complaint of spinal tenderness, the use of a Paquelin cautery often affords marked relief to the pain.

Measures of prophylaxis ought not to be neglected. Children born of neuropathic parents should be safeguarded from the risks of their heredity by strengthening, as far as possible, the energy and resistance of their nervous centers. This can best be done by employing every hygienic means, during their developmental period, to ensure such a physical and moral education as shall substitute an acquired stable individual habit for an inborn untable tendency without risk of over-pressure. An adult who has once suffered from neurasthenia may do much to lessen the risk of recurrent attacks by careful regulation of his daily habits of life.

He must arrange his work so as to avoid undue fatigue. He should have long nights in bed, observe regularity in regard to his meals and exercise, and make a point of seeking periodically a short respite from the daily routine of duty by a change of scene and surroundings. He ought to decline all responsibilities involving prolonged worry or anxiety, and every slight ailment should be treated with more than ordinary care, so as to lessen the risk of strain on his nervous system.-From "The Medical Examiner and Practitioner," March, 1904.

PREPARING CLAMS FOR FOOD PURPOSES.—In the coast districts of many countries clams are used as an article of food to a large degree, especially by the poorer classes. It has now been shown that these common clams, as is also the case with the finest oysters, are occasionally infested with typhus bacilli, and are therefore very dangerous. If they are cooked at all, it is in most cases done so superficially that the bacteria are not killed thereby. The method, especially, of placing the nets containing clams for a short time in hot water is not sufficient. Doctor Klein, the bacteriologist, has demonstrated that this nutritious food can be entirely freed from deleterious additions by cooking it for a longer time. Clams should always be boiled in steam. If three layers of them are cooked by steam at the same time, ten minutes are sufficient for the lower layer and fifteen for the two others. Bacteriological investigation has demonstrated that after steaming clams for the length of time mentioned, no living bacteria, introduced into them before, were found. Steaming clams is far superior to boiling them in waterRichard Guenther, Consul-General, Frankfort, Germany, January 26, 1904.

(From United States Consul Smyth, Tunstall, England-Consular Reports for May.)

We are just now having an echo in the courts of the epidemic of poisoning which broke out in Lancashire and Yorkshire four years ago, and which was subsequently traced to arsenical contamination. of beer. Many deaths occurred at the time and so great was the sensation produced that the government was forced to step in and appoint a commission of experts with instructions and full powers to tap every source of information available with a view of locating the responsibility. This was done in the most thorough manner, as the report issued in the form of "blue books" unmistakably shows.

The head of this commission was Lord Kelvin, well known in the scientific world on both sides of the Atlantic, and associated with him were some of the cleverest analysts and toxicologists in the country.

In the present case judgment has been entered against the defendants, but the question of damages is still in abeyance.

SULPHURIC ACID FROM PYRITES.

Messrs. Bostock & Co., plaintiffs, were manufacturers of glucose, or "invert" sugar, at Liverpool and had a large trade with brewers in Lancashire and Yorkshire for that product. Messrs. John Nicholson & Sons, of Hunslet, Leeds, defendants, had a contract to supply the plaintiffs with sulphuric acid to be used in the preparation of brewing sugar.

The analytical tests showed that this acid was impure, inasmuch as it contained arsenic in such quantities that the wort was poisoned and the ultimate brew rendered unfit and unsafe for human consumption. When this fact became known, Messrs. Bostock & Co. lost their trade and were eventually forced into liquidation. They sued for £300,000 ($1,460,000) damages for violation of contract, alleging that the defendants supplied them with an impure acid made from pyrites, when the conditions of their contract required them to provide a pure, commercial acid made from brimstone. The defendants denied any knowledge of the fact that the plaintiffs were using this acid in the preparation of glucose for brewing purposes, and stated that in this country pyrites had for nearly thirty years superseded the use of brimstone in the manufacture of sulphuric acid.

Pyrites, I may add, are imported chiefly from Spain and Portugal.

The progress of the case was watched with great interest, particularly by the brewers. The evidence of the public analyst for Liverpool was one of the sensational features of the trial. He declared that there was a sufficient quantity of arsenic in the acid supplied to Messrs Bostock & Co. to kill a million people a week. This showed that the discovery was made none too soon. Had the analysts failed to come to the aid of the physicians in determining their diagnoses, the consequences to beer consumers in the districts named would have been very little short of appalling.

ADULTERATION OF ENGLISH FOOD PRODUCTS.

All the circumstances connected with this case are focused on the vital question of food and drink adulteration, as indicating the remarkable changes that have taken place in this country within the last quarter of a century. In confirmation of this, it is only necessary to refer to the efforts of the government to check the evil by legislation and by a system of espionage on the part of inspectors and experts that has been attended by very poor results so far. English ale-commonly called beer-was from time immemorial associated in people's minds with the highest standards of purity in fermented drink; but its purity has been questioned, and the effects of this questioning are not likely to fade away as long as the present generation remains.

