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night-sweats, and the diminution of purulent expectoration. The appetite improves, the strength returns, and the bodyweight increases. These phenomena follow a checking of suppuration and septicæmia. In some cases also it checked a diarrhoea which was present, while in others it seemed to cause a constipation, which had to be overcome by laxatives. The treatment in some cases produces colicky pains, which in one instance were so severe as to necessitate a cessation of treatment. This patient had advanced hemorrhoidal trouble and fissure of the anus. De la Roche has in some cases replaced the sulphurous water by the essence of eucalyptus. By varying the medicinal substances he believes the method of Bergeon applicable to numerous affections, whether of parasitic (microbic) or nervous origin. He does not think all tuberculous subjects should be treated this way. Where both lungs are extensively invaded and much dyspnoea is present, he considers the treatment unwarrantable.

Reid (J.) on Drumine A New Australian Local Anæsthetic. Dr. Schomburgh of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens determined the species and order to be Euphorbia Drummondii, N.O. Euphorbiacea. the hydrochlorate of the alkaloid which he calls drumine, which is very soluble in water, and calls it drumini chloridum. Crystals deposited from the hydrochloric solution are circular or boat-shaped at the circumference, and stellate, or perhaps more correctly, discs, as if formed of concentric circles, and with radiating or other fissures. They are colorless, and under high power of the microscope, the acicular crystals are in some cases rhomboid in shape. Dr. Schomburgh asserts that a great many sheep and cattle are annually killed by the plant, which is more poisonous according to the quantity of milky juice it contains. From farmers it is learned that sheep, bullocks, and horses die in from twenty-four hours to seven days after eating it, all presenting paralyzed extremities, some hang the head as if tipsy, while appetite does not seem to be impaired. At first the weed is avoided and eaten only on account of extreme hunger, but afterwards it is sought after and eaten with great avidity. One gentleman has seen yellow eyes occurring with some jaundice.

The author has experimented as much

as the limited amount of the drug at his disposal would permit. On cats he finds that it acts very speedily as a local anæsthetic, whether injected hypodermically or applied to the mucous membranes of the eye, nose, throat, etc. When given in large doses (gr. xx.), added to the local effect, there are general symptoms of a narcotic nature The animal tolerates blows and does not resent handling, hangs head as if inebriated, has a stupid stare, shows no desire for food or drink, evacuates bladder when it is full, rarely evacuates bowels (probably because eats nothing). The breathing after large doses is slow and difficult. The seeming paresis of the extremities after large doses the author thinks more likely due to sensory than motor paralysis. In no case did convulsions follow the use of the drug. Introduced into the eye it produces speedy anæsthesia of the cornea and conjunctiva, does not affect the pupil or fundus oculi. It causes some lachrymation but no inflammation. Strychnia has very little if any antagonistic. effect, but the author thinks that the drug (drumine) fortifies animals against chloroform. The post-mortem appearances are not significant.

The author found that on himself, when locally applied, it abolished general sensation and the sense of taste from the side of the tongue to which it was applied.

He has made a few therapeutical trials of the drug. He records the permanent relief of a chronic sciatica by the hypodermic injection of gr. t, on two successive days. In facial neuralgia he has used it locally, and introduced it into the eye with success.

He recommends a trial of it in painful nervous affections; in hydrophobia and croup, where it could be applied to the nostril by a fine spray or introduced into the larynx by means of a fine hypodermic needle; as an adjuvant to intrapulmonary injections; in painful peritoneal and bowel ailments; and in writer's cramp and similar affections. He considers it more useful than cocaine; first, because the latter drug is much adulterated, and secondly, because drumine seems to have a more purely sensory action than cocaine and causes no excitement.-Australasian Med. Gaz., Oct.,

1886.

Suckling (C.W.) on the Diagnosis of Uræmia from Apoplexy.-Chantemesse and Tenneson, in the Revue de Médecine, November, 1885, relate cases of partial

epilepsy and hemiplegia in Bright's disease which they have, by post-mortem examination, proved to be due to local oedemas of the brain.

