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abscesses in the kidneys. After hardening in formalinthe cord showed much blood in streaks through several

segments of the lumbar enlargement. A segment about a

.quarter of an inch long was thinner than the rest and appearedto have been crushed. Opposite this, entangled in the

loose fibrous tissues outside the dura mater, was an irregularcircular flat mass of firm white tissue which looked like the

pulp of the centre of an intervertebral disc. Microscopicexamination showed the characteristic structure of this pulp.The mass was 15 millimetres in diameter and 5 thick. Its

margins were ragged ; a few red blood corpuscles adheredto them entangled in the shreds. Microscopic examinationof the cord showed advanced softening amounting almost tonecrosis in the central parts and much diffuse blood

infiltration extending above and below the crushed segment.There was early secondary degeneration of the various tracts.Unfortunately, the portion of the intervertebral disc wasnot noticed until the day after the necropsy, when furtherexamination of the spine was impossible. But injury or dis-placement of the vertebræ of the common types had beensearched for and could be excluded. From the position ofthe injury of the cord it seemed that the disc which gave waywas that between the twelfth dorsal and first lumbar vertebrsa.When the injury took place the back must have been bentwith the lumbar and abdominal muscles in full action. This

would powerfully compress the intervertebral discs with theanterior margins of the vertebrae approximated-a favourableposition for displacement of the pulp of the intervertebraldisc backwards. A case presenting some similarity in respectto injury of an intervertebral disc has been recorded byKocher. A man fell 100- feet and sustained various injuries,including rupture of the bowel, from which he died in somehours. The disc between first and second lumbar vertebras

was smashed and squeezed out from between the bodies,which appeared to be undamaged. Both cases show the

possibility of injury to the intervertebral disc without visibleinjury to the vertebr2a.

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THE PREVENTION OF MALARIA IN ATHENS.

THE name of the Athenian Ilissus awakens in many of us

ideas of beautiful scenery. Images are evoked by its namesuch as succeed in our minds at the mention of the streamsof Yarrow, Thames, or Liris. Consequently it is a shock to-find the Ilissus accused of causing the malaria which has longhung about Athens. That is the charge brought against itby Professor Cardamatis of Athens, who has explained in theArchiv fur Schiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene for August how hehas freed the Itissus from this disgrace. As he says, there

are two conditions required for the spread of malaria:

patients there must be, infected and infective, as well as

mosquitoes to carry the infection ; remove one or other ofthese factors and the malaria ceases. Either, that is,cure the patients by the administration of quinine, or

get rid of the breeding places of the anopheles, or combineboth methods. Professor Cardamatis reports that NewAnchialos was freed from malaria by quinine, while at

Marathon he and a colleague got rid of it by quinine andimproved drainage. In Athens the controlled treatment ofall individuals by quinine was impossible, so he attacked thestate of the Ilissus, a sluggish stream which spreads itselfinto many wide shallow semi-stagnant pools, the very placesfor mosquito larvae, further sheltered as these are by theweeds which grow in the slow-moving water. He cleanedthe river bed, by embankments and deepenings narrowed itscourse and expedited its flow, and he has the new bed sweptout every week to get rid of anopheles’ eggs which may havebecome deposited. These works were begun in 1906. Inthe years 1901-1905 inclusive the children of the neighbour-ing schools found to be infected with malaria had averaged j

80 per cent. The number at once began to fall, and in 1906and subsequently the proportions found infected were

successively, per cent., 60, 21, 22/3, 2/3 and none. Thus the

course of the Ilissus has been freed from malaria, and Pro-fessor Cardamatis deserves credit from every lover of Ancientor Modern Greece and from every sanitarian for the strikingimprovement he has secured by measures so simple and sosagacious. -

BEER AS A CONDIMENT.

ALTHOUGH beer does not contain a large amount of nutrientmaterial there appears to be little doubt that in the healthyindividual it favours the assimilation of food in a mannerakin to such condimental substances as meat extract, pepper,salt, vinegar, mustard, and so forth. Recent investiga-tions on this point at all events show that malt extrac-

tives contained in beer, added to a dietary almost

devoid of organic condiments, increase the assimilation

of non-nitrogenous food-stuffs, particularly fats. In addi-

tion 86 per cent. of the extractives of beer themselves

are assimilated and yield about 81 per cent. of theirthermal energy to the system. Beer supplies, however,a negligible amount of proteins, but the stimulus of its

alcohol increases protein absorption from nitrogenous foods.In these scientific terms, therefore, the practical observationthat beer, bread, and cheese make an appetising nutritiouswhole receives definite endorsement. Physiologists haveput forward from time to time various explanations of thefulness and plethora which often succeed the habitual andexcessive drinking of beer-it is strikingly exemplified in thebrewer’s man-and it now appears that this effect is not dueto the nutritives of the beer, but to the tonic or condimentalaction of the malt extractives, which increase the assimilationof the foodstuffs partaken with it. Some valuable scientific

contributions upon this and related subjects appear from timeto time in the Journal of the Institute of Brewing, in whichwill be found the reports of the International PhysiologicalResearch Institute founded for the purpose of carrying outinvestigations on the physiological effects of beer and otheralcoholic beverages. These researches will be welcomed ascalculated to throw light upon the hygienic aspects of thenational beverage.

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SCARLET RED AS A STIMULANT TO THEEPITHELIATION OF GRANULATING

SURFACES.

IN 1906 B. Fischer drew attention to the remarkable

growth of epithelium produced by the subcutaneous injectionof a saturated solution of the dye known as scarlet red inolive oil into the rabbit’s ear, and suggested therapeuticpossibilities. His experiments have been confirmed andextended by a number of investigators. Schmieden first

adopted his suggestion and in 1908 reported rapid healingof sluggish ulcers. He used an 8 per cent. ointment andalternated it every 24 hours with some bland ointment onaccount of the irritating properties of the scarlet red. He

insisted that the granulations must be perfectly clean andflat, and that it was useless to apply the ointment to anunclean ulcer. Kaehler modified Schmieden’s technique andobtained good results in unhealthy granulating wounds.Krajea then used scarlet red in conjunction with partialThiersch grafts and found that their edges, as well as thoseof the wound, were stimulated. In the Johns HopkinsHospital Bulletin for June, 1909, Dr. John Staige Davisreported 60 cases in which he had used scarlet red withsatisfactory results, and in the number for June, 1911, he hasreturned to the subject. Carrel, the well-known Americansurgeon, states that when at the end of the period of

"granulous retraction" of a large wound the edges of