in which opiates are indicated, but in which the 'remedy is worse than the disease.' One case in particular has given me a great deal of trouble for years. I have tried opium in every form, and many other narcotics, alone and in combination; but constipation, nausea and nervous prostration have been the invariable results. Some two months since I obtained some papine and commenced on this case with the happiest effect; no I have nausea, no constipation, no prostration. been prescribing it in my practice since with the greatest satisfaction to myself and my patients."

per cent. solution be employed with a solvent consisting of two parts of glycerine and I part alcohol.

Soluble cayenne is prepared by making 1 pint of tincture from 4 oz. of the whole pods with alcohol, evaporating the alcohol, and mixing the residue with 2 pounds of fine dry salt. The mixture is then passed through a sieve and preserved in bottles. Red saunders is sometimes added in making the tincture to heighten the color of the preparation.

Announcement of the twenty ninth annual session of the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, 1887.

BOOK NOTICES.

The Magazine of American History for April opens with the critical, racy contribution of Dr. Benjamin E. Martin, the well-known magazinist, on "The Transition period of the American Press," which period the intelligent reader need not be told was about the beginning of this century. The leading editors were then largely European exiles, who gloried in the opportunity a new land of free speech afforded, and their characters and methods are sketched with acute discrimination in this honest, searching, dispassionate study. The paper is elegantly illustrated. It is followed by the vigorous and well-told story of "Governor Spotswood's Horseshoe Campaign, 1716, as related to the Romance of Cathay," by Edward Ingle, an account of Early Virginia Exploration that is as fascinating to read as it is useful to understand. The third chapter of this su perb magazine is a brief tribute by the editor to "Henry Ward Beccher," whose fine crayon por. trait is the appropriate frontispiece to the number. The several papers that follow are singularly bright, readable and instructive. Frederic G. Mather writes of "The First Constitution of the State of New York," a timely and refreshing paper; Judge William A. Wood presents in "The Heatherly War' a curious picture of one significant feature of early Western life; Charles H. Peck contributes his third and concluding paper on "John Van Buren: A study in By-Gone Politics," wherein the stirring events of the decade prior to 1858 are ably treated; T. J. Chapma

The

TARTAR EMETIC IN LABOR.-Dr. Caleb Green, of Homer, N. Y., in the Philadelphia Medical Times, says that tartar emetic is one of the most efficient agents in promoting parturition. When the pulse is tense, the os rigid, the skin dry and hot, the advance of the head slow, I have seen, by the use of small doses of antimony, the most prompt and happy change for the better. pulse softens, the skin becomes moist, the rigid os relaxes, the vagina becomes bathed in a plentiful supply of mucus, and the uterine contractions hasten on to a speedy termination of the labor. It is not a substitute for ergot, but it has properties which make it much oftener available as a means of hastening labor to a happy termination. If the dose can be graduated so as to produce its effects as a parturient just short of nausea, and especially short of 'vomiting, the effect seems to be better than where vomiting occurs.

Dandelion root is recommended by Dr. Steiger, of Switzerland, as a true hepatic in chronic gastric catarrh, enlargement of the liver from chronic congestion, or fatty infiltration in jaundice and obesity. He prepared a decoction from a handful of fresh green roots in 700 to 800 grams of water, and obtained 500 grams of fluid, to which a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda was added. The decoction was taken in three doses during the forenoon. The course lasted three or four weeks. Dr. Steiger recommends Plummer's pills as an energetic alterative and absorbent in cases of syphilis in weak persons and children; in scroiula with swollen glands, and in obscure cerebral diseases with paralysis of the abducens, headache and giddiness -British Med. Jour.

Mix the white of egg and glycerine together, add the oil of turpentine and shake thoroughly; then add the syrup and, lastly, the water, shaking them well together. This makes a nice emulsion, and is easily made and as perinanent as any turpentine emulsion. A teaspoonful dose will contain about eight minims of turpentine.

TRICHIASIS.—The only successful treatment of trichiasis, where the mal-directed hairs are of good size and length, is to transfer them by passing a fine curved needle into the distal edge of the

Sig. One drachm every two hours.

QUINSY AS A RHEUMATISM.-Dr. J. L. Knox (Chicago Med. Jour. and Exam., Feb., 1886) concludes from a study of fifty examples, that acute tonsilitis is usually a rheumatic inflammation, and that eighty per centum of the cases are curable with anti rheumatic remedies. He recom mends sodium salicylate and warm alkaline

gargles

PEPSIN IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETES.-The late Surgeon-Major E B. Gardner has recorded a case illustrating the benefit of pepsin in diabetes mellitus. It may be given with other drugs, and it has the advantage of enabling the medical man to dispense with some of the more irksome of the Ciet restrictions. His patient was a native of India, aged thirty, who had suffered from diabetes for about two years, and was blind from cataract. He was restricted to milk or buttermilk, bran bread, and meat two or three times a week; and five grains of pepsin were given twice a day. The urine immediately diminished in quantity, and became of lower specific gravity; and at the end of six weeks the man was so far improved that, though not well, he was able to take starchy and saccharine substances with impunity. The only other treatment adopted was an occasional small dose of castor oil, and pure distilled water ad libitum colored with permanganate of potassium to satisfy the patient that he was having enough medicine. The advantages claimed for this addi tion to treatment are:

I. That it can be given in addition to other remedies, and during observance of dietetic rules.

2. That it permits a relaxation of strict rules of diet before they become injurious.

3. That it never causes, but frequently relieves, any troublesome concomitant affections of the skin.-London Practitioner.

