The measure of measures when the disease is present in a locality, is to allay the fear caused by the too generally accepted belief that cholera, like small-pox, is both infectious and contagious. Let this belief be once thoroughly shaken, and we shall then have the most powerful agent possible to aid in nursing the cases of the disease. The only possible source of danger to nurses or attendants arises from the risk of over-work, and consequent exhaustion, and the possibility of thus suffering from diarrhoea or dysentery; in which state of health they should neither nurse nor attend on cases of cholera, as I am convinced, from what I have seen and heard, that, if nurses or attendants be seized with the disease while carrying on their duties, it will be found in most cases to be due to this; and this circumstance shauld be judiciously communicated to all whose duties require them to attend on cases of cholera.

From all my experience, I am quite satisfied that cholera is neither contagious nor infectious, in the sense in which these terms are applied to diseases such as small-pox and other eruptive fevers generally.

Nursing is the sheet anchor, and should be persevered with in the stage of collapse, till death has, without doubt, claimed its victim. I saw a soldier who had been put into the stretcher with the pick axe and spade to be buried when the column halted in its march from Saharanpur to Chuckrata in 1879, and who was sitting up when his companions came to bury him.

Two Hundred and Ffty Autopsies of Drunkards.

Dr. Formad presented specimens and read a paper on an analysis of two hundred and fifty autopsies on drunkards, illustrating the most prominent anatomical lesions of chronic alcoholism. He considered the most conspicuous lesions to be cyanotic induration of the kidneys, fatty infiltration of the liver, and mammillated stomach. His cases had been those in which there had been a history of a long continued series of debauches, the subjects often dying in one of these debauches, and did not include moderate drinkers or those who perish after imbibition of an enormous quantity of alcohol without any previous chronic excesses. He thought that the exposure, irregularities of diet, etc., incident to a state of drunkenness, had much, probably more than the alcohol itself, to do with the production of the lesions, but it was not at all possible to separate one from the other.

He also gave a long list of lesions which have been considered by various authors to be the results of chronic alcoholism, among which the cirrhotic liver with contraction held a prominent place. He had himself, at one time, considered cirrhosis a very frequent, if not almost necessary, concomitant of long continued excessive use of alcohol, and had even testified in court that a certain person was not likely to have been a hard drinker because at the autopsy no cirrhosis of the liver was found. He had thought, too, that the connection between the two was so close that it was impossible to have a case of cirrhosis without a previous history of alcoholism, as is held by various authors. Therefore, it was surprising to him to meet in his two hundred and fifty autopsies

with only six cases of cirrhosis of the liver with contraction. In two hundred and twenty cases the liver was considerably or even very much enlarged, the enlargement in most cases proving to be due to a fatty infiltration. Cyanotic induration of the kidney and chronic gastritis, with mammillation of stomach, were found in nearly every case. This cyanotic induration is peculiar and differs from the cyanotic induration. due to heart disease. At a future meeting he will give a detailed account of the above lesions and a more extensive analysis of the cases.Philadelphia Pathological Society.

Tit for Tat.

The following, from a newspaper report of a recent trial in Detroit, is quite interesting. The physician in the case was Dr. Wm. Brodie, President of the American Medical Association.

Little Nellie Keevan had sued the Barnum Wire Works for being run over by one of the company's trucks. The doctor testified, in behalf of the company, that the girl's injuries were very trifling, and that she would recover the use of the crushed foot.

"You may be mistaken, may you not?" asked the plaintiff's lawyer. "Possibly."

"Doctors make mistakes, don't they?"

"Certainly, just like lawyers."

"And sometimes try to cover them up, don't they?"

"Oh, no; the undertaker covers up doctors' mistakes."

"Oh! Well, are doctors ever disappointed in their calculations?" "Very seldom. The public are the ones that get disappointed in the calculations."

The lawyer was somewhat disconcerted by this repartee, but pulled himself together and went in on another tack:

"You say this injury was a mere trifle, doctor. Then your bill will probably be a mere trifle, about $10 ?"

"Well, what kind of a doctor do you take me for, anyway?"

