A further contribution to the study the phenomena of intertraction

Seeing that a phenomenon of lateral streaming which I recently described and put forward as convincing evidence ofhorizontal intertraction is construed otherwise by N. K. Adam, I have, with a view to testing his interpretation of the phenomenon, made some further quite simple investigations. It will not be amiss, as a preliminary to detailing these, to place the real issue in debate—the issue as to whether there is such a asvis operans as intertraction — before us in its proper perspective. I would propose to do this by recounting what -led up to the investigation of intertraction. The study of thisvis operans began with observations on the effect of applying to furuncles requiring evacuation a plaster consisting of soap and sugar which is used in folk-medicine for “drawing” such boils. It was found that soap and sugar applied to open boils did, in point of fact, induce a copious welling up lymph from the subjacent tissues. In pondering this effect it suggested itself: that the sugar constituent of the plaster might be attracting, or to use the household word, “drawing,” fluid from the open lymph spaces; and that the soap constituent might be decalcifying and preventing the coagulation o:the out-flowing lymph by staving off the sealing of the wound by scab.