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he insisted on its being subjected deprives it of its nutrient

properties and also its digestibility. Again, however, he hasbeen able to show that reason was on his side and that milk

after boiling is not only more easily digested, but has actuallya higher nutrient value than in the crude state. We allude

especially to Dr. Chamouin’s experiments, in which he

fed a number of kittens on boiled milk and an equalnumber of kittens on the same milk as it came direct from

the cow or the goat. Those of the former category he foundto be twice again as fat and healthy as those of the latter.A kitten, however, which was left to its mother was the

fattest and healthiest of all, though this was due to the

assiduous attention which the maternal instinct supplied andwhich the experimenter pleasantly admitted was beyond theresources of the laboratory. Following up his demonstra-tion, Dr. Chamouin examined the statistics officially issuedby the Town Council of Paris as to the infantile mortality ofthat city, and finding that the chief cause of this was, directlyor remotely, intestinal ailments, he prosecuted his researchesstill further, so as to include a comparison between thoseinfants that had been fed on boiled and those that had beenfed on unboiled milk. As he anticipated, he found a remark-able diminution in the death-rate of the former. His investi-

gation was continued long enough to show that thousands ofnfants are annually safeguarded from intestinal disease anddeath by the precaution of boiling the milk on which theyfeed.

THE PREVENTION OF "OVERLAYING."

THE Registrar-General, in his last annual report, noticesthe fact that more than twice as many infants are

suffocated by "overlaying" on Saturday than on any othernight in the week, and this he attributes, no doubtwith perfect justice, to the intoxication of the parentsduring the previous waking hours. This is not the first

time that a connexion between drunkenness and what,in view of obvious risks, is really a form of infanticide,has been commented on. Unfortunately the whole processof causation in respect of the latter cannot thus be ex-

plained. Even if this were possible we could hardly hope byany near or general advance of the temperance movementto reduce materially this heavy tribute of child life, but some-thing should certainly be possible by another and moredirect procedure. Rather more than a year ago, in treating ofthis subject, we took occasion to denounce the common

custom which allows mothers and infants to occupy the samebed. We fail to see why this practice should be any longerpermitted. Unless perhaps in certain exceptional cases oflow infantile vitality there can be no excuse for its continu-ance. Over and over again it has been shown to be directlyand almost inevitably accountable for a certain constant lossof infant life. Why, then, should not a young child, like anyother, sleep in a separate cot ? The cost of providing thisis trifling. The necessity is imperative, and we see no reasonwhy the absence of such an arrangement should not be heldto be as punishable an offence as ordinary overcrowding.

MINUTE ANATOMY OF THE LUNG.

DR. W. S. MILLER of dark University has done someuseful work on the minute anatomy of the lung, and has thusadded to the investigations previously carried out by Ewartand others. A paper by Dr. Miller is published in the

Anatomisches Anzeiger, Nos. 7 and 8, April, 1892.1 The lungwas studied in various ways-by injections, corrosions andreconstructions. The last-named method was carried out asfollows: For the more complex lungs the reconstructionmethod of Born was resorted to, by which, after the devotion

1 Abstract in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, June 30th,1892.

of nearly two years to a single specimen, the desired effectwas produced. The lung was first prepared by making a tripleinjection by which the capillaries were tilled with Prussian blue,the arteries with vermillion and the veins with ultramarine-blue gelatine. A single lobule was then removed, imbeddedin paraffin and cut into sections twenty micro-millimetres thick.The magnifying power employed in reconstruction was onehundred, and each section was drawn on a wax plate twomillimetres thick. As long as the terminal bronchus was inthe section it was quite easy to locate all the air cells fromsection to section. Beyond the terminal bronchus the loca-tion of the bloodvessels and the shape of the air vesiclesserved as guides. In this way all the air cells communicatingwith one bronchus were drawn on wax plates and the sec-tions carefully cut out. The framework left, when piled up,gave an exact model of the air sacs, and the pieces piled gavea "corrosion" of the same. The models were now cut invarious directions in order to study the relation of the airsacs to the terminal bronchus. These studies, which weremade on a dog’s lung, gave the following result :-A ter-minal bronchus gives off a number of passages called vesti-

bules, each opening into an expansion called the atrium.From this three or more air sac passages run to as manyair sacs, which are much larger than the atria. Around

