- Email: [email protected]
STATE SURVEILLANCE OF FOOD IN ITALY.
765
widely known now that this tetrazmoic monomercurideca-cyanide has been found to be an admirable surgical antiseptic. Sir Joseph Lister, its introducer, who was present ;at the meeting, and at whose suggestion the inquiry was mndertaken, said that the great value of the salt arose from the circumstance that, while equally effective as an antiseptic, it had none of the irritant qualities of mercuric cyanide, and its slight solubility was an advantage. When mercuric chloride was used it was liable, on the one hand, to be washed away by the discharges of a wound, and, on the other, to accumulate until a solution was formed which concentrated that it caused great irritation. He was that Professor Danstan had come to the conclusion glad that it is a definite chemical compound, because he had not been satisfied from its behaviour that it could be a simple mixture. was so
STATE SURVEILLANCE OF FOOD IN ITALY. WE have from time to time remarked on the energy and .effect with which Italians are improving their public health laws in respect to which the sale and consumption of deleterious foods and drinks used to be quite a scandalous feature. Under the new sanitary code the risk to the consumer of such - dangerous ingesta is becoming rapidly minimised, a fact which - cannob but be reassuring to the travelling public, who pass ,so many of the winter and spring months in the peninsula. Of late years Milanese butter, justly valued for its purity - and flavour, has offered a peculiarly tempting field to the .dulterator. According to an official statement now before us, the public health officers, for some time on the watch for such malefactors, have come upon the source of an enormous supply of "burro falsincato," sold as genuine Milanese butter at home and abroad. Specimens of this, examined ’under the microscope with polarised light, have revealed the presence of margarine, whose characteristic crystalline structure was, even in the minutest quantities, put in evidence by this detective means, and this only. A notoriously common and at the same time subtle form of adulteration is thus placed within the immediate cognisance of the public analyst, and the Milanese journals are already I - congratulating themselves on a discovery which bids fair to rehabilitate the character of one of the chief Lombard industries which was fast becoming fatally compromised. It is to French, not to Italian, initiative, however, that this addition to the public health officer’s armoury is due. It was M. Pennetier, of the Chemical Laboratory at Rouen, who devised the method of detecting margarised butter runder the microscope by polarised light. But, be its origin what it may, the method has been promptly utilised by the ,heaUh officers of Italy, to be followed up, we hope, by other and not less efficacious means of food protection in the interests of her own people and of the stranger within her gates. ELIMINATION OF TOXINES IN ENTERIC FEVER. MM. ROQUE and WEILLl have made some experiments for the purpose of studying the elimination of toxines in enteric lever. The toxic power of the urine is shown by its ability to kill animals when injected subcutaneously. The average quantity which is necessary to kill a rabbit of ,a given weight determines the normal uro-toxic coefficient. These observers, in their preliminary experiment, allowed a patient suffering from typhoid fever to remain entirely without treatment; they then found that the urotoxic coefficient was doubled. This they considered to represent the unaided efforts of nature to expel the poison of this disease. That the quantity, however, is insufficient -is shown by the fact that the toxicity of the urine remains above the normal for four or five weeks after the fever has 1
La Gazette Médicale de Montreal, Dec. 1891.
abated. When patients are treated by the cold bath method the uro-toxic coefficient becomes greatly increased, attaining an amount equal to five or six times the normal. This increase lessens as the temperature falls and the general symptoms improve, and it falls to the normal at the same time as the fever. This would seem to indicate that the cold bath is a satisfactory treatment, producing elimination of the toxic products, and this agrees with the clinical observation of the success of this treatment in practice. Antipyrin, on the other hand, produces an opposite effect, and when it is employed the uro.toxic coefficient is diminished almost to that observed in health. Several explanations may be given of this action. The antipyrin may act as a direct antidote, preventing the formation of toxines, or it may prevent their excretion or postpone their formation. After the use of this drug the discharge of toxines is found to be enormously increased duiing first week of convalescence. Further investigations will be necessary before it can be shown how far each of the above contingencies results from the use of the antipyrin. Teissier has made similar experiments to determine the action of naphthol, and his investigations show that this substance is a true antiseptic, preventing the production of toxic bodies both during disease and convalescence.
