the inner third of the third intercostal space on the left, the cathode at the nape of the neck. The sitting should last ten or fifteen minutes and be repeated on alternate days. Dr. Louis Rehn reports three cases of exophthalmic goitre cured by partial or complete extirpation of the thyroid gland. As the manifestations of the disease do not depend for their existence upon the enlargement of the thyroid gland, these cases should be included among those which spontaneously recover; in fact, they seem to have recovered in spite of the treatment, rather than as a consequence of it. HOW TO GIVE ARSENIC TO CHILDREN. Dr. A. Jacobi, in his excellent papers on "The Therapeutics of Infancy and Childhood," in the Archives of Pediatrics, gives the following directions for administering arsenic to young patients: The doses need not be large, but may be increased slowly, onehundredth of a grain of arsenious acid, or one drop, or one and-a-half of Fowler's solution, three times a day, after meals, the latter amply diluted, are well borne for weeks, even months, without interruption, by a child of four or five years. In malaria, the remedy may be given with quinia (and iron), in other forms with strychnia (and iron); in phthisis, with digitalis. The gradual increase of the doses of arsenic may be effected in the following manner: A drachm of Fowler's solution is diluted with sixty drachms of water; three doses of this mixture are given daily. If the initial dose be one drop, give a teaspoonful; the next dose is a teaspoonful plus one drop, third dose a teaspoonful plus two drops, and so on, until the sixty-first dose consists of a teaspoonful and sixty drops. Thus the original dose is gently and slowly doubled in twenty days. Children bear arsenic better than adults, and very much better than senile patients. Still, even they must not take it when they are affected with gastric disorders, nor continue it when in the course of treatment conjunctivitis, oedema of the eyelids and face, or diarrhoea make their appearance. TREATMENT OF SUMMER COMPLAINT. A CORRECTION. We quote the following correction from the issue of August 11th, of the Maryland Medical Journal, in regard to the Treatment of Summer Complaint at the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, Baltimore, Maryland, copied in the COLLEGE AND CLINICAL RECORD for August: Editor Maryland Medical Journal. DEAR SIR:-In your editorial on the Thomas Wilson Sanitarium, a mistake was made in the dose of resorcin. As this is a toxic remedy, I am afraid the dose given may lead to trouble. Please make the correction read gr. 1⁄2 instead of gr. ij. Yours sincerely, W. D. BOOKER, M.D. ANTIPYRINE IN THE TREATMENT BY GEORGE E. RANNEY, M. D., The prompt relief afforded by the administration of antipyrine to a patient of mine subject to the severest periodic attacks of spasm of the stomach, prompts me to call attention to this drug in this connection that it may have a more extended trial in such cases, believing, as I do, it will prove efficacious. The case referred to above was in a young man, a bank-teller, and though of slender build and nervous temperament, he had no dyspeptic or other symptoms which are known to be frequently associated with gastralgia. He had been a victim of the disease some two or three years. His attacks, which came on with but little premonition, were paroxysmal, acute and violent, recurring at short intervals of from five to ten minutes during a period of from eight to twelve hours. His more recent attacks averaged one a month, and were growing more frequent and severe and had become alarming as to a fatal result. On first being called to see him I gave him hypodermic injections of morphine, administered chloroform and applied hot applications *American Lancet, Aug., 1888. to epigastrium to control pain, which remedies I was obliged to continue some eight hours before permanent relief came. His attacks always left him exhausted, lame and sore for two or three days. On being called again to see him for the same trouble, in about four weeks after my first visit, I administered ten grains of antipyrine, and directed him to repeat the dose every hour or two as required to control symptoms. Three or four doses aborted the attack. The symptoms have since recurred at increasing long intervals, and have been met in the same way and uniformly with the same result, and with the remedy always at hand he no longer requires help from a physician or others. GLUTEN BREAD FOR DIABETICS. A writer in the Monthly Magazine states that a recent improvement in the mode of preparing gluten bread for the use of diabetic persons is said to render it much more palatable. It resembles ordinary bread in its general aspects, and is not unlike, in taste, certain kinds of cakes which are readily eaten by most people. Moreover, it is easily masticated. The formula from which this new gluten bread is made is set down thus: Best quality of yeast, 20 grammes; cold water, 120 gms. ; butter, 125 grammes; gluten flour, 500 gms.; and eggs, 4. For one loaf. The yeast is stirred carefully and quietly into the water, then the eggs and butter are added and the whole melted. The gluten flour is mixed in and worked up with these ingredients, and a round loaf is thus made which is about 18 inches wide and 20 inches deep; it is placed before the fire for about an hour to cause the dough to rise, and is baked in an oven heated from below. Gluten flour is manufactured expressly for this and other kinds of cakes. POISONS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES.