INSOLATION. This is termed the electric bath, and it affords a good illustration that static electricity is conducted to the patient by one pole. I use a chair placed on a small platform, insulated from the floor, by large glass balls held by a claw. This I connect to the prime conductor, by a chain. When the patient sits in the chair he is insulated. That is, he is separated from direct communication with the earth. As electricity is generated and condensed in the Leyden jars, it is conducted to the patient without any painful sensation, and is silently discharged from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. This is very pleasant to the patient, there being a feeling of warmth, and the hair of the head will stand on end, and after a time persperation will start, and if continued long enough, he will become sleepy. This is the electric bath, or static electricity by silent conduction. SPARKS.-Electricity may be passed through the body in the following manner: Insulate as for the electric bath, and when the patient is fully charged, sparks may be drawn from any part of the body by holding an electrode (that is attached to the earth) near the part the spark is to be drawn from. To attach the electrode to the earth, (a good way is to connect the chain to the gaspipe or any iron rod that goes to the ground.) The spark from a large ball, gives much less pain. than where a small ball is used to the end of the electrode. Sparks are administered to excite muscular contractility, to excite the organs of special sense, and to stimulate the skin. In the pains of neuralgia, the sparks will give relief in nearly every case, in a few minutes. In rheumatic pains, both chronic and sub-acute, it will give relief almost instantly; and will last for from ten to twelve hours. When it returns it will be less severe, and when again treated, will remain away longer each time till cured. I will give only one case in point, that of myself. I was stopping in Buffalo, and was taken with a very severe pain in the left side. It continued all day and night; the next morning I could not take a full breath, and was in the most intense agony. A full dose of morphia gave me little if any relief. I went to see Dr. Foster, who had a fine McIntosh machine, and took my seat in his insulated chair. The Doctor gave me the spark through my clothing for ten minutes, when the pain all left and did not again return. Our next and last paper will speak of the Static induced current, and electric surgery. [For the Summary.] MEDICAL CHIPS. GATHERED UP BY A. LIVEZEY, A. M., M. D., YARDLEY, PA. TRICHINOSIS.-A citizen of New York, who kept an open house for New Year's callers, had for lunch sandwiches of thin slices of uncooked pork sausage. Everyone who partook of the pork sausage was attacked to a greater or less degree with the trichina disease, symptoms similar to typhoid fever, colicky diarrhoea with large ac cumulation of gas, very high fever and temperature, profuse perspiration, swelling of some parts of the body were prominent symptoms, especially of the face, each side of the nose, the hands, feet and ankles. It required months for them to regain their normal health. None died. They were treated by calomel and to this agent success is attributed-the poison of one being destructive to the trichinæ of the alimentary canal. Query-Could not this be effected by other safer and more direct agents? ENLARGED TONSILS.-Dr. Stallard, of Col., holds that in large tonsils there is very frequently an enlargement of the liver, which has a great deal to do with the enfeebled health of the patient, and he further thinks that the great amount of sweets consumed by children derange the whole glandular system and contributes largely to te number of cases of chronic enlargment of the tonsils that we meet with. The writer is satisfied that the excessive use of sweetmeats in the form of candies, etc., is quite injurious to the health of children and the cause of much poor health. Deafness often attends enlarged tonsils and is generally due to adenoid growths in the pharynx pressing upon the eustachian tubes. UTERINE HEMORRHAGE.—In a discussion upon this subject Dr. Kenyon believed that many cases of post partem hemorrhage were due to the pernicious custom of keeping up traction upon the cord, the danger of which was manifest before uterine contractions ensued. The physician should wait (Dr. Stallard) till the uterus has recovered its vigor. Dr. Anderson gives vinegar by mouth (dose not given) and finds it a very ef ficient agent in promoting contraction. Several physicians present believed "that in post partem hemorrhage nothing was so efficient as hot water." TO INDUCE RESPIRATION IN A STILL-BORN INFANT. The child is laid upon the palms of the doctor, and then repeatedly tossed with a quick motion, while the placenta is still attached. The rapid movement makes the arms fly up, thus lifting the chest walls, and the infant takes air with a sudden sob. It is a rough and ready method, but highly successful. MASSAGE. This is no novelty or new treatment. Sir Attley Cooper when he failed with a stiff joint sent it to a rubber near Cambridge. For ages the Turks have used massage in various forms. The Japanese employed a similar process, filliping the surface of the skin till it became black and blue, with excellent results. A case of intractable sciatica was sent to a woman in county Meath, Ireland, and under her treatment rubbing within outward over the sciatic nerve he recovered. She had never heard of Dr. Weir Mitchell. In fact In fact she had practiced massage long years before his little work was written. Massage has been long practiced in the East under the term "hand grasping." Further proof that there's nothing new under the sun. and he claims good results. So we go; we are a wonderful progressive profession, surely. OLD REMEDIES BECOMING NEW.