The following formula for boracic acid ointment is taken from the Canadian Practitioner: .1 part;

Boracic acid.......... Yellow wax...................... ........ ...I part; Benzoinated lard............6 parts. Reduce the acid to an impalpable powder by trituration with a few drops of rectified spirit, add the wax and lard, previously melted together, rubbing them to a smooth ointment. When applied this ointment allows the discharge from a wound to escape, moreover, it comes away clean, leaving none adhering to the skin.

URINARY INCONTINENCE OF CHILDREN TREAT ED BY SUPPOSITORIES.-Dr. E. T. Williams (Bostou Medical and Surgical Journal): Morphine alone relieves for the time being, but does not cure. Belladonna and atropia are curative, when continued long enough, though better borne in combination with a little morphine, which count

eracts some of their bad effects, and enables them to be given more continuously. The requisite dose of belladonna is smalier than whenc ombined with morphine. When these medicines produce headache or nervous excitability, I use the bromides as a corrective, or suspend their 'administration for a time. I have found no case where they could not be borne when properly given. A fifteen-grain suppository of cacao butter should contain, for a child five years old, one eighth of a grain of belladonna extract and one-sixteenth grain of morphine; but the doses must be carefully adapted to the particular case in hand, beginning with a small dose, with a small relative proportion of belladonna, and increasing the latter and diminishing the morphine as toleration becomes established.

PAINFUL MENSTRUATION..

In a communication to the Medical and Surgical Reporter, Dr. Nefe, of Whetstone, Ohio, says: Having found the following formula a good one in cases of amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhoea, I send it for publication, thinking perhaps some of your readers might be seeking for something of the kind. It is not a specific, but the nearest approach to it of anything I have ever found for the above named difficulties. For a four-ounce mixture:

B. Fl. ext. cimicifuga,........
Fl. ext. pulsatilla,

...

.3 ss; ..3 ss-j.

I find the recipe of most use in women of a nervous temperament. Of course, if there is any self-evident cause for the menstrual trouble, that should be removed; but we often find the trouble existing in young girls in whom the flow is imperfectly established, and who will not consent to an examination.

Hoping others may have tie success with this that I have had, I will only add that the formula is not original with me, but given me by a fellow practitioner, and it may have been published before.

One Dollar Per Annum, in Advance.

Single Copies, Ten Cents.

VOL. IX.

No. 3.

[For the Summary.]

REMOVAL OF HAIR FROM THE FACE. ELECTROLYSIS CONTINUED. A RIGHT AND A WRONG WAY.

BY R. W. ST. CLAIR, M. D., BROOKLYN, N. y.

Some claim that removal of hair by electricity is not electrolysis. They claim that the heat generated in the needle by the passage of the electric current is the active agent in the destruction of the follicles, and the term electrolysis is a misnomer. One claims the term "akido galvano cautery" as a more correct term. Now while it is true that in this operation, the temperature is slightly raised by its resistance to the galvanic current, it is not raised to such a degree as to be caustic in its action. The frothing at the mouth of the follicles shows plainly that there is decomposition of water and salts contained in the tissues, taking place around the needle, consequently the escape of hydrogen. This is electrolysis. Some operators use two needles, some use one large needle, and some pull the hair out and insert the needle afterwards. The operation is a simple one, and any physician with a steady hand, and a good eye, can do it. The modus operandi that will give the most satisfaction to the operator, and patient as well, is this: Have a small gaivanic battery, of from ten to fifteen milliamperes, (though you will not need more than one-half of that when the battery is fresh) give the posative pole,

armed with an electrode covered with sponge, to the patient to hold in the hand, and a conductor froin the negative pole, leading to a switch on the floor, to be worked with the foot. Another conductor leading from the switch, armed with an electrode holding the needle. Instead of a needle I now use a broach, the same as used by jewellers, (called a reamer by some) this is fine, and three square, and best of all it is quite flexible. Put. the patient in an easy position, with a rest for the head, and in a good light. Insert the needle (broach) beside the hair, (this causes no pain) and then press the foot on the switch, and complete the circuit. The electrolytic action causes a slight stinging pain to the patient, but not enough to cause them to flinch. You will now see a slight hyperaemia around the needle, which soon gives place to a blanching of the skin, and a white froth will ooze from the mouth of the follicle. In ten seconds grasp the hair with a pair of forceps, and if the needle has been properly inserted the hair will be loose. If not loose in a few seconds more you will be able to pick it out easily. Now lift the foot and break the circuit, and go for another hair. Never take the needle away till after you lift the foot, as it will cause a severe shock and frighten your patient. It is not a good plan to take out more than fifty, or at the most, more than seventy-five hairs at one seance, as it is hard on the eyes and nerves of both operator and patient. It is best to skip around and take a hair here and there, and go over the same ground the next time, the same way, till all are