THE EFFICACY OF ANTISEPTICS.

1366 5 children attended over 3 weeks only, 6 over 2 months, 35 for 5 months, these 14 boys and 21 girls attending practically all the time the school was open. "In 21 cases," says the report, "it was impossible at the end of the attendance to detect any defect of the lungs at all." "In 24 cases there was definite-indeed, very satisfactory-improvement in the condition of the lungs."In one case only was the condition of the lungs unaltered, but the child grew in height, increased in weight, and improved in chest expansion. When it is remembered that all the children but one admitted had definite signs of phthisis these figures are eloquent of success. Dr. Sadler’s medical report is supplemented by Mr. Donald’s notes on the administrative aspect of the experiment. It is estimated that the cost of a second year’s experiment, allowing for a reduction in the rent of buildings and a non-recurrence of certain heads of capital expenditure, would be about e35 for each month the school is open. The gross cost to the education authority in 1910, including E50 paid for the building, was f.243 19s. 10d. A charge of 2s. 6d. per week per head was paid by the parents of the children, with a few exceptions, and the sum received covered the cost of food but not the cooking. The school required two teachers, a school nurse, and a housekeeper who cooked and served the food, and Mr. Donald notes that the success of the school was largely due to the whole-hearted enthusiasm of this staff. The report, in addition to showing the working expenses and the details of the parents’ contributions, has appendices dealing with the quality and quantity of food provided, with the duration of the’ classes, and with the increase in weight, height, and chest expansion of each child during the time of school attendance. A most interesting record of observations made at fixed intervals in respect of each child by the head mistress will be found in Appendix D ; these observations may readily be compared with the medical officer’s record, and prove the value of the work done. Mr. Donald, in summing up the experiment as a whole, says : "It can fairly be claimed that in so far as its aim was to producea healthy mind in a healthy body’ it has been eminently successful, and the experience gained will be of value to the committee in the work of the elementary schools of the borough as well as in the narrower field of the education of defective children." We congratulate the Barnsley education committee and their officers on a truly useful piece of work. We hope that the experiment will be undertaken again this year on a larger scale, when, if a proportionate success is obtained, similar open-air schools will surely be started by other authorities.

find how rapidly various antiseptics could pass through animal membranes as estimated by the destruction of some bacteria, and typhoid bacilli were used because the time necessary to produce sluggishness of motion and finally cessation of motility could be studied during the experiment. The membranes employed were celloidin and the mesentery, omentum, diaphragm, The celloidin was employed and skin of the rabbit. because it offered a very convenient method and one easily controlled, and the conclusions drawn from the experiments on celloidin capsules were for the most part closely similar to those resulting from the employment of animal membranes. As far as possible the tissues were employed in the living condition, though this could not be done in the case of the diaphragm. The method employed was as follows : A small glass vessel containing the anti. septic was taken and a piece of the membrane was laid over it and depressed in the centre so as to form a little cup, into which was poured a measured quantity of a broth culture of bacteria. The antiseptic could affect the bacteria only by passing through the animal membrane, and the time required to kill the bacteria was noted. The results may be summed up briefly thus: Most of the common antiseptics, such as carbolic acid and perchloride of mercury, were without effect even after 24 hours, though one exception deserves to be mentioned, a 5 per cent. watery solution of carbolic acid penetrated the diaphragm of a rabbit in five minutes. The two most effective antiseptics proved to be alcohol and iodine. The most effective strength of the alcohol was 95 per cent. ; this is opposed to the hitherto generally received opinion that 70 per cent. alcohol has the greatest antiseptic power. Iodine was very effective even in watery solution, but the alcoholic solutions of iodine appeared to be even more effective. These results are of great interest, and they may prove to be of practical importance, but they will need to be carefully considered, for the osmosis in several of these cases is not a simple physical process, chemical changes tending to modify it greatly. Thus to mention only one instance, the power of the perchloride of mercury to combine with albuminous substances must interfere greatly with its osmotic equivalent. Nevertheless, it is true that this chemical interference occurs in actual use, and therefore to a great extent reduces the antiseptic value of perchloride of mercury in practice. -

THE EFFICACY OF ANTISEPTICS.

problem of the relative efficacy of various anticannot be entirely settled by experiments in vitro, for it is certain that to a very great extent the conditions obtaining within the body are very different from those existing in a test tube. When bacteria are subjected to the action of an antiseptic in a test tube they are not protected in any way except in so far as the outer layer of the bacterium serves as a protection. The same conditions do exist indeed when the bacteria are on the surface of the body or on the surface of an open wound, but these exposed bacteria form but a small part of those with which the surgeon has to deal. To attack and destroy those bacteria which have penetrated into the tissues the antiseptic also must be able to make its way through the tissues. This is a point which has not been fully considered, and therefore there was need for the investigation of the relative power of penetrating animal tissues possessed by different antiseptics. This investigation has been carried out by M. G. Seelig and C. W. Gould of St. Louis and published in the March number of Surgery, Gynæcology, and Obstetrics. They endeavoured to THE

septics

A CASE OF CHRONIC GLANDERS. CASE of this very puzzling disease, carefully observed thoroughly investigated, is reported in the Archiv für Sehiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene for April from Kiao-Chau, China, by Marine-oberstabsarzt (Fleet-Surgeon) Professor Dr. E. Martini and Marine-stabsarzt (Staff-Surgeon) Dr. Besenbruch. The patient, a gunner in the Marine Field Battery, slaughtered a sick horse in the beginning of April,

A and

1910, and got a spurt of blood in his face. Whether some of it entered his eye he did not afterwards remember or if in washing his face it got in, for he did not at the time particularly notice the incident. On April 15th he shivered, thought he had caught cold when on stable duty, and the next day he reported himself sick, as his right eye was red and watering. He was sent to the hospital on the 18th, when both lids were swollen. There were conjunctival injection, lacrymation, and photophobia, and several small superficial ulcers were seen on the cornea (inner and upper quadrant). He was treated with yellow ointment ; the ulcers healed, the injection faded, and the eye was well in the beginning of May, but a hard and tender swelling of the lymphatic gland above the left elbow had now appeared and