consumption did not increase so much as that of malt in the same period. The increase was in fact from 21,404,088 gallons in 1860 to 30,321,928 gallons in 1874, an increase from 0.7 gallon to 0.9 gallon per head of the estimated population, or 28.5 per cent. per head. Thus the increase in the home consumption of malt has exceeded the increase in the home consumption of spirits. It is probable, too, that during the period referred to there has been an increased consumption of unmalted grain in the manufacture of spirits, leaving more malt to be used in brewing. It is hence perhaps premature to take up the cry of some alarmist that the beer of the present day is made from less malt than formerly. It is true that with the relaxation of the law, by which it is now permissible, under certain restrictions, to use sugar in brewing, the amount of this substance rose from 92,415 cwt. in 1860, to 828,430 cwt. in 1874, an increase of nearly 900 per cent. The legitimate inference from these statistics is, not that less malt is used in the brewing of beer, but that more malt, and much more sugar, are used in the manufacture of the beer of the present day; and hence that our national beer is more potent than formerly.

The malt liquors sold in London are we know from our own observations more alcoholic than is commonly supposed, or than the older published analyses would lead us to suspect; and it is probable that the intoxication so often attributed to adulterants is more commonly due to excessive imbibition of a potent alcoholic beverage. We believe that the British public nowadays consumes not only more, but stronger drink than formerly. It is a melancholy reflection that the increased consumption of food, and food of a superior quality, which free trade has enabled the people at large to indulge in has not been followed by a decreased consumption of alcohol, but by a large increase. Whilst larger and better feeding has been a great good, we doubt whether the increased consumption of stronger liquors has been an unmixed benefit. It can hardly be doubted that the old Adulteration Act of 1872, and the existing sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875, have resulted in an improvement in the quality of the chief articles of food and drink, and a comparative freedom from noxious admixture. As chemists improve their analytical processes and the means of detecting and quantitatively estimating adulterants, still greater improvement in the quality and purity of the chief articles of domestic consumption may be expected. In recently looking through the quarterly reports of a well-known public analyst for a large district, we were struck with this: that the percentage of adulterated articles had quarter by quarter steadily decreased, that the percentages of adulterants added had

likewise diminished, and that the use of deleterious adulterants has almost disappeared. We learnt also, on inquiry, that the quality of the articles bought for analysis had greatly improved of late, and that these improvements were chiefly noticeable in the chief articles of domestic consumption-milk, bread, tea, and coffee.

Formerly milk, in towns at least, was almost universally mixed with water, and to such an extent that the article was milk in name only. Forty, fifty, sixty, and even seventy per cent. of the stuff as sold was added water; and not only were the grossest frauds thus perpetrated, but the health and lives of children and invalids were seriously jeopardized by the practice of this villany, which was rendered still more atrocious by the fact that most of the cream was also abstracted from the milk before sale. Nowadays, owing to the vigorous action of local authorities, their inspectors, and analysts, the milk of our large towns, though not absolutely pure, contains as a rule, not more than ten or twelve per cent. of added water, and not more than one third of the cream has been skimmed off. Indeed, the skimmed milk of the present day in the metropolis is, we are told, better than the supposed whole milk of four years ago.

Bread, too, which a few years ago was too often adulterated with alum, is now rarely so sophisticated. The evidence on this point is, however, somewhat defective. Before the passing of the Statute of 1872 no means, at the same time trustworthy and readily applicable, were known, by which the quantity of alum added to bread could be determined, and it is perhaps not too much to state that prior to the year 1873 the quantity of alum in a loaf was scarcely ever accurately given in an analytical report. That alum was habitually introduced into bread is a fact abundantly proved by other means than those furnished by chemical analysis. We know of at least one pharmaceutical chemist whose practice it was to supply "stuff" to bakers in a certain district of London, and whose course of trade was completely revolutionised by the Act of 1872. It is pretty certain that alum is now frequently added to bread, but usually in such small proportions that its detection is a matter of uncertainty and its effects upon health perhaps nil.

The Customs now under a clause of the Act of last Session inspects all tea before delivery; and all doubtful imports of that article are analysed in the laboratory of that Governmental Department. Immense good has thus resulted, and the worthless stuff which formerly passed under the name of tea, but which was in reality tea only in name, is now rarely met with.

A perusal of the works before us has convinced us that a

comprehensive, yet concise and trustworthy, manual of food and drug analysis is still a desideratum. The time to write such a work has perhaps scarcely yet arrived. The experience of public analysts is at present somewhat limited. The processes hitherto employed have been tentative, and in many cases fallacious. The rapid strides which have recently been made in chemical and microscopical science, and the stimulus imparted by the exigencies of the acts relative to adulteration will nevertheless, we doubt not, ere long result in the production of some trustworthy guide to food analysis from the hands of some competent chemist. Soubeiran's work is merely an inferior edition of Hassall's. Mr. Wanklyn's little volume on milk analysis is admirable in its way, and though we can speak less favorably of his Tea, Coffee, and Cocoa Analysis, we must express a hope that he will give us more of his pithy treatises.

IX.-The Mucous Membrane of the Uterus, the Decidua and Placenta.1

THE movement in the study of the physiology of the organs of generation in the female, begun in 1821, when Power enunciated the law of periodical and spontaneous discharge of ova, and continued by the researches of Girdwood, Jones, and Paterson in this country; of Negrier, Bischoff, Raciborski, Pouchet, and Coste, abroad, culminated about 1846 in the establishment of that law upon a firm basis. This movement was chiefly devoted to the study of the changes which take place in the ovary, and the uterus did not receive that attention which its importance demanded. During the twenty years that followed great progress was made in the study of the ovum, and though some remarkable changes were observed to occur in the uterus, yet the natural history of the organ remained comparatively

unknown.

