the Delawares.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru, the natives made sugar juice and also sugar from the corn plant "zea mays." The sweet corn plant was pressed and the juice concentrated and cooled. In Toluca, Mexico, the manufacture is still going on, only the juice is fermented. and distilled to "pulque de mahis,” a well known beverage. The best sweet corn contains as much as 10 or 12 per cent. of sugar.

Sorghum (sorghum saccharatum) comes

from Central Africa and was known to the old Romans as a sugar-producing plant. In China sorghum has been cultivated since olden times. There the juice is used direct or is fermented into a beverage. In the west of our country sorghum was cultivated and a sugar factory was started and kept running for several seasons.

In 1400 and 1500 licorice root was used for the manufacture of sugar.

According to Ibn-al-Awan, the Arabs condensed the juice of the grape in copper kettles, and after clarifying, poured it into flat earthenware dishes and collected the crystallized sugar. This industry was revived through an edict of Napoleon I., in which he offered a premium of 200,000 francs for the first grape sugar factory which produced a certain quantity of sugar. Five hundred pounds of grapes gave either 100 pounds syrup, 70 pounds raw or 35 pounds refined sugar.

St. John's Bread (ceratonia siliqua) has been used in Africa and Arabia as a substitute for sugar. The solid paste or syrup was used for canning fruit.

The juice of the birch tree (betula alba) has been used for the production of sugar in Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland, and also the so-called Syrian dog cabbage (asclepias gigantea). Sugar melons have also been tried in Russia, California and Hungary. Malt has been proposed as a sugarproducing material. Mostly all these processes are now historical, and there are only two materials which are the sources of our enormous sugar production—namely, cane and beet.

Of these two, cane is the oldest and possibly originated in India on the river Indus. It was first mentioned in a report of Nearchos, admiral of Alexander the Great, in which he stated that the natives produce honey and a white, sweet substance from a reed or cane. From India it was brought to the Euphrates, then to Egypt, Cyprus, North Africa, Spain, Canary Islands, and from there to America.

The sugar beet (beta cicla) grows wild on the shores of the Mediterranean and Cas

pian seas, in Mesopotamia and East India. From these places the sugar beet spread all over Europe. In 1747 the German chemist Marggraf discovered and produced the first sugar from beets, as is stated in a report made to the Berlin Academy of Science. In 1786 Achard, a scholar of Marggraf, raised sugar beets especially for the manufacture of sugar and built the first beet sugar factory, the first output of which amounted to 1,600 pounds of raw sugar.

THE NEW METHOD OF TREATING

TYPHOID FEVER.

FREDERICK G. HARRIS, of Chicago (Therapeutic Gazette, March, 1903), reports 128 cases of typhoid treated in Cook County Hospital, Chicago, with acetozone. The cases first admitted seemed to indicate that the epidemic was of a mild form, but later the disease proved to be of a severe type and complications were numerous. The author obtained the most satisfactory results with aqueous solutions of 15 grains to the quart, which the patients were urged to use very freely to quench the thirst, while in addition four to six fluid ounces of the solution was given every four hours as a therapeutic measure. The movements of the bowels were regulated with sodium phosphate or magnesium sulphate.

The temperatures of the patients, on admission, were high, as a rule. In 117 cases under acetozone treatment the average duration of the fever was 18 days.

The number of recoveries was 117, or 91.4 per cent., while II patients died, a mortality of 8.59 per cent.; statistics of the cases of typhoid fever in the same hospital (Cook County), not treated with acetozone show a death rate of 13.1 per cent. The author is of the opinion that under the acetozone treatment, in favorable cases, the duration of the disease was materially shortened, that the most disagreeable symptoms were amelior

ated. He declares that the characteristic fetor of the stools and the peculiar odor of the wards was greatly diminished; there was less stupor and delirium and less tympanites, and the usual diarrhoea was checked. An average of 138.12 grains of acetozone was used in each case. Finally he reaches the conclusion that when cases can be seen during the first week of the attack and large amounts of acetozone given, assisted by a gentle laxative, the temperature will return to the normal in from 10 to 12 days.