I believe that it is not generally known that hemiplegia occurs in uræmia, thus occasionally making the diagnosis between uræmia and apoplexy an extremely difficult one. As in uræmia the treatment must be one of active interference, while in apoplexy the opposite holds good, the diagnosis is of the utmost importance.

On testing the urine by daylight I found there was a slight trace of albumen present, the quantity of urea being only 1 per cent., and the average daily quantity of urine passed being forty ounces. I could discover no casts, and there was no change in the fundus oculi.

In both the above cases the temperature was a little below normal; and in both no history of the onset of the attack could be obtained, the patients being brought in from the street by the police. In the diagnosis. I have recently met with two cases simi- of these cases the occurrence of convulsions lar to those reported by Chantemesse and is of great assistance. A convulsion occaTenneson. A man aged forty was recently sionally occurs at the onset of apoplexy, admitted into the workhouse infirmary in a but is rarely repeated, while in uræmia comatose condition, with right hemiplegia convulsions are common, and usually and without convulsions. The pulse was frequently repeated; any elevation of of high tension, the heart considerably hy- temperature would be strongly in fapertrophied, and there was a trace of albu-vor of apoplexy. In all cases, when men in the urine. in doubt between apoplexy and uræmia, All these symptoms were compatible with I should bleed.—Brit. Med. Four., Dec. 4, the diagnosis of cerebral hemorrhage. To 1886. my astonishment he recovered conscious- Brown - Séquard on Cadaveric ness immediately after being bled, the hemi-Rigidity. The author at the end of two plegia passing off in a few hours.

During his stay in the infirmary he had five other attacks, which were always preceded by delirium and restlessness, together with violent convulsion of the right side of the face, right arm and leg, and conjugate deviation of the eyes to the right, giving place to hemiplegia, the eyes then being turned to the left. Each attack was cured by a small bleeding. The urine in this case was free for days from albumen, though it was tested at various periods of the day. The other case was that of a woman aged sixty-two, brought in one evening completely comatose. There was right hemiplegia, conjugate deviation of the eyes to the left, dilatation of the right pupil, and abolition of the right conjunctival reflex.

The breathing was of the "CheyneStokes" type, the heart a little enlarged, but the pulse of low tension. Clonic spasm of the facial muscles occurring at short intervals, the case was suspected to be uræmic, though the urine apparently was not albuminous, and I ordered her to be bled. One ounce and a quarter were drawn, and she became conscious almost immediately after.

The next day the hemiplegia had disappeared, but she had sensory aphasia, there being "word blindness" and "word deafness." Free purgation was kept up, and within two days she was perfectly well.

communications made to the Académie des Sciences draws the following conclusion : That while the coagulation of albuminous substances may be the principal cause of cadaveric rigidity, and is sometimes the only cause, still the state of the muscles very much resembles that of a true contracture, a vital condition, though present in corpses. From studies of his own and of others, he considers it proven, that a stoppage of circulation can cause contractures; that, aside from nervous action, a contracture may persist, the circulation continuing; that after death, contracture has been known to appear and disappear many times, independent of any action of the nervous centres. He says: "I have often found, even several days after death, that if I stretch and soften rigid muscles, they not only contract again, but become stiffer than they were before the manipulation, which implies that the mechanical excitation to which they were subjected threw them into a state of contracture, as it would during life; and I have also satisfied myself that, in muscles vigorously contractured, either during life. or after death, no stimulation excites contraction."

He proposes to show in a future communication that the nervous system exerts an immense influence in precipitating or retarding cadaveric rigidity. - L' Union Méd., Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, 1886.

THERAPEUTICS.

Steele (J. G.) on Garrya Leaves.The California fever bush is found on the highest elevations of the coast range of mountains of California. It presents a most striking feature in the landscape, resembling at a distance, a gorgeous, green velvet mantle, loosely laid on the mountain tops, and aggregating here and there into folds. The botanical name of the plant is Garrya Fremontii-order, Cornacea,—and it is a shrub 5 to 10 feet high, becoming glabrous; leaves ovate to oblong, not undulate, 1 to 2 inches long, acute at each end, on petioles 4 to 6 inches long, with acute somewhat silky bracts.

