SOME OBSERVATIONS DURING TWO YEARS' RESIDENCE AT COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO. * BEFORE entering upon the statement of the observations proper, we find that Dr. Eskridge is constrained to make the following remarks: "I am not ignorant of the fact that you can find over-painted descriptions of Colorado climate. So you may of every other climate that is supposed to have a bene ficial effect on lung troubles. To such a degree have the climatic virtues of different places been lauded that disinterested physicians have come to have but little more confidence in the greater portion of the statements made in articles written by phy sicians who reside and practice at these various health resorts than they have in the exaggerated accounts of the healing powers of some patent medicine; and as the nostrum is praised simply because it pays, so physicians do not altogether escape suspicion, or even censure, of being influenced by mercenary motives in their comparison of the relative advantages of different climates. * That I may escape any suspicion of being influenced by a mercenary motive in writing the paper, I will state that since I have been at Colorado Springs I have done no general practice, nor do I intend to resume it there." Is it really a fact that the profession in Colorado, to quite a great extent, can be justly ranked amongst the venders of patent nostrums? By their over-colored reports of the climate of Colorado, have they succeeded in making members in the East so skeptical of their statements that Dr. Eskridge found it necessary to say that he had not been practicing medicine while. here and did not intend to practice if he returned, simply to convince his hearers that his motives must be unselfish? We are ashamed to admit that there is room for the doctor's preliminary statements. There is no reason for telling anything about the climate of Colorado more than the plain truth. It is good enough to stand just as it is. Easternp hysicians should not be deceived and encouraged to send unfortunates here simply to get rid of them, vainly imagining that they will come out all right in the bracing climate of Colorado. They may do so, but it is not justice to the climate nor the patient to *Read by J. T. Eskridge, M. D., before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, September 22d, 1886. leave the change to the last. The duty of physicians in Colorado is to stand by our beautiful climate and so speak in reference to its virtues that injustice will be done to neither the climate nor the patient. A few years ago a physician writing from Denver mentioned the fact of holding picnics in January. Such a thing might be possible, and yet it is not just to the climate to say so. The idea of a picnic to the Eastern mind has certain associations: they will not be found here in January. Just think of someone's reading that letter, and then coming here in January and finding the temperature 20° below zero. Let us stick to the plain truth.-Maryland Medical Journal. THERAPEUTIC NOTES. Sulphuretted Hydrogen Enemata in Phthisis.-Private letters from Philadelphia inform us that this treatment has been thoroughly tried there, and with not very encouraging results. For a time there may be a slight decrease in fever and in the quantity of the expectoration, but the improvement is not permanent. No change in the physical signs is noted. Antipyrin and Antifebrin.-Recent studies tend to show that antipyrin, in from ten to twenty-grain doses, causes sweating, and reduces the temperature 1° F. within thirty minutes, and 3° F. within two hours; the pulse rate being lowered. General malaise follows, and the temperature begins to increase within two and a half hours after the ingestion of the drug. Antifebrin, in from five to thirteen-grain doses, appears to be superior to antipyrin in producing no after effects. It is slower in its action, but more lasting: the defervescence not being accomplished until one and a half hours, but lasting on an average for six. Turpentine in Syphilis.-Messrs. Jabez Hogg and Carmichael, of Dublin, effectually use, in obstinate cases of syphilitic iritis that have resisted ordinary treatment, oil of turpentine in half-drachm doses three times a day. Mercurial Diuresis.-Mercury as a diuretic should only be considered as a therapeutic curiosity and never be used, as Terray (Pest. Med. Chir. Press, 1886) and Weinstein (Wein. SOME OBSERVATIONS DURING TWO YEARS' RESIDENCE AT COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO. * BEFORE entering upon the statement of the observations proper, we find that Dr. Eskridge is constrained to make the following remarks: "I am not ignorant of the fact that you can find over-painted descriptions of Colorado climate. So you may of every other climate that is supposed to have a bene ficial effect on lung troubles. To such a degree have the climatic virtues of different places been lauded that disinterested physicians have come to have but little more confidence in the greater portion of the statements made in articles written by physicians who reside and practice at these various health resorts than they have in the exaggerated accounts of the healing powers of some patent medicine; and as the nostrum is praised simply because it pays, so physicians do not altogether escape suspicion, or even censure, of being influenced by mercenary motives in