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626 Notes, Short Comments, and Answers to Correspondents. THE ACTION OF SELENIUM, TELLURIUM, AND ARSENIC ON MUSCULAR TISSUE. THE February number of the Medical Chronicle contains a short account of some physiological experiments with selenium, tellurium, .and arsenic made by Dr. H. J. Crompton, resident medical officer in the Royal Infirmary, Manchester. He commences with a reference to the increased attention recently given to selenium owing to the suggestion made by Dr. F. W. Tuunieliffe and Mr. Otto Rosenheim that this substance was associated with arsenic in the cases of beer poisoning which occurred in the North of England in 1900 {THE LANCET, Feb. 2nd, p. 318, Feb. 9th, p. 434, and March 30th, p. 927, 1901). In view of this statement Dr. Crompton investigated the action of selenium compounds on the nervo-muscular tissues of the frog by experiments (1) on voluntary muscle and motor nerve trunks, (2) on the involuntary muscles contained in the walls of the blood-vessels, and (3) on the cardiac muscle. At a later date he made similar experiments with compounds of tellurium and arsenic. For the experiments on voluntary muscle the gastrocnemius of a frog was removed from the animal, supported at its ends on brass wires, and immersed in a 0’75 per cent. solution of sodium chloride (" normal saline"), containing also a known proportion of selenate, selenite, tellurate, arsenate, or arsenite of sodium. Electrical currents were passed at intervals and the shortening of the muscle thereby produced was recorded on a revolving drum. Experiments on the heart muscle were made by means of the tono- meter described by Roy, in which an isolated frog’s heart tied to a cannula through which the solution under investigation can be perfused is placed in a small air-tight vessel filled with olive oil; variations in the volume of the ventricle are indicated by the rising - and falling of a piston. The general results of the experiments were to the effect that although the above-mentioned salts are destructive to animal life, solutions of them nevertheless have no directly poisonous effect on either the voluntary muscle, the motor nerve trunks, or the cardiac muscle of the frog. QUACKERY AND CREDULITY. THE following advertisement appeared in the Birmingham Daily Mail .of Feb. 13th :- ADVERTISER would sell Cancer, Tumour, and Polypus Cure, price One Thousand Guineas, or would Cure. Personal Testi- monials -M. Vernon. 49, Church Vale (Square), Handsworth. At Home, Mondays, 12 till 4. We cannot congratulate our contemporary upon the insertion of such .an advertisement as the above. We have no doubt that M. Vernon will sell, but what he sells will not be a cancer cure but his dupes, of whom there will probably be not a few. PAYMENT OF MEDICAL WITNESSES. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-To those who lightly set out to tender evidence in a magis- trate’s court may I indite a warning. The fee that you will get for a twelve-mile drive and a ruined morning’s work is not that which many would have you believe-namely, one guinea and mileage- but depends entirely upon your power of awakening the sympathy of the bench for your sufferings. They have the power to award you anything from a modest ¼d. up to the stately two guineas. How best to avoid the half- guinea appearance and to assume the guinea deportment I fain would learn. Anyway, a kind word to a magistrate whenever you meet one may, when the subpœna cloud hangs over you, meet with its reward even in this life. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully. Castle Cary, Somerset, Feb. 20th, 1904. DAVID PRICE, M.B. Lond. AN OBSERVATION ON THE VALUE OF GARLIC AS A RHMEDY. To the Editors of THE LANCET. SIRS,-I have read with interest the article by Dr. Giulio Cavazzani and the letter from Dr. W. C. Minchin upon the use of garlic in tuberculosis and I should like to record that it is not only in thif disease that it is of service. I have used it with success in bronchial conditions, notably in bronchitis of the finer tubes where the patient complains that his chest "feels stuffed up" and where on ausculta- tion there is heard a large number of sibilant rales. Also in cases where there is much purulent expectoration. In these cases, after the exhibition of the drug, there has been much relief. The active principle, sulphide of allyl, is undoubtedly excreted into the respira tory passages and may very possibly act as fin antiseptic. I notE that Dr. W. Ewart in Allbutt’s " System of Medicine," quoting Dr G V. Poore’s work on Nervous Affections of the Hand and Othei Studies, recommends it in the treatment