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peculiar behaviour of boric acid may be taken advantageof to test for its presence in milk. A portion of milk,say from 10 to 20 cubic centimetres, is placed in a beaker orother vessel, a drop or two of phenolphthalein solution

added, and caustic soda solution (about normal strength)dropped in cautiously till a faint pink colour appears ; a

little of the milk is poured into two test-tubes, to one an

equal bulk of a neutral 50 per cent. glycerol solution is

added, and to the other an equal bulk of distilled water.If the milk be free from boric acid no difference of

colour between the two tubes is noticed ; in the presenceof boric acid the glycerol tube will become paler, or

usually white, while the water tube will become distinctlypinker. Any difference in colour between the two tubes

(except the faint difference due to the greater transparencyof the mixture of milk and glycerol) indicates the presenceof boric acid. The neutral glycerol solution is preparedby mixing equal volumes of glycerol and water, adding afew drops of phenolphthalein and dropping in caustic sodasolution till a very faint pink colour appears.

THE PROPER HOLIDAY.

AT a time when the subject uppermost in the minds ofmen who work is their holiday we naturally pause to reflecthow that interval of freedom is generally spent, and whetherit is always of as great benefit as it should be. It is a verycommon thing for people to return from their holiday inworse health than when they left. This is deplorable andshould seldom occur. The reason for such an unfortunateand entirely unintended sequel to a period of recreation is

sometimes easy to find. Enchanted and blinded, perhaps,by the delights of some sequestered house, long solitaryand little used, in the heart of a rural district,the weary holiday-maker from town ignores the

evils of an antiquated sanitary arrangement, and while

feasting his eyes on the charms of fruit trees and

ivy-covered walls inhales the poison of a septic throat,or returns home to find his children fall ill with diphtheriareaped at that charming country resort. Let the man, then,who seeks the quiet of unfrequented country places as a

main feature of his holiday at any rate take care that

hygiene has not been sacrificed to antiquity. It is possibleto find houses that are both interesting and old althoughthe drainage is new and effective. In the matter of

drainage we may well prefer a modernity which we avoidin the other features of our holiday house. It is a

wise step for those who work in the bustle and clatterof a large town thus to rusticate themselves in their timeof recreation. One of the most essential features, in fact,of a holiday is that it should be a change. A recognitionof this fact leads the medical practitioner of the countryto take his holiday in a manner very different from

that which appeals to his city brother. We know such a

gentleman, busy day after day in his trap, his motor-car, oron his bicycle over a wide agricultural district, who finds oneof the charms of his holiday in travelling about London onthe underground railway. It is a form of entertainment

rarely sought after from motives of pure enjoyment. Yet

we are sure our country friend is quite right in his argumentand the success of his method is proved by the renewed

vigour and interest with which he returns home. He has

had a change. Those whose lives are sedentary shouldexercise themselves when on their holiday, while he whois always running about when at work will do well to

lie on his back on the soft meadow or, pillowed by theshelving beach, listen to the lazy lapping of the waves.

We have no approval for the historic omnibus driver

who when he had a " day off spent it beside the comradedriving another ’bus. It is a trite enough observation that a

holiday should be a change, yet it is one very often dis-

regarded. Men become so moulded into the habits which

they form that, though conscious of the advantage of a tem-porary cessation of their usual activities, they do not make.the effort to secure it. The hard reader takes his books with

him, the man who is always on his legs goes away and,climbs, few seek as recreation the opposite of their usual

occupation, and many a holiday longed for as the opportunityfor renewing health and vigour turns out a disappointment,because the time was not spent with that alteration of’

interest that should be the feature of all real leisure

UNIFORM MEDICAL LEGISLATION IN AMERICA.

DR. EMIL AMBERG, of Detroit, Michigan, has sent us an,article condemnatory of the system, according to which, inAmerica, "many States absolutely refuse, within their-

jurisdiction, the license to practise to the same physicianswhom citizens of other States legally authorise to exercisetheir professional duties, and to whom they intrust their ownlives and those of their families." This fact, he says, can beexplained in only two ways. Either the standing of those-physicians is not sufficiently high for the former States, orthe former States intend to protect their "home industry."’He also considers that it would be a wise step to close aboutthree-fourths of the medical schools now existing and either-to place the rest under rigid State control or to make themState institutions.

