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1657 Notes, Short Comments, and Answers to Correspondents. " TORMENTORS " FOR FLEAS. IN the late Andrew Tuer’s " Old London Street Cries" (1885) there is some discussion as to what could have been the exact meaning of the ancient street-hawker’s adjuration- " Buy a tormentor for your fleas," or again, " Buy a fine mousetrap, or a tormentor for your fleas." The latter cry is embalmed in literature in Taylor, the Water Poet’s quaint couplet :- I could name more, if so my muse did please, Of Mouse Traps, and tormentors to kill Fleas. The bodies of our Elizabethan ancestors, and indeed of Englishmen in general up to the time of the introduction of the morning bath, were more or less tortured by pulices and kindred insects. Ingoldsby sings of a big-wig at an early Victorian levee who is troubled by a ravenous flea in the small of his back; the idea was so little shocking to the past generation that the verse was often quoted by admirers of the " Legends." Irritated thus, the fops of the eighteenth century made use of elegant " scratch-backs," slender rods of ebony or ivory, topped by miniature hands with sharpened fingers. These may have been the descendants of the " tormentors " or their sublimation, for the tormentor, hymned by Taylor, was probably a humble affair like a lath, made of some rough substance resembling pumice-stone. Such an instrument was lately preserved in the collection of an Isle of Wight virtuoso, and a specimen may perhaps exist in the London Museum. The scratch-backs with hands are often to be seen in curiosity shops to-day. They were used to get at almost inaccessible parts of the human economy, such as the region between the shoulder-blades. Their dis- appearance is eloquent of the advance of personal hygiene. There are undoubtedly less fleas about than when the Great Plague was supposed to have been spread by the escape of these creatures from sacks of rags in Long Acre. On the other hand, it might plausibly be argued that our ancestors were conscious that disease is disseminated by fleas or flies, and that the " tormentor was used in the crusade against them. Hence it may have been in the nature of fly-paper, or even of those little bamboo cages with greased perches which the Japanese are said to take to bed with them in order to catch fleas. A CASE OF BEE-STING. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,-I was attracted by Mr. Lawrence Pick’s letter in THE LANCET of May 30th. It is now nearly 13 years ago since I published a similar case in your paper (THE LANCET, Oct. 26th, 1901). Mr. Pick’s case and my own are almost identical. The points of interest in the two cases are : (1) The extreme rapidity of onset of symptoms after the individual had been stung; (2) the general skin eruption, with its intense irritability ; (3) vomiting ; and (4) the rapid disappearance of the rash. The points of difference in the two cases were : (a) Whereas in Mr. Pick’s case it was a bee- sting, in mine it was the sting of a wasp ; and (b) the rash is described in his case as being " scarlatiniform," while in mine it was urticarial. Mr. Pick asks for a cause. He may be interested to hear the suggestion I offered in THE LANCET at that time-" the suddenness of the onset of the rash after the sting seems to be indicative of a hypodermic injection of some toxic substance which might have been imparted with the sting." 1 am, Sir, yours faithfully, Crouch End Hill, N., May 29th, 1914. T. Wl.-L:SUiN -rAl-titY. REINDEER MEAT. A CORRESPONDENT writes : Dr. W. T. Grenfell, the well- known medical missionary and explorer of Labrador, is about to start reindeer farms in Labrador to meet the demand for reindeer meat in Canada, and it is also pro- posed to bring some of the frozen reindeer meat to England. The caribou, or renne du Canada, otherwise cariboo, is the name of the North American reindeer. It is the fleetest, wildest, and most shy of all the deer tribe. The woodland cariboo is abundant in Labrador, and may be found in considerable numbers in New Brunswick and in parts of Nova Scotia. The reindeer moss, otherwise called cariboo moss (Cladonia or Cenomyce rangiferina), is the principal food of the reindeer in the sterile regions, and covers the rocks. Professor Henry Youle Hind, who wrote " Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula," published in London in 1863, said that " Once the country was rich in fur-bearing animals and cariboo or reindeer, but these are now greatly reduced in numbers." Nansen, speaking of the Eskimos, said : " One of their greatest delicacies is the contents of a reindeer’s stomach. If a Greenlander kills a reindeer and is unable to convey much of it home, he will, I believe, secure the stomach first