Four cases of typhoid fever in which acetozone was employed with satisfactory results, were reported by Charles Emil Brack, of Baltimore (Medical Age, January 25). In each case the treatment consisted in the use of acetozone in solution. The first three patients, adults, received 30 grains of the drug per diem; the fourth, a child of four years, received 8 grains each 24 hours. Prompt recovery occurred in each case.

James Billingslea, of Baltimore (Atlanta Journal Record of Medicine, February, 1903), reported 25 cases of typhoid fever treated with acetozone. The diagnoses were confirmed by board of health examinations. The treatment consisted in cleaning the bowels thoroughly by means of calomel. Liquid diet was prescribed and cold or sponge baths were used as occasion required. The special treatment consisted in shaking 15 or 20 grains of acetozone powder with one quart of water, allowing the insoluble residue to subside. The patient was given the clear solution to drink freely, the whole amount of one quart being taken during 24 hours. The writer suggests that one part of the acetozone solution may be mixed with three parts of milk if thought desirable. The action of acetozone will be materially aided by the use of a mild saline laxative.

He found that the feces soon lost their disagreeable odor by this treatment, and cold baths were required to a much less extent than with other treatment. Furthermore, the nurses universally affirmed that they found patients under this treatment easier to care for. No evil effects were noted from the use of acetozone.

A further contribution to this subject appears from the pen of J. J. Driscoll, of Chicago (The Kansas City Medical Index-Lancet, January, 1903), who relates his experience in six cases. He found that acetozone reduces the temperature, shortens the duration of the disease materially, while it does not seem to have any ill effects on the heart. The feces are completely deodorized in 36 to 48 hours and tympanites rapidly disappears.

BARGAIN SALES AS INCITEMENTS

TO KLEPTOMANIA.

JAMES G. KIERNAN (Alienist and Neurologist, November, 1902) in an article on Kleptomania and Collectivism (sic) says that Lacassagne (Journal de médecine de Paris, October 25, 1896) divides the "bargain" sale thieves into four types: Pure thieves, "collectors," mental instabilities, and the insane. The "collectors" closely approximate to ordinary thieves. Men occur much more frequently among them. They are often in easy circumstances or even rich. They steal without need and almost the same things for the pleasure of possessing them. Bibliomaniacs and other faddists cannot leave a bookshop or other collection without buying. These "collectors" have the same pleasure in stealing desired objects. These people may be feebleminded and insane, but, as a rule, merit the severity of law as much for their own sake as that of society.

The mentally unstable are those in whom the desire to take quickly occurs and who yield without conflict. They are usually They are usually rich or in very easy circumstances. Their will weakens rapidly in the seductive sursoundings of the "bargain" sale and yields readily to a motive more or less bizarre, but determining and obvious, such as vanity or coquettishness, or even to good sentiments. Others are seized by a vertiginous state caused by the noise and the crowd and become victims of morbid impulse. After

several yieldings to temptation they become inveterate thieves, cannot master their impulse; systematically, weekly even, they return to steal, in order to experience the same fright and intense distress in which they have a morbid delight. The desire becomes irresistible. On analyzing it, horrified at themselves, they experience the need of confession to a friend. Despite the most bizarre precautions against their penchant they succumb.

Lacassagne, like Benjamin Franklin (Essay, Poor Richard's Almanac), thinks the "bargain" store a serious social danger to the body politic. Women who never have stolen and who would never steal elsewhere find themselves bewitched, excited and take; a true diabolic possession. In the midst of a hurrying crowd in the odorous, overheated wealth-suggesting atmosphere, the woman finds herself with clothing aptly adapted to hide stolen objects. At certain hours there are too few employees to serve the enormous crowd which waits its turn, touching and taking goods whose splendor and variety bewilder. Certainty of detection would undoubtedly serve as a deterrent in many cases; as Lacassagne remarks, it would be better, especially for the mentally unstable women, to catch the thief rather than merely to prevent theft.

