ALE AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

494 this war the military despatches, as well as the report of cortex. The clinical and pathological interest of the case the Commission on the medical service and Mr. Bordett- lay in the fact that owing to the intact condition of the Ooutts’s comments, require to be studied-a long and some- auditory and visual word centres-the superior temporal what formidable task. The situation set forth in Earl and angular gyri-these centres could incite their respective Roberts’s despatches was an altogether exceptional one. He kinsesthetic centres of word-utterance and word-writing to had to undertake and carry out a very rapid plan of campaign activity and thus both writing and speaking were possible, and in order to do this successfully he had to incur certain but the local destruction of the calcarine and adjacent risks by setting aside for a time the ordinary rules and pre- cortex on the left side (primary visual cortical centre) procautions of war, and it was at this time and under these duced not only hemiopia but also sufficient defect and conditions that there occurred a very severe outbreak of disturbance in the secondary visual centre (visual word enteric fever. The question is how far was it possible for centre) of the same hemisphere to prevent the visual anyone to foresee, and having foreseen it to prevent, the recognition of written or printed words. sad sequel. AND BEER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. THE ERITH DISTRICT COUNCIL AND THE THE composition of ale and beer has always been of MEDICAL OFFICER TO THE ERITH interest to members of the medical profession. Dr. Andrewe SANATORIUM. Boorde, who lived in the reign of Henry VIIL, gives a full MR. JOHN ELLIOT, medical officer to, and also founder account of the composition of most of the beverages which of, the Erith Sanatorium, has been called on to resign were in use in his own time. He considered that water was " his post by a majority of one at a meeting of the Erith not " holsome sole by it selfe for an Englyssheman because District Council, and. according to a report of the pro- it was " colde, slowe, and slacke of dygestyon." Ale, he ceedings in the Erith Times of Feb. 8th, it was on informa- said, for an Englishman was the natural drink. It was in his tion verbally supplied by a subordinate nurse belonging to time made of malt and water fermented by yeast. It had, the establishment that this measure was decided upon. in his to be and not fresh clear, opinion, ropy or smoky. Needless to say that should such really prove to have been It appears to have been drunk very shortly after it was made, the case the intervention of higher authority is urgently for he says that it ought not to be drunk under five days old, called for and will no doubt be forthcoming. It is worthy and that new ale was unwholesome for all men. He of note that among the councillors who opposed Mr. Elliot observed also that sour ale was good for no man, an observathere should be the mover of an amendment objecting to the tion which has been confirmed by subsequent experience. forwarding of a vote of condolence to the Royal Family upon Contrary to the opinion of some modern brewers, he conrecent events. sidered that barley malt made the best ale. He confessed, however, that in spite of its good qualities the beverage AN ANOMALOUS CASE OF WORD-BLINDNESS engendered gross humours, but he added that it made a man WITHOUT APHEMIA OR AGRAPHIA. strong. In his description of the composition of ale no PROFESSOR BRISSAUD of the Salpetriere has made an reference is made to hops and it appears that they were interesting communication on the above subject, an account not used in the drink which he called ale for he looked of which has appeared in the Are7ives de Neu’I’olo.qie for upon other ingredients except those which he men.January. The case is one of word-blindness where the tioned as being adulterations. The composition of beer question arose as to whether the cerebral lesion was situated was different. It was made of malt, hops, and water, in the parietal (angular) region or in the occipital (calcarine) and was, he observed, the natural drink for a Dutchman. region and whether it was cortical or subcortical in Of late days it had indeed been used in England position. The case was that of a man, aged 57 years, who was but unfortunately with detriment to many Englishmen, and admitted to hospital for a severe attack of enteritis. His it was especially harmful to those who suffered from colic, friends stated that he had lately failed to recognise ordinary "for the drynke is a colde drynke,"he observed. Yet he objects and was inclined to oddities of conduct. The patient said it made a man fat-a point on which the observer seemed to be well behaved on admission and after some could satisfy himself by examining the faces and other effort and difficulty he succeeded in giving the following parts of the persons of Dutchmen. The beverage had, history. For a certain length of time prior to admission he however, one good point, which was that if it were well found himself quite unable to read although he was, and still served in good condition and not new it qualified the heat appeared to be, capable of writing. He continued in of the liver. Dr. Boorde was a great traveller and amongst the extraordinary condition of being absolutely unable to other things he especially noticed the condition of the food read his name and address which he had just written with and the drink in all the places which he visited. Of the ale of his own hand. He only saw the black lines of the writing Cornwall he formed a very low estimate ; it looked white and on the white background of the paper, but they conveyed thick,.. as’ if pygges had wrastled" in it, and he gives the to him no significance visually. Hemiopia was also found some unsavoury particulars as to intellects of to be present, but without hemiplegia. He continued in drinking this beverage into which, perhaps, it is hardly a febrile condition, passed into coma, and died the same necessary to follow him. In Boorde’s time it does not day. At the necropsy the following pathological changes appear that Scotland was celebrated for good ale as a were discovered-viz., an old cortical softening involving general rule. Although fish and flesh were to be had there the inferior fourofifths of the cuneus and the whole of the in plenty, the ale, he says, was evil, with the sole exception calcarine fissure as well as almost the whole of the lingual of that brewed at Leith. Dr. Boorde was extremely lobule on the left side ; a secondary degeneration of the severe in the punishments which he thought should be tapetum and of the optic radiations on the same side, but meted out to brewers of bad ale and to those who gave without lesion of the inferior longitudinal fasciculus or short measure. He gave it as his opinion that they ought to parietal cortex or any other subcortical region. The be placed in the Thames up to their chins and three inches degeneration of the tapetum could be traced into the above, and suggested that when they came out they would splenium of the corpus callosum and thus into the right have to shake their ears as a spaniel that verily came out of hemisphere where it seemed to terminate in the tapetum and the water. Dr. Boorde devotes one chapter of his book to calcarine region of that side without affecting the optic soups, stews, and other articles of diet which would now be radiations or the white substance subjacent to the calcarine classified under the general heading of invalid food. -

