and appearance, and complete and rapid restoration to health ensues. But satisfactory as the method is, too much enthusiasm must not be displayed in vaunting the results in this class of cases, for as Flint has pointed out, sporadic dysentery of moderate intensity has an intrinsic tendency to recover, is self-limiting, and ends spontaneously; but judicious measures may relieve the distressing symptoms and abridge the duration of the disease. Injections do all this. One case of subacute amebic dysentery under treatment a few weeks last February showed that injections-as might be supposed -do not confer immunity against subsequent attacks. This patient had a return of all symptoms within a month after leaving hospital, apparently cured. In how far the treatment prevents complications and sequelæ can not be concluded from a limited number of cases, although all the cases under my care have been peculiarly free from complications. The experimental researches of Veronine show that rectal douches are of service as antiphlogistics, sedatives, and excitants. He finds that injections of cool or cold water produce an increase in tactile sensibility, muscular force, a lowering of body temperature and lessening of arterial pressure, with a modification of pulse tracing. This is experimental proof of the clinical observation of the systemic as well as the local action of injections. Maryland Med. Jour. The Treatment of Dysentery. At a meeting of the Medical Society of London, held October 19, 1891, Professor Bahadurji, of Bombay, read a paper on the treatment of dysentery, which he said was not a contagious or infectious disea e, nor in any ⚫ sense specific. He claimed to have reduced the mortality to almost nothing. Instead of endeavoring to keep up the strength of his patients by meat juices and extracts, which he said acted only as irritants, he gave arrowroot milk. In the way of medication he gave bismuth, Dover's powder and soda, with the object of neutralizing the acidity of the blood, of calming the abnormal action of the glands of the large intestines, and of rendering the canal sweet and free from decompositions. pointed out that the action of the ipecac and the alkali was to render the thick, sticky mucous more liquid, and thus enable it to be got rid of. Med. Press. He THE North Carolina Medical Journal says of "The Physician as a Business Man: "-"Excellent advice, which, if followed, would help to make the doctor a careful business man." Price $1. See order blank, page xxii. Treatment of Dysentery. Drs. Lardier and Pernet (Semaine medicale recommended the following treatment of dysen tery-one which they have employed with the greatest success in the recent epidemic at Ram bervillers, Vosges. ... It is based on intestinal antisepsis, either by means of salol or, better still, iodoform. The former is prescribed in the following formula: Salol ....grains xlv [3.0 grammes] Tolu tincture, fl drs. iiss [10.0 grammes] Quince syrup,. .fl. drs. vi [30.0 grammes] Opium extract....grs. iss [0.1 gramme] Mucilage acacia, ozs iv [150.0 grammes] Tablespoonful hourly. This medication is reported to act in a very favorable manner on the morbid process. How ever the medicament which was found to have truly remarkable effects in dysentery is iodo form, in the daily dose of 30-40 centigrammes [42-6 grains]. The following formula a given: Iodoform. ......grains xv [1.0 gramme] Powdered opium, grains ix [0.6 gramme] For 20 wafers-5 or 6 during the day, at equal tervals. These wafers soon produced marked relie in the authors' cases. The incessant and extremely violent tene mal pains were calmed by boric acid enemas but the best means of combating them found to be the use of suppositories of the fo lowing composition : Cocaine hydrochlorate, grs. vi [0.4 grm'e] Powdered opium...grs. ix [0.6 gramme] Cocao butter....drams ii [8.0 grammes] Divide into 4 suppositories, I morning and event, Under the influence of the cocaine, the gr ing disappeared as if by charm, the diarrhea ceased, and the patients obtained a refreshing sleep of several hours' duration. Beside the use of the medicaments mer tioned, it is advised not to neglect washing out the intestines several times daily wil some antiseptic fluid--such as a concer trate: solution of boric acid, or a 1.5000 solution corrosive sublimate.--Medical Age. Acute and Chronic Dysentery. Dr. P. B. Green, of Wytheville, thinks th for the most part dysentery should be treated as a septic disease by antiseptics, such as iode form, salicylic acid, creasote, naphthalin, ett Sodium salicylate was perhaps the one to be generally preferred. Treatment by rectal injections and antise tics had invariably proved successful in adults and in most cases in children except infants He preferred warm solutions of mercuric b chloride (from 1 to 10,000 to 1 to 3.000) ever six to twelve hours. Listerine, salol, fluid e Occasionally full doses of Epsom salts were ten needed to relieve congestions, correct cretions, etc. In severer cases, use more deded antiseptics, such as napthalin, salol, and henacetin, five grains of each every three ours, and irrigate the bowels twice daily with colin. If adynamia occurred, marked by tensely fetid discharges of blood mixed with ucous, pus, sloughs, etc, use injections of an ince or two of hydrogen peroxide in a pint of ater. In malignant hemorrhagic forms, give If an ounce of turpentine in a pint of emulon, and repeat the following every two or ree hours: In chronic dysentery, the septic fecal matter, 7 constantly passing over the raw or wounded rfaces, kept up the septic condition. Tepidater irrigations, followed by half-gallon inctions twice a day of solutions of hydrogen eroxide, creolin, or ichthyol, would do good. was best to administer these irrigations rough a soft rubber tube, about fifteen inches ng, passed well up into the colon.