When the real cause of the epidemic became known the beer drinkers in many districts were seized with panic and adopted whisky or gin as a substitute; brewing stocks fell, and both producer and consumer had to suffer from the general excitement and alarm.

ARSENIATED GLUCOSE AND SULPHURIC ACID.

The quantity of arsenic, as arsenious oxide, discovered in samples of Bostock glucose taken from the breweries varied to a great extent, and in many cases was very large. The analysis of Professor Delepine, of Owens College, Manchester, showed 1.05 to 6.6 grains per pound; that by Mr. E. W. T. Jones, public analyst of Staffordshire (1 sample), 1.6 grains per pound; while Professor Campbell Brown, University College, Liverpool, examined a sample that contained a percentage equal to 9.17 grains per pound. Samples of "invert" sugar manufactured by the same firm and taken from the breweries showed quantities of arsenic in relatively large proportions, some of these as high as 4.34 grains per pound. The examination of the sulphuric acid used in the manufacture of

these sugars that is to say, glucose or "invert"-showed an exceptionally high percentage of arsenious oxide, the quantity present in some samples running as high as 2.06 per cent. This acid. was made from pyrites and was supplied by Messrs. Nicholson & Sons to Messrs. Bostock & Co. from February until November in one year.

ANALYTICAL TESTS OF BEER SAMPLES.

The analysis of some samples of beer brewed from these sugars brought out startling revelations. The quantity of arsenic ran as high as 1.5 grains per gallon, while in one case it reached 3 grains per gallon. Under such circumstances there is no room left to wonder at the spread of an epidemic among the masses of the two greatest industrial districts in England, when its causes and its pathology have been so clearly and firmly established. While no accurate estimate of the number of people affected could be ascertained, it is generally presumed that 10,000 would be nearly cor

rect.

Before the pathology of the epidemic had been thoroughly understood hundreds of cases were treated as "chronic alcoholism," "cirrhosis of the liver," and various aggravated types of neuritis. It was about this time that a local practitioner brought the attention of the medical profession to a morbid condition found in many Manchester beer drinkers known as the "alcoholic heart."

CONTAMINATED TABLE SIRUPS.

Shortly after the discovery of arsenic in the brewing sugar of Messrs. Bostock & Co. the government inspectors found that the firm was about to place upon the market a new product in the form of a "table sirup," made from sugar "inverted" by Nicholson's sulphuric acid. This sirup was put up in two-pound tins, a large quantity of which had been sent to retail traders as trial samples. As good luck would have it, the sirup became solidified in the tins, through some accident in the process of manufacture, and all were returned. The analysis of Doctor McGowan, one of the experts to the commission, showed 1 grain of arsenic to each pound of this sirup. The whole stock, amounting to 14 tons, was thereupon destroyed.

ARSENICAL CONTAMINATION OF MALT.

In several instances it was found that beer manufactured by brewers using glucose, or "invert," other than Bostock's, contained arsenic. This led to closer examination on the part of the experts, which resulted in tracing the contamination to the malt kiln where gas coke was used as fuel. The economy of the latter as a substitute for oven coke, or "picked" anthracite, led to its use

by maltsters in the remote districts of Yorkshire and other counties. The arsenic in the fumes of the gas coke was brought into direct contact with the malt, deposited on the grain, and subsequently conveyed to the fermenting tub. The method of treating malt in these kilns was primitive and careless; in the brushing or cleansing process, which is an important feature of malt preparation, this is especially true. In defense of these methods, it was argued that malt treated in this manner derives a certain flavor, which is imparted to the beer and is very much appreciated by consumers. Admitting this, and ruling out the use of gas coke, a suggestion was made that the fumes of the fire might be advantageously passed through a screen of lime at the exit, so that the arsenic passed off in combustion might be taken up and the malt thus protected against contamination. A number of experiments in this direction are now in progress where the reconstruction of the kilns becomes a matter of impossibility from an economic point of view. All the leading brewers in this country now manufacture their own malt.

ADULTERATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS.

Incidentally, the attention of the commissioners was directed to the subject of arsenical contamination of certain food products and its effect upon the public health. The dangers from this source through preservatives, mineral coloring matters, etc., are pointed out and the people are admonished to be on their guard against them. Coal-tar products, caramel, phosphoric acid and phosphates, boric acid and borates, yeast foods, tartaric and citric acids, iron oxides, and glycerin are specially scheduled under this head. There is probably no country in the world so much exposed to the pernicious consequences of food adulteration as England is to-day. This is the result of sweeping changes in the agricultural, economic, and social conditions which have taken place concurrently with the steady increase in population and the enormous demand for food supplies from outside sources. Nearly every quarter of the globe contributes its quota, while the science and resources of chemistry are being constantly ransacked to supply us with some new and subtle product as a substitute for food, or the real thing itself, patented by the law and promulgated by the press through advertisements. We have reached that stage when it is well-nigh impossible, when we sit down to a meal, to tell where our food comes from or what it contains; we take some of it, as we do medicine, and wait for results. London gets the best of everything; the poor provincial has to take what is left-the adulterated residue;