patient from three to ten years, 10 to 20 drops every three hours. Few children object to its taste, and it should be continued uninterruptedly for two or three weeks, and resumed if the disease should return, in which case the doses ought to be gradually increased.—Medical Analectic. ATROPHINE IN HEMOPTYSIS. Dr. Haussman prescribes subcutaneous injections of atrophine as a last resort in cases of serious hæmoptysis. He cites three cases in which this remedy produced excellent results. The first was that of a patient who had serious hæmoptysis twelve, times in six days; three milligrammes of sulphate of atropine were injected; there was no recurrence of hæmoptysis. The same result was obtained in the second patient, in whose case the administration of turpentine preparations and injections of ergotin had produced no improvement. In the third case a patient suffering from repeated hæmoptysis was cured by two subcutaneous injections of three milligrammes of sulphate of atrophine.-Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal. TREATMENT OF DIPHTHERIA:-Dr. O. Brondel has obtained, in the last five years, truly extraordinary results. He has not lost a patient in two hundred cases, save some children, afflicted at the same time with croup, and still he has not as yet rigorously employed his mode of treatment. It is as follow: In the first place, to administer every two hours a tablespoonful of a potion of one hundred and fifty grammes containing four to five grammes of benzoate of soda, according to the age of the child; to give at the same time the sulphide of calcium in pills of a centigram, or in the form of a syrup; finally to practice every half hour, regularly, night and day, in grave cases, spraying with a ten per cent. ten per cent. solution of the benzoate of soda; to nourish the patients with beef tea, eggs, and tender meats, and to administer tonics and combat the fever with quinine, aconite and antipyrin.—Physician and Surgeon. -Doll POISONING BY ANTIFEBRIN. reports the case of a woman suffering from migraine, who purchased sixty. grains (according to the apothecary's statement) of antifebriu, and took it in two doses at short intervals, at about 11 a. m. In three hours emesis, cold perspiration, and coma developed. At 9 p. m. Doll was summoned. He found the forehead, face, nose, ears, upper thorax, hands, and feet icy cold, and covered with cold perspiration; the other portions of the body were warm and moist; the color of the face was cadaveric; the eyes were closed, but opened when roused; pupils moderately dilated, and reacting feebly. The heart beat tumultuously, pulse 120, artarial tension. varying greatly; respiration accelerated; abdominial pain and nausea present, attempt at emesis made, but uusuccessfully. The patient answered questions, stating that, she had become unconscious after taking the drug. Free stimulation was given during the night, but alcoholics were avoided, as antifebrin is soluble in alcohol. The intoxication terminated with profuse perspiration and free defecation. The patient did not remember that she had talked with the physician. The effect of the drug resembled the condition of hypnotism more than anything else. Two days afterward anorexia and headache persisted. The sensorium was free, and no other abnormal symptoms were present.—Medical News. STROPHANTHUS. — Hochhaus, in the clinic of Furbringer has made an extended investigation on the value of strophanthus, and concludes as follows: In sixty cases he found that in valvular lesions, with compensation, tincture of strophanthus lessens, invigorates, and regulates cardiac action, relieving dyspnæa and ædema. Digitalis is gen erally effective in cases benefited by strophanthus, but there are cases not benefited by digitalis, which improves with strophanthus. In comparison between the action of digitalis and strophanthus, digitalis affects the heart more promptly; strophanthus relieves dyspnea, caused by cardiac disease, more rapidly and effectively than does digitalis. The indications for the use of strophanthus are within more narrow limits than those of digitalis; we have not yet determined clearly these conditions. In degeneration of the heartmuscle, with small, freqnent irregular pulse and marked dyspnea, strophanthus is very effective in relieving dyspnea, and improved cardiac action follows. In acute and chronic nephritis, the tincture is less effectual than in other cases; dyspnoea is frequently relieved without the production of diuresis or lessening the ædema. Edema, from cachexia, is sometimes relieved by the remedy. Disturbances of digestion are often produced, which generally subside if the drug be contin ued. Regarding dosage, from three to six drops of the tincture should be given in a teaspoonful of water or wine, and when needed, syrup or licorice may be added, in the beginning of treatment, and the amount increased two drops with each dose daily until distinct effects are evident, when the dose last given should be continued; it is not advisable to go higher than from three to twenty drops. From three to five drops is sufficient for a child. The effect generally appears in two or three days, and endures for one or two weeks, although great variations on this point are observed. Accumulative action was not observed. Strophanthus is not of great and peculiar value, but has a useful action in aiding and supplementing digitalis.