ceous aliments undergo in their culinary preparation, and the utilisation by the organism of the foods when prepared.

The object of the first series of experiments was to determine, with the aid of Professor E. Winge, whether the starch contained in the flour prepared for use had passed into a form in which the cells had lost their peculiar appearance under the microscope, while, at the same time, the presence of the starch as a chemical body continued demonstrable by iodine.

It is evident that the chemical nature of the starch is not altered by a boiling heat, as the intensely blue colour invariably shows itself on the addition of iodine in all kinds of farinaceous food [after they have cooled?], no matter how they may have been prepared.

The object of a second series of experiments was to ascertain whether raw starch cannot be so altered by the digestive fluids as to become physiologically available to the system. It is well known that the salivary and pancreatic secretions are the proper solvents of starch; though Professor Funke's researches have shown that even the juice secreted in the vermiform appendix of the cæcum can with ease, and without the aid of other fluids, change starch into sugar. Professor Faye's experiments were thus conducted: To a small quantity of the starchy matters to be tried, so much saliva was added in small flasks, that it could easily be shaken, and thus brought into intimate contact with the starch granules. The flasks were kept in a uniform temperature of from 104° F. to 122° F. for several days, more or Îess, as the nature of the material required. The results are given in a tabular form, and prove

"That a sufficient quantity of saliva is capable also outside the body of changing starch into sugar, or, in other words, of causing it to undergo an incipient process of assimilation, without the granules having been previously in any way prepared by a higher temperature or by a boiling heat."-P. 25.

Experiments performed by the author, in consequence of a statement recently made that cellulose can by chemical means be converted into sugar, and undertaken with a view to ascertain whether the saliva has the power of producing this effect, afforded a negative result.

In order to discover whether the organic ferments are capable of altering starch so that it can fulfil its part in the process of nutrition without having been previously subjected to a temperature equal to that of boiling water, it would be necessary by direct experiments to ascertain whether starch is passed unchanged with the excrements; and if so, whether this can be considered to take place to a disproportionate amount by reason of the imperfect preparation of the meal, which often prevails among the lower orders, and partly also among the more refined classes of society. To clear up this point, the author instituted experiments upon two persons, of whom he was himself one, under a moderate daily diet consisting of both animal and vegetable food, the latter predominating, and containing potatoes, bread, and other farinaceous aliments. No starch could be discovered in the fæces.

The next experiment was intended to ascertain whether starch would be found under a diet containing unprepared meal in quantity equal to or even exceeding that in which meal is in many parts of the kingdom added to and stirred up with the porridge after it is taken from the fire; but neither in this case did the fæces exhibit the reaction of starch. Hence, and from a still more conclusive experiment upon himself, Professor Faye infers

"Not only that raw starch can be changed during digestion, when the wants of the system are so urgent that it appropriates the altered starch as material for the current metamorphosis of matter, but that the digestive powers are sufficient to change it also in those cases where the organism is not in pressing want of an increased amount of carbo-hydrates. That a portion of the starch may, where the supply is abundant, pass away as excrementitious matter, may be considered certain, and it is probable that in excess a part is expelled unchanged; but that this does not necessarily happen, even if the meal be used in the raw state, I believe there can be no doubt."-P. 33.

The author explains the popular custom of adding raw meal to

porridge after it has been removed from the fire, by showing that food, if very easily digestible, soon leaves the stomach empty, and an empty stomach is usually accompanied with a feeling of languor. Hence experience led the peasant to prolong the process of digestion by the use of less perfectly prepared food. In some parts of the country the same object is attained in a different mode, where, observes Professor Faye,

"The cook is praised who can produce the porridge so hard that one, as it is said with something of hyperbole, may walk upon it; and in Sweden they are said to boil and use it so stiff, that it may be cut into slices or pieces, in which small fry of fish are often stuck, affording a mixed food of the same nutritive value as bread and fish.”

These remarks bear so very strongly on some observations on the food of the labourer published by the late Sir Henry Marsh, of Dublin, precisely twenty years ago, while his country was suffering from the dreadful famine of 1846-47, which so largely reduced its population, that we shall offer no apology for quoting largely from the essay of that distinguished physician :

