needs to be practised with care. The practitioner should know or try to find out when and whom he should bleed, and when and whom not, how much and for what purpose. The routine bleeder and the routine prescriber of drugs will miss their mark often than hit it. We must practice our profession upon scientific principles and upon experience; otherwise we cannot excel.

I do not intend to make converts to venesection, but to bring the subject before the profession for study and consideration, the same as we suggest the use of other drugs and remedial measures; neither do I think it necessary to write up its origin and history together with its former abuses, but simply to record my experience with an old and potent remedial FRANK R. BRUNNER, M. D.

measures.

Eshbach, Pa.

Tracheotomy on Domestic Animals. Editor MEDICAL WORLD.

I noticed in June number, page 205, an article reporting an operation of tracheotomy on a horse. I wish to say that such an operation on the horse, is of no danger whatever, and is always attended with good results. I have known a horse, that worked for many years, with this artificial nostrils. The only precaution is to wash out the tube in carbolized water, once a day. I performed the same operation for a case of obstruction due to a sweet potato. After the removal of the obstruent, the tube was removed, without any bad consequences. This was a cow, and when I was called, the animal

was suffocating, I give you this about tracheotomy, only to impress upon you how little or rather how dangerous an operation we consider tracheotomy in veterinary practice. Savannah, Ga. A. JASME, V. S.

Treatment of Felons. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

In the current medical journals, there appear from time to time "infallible methods of treating felons by means of local applications. Some of these are endorsed by physicians of repute, who seem to claim many cures and few failures; others are floating prescriptions, often without responsible paternity or vouchers, serving to fill space, and sometimes doubtless to delude the credulous.

While it is quite possible that superficial gatherings have been dispersed by the timely application of such agents as carbolic and salicyhic acids, iodines, mercury, alcohol, calcium or turpentine, it is not probable that deep-seated phlegmons, situated in the sheaths of the tendons or beneath the periosteum have been so dis

cussed with sufficient frequency and certainty as to warrant confidence in the use.

Grave cases are not commonly brought to the attention of the surgeon until they have run for several days. In the mean time various domestic applications have usually been employed to relieve the pain. to relieve the pain. When these have failed, after days of agony and the loss of nights of sleep, the patient presents himself suffering from deep, tensive, throbbing pain, that indicates the formation of pus. What is to be done? To temporize at such a time is criminal. To trust to unguents and cataplasms is but to prolong the misery, with the certain prospect of serious damage to the patient, and in the near future, regret on the part of the surgeon.

The deplorable results of delay in such cases. are only too well known. After weeks and months of pain, and suffering and loss of time, it is fortunate if there is not also loss of bone, stiffened joints, and impaired functions of the hand.

A recent case will serve to illustrate the history of too many such. In this case the young surgeon failed to recognise the real nature of the trouble, displaying profound wisdom, and diagnosis of blood-poisoning, a mysterious and at the same time pacifying his patient by a sage dreaded term that does duty for all sorts of unexplained conditions, until it was too late to arrest the progress of the disease.

The penalty of this oversight was that the man, a mechanic, through his suffering lost over twenty pounds in weight, and lost also six months of valuable time. Eventually it became necessary to remove the remnant of the index

finger and part of the corresponding metacapal bone of the right hand, and he is now unfitted for pursuing his regular business.

I have no new remedy to propose, but I wish to emphasize the value of a very, very old oneprompt, deep, effectual incision. By this means, in a moment, a painful abscess is converted into little more than a simple incised wound, and thus untold relief is afforded.

The resort to topical applications and delay is presumed to be in the interest of conservatism and humanity, but the effort to avoid the direct issue is a mistaken forbearance, which often entails most serious consequences,

I am not of a sanguinary disposition, but there are a few simple operations that afford me such a feeling of satisfaction as I derive from this, when I see the pus "welling up" beside the knife. I know that I am doing good, and the panever fails to appreciate it also.

If you are in doubt whether or not to operate, give the patient the benefit of the doubt by incising at once. You will never regret it. Brooklyn. BENJ. EDSON, M. D.