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THE ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE.

IN April of this year a sub-committee of the ParliamentaryBills Committee of the British Medical Association issued a.

report on, and recommendations for, the reorganisation ofthe Army Medical Service. This report was adopted by the’Council of the Association and a copy was forwarded to theWar Office. Some addenda were appended to the reportconcerning the proposed amalgamation of the British withthe Indian Medical Service, and in the last paragraph ofthese addenda it was stated that the sub-committee were-

*’of opinion, in order that our British and Indian soldiers

may in time of peace and of war be kept in the best

possible physical condition-that is, in health and fitness

to perform their duty-it is necessary that they shouldbe under the care of a single medical service, with one portalof admission." " Without at present entering upon the-

debateable question as to whether or not it is desirable that

the two services should be amalgamated, we understand that,so far as is known, there is no intention on the part of either

the home Government or the Government of India to

amalgamate the two services ; nor would any such schemebe considered.

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THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERSIN LUNACY.

THE report of the Commissioners in Lunacy for the year1900 has been issued in the form of a Blue-book. The total’number of lunatics under the notice of the Commissionerson Jan. lst, 1901, was 107,944. This was an increase of1333 for the year 1900, as against an increase of 1525 in1899 and of 3114 in 1898. The average annual increase forthe last five years has been 2300, so the increase for 1900 isby no means large. The numbers of patients in county andborough asylums, registered hospitals, Broadmoor CriminalLunatic Asylum, and of single patients have increased,while those in licensed houses, naval and military hos-pitals, metropolitan district asylums, and workhouses havedecreased. The Commissioners point out that as regardsasylums they have noticed extravagance in sundry details,and they further say that when plans are submitted to themin which any departure appears from the principles of dueeconomy, proper regard being had to adequacy of buildinga

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and a sufficiency of decoration, they shall regard it as their

duty to advise the Secretary of State to refuse his approvalof the plans. We are glad to see that there is a decrease inthe number of lunatics in workhouses. The workhouse as

at present constituted is quite unfit for the reception of

lunatics. The Commissioners, we are glad to see, suggest adifferentiation of asylums. The inexpensive and more

simply fitted are to be used only for the infirm, while themore adequately equipped hospitals are to be used for themore acute cases.

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THE USE OF CATS’ AND DOGS’ MEAT FORSAUSAGES.

NAILWAY arcnes nave Qouotiess oeen put 10 munnuamous

uses from time to time and more particularly in the neigh-bourhood of London where they may be seen serving thepurpose of a stable or a church. The sanitary inspector ofBethnal Green has, however, been devoting his attention tothe operations beneath an archway in that part of London.About a year ago certain persons were prosecuted and heavilyfined for selling and using for human food material pur-chased from a cats’ and dogs’ meat dealer, the lessee of arailway arch, and somewhat similar mysteries have againbeen enacted in the same neighbourhood, but outside thedistrict of Bethnal Green. It appeared for a long time thatthe cats’ meat trade had ceased, but by means of a mid-night vigil the sanitary inspector ascertained that the

cats’ meat was removed surreptitiously to a small privatehouse from which it was fetched by makers of sausages.After considerable trouble a butcher in Hackney was fol-lowed home with a consignment of this material which onarrival at the butcher’s premises was seized and condemned.We are glad to hear that further legal proceedings areimpending. The inspector is of opinion that an enormousamount of this objectionable substance, highly seasoned

with condiments, and, perhaps, we would add, temptinglycoloured, is dealt with, and that regular markets exist forthe trade. Unfortunately the trade is carried on in several

districts, and hence there is need for the officers of somecentral authority, such as the London County Council,to take the matter up. Sausage factories need much

watching in this country, and sausages introduced fromabroad need more analysis than, we fear, they get at present.What is required is the right of entry into all places in whichfood or substances used for the preparation of food are

made ready for the market. Such a procedure is better thanmuch analysis.

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THE SEXUAL SENSE IN GENERAL PARALYTICS.

