NEW YORK. veneration of the entire community, and, a public- mens, which nearly killed him. He had been a dipspirited citizen of the noblest type, he always took an somaniac from the time he was able to imbibe alcohol active part in all projects to promote the general wel in any form. fare. Thus he was scarcely less prominent than the late Dr. James R. Wood in the reorganization of the city almshouse and hospital system in 1845, which resulted in the foundation of Bellevue Hospital, and he was also instrumental, to a large extent, in securing the reorganization of the Health Department, which was previously altogether inefficient. He was closely identified with the temperance movement, and in 1865 he was appointed to succeed Dr. Valentine Mott as president of the State Inebriate Asylum at Binghampton, the first establishment ever founded for the treatment of drunkenness as a disease. In 1870 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Princeton College. Among his contributions to surgical science were the operation of cystotomy in chronic cystitis, an operation for the repair of rupture of the periuæum and sphincter ani, which involved the division of the coccygeal attachments of the sphincter, and an operation for the cure of abscess of the appendix vermiformis, while he was also the first to direct attention to concussion of the nerves as distinguished from con cussion of the nerve centres. The funeral services were held April 28th at the University Place Presbyterian Church, and, in accordance with Dr. Parker's expressed wish, were of a very simple nature. The church was filled with his medical and other friends, all the various societies to which he belonged being represented, and the pallbearers were eight grandchildren of the deceased. On the day following the remains were taken for interment to New Canaan, Conn., where for a number of years Dr. Parker had owned a country residence and farm, and spent a considerable portion of his time. MEDICAL NOTES. Etherization by the rectum has been tried with success at the Boston City Hospital in several cases. The Senate of Massachusetts has passed a bill requiring life insurance companies within the State to remove the discrimination in tariff which they have heretofore maintained against negroes. It seems improbable that legislation of this sort can effect any good object. The former rules of the insurance companies were in no sense an oppression of the colored race. If the rates were higher to them it was because experience had shown that their expectation of life was not so good as that of whites, and all that remains now for the companies is to decline to accept risks on negroes at all, which is no great gain to the latter. Such laws, if not mere political buncombe, are examples of legislation undertaking to fix the price of commodities, and are not likely to prove particularly successful. A case of delirium tremens is reported in the British journals occurring in a boy in Dublin at the age of eight. He stole a quantity of whiskey and drank it, thereby acquiring an attack of delirium tre The governors of the New York Hospital Society, which has under its charge the Chambers Street branch, and the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, as well as the main hospital on Fifteenth Street, have presented their one hundred and thirteenth annual report to the Legislature. From the insane department thirty-six patients, fifteen men and twenty-one women, were discharged during the year cured, and thirtyeight improved, ten of whom bade fair to recover under sufficiently protracted treatment. During the summer and autumn months excursion parties of patients, varying in number from teu to forty, of both sexes, were taken semi-weekly, either to one of the more retired sea-side resorts or to the asylum farm at White Plains, and with the exception of the drowning of a young man while in bathing, which was an unavoidable accident, no untoward event occurred; while the amount of pleasure and healthful benefit derived by the participants was undoubtedly very considerable. Twelve patients, four men and eight women, accompanied by their attendants, were boarded in private families in the country for periods varying from a few weeks to three months, and this also proved beneficial to them. It is stated that ten of the twelve, although well satisfied with their accommodations while away, were glad to return to the institution. Dr. Nichols, the medical superintendent, advises that as there is a great want of available skill in the personal care of the insane during the periods when they are from necessity or choice treated at their homes, a course of from three to six months in institutions for the insane should be added to the curriculum of the training schools for nurses. In furtherance of this idea he offers to give the graduating nurses of the New York Hospital school this extra course, which he thinks would be of benefit to the asylum as well as the nurses. No mechanical restraint was used during the whole year; although it was found necessary to keep one patient, a man of powerful frame suffering from acute mania, secluded most of the time, as