he and his children after him devoted themselves to the culture, preparation and sale of the plant. They furnished it in all waysfresh, dried and pressed, in aqueous extracts, alcoholic extracts, oil and the solidified oil which you call menthol. It has been used ever since in cases of such internal diseases the patient to get sick. The system is a good one in some respects, and in other respects it is bad. On the one hand a Chinese doctor very seldom gets rich, but on the other hand he never gets poor, as the American doctors too often do." BY H. VALENTINE KNAGGS, M.R.C.P., ETC., as colic, summer complaints, kidney troubles SULPHUR AS A GERM DESTROYER. and some liver disorders. Externally it is used for neuralgia, rheumatism, toothache, etc., and also for an antiseptic in dressing wounds. “We have about the same theories and practice that you have about supplying the system with lime, iron, strychnine, quinine, beef, iron and wine, and the like, but there is this difference in our methods, that we go to nature directly for our standard remedies, while you supply them from scientific preparations. This difference is due, perhaps, to our ignorance of chemistry, though we prefer to think that it is because we would rather go direct to nature for our medicines than to obtain them from artificial sources. “American wits, in their attempts to be funny at the expense of the Chinese, have described a dyspeptic going to a Chinese doctor, who, after learning the symptoms, writes a number of hieroglyphics on a piece of paper, and, after gravely burning the paper, makes the patient eat the ashes. The obvious inference is that the physician is employing a charm and pretending to heal by magic. As a matter of fact, in these cases of dyspepsia or heartburn, in which charcoal is the acknowledged remedy, we take a large sheet of cotton paper made for the purpose, and after rolling. it up we burn it in a closed compartment in order to save as much as possible of the resultant charcoal, and give it to the patient to take in prescribed doses. Most American physicians are paid to keep their patients sick. In China we are paid to keep our patients well. The general rule among us is for the patient to pay a regular stipend to his physician while he is in health, and for this payment to cease entirely for the whole time the patient is sick. A large number of my patients pay me in this way, for we regard it as a sort of breach of contract for the physician to allow It has been my endeavor to demonstrate of the extraordinary value of a group powerful remedies which have of late years undeservedly fallen into desuetude. It is my confident hope that American physicians, who have the credit of giving any remedy a fair and thorough trial, will work out and solve the problem of the future treatment of germ diseases, so that the world may know whether sulphur does or does not possess the remarkable curative properties hitherto attributed to it. It is my firm conviction that nature, in her extensive utilization of the antiseptic properties of sulphur in the preservation of the tissues and secretions of plants and of the living body, clearly demonstrates to us the value of this mineral as a remedy for diseases originated and caused by germs. When, therefore, the system is bereft of its natural deodorizing constituents, or when the germs of fungoid diseases have, by reason of their rapid growth, obtained the upper hand over them, it certainly behooves us to restore these constituents to the economy, and this we do by the appropriate administration of sulphur. 2. As lozenges or pastilles, each containing about three grains. This is a very excellent method of administering this remedy to children. The mixture or lozenges are especially indicated in acute cases when it is highly desirable to get the system rapidly under the influence of the drug. 3. As vapor, evolved by burning a sufficient quantity of the mineral in the sick-room. Most useful in pertussis and phthisis. 4. Combined with a base as salts, such as the sulphides and bisulphides, sulphites and hyposulphites, sulphates; or compounds, obtained by mixing sulphur with Chian, or ordinary oil of, turpentine, etc. These answer best in chronic complaints where the remedy is required to be continued for any length of time. 5. As enemata, containing sulphide of ammonium, etc., or as gaseous enemata, according to the plan of Bergeon. TREATMENT OF SUMMER COMPLAINT.* In acute diarrhoea, with vomiting of milk, the child is at once taken from the breast or bottle, and no food except beef tea is given to it for twenty-four hours. Small doses of calomel to grain are administered hourly for a day or two, to quiet the stomach and to excite the secretion of the liver. At the end of twenty-four hours sterilized milk is given. If the vomiting returns, the milk is stopped and beef tea is resumed for twenty-four hours, when milk is once more given. No artificial foods are used in the Sanitarium. Irrigation of the lower bowel is practiced two or three times a day, if it does good. In chronic cases, resorcin, grs. ij, with tr. opii deodorata, gt. 1⁄2, is given every two or four hours. When vomiting proceeds from nervousness, sodii bromidum, grs. ij, and chloral hydrate, gr. j, are administered every two or four hours to a child of six months. This same prescription is used for sleeplessAs a rule, no further medication is ness. needed. * Report of Treatment at the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, Baltimore, in Maryland Med. Journal, July 14th, 1888. Dr. Brooker considers the sterilization of the milk a great improvement, likely to do away with wet-nursing and artificial foods. Milk as it flows from the breast is free from microscopic germs. Between the time when the cow's milk leaves the udder and the time when the baby drinks it various minute organisms may fall into it, which, either before or after the child takes it, produce changes in the milk which cause disorder