interesting to give a very brief summary of the case of Jack Mock, reported by Delbet, at the National Society of Surgery, of Paris, in 1920:

Wounded in the abdomen. Operation three hours after the wound. Five perforations of the small intestine. Mesenteric wound. Resection of 45 cm. of intestine. The third day: Slight icterus, urticarian eruption at the site of an anti-tetanic puncture. The 17th and 18th days, acute intestinal occlusion. On operating, no fluid was found in the abdomen, but some false membranes and some adhesions.

In this case, the urticarious eruption at the site of the antitetanic puncture seems-does it not?-to show that this individual was hyperallergic. We parallel this case with the conclusions of Gratia and Gilson:

There is no doubt that the sick who respond by a strong reaction, when a few drops of serum are injected beneath the skin, ought to respond also by strong reaction when one injects into the abdomen several grams of the tissues of sheep in the form of catgut.

May we not think that during the World War, when serotherapy was widely used, it certainly sensitized many individuals? May we not admit that, in addition to the inflammatory reaction of the peritoneum, which was first in point of time, the local anaphylactic reaction of Arthus may well have intervened in the production of adhesions?

From the prophylactic point of view, if one has not mastered the adhesions that are due to infection, one might well, when a second operation is impending, hunt out the hyperallergic individuals, so that no new operation would be undertaken until after having tried to desensitize the patient. Meanwhile, we await the discovery of a substitute for catgut, which will have its advantages without its disadvantages.

"The Standardization of the Methods of Analysis of Foodstuffs and Beverages Supplied to the Soldier" was reported upon by Captain Commandant Pharmacist Bohumil Sucharda of the Czechoslovak Army, who stated that such standardization represents a new task for the collective effort of all the medical services that meet regularly to discuss the different problems that are common to them. This

task will possibly require several years for its completion. It is a question of coordinating and directing efforts to determine the composition of the foods and beverages that are used in the army; and to do this in such a way that the results achieved by some may be interpreted in a clear and definite way by others; and, as well, to place upon a solid basis the whole work of analysis and technical procedure so that they may have the same degree of precision in each of the military medical services.

All evidence supports the view that the methods of analysis of the foods and of the beverages used in the army conform in each country to the customs that rule there in the evaluation of the quality and of the composition of foods and drinks, when that official examination is made on behalf of the civil population. They are customs that are imposed by law in each country. There is no doubt that these customs and laws have been influenced by considerations of both hygiene and economics. But one can hardly maintain that it is possible to differentiate precisely the respective influence of hygiene and economics in their effect in formulating the methods of analysis. However, remembering the role incumbent on the military medical service, it is our opinion that we ought to confine out attention exclusively to considerations of hygiene. But yet it must be admitted that economic and hygienic interests touch at many points, that they sometimes complete each other mutually, and that the economic interests, in view of the special nature of military service, are often a function of hygienic interests.

There are in each country fundamental laws which include very important stipulations concerning alimentary commodities. They are drawn up from both the juridical and the technical point of view. They define the basic idea of the alimentary commodity; they limit the adulteration of these commodities; they enumerate the conditions, licit or illicit, of their manufacture and of their sale; they define punishable acts. Further, beyond this fundamental law, there is a whole series of special laws concerning different food products in detail. Finally, one notes an immense series of judgments and decrees which include measures relative to technical problems touching directly on methods of analysis. It is obvious that each country protects its own point of view by like legal measures-protects the interest of those under its jurisdiction whom it respects—the most typical of its farming interests and the most important branches of its industry. But what one is absolutely sure of is that all these legal measures are the result of experience dating back long years; they are the consequence of customs observed during a very long time. And what seems to deserve special attention is that all these governmental measures represent the fruit of technical work developed during preceding years and exclusively concerning products that have long been the object of minute care.

Finally, sight must not be lost of the fact that the enactment of such measures has been further influenced by an anxiety to achieve, by procedure of standardization, the summum of what has been built up until the present. But apart from all this, the military medical service has long devoted all its care in different countries to defining more rigorous and satisfactory conditions in all that concerns the quality of food and drink for army use. The army requires a considerable reserve of food products. The preparation and distribution of the army's food and drink must often be made under difficult circumstances and the conditions under which military service is performed must be respected.

Now, it is evidently beyond our power to attempt the standardization of all these fundamental legal principles and of the laws that spring from them. That is too delicate and gigantic a task for even the International Congress of Military Medicine and Pharmacy, but it is still possible to dream of the standardization of methods for the analysis of food and beverages. It is possible for us to make an attempt to begin the solution of the problem in question by a different procedure. One might surely agree, in the first place, upon the foods and the beverages which have a vital importance to the alimentation of the soldier. In the second place, after a study of the civil and military bibliography on the subject, one might seek out methods of analysis suitable for the determination of the composition of the foods and beverages in question-methods that could furnish us the necessary data for an impartial determination of their quality. Such a collection of methods of analysis might then serve as a basis for a minute study to determine exactly if the analytical procedures proposed supply the desiderata of the medical services of the different countries, or if they in their turn ought to be replaced by other methods.

