None of these agents can be of any benefit to man, except when employed medicinally, which cannot fairly be urged in the case of wines and liquors. These, used advisably, aid and promote digestion; invigorate the nervous system; give a fillip to strength and functional activity, when jaded by age and the exigencies of a civilized life; and thus act as a sort of indirect food. No doubt, with many people-perhaps the majority-alcohol, like tobacco, is a created necessity, and men have become the victims of their own weakness; but its very moderate use can hardly be condemned on accouut of those who systematically abuse it. Countless thousands thus use it, and yet may truly be called temperate; and there is no tangible proof that such a man may not live to be old, and still a

A sexual sedative of the highest order, administered in from half to one drachm doses, three times a day, exceeds in therapeutic power the action of the green root tincture of gelsemium and the bromides combined, without any deleterious effect whatever.

The fluid extract of the black willow, highly ozonized, is a tonic, stimulant, sedative, astringent and germicide. Its area of action is the genito-urinary organs of both sexes.

Our country, our climate, our civilization, our literature, predispose our youth to hyperemia of the lumbar portion of the cord which presides over the genitalia, and to such affections as nymphomania, satyriasis, onanism, seminal incontinence, ovaritis, cystitis, prostatitis.

Its action is most remarkable in relieving and allaying all irritation.

In nocturnal emissions of our drained out young men, the drug is used with the most marked benefit. The pollutions cease entirely, virile power and passion are not in the least diminished.

SAW PALMETTO.

The fluid extract of this invaluable berry is a nutrient tonic, far in advance of the comp. hypophosphites, almost equal to the tincture of oats, but has a special action upon the glands of the reproductive organs, as the mammæ, ovaries, prostate, testes, etc. Its action is that of a great vitalizer, tending to increase their activity, to promote their secreting faculty and add greatly to their size.

It is specially indicated in all cases of wasting of the testes, such as follows varicocele, or is induced by masturbation, or which is often present in sexual impotency.

In atrophy of the prostate, so very common in cases of sexual perversion, this drug operates in a most remarkable manner, in overcoming the withered, blighted state of the gland; so in uterine atrophy dependent upon ovarian blight its action is unexcelled. In gynecological practice it is much used to promote the growth of the mammæ.

But it is on the prostate gland that this remedy exercises its best effects. Great medical authority states that when "the hair becomes gray and scanty . the prostate

gland becomes increased in size," and this irrespective of age. Nine men out of every ten have enlarged prostate, and one atrophy, ages varying from 35 to 75, respectively, the result either of early indiscretion, as masturbation, or excess, or perversion of the sexual act, or sedentery habits, or from improperly cured gonorrhea.

The prostate is composed of two lobes and a median portion. Sometimes one portion or all may be enlarged-the part affected influences the function of micturition, whether it be wasted or enlarged. A patient may have enlargement as great as a small cocoanut and no obstruction to micturition, provided the median portion is only but slightly enlarged.

A man with prostatic trouble has always impaired sexual power, verging on partial or complete impotency, with wasting testes; with urinary trouble, either a frequency, or a dribbling, a lack of power of propulsion. The dribbling or lack of power of retention is altogether different from stricture, for in the latter the power is good, strong; although it may be as fine as a thread, or split, or twisted like a cork

screw.

Prostatic disease, acting reflexly on the brain, gives rise to innumerable cerebral affections.

Here is a quotation from a text-book on the medical treatment of enlarged prostate:

"There is nothing to be done for it; you cannot diminish or increase the size of the prostate by any known means."

The use of the saw palmetto in both enlarged and atrophied prostate completely invalidates the above statement.

Did our space permit, we would cite case after case, in both morbid conditions, in which the saw palmetto was used, in which the size of the prostate was equalized, the difficulty of micturition was relieved, the stoppage, dribbling, lack of force, completely overcome, and the improvement in sexual power steady and most gratifying. A perfect rejuvenation follows the use of the palmetto; the general nervous system becomes balanced and reinvigorated.

NYMPHE ODORATA PASTILES.

The glucoside isolated from this old and reliable remedy is attracting well merited attention. This glucoside has an extremely bitter, astringent taste, extremely hygroscopic and not well adapted for internal use, but as a local remedy in all relaxed, devitalized states of the vagina it has no equal. Added to the butter of cocoa, it forms a most elegant pastile, tonic and astringent to the vagina and uterus. of these inserted every other night produces a complete revolution in the tissue, and causes contraction and vital tonicity. They are specially indicated in prolapsus uteri, leucorrhea, sexual lethargy, sterility, and whenever the reproductive organs are worn out by frequent parturition or exhausted by sexual excesses.

One

Ethics in Administrating Anesthetics. An interesting discussion on this subject took place at the Sydney Branch of the British Medical Association (Brit. Med. Jour.). In those cases in which one man gives the anesthetic and another does the operating, the president, Dr. Chambers, was not sure as to the exact amount of responsibility that each should take; but the utmost confidence should exist between them.