the air sacs lie the air cells-to be accurate, it should

be said some of the air cells, for there are others arisingfrom the bronchi and from the atria. The air cells do not

communicate directly one with another. Dr. Miller states

that the walls of the atria are thin, like those of the air sacs,having a network of capillaries enclosed in them. From this

it may be inferred that these parts, as well as the air cells,serve for respiration. The branches of the pulmonary arteryfollow the bronchi. Somewhat beyond the terminal bronchusthe vessel divides into as many terminal branches as thereare atria. Their ramifications cover the central side of the

air sacs, the capillary network which arises from them

enveloping the whole system, and emptying into veins whichlie on the peripheral side. In the lobule each air sac has a

vein running at right angles to the direction of the artery.For the most part the veins keep on the periphery of thelobule. Each air sac has an artery on its central and a veinon its peripheral side, with a rich capillary system betweenthem.

THE ITALIAN CONGRESS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE.

ON October 25th next and on the ensuing days up to the28th inclusive the " Società Italiana di Medicina Interna "

will hold its fifth annual Congress in Rome. Its Presidentwill once more be Dr. Guido Baccelli, professor of clinicalmedicine at the Sapienza, and its proceedings will this yearhave the special interest of forming, so to speak, a preludeto the " Congresso Medico Internazionale di 1893, " which,according to the Italian press, will constitute the most

significant event which scientific Italy has witnessed sincethe revival of learning. The agenda paper for the meetingof Oct. 25th next includes three subjects of the highestimportance, theoretical and practical-subjects fixed upon atthe Congress of last year, and, according to the commend-able Italian custom, consigned to special "relatori" (re-porters), two for each subject, who have already provedthemselves experts or proficients in the same. These are :

(1) Inflammatory Alteration of the Cerebrum and its Treat-ment, by Professors L. Bianchi and F. Vizioli; (2) Climate asa Therapeutic Agent, by Professors C. Forlanini and B.

Luzzatto ; and (3) Rheumatic Infection, by Professors A.Riva and T. Gualdi. Besides these central themes a numberof subsidiary ones will be introduced, several of which havealready been announced by intending participants at theCongress, while others will be intimated to the organisingcommittee before the 15th prox., after which no communica,

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tions of the kind can be received. The terms on which the

profession in Italy are invited to assist at the Congressare liberal enough to show the interest taken by the Govern-ment in its success-a ten-franc subscription entitling thesubscriber to travel by railway at reduced fares and toreceive a copy of the official Atti di Congresso. " Repre-sentatives of the profession from foreign countries are also,as we can testify, cordially welcomed on these occasions bytheir Italian brethren, and British.practitioners or consultantswhose autumnal holiday may find them in Rome during thelast week of October would find much to interest and gratifythem in the proceedings of the Congress. With this view,applications for tickets of membership should be made toDr. Edoardo Maragliano, professor of clinical medicine inthe Genoese school (Via Galata, 39, Genoa), who has beencommissioned by the organising committee to furnish all

applicants with the required information.

LAVATORIES AT RAILWAY STATIONS.

ANYTHING that seriously affects the comfort of the largerhalf of the English people can hardly be a matter of trivialconsequence, and this is of course the more true if the healthof so many persons is at the same time involved. Such amatter is public lavatory accommodation, respecting whichcomplaints have recently been heard that due provision hasnot been made for the larger-that is, the female-section ofthe community. A lady writes to us objecting to the pennytax imposed on those of her sex who make use of this formof convenience at railway stations. We confess that wecan to some extent appreciate, though we do not per-haps entirely sympathise, with her view on the subject.In so far as the needful relief of physical discomfort is con-cerned the railway companies are certainly bound to provideamply for it. This, we allow, is not done at most railwaystations, and herein there is clearly room for improvement.At the same time it must not be forgotten that sometimeseven passenger trains are fitted with needful appliancefor securing a fair measure of comfort. Curiously andalso culpably enough the purpose of cleanliness is aptto be more evident than its practice in this case, for manyof the lavatories are by no means well kept. When, how-

ever, we come to questions of copious water-supply and thefinding of well-washed linen towels we confess that the rightto charge a trifle seems to us to be fully justified. The

lesser, coarser, and in many ways inferior male half of thepopulation are in this respect no more highly favoured thantheir feminine betters.