* The following brief summary of the most. rational and simple antidotes to the commoner forms of poison in daily use by artists and artisans has been compiled for the American Analyst by Dr. Francis Wyatt, and it will be * Scientific American, August 11th, 1888. seen that he has suggested the most appropriate to be applied in any emergency, pending the arrival or in the total absence of a skilled medical practitioner : POISONS. 1. Acid-Carbolic, sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, nitro-muriatic, creasote, iodine, phosphorus. 2. Chromic acid, chromates, all preparations or compounds of chromium, antimony, copper, mercury or zinc. 3. Ammonia, soda, potash, alkaline, silicates and sulphates. 4. Prussic acid and its salts, all cyanides and sulpho-cyanides, oil of bitter almonds and nitro-benzine. 5. Ether, petroleum, benzine, fruit essence, concentrated or absolute alcohol. ANTIDOTES. White of egg well beaten up with water. A teaspoonful of mustard flour in a cup of hot water. Very thick lime water -(in case of sulphuric, nitric, muriatic or nitro muriatic acids). Abundance of white of egg in water. A teaspoonful of mustard flour in water. Copious draughts of an infusion of salt herbs. Strong vinegar and water. Large doses of oil. Large doses of milk. Continuous and heavy douches of ice-cold water over the head and spinal column. Mustard plasters on the stomach and soles of the feet. Prevent sleep. Plenty of mustard flour in large quantity of hot water. Colddouches. Fresh air. Prevent sleep absolutely. water 6. Compounds of baryta and A teaspoonful of mustard flour lead. in warm water. Strong solutions of Epsom salts and Glauber's salts in cold water. 7. Compounds of arsenic. 8. Oxalic acids and its salts. 9. Nitrate of silver. 10. Nitrous fumes of vapors, arising in vitriol or chemical works. A teaspoonful of mustard flour in warm water. A teaspoonful of dialysed iron mixed with the same quantity of calcined magnesia every five minutes for one hour. Then plenty of oil, or milk, or some mucilaginous tea, say linseed. Very thick paste of lime and water by large spoonfuis at the time. After several of these, large draughts of lime water. Finally, 4 ounces cas. tor oil. Large doses of ordinary kitchen salt dissolved in water, after which one teaspoonful of mustard flour in warm water. Frequent and small doses of strong acetic acid-the stronger the better. Class-Room Notes. -The so-called torpid liver is, in the majority of cases, gastro-intestinal catarrh and obstruction of gall duct. (Bartholow.) -Ulerine retraction is a continued force, while contraction is intermittent; it is the retraction that prevents hemorrhage. (Parvin.) -Eggs raw, or better, whipped, are the most digestible of alimentary substances, and possess a high degree of nutritive value. (Bartholow.) -Tincture of aloes, diluted one-half, or even more, by water, is said to be an effective injection in gonorrhea, after the acute symptoms have subsided. -Prof. DaCosta prescribed, for a case of fatty heart, beginning to dilate, one drop of a one per cent. solution of nitroglycerin, to be increased; also a small amount of alcoholic stimulant. -Boro-tartrate of potassium is the first remedy for calculus in pelvis of kidney; a weak solution must be used and for a long time, a strong solution being detrimental. (Bartholow.) -In a case of nocturnal incontinence of urine, Prof. Bartholow prescribed grain of pilocarpine at night, to drive the superfluous secretions to surface. Food in afternoon and cut off extra supply of fluid. -For a case of seborrhea sicca Prof. Holland ordered equal parts of green soap and alcohol, to be used as a lather for head, to remove the crusts, to be followed by inunction of white precipitate ointment. -Twenty grains of iodide of potassium three times a day, ten grains of chloral hydrate for spasm, counter-irritation at back of neck followed by blister, was ordered for a case of hysterical epilepsy, by Prof. DaCosta. -The following is recommended for sore nipples: Be careful of diet, see that he is not frightened, and keep him quiet. seated, Prof. Bartholow has directed the fol-To relieve the pain in nerves superficially lowing to be applied externally:R. Spirit. chloroformi, M. Spirit. vini rectificat., ää f3 ss Atropinæ, gr. v. SIG.-Apply on lint to painful part and cover with oiled silk. -In case of stone in the bladder you will find the frequency of micturition is greater by day, during business, than at night, while at rest; the opposite condition of things is found in hypertrophy of the prostate. The pain, in case of stone, is at the close of urination, in the end of the penis; while in hypertrophy, if any, it is caused by the distention of the bladder before urination, and is relieved by the act. -Nocturnal seminal losses, as respects mechanism of production, are analogous with nocturnal incontinence of urine. This trouble may be considered a morbid state only when the losses are frequent and the health affected. Bromide of potassium best relieves spermatorrhoea when due to plethora; belladonna is indicated in a relaxed condition of the genitalia, the emissions flowing without force, and without a distinct dream. -Dr. James E. Reeves, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in a communication to the Editor of THE COLLEGE AND CLINICAL RECORD, writes as follows in regard to the Test for Blood, referred to in the August issue, p. 200, which he characterizes as fallacious. If the minutest trace of starch is mixed with the test, the process is worthless, as I showed in a West Virginia Court last year-producing the same reaction (the blue coloration) on a new celluloid collar that had never come in contact with blood. It was claimed that the celluloid collar worn by the accused murderer contained blood stains; I made the same test with the