Dr. Abernethy used to advise his patients to read the writings of Cornaro; "who having naturally a weak constitution, which he seems to have ruined by intemperance, so that he was expected to die at the age of thirty-five, did at that period adopt a strict regimen, allowing himself only twelve ounces of food daily." It is said Cornaro was told by his physicians, when he was thirtyfive years of age, that he could not live two months; but by adhering to a "strict regimen," he lived to be one hundred years old, and for over sixty years, subsisted on twelve ounces of solid food and thirteen ounces of drink per day. He took, however, with this, a moderate quantity of light wine.

It is said the Rev. John Wesley lived for many years on about sixteen ounces of solid food per day, and as he took no wine, his fare may perhaps be considered to have been as limited as that of Cornaro; while he led, in all probability, a much more active life.

Abstinence cannot be carried thus far by every one, however, and while most persons eat more than is essential, it must be remembered that too great a degree of abstemiousness will prove injurious to both body and mind.

Each must experiment for himself, and he may soon ascertain the amount of food actually necessary for health. There is usually more danger of estimating too high than too low. Most important of all, eat slowly, and at the same time carefully attend to the first feeling of satiety, or rather of satisfaction, which, in the healthy stomach will be manifested, especially if looked for, just as soon as enough, or as much as the stomach can digest with ease, has been eaten. "There is a moment when the relish given by the appetite ceases," observes Dr. Phyllip. But we must not confound appetite with taste. And herein lies a great objection to more than one dish at a meal; by the flavour and taste of new viands, the appetite is re-sharpened and a false desire for more food is thereby created.-(Sanitary Fournal.)

PROPHYLAXIS OF APOPLEXY,

Dr. I. C. Walker in reporting a case of apoplexy in the July number of the American Practitioner takes occasion to theorize on the prevention of these seizures. He quotes from Virchow to show that the starting point of atheromatous degeneration is an inflammation of the inner arterial coat similar to that which occurs in endocarditis. He is led to infer that this inflammation is dependent on an acid condition of the blood, inasmuch as an acid condition is generally admitted in rheumatic endo carditis. He looks to a correction of this condition for the prevention of apoplexy. In the history furnished us by Sir Thomas Watson, of Dr. Adam Ferguson, we find an example from which much may be learned. He says: "The doctor experienced several attacks of temporary blindness before he had an attack of palsy, and he did not take these hints as readily as he should have done. He observed that while he was delivering a lecture, his class and papers before him would disappear-vanish from his sight and reappear again in a few seconds. He was a man of full habit, at one time corpulent and very ruddy, though by no means intemperate, he lived freely. I say he did not attend to these admonitions, and at length, in the sixtieth year of his age, he suffered a decided shock of paralysis. He recovered however, and from that period under the advice of his friend Dr. Black, he became a strict pythagorean in his diet, eating nothing but vegetables and drinking nothing but water or milk. He got rid of his paralytic symptom, became even robust and muscular for a man of his time of life, and died in full possession of his mental faculties at the advanced age of ninety three, upwards of thirty years after his first attack."

If we learn anything from this case it is that cerebral arteries may be so frangible as to rupture under great pressure, and that additional ruptures may be prevented, and possibly the tendency to arterial degeneration stayed, and the already weakened walls

strengthened; by the regulation of the nutrition, by abstaining largely from nitrogenous articles of food and living principally on carbonaceous diet. We also learn that both mental and physical vigor can be maintained to a great age on a diet consisting exclusively of vegetables, water and milk. All this being true, how important is the study of preventing the degeneration of blood vessels, not by medication alone but chiefly by alimentation. If the doctrine advanced by Virchow be true, that an acid state of the blood favors fatty metamorphosis and atheromutous degeneration, and that the condition of the blood is the same as in endocarditis, it would appear that the way is open to prevent endarteritis and its consequences, by preventing the accumulation of the supposed materies morbi in the blood, by the use of agents, the tendency of which would be to maintain its normal alkilinity. Then in the management of cases in which we have cause to believe there is an inherited predisposition to arterial degeneration, from an acid condition of the blood-and it matters not whether it be uric or lactic-we have but to maintain its alkalinity by interdicting the use of nitrogenous articles of food, and insisting upon the example of the old Pythagorean, "Eat nothing but vegetables, and drink only water or milk."

