"feeling strange;" coughed and spit up a little blood. Shortly after she was asked how she felt and replied in a half unconscious way that nothing hurt her, then expired immediately; long before I arrived and in an hour from the time she was first taken. The child drew only one or two breaths, and there was no more hemorrhage than usually. She was thirty-five years of age and had always been healthy; the mother of nine children previous to this one, and had always had short, easy labors with no difficulty whatever

In a practice of thirty years I have had no similar case. Will some reader please give his opinion of the cause of death?

North Brook, M. C. W. A. THOMPSON, M. D.

A Peculiar Freak. What causes it? Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

I have been called twice in the last month to

see a lady who was suffering with neuralgia of the stomach. Each time I gave morphine and spts aeth. comp. for relief of pain, followed by Epsom salts, to cleanse the stomach and bowels, as the attack seemed to be caused by constipation and an over loaded stomach. the second day after each attack every tooth in her head became loose-in fact so loose that they would almost fall out; after three or four What days they got solid as they were before. caused it?

On page 140 of our WORLD, Drs. Wesselowski and Weidman seem to be up the stump to know what to do for "It."

We are glad to know that other communities as well as ourselves are blessed (?) with this curiosity "It." We have an abundance of the thing, and for a name have called him "It." We are well aware that it is a variety of eczema, but the variety. It is no respecter of persons, but is an associate of all classes of society, both male and female, alike rich and poor, high and low, and without respect to youth or old age. Taken all in all he is a very familiar sort of companion. "It" will grow fat on most of the so-called itch ointments and lotions. In my experience (and I have known "It" for about three years), nothing will knock his eye out so effectually as the following:

Direct your patient to take warm soft water, and make sufficient lather with Castile soap to cover the entire body or parts affected. Apply this and let it dry on before going to bed. In the morning bathe with tepid water, and then

Question of Ethics. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

I live in a borough containing about 1200 souls; and have practiced here for over forty years. There are four other physicians in the town. A physician living about three miles out of the borough has a very troublesome case in the borough which he is attending. I was asked by the husband of the patient, with the consent of the physician, to come in and see the patient when she takes a spasm or sick spell; but not to be called in consultation, or to have any control of the treatment except on such special occasions; and I peremptorily refused to take this position. Now I want to know if I have violated the ethics of the profession.

Should I submit to a call to see or attend a case under such circumstances? I asked the question pointedly, do you wish me to attend as a consulting physician? and the answer was no. "I want you merely to come in when the patient takes a bad turn." And the physician himself, who was present, wished me to take this position. I think it is an insult to the dignity of any physician to ask him to see a case under such circumstances.

S. K.

[He should have called you in consultation first; or at least have called on you personally, stated his case, and requested you to attend the emergency as a professional courtesy: which you would not have refused.-Ed. WORLD.]

Dr. G. Schmidt's Case. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

In the July number of THE WORLD, Dr. G. Schmidt gives a case for diagnosis. His diagnosis, I think, is correct in calling it pyelitis. Any obstruction to the flow of urine at last gives rise to a condition known as pyonephrosis, with tympanites and hectic fever. Obstruction may occur in the pelvis of the kidney or in the urethra. Calculus may be the cause of the irritation, and the reason pus is not present at all times in the urine. Read up on pyelitis and find out the different causes. The liver must produce too much urea for the good

A Pleasant Form of Giving Iron. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

Dear Sir: A sample copy of THE MEDICAL WORLD came to hand yesterday. It is the kind of a journal I have been looking for, and meets my approbation exactly. I regret that I have not known of its existence before this late date. I enclose to your address one dollar. Please put me on your regular list; and if convenient forward back numbers, so as to make the volume for the year complete.

In reply to subscriber "for a palatable and simple form for the administration of the tincture of the muriate of iron," I forward this B, which is an elegant one and completely disguises the iron. Children will take the medicine cheerfully.

Constipation.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

Among your prescriptions for constipation, I notice nothing that pleases me so well as a pill I have used for more than ten years. It is as follows, viz.: (Not original.)

B. Podophyllin.
Ext. belladonnæ.

M. ft. pil. no..

.āā..gr. 4

SIG. To be taken every night on going to bed, if the bowels have not been opened that day.

Where the constipation is owing to torpor of the liver, this is a sure remedy. When the trouble originates in the bowels I give

B. Tr. aloes et myrrh. Fl. ext. cas. sagd.

Syrupi..

.āā..fzj

M.

SIG. One teaspoonful three times a day before meals, and diminish the dose as occasion requires.

