1373

the same extent as the sheep or deer. Out on the plainsonly four or five are seen together even now. Before the

advent of the white man with his flocks and herds the

kangaroo only ranged in the neighbourhood of permanentwater where the land was firm enough to support him. No

doubt, when he was driven out on the rotten ground by dogor man, the great bird-like claw on his hind leg affordeda better support than the hoof of the sheep or bullock.

The great strength capable of being exerted in the hindleg of the kangaroo would also enable him to extricatehimself from a bog more easily than animals of a highertype of development. His short forepaws would be usefulin ‘ clawing’ himself along over rotten ground. But

kangaroos do not follow each other and make tracks,and this is how the sedimentary deposits of the Ganges, theNile, the Amazon, the Mississippi, and other deltas havebeen principally consolidated and compacted." The

"rottenness" of the soil of the Australian plains in the earlydays of colonisation is shown by such facts as that a

walking-stick could be thrust its full length into what lookedlike solid earth without using any special effort, a horse orbullock sunk up to his belly in the soil, and a full-woolledsheep could not extricate itself but had to be rescued. Whilethis condition of things lasted the land was not flooded,as the waters sank into the porous earth and left theirsediment resting lightly on the top. It is believed thatthese waters escape somewhere to the ocean, and in the

Mount Gambier district water has been found running in underground channels at the rate of four or five miles anhour. Irrigation is alone required to make the Australianplains productive. "The plains of Australia," concludes Mr.Boxall, "are singularly alike, and if the plains of Northernand Western Australia can be consolidated by the tramplingof stock, as I believe those of the eastern districts have

been, the time is not far distant when the word ’desert’may be wiped off the map of Australia, and the true

character of its vast plains become more generally understoodand appreciated." -

"PSEUDO-ACTINOMYCOSIS."

IN the Russian Archives of Pathology, Clinical Medicineand Bacteriology Dr. T. G. Savchenko relates an interestingcase of what, clinically speaking, was actinomycosis, butwhich differed from ordinary forms of this affection in itspathological course. Dr. Savchenko has seen several casesin Kieff and all except this one were due to fungi as ordi-narily described. The patient was a peasant thirty yearsof age who had passed through his period of military serviceand had afterwards worked in the fields, being, in fact, inrobust health until his illness began, which was about

May, 1893, when he began to feel pain in his back. Sub-

sequently a tumour appeared on the left side of the chest,which ultimately burst the skin and discharged large quan-tities of pus. When admitted into the St. Cyril Hospital,Kieff, in September, 1893, the tumour-which extended

. from the sternum to the left axilla and from the clavicle tothe fifth intercostal space-was firm and covered by bluish-red skin. There were four sinuses with everted discoloured

edges, from which pus with a peculiar disagreeable smellwas discharged, together with a large number of whitishgranules. There was but little cough and no sputum. The

lungs gave no indication of disease and the urine was freefrom albumin and casts. New abscesses continued to formin the part affected and more than one operation was per-formed, but by April, 1895, the patient was dischargedpractically cured. The unpleasant-smelling pus was presentthroughout the whole course of the disease. It was

significant, too, that the granulations occupying the

sinuses were of a brown colour, very easily broken

down, and contained a large quantity of blood. The

chief interest of the case lies in the microscopicand bacteriological examination. When examined with low

powers the granules did not look unlike those of actino-mycosis, but when high powers were used it was seen that

they were totally distinct, being, in fact, zoogloea made upof numbers of bacteria differing from one another in size..Bacilli were also contained in the pus apart from the granules,some being free and others within leucocytes. The bacteriawere all stained by aniline colours, but not by the Gram stain.When isolated they were found to be absolutely anaerobicand never formed colonies on the surface of nutrient media.In glycerin jelly isolated granules were formed consistingof bacilli. A rabbit inoculated with a pure culture always.presented an abscess in which the same bacilli, sometimesmassed in zoogloea, were found, and always had the specificsmell which was noticed in the patient and which was alwayspresent in the cultures. Dr. Savchenko proposes for this.affection the term bacillary pseudo-actinomycosis."

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY.