-It was a long time before lobelia was recognized by the profession-before anything good was found to belong to it. Now one of our leading professors thinks lobelina will become the most valuable of our cardiac sedatives-regulator of the heart's action. I wrote up the value of lobelia in surgery, obstetrics and practice over thirty years ago; also the valuable properties of hydrastis can., both of which were almost unnoticed then and since by regular practitioners. But now Prof. Bartholow has discovered their great merits and written the latter up especially, and what I and Prof. Dodd, (V. S.,) wrote a third of century ago will be credited to others. Well, who cares? The tincture of calendule flavas I have tried to force upon the profession for forty years as a dressing for wounds, but it will require some one higher in the profession to give it a hurrah, boys! So also the distilled extract of hamamelis (white liquid of witch hazel) is a valuable local application in very many affections, and is my handy and ever ready "eyewater" in all cases where a mild "water" is called for. But it is a homeopathic cure all. Oh ! yes, therefore we regulars should not touch it. THE LIMITATIONS OF OUR SENSES. TREATMENT OF WHOOPING COUGH.-Dr. Mon- have to do with an affection of the nose We cannot see under a certain size or beyond a certain distance; the retina makes no accounting of the photographic dark beyond the violet, and knows naught of the heat dark this side the red; in the world of unheard sound about us some notes we cannot hear because they are too high and some because they are too low; we live in a world of odors, of which, to our grave loss, we smell a bare hundredth part of what a healthy dog smells-these limitations we daily act upon, and the use of all instruments of precision rests Subscribe for the MEDICAL SUMMARY and get your friends to do likewise. Terms, $1 per year in advance. CLASS-ROOM NOTES. For constipation in infants, use equal parts strained oatmeal gruel and milk. If this does not act efficiently, try from 3ss-3j of sodii phos In obstinate hiccough, always suspect aneurism, phas in twenty four hours.-Parvin. and carefully examine for such. In artificial feeding of infants, it is of prime importance to be scrupulously clean with the nursing bottles. It is always best to have two bottles, and thus one can be kept in a cleansing solution. of sodii bicarb. or sodii salicylas during the intervals of feeding; do not have a long tube attached to nipple. To properly examine a woman's breast she should be lying on her back. If examined in any other position, it can be so manipulated as to convert it into any tumor. When on her back, examine by pressing the tips of the fingers back through the breast against the chest walls, and not by pinching the structures up between the fingers. -Prof. Gross. In a case of albuminuria, probably due to chronic parenchymatous nephritis, Prof. Bartholow prescribed the following: Trinitin, gtt. j every four hours, up to tolerance; tinct. ferri chloridi, gtt. xv four times a day; also "cream-of-tartar" lemonade, made by adding 3j of cream tartar to Oj water, with sufficient lemon and sugar. For thread-worms, at night give gr. j of calomel and gr. ij-iv of santonin; the following morning inject a cleansing enema of water, and follow this by the infusion of quassia. To destroy the ova hidden in the folds of the anus and adjoining parts, apply locally a one per cent. solution of carbolic acid by sponge; never use the acid as an injection, however. The fluid contents of an ovarian cyst always contain cholesterine, which is never found in the contents of a cystic fibroid. Hence when in doubt as to the character of the tumor, the microscope proves a ready means of diagnosis. Prof. Bartholow speaks quite highly of iodide of ethyl for asthma. It should be inhaled from a bottle, being vaporized by the heat of the hand, the patient breathing strongly and deeply; this should be continued each sitting until a hot, stuffy sensation is experienced in the chest. At times it may cause coughing. Asthmatics should, as a rule, take a light supper, to avert the attack which is usually nocturnal.