'Secondly," writes Sir Henry, "I am anxious to say a few words on the importance of giving bulk and firmness to food prepared for the labourer. A soft, semi-liquid diet will maintain the life and health of children, and, in times of scarcity, will be sufficient for those adults whose occupations are sedentary, and is best suited to those who are reduced by and recovering from a wasting disease. Such persons do not stand in need of the more abundant and more substantial nutriment which is essential to those who are daily engaged in occupations exacting much muscular labour. In the preparation and distribution of food, this I believe to be an important point, and one which should be held steadily in view. For the labourer, the food should be in part solid, requiring mastication and insalivation, and not rapid of digestion: food, however nutritious, which is too quickly digested, is soon followed by a sensation of hunger and emptiness, and consequent sinking and debility. Food of this description is unsuited to the labourer-it will not maintain strength, nor will it maintain health; and if long persevered in, it will be followed by some one or other of the prevailing diseases, which result immediately from deficient, imperfect, and impoverished blood. Of this fact the labourer fed on the potato was practically, though not theoretically aware: his potato, when cooked to suit his taste and feeling, was never thoroughly boiled; he wished, to use an expression which I have often heard from the labourer himself, 'to leave a bone in it, that it might stick to him!' By this

On the Preparation of the Food of the Labourer: in a Letter to Joshua Harvey, M.D., from Sir Henry Marsh, Bart.' Dublin, James M'Glashan, 1847, p. 6.

method of cooking, two valuable objects were attained: first, the food in the stomach required more time to undergo the process of digestion, and consequently the return of the sensation of hunger was postponed; and secondly, it required a more prolonged and more perfect mastication and insalivation. For these reasons, the addition of even non-nutritious, solid material, provided that it be not deleterious, is practically useful: it increases the bulk, imposes the necessity of more complete mastication and insalivation, protracts the digestive process, and prevents the food from passing too hastily from the stomach into the lower intestines."

This adoption of the same principle in the preparation of different kinds of food in different countries, and evidently as the result of similar personal, practical experience, apart from theory, is undoubtedly interesting; and it is gratifying to find eminent physicians, like Professor Faye and Sir Henry Marsh, in the true spirit of that philanthropy so characteristic of the medical profession, turning their attention from subjects which might be expected more directly to engross it, to questions whose main object is the welfare of the humbler classes of society. Professor Faye, after some valuable observations on luxurious living, remarks, towards the close of his essay, that,

According to our general physiological knowledge and the result of the present investigation, it cannot with truth be asserted that it is the labouring class of society which is especially wasteful of food, or by whose inadequate system of alimentation thousands of national wealth are lost-although it certainly must be admitted that the mode of preparation might be better and more appropriate to a weak digestion, but that this reproach may with greater reason be cast upon the luxurious and more prosperous ranks. Food and drink assist in producing in the system a superabundant state of nutrition, and it may without exaggeration be said, as has also lately been affirmed in other countries, that many stomachs might be satiated with the superfluity. A rational dietary would undoubtedly be a gain to all parties. Our ancestors had a dietetic rule, which in my youth I often heard quoted, that we should leave off with an appetite. The rule, judiciously applied, is good; but it has long since been laid aside as antiquated and unsuitable to our present system of physical education. The rule in other words would run thus: 'Little, but good;' but as such it is unfortunately seldom put in practice."-P. 40.

REVIEW VII.

On Railway and other Injuries of the Nervous System. By JOHN E. ERICHSEN, &c.

THIS book is but a small one; but its importance is, in our opinion, great, both in consequence of the author's position, and of the great interest which it possesses for all medical men who have to treat severe accidents, or who are called upon to give evidence about them in courts of justice. We shall, therefore, allot to Mr. Erichsen's book rather more than the amount of space which might seem proportionate to its size.

In considering Mr. Erichsen's subject, we shall approach it successively on the two aspects indicated above, viz., first as a medical, and next as a medico-legal subject. Let us, however, first define what Mr. Erichsen's subject is. From the lettering on the binding of the book, which runs thus-"Erichsen on Railway Injuries," the author has been misunderstood as intending to make a new speciality of railway injuries, and, by consequence, of "railway surgery." This misunderstanding is the more remarkable, and the less justifiable, as Mr. Erichsen has in the plainest possible terms guarded himself against such a misconstruction. To take one only out of several similar passages which occur in these lectures, the author says (on p. 9)—

"I will not confine my illustrations to cases drawn from railway accidents only, but will show you that precisely the same effects may result from other and more ordinary injuries of civil life. It must, however, be obvious to you all, that in no ordinary accident can the shock be so great as in those which occur on railways. The rapidity of the movement, the momentum of the person injured, the suddenness of its arrest, the helplessness of the sufferers, and the natural perturbation of mind that must disturb the bravest, are all circumstances that of a necessity greatly increase the severity of the resulting injury to the nervous system, and that justly cause these cases to be considered as somewhat exceptional from ordinary accidents. This has actually led some surgeons to designate that peculiar affection of the spine that is met with in these cases 'the railway spine.' But yet, though the intense shock to the system that results from these accidents naturally and necessarily gives to them a terrible interest and importance, do not for a moment suppose that these injuries are peculiar to and are solely occasioned by accidents that may occur on railways. There never was a greater In the writings of Sir A. Cooper himself-in those of his predecessors and contemporaries, especially of Boyer, of Sir

error.