ABSTRACTS.

THE Medical Record notes the experiment of Dr. Licard of Beziers, by which he proved that typhoid patients exhale the typhoid germs. He had them breathe into sterilized water from which cultures were made and almost always found to yield the bacilli. It is not unwarrantable to suppose that the bacilli may emanate from cesspools also to some extent.

PIANO PLAYING AND NEUROSES.-(Medical World, January, 1896). A corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Medicine has sent to that body a memoir in which he maintains that many cases of chloroses, neuroses, and neurasthemia observed among young girls are due to the hours devoted to piano practice. He bases his statements upon statistics resulting from observation of six thousand pupils who were obliged to undertake this practice while yet under twelve years of age. found nearly twelve per cent of this number suffering from nervous diseases of the kind mentioned.

He

DIASTASE. (Therapeutic Gazette, 1895, No. 10, page 670). Doctors E. B. Smith and E. W. Tonken report on the use and effect of diastase. They think that it should be given in cases where a large quantity of starch food had been taken, followed by headache, epigastric weight and pain, together with constipation. It should always be given either just before or after meals, in from one-third grain to three grain doses. They explain the relief of constipation in the following way: that starch will by its pressure prevent osmosis, while the converted starch (by the action of the diastase) acts as a crystalloid and sets up osmosis through the intestinal wall.

DANGERS OF COCAINE.-The dangers of cocaine are recounted by Dr. Albert R. Baker of Cleveland in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. He gives data which show that death has resulted in ten cases from its use. The smallest quantity, causing fatal consequences, was two-thirds of a grain, which was injected into the eye. Immediate unconsciousness was produced, followed by death in four hours. In another instance one grain injected into the gums by a dentist produced death in

a few minutes.

The author cites a case where the application of a ten per cent solution to the larnyx with a brush was attended with fatal results in three hours.

have been reported.

Other cases of a similar nature

THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF SALOPHEN.-(Les Nouveaux Remèdes, 1895, No. 12, p. 272). M. Pierre Marie believes this drug an excellent substitute for sodium salicylate, having properties such that its use is indicated in acute and subacute rheumatism and apparently in gout also. It exhibits none of the disagreeable features of sodium salicylate, having been well tolerated by all the patients. Inasmuch as it is broken down in the intestines only, no gastric irritation is produced, while its decomposition is so slow that a large dose-from four to six grams-may be given. As a rule three to four grams only are given and that portion in divided doses. Its tastelessness and insolubility permit of its being taken suspended in pure water.

IN THE London Lancet FOR NOVEMBER, 1895, DR. GAESER, of Naples, reports his experience in treating a German regiment prophylactically with quinine for influenza in the epidemic of 1890, in the face of some evidence from Paris from experiments on rabbits that would seem to show that quinine is inefficacious against the infection of influenza. For twenty-two days during the epidemic he administered quinine to each man of one of the squadrons, and, though his men occupied the same quarters as the others, after the fifth day of the trial, but few of his men fell sick, while many attacks among men not so treated continued to occur. Six only of his men fell sick. Dr. Gaeser considers this experience better proof of the efficacy of quinine than any experiments with rabbits.

Dr. Wm. Martin in the Medical News, December, writes on Phimosis, to call attention to that disease as a frequent agent in causing, or aggravating already existing diseases in children. The indirect disturbances from it by reflex are often extremely puzzling and by no means infrequent. It reflexly affects digestion, very seriously at times. Prolapsus ani accompanies preputial inflammation and it will give rise to symptoms resembling stone in the bladder. Dr. Martin feels confident "that phimosis will aggravate the symptoms of any co-existing disease and be responsible for slow recovery in many cases" and that sufficiently frequent occurrence of trouble reflexly from it justifies a physician in making an examination of every male child for the condition.

SARCOMA IN THE OVARY OF A CHILD.-(London Lancet, December 28, 1895. Reported by Frederick Page, M.D., Edinburg). A child aged six years with a large abdominal tumor, was sent to me for operation. A gradual increase in size of the abdomen had been observed for about four months, during which time the child's health continued good. Shortly after her entrance into the hospital the abdomen was opened and a solid tumor of the left ovary weighing three and three-quarter pounds was removed. There were no adhesions and only two ounces of sanguinolent fluid in the pelvis. In three weeks the child was able to return to her home having made an uninterrupted recovery. The tumor proved to be a fibro-sarcoma. Statistics reveal the fact that this child was the youngest patient who had ever successfully undergone an operation of this kind.

NENCKI AND JAWORSKI (Allg. Med. Centr. Ztg. No. 60-62, für die ges. Ther. Sept. 1895, p. 528) have given the name Apolysin to a new antipyretic and analgesic, chemically of the same group as phenacetin. The drug occurs as a crystalline powder with a characteristic light yellow color, feebly acid taste, faint odor, is difficultly soluble in cold but readily soluble in hot water and melts at 72° C. Experimentally it was tried in a large number of cases, the doses ranging from fifty centigrams to a gram and a half, up to three grams daily. In pyreticoses its action is antithermic and with the fall of temperature other symptoms cease, particularly pain. In neuralgia, it was found a sedative, diminishing the hyperæsthesia, lessening the period of the attack and always decidedly ameliorating the symptoms. The drug acts rapidly and surely, with no displeasing effects. When the stomach is empty or when in hyper-acid condition its use is contra-indicated..