LITTLE has been known hitherto regarding the variationsof the sexual feeling in general paralysis of the insane. In

the Archives de Neurologie for July Dr. llIarandon de Montyeldescribes the exact clinical conditions in the three stagesof general paralysis, and draws certain new and interestingconclusions. The total number of patients whose cases wereinvestigated was 1037, of whom 727 were of the expansive"

"

type, 162 of the "depressed" type, and 148 of the mixed

type, as regards psychical symptoms. The following tablegives the conditions of the sexual sense, whether normal,heightened, or lowered, in the three types of cases :-

The most characteristic feature is that every one of the 162

patients of the depressed clinical type showed a loweredactivity of the sexual instinct, while even in the expansivetype of patients 70 per cent. showed the same. "It is not

then true to pretend," says Dr. Marandon de Montyel, thatthe self-satisfaction of general paralytics and their delusionsof physical strength are engendered by a genital super-activity." Investigation was also made as regards sensibilityto pain and it was found that this sense was more oftenaltered than the tactile sensibility of the genital organs.From a detailed examination and tabulation of cases, how-

ever, no connexion could be established between alterationof the algesic sense (cutaneous sensibility to pain) andimpotence. The general paralytic may, and often does, bragof his virile power while impotent. It was also found that as

regards etiology the operation of alcohol was that whichcaused most of the alterations of the genital sense. These

genital alterations had no prognostic value, but if theyappeared early-that is, in the prodromal stages of the

disease-they might have a distinct diagnostic value.

THE BRITISH DENTAL ASSOCIATION.

AT the annual general meeting of the British DentalAssociation which was opened on August 3rd some interest-ing points were raised. The honorary secretary, Mr. W. B.Paterson, in his annual report mentioned that the efforts ofthe Association in regard to the care of the teeth of sailorsand soldiers had been met by the naval authorities by thepurchase of "dental outfits" for naval surgeons. No

doubt, continued the report, the outfits are suitable for thepurpose for which they are intended, but then a box of toolsdoes not necessarily make a workman. The army authorities,however, had recognised the necessity for dental aid for

troops on active service and had applied to the Associationto supply four dental surgeons to go out to South Africafor the purpose of attending on the troops. Mr. S. J.

Hutchinson, the President of the Association, referred in hispresidential address to the good work of the School Dentists’Society and remarked that it was greatly to be regrettedthat the School Board for London had not availed itself ofsuch opportunities as it might have done for the propersupervision of the teeth of children under its care. Hereferred with satisfaction to the fact of there being fourdental surgeons at the seat of war and expressed a hopethat in future a dental department would be seen working inunison with the Royal Army Medical Corps. The annualdinner of the Association was held in the evening, and

among the guests were Mr. H. G. Howse, the President of theRoyal College of Surgeons of England, Dr. C. Godon, Presidentof the École Dentaire, Paris, and Sir James Crichton Browne.

HÆMORRHAGE IN CHRONIC JAUNDICE.

IN American Medicine of April 2’lth Professor Osler callsattention to the frequency and seriousness of haemorrhage inchronic jaundice. In the past few months he had observedfive cases in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In Case 1 a womanwas admitted on Jan. 9th with jaundice of four months’

duration. There were recurring attacks of pain. The blood

coagulation time was 10 minutes. An exploratory operationwas performed on Jan. 29th and carcinoma of the gall-bladder and liver was found. Profuse haemorrhage tookplace on the night following the operation and continueduntil death which took place on Feb. lst. In Case 2 a womanwas admitted on Jan. 30th with jaundice of four months’duration and intermittent fever. She had multiple xanthoma.The blood coagulation time was eight minutes, but undercalcium chloride it was reduced to three and a quarter minutes.On March 5th numerous gall-stones were removed fromthe gall-bladder and common bile-duct. Haemorrhage tookplace on the following day and a haematoma formed. OnMarch 9th there were severe bleeding and collapse. Recoverygradually took place. In Case 3 a woman was admitted onFeb. 19th with jaundice of nearly 10 years’ duration. She

had had attacks of haemorrhage, chiefly from the nose and