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new bread. New bread, on the contrary, is soft, doughy, or plastic, and there appears to be no necessity to soften it with saliva, hence it escapes the preliminary digestive action of the ptyalin of the saliva. New bread, in other words, is in reality 'bolted,' and 'bolting' accounts for many of the ills arising from dyspepsia. Accordingly, hot rolls should be enjoyed for breakfast without any fear of dyspepsia so long as the bread is good and so long as pairs are taken to masticate it thoroughly."

The writer calls attention to the fact that a dog will "bolt" a piece of meat, but, when eating a piece of bread, he will keep it in his mouth some time and will almost labor over it before swallowing it. The dog, we are told, thus teaches a very important physiological lesson. There is very little that the mouth can do in the way of digesting meat, beyond reducing it, by means of the teeth, to a convenient form. But the case is different with bread. The writer continues:

"It is a curious fact that stale bread is not more dry than new bread, for on submitting stale bread for a short time to a high temperature it regains its condition of newness and becomes soft or plastic, and this in spite of the fact that some moisture is of necessity driven off in the operation. It is probable that in new bread there is free water present, while in stale bread the water is still there, but in a condition of true chemical combination, and it is this combination which compels us thoroughly to moisten and to masticate stale bread before we consign it to the gastric centers. Similarly, the indigestibility of the Norfolk dumpling is probably due to the fact that it is of tough, doughy consistency and therefore should receive considerable mastication before it is swallowed. It is a sound physiological plan, therefore, to adopt-as it is said the late Mr. Gladstone adopted the habit of chewing each morsel a great number of times."

MILK FLOUR IN SWEDEN.

At the November meeting of the Academy of Agriculture, at Stockholm, the news was imparted of a discovery which promises to be of importance to the dairy industry of the Scandinavian countries.

Dr. M. Ekenberg, of Gothenberg, Sweden, described a process of changing milk into a fine flour that afterward, through solution in a sufficient quantity of water, may again be transformed into milk with all its alimentary qualities.

The peculiarity of Dr. Ekenberg's discovery lies in his having found the conditions under which the milk will retain its solubility in water in spite of the transformation into powder. Formerly, when milk was dried, the components became indissoluble.

The transformation of milk into powder requires a special apparatus, which is said to be so simple that it can be placed in any dairy, requiring no technical knowledge to operate.

Dr. Ekenberg would not give a description of the apparatus, as he has applied for letters patent. According to his calculations, the apparatus should not cost more than a common separator.

The milk flour resembles wheat flour, and has the aroma of milk. It can be kept in tin cans, wooden barrels, and even sacks and paper bags. One part of the flour, in weight, gives about ten parts of milk. It is simply concentrated milk, in the form of flour; it contains all the constituent parts of milk, except the water and gases. It does not turn sour or effervesce, and is not susceptible to changes in the weather. Samples have been kept for weeks in a thermostat at blood temperature (37.5° C.), and no changes were noted. Even in damp air, without protection, it does not turn sour or become moldy.

From the milk flour, cream, butter, and cheese may be obtained. It can be used in baking bread, puddings, etc.

The working expenses for the production of milk flour have been calculated at 1 cent per gallon of milk.

Flour of skimmed milk was also exhibited by Dr. Ekenberg before the Academy of Agriculture, and it is particularly for this article that the new process will be of importance, as the product has hitherto been largely wasted.

The flour will be found to be superior to such preparations as "proteid" and "proton," as 10 to 20 per cent. of the albumen of the milk is lost in the production of the latter, and the flour can be produced much more cheaply.

Skimmed milk is said to be the cheapest albuminous aliment known. The process for the production of milk flour is so simple. that the article can be profitably sold at 1 krone per kilogram (12 cents per pound), and even less, provided skimmed milk can be obtained at 3 öre per litre (2.9 cents per gallon).

By means of this apparatus, every dairy will be enabled to send all its products to the market in a transportable condition.

According to rumor, Dr. Ekenberg has applied for letters patent on the method itself, the nature of which is a scientific discovery. Bergen, January 24, 1902. VICTOR E. NELSON, Consul.

MEDICAL EXCERPT.

By T. P. CORBALLY, A.M., M.D.

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF GUACO.

M. le Dr. Butte read, before the Académie de Médicine ("Gazette Hebdomadaire”), April 13, 1902, a note on the physiological and therapeutic action of guaco, the nature of which the author has carefully studied. The plant is found in the mountainous districts of Mexico, and is known as the Aristolochia Cymbifera.

The result of his researches is that this plant, among other properties, causes a suppression of the power of sensation in the nerves of relation in living beings, and that this disappearance is due to the paralysis of the centre of the nerves of sensation. These properties, furnished by physiological experiment, have led Dr. Butte to examine their effects on the affections in which the nerve centers are greatly irritated; as in neuralgias, pruritic eczemas, the prurigo of Hebra, senile pruritis, ano-vulvaria, pruritis of the genital organs in man, etc.

The clinical tests have been in entire accord with the physiological conditions described, and patients suffering with the above affections have been rapidly and completely cured on application intus et extra of the remedy known as guaco.

