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of uterine inertia, or rigidity of the cervix, which threatens to indefinitely prolong the labor. After the second or third dose, strong uterine contractions will come on, will repeat themselves at regular intervals, and tend to rapidly bring the labor to an end. That which makes ipecac in this condition superior to ergot of rye is that it never provokes tetanic contraction of the uterus, so frequent after the administratiod of ergot.-Med. News.-Canada Med. Rec.

[Compare, also, the action of gelseminum, cimicifuga, quinine and cannabis Indica.ED.]

Treatment of Chronic Eczema by Creolin.

DR. PATTESON read a note on the treatment of chronic eczema by creolin. He had been led to adopt its use from the well-known value of tarry preparations in certain forms of eczema and psoriasis, and from its cheapness, which rendered it suitable for out-patient practice. He briefly referred to two cases of pustular eczema of the scalp-one of eight and the other of three years' standing-in which marked improvement and cure followed its prolonged

use.

It was applied as a wash or lotion in the proportion of one drachm to eight ounces of water. The value of such a powerful germicide in these cases seemed in favor of Unna's contention as to the parasitic nature of eczema. The President congratulated the Academy on the additional remedy for chronic eczema which Dr. Patteson had brought under their notice. His communication, however, did more, and that was, that it emphasized the importance of perseverance in the treatment for eczema which has been found temporarily

useful. Lancet.

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In pneumonia, we have rusty colored sputum.

In oedema of the lung, the expectoration is

serous.

Where we have pneumonia terminating in gangrene of the lungs, the sputum is exceedingly fetid; greenish or brownish.

The sputum of chronic bronchitis, when as sociated with disease of the heart, looks like the white of egg mixed with water, and may amount to a quart or half gallon in twentyfour hours.

The sputum of chronic bronchitis, when not complicated is large, broad and irregular, and is greenish or yellowish.-Morris, in Times & Register.

The Abuse of Morphine in Paris.

ONE of our exchanges states that the improper use of morphine subcutaneously is said to be extending very rapidly in Paris, with deplorable results, both mentally and physically, to the unhappy victims of the seductive habit. To meet the demand of the morphiomaniacs certain speculators have recently opened two establishments, to which people can go to have their craving after the poison gratified--the one for men, the other for women. They are not clandestine houses; the police are quite aware of their existence, and everything is decently and properly conducted at them. The drawing rooms in which visitors are received are luxuriously furnished, and provided with books, newspapers, etc., for those who care for them. The price charged for the first injection of morphia is five francs, succeeding ones being half that price. A journalist who visited these establishments says the majority of the visitors were young men and young and pretty women.-St. Louis Med. & Surg. Jour.

Bromide of Lithium for Rheumatism. BROMIDE of lithium is said by Prof. R. Bartholow to be about the best remedy for muscular rheumatism.- Western Med. Repor

ter.

A Resurrection Bone.

THROUGHOUT the middle ages it was believed that there existed in a man a bone imponderable, incorruptible, incombustible, the necessary nucleus of the resurrection body. Belief in the resurrection of the physical body, despite St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, had been incorporated into the formula made many centuries after his time and called the Apostle's Creed, and was held throughout Christendom "always, everywhere, and by all." This hypothetical bone was therefore held in veneration, and many anatomists

sought to discover it.

Vesalius revealing so much else, did not find it, and was therefore suspected of a want of proper faith. He contented himself with saying that he left the question regarding the existence of such a bone to the theologians. He could not lie, he did not wish to fight the Inquisitions, and thus he fell under suspicion. The strength of this theological point may be judged from the fact that no less eminent a surgeon than Riolan consulted the executioner. to find out whether, when he burned a criminal, all the parts were consumed; and only then was the answer received which fatally undermined this superstition. Still, in 1689, we find it lingering in France, creating an energetic opposition in the church to dissection. Even as late as the eighteenth century, Bernoulli having shown that the living human body constantly undergoes a series of changes, so that all its particles are renewed in a given number of years. so much ill-feeling was drawn upon him, especially from the theologians, who saw in this statement danger to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, that for the sake of peace he struck out his argument on the subject from his collected works. Popular Science Monthly.

Puerperal Eclampsia.

VERATRUM VIRIDE is a specific for puerperal eclampsia. And while in many instances we are in total ignorance as to the action of specifics, in this case the modus operandi is perfectly plain. By slowing the cardiac impulse and lowering the arterial tension it relieves the cerebral hyperemia which is an essential condition of eclampsia. Its action is almost as mechanical as venesection and almost as efficacious. It also illustrates another principle in the administration of medicines, and that is that one must give enough to accomplish the desired effcct.