I know this to be a most effectual remedy; after years of experience. Strasburg, Pa.

S. KENEAGY, M. D.

What Was It?

Editor MEDICAL WORLD.

If you will allow me space, I would like to report a case which occurred in my practice, some three years ago, and ask an opinion from the readers of the WORLD as to the nature of the disease. As a matter of course, I made a diagnosis of the case at the time, but withhold it. The following is the case as I have it recorded in my journal:

JULY 13, 1883.

I was called to see Mr. Geo. B————, a farmer, aged 59. Arriving at the house of my patient, I elicited the information that he had been feeling well, and attending to some duties pertaining to the farm until about 3 P. M.; when he was suddenly seized with a pain in the region of the sternum, extending across the right side of the chest. Found pulse 70; temperature 97; percussion detected slight dullness of middle lobe of the right lung. Patient said it gave him no pain on inspiration, but the pain in the region mentioned was the most agonizing it has ever been my lot to witness. After making him as comfortable as I could, I left him until the next morning.

July 14th, 5 A. M.-Found patient suffering pain, as on my first visit. Examination revealed dullness over a large portion of right lung, and mucous râles in right bronchus; pulse 80; temperature 96. Both heart sounds audible and distinct.

12 M. Called to see patient again. As I entered the room he was attacked by a severe paroxysm of coughing and expectorated an ounce of blood, a part of which was bright

red, the rest being in a state of coagulation. Pulse 90; temperature 95%.

6.30 P. M. Pulse and temperature same as at noon. Had expectorated blood several times during the afternoon.

July 15, 8 A. M. Percussion showed only slight dullness in affected lung; bronchial tubes clear. By auscultation could not distinguish one heart sound from the other. It reminded one of a running water-wheel. For the first time patient complained of pain in the region of the heart and about left shoulder. This was now the only pain present. Pulse 112; temperature 101.

7 P. M.

Patient failing; symptoms same as in the morning.

July 16. Patient died at 4 A. M. Not being able to gain consent of family, no autopsy was held; therefore I cannot report post-mortem appearance.

Allow me to add that the patient had an attack of left sided hemiplegia some five years previously; from which he had recovered the use of his leg; the arm remaining lifeless. Alba, Pa. C. SMITH, M. D.

A Peculiar Case. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

"Dr. Malins (Birm., M. Rev.) showed an iron hammer-head weighing five ounces, taken from the vagina of a girl aged fourteen years."-(N. Y. Med. Abstract, June, '86.)

In the summer of '82, a young lady, aged eighteen years, called upon me to remove something from the vagina, which she informed me had been placed there by a young man, under the following circumstances: She said that the young man had lived in her father's family for two years. One evening, during the absence of her parents, he attempted to have criminal intercourse with her, and during the struggle that followed, she wrenched his erect penis to such an extent, that he was compelled to seek relief at St. Luke's Hospital, where he remained for six months, under the care of Dr. Owen; at which time he was discharged, with the assurance that his penis would be of no service thereafter, not even "to plod around home with." Of course the young man was exasperated beyond control. He went to the residence of the young lady to again make his home there she stated that she was ashamed to inform her parents of what had happened. The Sunday evening following his discharge from the hospital, the parents of the young lady went to Baums' Pavilion, to pass the evening, although she protested against being left alone. During their absence he broke into her bed-room, and forced something into her vagina, "to fix her as she had fixed him."

During the recital of this story the young lady kept up a profuse flow of tears. Upon examination I discerned-and removed-a cucumber pickle, which had slipped into the vaginal cul de sac. Upon measurement it was found to be three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and two and a half inches in length.

Under my advice, to speedily inform her parents, of such a shameful procedure, on the part of the aforesaid young man, she took her departure with eyes shedding rivers of tears.

A month later I was very credibly informed that the young lady was not then living at home, nor had she been living at home for more than a year previous. N. H. CHURCH, M.D.

Chicago, Illinois.

"A UNIFORM LAW in all the States would be very desirable." Yes, next to no law.

"THE CODE CONSTITUTES A VALUABLE BULWARK."

Yes, of routinism, rutism and conservatism, the great obstructions to progress. The progress of medicine in this country is mainly to be attributed to the fact that its practice has been free.

FROM "OFFICIAL SUPERVISION

uniform throughout all the States, sufficiently stringent to establish and maintain the proper standard of education," good Lord, deliver us. It is strange, with the history of legislation and officialism open to inspection, people of ordinary intelligence should look to them for anything except to obstruct in the future, as they have in the past, semper et ubique.

ARE THE PEOPLE FOOLS?