I failed to state in my summing up of the case that she is subject to uterine hemorrhage, at times very copious; also the bladder, kidney, and lower bowels are at times involved. As the child must suffer in consequence of follicular change that the mucous membranes undergo during the period of dentition, so many old people, especially of the lymphatic temperament, must suffer from an atrophic change in their declining years. With this idea prominent in my mind, I ordered the following:

R Bis. subnitratis,
Fld. hydrastis..
Creasoti...

Tr. nucis vom.
Liq. pepsinæ..

.....

ãå dr. v ·m xv

.m xx

.q. s. ad fl. oz. iv M. Sig. Teaspoonful at meal-time.

The above, no doubt, may truly be denom. inated a shot-gun prescription; but it has relieved the case. She has never had an attack since she used the first dose. She can eat anything she wants but pork. She is practically to day a well woman.

I am therefore not only thankful to THE MED. WORLD and the readers who helped to enlighten me, but to such men as Profs. Loomis and Charcot, whose able work on the diseases of old people is worthy of commendation. J. O. ROBINSON.

Bridgeport, Ky.

Coffee to Destroy the Odor of Iodoform. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

Methods for rendering iodoform inodorous are as numerous as they are unsatisfactory, and I do not wish to add to the number, but would state that a year or two ago I read somewhere, where, I cannot now remember, that coffee would destroy the order perfectly.

After trying in vain for some time to obtain finely powdered coffee from my wholesale druggist, I sent to a drug mill and had a pound of the best Java coffee pulverized, and have since been using it with great satisfaction, using equal quantities of iodoform and coffee.

When I have used iodoform and that odor clings to my hands, I ask for the coffee-pot and simply wash them with the coffee, and the odor is gone. It is certainly superior to tannin, balsam peru, bergamot, etc., etc. Try it. THEO. H. BOYSEN.

Egg Harbor City, N. J.

Retained Placenta.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

Dr. Coleman seems to think that the placenta is in some way fastened to the uterus, and advises not to wait longer than fifteen minutes before going after it.

Now, in forty years' practice, meeting every conceivable condition possible or probable, I have never found it necessary to go after or hurry in any case to remove the placenta. To say the least, it is bad advice to subject a woman who has barely gotten through a labor, long or short, to additional worry of mind and body by forcibly thrusting the hand into the vagina and womb to remove a body so much inferior in size to the child, which it has lately gotten through with, and thereby proved its ability to remove the placenta in due time if let alone and properly encouraged by a little judicious manipulation.

Never go after the placenta. It is like the Quaker woman's apples-it will come all right if let alone. If your patient is all right other ways, rest easy. J. M. PROCTOR, M. D. North Salem, Ind.

Jaborandi-Diphtheria. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

In the discussion on jaborandi for erysipelas, cific as I have found. In the pathology of diphcount me in for jaborandi; it is as near a spetheria I am a localist-believing the germ should be attacked in its faucial nidus before it gains entrance into the system, by as strong a germicide as is consistent with safety, in the form of spray, gargle, or insufflation.

My choice has been the bicloride of mercury in spray, I part to 500-4000. But any of the germicids will do: carbolic acid, permanganate of potash, tinct. iodine, tinct. iron, listerine, peroxide of hydrogen, benzoate of soda, lime water, salicylic acid, sulphur, and turpentine; but for heaven's sake don't kill your patient, or compromise his nephritic future, with heroic doses of turpentine, or anything else.

At the same time disinfect the prima via by a few two to three grain doses of calomel, followed by castor oil and turpentine. Having commenced this treatment early you will look in vain for the constitutional disease.

I am very much interested in your journal. I like its tea-table talk of the multum in parvo style. Our light should not be hid under a bushel, but should so shine that others may see whether we are astride a hobby, or radiating scintillations of truth. H. C. CLAPP, M.D. Mendon, St. Joseph Co., Mich.