It is not enough to give the right medicine in the right disease, but one must give it in sufficient quantities to perform the work, however great that quantity may be. In the case of veratrum in eclampsia, large and often enormous doses must be given to rednce the arterial tension.--Dr. Hinckley, Cin. Med. Jour.

guish the doctor from his fellow-men, and although from an advertisement point of view this may not be altogether a drawback, it certainly entails inconveniences of its own. It never occurs to an outsider to start a conversation with a doctor on any but a medical topic, and it is quite open to discussion, a contemporary suggests, whether, if medical men did not differentiate themselves so much, and were content to be like other educated members of the community in title, manners, and personal appearance, it would not be better for themselves both in public and private life." -Med Record.

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Of this two teaspoonfuls are taken in a glass. ful of water on an empty stomach in the morning, every two hours during the day, and the last dose just before retiring. This is con

tinued until one single attempt at clearing the throat will cause an easy and loose expectoration, when the frequency of the dose is reduced first to every three, then to every four, and

The Society for the Abolition of the Title of finally five hours. Doctor.

"The titular appellation which medical practitioners rejoice in is a relic of antiquity akin to that of the legal wig, and it is curious in that it has survived the levelling tendencies of the present generation. A correspondent raises the question as to whether the practice is an unmixed advantage. It serves to distin

MY DEAR EDITOR:- I still hold fast to my first impressions as regards the visiting list and ledger. They are worth to me at least 8500 a month. None as good. THE MEDICAL WORLD is still at the head for general information on the practice of medicine. A. F. PATTEE, M. D. 94 West Springfield St., Boston, Mass. Do NOT fail to send your subscription for 1892.

A New Method of Dressing the Chest in Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Pleurodynia, Etc.

William Hunt (Annals of Gynecology and 'Poediatry, 1891,) advises the following method to dress the chest in a case of pleurisy, pleurodynia, etc.:

Do it on a large scale, in the same way that we now dress abrasions, bruises, etc.

If there is to be any cupping or other preliminary operation, have that attended to; then all the ingredients wanting are pure collodion and absorbent cotton, in smooth layers, and a good broad brush like a mucilage brush. Apply a thin layer over the side affected, from spinal column to sternum, and secure it with collodion smeared thoroughly over it. Then go on with thick layers, securing them with collodion until a good padding is obtained, paying particular attention to the edges. In double cases you can act accordingly. The advantages are:

1. The one dressing, if well applied, will last throughout the case; thus

2. The fatigue and discomfort of frequent poulticing are avoided.

3. The side, in single cases, is held as in a splint, while the free side does the breathing. A first-class non-conductor is covering the chest. It is possible that the contracting collodion may have some influence in controlling the blood supply.

4. There is no particular interference, in one who has a good ear, with physical examination. Maybe it would be a good thing if there was; for having once made the diagnosis, what is the use of exhausting the patient every day by trying to find out whether one eighth of an inch, more or less, is involved? The general symptoms will tell that.-American Journal Med Sciences.

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that the hemorrhage in fibroids comes direct from the tumer. That is a mistake. A fibroid tumor of the uterus enlarges the blood vessels, and in that way influences the hemorrhage. If a woman has a fibroid and a hemorrhage, you can take it for an absolute certainty that she So, has also fungoid growths of the uterus. in the case of fibroids, where you have also a hemorrhage, if you can curette the uterus you will invariably stop the hemorrhage.

These fibroids have a curious effect on the

menopause. If a woman of forty-four or five years of age has a fibroid, it will not do to say, wait for the menopause, for if it be a large fibroid it prolongs menstruation to the age of fifty five or sixty. Furthermore, if the tumor be permitted to remain for that space of time, it is very apt to break down and give rise to the development of a peculiar form of sepsis. -Southern Medical Record.

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M. Sig. Divide in equal portions and take both with half hour intervals, early in the morning, on an empty stomach. The mixture should be well cooled down before using.

In the evening at bedtime, the patient's bowels should be thoroughly cleansed by means of calomel (6 grains) or an enema. The tapeworm (be it a tenia solium or a botheriocephalus latus) is expelled, head and all, within four hours after the second dose of the mixture. The addition of chloroform to the latter is important in two regards: on one side, the drug narcotizes the parasite and thus promotes the detachment of its head from the intestinal wall; and, on the other hand, it prevents nausea and vomiting which are so commonly induced by the internal administration of the male fern extract alone.

