through which the patient may be fed, has been attended with success. Recently an article in the Lyon Médicale favors the permanent sound, claiming that it is easily introduced if done sufficiently early. The writer of this article. prefers the long, soft sound with stylet to the short, hard canulas recommended especially by some German writers. The chief dangers are from hæmorrhage and ulceration. The writer uses a long, soft sound that is brought out of the nose. At first it excites considerable reflex spasm and may cause vomiting, but the parts soon become accustomed to the foreign body, which then causes no further trouble.-Med. Progress. CREOLINE IN ERYSIPELAS AND ECZEMA.-Rothe has used in the treatment of erysipelas a creolin ointment containing creolin 1.5, cret. prep. axung porc., aa 15.0, ol. menth. pip., gtt. v. This is spread in the thickness of a knife over the deceased parts twice or three times a day, a thin layer of cotton wool being applied as a covering. In a covering. In from twelve to twenty-four hours improvement was always apparent, and the disease was cured in three or four days. The same ointment also did good service in a case of weeping eczema of the face, as also in several cases of eczema in children. A patient suffering from scabies was treated with a thorough washing with soft soap and inunction of this ointment, with such a decided effect that Dr. Rothe considers creolin to be undoubtedly a specific for the disease.-Brit. Med. Jour. ABSORBING POWER OF UTERUS AND VAGINA.-Landau, Berliner Klin. Wochenschrift, has found from experience that the vaginal mucous membrane has but a feeble absorbing power, whilst the uterine mucous membrane possesses that power to a very high degree. This fact is of extreme importance in gynecol ogy, as strongly medicated tampons may fail to act if inserted into the vagina, whilst if passed into the uterus they may set up grave complications. The vaginal mucous membrane is really skin, and becomes true dry skin in cases of prolapse. The free surface of the cervix has hardly any power of absorption. Dr. Landau demonstrates from cases how different it is with the endometrium. After the introduction of a solid ten per cent. preparation of resorcin into a uterus, severe and long standing uterine colic was set up. The introduction of a one per cent. cocaine compound caused the pains to cease. The cocaine was absorbed and by paralyzing the sensory nerves it produced anæsthesia.—Brit. Med. Jour. TREATMENT OF DYSENTERY BY IRRIGATION OF LOWER BOWELS.-Dr. Koritin reports fifteen cases of dysentery cured by irrigation of the lower bowels. He had nine cases of the diphtheric form of dysentery and six of the catarrhal (according to Virchow's division of the disease). In two diphtheritic cases a solution of carbolic acid 3j to six pounds of water was used; and in seven, gr. xx to six pounds of water. In the catarrhal form: in two cases gr. xx; in one gr. x to six pounds of water; and in three other cases pure water was used. The author, after fully describing each case, concludes his interesting article, saying that though he has used besides the irrigation some of the popular internal and external remedies, nevertheless, he thinks that the course of the disease, as given in his description, was modified by the irrigation.— Times and Register. SALICYLIC ACID FOR THE PREVENTION OF Scarlet Fever.—In the Centralblatt für klinische Medicin, for October, are quoted by Dr. G. Stricker, some of the clinical experiences of Dr. de Rosa, an Italian physician, in an effort to curtail an epidemic of scarlet fever by the internal administration of salicylic acid. Out of sixty-six children exposed to infection-twenty-seven patients being down with the disease in the same building-only three contracted the fever, after the salicylic plan of treatment had been put in operation, and in these three cases, the failure was ascribed to the fact that there had probably been a longer exposure to the infection than in the other set of cases. It is recommended that the drug should be given promptly after there has been danger of infection, the dose being one to five grains daily until the exposure has passed by. Isolation is not regarded as necessary, if all susceptible material shall be brought promptly under the influence of the drug.-Jour nal. INDUCTION OF PREMATURE LABOR. This procedure being often necessary, the following by Dr. Balandin (Annales de Gynécol.) will be of interest to our readers. He gave the results of fortythree induced labors, the only assistance in each case being that rendered by an experienced midwife. Strict antiseptic precautions were enforced, and the two methods habitually employed for inducing labor were the introduction of the bougie and puncture of the membranes. As auxiliary measures electricity and douching were practiced. Injections were thrown up between the uterus and the ovum either 2 per cent. boric acid solutions being used, or sterilized water at a temperature of about 100° F. The bougie often acted but slowly after several days or weeks, and sometimes not at all. Its efficacy appeared to diminish with the increase of the antiseptic precautions. But it never set up the febrile reaction, or caused any other complications. After puncture of the membranes, uterine contractions did not invariably set in. This was mostly the case when the uterus was but slightly excitable, and had relaxed parietes. In one case, intermittant flow of the waters continued for eight days after puncture, without contractions setting in. In an instance of this kind, more radical courses were needed. Dr. Balandin usually dilated the cervix with his finger, turned by the combined external and internal method, drew down a foot and slowly extracted the fœtus. Not a single mother was lost. No reaction ever followed the turning cases. In the last series of twenty cases, ninteen children were saved.