Picrate of Ammonia in Malarial Fever. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

After reading your answer to Dr. G. A. Hawkins, in the August issue of THE WORLD, I sent to St. Louis and procured an ounce of the drug.

After administering it in fifteen cases of ma

larial poisoning, I can unqualifiedly confirm all the good reports made by Sir Martin Clark in India.

My experience with picrate of ammonia, however, is more limited than his. This section of Arkansas (the White River Valley) is the most intensely malarial in the South, and I often meet cases of chronic malarial poisoning, presenting the symptoms of jaundiced skin, large, flabby tongue, covered with a thick yellow fur, gradually diminishing in color as it Dears the edges; enlarged liver, and spleen occupying half of the abdominal cavity.

In the majority of such cases quinine alone aggravates the condition of things.

It is then that the picrate of ammonia, given in half grain doses, with about two or three grains of quinine, every three hours till six doses have been given, acts like a charm.

One case in point, presenting all of the above array of symptoms, will suffice:

Mr. F., age 50 years, had a violent chill July 4th, and although he took quinine to profound cinchonism, the chill returned on the third day, and so continued, either as a quartan or a quotidian, for six weeks. I put him on ammonia picrate, gr. 2, and quinine, gr. 3, every two hours, till six doses were taken, resulting in perfect relief, and he has remained so ever since, a month having elapsed.

Contrary to Sir Martin Clark's experience, I find the remedy as good in remittent as intermittent fever. Two of the patients complained of nausea after taking the medicine. After breaking the chill, and to reduce the size of the liver and spleen, I have found nothing to equal the following prescription:

R

Prussiate of iron...

Quin. sul....

Strych. sul.

Acid Arsen..

Copper sul...

M.-Ft. pill No. 30.

Take one three times a day.

زه.

. ij .gr. ij .gr. ijss .gr. iv

Query. Will some of the brotherhood, who reside in the malarial districts of the South, be kind enough to inform me, through the columns of THE WORLD, the best way to give calomel so as to prevent salivation? Also, the best remedy for mercurial salivation?

Weldon, Ark. S. H. SINGLETON, M.D.

Dry Deliveries.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

Some time since, when "obstetric experiences" were the order of the day, I related a case of rupture of the vagina coincident with version at seven months for obstinate hemorrhage, ruptured to such extent that several inches of the small bowel protuded, but healed up so

quickily and nicely that no one but myself and consultant ever learned of the accident—a happy sequence that at the time I attributed to the almost total absence of blood or lochial discharge, and which absence for a time worried me me no little until I saw that no harm was resulting. In a later confinement, as in previous ones, I learned that such was her normal condition in labor.

Have not some of THE WORLD'S many readers anything to say in regard to the action of the Hendson Co., N. J., Medical Society in regard to dead beats and mutual protection against them? W. J. E.

Erysipelas.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

A great deal has been written by your correspondents of late with regard to the cure of erysipelas. I don't think that there is a better remedy than the one I am about to give you, as it has been thoroughly tried in my native country, England, from time immemorial, and with the greatest success. I drop two drops of rhus toxicodendron tincture, and two drops of belladonna tincture into half pint of water (English), and give according to age of patient. For an adult a tablespoonful, and reduce the dose as the age of the patient may demand. also use for local application an ointment made as follows: Cut up into an iron pot any quantity of leeks (such as are used in soups in England), and then put in enough hog's lard to cover it nicely, allow it to boil very slowly for ready for use. fifteen minutes, strain through a sieve, and it is I always keep it in stock and consider it a valuable ointment for various purposes. Jaborandi may be all very well, but I

I

never fall back upon an uncertainty when I have a certainty at hand. and report.

Lake Shore Villa, Utah.

Try my pet remedy DR. JOHN COOK.

[Dr. Cook will hardly refer to jaborandi as an "uncertainty" after he has given it several thorough trials. It is quite in order, in reporting the merits of a remedy in this manner, to give some details as to the usual time required for its curative action. Erysipelas is a self-limited disease, running a typical course, and usually tending to its own recovery. The remedy which would prove itself master of this disease must have the power to cut it short. The remedy which temporizes, or guards the patient until the disease has spent its force, and thus allows the patient to recover, is not, in the true sense, a specific.-ED.]

