642 incidentally. Bartholow gives a good summary of its use!?, For my own part, I endorse Dr. Yorke-Davies’s remarks. but the most exhaustive account is to be found in Phillips’ Apologising for taking up so much space, well-known " Planat and Hammond I am, Sirs,Srrs, yours obedientiy, Vegetable Kingdom." obediently,-, recommended it in and Gubler proposed its use in Devonshire-street, W., Sept. 2nd, 1890. W. TOWERS SMITH. chorea. I’hillips laysepilepsy, down definite rules for its employ- ment in various complaints-notably in certain forms of megrim, and dysmenorrhoea. Externally, it is To the Editors of THE LANCET. useddyspepsia, in the form of a pigment or paint as a parasiticide. I SIRS,-Your correspondent, Mr. Henderson, has to go i have employed it largely in doses of 1/60th of a grain in long way back-to the time of the ancient Greeks and the treatment of the night sweating of phthisis, for which Romans-for theories to controvert what he is pleased tocaU it is an excellent remedy. It probably acts as an anhidrotic my illogical letter, and he confesses his ignorance of the by stimulating the respiratory centre. dietetics even of those nations with whose prowess he is so There seems to be some difference of opinion as to the familiar. As far as my knowledge of their history goes, I dose ; in a well-known Dictionary of Medicine it was always understood that their conquests were celebrated by stated to be th of a grain, but this was subsequently feasts, and Heliogabalus was such a gourmand in the way corrected and was obviously a misprint. I believe the of flesh food that his favourite dish consisted of peacock’s correct dose is from 1/120th to tr’uth of a grain. In the brains and other epicurean delicacies. In the period of Pharmacopoeia of the Westminster Hospital we have a pill their decline, for aught I know, and I think it is quite containing 1/60th of a grain made with sugar of milk and likely, they may have taken to " porridge" which Mr. glycerine of tragacanth, and I have never given more than Henderson eulogises so highly. I wish Mr. Henderson two of these three times a day. Crichton Browne finds would bring a few facts forward to controvert my argument.. that in rabbits the toxic dose is 1/90th of a grain to the If he could prove that nitrogenous food makes people fat pound, and in guinea-pigs about 1/40th of a grain to the and heavy, and that the Chinese who do not eat any flesh pound. There are very few cases of poisoning on record. food are more energetic and brave than the English people’ Many years ago several men suffered severely from drinking who do, or that those Brahmins who live entirely ors rum impregnated with cocculus indicus, and one of them vegetable food become so obese and stupid as to be a by. died. In another case, a boy aged twelve died from word, I should almost believe he was right in his con. swallowing forty grains of a fish poison containing cocculus tention. indicus, but the strength of the preparation was not known. If sex even can be altered by food, as in the case of the There might possibly be some difficulty in detecting with queen bee, surely it is not impossible that food may have certainty the presence of picrotoxin in the dead body, for much to do with the deterioration of certain races. 1 do not Giacomelli has described a ptomaine closely resembling it imagine that even your correspondent will argue that the both in physical characters and chemical reactions. The climate or soil of Greece or Italy has altered within the last pharmacological actions would probably serve to differentiate two thousand years. Then why has the race deteriorated? them. Picrotoxin is allied to cicutoxin-the active principle "’Tis Greece, but living Greece no more." of the water-hemlock-and to coriamyrtin, derived from The solution is most to be found in their These likely dietetics, coriaria myrtifolia. drugs stimulate the origins of for I no one will that the Greeks with whom the fibres of the the vascular and imagine argue inhibitory vagus, respira- Alexander overran the world, or that the Romans whom and the motor areas of the medulla tory centres, oblongata. Cfesar ko often led to victory, resemble the Greeks and In its action on the secretions, picrotoxin is allied to Romans of the and other wild and and is present day. Bears, lions, pilocarpine muscarine, antagonised by atropine animals become tame if fed on farinaceous members of that to comparatively and group. The best antidote picrotoxin and I if the athlete would be as well is chloral foods, question hydrate.