-Canada Lancet. TRENDELENBERG'S FLEXIBLE DRESS ING.-Professor Trendelenberg has been using at his clinic a gelatin paste, recommended by Unna, that is designed to be substituted in those cases where flexible collodion or india-rubber solutions have formerly been employed. It will hold dressings in place while permitting free motion of the parts. It is not friable or very stiff, and is not so adherent to the cuticle as to interfere with the excretory functions of the skin. It therefore does not cause the peeling off of the upper layers of the epidermis, upon being removed, and the tendency to eczema in consequence. It is prepared in two degrees of consistence: the thick paste contains gelatin, glycerine and water each thirty parts, with oxide of zinc ten parts. The thin paste has gelatin twenty parts, glycerine thirty, water forty, with oxide of zinc ten parts. Heat is necessary when the pastes are compounded; it is also needed to liquefy them when they are used. The pastes are readily removed with warm water. Exchange. ANOTHER TREATMEMT FOR ASTHMA. -There is one other method of treating asthma that is not, I think, regularly practiced, but to which I wish more particularly to draw attention. A per son liable to attacks of asthma should be classed with those persons who have fits of epilepsy, and with those who suffer occasionally from "sick-headaches." By this I mean that all these patients have unstable nerve centers, liable to explode their energies at any moment and exhibit the pathological phenomena peculiar to nerve-storms. Our treatment here should, I think, be an endeavor to break the habit morbidly acquired by the nerve centers, and by regular prolonged medication to maintain the centers in a state of more stable equilibrium. This is done very successfully in the majority of cases of epilepsy, and I have applied the same principle with success in cases of severe migraine and asthma. In these cases I give chloral and belladonna night and morning, or every night at bed-time, and I have found the attacks not only lessened in frequency, but also considerably diminished in severity:-Pearse, The Practitioner. ICHTHYOL IN GYNECOLOGY. - Ichthyol is strongly recommended by Dr. Freund in the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the female genital organs. Its action is superior to that of all other remedies hitherto in use. Locally, it acts as an antiseptic and analgesic; internally, it improves the general health, increases appetite, improves digestion, and regulates the action of the bowels. Dr. Freund has treated with success cases of chronic parametritis, chronic and sub-acute perimetritis, chronic metritis, salpingitis, erosions of the cervix, cicatrices of the vagina, and prurigo of the external genitals. He prescribes its internal and local use simultaneously.-L' Union Médicale. TREATMENT OF HEMORRHAGE BY COLD WATER.-The treatment of hemorrhoids is advocated anew by Dr. Alvin, in La Semaine Medicale. His method is the simple one of applying the water to the anal region by means of a sponge, but the method will not succeed unless the sponging is kept up for a number of days. If this is done the growths will diminish in size, and there will be a genenal relief of the ordinary unpleasant symptoms, such as pain, tenesmus, pruritus and spasm of the sphincter muscle of the anus when provoked by the congested hemorrhoids. The systematic use of cold water directly after the daily evacuation, and again at bedtime should be the initial treatment. An enema of cold water should be used once or twice daily, if internal hemor rhoids exist. These internal growths tend early to yield under this treatment unless they have attained to an excessive size, or have been strangulated by reason of frequent inflammations and systematic neglect. The neglected cases will as a matter of course, require a longer continuance of the water treatment, but the number which in the end will demand surgical interference will be small.-Exchange. TOBACCO AND ORGANIC LESION OF THE HEART.-In connection with the discussion which occurred at the New York Academy of Medicine at its stated meeting of December 18, 1890, relative to the influence of tobacco upon the system, the President, Dr. A. L. Loomis, thought that when tobacco poisoning reached a point where it produced disturbance of the heart there was something more than functional disturbance; there was a change either in the connective tissue or of the muscular fibres of the heart. Such hearts did not. bear ether or cocaine. He impressed the fact that the heart condition was not functional; it was organic. Dr. A. Jacobi, having elicited from the President the opinion that in such cases there was never, as far as his observation had gone, entire recovery from the heart trouble, said that he could not agree with him. He knew a persons who had had functional disturb- ous surfaces on the back of the arms ance of the heart from tobacco-poisoning became inoculated by contact with an recover entirely after the use of tobacco infected table in the ward. M. Besnier had been discontinued. That was remarked that instances of the contrachope which he thought we should hold tion of syphilis in the wards of an hospiout to our patients, unless it could be tal were extremely rare, it being probashown that the lesion causing the dis- ble that the activity of the virus deturbance was of a nature which did not posited on instruments, furniture, etc., admit of entire recovery. is only of limited duration. The only exception is the frequent transmission of the disease by means of the Eustachian catheter. M. Lailler cited a case where syphilitic infection occurred at a hospital through a vaginal canula in indiscriminate use for all the patients.