ON THE PRESERVATION OF ICE AT THE bedside.

Mr. Sampson Gamgee, Surgeon to the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, in a short article (Lancet, June 10, 1876) calls attention to this subject. His practice for some years has been to cut a piece of flannel about nine inches square, and secure it by ligature round the mouth of an ordinary tumbler, so as to leave a cup-shaped depression of flannel within the tumbler to about half its depth. In the flannel cup so constructed pieces of ice may be preserved many hours, all the longer if a piece of flannel from four to five inches square be used as a loose cover

to the ice-cup. Cheap flannel, with comparatively open meshes, is preferable, as the water easily drains through it and the ice is thus kept quite dry. When good flannel with close texture is employed, a small hole must be made in the bottom of the flannel cup, otherwise it holds the water, and facilitates the melting of the ice, which is, nevertheless, preserved much longer than in the naked cup or tumbler. In a room 60° F., Dr. G. made the following experiment with four tumblers, placing in each two ounces of ice broken into pieces of the average size for sucking. In tumbler No. 1 the ice was loose. It had all melted in two hours and fifty-five minutes. In tumbler No. 2' the ice was suspended in the tumbler in a cup made as above described of good Welsh flannel. In five hours and a quarter the flannel cup was more than half filled with water, with some pieces of ice floating in it; in another hour and a quarter (six hours and a half from the commencement of the experiment) the flannel cup was nearly filled with water, and no ice remained. In tumbler No. 3 the ice was suspended in a fiannel cup made in the same manner and of the same material as in No. 2, but in No. 3 a hole capable of admitting a quill pen had been made in the bottom of the flannel cup, with the effect of protracting the total liquefaction of the two ounces of ice to a period of eight hours and threequarters. In tumbler No. 4 two ounces of ice were placed in a flannel cup made, as above described, of cheap, open flannel (10d. per yard), which allowed the water to drain through very readily. Ten hours and ten minutes elapsed before all this ice had melted.

A reserve supply outside the bedroom door can be secured by making a flannel cup, or on the plan above described, in a jug, and filling it with little lumps of ice; care being taken that there is space enough below the keg to allow the water to collect, and leave the ice dry. This provision will allow ice to be used during the hottest night, without the supply failing, or the patient

being disturbed--two important considerations. The real therapeutic benefit of ice is only produced in some cases by its free use, and its soothing and stilling effect must be aided by the most perfect surrounding quiet.-Med. News and Library.

Raw meat (from the loin),

HOW TO MAKE RAW MEAT PALATABLE TO INVALIDS. The Southern Medical Record, May, 1876, copies the following from the Industrie Blatter: We omit the gramme and give the equivalent in English ounces. The following receipe for this purpose has been given by Ivon: 8.7 oz.; shelled sweet almonds, 2'6 oz.; shelled bitter almonds, 17 OZ.; white sugar, 2.8 oz.; these substances to be beaten together in a marble mortar to a uniform pulp, and the fibres to be separated by a strainer. The pulp, which has a rosy hue, and a very agreeable taste, does not at all remind one of meat, and may be kept fresh for a considerable time, even in summer, in a dry, cool place. Yolk of an egg may be added to it. From this pulp or directly from the above substance, an emulsion may be prepared which will be rendered still more nutritious by the addition of milk. Lailler prefers the following preparation : Dried raw meat, 3'5 oz.; sugar, 1°4 oz.; wine 7 oz.; tincture of cinnamon, I oz. It is a kind of electuary, very agreeable to the palate.-Medical Times.

AROMATIC SULPHURIC ACID IN NECROSIS.

Dr. Ephraim Cutter reports in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal a case, with cure, of necrosis of the alveolar process treated by injections of aromatic sulphuric acid, one drachm to the ounce of water. By means of a half ounce syringe supplied with an ivory tip one inch and a half long, and one-eighth inch in diameter, the acid solution was injected at first twice a day and afterwards once a day. About two drachms were used at