Writing in the Medical Record, December 29, 1895, on the "Infectiousness of the Dust in the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium," Dr. Hance shows by experiments that the dust, in cottages. where consumptives live, becomes infected, not by contact or from the breath, but from bacilli which find their way thither from sputum not properly cared for. To prove that houses long occupied by consumptives, but where the excreta were carefully removed, were not dangerous, he inoculated rabbits with dust from all the cottages in the Adirondack Sanitarium at the Saranac Laboratory. "All other sources of contamination were excluded by thorough antiseptic precautions." The results showed that pigs inoculated with dust from one cottage only

became tuberculous and in this one a patient had been reported as carelesss. Most of the cottages have been occupied for some years by consumptives. Two facts, Dr. Hance says, are established by these experiments, with many in the same line that have gone before: First-That buildings, etc., do become infected with germs. Second-A tubercular patient does not

infect by contact.

IN THE LABORATORIES.-(The Polyclinic, Philadelphia, October 5, 1895). Dr. Leffman has been testing the keeping qualities of hydrogen dioxide. A sample of each of the three most used brands of hydrogen dioxide was placed in a wide test-tube, the mouth of which was closed by a paper cap, loosely held by a rubber band, and the tubes allowed to stand on the laboratory table from August 1 to September 2. Originally the samples were about ten volumes in strength. On September 2 the strength was tested by the usual (permanganate) method, and gave the following results:

As a matter of practical importance, it may be stated that all samples of hydrogen dioxide that show high pressure when the bottle is first opened, are liable to rapid deterioration. It is now so easy to obtain an article of uniform strength and good keeping qualities that there is no excuse for using a poor article or one of uncertain quality.

ACTION OF LIGHT ON THE DIPHTHERIC BACILLUS. --LedouxLebard (Archives de Med. Experimentale) records the results of some of his experiments to determine whether diffused light is as efficacious in the destruction of germs as the direct rays of the sun. He arrived at the following conclusions: (1) The action of diffused light does not prevent the development of the Loeffler bacillus. The direct rays of the sun retard the growth of germs. Diffused light has no bactericidal action on bacteria in neutralized bouillon, but it has a remarkably destructive effect on the diphtheric bacillus in distilled water. (2) The bacilli of dry cultures spread in thin layers, are killed by diffused light in less than twenty-four hours' exposure. (3) The direct rays. act in he same way as diffused rays but with greater rapidity. (4) The bactericidal action of light varies directly with the inten

sity of the refraction of rays from the spectrum. (5) Light, by reason of its bactericidal power, sterilized both dry and moist diphtheric bacilli in less than two days. It is therefore a prophylactic agent against diphtheria. (6) In membranes affected by the disease, many of the bacilli are reached only by the light after it has lost part of its intensity, in virtue of which they retain their vitality much longer. (7) Light is useful in the disinfection of places contaminated by diphtheric bacillus.

AID FOR CONSUMPTIVES.-The discovery of a new germicide by Dr. Cyrus Edson promises excellent results in the alleviation, if not in the complete cure, of consumption. The results which followed the use of phenic acid and creosote suggested to Dr. Edson the idea of preparing a fluid containing the acid in nascent form which, when hypodermically administered, would not produce irritation. He prefers to inject his new remedy, which is called asepsin, into the abdominal parieties, or, when this seems inadvisable, into the muscles of the back. Fifty minims is the initial dose. This is increased ten minims daily until one hundred minims are given. A spray consisting of ten parts of iodoform and ninety parts of ether is also used twice a day. One case which was treated with asepsin furnished by Dr. Edson was remarkably successful. The patient, a girl of eighteen years, was bordering on collapse. The sputa was filled with bacilli. By the use of asepsin the night sweats ceased, sleep came naturally, pains in the chest disappeared, and breathing was less labored. In a few weeks the appetite returned and the bacilli were fast disappearing from the sputa. The one unpleasant symptom in connection with the asepsin treatment is the formation of a small nodule at the point of injection. This is perfectly harmless, however, and soon disappears.

IN THE Zeitschrift für Krankenpflege DR. JANKAU discusses the question of patients smoking. There is no need, he says, of forbidding the use of tobacco in surgical diseases or convalescence of operations, except on the eyes, abdomen and bladder. Tobacco should be prohibited as a rule in troubles of the throat and pharynx. Those suffering from internal affections should only smoke moderately. Usually a patient's desire for tobacco ceases when it is injurious to his particular trouble. It should be strictly forbidden in cases of peritonitis, typhlitis and perityphlitis. In organic affections of the heart two or three cigars a day will not hurt an habitual smoker. Regarding pulmonary troubles, tobacco