HAVE you seen the new book, "The Physician as a Business Man; or How to Obtain the Best Financial Results in the Practice of Medicine "?

Do NOT fail to send your subscription for 1892.

Therapeutic Uses of the Sozoiodol Salts. DR. GAUDIN (Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift, No. 26, 1891), has used sozoidol (4 per cent. sozoidol mercury), plaster in hard chancres, in impetigo, (daily inunctions with a 10 per cent. sozoidol-zinc salve), in gonorrhea (injections of a 10 per cent. sozoidol-zinc preparation), in chronic catarrh of the cervix uteri with erosions (applied on tampons), in furunculous eruptions (a cotton dressing was strongly saturated with a 5 per cent. solution of sodium sozoiodolate), in erysipelas (sozoidol and zinc collodion), and in eczema (sozoidol and zinc salve). In all these affections he obtained excellent results, so that we are justified in regarding the sozoiodol salts as active antiseptics and odorless astringents, which unite at the same time the advantages of being odorless, unirritating and uninjurious.- Cin. Lancet Clinic.

Spasm of the Glottis.

SIR MORRELL MACKENZIE finds that by exciting a rival reflex, the laryngeal spasm is at once overcome. By exciting a paroxysm of sneezing, immediate relief is procured. This is best done by the inhalation of a pinch of snuff into the nares, or pepper may be used in the same way. It is sometimes possible to produce sneezing by tickling the nasal mucous membrane.—Med. & Surg. Rep.

Parturition After the Death of the Mother.

An extraordinary case of obstetrics is reported in Le Progres Medical lately. The patient was a Mrs. M. W, twenty years of age, who was far advanced in pregnancy, and died suddenly at five o'clock in the evening. Owing to the lateness of the hour the husband delayed reporting the case until the next day. The official physician visited the house at two in the afternoon to view the body aud ordered the remains buried quickly on account of the hot weather prevailing at that time. Five hours later, at seven o'clock, the undertaker's assistants, while preparing the body, found the corpse of a child. The child was still born, and parturition had apparently occurred some twenty hours after the death of the mother. N. A. Pract.

[A similar case from Arkansas was reported some years ago in THE MEDICAL WORLD.]

The Good Effect of Small Doses.

In an excellent paper on "dose dispensing" by Dr. A. B. Somers (now of Omaha), he says: "As the years go by I have more and more reason to respect the effect of small doses of medicine oft repeated. If some of my older

friends are skeptical on this subject, let them try the effect of small doses of tartar emetic (grain 1 100 to 1 50) in a case of acute bronchitis, with high fever, repeated every half hour from twelve to twenty-four hours, and see the direct sedative effect it will have on the mucous membrane of the lungs and air passages, accompanied by lessening of frequency of pulse and diminution of temperature; or in case of acute dyspepsia usually denominated billious attacks with fever, try the effect of calomel grain 1-10, alternated with ipecac grain 1 10 and bicarbonate of soda grain 1⁄2 to

every two hours, and see how a single grain each of calcmel and ipecac, with less than ten grains of soda bicarbonate, will reduce the temperature and produce even more copious discharges of bilious matter than we are in the habit of getting from large doses of calomel, or vegetable cathartics, and without any of the griping and uncomfortable symptoms usually accompanying the powerful doses; or, to illustrate further, try in the first case of hepatic colic, or severe pain you meet with, the almost magical effect you will get from morphine grain 1-20 to 1-40 combined with tartar emetic grain 1-50 to 1-100 and administered every five minutes. Hypodermics of morphine in much larger doses is scarcely more effective.Western Med. Reporter.

Correct Living and Longevity.

"WHAT the remedy, if any, for this deadly work? I have no theory to advance, no practical solution to present. One thing I do know, that whatever elevates the race, purifies their morals-keeps them temperate in all things-will rapidly lessen their death rate; for if anything is proven as clearly as the finest mathematical demonstration, it is the fact that whatever purifies, elevates and ennobles, conduces to the greatest longevity consistent with the environments."-Dr. E. H. Schall, in Virginia Med. Monthly.

By treating carious toothache by means of a mixture of equal parts of crystallized carbolic acid and flexible collodion, carried to the bottom of the cavity, the pain is said to disappear instantaneously. Clinique.