The "collector" type is as a rule perfectly responsible. "Book snatching" is a besetting vice of bibliomaniacs, just as coin and stamp purloining attacks numismatists and philatelists.

While kleptomania in the United States is legally a defense for crime, it remains to be determined in each case whether kleptomania exists, and whether it merely extenuates or completely absolves. Where states predisposing to mental instability exist, the burden of proof of sanity is on the State. In the "collectors" the burden would be on the accused. Stealing of relatively worthless articles is by itself no evidence of insanity. Parisians think it "smart" to steal sugar and matches from restaurants. Not a few sane Americans think it is equally "smart" to steal rides on railroads.

AGE AND ITS POSSIBILITIES.

WE speak of this as the age of young men. It is the custom in the English army to get rid of the older officers and promote the young men rapidly, because it is supposed that they are more efficient. It not infrequently happens in medical schools that the younger man is given preference over the older one whose work has entitled him to the position, simply because the younger man is supposed to be worth more to the institution, on account of the greater amount of original work that he is likely to perform. Indeed, it has been said that unless a man makes his mark before thirty-five years of age, he is unlikely to achieve much afterward. Age, however, is merely a relative term. It has been said often and is often forgotten, that one man is young at eighty, while another is old at thirty. There are so many illustrations that can be cited of green old men that it seems useless to lay stress upon this point. And yet, when we think of Kolliker and the enormous amount of original work that has appeared in his Gewebelehre, we must pause before vaunting too enthusiastically the advantages of youth. Another remarkable illustration has recently been furnished by von Kupffer: O. Hertwig requested him to write the article. upon the development of the central nervous system for his new Handbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Zentralnervensystems. Von Kupffer undertook it, provided he was permitted to write the article as a result of his own original and independent observations. He was then 70 years old. In order the better to carry on his work, he resigned his teaching position at the University, spent 5 hours every day in the Anatomical Institute, and then devoted all his afternoons and evenings until midnight to his library and desk. He took no summer holidays, and was unremitting in his efforts. In two years the work was completed. It contained nothing old, nothing previously used, and discussed authoritatively all the questions then of the greatest interest to science. There are few young men who

could have accomplished nearly as much; few young men would have had the moral courage to neglect all other things for the one piece of work that they had undertaken. Let us not, therefore, speak too slightingly of the abilities of many years.-Phila. Med. 'Journal.

AN INDIAN GOOD BEFORE DEAD.

THERE is no denying the alligator on the banks of the Ocklawaha in Mr. F. R. Swift's little book of hunting reminiscences, "Florida Fancies" (G. P. Putnam's Sons). On one occasion he describes an adventure with one of these creatures that has more to recommend it as a campfire story than an experience to share in. He had taken an Indian boy along, whom they dubbed "Thirty Cents." After lying in wait in the canoe a good part of the morning-suffering one of the belles of the alligator principality, who came to take an inquisitive survey, to go unmolestedly to sleep on a neighboring tussock, and becoming decidedly weary of their own patience-they were finally rewarded by the characteristic line of bubbles a few yards away. Mr. Swift missed his aim with the shotgun, and then the trouble began. The alligator dived and charged, leaped and lashed, and manifested a disposition to put an end to his assailants without seeming to go about it in any rationally direct fashion. It became apparent that the creature had been blinded. When he stayed under for a good quarter of an hour, and produced a twenty foot circle of vigorous bubbles on the surface, the young Indian paddled to the spot and prodded the source of this commotion. Naturally in less time than it takes to wink, the canoe was smashed and the hunters were sprawling in the water. It was then a question of the alligator's preference, the shore being five hundred yards distant. Mr. Swift saved himself by stopping his noisy swimming, which the blinded antagonist was following,