The garrya leaves have been known as an antidote to chills and fevers since the occupation of the State by the Americans. The leaves, which are the parts of the plant used in medicine, when chewed excite a profuse flow of saliva, which becomes deeply tinged with the green coloring matter of the leaves. They also impart a deep (almost nauseous) and persistent bitter taste, resembling the after-taste of a good specimen of chinchona bark. The leaves, when chewed for a while, also excite a sense of warmth in the mouth. When swallowed, the fluid extract usually excites a sense of warmth in the epigastrium, which often dif- | fuses itself over the abdomen, attended sometimes, particularly in overdoses, with gastric and intestinal irritation. It stimulates the circulation, and all the functions seem to be moderately excited. Its action on the nervous system is sometimes evinced by a sense of tension or fulness, a slight pain in the head, ringing in the ears, and with some temporary deafness, which effect, on the interruption of the remedy, promptly subsides, leaving no dissagreeable aftereffect to torment the patient; administered between the paroxysms of intermittent disorders, it interrupts and checks the progress of the disease, which well-known effect has caused it to be entitled "The California fever bush." It can also be employed with benefit in morbid conditions of the system, whatever may be the peculiar modifications in which a convalescent effect is desired. In low or typhoid forms of disease, the garrya leaves are of great advantage in supporting the system, till the malarial action cease. It has thus been given with benefit in the latter stages of typhus fever; in scarlatina, measles, etc.,

as a tonic; the garrya is also advantageously given in chronic diseases, connected with debility such as scrofula, hemorrhages, dyspepsia, amenorrhoea, etc.

In the treatment of intermittents, it seems to display extraordinary powers. No case of " fever and ague," so prevalent in California (as in many newly-settled countries), has been known to resist the curative effect of the leaves. The fluid extract, given judiciously, represents the medicinal virtues of the leaves, and is preferred to the more bulky and uncertain infusion or decoction. Diarrhoea and dysentery, which often put on the intermittent form, especially in miasmatic districts, are cured by the garrya. Remittent fever, when preceded by depleting measures, yields promptly to this remedial agent.

The dose of the fluid extract, made so that sixteen fluid ounces represent sixteen troy ounces of the leaves, is from ten to thirty drops, to be repeated or varied according to the disease and the effect intended to be produced.-Pacif. Record of Med. and Phar., Nov. 15, 1886.

Kolipinski (L.) on Some of the Properties of Sodium Fluoride.-In animals the author has found this drug to act chiefly as a local irritant, and also in some way to induce asphyxia. It is quickly excreted by the urine, which may be albuminous. Two grains is a large but not fatal dose for a cat.

His clinical experiments on twenty-nine subjects induce him to believe that the drug has a curative effect on functional headaches, especially those dependent on gastric or bowel disturbances. He also considers its results in intermittent and remittent fever are encouraging. Three cases of epilepsy treated by him with the drug were much improved-the almost constant sequence of any new therapeutical departure.-Four. Am. Med. Ass'n, Aug. 21, 1886.

Bignon on the Antagonism between Strychnine and Cocaine.-In dogs given strychnine, gr. (.001) per pound (500.) by the mouth, life can be saved by the hypodermic administration of cocaine to the point of inducing the cerebral symptoms of the drug, provided the point of elimination be not passed. Recovery can ensue even after the first tetanic spasm takes place. After a dose of strychnine, gr. (.0015) per pound (500.), the cocaine will still for some hours counteract

the poison, but the animal dies nevertheless, killed by the cocaine which must pass the toxic limit-more than gr. (.001) per pound (500.)-Bull. Gen. de Thér., Oct. 30, 1886.

