Notes

Stupid Reducers. At the meeting of the American Dietetic Association in Atlantic City, Supervisor Emma F. Holloway of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, declared: "A tiny snack for luncheon, another snack for dinner is proving disastrous to the modern girl, who is so afraid of being overweight. . . . Men, too, are at fault with their customary coffee and pie for luncheon. They are reducing their vitality and making themselves liable to colds and pneumonia."*

Prison Fare. Before the same association, Dr. George Walker of Baltimore said: "Milk, not bread, is the staff of life. Five quarts of milk a day alone will keep one alive, for milk contains every food requisite, except iron."

Teeth. "Decay of the teeth is prevalent in 80% to 85% of the people. . . . After rigid investigation we have definitely concluded that the decay of the teeth is specific infection, just as specific as tuberculosis or typhoid fever. Cleaning the teeth will not prevent decay, but will lessen the possibility of it. Decay is accentuated chiefly by the excessive eating of sugar," said Professor Russell W. Bunting of Michigan University before the same meeting.

Drunks. At Utrecht, orderly Netherlandish city, P. M. v. Wulff-ten Palthe found that pure oxygen is a powerful antidote against the effects of alcohol. He gave rabbits enough alcohol to kill them, quickly brought them almost to normal with oxygen. Two delirium tremens cases he soothed at once by the same gas. Several tipplers whom he invited to his laboratory for a regulated carouse interrupted their toping with draughts at the oxygen tank, remained sober. If only he could make a "dead drunk" man or woman come out of a coma. . . . For nine months he sought a "dead drunk" in Utrecht--in vain. Now, in his report to the Deutsche Zeitschrift fuer Nervenheilkunde (Leipzig), he recommends that U. S. hospitals study his methods.*

*The American Gas Association, whose meeting at Atlantic City last week was in accidental coincidence with that of the dieticians, is interested in cooking. Delegates heard that pie and angel cake are the two most popular U. S. dishes. Boston baked beans and corn pone have yielded to delicacies. Missourians like Spanish dishes. In New York pie and cake are most popular, in New Jersey nothing in particular.

*U. S. researchers have already studied the preventive effect of oxygen on alcoholic poisoning. Further, it has long been known that fresh air helps to overcome intoxication, permits prolonged, although intermittent, drinking.