method of administration is by saturating a towel or cloth with fresh, strong vinegar (preferably that made from cider), and holding it a few inches above the patient's face, or hanging it from the bedstead, so that it will be near his head.

It should be used directly after the anesthetic has been discontinued, and kept up continuously for hours.

In one case, to which ether had been given, nausea began soon, but ceased in about one and a half minutes after using the vinegar. This was then removed, and the nausea returned, but again disappeared after the vinegar was given. The action was so marked that the process was repeated five or six times so as to verify the conclusions, and each time the result was the same as at first noted, the patient quickly becoming quiet as though going under complete anesthesia.

Another case was given chloroform for the removal of pharyngeal growths and swallowed considerable blood. Vomiting of the clotted blood occurred, but ceased immediately after, and did not return.

These have been duplicated by about twenty-five cases, in whom the action was almost uniformly beneficial. The relief from thirst to the patient is most marked, and the refreshing effect is both grateful and welcome to the sufferer. Its simplicity and efficiency commend its use to all having aught to do with such cases. It is also free from any toxic effects, and can occasion no harmful conditions.-Therapeutic Gazette.

EARLY EVACUATION OF THE BOWELS AFTER ABDOMINAL SECTION.-H. T. Byford (Amer. Jour. of Obstet. and Dis. of Women and Children, July 1, 1898) under the head or "An Improvement in the After-treatment of Peritoneal Section" makes a plea for securing movement of the bowels and passage of flatus immediately after abdominal operations. He thinks that intestinal paralysis or obstruction is more often the cause of fatal sepsis, either wholly or in part, than vice-versa, in many cases the septic matter finding its way through the stretched intestinal walls. His observations have led him to believe that exposure of the peritoneum, handling of the viscera, production of raw surfaces and leaving dead matter (bloody

oozing and debris) are followed by intestinal adhesions in from 12 to 36 hours, and that these adhesions produce more or less intestinal paralysis and sometimes obstruction. Many gynecologists have recognized these facts and are always anxious to move the bowels after sections, but these efforts are usually begun too late or are not employed with systematic thoroughness. His routine method: On the day before a peritoneal section, the patient is purged sufficiently to reduce the gaseous distension of the intestinal coils (that they may be kept out of the way during the operation), obtaining as many as 6 or 8 large stools, while patients of relaxed fibre receive full doses of strychnine from the time they first come under observation. Two hours before the operation two teaspoonfuls of the fluid extract of cascara are given. Immediately on awaking from the anaesthetic the patient receives a drachm of magnesium sulphate every hour; at the end of 6 hours a stimulating enema is administered and repeated till gas passes between enemas; then the saline is discontinued. In simple operations, where undue haste is not necessary, the salines and enemas are given a little later. The author presents as presumptive proof of the value of this method a record of 105 consecutive recoveries after peritoneal sections, since its adoption. He claims, not the discovery of a new treatment, but the development and systematizing of an imperfectly recognized one and the demonstration of its value.-H. A. R. in N. C. Med. Jour.

A METHOD OF RESUSCITATION IN APPARENT DEATH FROM ANESTHETICS.-Herzog gives the results of some experiments he has undertaken on animals with a view of testing the efficacy of Laborde's method of "rythmical traction of the tongue" in cases of apparent death from drowning and anesthetics. Laborde described his method at the Medical Academy in Paris in 1892. His attention was first directed to the question by observing the good results which he obtained in the laboratory on narcotized animals, by rythmical traction of the tongue. In eight cases of drowning, where the animal was kept under water for three and a half minutes, resuscitation took place in five cases, In Sylvester's method animals cannot be revived after

one and a half minute's submersion. The directions for the use of Laborde's method are as follows: Place a piece of linen round the tip of the tongue, and grasp it with the thumb and middle finger, now pull the tongue forward with a jerk, and then relax it again; repeat this maneuver 20 times a minute. A sense of resistance is felt in the tongue before there is any attempt at respiration. Traction should be continued for 30 or 60 minutes. Herzog experimented on dogs. He administered choloroform till the respiration had ceased for one and a half minutes. He found that Laborde's method was useless in cases of asphyxia in a late stage of narcosis. In an early stage of narcosis, however, Laborde's method is distinctly useful when associated with other forms of resuscitation. Traction on the tongue is said to stimulate the centres in the medulla; this necessitates an increased blood supply to the part. The respiratory centre is in close proximity to the centres concerned in the movements of the tongue, the beneficial effect would therefore act on both.-Times and Register.