the
NEURASTHENIA AND HYPER-ACIDITY. THE Medicinisch-Chirurgische Bundschau reviews an article by A. Pfannenstill of Stockholm in the Nordiskt Med. Ark. on the connexion between the above-named two conditions. Neurasthenia and nervous dyspepsia are, according to the writer, as frequently seen in S tveden as in other parts of the world. A valuable addition to the etiology of these complaints is that all the cases observed by Piannenstill belonged to the working classes, so that neurasthenia is certainly not confined to the upper classes of society, who are most exposed to the excitement of modern life. Of both complaints a primary and secondary form can be distinguished ; but the latter, which is merely a symptom of other affections, especially hysteria, is much the more frequent. Hysteria is more often observed in connexion with a general neurasthenia, in which the functions of the secreting nerves are always disturbed, and we may find in consequence hyper-acidity and hyper- secretion, or subnormal acidity, or even an entire absence of acid. The hyper-acidity is entirely due to an increase of hydrochloric acid. Pfannenstill considers that this hyper-acidity is the result of an increase in the quantity of the gastric juice, and not merely of the hydrochloric acid, and that there is no decrease in the power of absorption. Increased secretion of gastric juice is probably the source of hyper-acidity in other affections of the stomach, and the reverse is probably
equally true.
-
THE SECRETION OF UROBILIN IN CERTAIN DISEASES. G. HOPPE. SEYLER, assistant in the medical clinic of Professor Qcdncke at Kiel, publishes in Virchow’s Archiv If urobilin some observations on the secretion of urobilin. is dissolved in a solution of caustic soda and a small quantity of calomel added, the yellow solution assumes a beautiful rose-red colour. If the solution is then filtered to remove the oxide of mercury, and, after the addition of hydrochloric acid, shaken up with amyl-alcohol, a solution of the red pigment is obtained, which has the same chemical reaction as a solution of urorosein, described some time ago by Nencki and Sieber. Hoppe-Seyler concludes from this fact that urorosein is produced in the same way by the oxidation of urobilin in the system. After a series of analytical experiments he finds that an increase of urobilin in the urine takes place in retention of bile with plentiful diuresis
widely known now that this tetrazmoic monomercurideca-cyanide has been found to be an admirable surgical antiseptic. Sir Joseph Lister, its introducer, who was present ;at the meeting, and at whose suggestion the inquiry was mndertaken, said that the great value of the salt arose from the circumstance that, while equally effective as an antiseptic, it had none of the irritant qualities of mercuric cyanide, and its slight solubility was an advantage. When mercuric chloride was used it was liable, on the one hand, to be washed away by the discharges of a wound, and, on the other, to accumulate until a solution was formed which concentrated that it caused great irritation. He was that Professor Danstan had come to the conclusion glad that it is a definite chemical compound, because he had not been satisfied from its behaviour that it could be a simple mixture. was so
STATE SURVEILLANCE OF FOOD IN ITALY. WE have from time to time remarked on the energy and .effect with which Italians are improving their public health laws in respect to which the sale and consumption of deleterious foods and drinks used to be quite a scandalous feature. Under the new sanitary code the risk to the consumer of such - dangerous ingesta is becoming rapidly minimised, a fact which - cannob but be reassuring to the travelling public, who pass ,so many of the winter and spring months in the peninsula. Of late years Milanese butter, justly valued for its purity - and flavour, has offered a peculiarly tempting field to the .dulterator. According to an official statement now before us, the public health officers, for some time on the watch for such malefactors, have come upon the source of an enormous supply of "burro falsincato," sold as genuine Milanese butter at home and abroad. Specimens of this, examined ’under the microscope with polarised light, have revealed the presence of margarine, whose characteristic crystalline structure was, even in the minutest quantities, put in evidence by this detective means, and this only. A notoriously common and at the same time subtle form of adulteration is thus placed within the immediate cognisance of the public analyst, and the Milanese journals are already I - congratulating themselves on a discovery which bids fair to rehabilitate the character of one of the chief Lombard industries which was fast becoming fatally compromised. It is to French, not to Italian, initiative, however, that this addition to the public health officer’s armoury is due. It was M. Pennetier, of the Chemical Laboratory at Rouen, who devised the method of detecting margarised butter runder the microscope by polarised light. But, be its origin what it may, the method has been promptly utilised by the ,heaUh officers of Italy, to be followed up, we hope, by other and not less efficacious means of food protection in the interests of her own people and of the stranger within her gates. ELIMINATION OF TOXINES IN ENTERIC FEVER. MM. ROQUE and WEILLl have made some experiments for the purpose of studying the elimination of toxines in enteric lever. The toxic power of the urine is shown by its ability to kill animals when injected subcutaneously. The average quantity which is necessary to kill a rabbit of ,a given weight determines the normal uro-toxic coefficient. These observers, in their preliminary experiment, allowed a patient suffering from typhoid fever to remain entirely without treatment; they then found that the urotoxic coefficient was doubled. This they considered to represent the unaided efforts of nature to expel the poison of this disease. That the quantity, however, is insufficient -is shown by the fact that the toxicity of the urine remains above the normal for four or five weeks after the fever has 1
La Gazette Médicale de Montreal, Dec. 1891.
