This condition of affairs having been going on for a period of fourteen days in this case without any impairment in the general health of the infant, or in its nutrition, certainly points, I think, to a specific cause. I have often had cases, not quite so remarkable as this, where the tendency has been neurotic or specific in character, which improved under appropriate treatment; but this case has resisted all treatment, even specific treatment by the inunction of mercurials and the administration of the iodides.

The condition is still in progress, the infant having eleven seizures in every twenty-four hours, not exceeding this number and not falling short. I have witnessed several of them, and they are perfectly characteristic of epilepsy. An older child in the family passed through an ordeal of paroxysms, was unable to walk for three years, and this child has been restored under treatment, and that treatment has been antisyphilitic. One child in the family has been lost, and the history is that it died from scorbutus. The family is decidedly neurotic, and I suspect a specific taint.

The case has been exceedingly interesting and even annoying to me because I have been unable to make the slightest impression upon it by treatment in lessening the number or severity of the paroxysms. I am pursuing the same line of treatment that I did in the case of the older child which recovered, and believe I have sufficient ground for specific treatment, but so far it has not been productive of relief.

The peculiarity about the case is that the occurrence of these paroxysms has not so far interfered with the nutrition or the general health of the infant. In this respect I think the case is somewhat remarkable.

Discussion. Dr. T. S. Bullock: I would like to ask if Dr. Larrabee gave the bromides in the case he has reported.

Dr. T. H. Stucky: Have you tried the bromide of gold and arsenic ? Dr. J. M. Ray: In connection with Dr. Larrabee's case I recall one that I saw several months ago in a child a little older than his which gave a peculiar history. The mother brought the child to me, the history being that the child complained of having something the matter with its ear. I examined the ear carefully. No inflammatory or other disease was present about the structures of the ear; hearing was perfect, and the drum membrane was intact. The child at this time was three years of age. The history that the mother gave me

was about as follows: The child had never complained of earache; she had never noticed any defect in hearing, but sometimes two or three times a day the child would apparently be interested in her toys or in something about the room, and all at once she would scream and run to her mother and say that the house was turning over, that there was a bug in her ear, etc. This would happen several times a day, and on several occasions the child had fallen over apparently unconscious, or in a state of partial unconsciousness.

After looking into the ear carefully and not finding any evidence of disease, I referred the case to the family physician, and in talking the matter over with him he suggested that these attacks were probably petit mal. He put the child upon bromide of gold and arsenic, and a prompt recovery resulted. The last I heard from the case the attacks were few in number, occurring at long intervals and slight in character, although at one time they occurred two or three times a day.

Dr. T. H. Stucky: I have seen several cases of epilepsy in children, but never saw one in a child so young as that reported by Dr. Larrabee. I have followed out the usual routine, giving bromides and other remedies with varying results; and later, following the suggestion of Dr. Buchman, of Fort Wayne, have tried combination mentioned by Dr. Ray, viz., the bromide of gold and arsenic. I believe the latter to be especially indicated and exceedingly serviceable where we have reason to suspect a taint, as mentioned by Dr. Larrabee, getting as we do the sedative influence of the bromide, the alterative influence of the gold, and also the well-known effects of the mercury contained in the combination.

I believe where anemia is very marked in these cases, and there is a feeble heart action, and we are fearful of the depressing effects of the bromides alone, that in the use of the bromide of strontium and gold we gain a decided advantage, getting as we do the sedative as well as the cardiac influence of the strontium salts. Dr. Marvin demonstrated this conclusively before this society in a statement made by him in regard to the action of strontium salts in digestive disturbances, especially those conditions characterized by marked flatulency. If this be true, and we have reason to believe it is, it appears to me that the bromide of strontium and gold would be even better than the bromide of gold and arsenic in cases such as Dr. Larrabee has reported.

Dr. J. A. Larrabee: The case is reported not to demonstrate any unusual manifestation of epilepsy, but on account of the exact regularity and periodicity of the seizures, and the age of the patient, coupled

with the fact that the treatment which seems to be indicated has not been followed by relief. In looking up the literature of the subject I find that cases of this character are usually attributed to a specific cause.

In answer to Dr. Bullock's inquiry: I have used the bromides in this case without any effect whatever. Of course epilepsy in the child is nothing new, but this case presents some peculiarities. There is a decided neurotic tendency in the family, which may have some bearing upon the case. The child is going along having the number of seizures stated each day without any evidence of disturbance of nutrition or impairment of general health, which is rather remarkable. Some of the attacks are almost grand mal, most of them petit mal, and I am convinced that the trouble is due to specific taint.

The next move I make will be to put the child upon the bromide of gold and arsenic. JOHN MASON WILLIAMS, M. D., Secretary.

Abstracts and Selections.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE ORGANISM UPON TOXINS.-Metchnikoff (Ann. de l'Instit. Pasteur, November 25, 1897,) has applied the method of comparative pathology to the question of the mechanism by which the animal organism prepares antitoxins, and the laws which regulate their production. By growing bacteria and lowly fungi upon culture media containing toxines he was enabled to show that the virulence of the latter was in most cases diminished and sometimes destroyed. In any case these microbes have no influence in the production of antitoxins, and the idea of preparing them by this means must be abandoned. The animal organism alone being capable of producing antitoxins, the next point was to find out whether this was a property common to all animals, or limited to the superior. Metchnikoff found that the injection of large quantities of tetanus toxin into scorpions and the larvæ of other arthropods produced no antitoxin. The toxin remained for months in the blood or tissues without losing its properties; similar results were obtained when it was taken into the alimentary canal of the leech. It was hence shown that even those invertebrates in which antimicrobic phagocytosis is most marked are utterly incapable of producing. antitoxins. Coming next to vertebrates, no power of producing antitoxin is possessed by fish or amphibia; it first appears in reptiles, but not in all kinds. Thus tortoises, like invertebrates, can retain tetanus toxin in the blood for a lengthened period without forming antitoxins; it is in reptiles that the production of the latter is first observed, but in them only when they