--Med. nd Surg. Reporter. Aristol in Chronic Dysentery. DR. RANDALL (Medical Neuigkeiten, No. 17, 892) has treated three cases of chronic dysenry with aristol with excellent results. The most serious case was that of a sixty-year-old an, who had for six months suffered from hronic diarrhea, and for the last six weeks had een obliged to keep his bed. The localizaon of the pains pointed to the lower portion f the transverse colon being involved in the lcerating process. A suppository of two and half grains of aristol and one-third of a grain f morphine was ordered, to be inserted three mes a day. Two days later the stools became Ess fetid, more consistent, and free from blood. Within a week the painfulness disappeared, and only one more hemorrhage appeared. The stools, which had been very painful and of hourly occurrence; were reduced to six or eight per diem; they were soft, but not thin, and nearly free from epithelial debris. In ten or twelve days all traces of rectal ulceration had disappeared. Then only one grain was given. per diem, and morphine in the evening. In a short time he was on the road to recovery.— Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic. The Treatment of Dysentery. AT a meeting of the Medical Society of London, held October 19, 1891, Professor Bahadurji, of Bombay, read a paper on the treatment of dysentery, which he said was not a contagious or infectious disease nor in any sense specific. He claimed to have reduced the mortality to almost nothing. Instead of endeavoring to keep up the strength of his patients by meat juices and extracts, which he said acted only as irritants, he gave arrow-root milk. In the way of medication he gave bismuth, Dover's powder and soda, with the object of neutralizing the acidity of the blood, of calming the abnormal action of the glands of the large intestines, and of rendering the canal sweet and free from decomposition. pointed out that the action of the ipecac and the alkali was to render the thick sticky mucus more liquid, and thus enable it to be got rid of. Med. Press. He Plea for the More General Use of Alkaloids. The advantages I claim for alkaloids over galenical medications, are : First, and most important, a greater uniformity and reliability of preparations. Second, increased accuracy of doses. Third, the avoidance of incompatibility in prescriptions. Fourth, a more distinct and limited effect of medicines; for in giving alkaloids we get only the action of the one agent, and not the effect of from one to a half dozen other ingredients, as with Galenical preparations. Fifth, a greatly improved method is the administration of remedies to the patient. Drops and spoonfuls are the usual measures for ordinary preparations: drops vary in number from 44 to 250 to the fluid drachm, and the size of the spoons vary more than 100 per cent., to say nothing of the deficient filling and overflowing of spoons and the spilling of medicines. in administration. Sixth, a more concise method of treatment of disease. The prescriber must have a clear idea of what he wishes to accomplish. The action of each alkaloid is definite, and the in dications are plain. "Shotgun" prescriptions with alkaloids, are out of the question. The "hit or miss" plan, in which the right thing is usuallly missed and the wrong thing hit, will not do. If I have settled beyond a doubt that alkaloics are superior in action to the Galenical preparations, then I pass to the Seventh, and last advantage I claim for them -this is a pleasant form for administration.— V. H. Hulen in Daniei's Texas Med. Jour. The Economy of Having a Health Officer. The State Board of Health has the names and addresses of over 3 500 physicians in Michigan. I think it safe to estimite that the averige annual income of these doctors is at least $1,000 00 each; and, if so, the people of this State pay $3 500,000 a year to those whom they employ to prescribe for the sick. If in respect to sickness we admit that an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," onesixteenth of $3 500,000 ($218,750) judiciously expended in the prevention of sickness would be worth as much to the people as the whole sum spent for the cure of sickness; or if the whole 3,500 doctors were employed and the whole $3,500,000 expended in the prevention of sickness, the benefit to the people would be sixteen