Summary Gleanings.

Chloral hydrate is an excellent sedative.

Picric acid is a dressing for burns in the first and second degree, and is steadily growing in favor.

For frequent micturition, the Surgical Clinic recommends hyoscyamine, 1.250th grain every hour.

Chloral hydrate is an excellent, safe sedative, and one grain of it may be given to a newborn baby with safety.

Dr. Budberg recommends wrapping the umbilical cord in cotton soaked in alcohol.

Dr. W. C. Cooper states that for purely laryngeal cough, phosphorus certainy has no equal.

Phosphorus is my standby in nearly every form of aphonia and hoarseness. It is far better than any other remedy I have ever tried in these conditions.-DR. W. C. COOPER.

In cellulitis of the hand and foot, Dr. Sargent states that an injection into the abscess cavity of 95 per cent. carbolic acid, followed by 95 per cent. alcohol, gives relief.

Chloroform by inhalation, Dr. Anders claims, is a capital remedy in the convulsions of uremia, but must be subordinate to free bleeding.

When a cough sedative is wanted for bronchitis in children, instead of oplum use hyoscyamus, which checks cough without locking up the secretions.

A tablet containing phosphate of lime and iron, a grain of each, flavored with wintergreen, is an excellent form in which to administer iron to children.

Dr. Grindon states that a good "all around" ointment consists of two drams of tar ointment, six drams zinc ointment, and twenty minims of creosote.

Strychnine is an excellent remedy for uterine hemorrhage from atonicity or inertia. It may be given in advance if such a condition is anticipated.

Expectorants in infancy, it is the bellef of many, are seldom if ever indicated, where other measures, counter-irritation, inhalations, etc., can be carried out.

Dr. Stowall claims that hypodermics are rendered less painful and more readily absorbed by dissolving the tablet in a saline solution instead of water alone.

For night attacks of heat and sweating, of frequent occurrence during the menopause, Dr. Gottschalk advises the use of hot saline baths every evening before bedtime.

powdered camphor, six parts of oxide of zinc, and twenty-two parts of starch.

It is claimed that seventy-five grains of picric acid, dissolved in two ounces of alcohol, to which a quart of water is added, makes an excellent application for burns, but should not be used after granulations begin.

Dr. Anders' axiom in a case of obstinate uremic convulsions is, "when in doubt, bleed." After which heart stimulants should be administered, reinforced by the injection of the normal salt solution, given intravenously.

In the treatment of orchitis, first treat the temperature; second, administer phytolacca for its specific influence, and third, assist in general elimination by administering occasional doses of acetate of potassium.

The date at which the rashes appear in the various diseases is as follows:Typhoid fever, seventh to ninth day; typhus fever, fourth or fifth day; smallpox, third or fourth day; measles, third or fourth day; scarlatina, first or second day.

Never give an emetic, in order to recover a foreign body that has passed into the stomach. If it is small enough, it will always be passed in the course of a few days, while, if too large for this, vomiting would be a dangerous and useless thing to bring about.

PRACTICAL

MEDICINE,

PREPARATIONS, ETC.

VOL. XXV.

No. 2

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Address THE MEDICAL SUMMARY,

straction of blood, followed by its replacement by sterile normal salt solution. The second is the injection of cocaine between the site of the lesion and the central nervous system, as the brain and spinal cord, the cocaine being pushed to the point of tolerance, and the quantity rapidly increased as the patient will bear it. The theory upon which the blood is abstracted and replaced, is that a certain amount of poisonous material is eliminated and the well known power of the system to convert normal salt solution into blood is taken advantage of. The theory upon which cocaine is used in place of the older morphine treatment, is that the convulsions are sent out by the efferent nerves, in response to irritation near the lesion, and that the cocaine checks the convulsions, by exercising an inhibitory influence on such impulses. Both theories are good, and there are enough known facts to support them well; and, best of all, many cures are being reported from the use of these methods.

AN EXCLUSIVE TREATISE ON SYMPTOMS OF DISEASES.

It is a desideratum of the period. Symptoms mean everything. They are the keys that unlock the portals to a wider comprehension of the nature of lesions of all sorts. Therefore they are diligently studied and compared by physicians and

If

students who weigh, differentiate and classify them, and therefrom deduct a line of treatment. Investigation begins with search for symptoms, and ends in grouping them together. Symptoms guide our therapeutics, and stimulate effort along lines of invention and discovery. symptoms had ever been the same, a limited number or quantity, with an unchanging and unchangeable import, and the right remedy for each, or each group, had been rightly chosen at the start, the twentieth century physician would be repeating over and over the praiseworthy performances of Hypocrates and Galen.

One physician treated a cough that came all the way East from Kansas to end in consumption. That was twenty years ago, and the patient is alive to-day. A small blister to the dorsal spine stopped that cough and cured the "consumption." Cough syrups, tonics, "bitters," internal and external medication of various denominations had been tried in vain. Had that symptom been better understood in its entirety, that case of "consumption" would have had a shorter life. You may consider it a case of reflex cough. Calomel, podophyllin and a sharp purgative may relieve that kind of cough. Restore menses to the normal standard and the cough will disappear. Removal of intestinal parasites and the cure of hemorrhoids have often been followed by a like happy result. "Dropsy is only a symptom;" such is the explanation usually vouchsafed. Of course it is a symptom, and a very big one. The literature of the profession would be greatly enriched by an exclusive treatise on that subject by one thoroughly competent. The rank and file would hall such a work. Who will undertake the task of writing a book on dropsy per see? Pain is another "only" symptom, but it should always be thought of with a large "P." This is another one that

merits a whole volume in its behalf. Let some very competent person write a book on pain.

Every live man in the profession would buy one-yes, he would buy a book on dropsy and a book on pain, and feel that he had secured a treasure every time. However, one good-sixed 8-mo. could be made to comprehend all, or nearly all, of value that would be advantageously written. Doctor, don't you believe such a work would splendidly supplement the best of all that is written on the practice of medicine; would prove to be a veritable gold mine for the reference of the seeker after truth and helpful suggestions.

The foregoing is intended to be only a hint, a spur, a suggestion to some pregnant mind--maybe your's, Doctor.

OXALATE OF CERIUM.

This is a preparation whose entire usefulness is underrated by the profession at large. A remedy is proven to be such by effects directly traceable to its intelligent use, though many a valuable remedy and many a new property of an old remedy has been brought to the light by accidental circumstances. Primarily the drug is a gastric sedative, and, owing to this property, it has been found useful in the management of various reflex disorders. For half a century, because of its general usefulness, it has outclassed most other remedies recommended for the control of nausea and vomiting, especially that often associated with pregnancy. Gastralgia will be controlled by three, five or ten grain doses, which is to be preferred to a like result from morphine. A diarrhea, kept up or aggravated by gastric irritability, will often promptly cease, a few doses only being required. It is affirmed that it possesses influence over chorea, which is probably true, as perhaps there is exhibited in most cases irritability of the stomach.