Dr. Shewen was right when he said that the responsibility cannot be equally divided between the operator and the administrator, but falls wholly upon the latter as soon as the patient is taken in charge. However, the laity do not see it in this light, and in some cases the surgeon bears the greater part of the blame for accidents.

Unquestionably experience in the administration of an anesthetic is a decided advan

tage. It was the generally expressed opinion at the meeting referred to, that a special chloroformist should be appointed for each of the

public hospitals. This would be a wise precaution, provided it be made the duty of the chloroformist to supervise the administration of the anesthetic and not to give it in each case himself. It would be a fatal mistake to teach the laity that only those who have made this their special business can give anesthetics with comparative safety. In proof of the fact that accidents may occur even with the most experienced Mr. Twynam said that Mr. Clover, of London, had administered anesthetics to four thousand patients without a death, and then had two deaths within two weeks.

I have taken occasion before this to express the opinion that no one should essay to give any anesthetic before having studied its effects upon a number of patients under the care of an experienced physician. There is enough uncertainty at all times to justify the operator in having an assistant to give the anesthetic, if one can be had.

The choice of an anesthetic should be agreed upon by the operator and the anesthetist; should there be a difference of opinion between them then the opinion of the latter should have precedence.

during the administration of chloroform, the In writing of a case in which death occurred editor of the Brit. Med. Jour. says:

"Dr. Robertson does not add any material facts to the report we published last, but conted, namely, that he, unassisted by any other firms the main points upon which we commenerate upon a patient. The fact that the patient man, undertook to anesthetise and op

medical

Petch would not hear" of another medical man being called in to help, simply showed she did not appreciate the gravity of the situation. Dr. Robertson asks was he, telegraphic communication being closed, to refrain from operating in another and urgent case, and the answer is evident. Urgency and inability to procure professional assistance would always exonerate a practitioner from running risks, however undesirable; but we do not gather that, in the patient Petch, there were either urgency or any insuperable difficulty in obtaining assistance from another medical man. We are then confirmed in our opinion that no medical practitioner should undertake the charge of the anesthetic and of the operation single handed. If such a thing be done we cannot accept the statement that "every precaution was taken prior to, and during the administration of, the anesthetic."-Weekly Med. Review.

infiltrate surrounding parts. This distinction is very important to bear in mind in making an anatomical diagnosis between benign and ma lignant tumors. Whenever you find a tumor surrounded by a capsule, the diagnosis is positive that it is not a carcinoma, but it does not follow that it is not malignant tumor. (Gross.)

-To prepare "antiseptic gauze" used for dressing wounds, etc., Prof. Gross directs:Boil the gauze (to remove fatty matter) in a solution of 1⁄2 lb. sodium carbonate to the gallon of water, for eight hours; rinse with clean water, and keep in the following solution: To the pint of ordinary bichloride of mercury 1 to 1000, add glycerine 3 ss, alcohol 3 j.

-In the constitutional treatment of inflammation, to reduce temperature, reduce the arterial tension, and quiet the pain and headache, in addition to other measures Prof. Gross recommends the following fever mixture :

R Liquor. potassii citratis..
Spirit ætheris nitrosi....
Tinct. aconiti....
Morphine sulphat...
Sig. Every 6 or 8 hours.

.fz ss .fzj ..gtt. iij ..gr. . M.

-In the case of a man with incontinuence of urine following typhoid fever, urine highly acid, Prof. Da Costa ordered that he take no sweets nor acids in diet, and the the following prescription :

Croup.

strict economy in this direction, as happy thousands can testify; and we hope, next year, to be able to so reduce our expenditure as to make four medium-quality brains last us for twelve months. This ought to bring us new subscribers!

For THE MEDICAL WORLD.

The Use of Peroxide of Hydrogen and Glycozone in Therapeutics.

BY CHAS. MARCHAND, E.C.P., Chemist, Graduate from the "Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures," Paris. DIPHTHERIA.

Diphtheritic micrococci.-Buhl, Hüter and Oertel have demonstrated that, in diphtheria, the membranes contain micrococci. Oertel found these micrococci in large numbers; not only in the diphtheritic membranes of the organs of the throat and their surroundings, as well as the contiguous lymphatics, but also in the general circulation of the blood.

Micrococci are about 0.00035-0.001 millimetre in diameter, slightly oval and scattered, being generally found in the shape of short chains. They also form continuous masses of "zooglea," spherical or cylindrical in shape; and they thus penetrate, by destroying them, the connecting and muscular tissues which surround them. In some cases they obstruct the capillaries of the glomerules and the urinary tubes of the kidneys.

Together with the micrococci, we find in the diphtheritic membranes bacteria shaped like a small stick; but these are evidently accessories. From what precedes, it is evident that diphtheria is nothing else than a microbic infec

It has been estimated that we get a complete new outfit of brains about every two months. The duration of a nerve's life is about sixty days. Each nerve-cell has its own independent functions, subordinate to the higher functions of the whole brain "en masse;" and the latter acts as a sort of boss or overseer to the individual actions and life of each separate cell. Every cell is destroyed and renewed every two months, so we each get siz brand new brains per year! This seems to us needless and wilful extravagance, which should not be encouraged. Personally, we practise

by using as a local application the most powerful antiseptics.