the best means to husband his strength and secure the safety of others. - At a meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment held April 21st $138,710, from the excise fund, was distributed among various charitable iustitutions in the city. Of this sum the St. John's Guild and Floating Hospital received $2300; the New York Diet Kitchen Association, $1175; the House of Rest for Consumptives, $1094; St. Luke's Hospital, $4312; St. Francis' Hospital, $7656; Mount Sinai Hospital, $4250; the German Hospital, $4541; St. Vincent's Hospital, $1975; the Presbyterian Hospital, $2687; St. Mary's Free Hospital for Children, $1531; the Woman's Hospital, $1852; St. Joseph's Hospital, $1500; the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, $2208; the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, $1439; the New York Orthopaedic Dispensary, $2220; and six of the other dispensaries $1000 each. The Purim ball, 66 which was given a few weeks since at the new Metropolitan Opera House in aid of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, netted the very handsome sum of $14,150. In the early part of April one of those pretentious and thoroughly fire-proof" apartment-houses, of unnumbered stories in height, which have recently sprung up like mushrooms all over New York, was almost completely burned up, and although the fire occurred at midday several of the occupants barely escaped with their lives. If it had taken place in the night the loss of life would undoubtedly have been considerable, and as it was the new life-saving scaling ladders (in the use of which a corps of the Fire Department has been specially drilled, and the efficiency of which were on this occasion practically tested for the first time) had to be employed for the rescue of the elevator boy, who was at the top of the house, and whose escape was cut off by the dense smoke. Since then a bill has been passed by the State Senate, entitled An Act to Regulate the Height of DwellingHouses in the City of New York, and for the better Preservation of Health in said Houses, which provides that the height of dwellings shall be proportionate to the width of the streets in which they are built, as is the case in Paris, and as Dr. Van der Poel suggested as a requirement by law in a recent report of the Committee on Hygiene of the County Medical Society. A resolution has also been introduced into the New York Board of Aldermen providing that on streets and avenues not exceeding sixty feet in width the houses shall not exceed sixty feet in height, and in streets and avenues exceeding sixty feet in width they shall not be more than seventy feet in height. Correspondence. A NEW ANTISEPTIC DRESSING. WORCESTER, MASS., April 23, 1884. MR. EDITOR,Since the first week of February last I have been treating compound fractures and operation wounds at our City Hospital with what I suppose to be a new form of dressing. It is certainly simple, its essential elements being but two in number, the "absorbent sheet lint," supplied by Dennison & Co., and a glycerine jelly containing bichloride of mercury. An ounce of gelatine is softened in cold water enough to cover it, then a pound of glycerine is added, and the mixture kept hot until it becomes homogeneous; meanwhile twelve grains of the sublimate is added, and promptly dissolves. This jelly is quite fluid at 110° F., but is firm at ordinary temperatures. Once prepared it can be kept indefinitely in a glass jar. I closely cover the wound with one or more layers of the absorbent lint dampened with one five-thousandth | solution of the sublimate, and over this brush or pour the warm fluid jelly. This instantly fills the meshes of the lint, and makes an air-tight and germ-tight seal to the wound. Outside of this I bind a thick layer of dry sublimated absorbent lint or cotton. I have found it couvenient to prepare, in advance, broad strips of the lint by passing them through the hot jelly; the lint comes out quite heavily charged, and for convenience of handling is laid at once upon a broader strip of dry sublimated lint to which it adheres as it cools. This keeps very well in a tight jar, and for any fairly even surface this makes an excellent dressing, not requiring to be warmed. this dressing a wound may remain aseptic, and heal as The cases reported show that under either form of well as under the Lister dressing. Under it I have not yet found it necessary to use drainage tubes, as there has been no exudation or suppuration. I think this will be found a convenient and useful dressing in hospital and private practice. It is simple, light, clean, odorless, comfortable, and, so far as my experience has gone, it is thoroughly antiseptic. GEORGE E. FRANCIS, M. D. Miscellany. : A CASE OF PUSTULA MALIGNA. DR. A. C. GRIFFIN, in the New York Medical Journal (April 12th), describes a case of septic poisoning which, in his opinion, was malignant pustule, caused by the bite of a green-bottle fly which had been feeding on a heap of offal. The fly bit the patient on his cheek sufficiently to draw blood, and was killed by a friend. The following day the patient presented himself with a swelling on the cheek at