of the digestive organs of the child. By sterilization we either destroy these organisms or check their growth. The apparatus for sterilization is a covered tin bucket, ten inches in height by eight in diameter, and a wire basket, made by Dufur & Co., of Baltimore, large enough to hold six or eight nursing-bottles. In the bucket, filled to the depth of one inch with hydrant water, is placed the wire basket with the nursing-bottles, each of them containing a suitable amount of milk and stopped with a wad of cotton batting. The bucket is then covered and placed on a gas-stove, and the water is boiled for half an hour, the milk, bottles and stoppers becoming sterilized by the heat. After cooling, the basket of bottles is kept in a cool place, and one by one, as needed, the bottles are removed, the stoppers taken out and a disinfected nipple is attached for nursing. Milk enough to supply one baby for twelve hours is thus prepared at once, and if kept in a cool place, even without ice, it will remain sweet and wholesome until used. The whole apparatus, including the bottles, costs a little more than a dollar. It is stated by Dr. Brooker that when the infant's bowels have once been cleared of illdigested milk by change to beef tea and by irrigation, the use of sterilized cow's milk, properly diluted, is followed immediately by great improvement in the health of the infant, as great as when it returns to the breast of its mother. For irrigation of the bowels a fountain sy ringe full of tepid hydrant water is connected with a soft rubber catheter about fourteen inches long, and this catheter, oiled, is passed gently to its full length into the rectum and descending colon, the water-a gallon or more -being allowed to flow into the bowel and out again by the side of the catheter. This irrigation is painless and often aids greatly in recovery, especially in severe cases resembling cholera infantum. THE GONOCOCCUS.* BY WM. BUCKINGHAM CANFIELD, A.M., M.D., Lecturer on Normal Histology, University of Maryland.† Unlike the bacillus tuberculosis, the gonococcus has never made that impression on the medical mind that it should, and this is probably because the means of detecting it are not so certain as in the case of the former, and also because the diagnosis of a gonorrhoea does not so much depend upon an examination of the products of a urethral inflammation as the diagnosis of pulmonary consumption depends on an examination of the sputa. In medicolegal circles the gonococcus has demanded some attention, and it has undoubtedly been of use in some cases of interest. Although several investigators had suspected its presence as a cause of gonorrhoea, no one had done such exact work to detect it as Neisser, of Breslau. In 1879 he made a communication to the Centralblatt f. d. med. Wissenschaften, in which he described what he has named the "gonococcus," or specific micrococcus of gonorrhoea. Since this time many others have confirmed his work. . . . The method of examination is very simple. A little of the pus is pressed between two cover glasses, which are then drawn apart. Then the glasses are allowed to dry, and are quickly passed through the Bunsen flame to coagulate the albumen and fix the pus. Then a few drops of the ordinary methylene blue or violet are allowed to cover the specimen for a few minutes and washed off. The specimen may at once be examined in water or glycerin, or it may be dried and mounted in balsam, which makes it more distinct. The gonococci are seen in pairs or fours, apparently in the pus * Read before the Baltimore Microscopical Society, April 16th, 1888. †The Microscope, July, 1888. cells, while the contour of the pus cells is seen to be very indistinct, due to the Abbé illuminator. Keyser says they are in the cell, and Neisser says they are on the cell. Of course, this is not easy to decide, but from my own experience in examining the gonococci and the other microörganism, I am inclined to think they are on the outside of the pus cells. The best way to confirm the discovery of a microorganism is by cultivation and inoculation. This, of course, is not possible in every case of urethritis. Another way is by a process of staining which shall exclude every other microorganism. Dr. Gabriel Roux, of Paris, says that if the preparation be first stained according to Gram, and then be examined, and then be decolorized with alcohol and examined again, the gonococci will be seen stained at the first examination, and will be unstained after decolorization with alcohol. Allen and Wendt heartily confirm this. So far, I have not been doubtful in examining them myself, but as I have only looked for the gonococci in cases where gonorrhoea was undoubtedly present, my experience is of little value. This discovery is of importance, in so far as it is one step nearer to our hope of classifying diseases in a scientific manner. Practically, it is of decided interest, as changing the mode of treatment, and thus cutting short the former length of the disease. It has also explained why some cases of apparently cured gonorrhoea break out afresh from taking stimulants after all signs and symptoms of the disease had disappeared. -To show how ready the members of the profession are with means of immediate relief, a writer in the Virginia Medical Monthly states that a lady in Paris was dining out recently in the Fauboug St. Germain, when she chanced to men tion that she had suffered with headache during the day. Instantly, from the pockets of thirteen of the fifteen guests who were present, antipyrine was produced-in capsules, wafers, powders, and elixirs and she was compelled to take a dose then and there, notwithstanding her earnest protest, and her assurance of entire relief before starting home. Class-Room Notes. gion of spleen and extending to liver, with progressive wasting of vital powers, and tem -The health of a child depends much upon perature sometimes sub-normal while at others its cleanliness. -For