"State what your bill will be for this trifle."

"Oh. somewhere about $100."

"Isn't that considerable for a trifle?"

"Well, it wouldn't be so much if I was going to charge the girl, but, you see, the company's going to pay, so it will be about $100."

The doctor's candor convulsed judge, jury, and spectators. Miss Keevan secured a verdict of $1,000 against the company.-Med. Age.

Cannabis Indica as a Narcotic.

H. Lewis Jones, M. B., Cantab., writes the following note to the London Practicioner :

This drug has proved of great use in a number of cases where I have desired to produce sleep, especially where sleeplessness was accompanied by delirium.

In the delirium of typhoid fever and erysipelas, and in delirium tremens, it is most valuable, a few doses being sufficient to give refreshing

sleep. It is important to give the drug in sufficiently large doses. Two to three grains of the extract can be taken in the form of pill every four or six hours; frequently the first dose is sufficient. I now prescribe cannabis indica as the routine treatment in all cases of delirium tremens coming under my care, whether simple or complicating injury or disease. In only one case has there been complaint of hallucinations. It had been ordered for a case of typhoid fever, with much sleeplessness, in an excitable young woman. After two or three doses she asked that the drug might be discontinued, saying that it caused her to see visions of beautiful gardens and the like. All the other patients have been hospital cases. It is possible that among educated people mental disturbance would be more frequent. I have heard of one case where two grains of the extract were said to have made a woman temporarily quite mad. Personally, doses of the extract of Indian hemp, up to four grains, produce a mild narcotic effect, the only abnormal sensations noticed being numbness of the extremities and slight mental confusion.

The Metric System.

Whatever may be the absolute merits of the metric system, as applied to physicians' prescriptions, in communities where it has been a part of every man's education, from childhood up, it is evident, as we have several times insisted on, that the attempt to transplant it to America is beset with some practical difficulties that are likely for many years to stand in the way of its adoption. Not the least of these difficulties lies in the fact that the use of the system adds an element of perplexity to acts which in themselves are always more or less fraught with danger -the writing and the compounding of prescriptions. This objection has lately had an illustration that well nigh proved tragical, a Jersey City apothecary having put up a certain number of grammes of a violent poison, instead of the same number of centigrammes, and having expressed the opinion that his error was in part due to the confusing effect of the metric system.-N. Y. Med. Journal

Syzygium Jambolanum for Diabetes.

Syzygium jambolanum belongs to the natural order myrtacea, and is indigenous to the East Indies. The part used in medicine is the berry, or fruit, which it very hard, of a brownish black color, fusiform, about fifteen millimeters long, ten millimenters thick, and has an aromatic, not disagreeable, spicy, astringe:t taste.

Some few months since, the London Lancet copied from a French journal a little article on this drug, which stated that it was a powerful remedy for diabetes mellitus, curing the disease in four days. Its prop. erties were stomachic, carminative, diuretic and astringent. This notice so impressed me that I set about to procure the drug, and a little was finally procured from India. The curative effects of the remedy upon my patient and others, have been so remarkable that I believe I can say with much assurance, we have in this drug a true specific for

the cure of this heretofore incurable disease, diabetes. By a specific, I mean that the remedy will cure a great majority of cases. So little of the drug has been received, that we have none to experiment with to learn its physiological action upon the human system.-Dr. Burt in Chicago Med Examiner.

Twelve Old-fashioned Beverages.

We extract the following recipes from a curious old work entitled, The Complete Confectioner, by a “Person, late an apprentice to the well known Messrs. Negri & Witten, of Berkeley Square, London, 1789." It will be observed that the processes of making are exceedingly simple and primitive.

Lemonade.-Rasp two lemons and squeeze six; put to them three gills of syrup and the rest water; taste it, and if it is not to your palate, alter it and mend it till it is right; then strain it through a lawn sieve, and put it in your glasses for use.

Orangeade.-Take eight China oranges and rasp four of them; squeeze the eight and three lemons to the rind; put about two gills of syrup to it and the rest water; taste it, and if you find it not rich enough, put some syrup to it, and squeeze more oranges in according to your palate, and if not sour enough squeeze in one more lemon; strain it through a lawn sieve, and it is fit for use.