a point corresponding with the bite, the appearances of which are thus described: On examination the swelling was found to be of a somewhat circular form, about twenty-five mm. in diameter, and extending through the whole thickness of the cheek, implicating the skin and mucous membrane, to which it was firmly adherent. The swelling was indurated to such an extent as to greatly resemble the ivory hardness of carcinoma. It was extremely sensitive to pressure, and the patient complained of very severe lancinating pains radiating through it. In the centre of this swelling, fifteen mm. above and twenty mm. external to the ala of the nose, was situated a small ulcer, which was covered by a closely adherent layer of pus of a grayish, unhealthy appearance. Surrounding the ulcer was a wide areola of an angry red, erysipelatous hue. The cervical and submaxillary lymphatics were enlarged and tender to pressure. Pulse 120, temperature 103.2° F., tongue slightly coated, violent headache, and complete anorexia. The patient complained of great prostration, excessive nervousness, and an extreme fear of impending death. The ulcer was cauterized with pure carbolic acid, cooling lotions applied, and quinine and alcohol freely administered, with sufficient morphia to relieve pain. On the following day the condition of the patient was much worse, the induration had greatly enlarged in size, extending from the upper lip to the orbital cavity, also implicating the nose, being fully sixty mm. in diameter. The ulcer had also increased by a process of sloughing to a diameter of twenty mm.; the destruction of tissue was quite extensive, as the ulcer extended nearly through the thickness of the cheek. The edges of the ulcer were composed of exuberant granulations, quite protuberant, and bled quite freely from the slightest contact, aud from the cavity thus formed there was a profuse discharge of a thin, ichorous fluid of a peculiarly offensive odor. Delirium now supervened. Pulse 140, temperature 104.8° F., tougue heavily coated with a brownish-yellow fur, the bowels were constipated, the cervical lymphatics were very much en cision (which was confirmed on appeal by the Tribunal of the Seine), but on the latter point the Society of Legal Medicine appointed a committee to prepare a report. This report was presented by Dr. Leblonde, and while condemning the attempts of irregular praetitioners to attract sterile women by means of adver tisements of an operation for their relief, it indorses the operation when performed by an honorable physician who resorts to it only under well-determined con device, which, instead of creating a social danger, may conduce to the extension of the family without in the least offending modesty. larged, quite tender to pressure, and threatening suppuration; the patient meanwhile complained constantly of severe pain. Pure carbolic acid was again applied to the ulcer to destroy the exuberant granulations, and to prevent, if possible, further septic absorption. Poultices were applied over the swelling, morphine, quinine, and alcohol were given in increased doses; a mild cathartic was also administered. The patient grew progressively worse until the sixth day from the receipt of the bite, when his condition was one of ex-ditions, and with discretion, as a perfectly acceptable · treme prostration, with very little hopes of recovery. The treatment had consisted of thorough cauterization of the ulcer each day, poultices to the swelling, and the free use of alcohol and quinine, with sufficient morphine to allay the pain. By the aid of this free stimulation the patient was enabled to overcome the virulence of the septic inoculation, and on the seventh day his condition had slightly improved. The induration became somewhat softer and slightly diminished in size, the ulcer began to assume a healthy appearance, normal granulations sprang up covered with laudable pus, and the areola had become less vivid in color. From this time on the case progressed favorably, the induration of the cheek and the swelling of the glands subsided, the cavity left by the ulcer filled up and healed, leaving a moderate-sized cicatrix, and the patient's general condition advanced steadily toward its normal standard. Though the clinical evidence in this case seems to point to malignant pustule, no examination was made for the presence of the bacillus, nor was any experiment made by inoculation. In view of the comparative infrequency of this disease in this country it is to be regretted that this confirmatory evidence was not ob tainable. A similar case, also resulting from the bite of a fly upon the cheek, was reported in the Gazette des Hôpitaux, No. 102, having occurred in the service of M. Mollière at the Hôtel Dieu at Lyons. Energetic treatment by thermo-cautery and the injection of the swollen parts with twenty per cent. solution of carbolic acid caused a slough which was complete in a week and was followed by rapid healing. Here the blood and serum in the vicinity of the pustule showed a few filaments of the bacillus anthracis, and an inoculation practiced therewith produced death in a few hours with signs of specific gangrenous