— Lancet. The President thought Dr. Jacobi had in mind cases of disturbance of the stomach from use of tobacco, which caused reflex irritability of the heart. Dr. Jacobi remarked that the President seemed to know his mistakes better than he knew them himself. He did not believe that he had made a mistake, although he thought there was room for diversity of opinion. He would be very sorry to have patients get the idea that their condition was an organic change in the heart which could not be remedied. Dr. Andrews mentioned a case in which the man was obliged, twenty-five years ago, to give up tobacco on account of disturbance of the heart, and he remained well to-day at 76.-Jour. Am. Med. Asso. utility, likewise, in the irregularity of the heart dependent upon acute pneumonia, bronchitis, or emphysema, but is ineffective in fatty degeneration of the heart: B. Ex. convallariæ flor. fid., fzij. Syrup aurantii, q. s. ad fzij. M. Sig., a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful three times a day. Useful in mitral insufficiency and functional heart disease. R Potassii bitartratis, f3ss. Ext. convallar. flor. fld., fziss. Syr. simplicis, q. s. ad fziv. M. Sig., from one-half to a tablespoonful, in water, three or four times a day. Valuable in general dropsy from neart or kidney disease.-Med. Bull. A NOVEL MODE OF CONTRACTING SYPHILIS.-At a meeting of the Societe de Dermatologie et de Syphiligraphie, M. Feulard reported the case of a man who, having been treated at Saint Louis Hospital for post-scabious eczema, principally of the arms, sought re-admission for syphilitic roseola. Researches made. as to the seat of inoculation of the virus, MURIATE OF AMMONIA IN PNEUrevealed an enlargement of the epitroch- MONITIS.-The utility of muriate of amlear gland, and hard chancres of the monium in pneumonitis is, we believe, posterior surface of the right forearm, of both rationally and empirically demonthe elbow of the same side, and of the strated. That in all diseases in which left elbow, the genital organs being free there is a considerable inflammatory acfrom all sores. It was remarked that the tion there is an excess of fibrin in the chancres corresponded with the points blood, is, presumably granted. No drug which would touch a table when, the or chemical of a non-toxic character is arms being folded, it served as a point so potential a defibrinator of the blood d'appui for those members. It is conse- as muriate of ammonium. We believe, quently surmised that the raw eczemat- as the Germans, that if the fibrin of the lant. It combines these two virtues most happily, more so probably, than any other one substance, or combination of substances. National degeneracy need hardly be feared from the general consumption of hot milk as a constant drink. We can see but one danger in this direction, and that we believe will be fully overcome by having the temperature of the milk, in all cases, carried to the boiling point.-Journal Amer. Med. Asso’n. A NEW DISEASE. Two English physicians-Dr. Hale White and Mr. Golding-Bird-have recently described an affection to which they give the name "Idioglossia." It appears that the patients hear well, and express themselves in articulate sounds, but such sounds are unlike those of any known language. The patients really have a language of their own, in which there does not seem to be any confusion, i. e., the sounds given forth have an intelligent application, and the same sound always has the same meaning The discussion before the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society was varied, some of the members contending that the so-called language of those affected was but a modification of the English tongue, and was to be accounted for by a lack of development in that particular direction.-Jour. Amer. Med. Association. M. et ft. pilulæ No. xij. three to six pills a day.-Med. Bull. INDICATIONS IN THE TREATMENT OF SIMPLE FISTULE.-The chief indication in patients otherwise healthy, is to destroy the accidental tissue which lines A VERY COMMENDABLE FASHION. their internal surface, which, when acOccasionally Fashion-so-called-has the credit of leading the susceptible mind into channels where Health and Vigor follow. This is the case-this is the leading at present in regard to hot milk as a popular beverage. If only the temperance disciples could fully awake to the golden opportunity this "fad" opens! Hot milk is a wonderful food and stimu complished, modifies the condition of their parietis, and, together with enlarging the orifices of the passages, and complete drainage, decidedly favors granulation, cicatrization, obliteration and cure. This may be effected by means of various escharotics, some in the form of fluids, as injections, and others in the solid form. Some of the |