-I am, Sirs, your obedient servant, if he lived on and stewed WILLIAM developed pap apples. MURRELL, Pavy, in his work on Dietetics, illustrates the truth. Lecturer on Pharmacology at the Weymouth-street, Sept. 15th, 1890. Westminster Hospital. of my argument that flesh food gives more energy than farinaceous when he instances the case of the English and. French navvies. During the construction of a railway in "INTERNATIONAL CONSUMPTION OF MEAT." France it was found that an English navvy did a third more work a than his French brother. elicited To the Editors LANCET. day Inquiry of THE the fact that the Englishman ate more meat and the French- SIRS,-Dr. Yorke-Davies’s remarks are interesting. Last man more haricots and vegetable food. They were both put year Dr. G. Herschell, writing on a diet of lean meat, on the same rations, and the irregularity vanished. raised a momentous question. You were good enough to The great evil, as I pointed out in my former letter, of publish my reply, which I hoped would have the effect of excess in farinaceous food is the difficulty of eliminating it, raising an interesting discussion and eliciting from some of and its proneness to remain in the system stored as fat and our well-known physiologists an alteration of their views. other products of retrograde metamorphosis. Your corre- I most emphatically venture to point out that the rules of spondent makes light of this ; but it is no laughing matter diet laid down by the late Professor Parkes, Sir Lyon Play- to tens of thousands to whom it makes life a burden. I fair, and others require to be altered ; in fact, they are rejoice to think that in lean meat, with a little ballast in entirely misleading and out of date. From an experience the way of vegetables tolerably free from starch and sugar, of over 400 cases of obesity I have had under my care, we have a means of quickly getting rid of this too common many of them extremely weighty and bulky, I confidently encumbrance, and at the same time gaining in energy, assert that a pure nitrogenous diet, largely diluted, is not comfort, and length of life. I presume Mr. Henderson will only safe, but beneficial in all ways. Dr. Yorke-Davies not deny that farinaceous food is more prone to induce was the first to say my diet was fraught with extreme obesity than meat food, and that an obese person is not a& danger and Spartan in the extreme. Well, I am glad to energetic and active as a lean one, and that carrying from say that he has entirely changed his views, practises my two to ten stone more than is necessary of adipose tissue doe& system almost verbatim, and is therefore beginning to get not tend to make a man more robust, mentally or bodily. some good results, upon which I congratulate him heartily. Until your correspondent tells us what the " other more When I began the treatment of obesity I thought to lay important factors which contribute towards the formation down a set of diet rules that would suit everyone. I soon of racial characteristics " are, I fear I shall still go on found out my error. A 20 st. man or woman requires believing in Pavy, history, common sense, facts, and daily longer and more vigorous treatment than those of more observation, rather than in the crude theories and ’"porridge" moderate weight. Every week I have something new to of Mr. Henderson.-I am, Sirs, yours faithfully, learn, and so regulate my diet to suit each individual case. Sherborne, Sept. 14th, 1890. N. E. YORKE-DAVIES. Age, family history, state of general health, all have to be carefully weighed and considered. A lady aged thirty- nine, weight 16 st. 41b., and abdominal girth 49 in., in THE VALUE OF THE DIAZO REACTION. heart and overtaxed, good health, excepting lungs began To the Editors THE LANCET. treatment on Aug. 20th. I saw her on the 28th. She lost of in weight 9 lb. and 7 in. in girth, and expressed herself as SIRS,-In your issue of Aug. 23rd is a synopsis of eases i1’A being better and able to get about, and felt her health which Dr. Rütimeyer tested the urines for the so-called greatly improved. I do trust that some competent physio- diazo reaction (with sulphanilic acid and sodic nitrite). logist will ventilate in your journal Dr. Herschell’s query. When house physician at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital this;