infection. Reviewing the conditions essential to, impregnation, the report says that when the two necessary elements are both existent and of normal quality a mechanical ob stacle may interfere with their contact, due to malformations of the male or female organs of generation, such as hypospadias, uterine deviations, atresia cervicis, etc., and that in such cases artificial impregnation is equally legitimate with other surgical measures for the overcoming of the obstacle. For this operation he quotes as authority Courty, Pajot, De Sinéty, Lutaud, Eustache, Marion Sims, Gaillard Thomas. The method of Pajot, in the opinion of the reporter, is preferable on the ground of simplicity and decency. Of the success of the manœuvre nothing is said in the report, but the implication is made that the accomplishment of the desired result is an easier matter than we are inclined to think has been the experience of American gynecologists. The conclusion of the report was as follows: "So far from condemning artificial fecundation, as does the Tribunal of Bordeaux, we are disposed to encourage it as tending to perpetuate the species and furnishing to the family joys which it could not otherwise experience. However, we are of the opinion that the operation ought not to be attempted except at the express request of the persons interested, and after assurance of the quality of the seminal fluid furnished by the husband." To this the Society added by unanimous vote this amendment: "An honorable physician ought not to take the initiative in proposing the operation of artifi cial impregnation, but neither ought he to refuse to practice it at the request of the interested persons." THE MORAL BEARINGS OF ARTIFICIAL IM PREGNATION. THE CRYPTA SYPHILITICA. 66 WE wonder how Professor Hayem will feel when in Gaillard's Monthly, in an article by Ephraim Cutter THE French journals have been commenting freely (reprinted in the Therapeutic Gazette, and in pamphlet during the past few weeks on a decision rendered by form by a prominent pharmacist), he sees his hæmatothe Tribunal of Bordeaux in regard to a case of artifi- blasts depicted as embryonal forms of vegetative cial impregnation. A physician had employed this spores" of the "crypta syphilitica!" It is added that device with the consent of a childless couple, but un-in the diagram they are immovable, but in the blood successfully. Not being paid, he brought suit for the amount of his fee, and detailed in court the steps of the treatment. This evidence the court held to be in contravention of the requirements of professional secrecy, and at the same time went a step further and pronounced against the performance of artificial fecundation as being repugnant to natural law, and capable in cases of abuse of causing a real social danger. On the former point, the violation of professional confidence, the general opinion seemed to support the de just removed from the stream of a syphilitic, and viewed under a one-sixteenth-inch first-class Tolles' immersion objective they appear as auto-mobile globes, active with life, skurrying hither and thither with the ceaseless, playing motions of protoplasmic life." Marvelous are the powers of Stillingia! Professor Hayem will be pleased to learn that these little highly refrac tive bodies, so well described in his treatise on the blood, can be entirely removed by a course of McDade's syrup! Deaths reported 2424 (no reports from St. Louis, New Orleans, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and Providence): under five years of age, 848; principal infectious diseases (small-pox, measles, diphtheria, and croup, whooping-cough, erysipelas, fevers, and diarrhoeal diseases) 368, lung diseases 371, consumption 352, diphtheria and croup 101, scarlet fever 64, diarrhoeal diseases 41, typhoid fever 36, measles 24, whooping-cough 23, erysipelas 16, malarial fevers 11, cerebro-spinal meningitis 10, puerperal fever eight, typhus fever one. From typhoid fever, Philadelphia 12, Chicago and Boston four each, New York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati three each, Brooklyn two, Pittsburg, Nashville, Lowell, Springfield, and New Bedford one each. From measles, Philadelphia five, Baltimore eight, New York and Chicago four each, Brooklyn three. From whooping-cough, New York seven, District of Columbia three, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and Cincinnati two each, Pittsburg, Worcester, and Brookline one each. From erysipelas, New York seven, Brooklyn four, Boston two, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Newton one each. From puerperal fever, Brooklyn and District of Columbia two each, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and Nashville one each. From malarial fevers, New York five, Brooklyn four, Balti more two. From cerebro-spinal meningitis, Chicago two, New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, District of Columbia, Nashville, From smallFall River, Cambridge, and Fitchburg one each. por, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cincinnati one each. From typhus fever, New York one. One case of small-pox was reported in Cincinnati; scar let fever 58, diphtheria 