of bronchiectasis. I have given 15-grain doses of the bulb chopped up and administered ir cachets three or four times a day. I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, Retford, Feb. 19th, 1904. HANWAY R. BEALE, M.D.Lond. THE MICROSCOPE IN INDIAN PRACTICE. ARTICLES and letters under the above heading have been appearing in recent numbers of our contemporary, the Pioneer. The writer of one letter, a medical man, though it is not apparent whether he is a civilian practitioner or a member of the Indian Medical Service, brings a rather strong indictment against some of his professional brethren whom he accuses of being too lazy or incapable to examine the blood of every patient suffering from " fever," even when they have a microscope. The supply of microscopes is doubtless rather limited, but possibly the varieties of climate to be met with in India may be responsible in some measure for this. A one-twelfth inch objective would be difficult to keep in order during the monsoon on the Kanara coast and we fancy that most of the Indian medical men who have the capacity and training to use a microseope for the diagnosis of the malarial parasite do so, the m:croscope being supplied by themselves. FR C.S. (Eng,) has asked us questions to which it is very difficult to give definite answers in the absence of complete local knowledge. We will communicate with him. Clock will find an extended memoir of Sir Andrew Clerk in THE LANCET of Nov. llth, 1893, p. 1222. The late physician was well known to us. Interested has omitted to send his name. METEOROLOGICAL REA DIN G S. (Taken daily at 8.30 a.m. by Stewards Instrume ts.) THE LANCET Office, Feb. 25th, 1904. Medical Diary for the ensuing Week. OPERATIONS. METROPOLITAN HOSPITALS. MONDAY (29th).-London (2 P.M.), St. Bartholomew’s (1.30 P.M.), St. Thomas’s (3.60 P.M.), St. George’s (2 P.M.), St. Mary’s (2.30 P.M.), Middlesex (1.30 P.M.), Westminster (2 P.M.), Chelsea (2 P.M.), Samaritan (Gynaecological, by Physicians, 2 P.M.), Soho-square (2 P.M.), Royal Orthopaedic (2 P.M.), City Orthopaedic (4 P.M.), Gt. Northern Central (2.30 P.M.). West London (2.30) PM.), London Throat (9 30 A.M.). Royal Free (2 P.M.), Guy’s (1.30 P M.). TUESDAY (lst).-London (2 P.M.), Ot. Barthulmuew s (1.30 P.M.). St. Thomas’s k6.30 P.M.), Guy (1.30 P.M.), Middlesex (1.30 P.M.), West- minster (2 P.M.), West London (2.30 P.M.), University College (2 P.M.), St. George s (1 P.M.), St. Mary’s (1 p.M). St. Mark’s (2.30 P.M.), Cancer (2 P.M.), Metropolitan (2.30 P.M.), London Throat (9 30 A.M.). Roval Ear (3 P.M.), Samaritan (9.30 s.nt and 2.30 P.M.), Throat, Golden square (9.30 A.M.), Soho-square (2 P.M.), Chelsea (2 P. n WEDNESDAY (2nd).-St. Bartholomew’s (1.30 P.M.), University College (2 P.M.), Royal Free (2 P.M.), Middlesex (1.30 P.M.), Charing Cross (3 P.M.), St. Thomas’s (2 P.M.), London (2 P.M.), King’s College (2 P.M.), St. George’s (Ophthalmic, 1 P.M.). St. Mary’s (2 P.M.), National Orthopaedic (10 a.m.), St. Peter’s (2 P.M.), Samaritan (9.30 A.M. and 2.30 P.M.), Gt. Ormond-street (9.30 A.M.), Gt. Northern Central (2.30 P.M.), Westminster (2 P.M.), Metropolitan 12.30 P.M.), London Throat (9 30 A.M.). Cancer (2 P.M.), Throat, Golden-square (9.30 a.r2.), Guy’s (1, 30 P.M.) THURSDAY (3rd).-St. Bartholomew’s (1.30 P.M.), St. Thomas’s (3.30 P.M.), University College (2 P.M.), Charing Cross (3 P.M.), St. George’s (1 P.M.), London (2 P.M.), King’s College (2 P.M.), Middlesex (1.30 P.M.), St. Mary’s (2.30 P.M.), Soho square (2 P.M.), North-West London (2 P.M.), Gt. Northern Central (Gynæcological, 2.30 P.M.), Metropolitan (2.30 P.M.), London Throat (9, 30 A M.). St. Mark’s (2 P.M.), Samaritan (9.30 A.M. and 2.30 P.M.), Throat, Golden-square (9.30 A.M.), uuy’s (1.30 P.M.). FRIDAY (4th).-London (2 P.M.), St. Bartholomew’s (1.30 P.M.), St. Thomas’s (3.30 P.M.), Guy’s (1.30 P.M.), Middlesex (1.30 P.M.), Charing Cross (3 P.M.), St. George’s (1 P.M.), hing’s College (2 P.M.), St. Mary’s (2 P.M.), Ophthalmic (10 A.M.), Cancer (2 P.M.). Chelsea (2 P.M.), Gt. Northern Central (2.30 P.M.), West London (2.30 P.M.), London Throat (9 30 A.M.), Samaritan (9.i0 A.M aud 2.30 P.M.), Throat, Gold-n-square (9.30 A.M.), City Orthopædic (2.30 P.M.). 8 the-square (2 P.M ). SATURDAY (5th).-Royal Free (9 A.M.), London (2 P.M.) Middlesex (1.30 P.M.’, ot. Thomas’s (2 P.M.), University College 19.16 A.M.), Charing Cross (2 P.M.), St. George’s H P.M.), St. Mary’s (10 P.M.). Throat, Golden-square (9. 0 A.M.), (Guy’s (1.30 P.M.). At the Royal Eye Hosp ta) ( P.M.), the Royal London Ophthalmic (10 A.M.), the Royal Westminstet Ophthalmic (1.30 P.M.), and the Central London Ophthalmic Hospitals operations are performed daily.
