1

On examination of 10,000 prescriptions by a committee of the

Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, 2,613 or

twenty-five per cent.

of the whole number were found to be patent medicines. Mr. G. D. Pratt of Brooklyn, N. Y., has given to the trustees of Amherst College a sum of money for the building of an infirm

ary at that college.

The sale of brandy drops has been forbidden by law in New York and policemen are now instructed to prevent their sale by inspecting candy shops on their rounds.

The use of chloroform in conjunction with oxygen seems to have been used in Vienna as much as ten years ago to a consider

able extent.

work.

Several Russian surgeons use it constantly in their

The legislature of Ohio has passed a bill regulating the standard of medical practice in that State. The bill passed by a large

majority.

Prof. Kohler, the imperial health officer of Germany, in the cases examined by him has found that there were symptoms of tuberculosis in the bodies of every third person who died between the ages of fifteen and sixty.

A bill is pending before the New York State Legislature providing that medical school entrance examinations, at the present time governed by the regents, shall be put into the hands of the college faculties themselves.

Dr. Monod, the health officer to the home office in France, gives the number of deaths from diphtheria in 1894 to be 2,626 and in 1895 to be 904.

An appropriation of nearly half a million dollars has been voted by the city of Odessa for the addition of a medical department to the university in that city.

It is probable that the requirements for admission to the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania will be gradually increased until in 1899 they will be equal to those of the Academic Department. Later a college degree may be required.

In the report of Dr. J. H. McCollom of the Boston City Hospital, it is stated in regard to contagious diseases treated there that there were 844 cases of diphtheria from August 31st, 1895, with 96 deaths, or a fatality of 11 per cent. If these statistics are compared with those of the years before the antitoxin treatment was introduced, there can be but one opinion regarding the efficacy of the remedy.

The Walker Gordon Laboratory Company, who have already established milk laboratories in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, according to the plan laid down in Rotch's Pediatrics, have decided to establish a similar one in New Haven. This laboratory, when established, will be devoted exclusively to the modifications of milk solely for physicians' prescriptions. The physician determines the amount of sugar, fat, salts or other essentials requisite for the proper feeding of his patient, and the prescription so written will be compounded accurately at the laboratory. The company agree to furnish 5,000 different kinds of milk, each one differing in the proportions of the constituent parts prescribed.

A glance backward over the advancement made in the last month in the development of the application of the X rays to medical science will show that no further differentiation of tissue other than bone has been attained. Muscles, skin and connective tissue seem to be about equally pervious to the light, though it is reported that two English physicians have isolated connective tissue, and that the blood vessels have been seen at the tips of the fingers in a few instances. As was from the first evident, this light is of great service in diagnosis of foreign bodies, if they do not lie too deeply imbedded. As the matter stands now, in bone troubles alone do the X rays seem to offer us any immediate help in their application to medical science.

The monthly report of the Connecticut State Board of Health for February, gives the number of deaths to be 1,094 as compared with 1,357 of the same month, 1895. The death rate was 15.8 for the large towns; for the small towns 16.7, and for the whole State 16.0. Deaths from zymotic diseases were 111, being 10.1 per cent. of the whole mortality. Total of cases: Measles, 785; Scarlet Fever, 100; Cerebro-Spinal Fever, 8; Diphtheria and Croup, 102; Whooping Cough, 59+; Typhoid Fever, 28.

REGISTERED PRACTITIONERS FROM FEB. 15TH TO MAR. 15TH, 1896.

MEDICAL PROGRESS.

CARBOLIC ACID GANGRENE.-(Medical and Surgical Reporter, December, 1895). Dr. E. T. Reichert discusses the observations made from time to time of gangrene following the use of carbolic acid as a surgical dressing. These observations show that this action is especially frequent in such parts as are entirely surrounded by the dressing-notably the phalanges of the extremities; that the use of carbolic acid in the form of moist dressings is especially prone to cause gangrene; and that the danger of carbolic acid gangrene is especially predominant in weak subjects, women and children. Dr. Reichert infers from observations and experiments noted that the use of carbolic acid as a dressing in minor surgical operations, should be restricted as much as possible, and other equally efficacious antiseptics substituted. He also states that the profession should warn the laity against the indiscriminate use of the drug in the treatment of injuries.

DETECTION OF BLOOD STAINS IN MEDICO-LEGAL CASES.-(Medical World, November, 1895.) The detection and demonstration of blood spots on rusty iron is made difficult by the fact that iron renders it impossible to obtain hæmin crystals. F. Gautier states that in such cases hydrogen peroxide furnishes a certain test of the absence of blood. The slightest trace of blood, on being wet with a solution of hydrogen peroxide instantaneously releases oxygen, the minute bubbles of which may be seen with the unaided eye. The technique of the examination is very simple. A portion of the suspected blood substance (a slight scraping is sufficient) is placed on a glass slip, the back of which is covered with black paper. Cover the suspected material with a drop of weakly alkaline water, let stand for a few minutes, or until the substance is softened, and then add a drop of peroxide of hydrogen solution. If there is the slightest trace of blood present, the globules of oxygen instantaneously appear, and they are so characteristic that any confusion of them with air-bubbles is impossible. If the reaction does not occur it is certain demonstration that blood is not present.