new collar and obtained the same result." The College and Clinical Record. species, the dog, for instance, have been found to exhibit remarkable differences in resistance to powerful currents, the smaller animal not being necessarily the first to succumb. But apart from the question of the destruction of life in the lower animals by means of electricity, experience and observation of the effect of lightning strokes on man have shown that the amount of current that has proved fatal in some instances has only sufficed to severely burn in others; in more than one case the flesh being burned to the bone. Lightning has burned, lacerated and even perforated human bodies without causing death, and in other instances has caused death without leaving a mark. And here arises the interesting question. which the practical test of experience will alone solve, whether it is absolutely certain that the executioner will be able, in all instances, to produce death by immediate shock without mutilation. A practical elec EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY. As the time approaches when, in New York State, the death punishment for criminals will be inflicted by a new legalized process as a substitute for that of suspension by the neck, much curiosity, and even anxiety, is being evinced as to its methods and immediate effects, and especially as to the certainty or uncertainty of the presumably lethal action of the current. The old method by hanging was never time-honored or respected, and the community will be glad to witness its abol-trical engineer, who was recently interviewed ishment; but its successor has not yet wholly established itself in popular estimation, mainly, however, on account of the prevailing ignorance as to its possibilities and capabilities in the emergencies in which these are to be legally applied. A New York daily paper has recently referred at some length to several interesting features connected with this change in the mode of criminal execution, from which we have taken some points for our own consideration. Experiments on the lower animals have, of course, formed the basis of investigation as to the nature of the shock that may be required to produce an immediately fatal effect upon human life; but animals themselves have been found to vary in the amount required for the total and instantaneous destruction of vitality. Animals of the same by a reporter of the daily press of New York city, while stating, what is of course a wellknown fact, that some men are more susceptible to the influences of electricity than others, added also that while there is no doubt of the ability of electricity to kill, it may overdo its work and be accompanied by some horrifying consequences. Another practical electrician also expressed the view that the electrical resistance of the skin being much greater than that of the interior of the body, the current may burn through the skin and produce mutilation. The experience of a Boston electrician, who was once apparently killed by electricity, is referred to in the paper already alluded to, and is singular, especially as exhibiting the power of the human body to resist violent shock; and the case is interesting, also, as elucidating the position that mutilation may precede or even be substituted for death. He came in contact with a highly-charged electric-light wire, and the current passed through his body from hand to hand, both hands being burned to the bone, and a blood vessel in his head was ruptured, causing blood to flow from his nose, mouth and ears. When discovered, six hours later, no signs of life remained, even to expert physicians, but, nevertheless, efforts were made to resuscitate him, and after long and vigorous work he regained consciousness, and finally recovered his health. Then the question has been raised, whether a man apparently dead from an electric shock may not be brought back to life again by applying proper and prompt treatment. Science has not as yet determined the exact action, from an electrical standpoint, of the current on the human heart. Experiments and researches thus far have not settled it. Some scientists believe that the effect is similar to polarization or magnetization, which can be counteracted in ordinary electrical bodies, if not in human bodies. So eminent an authority as Sir William Thompson is quoted as saying that the action of electricity on the human heart was similar to polarization, and it is a known fact that metals affected by polarization can readily be restored to their normal condition, or depolarized. American electricians do not advance this theory, as a rule, but they are not prepared to combat it on explainable grounds. Then arises the interesting inquiry as to the proper organ or chain of organs that shall be the recipient of the electric fluid: shall it be the heart or the brain? and what will be the outcome as to the most perfect method or apparatus with which the vigor of the electric attack can be most certainly and effectively concentrated? The first execution under this new dispensation of public justice will be watched with intense interest, and any defects in methods or results will be carefully studied and remedied. In these brief paragraphs we have but superficially touched upon some of the features that must now and hereafter interest equally the profession and the general public, and we have not for a moment intended to cast a slight upon this new method of legal execution, which promises to be so laudable an improvement upon that which preceded it. The first criminal who shall be thus electrified or shocked will unconsciously and involuntarily aid in disseminating useful medico-legal information. |