closely, it appears that only Europeans, their descendants, and those whom they have instructed, sit.

The custom is not universal, even in Europe. At the time of the war neither chair nor stool, rarely a divan, could be found in a Bulgar house, outside the towns; the table was only a foot high, and the family squatted round it on the floor. The Bulgars are not people to adopt a new fashion readily. Throughout the Balkan principalities, indeed, seats are an unnecessary article of furniture for the bulk of the population; even the divan is rare in a farmhouse of Albania and Montenegro. It is assumed that Turkish influence or example banished chairs and stools. That is improbable in any case; but when we observe that outside of Europe nearly all mankind squats, it becomes far more likely that these people follow the practice of their remotest ancestors. The Turk has simply arrested development at this as at other points.

Men who do not sit have two attitudes for resting; women use one of their own. Squatting "on the heels" is favored in India and China. In this position the weight of the body falls upon the toes, and to keep the balance comfortable the arms must lie over the knees, the hands dangling. A European trussed in this manner promptly feels a pain in his calves, but he can understand that habit makes it a restful posture. In fact, our colliers use it. There is a legend current in North Staffordshire referring to the embodiment of militia or volunteers-for authorities differ-early in the century. After divers eccentric maneuvers, the officer cried, "Stand at ease!" When his order had been explained, every man squatted on his heels like an Indian coolie. There is, however, a mode of resting practiced by some jungle tribes which is utterly incomprehensible. Being fatigued, these people stand on one leg and curl the foot of the other round the calf. The same extraordinary custom is seen in Africa. We ask, in bewilderment, why on earth they do not lie, or at least squat. It may be hazarded as a mere conjecture, without any pretense of justification, that they or their forefathers dwelt in swamps especially malarious. But the custom shows what unnatural usages men will devise before it occurs to them to sit down "like Christians."-New Review.

NATIONAL PARADOXES.-Somebody once remarked, that the Englishman is never happy, but when he is miserable; the Scotchman is never at home, but when he is abroad; and the Irishman is never at peace, but when he is fighting.

MEDICAL EXCERPT.

BY T. P. CORBALLY, A. M., M. D.

DITHTHERIA.-M. Souvestre presented to the Société Médicale des Hopitaux (La France Médicale, 23d of July) some remarks on a previous communication from M. Lemoine on diphtheria, which he thought gave rise to some important questions.

His researches regarding the virulence of the bacillus in its relations with the clinical forms of diphtheria are interesting, but I do not think that they give us, on this very important question, a definitive solution. They are liable to some criticism from the fact that many of the observations are incomplete, in a clinical and even in a bacteriological point of view, for M. Lemoine has not suficiently developed the important part played by the microbes associated with the bacillus of Loffler.

I have already shown that in the union of the bacillus of diphtheria and the streptococcus, that the strepto-diphtheria was frequent and rendered the prognosis much more serious. But it is necessary to have an understanding regarding the term streptodiphtheria.

The simple fact of finding, in the throat of a patient with diphtheria, a number of streptococci does not mean that the patient is suffering with strepto-diphtheria. Almost all throats, in fact, contain streptococci. Strepto-diphtheria is recognized only when, after adding the false membrane to serum, it produces, after twentyfour hours in the heat of a stove or other means, a well-recognized quantity of colonies of streptococci, corresponding with the colonies of bacilli of Loffler. Besides, if with proper care, a direct examination of the false membrane is made, streptococci, more or less numerous, may be found in the strepto-diphtheria, sometimes sufficiently abundant to mask the bacillus, while in a distinct case of diphtheria the bacillus exists alone. Besides, from a clinical point of view, the strepto-diphtheria is placed in evidence by unmistakable characteristics which M. Barbier has described very fully.

If the short bacillus be considered, I think it is not always found connected with true diphtheria, or at least it indicates a mild form of the disease.

M. Lemoine, in the course of his investigation, has raised a question regarding the diagnosis of diphtheria, and has endeavored to establish a parallel between the clinical examination and the bacteriological examination, and gives the preference to the clinical study. I do not well understand this distinction; the clinical examination, as we practice it at the present day, really employs many methods of inquiry, all of which may unite to establish the diagnosis, and no one of them should be neglected. The bacteriological inquiry is only a part of the clinical examination.

RESECTION OF THE PYLORUS.-M. Péan has performed a fine operation in gastrectomy (Gazette Hebdomadaire, 18th July). Having resected the pylorus and a part of the duodenum, the surgeon brought together the lips of the gastric wound, incompletely united, with the duodenum by a button of Murphy. The sutures were covered with the epiploon. Twenty-seven days after the operation the button was removed. From the first week the patient was able to eat, and there was not any febrile reaction during the treatment.

SAGE AN ANTIDOTE TO SWEATING.-La France Médicale, 9th of July publishes the following which may interest those who are suffering from profuse perspiration from any cause, as also the profession.