FAITS NOUVAUX.-Under this title the "Gazette Hebdomadaire" publishes an account of the Diazo-reaction of Ehrlich in Surgical Affections. M. Hellendall has observed that the diazoreaction is positive in the urine of subjects suffering from osteomyelitis; it advances regularly with the increase of febrile manifestations; it ceases when suppuration begins and reappears if new centers are formed.

In tuberculosis of the skin and of the ganglions it is not usually found. On the contrary, in tubercular peritonitis, in white swellings, in Pott's disease, in coxalgia, and especially when peri-articular abscess exists the diazo-reaction appears. In osteo-articular tuberculosis the diazo-reaction is intense and of unfavorable augury.

In a general way the diazo-reaction in tuberculosis gives the prognostic indications; if it is positive and very strongly marked the case is grave; if it becomes milder and gradually disappears the prognosis becomes more favorable.

Aseptic surgical affections not complicated with infectious symptoms are not accompanied with positive diazo-reaction. This affection is generally absent in the evolution of neoplasms; however, the author has found it in ulcerative forms of cancer of the stomach, in sarcoma of the ganglions, in carcinoma of the ovaries and of the peritoneum. Hellendall has never found the diazoreaction in syphilitic cases.

In actinomycosis the rule is to find a diazo-reaction very strongly marked. (“Beitrage zur Klinischen Chirurgie," 1902.) • SEROTHERAPY AND DIPHTHERIA.-The conclusions of M. Senester on the report relating to serotherapy as a preventive of diphtheria, embracing the report of MM. Netter, Bourges and Bergeron, was approved by the Academy of Medicine ("Gazette Hebdomadaire") April 13, 1902. The conclusions as adopted were as follows:

1. The injections of serum as a preventive agent has a manifest influence on the disease; they afford immunity in children who may be exposed to contact with the disease. They have never given rise to any serious accident, and at most produce in some cases temporary eruptions, and still more rarely some slight pains in the joints. Unfortunately, however, the period of immunity is of short duration, three or four weeks at the most. In the very few cases in which diphtheria appeared after the injection it was extremely mild.

2. Injections of serum are especially indicated in families in which a case of diphtheria has been developed, in order to preserve the other children from the disease.

3. Preventive injections are equally indicated for children belonging to a community, as in a school, nursery or ward of a hospital in which a case of diphtheria has occurred.

4. Even in the absence of undoubted cases the serum may be used under certain special conditions, as measles and scarletina ; yet for measles the preventive action seems to be less certain. The doses should be stronger and more frequently repeated.

5. The use of injections of serum as a preventive measure should not prevent the employment of other measures, as prophylactics, as disinfectants, isolation, etc., but it renders them more effectual, easier of application and more efficacious.

THE PLAGUE. The Académie de Médicine, at its session of April 15, reviewed its action taken at Le Lazareth du Frioul. M. Valin ("Progrès Médical"), April 19, reported:

The Commission on the Plague, in consideration of the remarks by MM. Laveran and Roux, at the session of March 18 last, proposes to repeal the text of the sixth conclusion found in its report, by adopting in its place the following:

"6. Every vessel that has had contact with a port or other vessel infected with or suspected of having plague must decidedly enforce the perfect destruction of rats before the discharge of its cargo, even in the absence of the disease or of a suspicious case on board; the vessel cannot be restored to service for a renewal of voyage until a minute inspection has proved that the animals have been destroyed."

The substitution of this form was unanimously adopted.

Closely allied with the above is the following report to the Société Biologie:

CARBONIC ACID AND SULPHUROUS ACID.-MM. Langlois and Lair have studied the toxic action of gas on rats. These animals resist large doses of carbonic acid gas; fleas resist a still stronger dose; they are scarcely quieted in their movements after remaining for twenty-five minutes in an atmosphere of 75 per cent. of gas.

Sulphurous acid is more poisonous than the carbonic, especially when the sulphur is burned; rats die in a vapor of 2 per cent., while in pure sulphurous acid 15 to 20 per cent. is necessary to destroy them.

Fleas die in 17 minutes in a medium of 3 per cent. Colored goods are not injured by this vapor, a fact which permits the use of this gas against the plague.

M. Chantemesse calls to mind the fact that according to the experiments made in New Orleans with sulphurous acid at 17 per cent., it did not injure coffee, tea, figs, nor raisins, but other goods, as butter and cheese, were injured. There are, then, different classes of goods to be disinfected, as the cargoes vary.

ECTHOL is an American preparation made from a mixture of the fluid extract of Thuja and Echinacea angustifolia. The latter is a plant belonging to the natural order Composite, which grows in North America. The fresh root of this plant is in high favor with the Indians as an antidote against the bites of serpents. Dr. Stinson found that this plant promotes the flow of saliva, is a mild and inoffensive antiseptic, and, above all, an aphrodisiac. It is employed in malaria, in typhoid and in diseases of the stomach, as well as locally in the form of an aqueous solution of the fluid extract as an aphrodisiac. In addition, it may be given internally

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