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enabled the whole nutritive problem of the countryto be studied as never before by the best scientificbrains, and this surely is the most cogent argumentof all for the existence and maintenance of foodcontrol. It will enable the nation to retain theservices of their scientific food advisers. How

necessary this is the latest report of the Food (War)Committee of the Royal Society, to which we havealready alluded, is sufficient evidence. This con-cludes with the pregnant words: " The abovereport shows how very inadequate is our presentknowledge of the science of nutrition, and demon-strates the necessity of renewed investigations onalmost every point discussed in it." Sir AucklandGeddes recently remarked that the universities,through the professors of the various faculties, hadcontributed more fully to victory than any otherorganised section of the community, and he beggedmen of science in future not to remain dumb atcritical periods, but to come forward to help thecountry. It would be hard to devise a more

efficient medium for the vocal help sought thansuch a Royal Society’s committee. Professor E. H.Starling’s recent Oliver-Sharpey Lectures on theFeeding of Nations : a Study in Applied Physiology,were a luminous exposition of the results whichmay be thus obtained. Even the most cursory studyof these lectures should convince our legislatorsthat the scientific method will and must pay. Letthem only compare the debit and credit sides of thefood balance-sheet. The continuation in being ofan expert advisory committee at the Food Ministrywill serve to build up a body of sound data fromwhich the needs of the community may be accu-rately computed. Nor is this the only departmentoutside the Ministry of Health that needs such.expert advice. The fixing of a minimum wage is

ardently desired. On what basis should this befounded, the cost of living, the aesthetic conditionsof labour, the amenities of life, or the actual energyexpended ? Here is another problem which appliedphysiology should help to solve.

DEPOPULATION.

AN aspect of the reconstruction problem whichis gravely exercising statesmen is that of the main-tenance of a sufficient population to carry out anyprojects of reform which may be deemed necessary.Perhaps, in course of time, the National Birth-rateCommission may have some helpful recommenda-tions to offer, and meanwhile those who wish tolearn how the matter presents itself to a Frenchmanmay care to read a work entitled " La Natalite,"written by Professor Gaston Rageot,l in which hediscusses the economic and psychologic laws whichhave determined modern views as to the place ofthe child in the social scheme. It is his desire, hesays, " to dissipate some of the illusions whichenvelope the problem of natality," the principalbeing the belief that it is a simple one which maybe solved by particular measures such as the awardof premiums or the grant of allowances. Hisstatement of the position is philosophical, and hedisplays none of the special weakness to whichdebaters of- this subject are prone-an inabilityto realise that the demolition of an opponent’sargument by means of a triumphant reductioad absurdum does not, of itself, show thatone’s own case is any better. A low birth-rateis, he finds, associated historically with extremes ofcivilisation which are themselves incompatiblewith the existence of the family. It is natural, he

1 Paris; Ernest Flammarion.

says, for human parents not to concern themselvesabout their children. " Ce n’est pas la nature quiprotege 1’enfant, mais la societe." And society isfor each of us only an abstraction which becomesconcrete and living when it stands for" " la patrieen danger." To the French mode of devolution ofproperty, which has been held to discourage theproduction of large families, he attaches littleimportance, if only for the reason that in Englandfreedom of testamentary capacity has not preventeda fall in the birth-rate; its effects, too, have varied-it stimulated natality under the Revolution anddepresses it to-day. Summing up the variousfactors which he has dealt with at length heconcludes that " la fausse démocratie produit ledepeuplement," but he is not without hope ofbetter things.

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TRAUMATIC ADDISON’S DISEASE.

THE subject of traumatic Addison’s disease isdiscussed by Dürck,1 who reports the followingcase. A hitherto healthy man, aged 48, was caughtbetween a railway carriage and a revolving plat-form and had four ribs fractured. Apparentrecovery took place, and he was able to resumehis work in about six weeks, but a week later hehad to give up owing to weakness in the arms andlegs and palpitation. Bronzing of the skin of the face’ ‘and hands gradually set in and the muscular weak-ness increased. Treatment consisted in the adminis-tration of suprarenal preparations, and death didnot take place until about eight years after the acci-dent. The autopsy showed considerable bronzingof the skin of the face, hands, forearms, and externalgenitals, and apparently complete absence of bothsuprarenals with a healed fracture of the sixth tothe ninth ribs on the right side. On microscopicalexamination some necrotic fragments representingthe remains of the medulla of the left suprarenalwere found, while on the right side there was hardlyany trace of the suprarenal, but remains ofblood pigment indicated that a haemorrhage hadformerly taken place in this situation a long timepreviously. Tuberculosis could be excluded, andthere was no evidence of syphilis.

A CHILD-BEARING STRIKE.

THE insertion at the front of the most recentnumber of the M1mieh Medical Journal, which hasreached us, of a polemic against a threatened child-bearing strike in Bavaria is something of a portent.The author, Fritz Burgdorfer, a doctor of publiceconomy holding office in Munich, begins by calling.attention to the active propaganda at present beingcarried on in that city, directed towards a pre.vention of conception and an encouragement ofintentional abortion, leading up to a demandfor what amounts to a strike of child-bearers.This

" communistic " programme, Dr. Burgdorfer

tells us, assumes that the population of Germanyis at present too large by 30 millions, andthat since under present conditions the usualoutlets in the form of exported goods or emigra-tion are impracticable, the cry should be ’’ Nomore children!" " since even a wise peasantdoes not breed more cattle than he can feed.Largely attended public gatherings in Munichhave, we learn, been instructed in the systematicuse of conception-preventing apparatus, the instru-ments themselves being shown and their applica-tion described. Dr. Burgdorfer’s reply to all this is

1 Aerztl. Sachverständ.-Ztg., 1919, xxv., 73-81.