Atropia solution should be left severely alone in cases of glaucoma.

We appreciate the manner in which the profession shows its approval of the Physician's Distinctive Badge. We regret that our efforts to obtain a sufficient supply have fallen so far short of the demand. The orders that have been received have been carefully filed away, and will be filled as soon as we can get the badges from the manufacturer. We cannot take time to write to each one personally.

We also have to announce that the first lot were made without a sufficient knowledge of the cost. In order to keep up the standard of excellence and fine finish we are reluctantly compelled to advance the price to $2.00 each on all orders sent after this issue of THE WORLD has been received. See November WORLD, page 414, for full statement of require

ments.

The matter expectorated by patients suffering from gangrene of lungs develops a characterlstic oder cips after it has been kept for a while.

The great nuniber of requests for private answers, for the information and benefit of the writer, makes it

necessary for us to charge a fee for the time required.

This fee will be from one to five dollars, according to the amount of research and writing required.

Electro-Therapeutical Department.

Cases, questions or views upon electricity in medicine are invited.

We hope to be able to announce to our readers next month, that Dr. Walling, the shilful electrition and strong writer, whose valuable articles we have had the pleasure of reading for some time, has accepted the position as permanent editor of this department.

Electrolysis in Facial Blemishes. One of the most annoying blemishes upon the female face is superfluous hair.

A manly form or voice or face is rarely coveted by a woman; and it is utterly absurd, even cruel, to tell a lady that such a thing is of very little moment, or a disease that will not kill her.

A mole upon the face, a growth of hair, a slight mother's mark, a sallow complexion or a few wrinkles even have produced such a mental condition in a proud, sensitive woman as to demand the utmost skill of some of our ablest surgeons to combat.

In such a condition, as in all other diseases, the first thing to be done is to remove the cause. Not so very many years ago the only remedy for hypertrichosis was either the razor,

the tweezers or a depilatory; not really remedies at all, hardly palliatives. A depilatory is only a deep shave, removing the hair apparently; but seldom in reality, unless it has also destroyed the papillary layer of the skin, which it sometimes does, by setting up such an amount of inflammation as to produce this result. Depilatories thus frequently produce a worse disfigurement than the one intended to be cured, are always unsafe, and their use cannot be too strongly condemned.

The tweezers, like the razor, afford only temporary relief, and in some cases really seem to stimulate the growth.

What relation does this form of blemish bear to the general system? It is found in all types and conditions, and not by any means confined to the masculine appearing woman.

Strumous persons often present a superabundant growth of the natural hair, and it seems to be generally conceded that an excessive growth is an evidence of an aberration of nutrition, and not of increased vitality.

A moustache upon a lady's face is said by some of our close observers to indicate an en

largement of the ovaries, or at least a derange

ment of the menstrual function. Cases are on record where a general growth appeared subsequent to the suppression of the catamenia, and disappeared from other parts of the body upon the re-establishment of the menses; but not from the face, though apparently not increasing much. Others where the growth appeared after the re-establishment of the periods; not, however, attributed to such return, but rather to the disturbance to the nervous system caused by

the cessation.

Among insane women facial hypertrichosis is of frequent occurrence, but generally appears after the insanity. There appears to be some curious relation between the over development of this form of the epithilium and nervous disorders. As the will power declines, the vegetative functions predominate, and often the sexual power is greatly increased after that change which we call somatic death, the skin in many instances retaining its vitality for a comparatively long time, its vegetative function goes on, and hair and nails are said to have been developed enormously. This is denied by some of our dermatologists. I shall not stop to discuss the point, confining myself to live subjects, only noting the fact before alluded to, that excessive growth of hair is not considered as indication of either strength of body or mind; as Dr. Fox says:

"The Sampsons of our day are clean-limbed and naturally short haired, and an abnormal growth of hair in length or location indicates an abnormal condition of the nervous system."