Chemically pure peroxide of hydrogen, which destroys micrococci with extraordinary rapidity, gives the most satisfactory results. [See the New York Medical Record, Aug. 13, 1887 Dioxide of Hydrogen," by Dr. J. Mount Bleyler; New York Medical Record, October, 1888-"Some Clinical Notes of Diphtheria and the Treatment by Peroxide of Hydrogen," by Dr. G. B. Hope.]

Then, whenever a physician is called upon to treat a well pronounced case of diphtheria, he should at once administer diluted peroxide of hydrogen as frequently as possible, in the form of gargles, or, better still, by copious irrigations of the nose, throat, larynx and phar

ynx.

Diphtheritic membranes which develop in the morbid centre are so destroyed as fast as they are reproduced. All these membranes disappear almost instantaneously as soon as

they come into contact with peroxide of hydrogen. But it might accidentally happen that portions of them be carried into the stomach or in the larynx, which would cause a derangement, the consequences of which might be most serious from the fact that their action would evade the physician's control. Then it is necessary to have recourse to an internal as well as the local antiseptic treatment.

To do this, instead of resorting to more or less dangerous antiseptics, such as bichloride of mercury, sulphide of calcium, iodoform, or other similar toxicants, experience has proved that glycozone in one-half or one teaspoonful doses, in a glass of tepid water, administered every two hours, will prevent all complications, without the least danger of poisoning, or without even producing the slightest irritation of the mucous membranes of the stomach.

The irrigations are made after the method of Dr. J. Mount Bleyer, of New York, by taking a soft rubber catheter and attaching it to a fountain syringe, and thus apply it from one nostril to the other. The pharynx and larynx are irrigated every two hours.

Any similar apparatus constructed entirely of glass or vulcanized rubber may be used. All metals except gold, silver, platinum and pure tin producing a more or less deleterious effect on peroxide of hydrogen, physicians must never lose sight of this recommendation if they do not wish to expose themselves to exceedingly grave deceptions.

Irrigations or gargles require the use of Chas. Marchand's peroxide of hydrogen, 15 vol. C. P. medicinal, diluted in proportions which vary according to the gravity of the disease: 2 to 3 ozs. peroxide of hydrogen, 15 vol. C. P., with enough distilled or boiled water to make a pint.

If, by reason of a too copious or too violent irrigation, the patient should swallow all or part of the liquid, it need cause no apprehension. The sensation would be more or less disagreeable, and he might even feel nausea once or twice; but no fear of poisoning or of any irritation to the mucous membrane need be entertained.

In fact, the nascent oxygen or ozone, which would then escape with exceeding rapidity by immediate contact with the mucous membranes of the stomach, always produces a slight pricking sensation, which does not last more than two or three minutes when the peroxide of hydrogen is diluted as above indicated.

It is unnecessary to state that in some cases, in order to overcome stenosis and increase the chances of a cure, it would be prudent to resort to intubation. The operation, invented by

Dr. Joseph O'Dwyer, and which has already been described in many of the medical journals, by Dr. J. Mount Bleyer, Dr. Waxham, Dr. Dillon Brown and others, does not exclude the above treatment.

In closing this subject of the treatment of diphtheria, I will take the liberty of saying that personal experiments authorize me to affirm that all the antiseptics recommended or used in the treatment of this terrible disease, even in small doses, are in varying degrees almost as dangerous, owing to their corrosive and toxic properties, as the disease itself.

For instance, cauterization with nitrate of silver very seldom assists in the cure, and it has been frequently noticed that it even renders it absolutely impossible; because it destroys not only the microbic centre, but also the surrounding healthy tissues which have not yet As to bibeen invaded by the micrococci. chloride of mercury, toxicologists know that it frequently causes poisoning by absorption. So every one knows, or ought to know, that the absboring power of the mucous membrane varies according to the temperament or the state lows that, in a large number of cases, the most of weakness of the patient; from which it folskillful and careful physician would be absolutely powerless to control the action of such a poison.

Then it is unquestionable that if the physicians who have praised this mode of treatment of diphtheria, with a solution of bichloride of mercury, had had the precaution not to recommend it as the one which would always give the best results, they would have rendered a great service to the medical profession; and more particularly to the unfortunate patients, who, being subjected to this treatment, are liable to die, not of diphtheria, but of incidental poisoning.

The bichloride of mercury treatment certainly kills more diphtheritic patients than it can cure; albeit the destruction of diphtheritic micrococci with bichloride of mercury is unquestionable, and almost as rapid as its destruction with peroxide of hydrogen.

Consequently, if theoretically the use of bichloride of mercury in the treatment of diphtheria is most logical, it must nevertheless be abandoned practically, inasmuch as its antiseptic properties are accompanied by corrosive and toxic properties which render its use as fatal as the disease itself.

Per contra, Ch. Marchaud's peroxide of hydrogen C. P., which possesses the same antiseptic properties as bichloride of mercury, is neither corrosive nor toxic. Its use consequently precluding all danger of poisoning,