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tuberculosis in cattle by the tuberculin test, and urging that no half way measures can stamp out the disease. The resolutions end by asking the Legislature for an appropriation of $300,000 for carrying on the work of eradication.

The Mortality report for April has been received from one hundred and sixty-three towns in the State. There were 1,255 deaths reported during the month. This was thirty-three less than in March and thirty-nine more than the average number of deaths in April for the five years preceding the present. The death rate was 18.3 for the large towns; for the small towns 19.6, and for the whole State 18.6. The deaths from zymotic diseases were one hundred and fifty-seven, being 12.5 per cent of the total mortality. The following number of cases of infectious diseases were reported to the office by the Health Officers: Measles 1502, scarlet fever 122, diphtheria and croup 109, whooping cough 36, typhoid fever 19.

REGISTERED PRACTITIONERS IN CONNECTICUT FROM APRIL 20TH TO MAY 20TH, 1896.

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STRYCHNINE IN PNEUMONIA.-Dr. Lyon, Surgeon General of the United States Navy, in his report for the past year, states that his favorable opinion of the use of strychnine in the treatment of pneumonia has been increased by the recent experience with the drug. During the past twenty-four months forty-five cases of acute lobar pneumonia were treated in the Naval Hospital at Brooklyn with a mortality of about twenty-five per cent.

WEIR, in the New York Medical Journal, reviews the observations on three hundred and five cases of the effect of ether on the kidneys and states that no bad effects result either in the normal or abnormal kidneys and whatever ill effects appear are transitory and harmless, that the elevation of temperature and

the result of narcotic changes do not have any permanent effect and furthermore emphasizes the fact that there are no abnormal secretions.

EXPERIMENTS recently made in France and reported in the New York Medical Times on the action of electricity upon bacteria shows that the effect is to attenuate the virility of the disease germ. Currents have no direct influence on the vitality of the microbes themselves but modify the liquid in which they live so as to make it noxious to them. The action is purely physical and probably no chemical change results. In twenty minutes a virulent poison can be turned into vaccinating matter. An elaborate system of experiments is about to be conducted by the inocculation of animals with the attenuated virus.

DR. WOLF recently published in the Medical Record a résumé of thirty-one cases of primary carcinoma of the lung, occurring in the Dresden City Hospital since 1885. The majority of patients were over fifty years of age. The lungs were the seat of the tumor eight times, the bronchi twenty-one times. In five cases the bronchial carcinoma extended to the trachea, thirteen cases were complicated with tuberculosis. The course of the affection is very various and there is no distinct clinical indication of the disease. The diagnosis is easier in the case of lung carcinoma, especially when the tumor is situated near the pleura, than in the case of bronchial carcinoma. In the former instance a circumscribed dullness in conjunction with great wasting, and catarrhal sputum, free of bacilli, but occasionally bloody, may suggest the affection. Implication of the bronchial glands often manifests itself by dyspnoea, or recurrent paralysis. Metastasis is more apt to occur with bronchial than with proper lung carcinoma.

AN UNUSUAL ENLARGEMENT OF THE UMBILICAL CORD.-(Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.) Bishop reports the case of a woman with justo-minor pelvis, in which death of the foetus was diagnosed by absence of fetal heart sounds and movements. On dilatation of the cervix a partially macerated head presented. It was thought best to perform craniotomy, but while preparations were being made a strong uterine contraction was followed by collapse of the head and birth of the foetus. The cause of its death was now found to be the fact that the umbilical cord was entwined around the left thigh in a slip knot, so that each movement of the thigh would tend to draw it tighter. Edema of the leg showed that strangulation had gone on for some time

before the knot was drawn so tight as to cut off the circulation in the cord. The cord showed a sulcus where it was constricted. The case was therefore one of automatic cranioclasis following the death of the fœtus from the knotting of the cord around the thigh in such a manner that each movement tied it tighter until strangulation followed. It is rare if not unique, although one can but wonder that serious entanglement of the cord is not more common, when we take into consideration the violence and frequency of the intrauterine movements of the fœtus.

CHRONIC TETANUS TREATED BY TIZZONI'S ANTITOXIN. RECOVERY.-By H. Eugene Tarcey, reported in London Lancet, February 1. "Was summoned to see a young girl, age 7. 'Something the matter with her face.' Two weeks previously she had suffered two slight burns. Two days before the physician was called child could not open left eye and she appeared to be smiling continuously. Examination showed tonic spasm of the orbicular muscle of the left eye and well developed risus sardonicus markedly on the left side of face; rigidity of muscles of neck, back, legs and abdomen, producing extension of head and moderate opisthotonus. Patient could separate her teeth and swallow liquids. Temperature normal. Bromide of Potassium was first tried, no successful results following. Several other drugs were experimented with, but convulsions seemed to increase and patient's condition gradually grew worse. After four days 1 1-8 grains of Tizzoni's antitoxin was injected under the skin on the inner side of the thigh. During the following night patient had nine convulsions in one of which the pulse ran up from 80 to 180. The immediate effect of the antitoxin was to increase both the severity and number of the convulsions. Injections of the antitoxin was continued at irregular intervals for two weeks, regular dose being 5-16 grain alternating with 1-8 grain morphine. After three weeks' treatment patient fully recovered. Peculiar feature about the case was that during the first four days of the antitoxin treatment the pulse and temperature of the patient rose, and the attacks temporarily increased. both in virulence and frequency."

