in such cases in the dispensary. It is usually successful. The silver and opium are used in the class of cases without marked flatulence, while the above powder is used where flatulence is a marked symptom.-Med. and Surg. Reporter.

NOTES RESPECTING SPECIAL CATHARTICS. -Dr. Henry M. Field (Journal of the American Medical Association) calls attention to the following points respecting a few cathartics:

I. The salines do not agree with the aged-they find them too chilling, and a dose of epsom salts, which may operate very kindly upon the young and middle-aged and vigorous, may bring a serious disaster to the old man or woman. A sudden depression of vital energy and the function of calorification thus procured, together with other favoring circumstances, have more than once precipitated the subject into fatal pneumonia.

2.

All cathartics are apt to be attended with colicky complications when given to a woman at the epoch of menopause; and especial combination at such time, as with carminatives, should be directed against this painful action.

3. The common domestic cathartic, senna, should never be prescribed bed to the subject of cumulative constipation or of impacted feces; if there be anything answerable to a fecal plug formed in the course of the small intestine or near the valve, on either side, such a peristaltic cathartic as senna will infallibly occasion serious, and even alarming, colic before evacuation can be accomplished; and the same restriction applies to a similar use of an integral dose of calomel.

4. In a case of impacted constipation, in which it is presumed that the bowels are more or less distended with hard, dry, knotty, scybalous masses, nothing works so well as epsom salts, combined, perhaps, with small doses of tartar emetic.

5.

In cases of uterine hemorrhage, habitual constipation can best be treated by cream of tartar. This does not induce muscular contraction of either the intestines or uterus, while it reduces temperature and lowers blood pressure.

ETHER IN CARDIAC DYSPNEA.-Ether in small quantities acts both on the respiratory centre and heart-muscle as a stimulant, and in pneumonia the resistance to the passage of the blood from the right side of the heart through the lungs produces distention and palsy of the right ventricle. Under these circumstances dyspnea arising from cardiac fail

ure soon asserts itself, but is relieved if, by the aid of cardiac stimulants, we can enable the heart to overcome the resistance and free itself of the abnormal quantity of blood. It is probable, then, by this double action on respiration and circulation that either in such a case does good; but it is worthy of remark that, as a general rule, less fugacious cardiac stimulants are more desirable, since in the case of ether stimulation the effects pass off as rapidly as they appear. Nevertheless, in those cases in which cardiac dyspnea suddenly becomes alarming it is well to remember that the hypodermic injection of small quantities of ether may bridge over the danger till more constant and equally powerful remedies can be given.Med. News.

ANTIPYRIN AS AN ANODYNE IN LOCOMOTOR ATAXY.-C. W. SUCKLING, M. D., in Brit. Med. Jour.-M. Germain See believes that this drug is the remedy par excellence for pain, and he has found it efficacious in rheumatism, gout, and in neuralgia. Moreover, he reports that in four out of five cases of locomotor ataxy the pains were removed by the drug. Lepine has found that antifebrin relieves the pain in this disease.

I have tried antipyrin in three cases of locomotor ataxy, in which the pains were severe, with relief in each instance; in one case with complete abeyance.

A man, aged 48, in an advanced stage of locomotor ataxy, applied to me for relief on account of severe shooting pains in the legs, of almost daily recurrence. I gave him antipyrin in ten-grain powders, one to be taken in water when the pains came on. After taking two powders the pains ceased, and he was free from them for a week, when they returned, to be again checked by a powder. He stated that he had not been so well for twelve months, having been continually in pain. It must be remembered that Althaus, several years ago, recommended salicylate of soda for the pains of locomotor ataxy, and this drug greatly resembles antipyrin in its therapeutic action.

I think that antipyrin will be found to be of great use in the treatment of these hitherto intractable pains.

CARBOLIC ACID IN THE TREATMENT OF VOMITING AND PAINFUL DYSPEPSIA. -The well known anesthetic and analgesic effects of carbolic acid were first utilized in the treatment of vomiting, by Dr. Edward Garroway, of England. He found doses of carbolic acid in some suitable vehicle to allay, as by magic, hysterical vomiting and the vomiting of pregnancy. Drs. Dixon and Beran afterwards employed the same

remedy for the relief of some forms of painful dyspepsia; the latter associated with it a certain proportion of the acetum opii (English black drops) and in obstinate cases of chlorotic vomiting, in the vomiting of pregnancy, in gastralgia from dilation of the stomach, and from anemic, nervous causes, he reports remarkable success from this palliative treatment. His formula is as follows: R. Pure deliquescent carbolic acid, I part; English black drops, three parts. Mix. Dose-Four drops in a little sweetened water three times a day, a few minutes after meals.

ARSENIOUS ACID AS A PROPHYLACTIC IN MALARIOUS DISTRICTS.One of the greatest difficulties encountered in malarious districts, is to find an easy and convenient means of preventing the paroxysms of fever which so often disable artisans and laborers, and which at times render utterly unfit for service whole armies of troops.

Tommasi Crudeli has found, after much study, covering a very large experience, that arsenious acid in doses of one-sixtieth of a grain, has proven the most satisfactory prophylactic. The Greeks, Romans and Arabs of Gaudaloupe, have long inclined to rely upon the juice of lemons, prepared by cutting the lemon in small fragments and boiling it until its bulk has been reduced one-half. It is then squeezed out from the pulp, filtered, and taken cold. The objection to quinine is that its effects are powerful upon the nervous system and transitory upon the bacillus malariæ.