Eccles (R. G.) on Drugs and Digestion. The author has performed numerous elaborate experiments to determine the effect of various drugs and chemicals on the digestive process, which, in the present instance, is carried on artificially at a fixed temperature 100°-120° F. (40°-49° C.).

hours; Warburg's cannabis indica, opium, 8 hours; benzoin co. and simple, 6 hours; verat. virid., cubeb, buchu, aloes and myrrh, valer. of ammon., hyoscyamus, over 5 hours; asafoetida, tolu, kino, myrrh, 4 hours; catechu, colchicum root, digitalis, physostigma, colocynth co., modified Warburg, avena sativa, santal., gentian co., sanguinaria, cinchona simp., nux vomica, cascarilla, senega, capsicum, hops, gentian, orange-peel, galls, senna, lobelia æther., krameria, quassia, valerian, aloes, colchicum seed, cinchona co., 3 hours; stramonium, cardam. simp., cardam co., lobelia, squills, rhubarb co., cinnamon, ginger, cantharides, lavender, ipecac co., poke, rhubarb, aconite root, aconite leaf, lemonpeel (fresh), opium (camphorated), colombo, angustura, cochineal, virg. snake-root, conium, arnica, and dilute alcohol, 2 hours. Of some organic substances: beta naphthol, santonin, with alcohol and chloroform, caused a delay of 4 hours; menthol and nitrite of amyl, 3 hours; croton chloral, chloral hydrate, vanillin, antipyrine, concent, sulph. ether, powdered gum-arabic, sweet spirits of nitre, acetic ether, benzole, salicin, over 2 hours; and ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, peraldehyde, urea, milk sugar, cane sugar, glycerin, santonin without alcohol, just 2 hours. Of fluid extracts: digitalis, wild cherry, buchu, cascara sagrada, buckthorn, guarana, hyoscyamus and colchicum root, 3 hours; aconite, valerian, taraxacum, liquorice, gentian, ergot, 2 hours.

At first some acids were tried with the following results, the figures denoting the number of hours digestion was delayed, the minutes being omitted: Chromic, picric, molybdenic, sulphuric, thymic, hydrobromic, salicylic, pyrogallic, nitric, over Io hours; hyperchloric, cathartinic, chrysophanic, and tannic acid, 3 hours; benzoic, oxalic, citric, tartaric, oleic, boric, acetic, and lactic, over 2 hours; and phosphoric, arsenious, and gallic, 2 hours. Of the alkaloids and their salts: Ferrocyanide of quinine, citrate of iron and strychnine, citrate of iron and quinine, delayed over 5 hours; sulphate of cinchonidine, sulphate of cinchonine, sulphate of quinidine, sulphate of quinine, bisulphate of quinine, sulphate of strychnine, 4 hours or over; tannate of quinine, salicylate of quinine, salicylate of cinchonidine, chloride of quinine, bromide of quinine, sulphate of atropine, 3 hours or over; hydrochloride of cocaine, chloride of morphine, bromide of caffeine, veratrine, strychnine, aconitine, The sulphates are the most active inbrucine, morphine, acetate of strychnine, hibitors of digestion. Among the alkachloride of pilocarpine, acetate of morphine, loidal salts the same was the case. Why codeine, 2 hours or over. Of essential oils: sulphate of quinine ever came to be so Cinnamon, pimento, lemon-grass, bitter- universally prescribed in preference to the almond, retarded digestion over 10 hours; much better chloride, is hard to tell. The clove, over 9 hours; bay, bergamot, sassa- same is true of sulphate of morphine. In fras, over 8 hours; winter-green, 5 hours; the chlorides there is more of the active rose and origanum, 4 hours; citronella, principle to the same weight, they are much caraway, coriander, spearmint, pennyroyal, more soluble in the gastric juice, and they aniseed, fennel, lavender, peppermint, retard digestion less. Next to the sulthyme, wormwood, erigeron, cajeput, rose-phates the nitrates are the great retarders. mary, nutmeg, rose-geranium, orange, over 3 hours; lemon, wine (ethereal), amber, neroli (petale), black-pepper, juniper, savin, cedar, patchouli, croton, sandal - wood, cubeb, turpentine, over 2 hours. Of balsams: tolu retarded digestion, 5 hours; peru, 4 hours; canada and copaiba, over 2 hours. Of tinctures those of the chloride of iron, iodine co., chloride of iron (tasteless), guaiaci, guaiaci ammon., lupulin, delayed digestion over 10 hours; belladonna, 9

The bromides average lower than the chlorides, while the latter are about even with the iodides. Bromide of iron ranges high, like many of the iron non-organic salts. Dialysed iron and the solution of pernitrate of iron retarded respectively 150 and 110 minutes when fifteen centigrammes were used, which is lower than the run of their class. The salicylates are far above the benzoates, and the chlorates hinder much more than the chlorides. The gen

eral run of all agrees very well with the activity of their acids.