SULPHUR BATHS IN THE TREATMENT OF WHOOPING-COUGH.— Josset (Semaine Medicale, December, 1895), advises the use of

highly sulphurous baths in this disease, as he has employed them for fifteen years, and they have invariably given him favorable results. The, author uses the term highly sulphurous, he says, because the dose of potassium sulphide which enters into their preparation is stronger than that ordinarily used. The proper quantities of the polysulphide and water for the bath at different ages are as follows: From three to twelve months, half an ounce of polysulphide to ten quarts of water; from one to two years, three-quarters of an ounce to fifteen quarts; from two to four years, an ounce to twenty-three quarts; from four to six years, an ounce and a half to thirty quarts; from six to eight years, an ounce and six drams to thirty-eight quarts. The temperature of the bath should range from 96.4 degrees to 97.8 and its duration should be from twenty-five to forty-five minutes. The patients must take a bath every day and after this they must be very careful not to get chilled. They must be dried rapidly with hot towels and wrapped in woolen blankets. Recovery is said to occur within two weeks.

BICARBONATE OF SODA IN THE TREATMENT OF A "COMMON COLD."-Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley states, in the Medical Record, of recent date, his experience with the use of bicarbonate of soda in the treatment of "Common Colds." About two years ago he had a severe cold accompanied with acidity of the stomach. For the latter he took a fair dose of bicarbonate of soda, in some water, repeating the dose in half an hour. A little while after the symptoms of his cold were less pronounced and he attributed the improvement to the use of the soda for he recognized that, as some are more susceptible to colds than others, this susceptibility depended upon the general state of the system. Two more doses cured the cold. Since that time he has used the remedy with great success. He recommends the following plan of administration for an adult of average size and weight: Twenty or thirty grains in two or three ounces of water, are given every half hour for three doses, then in an hour a fourth dose is given. Then wait from two or four hours and note developments. If the cold is not then aborted the above course may be repeated, although this is seldom necessary. Dr. Bulkley states that this treatment in the case of influenza is not so satisfactory, but that when from five to ten grains of phenacetin are added to twenty grains of the soda, and given in hot water every two hours, excellent results are obtained.

TIGHT LACING AND GALL-STONES.-(North Carolina Medical Journal, December, 1895). Professor Marchand, of Marburg, again calls attention to the fact that gall-stones and tight-lacing are frequent coincidents. The furrow caused by lacing runs directly across the right lobe of the liver, causing a tendency to atrophy of the gall bladder. Extreme tight-lacing causes an artificial fissure to be formed in the liver, giving rise to what is termed the "lacing lobe," carrying with it the gall bladder. Stagnation of the bile is well known to be one of the most important causes of the formation of gall stones. A change in the composition of the bile resulting from catarrh caused by congestion of the mucous membrane, and the thickening of the bile due to the failure of the gall bladder to completely evacuate its contents, gives rise to the formation of small masses which serve as nuclei for the formation of calculi; hence anything which obstructs the free out-flow of bile through the cystic duct must. favor the formation of gall stones. Prof. Marchand states that in his opinion many cases of cancer of the liver should be attributed to tight lacing. It is only a few years since a German surgeon was obliged to open an abdomen to remove a "lacing lobe" of the liver, which had been so completely separated from the rest of the organ as to cause its death, rendering its removal necessary.

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL USE OF BLOOD. (New York Medical Times, February, 1896). Dr. James Robie Wood writes that he has used ox blood in the form of bovinine in many forms of ulcers, and mentions a case of lupus of several years standing which was controlled by the external application of bovinine. It has been used for necrosis of the foot accompanied by suppuration and is especially useful as a soothing and curative application for painful, varicose or other ulcers; for tubercular ulcerations and many kindred conditions. It has been used with success internally in tubercular diseases of the lungs and anæmia. Has also been used in large rectal injections, in cases of collapse. It is especially an active agent toward repair after skin grafting.

DR. STRAUSS of Biebrich (in the Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift, Nov. 3, 1896) refers to the use of tannigen-the new remedy recommended by H. Mayer and F. Miller, in twenty-eight cases. In the case of a phthisical patient suffering with profuse diarrhoea it gave no better results than the remedies which had been employed. It was used by twenty-seven patients of whom sixteen had acute enteritis and gastro-enteritis, and eleven diar