19, typhoid fever two, and measles one. In cities and towns of Massachusetts, with an estimated population of (estimated population of the State 1,955,104), the total death-rate for the week was against and for the previous two weeks. In the 28 great towns of England and Wales, with an estimated population of 8,762,354, for the week ending April 5th, the death-rate was 22.7. Deaths reported 3809: acute diseases of the respiratory organs (London) 357, whooping-cough 184, measles 143, scarlet fever 75, fever 41, diarrhoea 37, diphtheria 28, small-pox (London 13, Birmingham three, Liverpool and Sunderland two each, Newcastle one) 21. The deathrates ranged from 14.3 in Brighton to 36.2 in Oldham; Leicester 16.5; Birkenhead 17.8; Bradford 18.9; London 21.9; Sheffield 22.4; Birmingham 23.3; Liverpool 23.6; Newcastle-onTyne 24.5; Nottingham 26.9; Leeds 28.1; Manchester 30.4. In Edinburgh 23.7; Glasgow 26.2; Dublin 29.6. For the week ending April 5th, in the Swiss towns, there were 36 deaths from lung diseases, consumption 33, typhoid fever 25, diphtheria and croup 18, diarrhoeal diseases 13, whooping-cough eight, scarlet fever two, erysipelas two, measles one. The death-rates were, at Geneva 20.4; Zurich 19.7; Basle 21.7; Berne 33.3. The meteorological record for the week ending April 19th, in Boston, was as follows, according to observations fur nished by Sergeant O. B. Cole, of the U. S. Signal Corps: 1 O., cloudy; C., clear; F., fair; G., fog; H., hazy; S., smoky; R., rain; T., threatening. OFFICIAL LIST OF CHANGES IN THE STATIONS AND DUTIES OF OFFICERS SERVING IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT UNITED STATES ARMY FROM APRIL 19, 1884, TO APRIL 25, 1884. 49.48 1.69 HOFF, JOHN VAN R., captain and assistant surgeon. To be relieved from duty at Alcatraz Island, Cal, and to report to the commanding officer at Fort Mason, Cal., for duty as post surgeon. Paragraph 3, S. O. 45, headquarters Department of Cal-J. Solis Cohen, M. D., Philadelphia, Penn. (8.) The Constituents ifornia, April 16, 1884. PORTER, JOSEPH Y., captain and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for two months, to take effect about May 5, Per S. O. 38, headquarters Division of the Missouri, April 19, 1884. 1884. BIART, VICTOR, captain and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for one year on surgeon's certificate of disa bility, with permission to leave the Division of the Missouri. Paragraph 2, S. O. 91, A. G. O., April 19, 1884. LA GARDE, LOUIS A., captain and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for one month, with permission to apply for two months' extension. Paragraph 1, S. O. 91, A. G. O., April 19, 1884. OFFICIAL LIST OF CHANGES IN THE STATIONS AULICK, H., passed assistant surgeon, detached from Iron Clads and ordered to the New Hampshire. DIXON, W. S., passed assistant surgeon, detached from the Hartford and ordered to the Coast Survey Steamer Hassler. TERRILL, F. H., passed assistant surgeon, detached from the Hassler and ordered to the Hartford. WISE, J. C., surgeon, detached from the New Hampshire and placed on waiting orders. SCHOFIELD, W. K., medical inspector, appointed medical inspector on active list. NASH, F. S., passed assistant surgeon, detached from Laboratory and ordered to the Alert (Greely Relief Expedition). HALL, J. H., passed assistant surgeon, ordered before Retiring Board. NELSON, H. C., medical inspector, placed on retired list. BATTLE, S. W., passed assistant surgeon, placed on retired list. vation the most Important Elements in Climatic Treatment of Phthisis, Charles Denison, M. D., Denver, Col. (4.) Some Observations on the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Diseases, D. N. Kinsman, M. D., Columbus, Ohio. (5.) The Effects of Humidity on the Cause and Course of Diseases, W. H. Geddings, M. D., Aiken, S. C. (6.) The Effects of Sea-Air on Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, Boardman Reed, M. D., Atlantic City, N. J. (7.) The Use of Compressed and Rarefied Air, as a Substitute for Change of Climate, in the Treatment of Pulmonary Diseases, of Climate and their Relation to Disease, J. Hilgard Tyndale, M. D., New York. (9.) The Relation of Laryngeal to Pulmonary Diseases, F. H. Bosworth, M. D., New York. (10.) The Climate of Large Cities Dangerous to Consumptives, Frank Donaldson, M. D., Baltimore, Md. The above is a list of the papers already reported to the Committee. Others have been promised, but the titles have not been sent in. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. Post-Nasal Catarrh and Diseases of the Nose causing Deafness. By Edward TERRILL, F. H., passed assistant surgeon, resigned. nesota. phia: P. Blakiston & Co. 1884. A Course of Instruction in Zoötomy (Vertebrata). By T. Jeffery Parker, B. Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology in the University of Otago, New Zealand. With seventy-four Illustrations. London: Macmillan & Co. 1884. National Board of Health. Remarks before the Committee on Public Health of the House of Representatives . . . in Refutation of Charges made against the Board by Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service. Washington, D. C. |