-College and Clinical Rec ord. Etiology. It is estimated that one-third of the human race die before they reach the fifth year of their life, and a very large percentage of these premature deaths are the results of serous diarrhoea and cholera infantum. Improper food is one main factor in the production of this disease. Bad air doubtless aids in the production of this disease. Poor ventilation also has much to do with the prevalence of this catarrhal gastro enteritis, called summer complaint, cholera infantum and diarrhoea. Impure milk aids in producing this irritable condition of the mucous surface of the stomach and bowels. Overfeeding is a very fruitful source of this disease. Teething, with improper food, often produces this irritable state of the mucous membrane, causing serous exuda tion in the gastric and intestinal canal. Indigestion in children (the result of too much, or too rich a diet) gives rise to great many cases of this mucous irritability. This summer we have had an epidemic of those diseases consequent upon this mucous irritation. And I have treated my share of the diseases, and that without the loss of but very few cases. I usually commence with ipecacuanha (tinct.) in doses of 1 to 2 gtts., repeated every half hour until the vomiting is checked. If this fail in one or two days, then I give 1⁄2 to 1 gtt. euphorbia cor. every half hour until the vomiting is checked, and if the stools are green, I coutinue it, and give iris vers. in doses of 1⁄2 to 2 gtts, according to the age of the child, repeated every hour, until the stools become of proper color, and less frequent. In cases of diarrhoea, without the vomiting, I very frequently alternate the euphorbia with the iris versicolor, and if these fail in 24 hours, then I use the compound syrup of rheubarb. If there is colicky pains with the diarrhoea, then I give 1 gtt. of colocynth with the syrup of rheubarb in each dose. There is a question as to the early viability of the foetus, upon which subject I may state that my experience (which was considerable) amongst the coal miners' families of Pennsylvania. I found that no rule of time could be depended upon. We must take into consideration the class of people from whence this foetus cometh, we must also consider hereditary influences, which would have a tendancy to destroy or diminish the great nervo vital force of human life. When we have weak, delicate parents, who have been raised from childhood having all the luxuries of this world, whose physical and nervous forces are diminished, I then do not think it possible for us to make any law in these cases for the early viability of the fœtus. Many of our statistics (which I am sorry to write) have shown us that specific diseases (especially syphilis) predominates in the higher circles of society, which must naturally leave behind itself more or less lesions throughout the system to alter the vital functions, and thereby cause a change in the laws which we might form that governs nature in its mighty works. If mankind would act according to the knowledge given to him by his Creator, then we could be more exact and form a law much more reliable. We have the offspring from the neurasthenic patient, the epileptic, also many others whose nervous force is reduced. Now, can we, under these circumstances, make a law, which is positive (if it is not positive it is of no use to us). When the spermatic secretion, or the ovum of the female does not possess its proper vital force, or the works of nature are interfered with during pregnancy, then our law of time, of early viability (if we form one) will decieve us. I do not consider that thus far we can make a law on this subject, that each practitioner must judge from his own knowledge, considering all circumstances, and then pass his opinion according to that case. How easy to form laws, but how easy is it, gentlemen, to get them to not fail, when the moment comes for a scientific and positive reply. THE HYPODERMIC SYRINGE.-Dr. Whitwell, of Cal, in an able lecture on the opium habit, says of this instrument: "Whether it will prove more of a blessing or a curse to mankind is still an unsolved problem." It is a hobby-a craze of the medical profession. "The other day (he says) I took up a practice of medicine written by an eminent professor, and at random read off the treatment recommended in a dozen different diseases. In ten of these morphia given hypodermically was strongly advised." Yes, if a man has colic or severe cramps from pork or boiled cabbage, a little morphia in solution is squirted beneath a pinched up fold of the cuticule. If a child has spasms from eating a pint (more or less) of peanuts, this little syringe is used, etc. The cause of the pain, cramps, spasms,etc., is never inquired into; temporary relief is obtained at the expense of more or less subsequent injury. I believe it is "a minute instrument of mighty mischief." "The treatment of pulmonary diseases by gaseous enemeta is another craze." How poor old Thompson and his disciples over fifty years ago were hooted at for the treatment or relief of many diseases by injections. Their practice was much more plausible and rational than that which is now being extolled by their enemies' descendants. I'm prone to ask myself, "is there really any science in the practice of physic ?" "What a conglomeration of methods of cure we now-adays have." Dr. Wood suggests that the benefits are due to the local action of sulphur on the bronchial mucous membrane during eliminatation of the gas (sulphuretted hydrogen). Whether the fact was known that the lungs eliminated sulphur from the blood, the older practitioners, very many years ago, administered sulphur in sub-acute and chronic bronchitis. And in Scotland one of the most common household remedies for that affection is a mixture of small doses of sulphur, whiskey and sugar, repeated at short intervals. Eight grain doses of sulphur daily were strongly recommended by Duelos as a cure for asthma, and Dr. Graves found benefit from the use of |