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The reputation of this drug as a therapeutic agent was first gained through its employment in the form of an infusion; and in the fifty years following its introduction into medical practice, a continuous effort has been made by manufacturers to perfect a preparation which would represent all the active principles of the drug, without the high price of the salts, either alone or in combination.

The most prejudiced writers on Materia Medica, accord to the late Wm. S. Merrell the largest share of credlt in the introduction of Hydrastis preparations, and to the present organization the reputation of being the largest consumers of the drug in the world. For more than a half-century, Hydrastis has been made a study in our laboratory, and we do not think we exaggerate its importance when we assert that it stands pre-eminent to-day as the most valu able exponent of our vegetable Materia Medica.

The following preparations in fluid form are receiving our special attention at this time: Fluid Hydrastis-MERRELL.

Is what its name implies the active, medicinal principles of the drug in natural combination and in a fluid form. It has a bright, yellow color, perfectly clear, free from sediment, and with an unmistakable odor of the fresh drug.

The suc

Fluid Hydrastis is a pure, neutral solution of all the alkaloidal constituents of the drug, rejecting the oil, gums, irritating and offensive resins and inert extractive matters. cess attending its introduction is the best evidence of its therapeutic value.

Unsuccesful.imitations and would-be substitutes are met with on every hand. Preparations said to be "just as good" or "about the same thing," but always "a little cheaper," attest the wide-spread and growing popularity of Fluid Hydrastis. All such, compared with the latter as to physical appearance or as representatives of the drug, are condemned; dispensed in prescriptions, they are readily detected; tested therapeutically, they are promptly rejected as unworthy of confidence.

Fluid Hydrastis is applicable to the treatment of all irritable, inflammatory and ulcerative conditions of the mucous tract.

This statement of a well-known medical writer and journalist has become axiomatic: "No remedy for physician's use has been received with such universal approval."

Solution Bismuth and Hydrastia-Merrell.

An invaluable and scientific combination, wherein the beneficial action of the white alkaloid is increased by association with Bismuth. This solution contains 21⁄2 grains of the double Citrate Bismuth and Hydrastia; twenty-five per cent. of which is Hydrastia Citrate.

The cordial reception accorded this preparation marks it as the most valuable combina tion in the market in which the white alkaloid alone represents the valuable properties of the drug. Used in diseases of the nasal passages, of the eye, of the throat, of the stomach and intestines, of the reproductive organs and bladder it is equally beneficial.

Colorless Solution of Hydrastia-Merrell.

This is a permanent solution of the white alkaloid, without the addition of any other medicinal agent to modify or increase its action. It is offered without special recommendation to meet the views of an unlimited number of physicians, with whom the color of the Fluid Hydrastis is an objection. This solution contains in one fluid pint the same proportionate strength of white alkaloid as exists in an average quality of crude root.

See notes above on Solution Bismuth and Hydrastia.

"Merrell's Hydrastis Preparations" are for sale by Wholesale Druggists throughout the United States. Please Specify "Wm. S. M. Chem. Co." in ordering or prescribing.

The WM. S. MERRELL CHEMICAL CO.,

CINCINNATI.

ORR, BROWN & PRICE and BRAUN & BRUCK, Columbus, Wholesale Agents.

Authors desiring reprints, will receive fifty, free of charge, provided the request for the same accompanies the article.

Subscribers changing their location, are requested to notify the Publishers promptly, that there may be no delay in receipt of the journal, stating both the new and the former post-office address.

We have no authorized Collectors, except such as carry properly made out bills, countersidned by the Publishers. HANN & ADAIR, Publishers, Columbus, ().

STATE SOCIETY NOTES.

THE meeting at Akron was quite well attended, and the programme, though unusually full, was pretty thoroughly carried out. Very little extraneous matter was brought in, and that little was promptly disposed of. Indeed, promptness and dispatch were prominent features of the session, to which the absence of all local attractions largely contributed. There was not even a promenade concert to relieve the monotony of the printed programme, and the only refreshments tendered were those offered by the "Baby food" men. But the Society heaped coals of fire on the heads of their inhospitable hosts by electing one of their number to the presidency.

A RESOLUTION was adopted, authorizing the insertion in the Transactions of engravings of all the ex-presidents of the Society. A good steel engraving costs from one hundred to three hundred dollars. Το insert good engravings, therefore, would bankrupt the Society; to insert cheap ones would disgrace it; while some are cynical enough to assert that neither kind would particularly honor it.

BUT the most utterly unwise thing the Society did, was to adopt a resolution authorizing the expenditure of a hundred dollars in conducting ozone observations! These observations have been conducted, in one part of the world or another, for the past thirty years. Michigan has a very full record for many years. But not a single fact of any importance has been established, even approximately. The curve of ozone intensity corresponds with that of no disease whatever, unless by accident and temporarily. Even if a connection between it and certain diseases could be established, what then? We are powerless to either increase or dimin

ish its quantity in the atmosphere. While so many directions remain in which fruitful researches can be conducted, the folly of spending either time or money on ozone testing cannot but be evident. The entire matter should have been referred to the State Board of Health.

