fifteenth international congress of medicine

1521

alternating currents upon frogs had been conducted byhim and the results had proved that the usually accepted i

views upon the action of these currents were incorrect. Such -.

currents he considers penetrate the body and do not simply ispread out over its surface, and the laws which govern the I

passage of electric currents through electrolytes and con- 1ductors are found to apply in this case also. The nerves, in 1

fact, behave in such cases, in his opinion, as half permeable ’ I

membranes. ____

I

THE SUPPLY OF ICE FOR DOMESTIC USE.

THE supply of pure ice in this country for domestic

purposes is not as abundant or available as it should be,and it is absurd that practically the only shop where it I

may be obtained is that kept by the fishmonger who keeps pit not for purposes of consumption but for cooling fish. The o

fishmonger’s shop does not always represent an environment i)

that is, sanitarily speaking, satisfactory, yet when ice is n

wanted in sickness or in health the only tradesman that a

can be found to supply it is the fishmonger, and his supply v

is usually limited. It seems ridiculous that in the English a

summer the demand for ice should not be sufficient to d

warrant the establishment of a special agency for its supply. J

We feel sure that if such a scheme could be organised it s

would be widely appreciated and would succeed as soon o

as the public realised how much better and healthier rit is to have their food and beverages kept cool during J

the days of a hot and seasonable summer. As it is t

they have to be content with semi-liquid butter and e

mawkish lukewarm beverages which should be cold, espe- t

cially those which are aerated. A cheap and abundant b

supply of pure ice for domestic purposes would give ii

the housekeeper a chance of keeping a cool store- 1:room in which meat, poultry, eggs, and other perishable c

articles of food could be preserved. Not only would waste tof food be so prevented but the ravages of the putrefying r

agencies of hot weather would be checked and the food c

saved from becoming unwholesome if not positively dan- a

gerous. In fact, we imagine that nobody will deny the very t

great advantages derived from keeping certain foods cold c

in the summer and preserving them in a state fit for con- a

sumption and attractive to the eye and palate, and yet c

practically no steps are taken to supply such an important c

and very evident need. This looks to us like lack of t

enterprise. -

c

FIFTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MEDICINE.

THE Fifteenth International Congress of Medicine will

be held at Lisbon in 1906 under the presidency of their

Majesties the King and Queen of Portugal from April 19thto 26th inclusive. Membership of the Congress is confinedto medical men and to other men of science introduced bythe executive Portuguese committee or by the foreign com-mittees. Subscription to the Congress is .61 or 25 francsor 20 marks for foreign members. The work of the Con-

gress will be divided into 17 sections and the executivecommittee of the Congress is anxious to print all theofficial papers before the meeting, so they must be givenin to the general secretary before Sept. 30th, 1905. Other

papers sent in by authors wishing to read them at the

Congress, if it is desired that they should be printedbefore the opening of the Congress, must be sent inbefore Dec. 31st, 1905. The official language of the Congressis French, but besides this tongue English and German maybe used. Portuguese has been purposely excluded by thecommittee with the intention of diminishing the number oflanguages spoken and it seems to us that this somewhat

self-sacrificing regulation is deserving of great praise. The

president of the organising committee is Dr. M. da Costa

Alemao and the general secretary is Dr. Miguel Bombarda,.to whom all subscriptions must be sent at the Hospital deRilhafolles, Lisbon. Any questions which deal with thescientific work of the sections must be addressed to the

president of the committee of the particular section but any-thing that concerns the organisation of the general work ofthe committee must be addressed to the general secretary.The secretary for Great Britain is Dr. F. W. Pavy, 35,.Grosvenor-street, London, W.

TWISTED PEDICLE OF AN OVARIAN TUMOURTHRICE REDUCED WITHOUT OPERATION.

IN the Boston Medical and Surgical Jozcrnal of April 7thDr. C. A. Porter has published a case in which the twistedpedicle of an ovarian tumour was thrice reduced withoutoperation. A woman, aged 35 years, had a normal confinement,in May, 1900. On Dec. 22nd, 1903, she ate some unsoundmeat. She became sick in the night and vomited violentlyall the following day. After a severe attack of vomiting shewas seized with sharp pain in the right iliac region. She sawand felt a lump there of the size of a small orange which

disappeared after manipulation. The pain then ceased. On.

Jan. 5th, 1904, after carrying her child upstairs she had asimilar attack of pain which lasted an hour. There was

occasional vomiting. Menstruation had begun on the

previous day more profusely than usual. On the morning ofJan. llth she had a third attack. Menstruation still con-

tinued, although it usually lasted only three days. She vomitedevery 15 minutes. At 4 P. M. after an attempt at palpationthe pain suddenly ceased. She was seen an hour later byher medical attendant who found a moveable globular tumourin the hypogastrium. On the inner side of the pelvicbrim on the right side there was slight tenderness. Ovarian

cyst the pedicle of which had become twisted, causing thethree attacks of pain, was diagnosed. The point of tender-ness appeared to indicate the position of thrombosed vesselsdue to the twisting of the pedicle. Immediate operation wasadvised on the grounds that the pedicle might become furthertwisted at any time with the production of gangrene. On

opening the abdcmen a purplish ovarian cyst in a moderateamount of fluid was found. It was rotated one-and-three-

quarter times on its axis. The ovarian veins and the veinsof the broad ligament were thrombosed at the site of thetwist. A similar tumour was found on the left side. Double

ovariotomy was performed but in view of the patient’s age alittle ovarian tissue was left.

JUVENILE TABES DORSALIS.’ JUVENILE tabes has often been confounded by writerswith Friedreich’s ataxia, but if it is remembered that motorincc ordination of the legs is ordinarily the first and the moststriking manifestation of Friedreich’s disease, whereas it is

extremely rare in true tabes dorsalis, that the so-called pre-ataxic stage which is frequently, if not constantly, present intabes dorsalis is never present in Friedreich’s disease, and,finally, that the one disease (Friedreich’s disease) has oftena I I family " character, while tabes dorsalis is by no means afamily affection these, together with the differential.

symptoms recorded below, will serve to distinguish the twoaffections. In the New Tork Mediead Journal of May 7thDr. Alfred Gordon, instructor in neurology in the JeffersonMedical College, Philadelphia, deals with juvenile tabesdorsalis and calls attention to the following interestingpoints in the case recorded below R hich illustratesa new and as yet undescribed complication-viz, an

attack of tabes dorsalis following after (but not due to)infantile paralysis. The case really shows that juveniletabes is due to inherited or acquired syphilis, as juvenilegeneral paralysis has long been known to be. In the

great majority of cases acquired syphilis is the cause