Currant Water made of Jelly-Take two large spoonfuls of current jelly, and mix it with a little warm water; then put in one gill of syrup, squeeze two or three lemons in, and let the rest be water; taste and make it to your palate, putting a little cochineal in to make it of a fine color; strain it through a sieve, and it is fit for use.

Cedraty Water.-Take a large wooden spoonful of the essence of cedraty, put it in a basin, squeeze three lemons, add three gills of syrup, and all the rest water; make it to your palate; mind that all the essence is melted, and if it is not rich enough put more syrup in; run it through your lawn sieve, and it is fit for use.

Fresh Raspberry Water.-Take one pint of fresh raspberries, and pass them through a sieve with a wooden spoon; put two large spoonfuls of powdered sugar in, squeeze one lemon in, and let the rest be water; make it palatable, and put a little cochineal in to color it; run it through a sieve, and it is fit for use.

Bergamot Water.-Squeeze six lemons, and then add three gills of syrup, and let the rest be water; mind you make it rich before you put the essence in. When it is to your taste put a teaspoonful of the essence of bergamot in; run it through a sieve and it is fit for use.

Apricot Water-Take two large spoonfuls of apricot jam, and one gill of syrup; squeeze four lemons, put in a handful of bitter almonds pounded, and a little powdered sugar, so as to make it have the same bitter taste as the kernels of the apricots; let the rest be water, and make it palatable; run it through a very fine lawn sieve, and it is ready for use.

Fresh Strawberry Water.-Take one quart of strawberries, and pick the stems from them; crush them with your wooden spoon, and put in

two large spoonfuls of powdered sugar; squeeze one lemon, and let the rest be water; make it palatable, pass it through a sieve with a spoon, and it is fit for use.

Peach Water.-Take two large spoonfuls of peach jam in a basin; put in one handful of bitter almonds with a little powdered sugar; squeeze five lemons, put in two gills of syrup, and let the rest be water; make palatable, pass through a sieve with a spoon, and it is fit for use.

Pear Water.-Get some large pears, rasp them into a basin; if your pears are large, four will be sufficient; if small, six or eight; squeeze six lemons, put in four gills of syrup, and let the rest be water; make it rich and palatable, pass it through a lawn sieve, and it is fit for use.

Cherry Water.-Take one pound of Kentish cherries, pound them in a mortar so as to break the kernels of them; take the cherries and kernels, put them into a basin, and add four gills of syrup; squeeze four lemons in, and let the rest be water; make it palatable, run it through a sieve, and it is fit for use.

Orgeat.-Take six ounces of sweet and one dozen bitter almonds; pound them very fine, so that you can not feel one piece of almond; mix one quart of water with them, strain it through a lawn sieve, and put one gill of orange-flower water to it, and it is fit for use.

EDITORIAL.

Who has the Credit ?

I have never cared much about receiving credit for work that I have done, and I have only been too glad to have others take it up and carry the investigations on. If the treatment of disease can be made certain, pleasant, lessening suffering, and shortening the duration of disease, I care not who has the credit.

It is a fact that all of value in medicine is an evolution, and many observers and experimenters are required for the development of a fact in pathology or therapeutics. One man gets a faint conception of a truth, a second carries it further, the third has the work of the two to start from, and so on to our time. We possibly think that we have all the truth, and yet we are but preparing the way for others.

In the case of vaccination, many suppose that it was all the work of Jenner; that the discovery of the circulation was wholly due to Harvey. No greater mistakes could be made, for all the preliminary work had been done before these great men. In regard to vaccination, every fact named by Jenner was a matter of common report among the peasantry of the dairy districts, except possibly the propagation of the vaccine disease from child to child. Many of the facts were known to physicians for fifty years.

I do not know that we use a remedy that is not developed in the same way. Its first use may have partaken more of accident than purpose. Some observer notices a kindly action which suggests a further use, and so on through a long series of cases we finally learn our remedy.