--

ALE

____

495 his recipes he recommended ale brews and caudles In many for weak men who could not eat solid meat. country districts these old-fashioned compositions are still used and sometimes perhaps with satisfactory results.

Amongst

THE TRAFFIC IN

OLD HORSES.

IN our issue of Dec. 3rd, 1898, p. 1492, in an annotation under the above heading, we called attention to the fact that an Order had been issued by the Board of Agriculture under which it should from Jan. lst, 1899, be unlawful to convey from any port in the British Isles to any place outside the British Isles " any horse which, owing to age, infirmity, illness, fatigue, or any other reason, cannot be so conveyed without cruelty during the intended passage and upon landing." Offences under this Order were to be dealt with as under the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894. On Jan. 8th, two men, Ernest Ellis and Charles Wilson, were charged at the Thames Police-court with cruelty to 13 horses by leading them when unfit to travel. One horse was so weak and lame that it fell down in the road and the foot of another was partly destroyed. The horses were going to Rotterdam and had come from Stratford. Inspector Rogers said that there was no Government inspector to look after such horses. The wharf from which they were to be shipped belonged to the London and India Joint Docks Committee. They had an inspector, but he never interfered. Mr. Dickinson said that the defendants were only the agents of someone else and fined them .65 and .S3 2s. costs each. We should be glad to know why such cases are not dealt with under the Order of the Board of Agriculture and the Diseases of Animals Act. If the accused, whose delinquency we have just described, had been thus proceeded against it seems that they could have been fined (apparently, under Section 51) a sum of E5 for each animal, or 965 in all. As we have said upon previous occasions, this infamous traffic ought to be stopped altogether. Not only does it give rise to gross cruelty, but it must be remembered that the flesh of these wretched animals is used for human food. Possibly it returns here in the shape of " delicacies," but even if it does not it is not fitting that we should assist in poisoning our neighbours on the other side of the North Sea.

will find that

the amount of arsenic exceeded 1’4 perscent. In view of this fact his calculations are of no value whatever. Professor Stutzer, however, points out that plants, especially in the state of germination, are just as sensitive to arsenic as men and’animals and no ill effects have, as a matter of fact, followed the use of superphosphate On the contrary, the crops increase under the as a fertiliser. influence of superphosphate.