It is exactly from this point of view that we have proposed to consider the task entrusted to us. We have striven to assemble in a single text, which will be published elsewhere, the results of our study of methods of analysis that in our humble judgment will best satisfy the need for simplicity, for the rapidity of their application, and for the certainty of their results. For our help, sight should not be lost of the fact that the methods of analysis already known can be considered sufficiently exact to determine many questions; but for other questions there are at our disposal today methods of analysis that lead to only approximate results; and for some other problems, considering the actual state of science, there are no certain methods at all. In this field progress is reserved for the future.

Such is the purpose: To unite and adapt for the use of chemists, in as condensed a form as possible, the useful data that are scattered in numerous special works. But this careful diffusion of knowledge will cover only a single part of the vast domain that must be mastered by

the collective efforts of all of us. For, to fill up the gaps, we must proceed from this moment with scientific work directed toward the clearly defined end, and we must verify it in practice.

Another first step that must be taken in the solution of our problem is: How shall we organize and coordinate the scientific research that has for its purpose the perfecting of those methods that are already known, for the analysis of the soldier's food and beverages?

As to the organization of such scientific research, it would be useful, in our judgment, to follow the way long pointed out by a model association of specialized technicians, the Association of Agricultural Chemists of the United States, composed of officials. It has an excellent organization for the collaboration of chemists, grouped in different commissions. The work of these commissions is distributed among able technicians, chosen from among members of the association by the decision of eminent specialists. Reports are made to the commissions, and they pass upon the practicability and the exactitude of new analytical methods. The results obtained are published in the report made by the heads of the commissions, and the report itself is presented to the association on the occasion of its annual meeting. The text of the analytical method adopted is prepared in the following way: First are enumerated the reagents and the solutions that are necessary, with the formulae for making them; following this, there is a description of the laboratory equipment necessary for the analysis; following this, there is a minute description of the procedure to be carried out, avoiding all imaginable ambiguities and indicating exactly the quantity of the different reagents to be used and the time required for the different chemical or physical operations. Finally, there is given a list of all bibliographical sources that might throw light upon the analysis.

This brief account of the work of a model organization that has proved itself shows that there has long existed an organization capable of taking up the task of distributing articles of research to different reporting scientists-articles of international importance-and that this organization is the International Office of Medico-Military Documentation. Through this same Office these approved studies could be distributed, greatly helping the situation of the sick and wounded in the armies and diffusing among the nations the analytical methods recognized as being the most effective to determine the characteristics and the quality of foods and beverages that should be provided for the soldier.

It only remains to speak briefly of the objects of the coming researches. It would be useful to include, first, food and beverages whose importance for the alimentation of the soldier appears incontestable and, then, to summarize the procedure actually in current use for their analysis, with the purpose of informing us of their composition and giving us the facts, when that composition is inconsistent

with the demands of hygiene. Finally, it would be useful to give prominence to the defects of current analytical methods in order to spur collective activity to fill the observed gaps.

The reporter added a plea for international uniformity of standards in temperature, weights, and measures and in urging that the reagents prescribed or recommended ought to conform to the conditions of quality and purity required by B. L. Murray in his book, Standards and Tests for Reagent Chemicals. He offered extensive notes of currently accepted methods and results of analysis, with indications in many cases of further analyses needed, regarding drinking water, flour, bread, biscuit, fats, preserved milk in its various forms, preserved meats, soups, coffee and substitutes for coffee, spices, cheese, tea, sugar, vinegar, beer, wine, and liquors.

Ionescu; Cerbulesco; Bibesco (Rumania)

Pharmacist Colonel Mathiu Ionescu, Pharmacist Colonel C. Cerbulesco, and Pharmacist Commandant Bibesco of the Rumanian Army Medical Service collaborated in their country's report on "Researches Having for Their Purpose a Standardization of Methods of Analysis of Foodstuffs and Beverages Supplied to the Soldier". They compiled a comprehensive list of the ordinary staple foods and beverages of the soldier. For each item they added useful and sometimes extensive notes describing in detail the desirable qualities that it should possess and describing also the various defects impairing quality and the adulterations to which some are subject. There are frequent notes and descriptions of tests to be made to determine quality as well as the presence of adulterants.

This important annotated list begins with the cereals. Wheat is the first grain to be described, its appearance, quality, water content, the nature of the defects and damage to which it is liable, the determination of the presence of foreign bodies, its weight, and the character of the different kinds of wheat. There follow rye, barley, oats, maize, rice.

Then come the legumes: beans, peas, and lentils.

Then wheat flour: its appearance, odor, and taste; its content of water, gluten, minerals, fats; its acidity; the starch and cellulose it contains. A number of determining tests are included.

Following a section on potatoes, bread is dealt with. Then comes the consideration of food products made from pastes of wheat flour. Following this, fresh meats are dealt with a difficult subject handled briefly and in a masterly way. This is followed by an important section on cysticercus and trichina, with a description of the characteristic appearance of meats affected with anthrax. Then come sausages and salted meats, hams, smoked meat, and lard, chickens, eggs,

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