LAPAROTOMY was a fruitful theme; no less than three papers being presented on that subject. That those were all presented by young men, was not the least noticeable feature of the occasion. It is very evident that there is a poor prospect in Ohio for the evolution of great ovariotomists. In every part of the State are young surgeons, and old ones too, who are anxiously waiting, and hoping, for an opportunity to hang to their belts an ovarian scalp or two; the result being that no one operator can get more than a limited number of cases. Since the adjournment of the Society, three ovariotomies, at least, have been done in Columbus. Dr. Halderman operated early in June, before a number of students and physicians at St. Frances Hospital. The tumor was a large one and the patient much reduced. Notwithstanding the occurrence of peritonitis, his patient made a good recovery. He operated again about a week ago, at the same place, removing a round-celled sarcoma. The patient was sixteen years old, and the tumor was of the right ovary. Just as we write we learn that the case is doing well in every respect. About the middle of the month, Dr. Baldwin operated, removing a moderate-sized tumor from a single lady, aged twenty-five years. Recovery followed without the slightest evidence of inflammatory reaction, the temperature never rising above the normal range.

PERITONITIS.—Tait has just published his ovariotomy statistics for the years 1884 5. They embrace 139 cases, WITHOUT A SINGLE DEATH! Such figures are utterly marvelous: they are almost incomprehensible.

To account for this success it is necessary to look beyond his personal skill, for other operators are doubtless as skillful as he, and in thus looking we find one peculiarity in his method of operating, and one in his method of treating peritonitis. The peculiarity in his operating is his washing out flushing--the peritoneal cavity instead of cleansing it by sponging. His short incision is a noticeable feature, to be sure, but certainly an inch or two, more or less, in the length of a clean incision is not so very essential.

But we think the most important clue to his success is to be found in his treatment of peritonitis. Opium, which has been regarded as the

sheet anchor for generations past, is rigidly excluded, but on the first appearance of inflammatory symptoms the patient is at once given a quickly acting cathartic, no matter what, but preferably a dose of salts, and the peritonitis is "conquered." Opium has been called "the splint of the bowels," and by its use we have endeavored to keep the bowels at rest until the inflammation should subside. But the peritonitis which follows laparotomy is usually of a septic nature, and seems to kill chiefly by the profound impression produced upon the sympathetic nervous system, causing paralysis of the intestinal muscles, distension of the bowels, and an interference with the functions of absorption and elimination. Opium relieves the pain, and, by masking the symptoms, lulls the patient and physician into a state of fancied security; but in reality its tendency is to add to the conditions that are already so threatening. On the contrary, a saline purge stimulates the muscular coat, relieves the tension on the peritoneal membrane, expels the flatus or causes it to be absorbed, and reestablishes the function of elimination: its use, then, is clearly and physiologically correct, and this method of treatment bids fair to largely diminish the mortality not only of laparotomy but also of the puerperal

state.

STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.-The June meeting was held at Cleveland on the 15th. The resignation of Dr. Ashmann as Secretary was accepted and Dr. G. B. Case elected to the position. Dr. Case was Health Officer of Cleveland for two years, and in charge of the U. S. Marine Hospital.

In the regular order of business the reports of Standing Committees were read, and through them, communications of interest were presented. One from Adams county in regard to a case of small-pox, and one in regard to the epidemic of typhoid fever at Bellaire, O. Three hundred cases are reported in a town of only six thousand people. A committee, formed of Drs. Sharp and Wise, was appointed to visit Bellaire. The State of Ohio was divided into seven districts, and to each member of the Board was assigned a group of counties. The object of this was to establish Local Boards of Health throughout the State, in order that the reports on Vital Statistics and those of various diseases may be more complete.

To Dr. W. H. Critcher was assigned the N. W. counties; Dr. T. Clark Mills, the Eastern counties; Dr. S. P. Wise, the N. E. counties; Thomas C. Hoover, the S. E. counties; Dr. H. J. Sharp, the Central

counties; Dr. D. H. Beckwith, the Lake counties, and Dr. John D. Jones, the Western and South Western counties.

Notices will be sent to various members of the profession and some of the laity, asking their cooperation in the work of the Board.

THE American Rhinological Association will hold its fourth annual meeting at St. Louis, Mo., on the 6th of October next.

IN the July number of The Forum, Bishop Spalding discusses the question, "Are we in danger of revolution?" Professor Adams “Shall we muzzle the Anarchists ?" and President Seelye "Should the State teach religion?"

IN MEMORIAM.

DR. HUGH C. STEWART.

Born May 26th, 1805; died April 1st, 1885. Dr. Stewart came to Ohio from Hagerstown, Md., while still a child. He removed, in 1827, to Bloomingburgh, Fayette county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life, and where he died. In September, 1828, he was married to Miss Sarah Allibone, of Philadelphia. In the winter of '42 and '43 he attended lectures at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, and the next spring began the practice of medicine, and from that time until his death was untiring in the discharge of the duties of his profession. He was the first physician west of the Allegheny Mountains to make use of chloroform as an anesthetic, allowing the patient to inhale it through the spout of a tea-pot, on the 27th of October, 1843.

In February, 1883, he fell on the icy side-walk, and struck upon the back of his head, and from this accident his death could be clearly traced. His last professional visit was made in January, 1885.

Dr. Stewart was a man of singular unselfishness and generosity; his whole life was an illustration of the golden rule, and the key-note to his character was found in his religious convictions. On all questions of reform, social or political, he was an advanced and independent thinker; he was the advocate of total abstinence when social drinking was the rule; was a pioneer of the anti-slavery movement, when to befriend the fleeing slave was to court the vengeance of the Fugitive Slave Law.

F. A. S.