or maintains the modern theories, I shall continue in its use until I am convinced by practice or by the medical profession that some other treatment is more efficacious. Very respectfully, JNO. T. HAMILTON, M. D. PASS HIM AROUND. EDITOR COURIER: Believing that the following will be of interest, and perhaps profit also, to the medical profession, I send it for publication in your Journal. On April 26, last, in response to a card sent out by one "S. M. Miller, M. D., P. O. Box No. 1142 Philadelphia," offering medical books at greatly reduced prices," myself and another physician of this place, sent $14, by money order, to said Miller; and after waiting nearly a month without hearing from him, sent a letter of inquiry to the Post Master at Philadelphia. Soon afterward, we received a card from Miller saying, "our books would be forwarded as soon as they could be bound. Two weeks later we again wrote him but up to this time, now ten weeks, no books and no replies have been received. For the future protection of the profession we ask you to publish this, and hope all other Medical Journals throughout the United States and Canada, will copy same. Respectfully. Dallas, Texas July 7, 1887. J. D. PARSONS. A SPLENIC DISCORD. A ductless gland is the spleen, Parenchymatous body they claim; Reposits the blood, "ye see, This anthropological drain. "Hepar sinistrum"--old Galen cries, (By the law of Osmosis) Quæ manu potissimum curat-Amen!! If we treat by "resection" the organ-what then?? Vents her spleen on this function by "shiver and shake" Can't absorb the miasma that's in her dominion; Unless "Rex Quininus" takes "Old Ague Cake." And so, by exclusion we'll end all confusion, This gland surely aids the digestion. If a duct could be seen, in "some good little spleen," Memphis July 4, 1887. H. H. BICKford. JOURNALISTIC COURTESIES.-In answer to a communication from the editor of Provincial Medical Journal with regard to the usage of editors in this country, the editor of the New York Medical Journal says: "We can speak for New York only, where we believe the invariable practice and sentiment of medical editors are in strict accord with what is stated in the following par agraph, which which we take from the British Medical Journal for May 21, 1887: "We wish it distinctly understood that, when a manuscript is forwarded to the British Medical Journal, it is implied that a similar manuscript has not been sent elsewhere, unless special notice of the fact be given; we shall regard any infringement of this rule as a breach of faith.'" This seems to us to be the only position that can with consistency be taken by editors with their contributors. NOTES AND ITEMS. TREATMENT OF DIABETES MELLITUS.-Prof. Austin Flint, having tried in three cases of diabetes mellitus the treatment by lithium carbonate and sodium arseniate dissolved in carbonic acid water, is not favorably impressed with its value, and sums up the results of his observations with this and other modes of treatment as follows: The ten cases reported are all that are now under my immediate observation. At the risk of being tedious, I have given certain details regarding these cases, although my records have been considerably abridged in this article. These cases seem to me to be quite instructive. Taken in connection with my other recorded cases, they lead me to the following conclusions: 1. In the three severe cases in which I have used the solution of lithium carbonate and sodium arseniate in carbonic acid water, no very marked effects have been observed in the few weeks during which the remedy has been employed; but the treatment seems to me to be worthy of more extended trial, and it may be useful in mitigating the severity of a strict antidiabetic diet. 2. The so-called specifics for diabetes have little if any effect. An exception, however, may be made in favor of the arsenite of bromine, which has sometimes seemed to me to control, to a slight extent, the thirst, polyuria and discharge of sugar. 3. The main reliance in treatment is to be placed upon antidiabetic diet. This has fallen somewhat into disrepute because it is seldom efficiently carried out. In no single instance, out of ninetynine recorded cases, have I found that the antidiabetic diet had been enforced. 4. Milk should be absolutely interdicted. Its influence over the progress of the disease is prompt, powerful and most injurious. 5. There are certain cases in which dietetic treatment promptly arrests the disease and keeps it under control. There are other cases in which treatment seems to be of little avail, except in possi bly retarding the progress toward a fatal result. Of the ten cases reported, and now under observation, seven are amenable to treatment and three are obstinate. 6. A confirmed diabetic may be cured, in the sense that all symptoms will disappear; but the disease is liable to return at any time under an unrestricted diet. Still, moderate care in diet will often secure immunity. 7. A patient who has once had diabetes should have his urine examined every few weeks. The glycosuria always precedes the general symptoms of the disease, and these general symptoms can generally be forestalled by proper treatment employed as soon as sugar makes its appearance in the urine. 8. As the disease returns, either from imprudences in diet or from other causes, the successive recurrences present greater and greater difficulties in the way of treatment. CLINICAL INSTRUCTION IN AMERICA.-Mr. Lawson Tait says, "In my early days the medical education of a British youth was not considered complete unless he had made the tour of the schools of France and Germany. I wish now the time and money I spent in those schools had been directed to the western instead of the eastern continent, and I venture to predict that ere long it will be to the medical schools of America rather than to those of Europe that our students will travel." DISTILLERY MILK REPORT.-The June number of Science gives the first part of a report as to the effect of distillery swill upon the quality of the milk of cows fed upon it. Among the answers received the following is one of the most striking: Dr. J. L. Hamilton, writes: I have practised medicine in Peoria, Ill., for over thirty years,—a place where more still-slops are manufactured than in any other place in the world, I suppose. For many years most of our dairies fed entirely on still-slop. The effect on children given only this kind of milk was very noticeable; and when they got sick (as almost all of them did during the summer months) they nearly all died unless the food was changed. As health officer, a few years ago, at a time when our city was mostly supplied with swill milk, I visited most of the dairies, and learned the following facts: the calves of cows fed only on swill-feed would live only a short time if allowed only the mother's milk; that a cow brought to the dairy while with calf invariably lost it, fed on the slop alone; that cows kept in the dairy and fed only slop would become diseased by the second year, with a skin disease (large scabs would appear all over them). Some of the cows I examined, and found in this condition, and the dairymen said these cows would soon die if kept in more than two years. ANESTHESIA IN HEART-DISEASE.-As the result of an imperfect report of testimony given by Dr. H. F. Formad at a coroner's inquest, a special committee was appointed at his request and reported, at a special meeting of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted: Resolved, That, in the opinion of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the testimony of the Coroner's physician, Dr. H. F. Formad, "that ether should not be administered to patients with heart disease, without due precaution and proper care both during the administration of the drug and after its withdrawal" is correct and proper; and the same caution should be observed in any other And case. WHEREAS, a false impression may have been given to the public by the imperfect reports of Dr. Formad's testimony published in the daily papers, and the medical profession placed in a false and dangerous position, therefore be it further Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Society, the administration of ether is not only necessary and proper when pain is to be inflicted upon patients with cardiac lesions, but lessens the dangers incident to operation; provided that due care be taken during the administration of the anesthetic, and proper regard be paid to its after effects.-Med. News, June 25, '87. THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRIZE. The Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, has offered a prize of five hundred dollars, open for competition to the Alumni of the college, for the best medical essay upon any subject which the author may select. If no one of the essays is deemed sufficiently meritorious, the prize will not be awarded. In order to be held worthy of the prize the essays must contain the results of original research, or investigation made by the author. Essays must be submitted to the committee on or before April, 1, 1888. |