WE mentioned three weeks ago some experiments which wemade with some sensitised metal plates submitted to usby Mr. Strauss Collin of Bush-lane House, Cannon-street,E.C. We have since obtained excellent results with these-in THE LANCET Laboratory. They are developed in theordinary way, using" rodinal " preferably as a developer,.and fixed in the hyposulphite bath. Very thorough washingis the next step. The image which first appears on develop-ing vanishes in the hyposulphite solution. When the plate,.after washing, is, however, placed in a solution of perchlo-ride of mercury the image reappears with great distinctness.and with excellent detail. For medical work the employ-ment of these plates offers undoubted advantages. Thus

the thin sheeting upon which the sensitised film is spreadmay be adapted to any shape, and, unlike glass plates, is

not easily fractured, so that it may be placed underthe body of a patient without risk of breaking. Moreover,as will be gathered from the foregoing description of the

process of development, a positive not unlike a ferrotype is.at once obtained. The "tones" are good and the platesfairly rapid, the exposure we adopted in the case of theankle being three minutes.

-

EXCITABILITY OF NERVES AFTER SECTION.

IN the Archives de Physiologie a paper by Arloing recentlyappeared in which were detailed a number of importantexperiments in reference to the duration of the excitability of’the peripheral end of a cut nerve in warm-blooded animals.An abstract of this paper was published in the last numberof the -LVemrologise7tes Centralblatt. Waller and Ranvier

showed long ago that in pigeons and rodents excitabilityrapidly disappeared-in the course of two or three days.Arloing has investigated this variation very carefully, andaccording to his experiments the excitability of the peri--pheral end of the cut facial nerves in ungulates dis-

appears in from eight to ten days. Microscopical examina-tion of the nerve at this period shows disintegration ofthe myelin into drops in places, while at other partsthe myelin is intact or shows only some irregularity of its

borders. The individual differences are very striking.Thus in one case the peripheral end of the facial nerve

was found excitable thirty days after section. In the sameindividual also the different nerves showed different con-

ditions. Thus in a dog the facial nerve was excitable at itsperipheral end five days after section, while at this time themedian nerve was not excitable. As a rule the excitabilityof the cranial nerves took longer to disappear than that ofthe spinal nerves. In the same nerves also the different.bundles lost their excitability at different periods. For

1374

instance, in the vagus the inhibitory nerves of the heart diedfirst, next the motor nerves for the oesophagus and larynx,while the accelerator fibres for the heart lost their excitabilitydistinctly later, and last of all to die was a peculiar bundle,excitation of which brought about arrest of the heart in

systole. This is the bundle which Arloing has alreadydescribed as the "ordinary motor nerve of the heartmuscle."

____

SIR JOHN MILLAIS.

IN view of the many unfounded rumours which are rife

concerning the condition of Sir John Millais we think it

right to state that the condition of affairs is as follows. Onthe night of Saturday, May 9th, urgent dyspnoea set in. This

gradually increased, and early on Sunday morning Mr.

Treves, assisted by Mr. G. H. Hames, considered it neces-

sary to perform a tracheotomy. Sir John Millais was much

relieved by the operation and has since gone on well. He (’,

sleeps well. and there are no chest complications. In

addition to Mr. Treves and Mr. Hames, Sir Richard Quainis in attenclance.

____

THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF THE ADMINISTRATIVECOUNTY OF LONDON.

THE average ratepayer is apt, and with good reason, tokick against the constantly increasing expenditure of the

London County Council. But we fancy that the increase inthe salary of the medical officer, Mr. Shirley Murphy, from£1000 to L1250 will meet with nothing but approval. The

medical and hygienic work of the London County Council isenormous, and the admirable way in which Mr. ShirleyMurphy and his assistants direct it is well known. We are

glad to see that an amendment to increase the salary to

£1200 by an annual rise of E50 was negatived and the com-mittee’s original recommendation carried by 70 votes to 31.

PREVENTION OF HÆMORRHAGE IN DISARTICU-

LATION AT THE HIP-JOINT.