times as great as now and would have a money value of $56 000,000. And yet not all the sickness is preventable. The debt of nature must be paid at last. When science has failed to prevent sickness the skillful physician can often aid in nature's efforts to recover strength, and when death is certain he can often make easier the last days of suffering. But can any rational person suppose for an instant that if one sixteenth of the 3,500 physicians now employed in prescribing for the cure of diseases were constantly employed and paid for their services and their success in searching out and applying all possible knowledge for the prevention of sickness and deaths, it would require all the remaining 3,282 physicians to prescribe for the sickness which would not thus be prevented? Can any one suppose that many of the present heavy burdens of the people would not be removed? Omitting mention of the most importart direct benefits of the prevention of sickness, and no ing only the indirect benefits not so frequently dwelt upon, let us think of the vast sums of money now paid to maintain poorhouses. hospitals insane asylums, asylums for the deaf, du nb, and blind, jails, and even prisons; much of this expense would then be entirely unnecessary; and many of the causes for demands now made for private charity would not exist; thus, as I believe, not only our personal expenses but our State, county and municipal taxe: would be materially lessened, the prosperity of our people would be something wonderful when compared with our present condition, and the phrase "Life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness" would have its first and last terms wonderfully em phasized. There is no reason to fear that we should suffer for want of doctors, even if we were to ask every one of those now practicing to change his employment to the prevention of sickness. If more were needed I think they would be forthcoming; but suppose every one of the 1,261 local boards of health in the State should constantly employ one physician as a health officer, there would still remain 2,240 doctors to attend to the sickness which the other third failed to prevent; and the 1,261 physicians who would then be co stantly employed as health officers of local boards of health would cost for permanent salaries only a small part of the $3,500,000. which is now estimated to be paid to phys cians. The main reason why we need an active health officer, who understands his business. in every city, village, and township, is that the people do not now seem to know the preventable nature of the diseases which kil them. In many places they stand by like dumb animals and suffer their children to die of diph heria and other communicable dis eases, and never lift a finger to try to prevent the spread of these diseases. This apathy and ignorant disregard for human life is not confined to the rural districts, but is seen ir some cities.-H. B. Baker, Secretary Boar of Health, Michigan. Why Physicians Should Dispense Their Own Medicines. THE Texas Health Journal thus vigorously discusses this subject, taking the homeopathic practitioner as an illustration: "The homeopathist's success,financially, and otherwise, if there be any otherwise,' may be tersely couched in these words: All remedies furnished.' In our endeavor to ascertain why our most intellectual and wealthy citizens frequently employ the vendors of moonshine, instead of a physician, we went direct to their patrons and asked them this pointed questionWhy do you employ a homeopathist?' The answers of the hundreds whom we asked the question, were substantially the same, viz.: They furnish their own medicine.' A banker answered fully by giving his reasons for ceasing to employ a physician and taking up a homeo pathist. He said: My child is sick, I send for a homeopathist, he comes, gives my child a dose of medicine, soon after his arrival, leaves his pills, sugar or otherwise, I care not of what they are composed and my child recovers. I used to employ a regular physician but quit him for this reason: He would come to my house, examine my sick child, write out three or four prescriptions, not a word of which I could understand and leave without giving my child any medicine whatever to relieve it of its suffering. I would then go to a drug store, where I would have to wait my turn, to get the dude behind the counter to translate the quail tracks into sense, or nonsense, I know not which, and prepare me a box of pills, a few powders and a bottle of some kind of stuff. I would then rush off home with a sense of discomfort, for fear the druggist might have made some mistake; and, after I had run myself down, I would reach home only to find that the two hours which had elapsed after the departure of the physician and before I could get the first dose of medicine to my child, had worked a material change in the symptoms of the little one. This would cause me to hesitate as to whether I should yet administer the medicine or not. This dilemma frequently happened; and, on one such occasion I sent for a homeopathist; he came, gave my