The papers before us form a contribution towards the elucidation of some obscure points in the history of the mucous membrane of the uterus. They trace its history from birth up to puberty, during sexual life and old age.

The changes which take place in this membrane during early life have attracted no attention and were quite unknown. Slight as they are, they are of considerable importance, inasmuch as they show

11. The Mucous Membrane of the Uterus. By GEO. J. ENGELMANN, A.M., M.D. New York, 1875.

2. Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy of the Placenta. By WM. TURNER, M.B. (Lond.), Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh. (First series,) Edinburgh, 1876.

that during the period of infancy the uterus does not remain quiescent, as was generally supposed, until shortly before puberty. In the fœtus the membrane lining the body of the uterus possesses no glands, and they become apparent only during the third or fourth year of life. Dr. Engelmann says

"A change takes place in the third or fourth year, at which time. the membrane has increased in thickness to 0.0118-00196 inch (0.3-0.5 mm.), and the first traces of the developing glands appear in the shape of small crypt-like depressions, either simple, or in clusters of two or three, with a common opening; a delicate epithelium lines these sinuses, for glands we cannot yet call them. From this time onward very few changes take place until the tenth year, when the womb develops more rapidly and approximates in shape that of the mature organ at puberty. The mucous membrane has attained a thickness of 0·0275—0.0315 inch (0.7-0.8 mm.), and the glands are more numerous and more completely developed, forming no longer shallow crypts, but straight ducts, 0.00098 inch (0.025 mm.) in diameter, extending to a greater depth than before, sometimes throughout the entire thickness of the mucosa and even to the muscular structure."

From this time the membrane continues to develop until puberty. At puberty the uterus has attained its full size in the unimpregnated condition, and its mucous membrane becomes the seat of marked and important changes-changes which indicate womanhood and the capability of being impregnated.

It has been generally believed that the uterus remains in a state of inactivity during the intervals between successive menstrual flows, and that at or about the last-named periods only, the organ shows any sign of activity. Drs. Kundral and Engelmann assent to this view, but in a modified form. They believe that the period of activity near the time of the menstrual flow lasts longer than has been generally supposed, and that the periods of rest are consequently so much shorter. This view is open to serious objections, which we shall refer to when we come to discuss the periodical changes which take place in the organ. They say, "we rarely find a completely normal, inactive, uterine mucosa which seems to indicate that the actual period of rest for that membrane is much shorter than is generally supposed." That these are periods of uterine rest cannot be doubted, but they are not to be looked for in the uterus of a healthy woman, who menstruates regularly and normally, during the period of sexual activity; they should be sought in the uteri of women suffering from chronic disease, and who have ceased to menstruate for some time. In many such cases the uterus appears healthy, but quite inactive. The truth of the latter statement is established by the fact of the absence of menstruation, and that the inner surface of such organs present the characters of inactivity, when

compared with the inner surface of the uteri of healthy women who menstruate regularly.

On examining such inactive uteri there is found on their inner surface a thin (about inch) layer of soft, gray or pale tissue, which consists of a superficial layer of ciliated columnar epithelium, the tissue beneath being composed of roundish and fusiform cells, the round cells being more numerous near the surface, and the fusiform predominating in the deeper structure. This layer of soft tissue is in contact with the muscularis beneath without the interposition of any connective tissue between. There is in this inactive state usually a rather marked distinction between the muscularis and the mucosa, but it should be observed that the round cells of the soft tissue are found everywhere between the bundles of the muscular fibre cells forming the wall of the uterus, but always in decreasing quantity in the deeper layers of the wall. These cells are embedded in a structureless transparent matrix. In the mucous membrane are found besides vessels and nerves, numerous tubular glands opening on the surface. They run more or less perpendicularly from the surface to the muscular tissue, and are somewhat wavy; they occasionally bifurcate towards their lower ends. They are supposed to terminate on the surface of the muscularis by somewhat swollen ends, and since Weber first figured the fundi of the glands resting on the muscular wall, this view has generally been accepted. The glands do not, however, terminate in this manner, but enter into the muscularis, and terminate in that tissue in some as yet unknown way. The presence of glandular tissue in the situation just mentioned is put beyond question by the observations of several observers. The glands are lined by ciliated columnar epithelium. Williams maintains that the deeper portions are lined by round cells, and Turner has observed a similar condition in the uterus of the kangaroo.

We come now to examine the changes which take place in the mucous membrane from month to month-in fact during the menstrual period. It has been long known that the source of the menstrual blood is the body of the uterus. There is some difference of opinion, however, as to the part taken by the Fallopian tubes and ovaries in contributing to this hæmorrhage; for it has been observed in uteri of those dying during the catamenia that the tubes occasionally contain a certain amount of blood, and that hæmorrhage results as a consequence of rupture of the Graafian follicle. Whether the blood found in the tubes is poured out from the vessels of those structures, or whether it is due to regurgitation from the uterus, or to passage of blood into them from the ovary, has not yet been decided. In the majority of instances examined the tubes contained no blood, and when present it was in such small quantities that it may fairly be attributed, in the greater num