RED DROP IN DIARRHEA.-Red drop as known in Trenton, N. J., is this: R. Sol. morphine et ipecac., (Dover's solution) f. 3 ij; tinct. catechu, f. 3 v; spts. camphora, f. 3 i. Sig. Take a teaspoonful every fourth hour until relieved.

The advantage of a preparation like the sol. morphiæ and ipecac, is that it can be combined with the vegetable astringents without making a precipitate. It can also be combined with the spts. of camphor. Large quantities of red drop are sold here during the summer, as it is one of the most efficient prescriptions we have to control diarrhea. When used, it should be diluted with a small amount of water.-Med. Digest.

THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATISM.-Dr. George. L. Peabody treats his cases of acute rheumatism with a combination of salicylic acid and iron, the formula for which is as follows:

R. Acidi salicylici, gr. xx; ferri pyrophosphatis, gr. v; sodii phosphatis, gr. 1; aquæ, 3 ss. Give this dose every two hours, until improvement takes place, then less frequently.

TREATMENT OF SUMMER DIARRHEA OF INFANTS.- Notwithstanding the enforcement of sanitary regulations by Health Boards, and earnest and judicious advice given by the physicians, the summer diarrhea continues, and is likely to continue, the annually recurring and fatal epidemic of infants, desolating many families, especially in the laboring class. Since one of the chief factors in causing the disease is the use of improper food, it is necessary for its successful treatment that the diet be of the right kind, properly prepared, given at proper intervals, and in proper quantity. We cannot expect to prepare any food which will surpass in excellence the mother's milk, if she be in good health, be not overanxious in regard to her infant, have sufficient sleep, and lead a quiet and regular life. But in a large city many mothers, especially in the laboring class, with their manifold household duties and constant and depressing struggle with poverty, find their milk insufficient, so that some substitute for maternal lactation is required. A wet-nurse may supply the place of the mother, if one can be obtained, who has sufficient milk, of the right age and good quality, and who has the proper habits and mental traits. To such an extent are wet-nurses employed in wealthy families, that there is a scarcity of them for families who are in urgent need of their services. For the great mass of infants deprived of maternal lactation through their mothers' ill-health or other causes, the supply of wet-nurses is totally inadequate, and in the laboring class, where cases of infantile indigestion and diarrhea are especially frequent, their employment, on account of the expense involved, is not to be thought of. Therefore artificial feeding is necessary for the vast majority of infants deprived of the breast-milk, and how to feed such infants, as well as those who have reached the age when weaning is proper, is one of the most important problems which can engage the intention of the physician.

The food of infants prior to the age of one year should resemble as closely as possible the mother's milk in digestibility and nutritive properties, and for this reason animal milk, and for convenience cow's milk, must constitute the principal part or form the basis of the food employed. The profession, as well as the laity, are greatly indebted to the labors of renowned chemists, from the late Baron Liebig to Professors Leeds and Vaughan of the present time, for the important aid which they have rendered in the matter of infantile feeding, and largely through their assistance many infants are now preserved in health who a few years ago would evidently have perished from indigestion, mal-nutrition and diarrhea. The most important help rendered by the chemists is, we have said, the

artificial digestion of the substances used in feeding, by which the feeble digestive functions of infants are relieved to a great extent of the burden of digestion. The importance of this artificial digestion is seen as regards the change effected in milk. A principal reason why cow's milk disagrees with infants is, that its essential and highly nutritive ingredient, casein, forms large and firm masses in the infant's stomach, curds which digest with difficulty, prove irritating by fermentative changes which they undergo, cause gastric distress and vomiting, and as they descend in the intestines produce colicky pains and diarrhea. Human milk coagulates in flakes, which on account of their small sizes are readily acted on by the digestive ferments, and are quickly and fully digested. By artificial digestion or, as it is designated, peptonizing, the casein, so far as it is not fully digested, forms particles or flakes which are readily digested by the infant, causing no suffering or gastro-intestinal irritation.

But useful as is the peptonizing process for preparing milk, so that it is readly assimilated while its full nutritive properties are retained, it meets a serious drawback as employed in a large city. Milk of the best quality, that which is most suitable for peptonizing, is obtained at a distance, where the pasturage is good and abundant, and in midsummer, when fermentation, occurs quickly, milk several hours old when it is received is likely to have undergone some alteration appreciable to the taste so as to impair its quality when peptonized. This is a fact which we frequently notice in tasting milk.

The important advantage is claimed for one of the most recent of the infant foods, to wit, Carnick's Soluble Food, that not only are the feeding, healthiness and cleanliness of the cows, which furnish the 50 per cent, of milk which it contains, under close surveillance, but the milk is peptonized in the country soon after the milking, after which its water is expelled by its evaporation and its nutritive portion reduced to a powder. Peptonized milk reduced to a powder resists fermentation for a lengthened period, and may be advantageously used in infant feeding months after its preparation as a substitute for fresh milk when the latter is obtained with difficulty. But great as has been the improvement in infant feeding by the peptonizing of milk and the method of preserving it from fermentation by evaporating its aqueous portion, an equally important and useful improvement has been made in the predigestion of the farinaceous foods which are commonly employed with milk. The fact has long been recognized that bland and easily digested farinaceous substances mixed with milk aid in preventing the casein from forming large and