of all. It is, no doubt, because they stand in need of vegetable food that they prize this so highly, and also because it is in reality a very choice collection of the very finest moss and grasses which that gourmet,’ the rein- deer, picks out for himself. It has undergone a sort of stewing in the process of semi-digestion, while the gastric juice provides a somewhat sharp and aromatic sauce." A NEW BINOCULAR MICROSCOPE. IN reviewing the exhibits of medical interest at the Royal ’ Society conversazione in an article in our issue of May 23rd we inadvertently omitted to mention that the new binocular microscope of Mr. E. Leitz (18, Blooms- bury-square, London, W.C.) was seen to great advantage in the demonstration of microscopic objects. This instru- ment is capable of being used for all purposes to which the monocular microscope is put, and without at all impairing the performance of any optical system. In a paper read before the Royal Microscopical Society this microscope is described as the first successful binocular instrument made for use with all ordinary objectives and eyepieces, including the highest powers. This, of course, is a most important achievement which adds considerably to the value of the microscope in the work of biological diagnosis. The body of the binocular microscope consists of a fiat casing containing the system of prisms. At the upper end are situated two eyepieces whose distance apart can be regulated to suit the eyes of the observer by means of a milled head which actuates two levers inside the casing. The interpupillary distance can be varied between 54 and 70 mm. The eyepiece tubes slide in guides so that dust cannot enter the prism casing. The left eyepiece tube is provided with an independent adjustment to accommodate eyes of unequal vision. All kinds of eyepieces and objectives may be used, and the instrument can be employed for the same purposes as the ordinary monocular microscope. A most important feature in this microscope is the parallel eyepieces which obviate the actions of accommodation and adjustment for convergence as is necessary in binocular microscopes constructed hitherto. By the use of this instrument it is now possible for the research worker to employ both eyes in microscopical observations for a considerably longer period with much less fatigue than is commonly felt by using one eye in high magnifications. Greater facilities are thus offered in future researches and the prolonged routine of daily microscope work may be carried on with much less eye- strain. THE STERILISATION OF MILK AND ALLIED QUESTIONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—In THE LANCET of Feb. 14th last you published a letter from Mr. Richard W. Woosnam on the subject of condensed milk, in which he offered to arrange for an inspection of a condensed milk factory by any medical men interested in the matter. I wrote to Mr. Woosnam, and he very kindly arranged with the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. for a small party of medical men to inspect their factory at Aylesbury. I went with them, and full opportunities were given us to inspect the factory and the whole of the process of condensation. The arrangements to ensure absolute cleanliness and the details of the process employed in condensing and sweetening the milk are most interesting. Mr. Simond, the manager, tells me that the company make arrangements for conducting parties of medical men over the works at frequent intervals, and that any doctor who applies to the company for permission to visit the works will receive an invitation to join the next party. The visit takes the greater part of the day, but the provision made by the company is such as to make it a very enjoyable as well as instructive outing.-I am, Sir, yours faithfully, C. THACKRAY PARSONS, M.D Lond. Fulham Infirmary, Hammersmith, W.. May 29th, 1914. THE UROBILIN REACTION IN BLACKWATER FEVER. Dr. Sorensen, of the Dutch Army in Flores, a small island in the most beautiful part of the Sunda Seas, reports in the Archiv für Schiffs- qtnd Tropen-Hygiene for March an interesting observation on the urobilin reaction in malaria and blackwater fever. He made his tests either by Schlesinger’s zinc acetate method or by the spectroscope, and even devised a quantitative method by dilution of the urine till the absorption bands were no longer visible. There is much malaria in Flores. In all cases of the three forms of malaria there was a reaction during pyrexia, and urobilin disappeared from the urine two to three days after defervescence. It reappeared again in some cases before relapses, and daily increased till the fever developed. Other relapses might show no warning urobilin. The more urobilin appeared, the worse the patient felt, the more