THE ALLEGED DRYNESS OF AIR IN WARMED BY GAS FIRES.

ROOMS

COMPLAINT is frequently made as to the drying effect of gas fires on the air of the room, so that any information on the subject calculated to lead to this effect being avoided is welcome. According to Mr. Thomas Fletcher, F.C.S., a well-known gas-stove maker, the feeling of dryneis is not due to the reduction of the moisture in the air but to some of the products of combustion escaping into the room. He regards the unpleasant feeling of dryness in the throat and nostrils as being caused by a trace of sulphur in the products of combustion escaping, a statement which would appear to be verified by the fact that a strip of wet blue litmus paper exposed to the air quickly reddens, pointing to the conclusion that the alleged fault of gas fires is caused entirely by defective fiues. According to hygrometric measurements he shows that the percentage of moisture maintained in a room was much the same with a gas fire as with a coal fire. The results are much the same whether the stove has an air-warming arrangement or not, apart from the radiant heat it produces. The percentageamount of moisture was arrived at by using a wet and a dry bulb thermometer. The difference in degrees between the two thermometers was multiplied by six and the product deducted from 100, which was regarded to give approximately the percentage of moisture, taking complete saturation as 100. Mr. Fletcher states that this method is perfectly reliable for com-parative observations between the effect of gas fires and coal fires at the same temperatures. It is concluded that in an inhabited room from 58 per cent. to 72 per cent. of moisture at. about 62° F. will be pleasant, and this is easily obtained with either a coal fire or incandescent gas fire except when the outer air is completely saturated with moisture. Apart from the observation on the discomfort caused by sulphur compounds escaping in the products of combustion the feeling of ARSENIC IN ARTIFICIAL MANURES. comfort and warmth depends, as we should have supposedIN an annotation in THE LANCET of Dec. 22nd, 1900, although the point has not had sufficient attention paid to it p. 1828, we reported the presence of arsenic in artificial in regard to the management of sick rooms and hospitalsmanures, and the question arises as to whether the quantity rather on the amount of moisture in the air than on the of arsenic thus present would be absorbed by plants and thus actual temperature as shown by a thermometer. afford a possible explanation of the presence of arsenic in malt and hops. Our observations have given rise to much BRAIN INJURY FOLLOWED BY WHISTLING discussion amongst agriculturists, and especially amongst SPELLS. the manufacturers The of ___

superphosphate.

opinion

DR. WILLIAM KRAUSS has recorded in the January generally held by agricultural chemists that the quantity of arsenic present in superphosphates might number of the Journal of Ne’l’vo’us and -31ental Disease an safely be neglected as it is so minute. In a communication interesting case of brain injury with consequent periods of sent to us by a firm of artificial manure manufacturers whistling, which attracted much attention at the time and Dr. Stutzer (the professor of agricultural chemistry at the also possessed considerable clinical interest. The case was University of Königsberg) arrives at the conclusion that the that of a man, aged 27 years, of Polish descent, by occupapercentage of arsenic in the soil after 49 years of experi- tion a herdsman in the East Baffalo stockyards. He was a ments, as at Rothamsted, would have risen to 00002. Of man of powerful build and physique, about six feet in height Some months prior to the course, from these figures it would appear that we have to and weighing nearly 230 lb. deal with such very minute quantities that there cannot accident which brought on his present illness he had had a be any question whatever of poisoning the plants through stroke of left sided hemiplegia from which he was recovering. arsenic. We may point out, however, that this calcula- He slowly regained the use of the left arm and leg and was tion is based upon the assumption that the quantity of able to resume his occupation. On the morning of Dec. 30th, arsenic in sulphuric acid is generally from 0’05 up to 1898, he was found unconscious and lying along a railway 0’10. Now according to the analysis of the sulphuric acid line with three scalp wounds, having probably been struck concerned in the beer-poisoning epidemic, as given in by a passing train during the night. On examination there THE LANCET of Dec. lst, 1900, page 1602, Professor Stutzer was a depressed fracture of the skull three inches above and, seems

to be