The use of the officinal Sage (Salvla officinalis) has been traced back to remote antiquity. Diascarides Polonius used it in the form of wine. Eight ounces of the leaves to an amphora of boiling wine. Administered in this way sage, according to him, relieved the pains of the sick, purified the blood, healed abscesses, wounds of the most intractable nature and regulated the monthly periods. Charlemagne, in 812, in his "capitularies," mentions sage and recommends its use; but it was van Swieten and Sydenham who were the first to remark the action of sage as a preventive of profuse sweating in convalescents from acute diseases and also in preventing the free perspiration common in phthisis. Van Swieten also recommended it in the profuse flow of milk that sometimes persists after nursing, a trouble which very often causes in women very severe hectic fever.

The remedy having been for a time completely forgotten has been highly recommended by Trousseau and Pidaux, afterwards. by Max Krahn (Greiswald, 1896). This last confirmed the assertions of Trousseau; having taken successively increasing doses of

the tincture, he complained of profuse sweating, of heat, of dryness in the mouth and of intense thirst. All inclination for work had completely disappeared. After taking a strong dose, all intellectual effort became very repulsive. Rapidity of the pulse was increased; the heart-beats were much stronger. There were sensations of vertigo and even of hallucination.

The action of sage on the nervous system has been verified experimentally by Cadéac and Albin Meunier. They class sage among the number of substances that cause epilepsy, like absinthe, hysop, etc.; it is twice as active as absinthe. As an excitant of epilepsy it acts on the bulb, for the removal of the hemispheres of the brain in animals, on which experiments were performed, did not prevent the attack of epilepsy from being produced. If the spine be divided below the bulb the muscles of the face alone are contracted. It may be said that the convulsive attack originates solely in the bulb, the spine simply propagates and conducts it. The poisonous action of sage is also very considerable.

Krahn was the first to show the anti sudorific action of sage. In 38 cases in which he employed it, principally in phthisis, articular rheumatism and leucernia, he had only two cases in which it was not efficient. The best form for use is the tincture, in doses of xx drops in the morning, and from xx to xxx drops in the evening, according to the duration and intensity of the nightsweats.

Combemale, of Lille, has also spoken strongly in favor of the tincture of sage and the results at which he has arrived are given in a thesis by Meurisse, one of his pupils. We too (M. Degug) have employed it for some time in the service of M. Hurchard, at the hospital Necker, in the form of tincture, in the night-sweats of phthisis, and we agree fully with the conclusions of Meurisse that the effect of sage is produced speedily; about two hours after its administration; its beneficial effects sometimes continue after its use has been discontinued.

Although the essence of sage is poisonous and produces epilepsy, no unpleasant effects have ever resulted from its use as described.

THE CURATIVE ACTION OF FEVER.-Löuryand Righter (Berliner Khinische Wochenschrift, No. 9, 1897) has found that all infected animals that have had their temperature raised by "heat puncture" live longer than the check animals. He concludes from this that fever is a conservative process. Most chemical antiseptics, he remarks, act at the same time as nervines and tonics, and a

few even as specifics; but antipyretic hydrotherapeutics may, by the leucocytosis to which the stimulus of cold gives rise, play an important part in combating the infection.

A MILK DRESsing for BurNS.-"The Chemist and Druggist" states that one of its French contemporaries, the name of which is not given, favors the use of milk as a dressing for burns, to be applied by means of compresses. The dressing is to be renewed night and morning. Under this treatment the reduction of the size of large burns has been marked and speedy. In one instance an extensive burn on the leg, treated in this manner for three or four days, was reduced from five inches to an inch in width. In another instance a severe burn that had been rebellious under a treatment with olive oil and zinc oxide, healed rapidly under the application of milk compresses. This suggestion may serve as a valuable one for country practitioners when their accustomed remedies for burns are not at command.

IODIA FOR SYPHILIS.-Edward Foley, a squatter, living in a flat boat on the banks of the Mississippi river came to me about six months ago, with a case of tertiary syphilis which he had contracted about eight years ago, and suffered from syphilitic rheumatism affecting the long bones, frequent frontal headache and recurring sore mouth and throat. Patient had been treated with large doses of Iodide of Potassium, which would relieve the rheumatic pains but the affection would return again. After treatment had been discontinued for a month or two Donovan's solution, Succus alterans and other anti-syphilitic remedies were tried, but procured only temporary benefit. About four months ago I put him on full doses of "Iodia;" under this treatment patient improved and at the present time every symptom of the disease has disappeared. I advised him to continue using Iodia in moderate doses for another month or two.

S. C. MARTIN, M. D.

St. Louis, Mo., January 28th, 1892. NEW DISINFECTANTS.-DeBuck (Bélgique Medicale, No. 27, 1896; Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, July 15, 1897), thinks that a one-to-two-hundred solution of antinosin fulfills all the requirements of an antiseptic fluid in surgery; that nosophene has the advantages over iodoform of being odorless, non-poisonous, and unirritating to the skin; and that endorin is one of the best of the bismuth salts as a gastro-intestinal disinfectant.