INJECTION OF MILK INTO THE VEINS.

A CORRESPONDENT writes to ask us whether the state-

ment contained in Cope’s Natural History of 1864 betrue that "if milk be injected into a vein it will quicklybecome fatal, and that with more certain destruction thaneven the venom of the viper. " Our correspondent also wantsto know, if this be true, how is the danger brought about. Itis not the first time these questions have been submitted tous for answer, and we admit they are difficult because theevidence is conflicting. It would seem that in some casesnew milk injected into a vein undergoes coagulation and bythe immediate plugging of the veins which it induces causes

rapid death from mechanical arrest of the circulation. Wehave reason to know that this has been proved by experiment,and also that on injecting fresh milk into the peritoneal cavityof a narcotised animal, in order to ascertain if there wouldbe absorption of the fluid from the peritoneal surface,absorption of the saline and watery part, with coagula-tion of the caseine in rather a dense layer over the intestinalsurface has been demonstrated. These facts would seem to

give credence to the statement that milk cannot be safelyinjected into the system; but there are other experiences that

modify that view. In 1854 the late Dr. W. Bird Herapath ofBristol suggested that milk should be injected into the veinsof persons in the collapse of cholera ; and it is the fact that

Dr. James Bovell of Toronto did inject milk in such cases inthe cholera sheds of Toronto in the same year, acting inde-pendently on his own suggestion. Dr. Bovell reported on sixcases in which he injected fresh cow’s milk and two of thecases recovered. It was objected by ourselves and byothers at the time that two cases afforded insuffi-cient evidence of a direct advance in practice, and

that the quantities of milk transfused-twelve ounces

in one case and eight ounces in the other-were too

small to give assurance of positive results apart fromother influences that were at work and that would accountfor the recoveries. At the same time the experiences provedthat there are circumstances under which milk can be injectedinto the venous circuit without danger, and that one of thosecircumstances is a condition when this remedial measure is

most demanded and most promising. For the moment we

may leave the matter with two suggestions-namely, thatthe danger which may result from the presence of milk inthe veins is not septic, but is from coagulation of the milkand the plugging arising therefrom ; and that if this

danger could be prevented very important results mightbe obtainable from transfusion of milk in collapse of thecholeraic type.

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FUNCTIONAL NERVOUS DISEASES.

DR. W. H. THOMSON of New York recently read a paperbefore the Association of American Physicians on the abovesubject. An abstract is given in the Boston Medical andSurgical Journal of June 30th. The term functional" has

been applied in general to nervous diseases in which nocharacteristic organic changes have yet been demonstrated.Most writers, however, regard the term as only provisional,on the assumption that some kind of structural changein nervous matter must underlie every definite nervous dis-order and that such change will in time be found. Dr.Thomson has long been of opinion that there are inter-mittent nervous disorders which cannot be explained by anyhypothesis of changes in nervous matter, whether molecularor otherwise, but are to be explained by the varied states ofthe blood. By a proper selection of functional poisons someclose imitations of functional neuroses can be artificially in-duced and cause neuralgia, paralysis, delirium, convulsionsand all intermittent symptoms of the kind, and then it is notedthat these symptoms disappear in about the time and orderthat the functional nervous attacks decline. Another corre-

spondence between functional poisons and functionalneuroses is that in both pathological anatomy affords noassistance in the explanation of the results. Modern

chemistry has shown that in the healthiest processes of ourdigestion a whole series of poisons are elaborated which areof the same nature as the functional poisons with which wehave been long familiar, and are quite sufficient to cause

every variety of functional nervous derangement and even tokill, without the microscope or scalpel being able to tell why.Against the perils of auto-infection the system is providedwith a variety of safeguards. One of the most efficient seemsto be the antiseptic properties of the digestive secretions,which keep the putrefactive processes in the alimentarycanal in check. The liver also subserves a preservativefunction against auto-infection. But the complex che-

mistry of these secretions is liable to numerous dis-

turbing influences, notably nervous irritations. If nervousinfluences are capable of deranging the chemistry of the

body, why may not such perturbances of nervous origin,occurring now and then as nervous actions characteristicallydo, suffice to produce either increased amounts of alkaloidalpoisons or else to diminish the effectiveness of the normal