-Medical News. NOTES AND COMMENTS. SNAKES IN THE STOMACH.-There are a great many stories afloat of snakes having lived for months or even years in the human stomach. I quote the following account from the Bucks County Intelligencer, Penn.: "A Connecticut lady tells us that, as a child, she knew of more than one person who had swallowed a snake's egg.' The snake grew, and when hungry would 'cluck' in the throat of its unwilling host. The only way to get rid of the uncanny tenant was for the person to fast until hunger compelled the snake to venture out to a plate of untasted victuals upon the table. This is a genuine myth that no doubt still exists in the central part of Connecticut." A Massachusetts country girl told me of another case which she said she had never thought of doubting. A lady was long annoyed by the presence of a snake in her stomach supposed to have been swallowed while still very small in drinking water. She finally decoyed from its quarters the unwelcome occupant by boiling a large dish of milk, over which she bent until the snake came out to feed. Similar myths are common in New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, in which eels "lizards" (newts) take the place of snakes. In the "South End" of Boston there lives a man who is nicknamed "Lizard" by the street boys, because it is currently reported that he for many years unwillingly entertained one of these batrachian parasites. In every instance it is believed that the only relief possible is to coax forth the creature by some tempting dish of food or drink.-Popular Science Monthly. Judge Luzon B. Morris, father of Dr. Robt. T. Morris, a member of the editorial staff of the New England Medical Monthly, has been nominated for Governor of the State of Connecticut. AN UNUSUAL CAUSE OF DEATH.The Memphis Medical Monthly, of July, has the following, from the Memphis Appeal, on a coroner's jury's report: "The investigation developed 11 was cracked, exposing the brain. The THE RELATION com OF THE USE OF COFFEE TO SUSCEPTIBILITY TO TYPHOID FEVER.-Dr. W. A. Cusick calls atten tion in Southern Medical Record to down the course of the ureter and along the spermatic cord to the testis, and always increased by exertion, is fairly diagnostic of stone; but, unfortunately for our art, the symptoms of disease are rarely true to type, their manifestations are capricious, and their inconsistencies are manifold. "Pain may be present in both loins, and then it becomes very perplexing; or it may be referred to other and distant parts, so that the lumbar trouble may be altogether uncomplained of. "It may be brought on by an injury. Much importance is attached to percussion of the region over the kidneys. The patient should stand upright, and the blow should be a sharp one. When calculus is present the patient will complain of a stabbing pain, caused by the blow."-Medical Record. CASCARA SAGRADA IN RHEUMATISM, -Dr. H. T. Goodwin, of U. S. M. H. Service, reports, in New York Medieal Journal, June 9th, that he discovered by accident that this drug possesses marked specific action in rheumatism. effects in his own person, and to verify his suspicion he administered it to sev eral patients then in the wards suffering from this disease. this subject. In a practice of twenty-His attention was first called to its five years he has not observed a fatal issue in any case of typhoid fever where the patient expressed a fondness for coffee and used in freely during the course of the sickness, and hence he has encouraged its free use unless some idiosyncrasy interdicted its use. regards coffee as much more than a simple stimulant, indeed, as an actual food, and believes, from observation, that it imparts "staying qualities" to the He nervous system which, in selflimited fevers, will often tide the patient over the critical period to convalescence when he would otherwise sink and die. RENAL STONE AND ITS DIAGNOSIS.The leading symptoms of renal stone as given by Mr. Jordan Lloyd of Birmingham, are as follows: "Pain of a dull, heavy dragging character, constantly located in one loin, sometimes shooting The results were astonishing. The cases treated so far by Dr. Goodwin number about thirty, and with the exception or three or four syphilitics, he obtained most satisfactory results. Seldom has he had to wait more than twenty-four hours before observing beneficial effects.-Ex. FOR BURNS.R Tannin Of the late Dr. John Milner Fothergill, The Edinburgh Medical Journal says: "Born of a stout dalesmen race, he might, by his vast personality, have been an exaggerated caricature of the wildest dream ever imagined by a satirist of the typical John Bull. Enormously stout, even as a lad, with a round, rosy face and long black hair, his great carcass, set upon sturdy legs wide apart, might be constantly seen at the university gate, a centre of all mirth and jollity. To him the students' hostelry was too well known. By many names he was called; some of his It to The Montreal Medical Journal. J. B. Lippincott Company take pleasure to announce that a new edition of the United States Dispensatory is now being bound, and will be ready in a few days. The revision has been thorough, and not merely the addition of a supplement. More than one-third of the book, or nearly eight hundred pages, is entirely new matter, while the whole work has been most carefully rewritten. The National Formulary has been incorporated. It is said that a Berlin Society sent out a long series of bogus perscriptions, containing, for example, "tuber cinereum," "urticaria rubar," "pemphigus foliaceous." teachers will remember him as the 'Pirate Captain.' But with all his wild. Bohemianism and his Falstaffian ways and bulk, any one who came in contact with him who had an eye to see recognized in him a man of commanding personality, with immense power of good or evil. The writer, then a demonstrator, once said to him: 'Fothergill, you are a very clever fellow; why do you pretend not to be, and waste your time?' 