their comparison of the relative advantages of dif ferent climates. * That I may escape any suspicion of being influenced by a mercenary motive in writing the paper, I will state that since I have been at Colorado Springs I have done no general practice, nor do I intend to resume it there." Is it really a fact that the profession in Colorado, to quite a great extent, can be justly ranked amongst the venders of patent nostrums? By their over-colored reports of the climate of Colorado, have they succeeded in making members in the East so skeptical of their statements that Dr. Eskridge found it necessary to say that he had not been practicing medicine while here and did not intend to practice if he returned, simply to convince his hearers that his motives must be unselfish? We are ashamed to admit that there is room for the doctor's preliminary statements. There is no reason for telling anything about the climate of Colorado more than the plain truth. It is good enough to stand just as it is. Easternp hysicians should not be deceived and encouraged to send unfortunates here simply to get rid of them, vainly imagining that they will come out all right in the bracing climate of Colorado. They may do so, but it is not justice to the climate nor the patient to * Read by J. T. Eskridge, M. D., before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, September 22d, 1886. leave the change to the last. The duty of physicians in Colorado is to stand by our beautiful climate and so speak in reference to its virtues that injustice will be done to neither the climate nor the patient. A few years ago a physician writing from Denver mentioned the fact of holding picnics in January. Such a thing might be possible, and yet it is not just to the climate to say so. The idea of a picnic to the Eastern mind has certain associations: they will not be found here in January. Just think of someone's reading that letter, and then coming here in January and finding the temperature 20° below zero. Let us stick to the plain truth.-Maryland Medical Journal. THERAPEUTIC NOTES. Sulphuretted Hydrogen Enemata in Phthisis.-Private letters from Philadelphia inform us that this treatment has been thoroughly tried there, and with not very encouraging results. For a time there may be a slight decrease in fever and in the quantity of the expectoration, but the improvement is not permanent. No change in the physical signs is noted. Antipyrin and Antifebrin.-Recent studies tend to show that antipyrin, in from ten to twenty-grain doses, causes sweating, and reduces the temperature 1° F. within thirty minutes, and 3° F. within two hours; the pulse rate being lowered. General malaise follows, and the temperature begins to increase within two and a half hours after the ingestion of the drug. Antifebrin, in from five to thirteen-grain doses, appears to be superior to antipyrin in producing no after effects. It is slower in its action, but more lasting: the defervescence not being accomplished until one and a half hours, but lasting on an average for six. Turpentine in Syphilis.-Messrs. Jabez Hogg and Carmichael, of Dublin, effectually use, in obstinate cases of syphilitic iritis that have resisted ordinary treatment, oil of turpentine in half-drachm doses three times a day. Mercurial Diuresis.-Mercury as a diuretic should only be considered as a therapeutic curiosity and never be used, as Terray (Pest. Med. Chir. Press, 1886) and Weinstein (Wein. Med. Blätt, 1887, p. 206) find that the drug invariably causes a stomatitis that is directly proportional to the diuresis. Even very small doses of calomel frequently cause profuse diarrhea, stomatitis, and salivation. Treatment of Lupus.-Mr. Chicken (Lancet, April 23, 1887) removes the new growths as far as possible by scraping, and then thoroughly rubs powdered iodoform into the wound. Profuse insufflation of the drug should be employed when the part is inaccessible, as in affections of the cervix and rectum. Electricity in Post Partum Hemorrhage-The hemorrhage was controlled, after other means failed, by the application of the current to the womb; one pole being held by the patient, while the other was held by the physician, who grasped the womb with the opposite hand. Oxygen in Diabetes.-Oxygen, in the form of peroxide of hydrogen, was administered to three cases of diabetes, by Le Blond, of Paris, in which the sugar entirely disappeared from the urine. Treatment of Grave Epistaxis.-M. Verneuil (Lancet, April 30, 1887) treated three cases of nose-bleeding that had resisted plugging, digitalis, ergotine and perchloride of iron, by the application of a large blister over the region of the liver. Several English writers record similar cases. Collapse from Strapping the Testicle.-Some hours after their application the patient was found in a serious state of collapse with severe pain in hypogastric region, and unable to speak. Removal of the straps gave relief. Administration of Santonin.-This anthelmintic should be given in oil, that the drug may pass through the stomach without being absorbed, and expend its force on the intestines. The Medical Record says: The use of gaseous enemata in phthisis has been entirely abandoned in the fourth division, Bellevue Hospital, where they have been earliest and longest tried. Dr. W. M. Boyd (Columbus Medical College, 1883), late of Millersburg, Ohio, has recently located in Los Angeles. |