Doctors, attend to your own business. If the people want to employ quacks and irregulars it is their privilege. The best way to deal with quackery is to let it alone. It grows and thrives on the opposition to it on the part of the regular profession. The people think (and they are not fools) and truly, that self-interest prompts the opposition. Sensible medical men owe quackery no such violent compliment as opposition. They do not notice, do not speak of it. There is more diplomaed than any other sort of quackery. The best way for the true doctor to convince the people of his superiority over the irregular, is not by standing on the

street corners and abusing him, and trying to write him thief, rogue and sneak in the medical journals, but by rendering better service. First-class medical men never talk about quacks. They have something better to do. Verbum sat sapientibus. TEXAS.

[It seems to us that no one need object to State examinations but those who have wellfounded distrust of their own acquirements. Our columns are open, however, to those who disagree with us, as well as those who believe as we do.]

Sciatica.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

In May number I notice Dr. T. H. Lyons, of Martin, Ga., requests to help him out of his difficulty regarding his case of sciatica, which

he has under treatment.

While this disease is one of the most troublesome affections which can be presented to the physician, it is also one which can stand an enormous amount of drugging without deriving the least benefit from any treatment.

A few months ago, I had the misfortune of being called in a case of sciatica. The patient was a young man, æt. 26, of rather delicate constitution (strumous diathesis). In his hours of agonizing pain almost every known form of treatment was employed unsuccessfully, viz., hypodermic injections of morphine, large doses of quinine and arsenic, injections of chloroform, ether, atropine, internal administrations of iron, gelsemium, iodide of potassium, and God knows what else. Every old granny in his town had a lick at him, and he even was scorched with an iron heated to a white heat by an itinerant quack; but all had failed in producing any relief, with the exception of morphine, and this only produced ease while its effects lasted.

When sent for, and being made acquainted with all the treatments which he had undergone, I decided at once upon the operation of nerve stretching.

I stretched the nerve with sufficient force to lift the lower half of the body from the table, by means of grasping the nerve and lifting. I then replaced the nerve in its proper position, and sewed the wound up and applied carbolic acid dressings.

For a few days the patient suffered considerable pain, but it grew less and less, and he became comparatively comfortable. The wound was six weeks in healing. During this time. the pain was mostly in the patella, radiating down the foot, but was comfortably borne. Gradually the pain left him, and he has now returned to work greatly benefited, having no

pain whatever. If Dr. Lyons will follow this direction, he may meet with the same success. Report, doctor. WM. H. OLSTEN, M. D. Ephraim, San Pete Co., Utah.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

I have just received a copy of the WORLD, and cannot help it-have to subscribe for it. Please find $1.00 enclosed. I wish to have all the back numbers from January, 1886.

Dr. McCoy inquires about a formulæ for dropsy pills, put up by Dr. Green, of Atlanta, Ga. He says they are large pills. They must

be made from extract of Sourwood, a tree native to Georgia. The medical properties of Oxydendron or Sourwood, were made known four or five years ago, by a doctor in Georgia, (do not remember his name); as a patent remedy for dropsy. I have used it in numerous cases, with very good results. It appears to be most potent in dropsy after scarlatina, and as a sequel of any eruptive fever, where there is albumen in the urine. I have also tried it in a

limited number of cases of Bright's disease. It relieves oedema of the legs, and ascites; but the good effects are transient.

The extract is given in 5 to 10 gr. doses, four or five times a day, in pills. The preparation I have used is made by Lloyd & Bro.

Oxydendron deserves a trial in the above named diseases. I know of no single remedy which can take its place in their treatment.

Spring Grove, Minn. T. JENSON, M. D. [Oxydendron arboreum, a small tree found from Pennsylvania to Louisiana.-Ed.] Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

32

Since my note asking for treatment in gonorrhoeal rheumatism, I have used a solution of hydrarg. bi-chloride, gr. I to the ounce, keeping a cloth wet surrounding the joint, and a piece of oiled silk over that, I believe with decided benefit. It is the first case I have seen where the~ malady attacked the wrist.

Internal treatment (salicylates and iodide potash), I believe of no account. Plenty of nourishment; milk, or mush and milk ad lib. San Francisco, Cal. C. B. HUTCHINS, M. D.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:

She

Accompanied by my subscription I send you for examination a box containing a sample "treatment," sent out by an Indiana doctor. To-day I was called in to see a lady patient and was shown a box of these "treatments." tells me she uses one of the suppositories every five days as directed and that every time according to their statements a cast or membrane is thrown off, one of which was thrown off this morning and which I send you also. The