'Do you think I am clever?' said he. Yes, I know it.' 'Well, then, watch me and I'll try.' And from that day to this, with all his oddities, rustic manners and intense self-consciousness, Fothergill showed himself to be a man of great ability, power of work, perseverance, and originality in expression, if not in experiA great and successful student he never was at the university, even after he began to work; he had wasted too much time for that; but he took his degree in 1865 with credit, passed the colleges, and then, after graduation, with a loyalty that did him much credit, he went home to Morland to assist his father in the rough work of a general practice in the Westmorland hills. His father was a quaint specman of the old school, squareheaded, with a firmly-knit frame, without the enormous bulk of his son, who, with native shrewdness, much kindness and the wisdom of experience, attended | tion. ment. for in over 60 Berlin drug stores.— These things were dispensed and paid Brooklyn Medical Journal. We have a number of books for re view, a notice of which is unavoidly laid over till next month. A writer in the Lancet says: "I have not failed once for many years, by a single vesication over the fourth and fifth dorsal vertebræ, to put an end at once to the sickness of pregnancy for the whole remaining period of gestation, no matter at what stage I was consulted. The neuralgic toothache and pruritus pudendi of the puerperal condition yielded as readily, and to one applica CHARLES CARROLL LEE, of New York, has performed Alexander's operation a score or more times-three times for complete procidentia of the uterus. Contrary to the belief of many, he has found the operation curative. A new ward for the Massachusetts General Hospital, to be devoted to abdominal surgery, has been begun. Professor Wroblewski, of Cracow, has recently died of blood poisoning, which he suffered as the result of an experiment in the lecture-theatre. Dr. Howard Pinkney, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, class of 1860, died May 14, while in a railway train in England, whither he had gone to improve his health. A correspondent writes feelingly to the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL JOURNAL of the difference in the facilities for performing operations in city and country. He says: "These men, teaching in the great hospitals here, are great men and great teachers, and far be it from me to take one jot or tittle from their merited honor, but oh, how great are their opportunities! If a big operation is to be done in New York, the surgeon can familiarize himself with the parts by immediate dissection. He is supported by able counsel, aided by trained assistants, and last, but by no means least, he goes into the operation without feeling, if his patient die, he will be looked upon as a sort of semi-murderer; for, if an unfortunate result follows, it is quickly forgotten in the hurry and innumerable death-rate of the great city. But with us, how different! The Medico-Legal Society of Lew York has decided to hold an International Congress of Medical Jurisprudence, at which representatives from all countries will be invited to attend and contribute papers. The Congress will hold a session of four days some time next year. Members of the MedicoLegal Society will entertain as guests all foreign visitors, and arrangements will be made for reduced rates of ocean and railway travel for those who attend from a distance. The Chairman of the Sub-Committee, Mr. Moritz Ellinger, is the Cerresponding Secretary of the Medico-Legal Society. For chordee,says Dr. Frank L. James, of St. Louis, there is nothing equal to veratrum viride, twenty minims of the tincture to be taken on retiring. Dr. Charles McBurney has been appointed visiting surgeon to Roosevelt Hospital, N. Y, in place of Dr. Sands, who has resigned. The State Convention of Homopathists in Kansas City passed a resolution. requesting Governor Moorehouse to remove from the State Board of Health Mr. George M. Cox, of Springfield, Mo., who achieved some notoriety some time ago by attacking a woman in a hack and throwing vitroil in her face. At the commencement exercises of Union College, New York, June, 1888, the Honorary degree of L L. D. was conferred upon Mr. Lawson Tait, F. R. C. S., Professor of Gynecology in Queen's College, Birmingham, England. Dr. Decaisne, a French physician, contends that excessive smoking, and especially upon an empty stomach, is a frequent cause of vertigo. Lagneau adds that if vertigo exists in a smoker, it may be ascribed to the tobacco, when in fact, due to congestion of the brain. PARALYSIS AGITANS.-Sinkler prescribed oxide of zinc, grains two, three times a day; and ten-drop doses of fluid extract of hyoscyamus as frequently. |