RED BONE MARROW IN THE TREATMENT OF ANAEMIA.-Robert G. Watkins, M. D., reports in the American Medical Surgical Bulletin: A young girl age sixteen years, ill two years, had been suffering from weakness, loss of appetite, headaches and fainting, digestive disturbances and bad taste in the mouth. She suffered pains in back and had never menstruated.

Exam

ination pointed to a most pronounced anaemic case, which was considered chronic. Patient had in fact been treated with iron and arsenic for a considerable time with no appreciable improvement. She was immediately placed under a red bone marrow treatment receiving two doses of Carnogen, a uniform preparation of the above substance, a day. Microscopic examination of blood before treatment showed that the red blood corpuscles were abnormally diminished. Poikiloctyes were very pronounced.

After a short course of the above treatment another examination showed that the red blood corpuscles had increased while the general health of the patient had wonderfully improved.

THE USE OF PROTONUCLEIN-(Journal of the American Medical Association, March 7, 1896). By A. C. Jackson, M.D.Called in to attend a case of rapidly developing diphtheria in a woman aged thirty. The patient was found to have had chills, very high fever, temperature 104°, pain and sore throat. On examination the tonsils were both found to be covered with a thick diphtheritic membrane, and the sufferer had a hoarse cough and smothering sensation indicating that the disease was extending to the larynx and trachea. As local treatment, using the powder blower, the diseased parts were covered with Protonuclein every four hours, having the patient inhale the powder as much as possible. For internal treatment three grain doses of Protonuclein powder was given every three hours for six days. The effect of the treatment was to check and hold the disease from the very beginning. On the second day the membrane began to loosen and thin out, and by the evening of the third day it had entirely disappeared. No other medicine was given except morphine at night. The mother, husband, and son, who were exposed to the disease, were given the same internal treatment as preventative and had nothing more than a very mild diphtheria.

BOOK NOTICES.

Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine.

Volume V., Diseases

of the Skin. New York. William Wood & Company, 1896. The classification of diseases in this volume is quite unusual, and while very convenient for diagnosis, is neither logical nor consistent; in one part of the book the basis of classification is the etiological factor (Parasitic diseases, Dermato neuroses), then the most prominent lesion (Erythematous, squamous, papular

affection), then the pathological condition (Diseases of Sebaceous Glands, Sweat Glands, Hair and Nails, Benign Neoplasms); finally, two diseases are considered apart and separate from the rest Eczema and Xeroderma Pigmentosum. Such an arrangement results inevitably, first, in an overlapping of the various groups, and second, in the total omission of, or only casual reference to, such important diseases as Lupus Vulgaris, Mycosis Fungoides, Chloasma, Ichthyosis, Anthrax, and the Exanthemata (which would seem to deserve a place in a work on Dermatology, for the sake of diagnosis at least). These imperfections to the contrary notwithstanding, the book is an excellent one for reference, because, first, a disease whose diagnosis is in doubt may be readily identified by determining its most prominent lesion, and then turning to the index of corresponding diseases (Erythematous, pustular, etc.); second, it is very sound in the matter of treatment; no attempt has been made to multiply prescriptions, but a clear statement of what it is desirable to do is given in most instances, with a few well-tried means of accomplishing it; third, the differential diagnosis is entered into with. great detail. Special praise is due the chapter on Parasitic affections by Dr. Bulkley, and more particularly the part relating to fungous diseases. Hyde's article on Eczema is very comprehensive and well written, as befits the importance of the subject; he takes up the disease first according to its chief lesions and then as attacking the various portions of the body. The whole subject is handled with great skill. The article on the "Lichens and Prurigos" by Brocq deserves a careful perusal as embodying the results of the great amount of work and discussion which have been going on in France in this direction lately. Perhaps no living author is as well qualified to write on these subjects as Brocq. There is an excellent chapter on Dermatitis Herpetiformis, written by Dr. Whitehouse, and one on Xeroderma Pigmentosum by Kaposi himself. The Dermato neuroses are handled at length by Leloir. The foregoing names alone are a sufficient guaranty of the character of the work, which contains the very latest that is known of Dermatology. R. A. McD.

J.

Electricity in Electro-Therapeutics. By Edwin J. Houston, Ph.D., and A. E. Kennelly, Sc. D., New York. The W. Johnston Company, 253 Broadway.

This little book meets a growing demand on the part of both student and physician, who is interested in the use of electricity as applied to medicine, for an accurate and reliable presentation

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