INJECTIONS OF ALCOHOL IN CARCINOMA.-A detailed description and careful estimate of the results thus far obtained from the treatment of cancer by injections of alcohol, is given by Sajous, in the Monthly Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine for January. Beginning with the eighteen cases of mammary carcinoma treated by Hasse twenty years ago-with fifteen complete cures and no recurrence-the survey closes with Kuhs recently reported cure of primary cancer of the nasal pharynx. The author decides that this last case, added to the others, "establishes alcohol on a basis seldom equaled by any agent proposed. It is safe to state that if tuberculin had had to its credit but half of the bona fide points already noted in favor of alcohol in the treatment of cancer, it could have withstood the test of time." The remedy acts by forming a consecutive-tissue capsule around each growth, causing obliteration of the blood-vessels and contraction of the neoplastic tissues. According to Hasse, the effect on the general health is even more surprising. The pain and uneasiness pass away, and sleep, appetite, assimilation and strength return in a most remarkable manner. By employ

ing alcohol in different varieties of tumor, rapid reduction in the size and growth has been produced, but it was found that if too much be injected at one time, sloughing of the growth and general intoxication of the subject will follow. To secure a successful result, the treatment must be carefully conducted.

In the cases reported as cured by him, Hasse injected a mixture of thirty parts of absolute alcohol to seventy parts of water twice a week around the tumor, as well as into any infiltrated glands. The quantity injected varied according to the size of the neoplasm, and sometimes reached twenty Pravaz syringefuls. The only inconvenience observed was pain (for which local or even general anesthesia might be resorted to) and, occasionally, slight intoxication. In order to avoid making the injection into a blood-vessel, Hasse inserted the syringe-needle deep into the tissues, then unfastened it, leaving the canula in place. He then waited a moment; if the blood did not issue from the canula he readapted the syringe and made the injection; but, if blood did flow out, he removed the needle and made another puncture elsewhere. Under the influence of these injections the tumor diminished in size and soon became less painful. The treatment should be continued for some time after apparent cure, at intervals more and more prolonged.

In conclusion, an earnest plea is advanced that alcohol be given the faithful trial in his affection which it seems to merit. -Medical Times.

THE FOLLY OF UNJUST CRITICISM.-For those who are amenable for just criticism we make no apology, but when the editor of a prominent medical journal, seated securely in his sanctum, a thousand miles and more from battle fields, seizes upon the report of a newspaper correspondent, and allows himself by such sensational means to be wrought into unwonted furor, it were well not only to assure himself of his facts, but the reasons therefore, before assuming censorship of the surgical section of the army, and imputing to the Surgeon-General and his associate the crime of neglect in failing properly to provide at once and upon the spot, for nearly two thousand wounded Does the criticising editor realize that in such an emer

men.

gency it would require a regiment of surgeons to render immediate attention to all of those in need?

True there were not ambulances and cots at hand, though never more needed than after the battle of Siboney, but these could not be created on the field, and it is well known that every available means at that moment was subordinated to the one purpose of placing fighting men at batteries at the front.

It must be remembered that surgeons were not in command. It must be borne in mind that prodigious efforts only on the part of the army enabled it to make its way through such tangled and untrodden defiles, and that supplies of all sorts, hospital stores included, must follow as they could. What wonder then, that when our brave men were falling by hundreds in that fatal ambush, cots and ambulances were not at hand.

It is not our purpose to pass judgment upon newspaper reports, but we submit that it is anything but just to utter wholesale criticism upon the surgical arm of the service without knowledge of extenuating facts.

The reply to this severe criticism of Surgeon-General Sternberg appears in the Medical News of August 6, in which he says: "Every one who has read the papers knows about the difficulties encountered in landing supplies at Sibony. As is usual under such circumstances, the fighting men with their guns and rations necessary for their subsistence were first landed and hurried to the front. The "Relief," loaded to her utmost capacity with medical supplies, arrived at Siboney four days after the fight at El Caney. That she was not able to get there sooner was a great disappointment to me, but was no fault of the Medical department. I asked for a hospital ship in good time, but there was unavoidable delay in securing a suitable vessel and in preparing her service."

Could the critic have been superior to his commander? Could ships wait upon his pleasure? Or the surf subside? Or an army give place to ambulances in such a time as this? There are emergencies in war, and provisions most needful cannot at times and at once be made. It would be better to commend rather than to criticise when officers of every grade and men as brave and true are making for those who lag behind such glorious history.-North American Practitioner.