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current influence which is likely to produce theirhigher concentration upon the autumn quarter of theyear. Only a person with local knowledge wouldbe in a position to detect any such possible factors,and Bivings does not discuss any. It may be notedalso that the prematurity rate is somewhat higherin the spring than in the winter and summer (108 to86 per 1000) and this rate relates to conceptions in theprevious summer months. Thus whatever may be thecase with umbilical hernia, the evidence for referringthe prematurity and early infant death-rates toinfluences at the time of conception seems veryslender.

A COMPLETE SET OF " THE LANCET "

Mr. Henry Kimpton, medical publisher and book-seller, 263, High Holborn, W.C., writes : " I have acomplete set of THE LANCET for disposal, and havepleasure in submitting details : Complete set fromthe commencement in 1823 to 1933. 1823 to 1843,Vol. I., boards, cloth backs, paper labels. Alloriginal editions except Vol. I. (1823) which is secondedition. 1844 to 1933: bound uniform publisher’sstyle. Set is quite complete, same having beencollated, and in good condition. Price £125."

A TEXT-BOOK ON HEAT

STUDENTS who are reading science for universityentrance scholarships or the higher school certificateswill be fortunate if they are advised to use Dr.Barton’s text-book on heat.! He writes with scien-tific accuracy and in an attractive style. The bookgoes a little beyond the needs of those taking theHigher School Certificate, and will indeed suffice forreaders who do not intend to go beyond the Passdegree. It should thus make a wide appeal. Whileillustrative experiments are described and numericalexamples are collected at the end of each chapter,the reader’s attention is directed mainly to theconsideration of essential principles, and it is for thisreason that the book is better than most otherelementary text-books on heat.

ALUMINIUM POISONING

THE recurrent scare over aluminium cooking-potshas made no little impression on the public mind,and it is necessary that reassuring observations shouldnot be overlooked. The latest of a long seriespublished from the Mellon Institute of IndustrialResearch describes experiments 2 undertaken to decidehow much ingested aluminium is retained in the body.Guinea-pigs were used, and were fed on a pultaceousdiet composed of dried pumpkin, whole milk, wheatbran, corn starch, and water, to which aluminium(a solution of lactate or chloride, or both) was added.The guinea-pigs were divided into groups and fed ondiets whose aluminium content ranged from zero to1167 parts per million of consumed food. The latterfigure represented seven-eighths of the stoichiometricequivalent of the total phosphorus in the diet, andthis was important, because it appears that theabsorption of aluminium from the digestive tract,like that of iron, is governed by the dietary phos-phorus, existing after digestion as phosphates. Inthe presence of the phosphate ion, an aluminiumphosphate is formed which is insoluble at aboutpH 2’8 and lower acidities. Dr. Schwartze and hiscolleagues found that the aluminium content of freshtissues of adult guinea-pigs which had received noadded aluminium in their diet was about 0’4 partper million or less, but that in growing guinea-pigsthe aluminium content of the carcass was ratherhigher. Feeding of large amounts of soluble aluminiumsalts was followed by a barely detectable deposi-tion of aluminium in the soft tissues (less than 0’6part per million) and somewhat larger amounts (from0’5 to 1 part per million) in carcasses. No systemic

1 A Text-book on Heat. By A. W. Barton, M.A., Ph.D.London : Longmans, Green and Co. 1933. Pp. 378. 7s. 6d.

2 By Schwartze, E. W., Cox, Gerald J., Unangst, Richard B.,Murphy, F. J., and Wigman, Helen B.: Jour. Amer. Med.Assoc., 1933, ci., 1722.

pharmacological effects could be ascribed directly toabsorbed aluminium, but when aluminium lactateor aluminium chloride were added to the diet inamounts (1400 parts per million) stoichiometricallyequivalent to the total phosphorus of the diet, thetwo salts, by forming insoluble phosphates, werealmost equally potent in producing a completedeprivation of blood phosphorus, leading to deathin about four weeks. But such a gross intake ofaluminium could never result from the corrosionof aluminium cooking utensils in contact with food,and the large phosphorus content of an ordinary dietis an additional safeguard against the danger ofphosphorus deprivation. From these experimentsSchwartze concludes that aluminium does not appearto be cumulative in the tissues, and that no harmfuleffects can be expected from soluble aluminiumoccurring naturally in foods, or introduced by utensilsinto a diet of normal phosphorus content. " Sincethere is no evidence in our data that the consumptionof a large amount of aluminium can lead to anyprimarily pharmacologic action in the system, therecan therefore be no medical objection to the consump-tion by human beings of a small amount (relativeto the phosphorus content) of added aluminium, asthe factor of safety is ample."

CATS AND DIPHTHERIA

THE part played by cats in the transmissionof diphtheria was long debated, but in this countryat least the view that they could either contract ordisseminate the disease seemed to have been finallysettled in the negative by the careful experimentsof W. Savage. 1 Considerable interest, therefore,attaches to the recent paper by E. Bruce Brooks,awhose conclusions partly confirm and partly contradictthose of Savage. The Schick test was performed on70 cats and kittens with a negative result in eachcase. Injections of standardised toxin, however,caused death in these animals, the minimum lethaldose being five times as great as that for guinea-pigs,while injections of antitoxin protected the animalswhich had received toxin. The pharyngeal mucousmembranes of cats and kittens were next inoculatedwith pure cultures of virulent diphtheria bacilli whichwere still found at the end of 24 hours, but disappearedin 48 hours. When, however, the cultures of diph-theria bacilli were mixed with Vincent’s organisms,the duration of the diphtheria bacilli on the scarifiedmucosae was as long as four days. Diphtheria bacilliinoculated into the nasal cavities and trachea survivedin these situations for not more than five days. Lastly,diphtheria bacilli suspended in normal saline wereapplied to the fur of cats in various parts of thebody, but in no instance were the bacilli found tolive more than three days. Brooks comes to theconclusion that while cats and kittens are notsusceptible to diphtheria, they may act as carriersof the disease for from one to four days after exposureto infection, through contamination of the rhino-pharynx or fur.

VITAMIN C.-Messrs. Burroughs Wellcome and Co.inform us that they now issue ascorbic (hexuronic)acid as

" Tabloid " ascorbic acid, 0.005 g., eachproduct being equivalent in vitamin-C activity totwo teaspoonfuls of freshly expressed orange juice.The preparation has been supplied by them forresearch purposes for more than a year. A note on theuse of ascorbic acid in the treatment of scurvyappeared on p. 22 of our last issue.THE INTRODUCTION OF MIDWIFERY FORCEPS.—On

p. 23 of our last issue Prof. Leyland Robinson isreported as saying that midwifery forceps only cameinto common use in England when Chapman publishedhis book in 1773. It was actually in 1733 thatEdmund Chapman’s essav on the improvement ofmidwifery appeared in London at the press ofA. Bettesworth and C. Hitch (pp. 119, octavo).

1 Jour. of Hyg., 1920, xviii., 448.2 Amer. Jour. Dis. Child., 1933, xlvi., 1338.