AMPUTATION at the hip-joint has always been accom-panied by a very high mortality, and two causes especiallycan be assigned to this great death.rate-namely, infectionand shock ’. The deaths due to infection are now muchless frequent than they were in the pro-antiseptic days,but shock still remains responsible for a very largeproportion of deaths. A great part of this shockis caused by the large amount of blood which isso often lost at this operation, and many attempts have beenmade to diminish the h2.morrhage. One of the most recent methods was brought forward by Dr. V. Chalot, Professorof Clinical Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of Toulouse,at the Huitieme Congres de Chirurgie, held at Lyons.He suggests that a slightly curved incision, four or five

centimetres in length, should be made about two centimetresinternal to the anterior superior iliac spine, and the anteriorabdominal muscles then divided, so that the peritoneum canbe gently raised from the iliac fossa. When this is done the

common iliac artery can be felt on the inner border of the

psoas muscle. An assistant places on the artery the tipsof the middle and ring fingers of the left hand for the rightside of the patient, and of the right hand for the left side, atthe same time grasping the iliac crest with the forefingerand the thumb, while the little finger rests on the abdominalwall. The compression is made against the ala of the

sacrum, and its efficacy is judged by the cessation of thefemoral pulsation. The amputation is then proceeded within the ordinary way. Dr. Chalot quoted a case in which hehad employed this methocl with success, and with only asmall amount of haemorrhage. )

THE HEALTH OF SIR J. RUSSELL REYNOLDS.

THE news which was announced at the beginning of

the week of the serious illness of Sir J. Russell Reynoldscame as a surprise to all but a few who were very wellinformed. His request that he should not be re-elected asPresident of the Royal College of Physicians of London

might have been taken as a preparation for the bad tidings,for he was not the man to escape rpsponsibi1l ties that he hadonce accepted until it had become clear to him that to burdenhimself further with them would be wrong. But his indis-

position was so ill defined and the absence of importantindications of any organic mischief so entire that theserious symptoms which set in last Saturday night wereas unexpected as alarming. But they were not without adefinite cause. Sir J. Russell Reynolds had improved underrest, care, and change of air, but on April 23rd, after seeingsome patients at home, he returned from a drive, and inalighting from his carriage slipped on his own doorstep.This accident, unfortunately, caused him to be confined tobed, and conserluent on the shock and increasing weak-ness pulmonary complications supervened. We are veryglad to be able to announce that a slight improvement,shown by the abatement of temperature and the diminishedfrequency of respiration, which took place on Monday hasbeen maintained ; and although the patient’s condition isstill one to cause the deepest anxiety, his medical advisersnow allow us to hope that the rally is perhaps not tem-porary but the commencement of a return to strength.Dr. Barlow and Dr. Buzzard have seen Sir J. Russell

Reynolds regularly with Mr. Cooper Bentham, who has beenin constant and assiduous attention. Dr. Wilks and Dr.Gowers have also seen Sir J. Russell Reynolds in con-

sultation. ____

THE annual general meeting of the Pathological Societyof London for the election of officers and council, andother business, will be held at 20, Hanover-square on

May 19th, at 8.30 P.M. Mr. Stanley Boyd will propose thefollowing resolution : That in the opinion of this meetingit is expedient that ladies, who are duly qualified medicalpractitioners, should be eligible for the membership of thissociety." The result of the voting on this motion will beawaited by the profession with no little interest and curiosity.By the why do not the ladies unite to form a medicalsociety of their own! 1 Some doubt seems to be felt as towhether the medical societies will follow the example setthem by the British Medical Association.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN has been informed by telegram fromthe Governor of Hong-Kong that seventy-four fresh cases ofbubonic plague occurred in the colony in the week endingMay 12th, and that the number of deaths from the plague inthe same period was sixty-four.

DR. GEORGM OLIVER will deliver the Croonian Lectures-A Contribution to the Study of the Blood and of theCirculation -at the Royal College of Physicians of London,Pall Mull East, on June 2nd, 4th, 9th, and llth. The lectureswill commence at 5 P.M.

____

DR. JOHN ANDERSON, C.I.E., M.D.St. And., F.R.C’.P.

Lond., Physician to the Seamen’s Dreadnought Hospital, hasbeen appointed Lecturer on Diseases of Tropical Climatesat St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School.

MR. A. PEARCE GOULD has been appointed Surgeon tothe Middlesex Hospital.

--

TUE annual dinner of old students of King’s College,