are kept at a temperature higher than 30° C. If the temperature is 20° C. the results are just the same as in tortoises and invertebrates. The establishment of the antitoxic property in these cold-blooded animals is not attended with any rise of temperature, and the same is true in warm-blooded animals such as fowls. With regard to the last-named animals, whose power of producing tetanus antitoxin was first demonstrated by Vaillard, Metchnikoff has some new and important observations. He finds that practically all the toxin injected into the peritoneum passes into and remains in the blood, none of the organs being toxic after their blood has been washed out. To this an exception is found in the case of the genital organs, ovaries, and testicles, which possess the power of fixing some of the circulating toxin. This they share with the leucocytes, to the toxicity of which that of the blood is due. After a while the toxic power of the blood diminishes, and after passing through a neutral period it becomes antitoxic. It is now found that with the exception of the generative organs, none of the organs when freed from blood possess any antitoxic power. The genital glands are found to be markedly antitoxic, but the author brings evidence to show that the antitoxin is not manufactured by them, but is absorbed from the blood, so that in the fowl the antitoxic property resides solely in the blood. Metchnikoff concludes that it is not possible to accept the idea that natural immunity depends on antitoxic power, and he further points out that the latter is evolved in the history of the animal kingdom at a much later date than the phenomena of phagocytosis.-British Medical Journal.

THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS WITH TUBERCULIN R.-Dauriac (Progrès Médical, December 4 and 11, 1897,) reports the results of the employment of Koch's tuberculin R. in various cases of tuberculosis; fourteen of these presented local affections, such as suppuration over the sternum, enlarged cervical glands, ulceration of the skin, etc. All of the patients were satisfactorily cured. In a second paper he describes the results in fifteen cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in various stages of the disease; all were greatly improved, and many are described as cured. One of the cases was insufficiently nourished and clad, had no fixed residence, and, when the treatment was commenced, large cavities were found at the apices of both lungs. A case is also described in which, in addition to pulmonary tuberculosis, lesions were present in the kidneys and the bladder. This patient also made a complete recovery. The treatment, in spite of these brilliant results, is supposed to be most applicable to the earliest stages of the disease, and it is suggested that it would be advisable to detect the presence of tuberculosis by injections of minute doses of the original form of tuberculin. The treatment is usually commenced with a dose of mg. This should be increased daily until a dose of mg. is reached; this then should be increased mg. daily until mg. is reached, and this increased mg. daily until I mg. is given. This can then be further increased if considered desirable, the maximum dose being about 20 mg. The imme

diate effects of the injections are usually nil. With doses in excess of mg. a slight elevation of temperature is occasionally observed. Local reaction is extremely rare. The subsequent effects consist in reduction of fever, cessation of sweats, increase in appetite, and disappearance of tuberculous lesions. As none of the patients reported in this paper was admitted to the hospital, but simply came three times or less frequently a week to the dispensary for injections, improvement could not possibly have been due to any alteration in their hygienic surroundings.-The Philadelphia Medical Journal.

CESAREAN SECTION BY TRANSVERSE INCISION OF FUNDUS.-Braun (Centralbl. f. Gynak., No. 45,) has had experience of Fritsch's cesarean section, the operation being the second of its kind ever recorded. Fritsch bases his practice on the course of the secondary branches of the uterine arteries which run horizontally, so that a longitudinal incision down the front of the gravid uterus can not fail to cause free hemorrhage. He is accustomed to extirpate diseased fallopian tubes completely, snipping a wedge-shaped piece out of the uterine cornu. Bleeding is always free, but the tying of a suture passed antero-posteriorly under the bleeding vessel stops it at once. The ligature lies at right angles to the vessel, the most favorable position. Hence Fritsch conceived the idea of making an incision straight along the fundus from cornu to cornu, in order to extract the fetus in a cesarean section. Braun publishes full notes of his own case. The patient was a rachitic primipara with a universally and irregularly contracted pelvis. The conjugata vera was two and three-quarter inches. Labor pains had set in. Care was taken to antevert the gravid uterus sufficiently, the upper part of the wound being held together with forceps during delivery of the child. Then the transverse incision was made. Braun found that it bled as much as the longitudinal incision in cesarean sections where he had operated during labor at term or in relatively early pregnancy. The placental site did not lie near the fundus. The delivery of the fetus, which was living and weighed six pounds, was neither harder nor easier than through a vertical incision. The wound in the fundus was under four inches long after the fetus had been extracted. The sutures had to be placed close together, fifteen deep and eight superficial being applied. Ergot was given after the abdominal wound was closed, as there was hemorrhage. The patient made a good recovery.-British Medical Journal.

LABOR IN MATURE PRIMIPARE.-De Koninck (Revue Medicale, Louvain, October 30, 1897,) has compiled an instructive memoir on labor in primiparæ married for some years and relatively mature (twenty-eight years Bidd and Pourtad, thirty-two Ahlfeld). De Koninck gives thirty as the earliest year coming under "maturity," the "primipares agees" of French authorities. He sets aside as curiosities certain cases of primiparæ almost "aged" in the English sense of the term, such as Cohnstein's two women aged fifty and