child medicine and it recovered. Since then I have continued to employ a homeopathist. When my child recovers I have but one bill to pay, that of the physician; when I employed a regular physician the druggist bill was usually about half as much as that of the physician. So you see I save time, save worry, save money, and the result is the same. This is why I employ a homeopathist; furnish your own medicines young man; it will pay you regardless of the school to which you belong.' That is the way very many shrewd business men look at homeopathy. Such men, though intellectual gentlemen, know absolutely nothing about the relative value or differences of the respective so-called 'schools of medicine;' neither do they care." Alkalies in Uric Acid Diathesis. One of the most remarkable properties of ithia is its power of imparting solubility to uric acid, the urate of lithia being the most oluble of the known urates. To show the power which carbonate of thia possesses in rendering urate of soda solble, I made the following experiment: A metacarpal bone was selected, having the -halangeal extremity completely infiltrated with gouty deposit; this was placed in a small uantity of cold water, and a few grains of arbonate of lithia added; in the course of Lactic Acid in Vaginal Pathological Dr. Williams read a paper before the Baltimore Gyn. and Obst. Society, on "Deoderlein's Work on Vaginal Secretions," published in the Maryland Med. Journal. The following practical fact was given: "In the light of these observations, the examination of the vaginal secretion is made a part of the routine practice at the lying in hos. pitals at Leipzig, before the students are allowed to examine the cases. If the secretions be normal, they are allowed to examine them; but not if they be pathological. In the cases in which the secretion was pathological, he sought by various means to bring it once more to the normal consistency during the pregnancy; and, of all the means which he employed, found that injections of one per cent solution of lactic acid gave the most satisfactory results. For it apparently offered an unfavorable medium for the growth of the pathogenic organisms, and at the same time produced the most favorable conditions for the growth of the vaginal bacilli, which in turn made the vaginal secretion unfit for the growth of most organisms. In numerous cases, under its use, he saw the other organisms give place to the normal bacilli, and the pathological to the normal secretion." DR. G. H. ATTWOOD, of North Woodbury, Conn., writes as follows in regard to special numbers :--- "Such numbers are cream of the cream, and just what country physicians imperatively need and should appreciate." parent, impenetrable, which would hermeti cally seal the wound from external septic in vas on. "After closure of the incision, the skin, the line of the wound, and the sutures are dried, and two layers of sterilized gauze or cheesecloth, large enough to project five to ten centimetres (two to four inches) beyond the incision on all sides, laid on the skin. This is saturated with the following adhesive mixture, which is evenly distributed over the whole surface: "B Squibb's Ether, (or washed ether), and alcohol, absolute, equal parts; Bichloride of mercury, (Merck's Recryst) enough to make the solution, 1-16000; a syrupy consistence, added in small "As soon as this is poured over the wound evaporation begins to take place at once, and the celluloidin hardens, gumming the gate fast to the skin. To avoid delay in waiting for this to grow quite hard, and to prevent adhesion in to the cotton applied above it, the whole surface is freely dusted over with a finely powderde ed mixture of iodoform and boric acid: "B Pulveris iodoformi,4 grammes or I dramm; Acidi borici, 28 grammes, or 7 drammes. M.-Exactissime. Sig.-Dust freely on wound. "This powder is of itself an invaluable protective. I use it constanly in obstetric cases, separating the labia and throwing it into the vagina, where it acts as a guard to the vaginal outlet against septic invasion from without. "The wound thus sealed with celluloidin gauze may be left untouched for a week or more when the dressing should be softened with water, or more rapidly with ether, the gauze ifted off, and the stitches taken out." Brookyn Med. Jour. The Inclined Plane. THE benefit of the inclined plane, with the feet much higher than the head, is strongly urged by Dr. Emmet in the N. Y. Jour. of Gyn. and Obstet. He declares that in his judgement there is "scarcely a condition of disease of the female pelvis which is not benefited to some extent by foot of the bed elevated from twelve to eightmaintaining a recumbent position, with the een inches." The lesser elevation is of little value. By this method he has cured several cases of tubal lesion and he has observed prompt relief in allaying the constant irritation of the bladder associated with local peritonitis about the retro-sacral ligaments. He believes this method combined with the rest cure of Weir Mitchell, will accomplish excellent results in functional disturbance of the |