COLD WEATHER AND PLANT LIFE.

1217 flabbv and oedematous. There was ulcerative endo- upon the well-being of individuals than hitherto has been fluid in the uterus contained streptococci conceded to it when we consider the important part which metritis. and abundance in they were also present in sections of all moisture plays in the great vital processes. The study of the coats of the organ ; some of the venules were thrombosed. moisture in air as a factor in health is still in its infancy, There was no pelvic peritonitis, but there was a little and it is a question whether, after all, the great fluctuaThe liver tions in the degree of humidity of the air to which we opaque serous fluid in the pelvic cavity. On section it showed in the English climate are exposed are not more directly was large and a little softened. greenish and violaceous colours. The gall-bladder con- responsible for unsteady health than are the variations of tained transparent fluid devoid of bile-pigment but giving temperature. The fluid contained numerous Pettenkofer’s reaction. a few SUTURE OF THE RECURRENT LARYNGEAL cells, polynuclear leucocytes, and streptoepithelial cocci. There was no obstruction of the bile-duct or biliary NERVE. passages, and histological examination of the intra-hepatic IN the Bost(ln Medical and Surgical J01lrnal of Feb. 24th ducts showed no angiocholitis. Fragments of liver, the Dr. J. S. Horsley has reported what appears to be the only surface of which was cauterised, yielded a culture of strepto- case on record of suture of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in cocci. Histological examination of the liver was un- man. A considerable amount of experimental work has been satisfactory in consequence of decomposition. This case is done, chiefly by those interested in veterinary surgery, in a further example of the thesis of M. Abrami and M. which the left recurrent laryngeal nerve was divided and Lemierre that infectious jaundice is usually only a localisaimplanted higher in the vagus. Most of these experiments tion in the liver of a general bacterisemia. It is generally were successful in restoring the function of the laryngeal supposed that such cases are examples of angiocholitis, muscles supplied by the nerve. In Dr. Horsley’s case which, by causing swelling of the biliary passages, pro- the left recurrent was injured by a bullet and all duces retention. Angiocholitis, no doubt, occurs in some the laryngeal muscles supplied by it were paralysed. cases of infectious jaundice, but such cases as the one now Three months after the injury an incision was made along recorded suggest the question whether when present it is the anterior border of the sterno-cleido-mastoid muscle and the cause of the !jaundice or only an accessory condition. the injured nerve was easily found in the groove between the Further, marked angiocholitis has been found in cases cesophagus and trachea. The injured portion was excised, without the slightest trace of jaundice. It follows that excepting a small filament consisting of the posterior part infectious jaundice is due to parenchymatous changes in of the nerve sheath. The ends of the nerve were brought the liver itself-in other words, to hepatitis. together with a single suture of No. 0 chromic catgut and a fine curved needle. Some muscle tissue was drawn COLD WEATHER AND PLANT LIFE. over the sutured nerve. The wound healed by first intention THE present snap of cold weather in regard to its effect and the patient left the hospital nine days after the operation upon the life-processes of the plant recall the results of with no improvement in voice or breathing. Subsequently some interesting experiments in which plants were submitted gradual improvement occurred. About two months after to artificial cold and to the action of certain volatile fluids. a laryngologist found improvement in the muscles operation It is well known that the’potato develops a sweet flavour after the nerve ; 15 months after the operation supplied by it’’has ’been exposed to frost, and there seems to be little recovery was complete. doubt that this is due to the formation and accumulation of were

The

-

the enzyme. Under favourable conditions of there is no accumulation of sugar, because the oxidation or respiratory process proceeds unhindered and sugar disappears. Cold does not stop the enzyme working, but it arrests the respiratory process, which thus fails to destroy the sugar, and so it accumulates in the tuber and gives it the well-known sweet taste of a frostbitten potato. Further observations have shown that cold precipitates an interaction between such glucosides as are present in the leaves of certain plants. When, for example, the leaves of crucifers are strongly chilled or exposed to the vapour :of chloroform they soon give evidence of mustard oil being present. Similarly, the leaves of gaultheria produce methyl salicylate, the constituent of winter-green oil. Then in the case of those plants which produce hydrocyanic acid, the so-called cyanogenetic plants, the leaves on chilling evolve prussic acid. For some reason not yet clear it would appear, therefore, that the chloroformisation or etherisation, or chilling of plant leaves sets up an interaction between what glucosides and ferments are present, resulting in a premature formation of products which would be steadily and continuously evolved under normal conditions of temperature. It is hardly surprising, in view of these results, that when the even tenour of the spring or summer season is disturbed by the intrusion of a period of very cold and severe weather a profound influence one way or another is brought to bear upon vegetable life. It is difficult to conclude that unseasonable weather is without similar disturbances on the human mechanism. Apart from temperature, the question of moisture alone has a greater bearing

sugar

by

THE TREATMENT OF MENINGOCOCCUS CARRIERS.

temperature

THE part played by the healthy carrier of certain infective organisms in disseminating the diseases produced by them is now generally recognised, and measures for the diagnosis and quarantine of carriers have been frequently discussed, notably in regard to carriers of the typhoid and paratyphoid organisms, the diphtheria bacillus, and the meningococcus. We published in THE LANCET of April 16th an annotation dealing with the measures employed to deal with the carriers of the meningococcus in Belgium. An interesting paper by Dr. Hans Bethge of Gelsenkirchen appears in the Deictsche lYledizinische Y’ochense2rift, No.2, 1910, describing the means employed to deal with the carriers in an epidemic of meningococcal meningitis at the Catholic Orphan Asylum in that town. Nine cases of the disease occurred, 8 of the patients being girls, one a boy. They were treated by intraspinal injections of KolleWassermann serum and all recovered, except one child which died some months later from pulmonary tuberculosis. All the

inmates of the institution

examined for the presence of naso-pharynx and 60 carriers were meningococci found, distributed as follows : 5 nurses, 2 workmen, 32 girls, and 21 boys. Of these, 57 were isolated and systematic endeavours were made to get rid of the meningococcus by In order tojudge better of the relative various means. value of the different measures employed, the 57 carriers investigated were divided into six groups, and in all except one of these groups the naso-pharynx was first irrigated by means of 1 per cent. sodium chloride solution run in from in the

’,

were