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A Suggestion for Hypodermic Purgation. At a meeting ot the Louisville Medical Society, one of the members, Mr. Flexner, called attention to a comparatively new drug, the eseredine, from the laboratory of Boehringer in Germany. It appears that so far its use has been restricted to animals on whom it acts, subcutaneously, as a purgative. Should this action be reproduced in the human subject,

we shall probably find a valuable addition to our Pharmacopeia. The principle of active purgation in any stage of peritonitis as an effectual means of draining the peritoneum is now very generally recognized. There are o'ten difficulties, however, in the way of administering croton oil or other powerful cathartics by the mouth, especially where vomiting is already a pronounced symptom. As another speaker pointed out at the same meeting it is very desirable that we should have something as a purgative to act in a manner corresponding with apomorphia as an emetic. Certainly drug that would act rapidly in the manner indicated, without undue depression of the nervous system would be invaluable in many conditions of the abdomen and pelvic organs. The suggestion is of very great interest and of possible future value, and surgeons who make the abdomen the field of their operations may find it worthy of careful attention. The mastering of all bodily functions, physiological and anatomical, by the local selective action of remedies is probably only a matter of time. -Med. Press-Med. and Surg Reporter.

To Improve the Local Action of Tincture of Iodine.

TINCTURE OF IODINE mixed with glycerine, is claimed by Dr. Hammond to prove more effective as a local application than the plain. tincture. This is due to the retardation of the dissipation of the iodine or, more likely, to the skin remaining soft and hence in a better condition for absorbing the drug.-Lancet Clinic.

Medicinal Qualities of Nutmegs.

THE Medical Bulletin says: "The medicinal qualities of nutmegs are worthy of considerable attention on account of their value in the treatment of diarrhea, many cases quickly yielding to the administration of 1⁄2 dram in milk. Insomnia may be effectually relieved by them when opium fails and chloral is not advisable. It is also a sedative in delirium tremens, and can be given with safety and marked benefit. An excellent ointment for itching and irritable hemorrhoids is composed of 2 drams of powdered nutmegs, I dram of tannic acid, and 1 ounce of lard."-National Druggist.

Confirmation of Sweet Oil for Gall-Stone Colic.

IN the Lancet Clinic, Drs. T. J. Mays and H. C. Bloom, of Philadelphia, give a collective report of fifty eight cases from physicians in different parts of the United States, confirming the value of sweet oil in the treatment of patients troubled with gall-stones.

The especial lessons of the investigation are

that cotton seed oil is as efficient as olive oil and that moderate doses (a dessert-spoonful every three or four hours) are as promptly and completely efficient as the usual heroic doses. The probability is advanced that any bland oil would do as well. The most of the cases showed relief immediately; others in time ranging up to twenty-four hours.

Iodoform in Diphtheria.

DR. PULAWSKI (Gazzette degli Ospitali, No. 44, 1891) has used iodoform in the treatment of diphtheria, with success. He applies it locally by a piece of cotton or an insufflator, employing the powder of iodoform alone cr mixed with magnesia. Three applications a day, at least, should be made. The results, even in grave cases, were splendid. All the patients recovered, while the writer noticed no symptoms of poisoning by iodoform.--Pritchard, Cin. Lancet Clinic.

Sodium Bisulphite in Tonsillitis and Coryza.

Excellent results are reported from the use of sodium bisulphite in aborting tonsillitis and coryza. Tablespoonful doses of a saturated solution may be given every hour or two for twenty-four hours, or even longer if necessary. The disease is usually controlled in twentyfour hours under this trea ment.-Notes on New Remedies.

Removal of Mother-Marks.

The Allgemeine, Medicinal Central Zeitung gives the following as very efficacious: Mix one part of tartrate of antimony with four parts of emplastrum saponatum and work into a paste Apply the mixture over the mark to be removed to the depth of one line (one-twelfth inch), and cover with a strip of gummed paper or court plaster. On the fourth or fifth day suppuration sets in, and in a few days later scarcely a sign of the mark can be seen. Amer. Med. Jour.

Classification of PoisoLS.

D. A. Ruiz Erdozain proposes a classification of poisons from a medico-legal standpoint, as follows:

I. Those that produce lesions (a) in the digestive tube,-acids, alkalies; (b) in its adnexa,-phosphorus, arsenic; (c) in the heart, --metals; (d) in the brain,--alcohol, ether, chloroform, opium, belladonna, nicotine; (e) in the lungs, hæmatics; (f) in the spinal marrow, strychnine; (g) in the other organs.

II. Those that produce no lesions.--Revista med. de Mexico.-The Satellite.

SEE order blank on page xxiv.

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