abated. When patients are treated by the cold bath method the uro-toxic coefficient becomes greatly increased, attaining an amount equal to five or six times the normal. This increase lessens as the temperature falls and the general symptoms improve, and it falls to the normal at the same time as the fever. This would seem to indicate that the cold bath is a satisfactory treatment, producing elimination of the toxic products, and this agrees with the clinical observation of the success of this treatment in practice. Antipyrin, on the other hand, produces an opposite effect, and when it is employed the uro.toxic coefficient is diminished almost to that observed in health. Several explanations may be given of this action. The antipyrin may act as a direct antidote, preventing the formation of toxines, or it may prevent their excretion or postpone their formation. After the use of this drug the discharge of toxines is found to be enormously increased duiing first week of convalescence. Further investigations will be necessary before it can be shown how far each of the above contingencies results from the use of the antipyrin. Teissier has made similar experiments to determine the action of naphthol, and his investigations show that this substance is a true antiseptic, preventing the production of toxic bodies both during disease and convalescence.
the
NEURASTHENIA AND HYPER-ACIDITY. THE Medicinisch-Chirurgische Bundschau reviews an article by A. Pfannenstill of Stockholm in the Nordiskt Med. Ark. on the connexion between the above-named two conditions. Neurasthenia and nervous dyspepsia are, according to the writer, as frequently seen in S tveden as in other parts of the world. A valuable addition to the etiology of these complaints is that all the cases observed by Piannenstill belonged to the working classes, so that neurasthenia is certainly not confined to the upper classes of society, who are most exposed to the excitement of modern life. Of both complaints a primary and secondary form can be distinguished ; but the latter, which is merely a symptom of other affections, especially hysteria, is much the more frequent. Hysteria is more often observed in connexion with a general neurasthenia, in which the functions of the secreting nerves are always disturbed, and we may find in consequence hyper-acidity and hyper- secretion, or subnormal acidity, or even an entire absence of acid. The hyper-acidity is entirely due to an increase of hydrochloric acid. Pfannenstill considers that this hyper-acidity is the result of an increase in the quantity of the gastric juice, and not merely of the hydrochloric acid, and that there is no decrease in the power of absorption. Increased secretion of gastric juice is probably the source of hyper-acidity in other affections of the stomach, and the reverse is probably
equally true.
-
THE SECRETION OF UROBILIN IN CERTAIN DISEASES. G. HOPPE. SEYLER, assistant in the medical clinic of Professor Qcdncke at Kiel, publishes in Virchow’s Archiv If urobilin some observations on the secretion of urobilin. is dissolved in a solution of caustic soda and a small quantity of calomel added, the yellow solution assumes a beautiful rose-red colour. If the solution is then filtered to remove the oxide of mercury, and, after the addition of hydrochloric acid, shaken up with amyl-alcohol, a solution of the red pigment is obtained, which has the same chemical reaction as a solution of urorosein, described some time ago by Nencki and Sieber. Hoppe-Seyler concludes from this fact that urorosein is produced in the same way by the oxidation of urobilin in the system. After a series of analytical experiments he finds that an increase of urobilin in the urine takes place in retention of bile with plentiful diuresis