poisonous excrement, loaded with various specimens of bacteria, all combine to make valuable weight, and are therefore kept intact. A cold-storage specimen selected from one of the markets of the city of Albany, of twentysix specimens in the undrawn state, one hen carcass was procured. On the following day we removed a portion of the breast tissues from the fowl, and macerated for a period of two hours in a like quantity of sterilized water, using all aseptic precautions. Ten drops of the fluid portion of the well-stirred mixture was injected into the body of a healthy rabbit. Two hours later the evidences of toxicosis became manifest, and the animal succumbed after a period of forty-two hours.

A second experiment was made to determine the pernicious nature of the contents of the digestive tract of an average fowl in a state of perfect health. A full-grown hen was slaughtered and hung for forty-eight hours in a temperature of 50 degrees. The fowl was then drawn and a portion of the contents of the entrails removed. A solution of one to one hundred, with sterilized water, was made. Six hours allowed for percolation. The clear fluid was decanted, and a healthy rabbit with a normal temperature of 1022 selected; ten drops of decanted solution injected into the rabbit. At the end of two hours temperature 982; at twentieth hour temperature, 891⁄2, and two hours later animal succumbed-killed in just 221⁄2 hours through the absorption of ten drops of a one to one hundred sol. of a healthy fowl kept fortyeight hours in an undrawn state. Other tests were made with the same results. This shows that cold-storage does not prevent decomposition, nor kill germs in the undrawn condition.

We now have no laws to prevent, not only impure food,

but all the vast adulterated preparations being dumped on us from other States where they can not be sold.

It devolves on the medical profession to educate the masses to see the importance of having wholesome food to build strong bodies, so they may withstand the inroads. of disease. The medical profession of the State are a great power for good if they will realize that they are the watchmen on the towers. While these precautions may not bring wealth to the doctor, they will bring health to the people, and their children will rise up and call you blessed.

ter.

Our State should not be behind in this important matIt can be said of the profession, that they never unite on any measure that is not for the interest of the general public. I believe, for this reason, they could do good work in bringing this question before the people. Let Georgia not wait for a general law of the United States, for this may take years to come about. Let others do as they may; our grand old State should look to the interest of her own people, regardless of the power and influence brought to bear. If we have not lawyers and doctors in our legislature who will give us the right kind of laws, let us send others.

DISCUSSION ON DR. BUFORD'S PAPER.

Dr. Henry R. Slack, of LaGrange: I have been very much interested in Dr. Buford's paper, with reference to pure food in Georgia. Some ten years ago I was chemist for the State Board of Pharmacy, and at that time in the Senate a bill was introduced appropriating $1,000 for the use of the State Board of Pharmacy in analyzing drugs and medicines sold in the State, to see if they came up to the required standard or not. We have a law in Georgia to regulate the purity of drugs. It came under the head

of condiments, and of 32 brands of mustard found in the State only two were pure; the other 30 were found adulterated. We only found two brands of red pepper that were pure. Unfortunately, we could not reach a single one of these manufacturers, because the mustard and pepper were manufactured outside of the State. All we could do was to notify these dealers that their goods were adulterated.

While a State law would be beneficial, no doubt, still I think this body ought to go on record as being in favor of investigating a special law in regard to pure foods, because it then could be tried in the United States courts, and we could reach those who ship these adulterated goods into Georgia.

We found a firm in Chattanooga that was manufacturing adulterated drugs and sending them into North Georgia at a much lower rate than they could obtain in the State of Georgia, because they were protected from prosecution. These manufacturers carried on a very prosperous business. I am heartily in favor of a special law against the adulteration of drugs.

Dr. St. J. B. Graham, of Savannah: I have been very much interested in this paper, as it is in the right direction. A law at present is under consideration in Washington with regard to pure foods, and one unworthy Senator stopped the game for a while in some way or another. I believe there should be a universal law in this country, as there is in the Empire of Germany, which should not only apply to pure foods, but pure drinks and pure water. There is no polluted water supplied in the whole Empire of Germany, if it is known, and all sewage and drainage in Germany are required to go through sewage plants before being disposed of. It is just as important to have pure water, and pure whiskey, and pure cocktails, not

peruna, if you please, as it is to have pure foods. How are we going to get it? Through enactment of the Legislature, for if our Society should demand it they can not refuse it. It is absolutely essential in caring for our patients that they should have pure food and water, as these go a long way toward the prevention of disease and in making us a better and more powerful nation than we already are.

RADIUM.

BY F. G. HODGSON, M.D., ATLANTA.

The action of X-rays in rendering bodies transparent was first described by Roentgen in 1895. This was followed by the discovery of certain rays given off from the metal uranium, by Becquerel, in 1896. These discoveries were much talked of by the scientists, and Mme. Curie, in Paris, became especially interested,, and began her investigations. She found that pitchblende, composed chiefly of uranium and thorium, gave off Becquerel rays. She separated the uranium from the pitchblende and found that the remaining mass was more radio-active than the uranium. Then with aid of her husband, Professor Curie, shecontinued her experiments, reducing the mass to simpler compounds, each time selecting the most radio-active portion until they finally separated a very active substance in the form of a chloride to which they gave the name "Radium." The element itself has not been isolated, but Mme. Curie calculated its atomic weight to be 225, thus showing it to be one of the heaviest metals known, and placing it in the group with magnesium, calcium, strontium and barium, according to the periodic law.

Mme. Curie took two tons of pitchblende and after several months of repeated precipitation, filtration, crystallization and decantation obtained about 1-10 gr. of radium chloride-just 1-10 gr. from over 4,000 pounds; this is rarer than the gold in sea water.