a case of obstruction of the vena cava, general varicosity of all the veins of the body, Prof. Bartholow ordered injections of aqueous extract of ergot (Squibb's) along the side of the veins, which would excite enough inflammation to contract them; chloride of barium to contract the arterioles, grain, to be given in the form of gelatine-coated pills. -Usually there is very little desire for food during labor, but if it be protracted, some nourishment should be given, lest the patient become exhausted, any simple food sufficing, care being taken not to overload the stomach. The most grateful drink will be cold water, which can be taken freely; on the other hand, hot teas as well as alcoholic stimulants ought to be forbidden. (Parvin.) -For a case of lymphadenoma, pain in re abnormal, Prof. Bartholow prescribed phosphorus in form of hypophosphites and central galvano-faradization. Another remedy proposed was injecting the enlarged glands with ergot. -A case of infantile paralysis, with this history: At fifteen months of age had an attack of hemiplegia, with more or less restoration; no electric sensibility; marked diminution of electro-contractility. Prof. Bartholow prescribed the combined action of galvanic and faradic currents; internally, hypophosphites and cod-liver oil, and hypodermatic injections of strychnine into the muscles. -The most efficient treatment of acute dysentery is by the administration of sulphate of magnesia; it is especially adapted to the acute stage where there are fever, pain, tenesmus and stools of mucus and blood. It lessens the hyperemia and causes fecal evacuations, with the result of relieving the pain and the distressing straining. The following is the way in which it should be administered: to eight ounces of a saturated solution add one-half ounce of diluted sulphuric acid, and give a tablespoonful every hour or two in a wineglassful of water until it operates. Sulphate of morphine may be combined with it. (Bartholow.) -A simple test for blood, and easy of application, is made by the addition of tincture of guaiac and ozonized ether to a weak solution of blood, when a bright blue color is produced. If a drop of blood be mixed with one-half ounce of distilled water, upon the addition of one or two drops of tincture of guaiac a cloudy precipitate of the resin appears, and the solution has a faint tint. If to this solution one drop of an ethereal solution of hydrogen peroxide is added, a blue tint appears, which, upon a few minutes' exposure, gradually deepens. This test is very valuable for minute quantities of blood, and Dr. Day, of Geelong, succeeded in obtaining sixty impressions from a stain upon cloth where the microscope failed to show any blood. LEGAL TREATMENT OF QUACKERY. Much is said and written, almost daily, in regard to the evils of quackery; little concerning its odiousness has been left unsaid or unwritten. A medical contemporary* criticises it, however, from another standpoint, based on the fact that recently a novel view as to its criminality was held by a learned Judge in Manchester, England, and one which will commend itself to all intelligent men. It is a surprise to us that it has not been acted upon until the present, especially when we consider that medical quackery has obtained in all ages and among all nations. The Judge decided in the Manchester case, that obtaining money under false pretences in this, as in all other methods, was a criminal offence, which renders the offender liable to imprisonment. It is evident that all quacks do violate this very necessary law at all times, as well as those in Manchester, and that the whole fraternity are equally subject to its penalties, not only in England but in all civilized countries. It is not shown that those five prosecuted were sinners above all others. They simply opened a consulting room, advertising their ability to cure all diseases. They did not claim to be qualified in any legal way, nor does it appear in the evidence that they assumed the title of physicians. They were not tried under the Medical Act, but simply for obtaining money under false pretences. It was established by the prose The Canada Lancet, July, 1888. cution that they were not qualified by education nor special training to do what they professed to do, and that they were consequently unable to give those applying to them value for their money, and they were convicted. It passes our comprehension, it goes on to say, that this very simple and natural proceeding, under a law so long established as to become constitutional in most countries, has not been taken advantage of in the past, by those whose duty it was to enforce the laws in the interest of the public welfare. That these ghouls should be permitted to fatten on a suffering class of the community, who are naturally unable to know their incompetency to perform what they promise, or detect their atrocious mendacity until it is too late, is not creditable to paternal government in any country. In most, if not all, other matters of incomparably minor importance, men are not permitted to prey on the public, and must render some kind of fair equivalent for the money obtained from them; but in the matter of health and life, it has hitherto been held, that so long as they did not assume the title of M.D., they were in no way amenable to the laws of the land, and might pursue their nefarious imposition on the credulous suffering citizens with impunity. Some efforts have been put forth in Canada, in the past, to suppress quackery, but they have not been successful in wholly removing the evil, but we trust, says the journal quoted that, with this decision in Manchester as a precedent, the officials may be in a position to inaugurate a new order of things, and entirely prevent the extortion of money from the sick and suffering, by this class, who have hitherto preyed on the community, in spite of the laws specially enacted for the purpose of protecting those who are incom |