Antiseptics averaged high as retarders, and an approach is made by them in this power that runs nearly parallel with their germ-destroying power. Potassio-mercuric iodide, the most potent germicide known, was found to hold back digestion one hour when only one part in ten thousand was used. Bichloride of mercury required but one part in five thousand to retard fifteen minutes. While there are substances not known to be germicides that retard still more, still it is somewhat curious to find this class range so high, and at the same time occupying positions toward each other that suggest the order of their germ-destroying power. The molybdates seem to lead every thing else as inhibitors, and they are the very best known precipitants of peptone.-N. Y. Med. Four., Dec. 11, 1886.

Bedoin on a New Use of Gelosine. -Attention has already been called to the extraordinary expansile property of gelosine when moistened. Bedoin has employed bougies of gelosine to produce gradual dilatation of urethral strictures. In these bougies he has incorporated boric acid and cocaine and suggests the use of bougies having sublimate, iodoform, and other medicaments. Simply moistened they are easily introduced and, by gradually and painlessly absorbing the urethral moisture, slowly dilate the stricture.-Bull. et Mém. de la Soc. de Thérap., Dec. 15,

1886.

Castellan (A.) on the Treatment of Acute Gonorrhoea by Alkaline Injections. The author, noticing in what a large percentage of cases of acute gonorrhoea the discharge is strongly acid, tests the discharge with litmus paper and if it is acid orders injections of a solution of bicarbonate of soda to 1% in water, three or four times a day until the discharge becomes bland. Seven or eight days generally suffices to change the character of the discharge, which then gradually disappears. As a general thing this treatment relieves the painful micturition. If it does not a little opiate is also employed.—Bull, gén de Thérap.. Dec. 15. 1886.

Stuver (E.) on Fluid Extract of Corn Silk (Stigmata Maidis) in the Primary or Acute Stage of Gonorrhoea.

1 THE MEDICAL ANALECTIC, 1886, p. 298.

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I began using corn silk in irritating and painful affections of the kidneys and bladder, attended by dysuria, about five years ago, and in the Medical News of Oct. 6, 1883, published an article on its Anæsthetic and Diuretic Effects." In this article special attention was called to the beneficent influence it exerts over the irritable condition, attended by frequent micturition, so often encountered in pregnancy.

Encouraged by the results obtained in the above-mentioned class of cases, I decided to test its merits in allaying the irritation and pain in the acute stage of gonorrhoea.

C. H., laborer; contracted gonorrhoea a short time ago; discharge made its appearance yesterday; inflammatory action high, and pain on micturition severe. After giving the ordinary directions as to the regulation of diet and the alvine evacuations, abstention from spirits, etc., I gave the following, viz.:

B

Potassi acetatis

3 iii.

Fl. ext. stigmatæ maidis,
Aquæ destillatæ, aa ad q. s. f3 iv. M.
SIG. 3 ii in water every two hours.

The following day he reported himself as greatly relieved, and under this treatment not only did the irritation and pain subside in three days, but the discharge almost entirely disappeared.-Therapeutic Gaz., Dec. 15, 1886.

Barnett (J. R.) on the Salicylate of Ammonia in the Treatment of Typhoid and Septic Fevers and Inflammations.-The salicylate of ammonia is to be ranked among the most efficient of the antipyretics.

As an antipyretic in all fevers characterized by extreme adynamia it ranks among the safest, owing to its ammonium base.

It is stimulant as well as antipyretic, and thus of itself fulfils indications otherwise only met by a combination of remedies.

It is an agent of wide germicidal powers, being promptly efficient in affections of great etiological and pathological differences, each confessedly arising from its own proper specific infecting micro-organism.

As a remedial agent in typhoid and remittent fevers it is unsurpassed, aborting them at the outset, under favorable conditions, and greatly mitigating their severity and danger under circumstances less favorable.

It is entitled to confidence in the treat

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