by the urine, and it therefore acts directly on the bacilli. It also increases the flow of urine and allays the burning pain during micturition (dysuria). At the same time he uses a mild astringent urethral injection, such as 2 grains of sulphate of zinc to the ounce of water.Indian Medical Record. nally, it is mainly eliminated from the system | It is much safer to employ a preparation in which a part can be separated and used only for the case in hand. It should be aseptic, non-irritating, and easily washed off. Glycerin fulfills these requisites, and is at the same time an excellent deodorant; the foul and persisting odor of cervical cancer is readily washed away when the hand has previously been freely lubricated with glycerin. At both the General Lying-in and INFLUENZA. For the spasmodic cough in thoracic com- the Manchester Lying-in it is used in this plications Plicque recommends form: : A small quantity of this is poured into a clean saucer, and this is used for one case only. For private practice it can be made into a jelly with starch, powdered tragacanth, boric acid or corrosive sublimate, and oil of wintergreen, A writer in the Medical Summary states that and then put up in collapsible metal tubes. an excellent liniment consists of This composition is readily soluble in water; so that the hands may be thoroughly cleansed by simply washing them in water. The use of the lubricant prevents the hands from chapping, and the contents of a tube cannot possibly become infected.-Practitioner. THE MADAR PLANT AND ITS PROPERTIES. According to the observations of J. H. Bridgeman, this plant has marvelous properties, and is pretty largely used by the natives. of India; 5 grains of the dried and pulverized root, given four times daily, and accompanied by a dose of castor-oil on alternate days, may be considered a specific in dysentery; the oil obtained by boiling equal parts of the dried root and mustard-oil together for an hour matic and other pains, while the lesser roots forms a curative anodyne liniment for rheuare used as tooth brushes (miswaak) for strengthening the teeth and gums and averting The leaves are heated on an iron toothache. pan and then tied on to affected parts to assuage pain. The flowers are used as a specific in fever. The milky juice that exudes from any part of the living plant when bruised is useful in bringing blind boils to a head and bursting them; it is used both internally and externally in splenic fever and certain forms of eczema; and is recognized as a powerful remedy in toothache, when, in addition to removing the pain, it appears to have the property of eradicating a loose tooth and of strengthening a firmly fixed one.-Indian Medical Record. CHLOROBROM AS AN HYPNOTIC IN THE INSANE. Dr. J. Percy Wade, of Catonsville, Md., remarks that chlorobrom is a mixture of the simplest description, containing 30 grains each of chloralamid and potassium bro mide to an ounce of water. Chlorobrom is not very disagreeable to take, and it leaves no ill effects. Dr. Keay, says the author, has used the drug with good results, and he recommends it highly in melancholia, especially active melancholia or brain exhaustion from overwork, and for worried business men, when insomnia is the most serious symptom to combat. In mania, general paresis, and the excitement of epilepsy he has found the drug not suitable, and fers sulphonal or trional. He administers an ounce of the solution an hour before bed-time, and if the excitement is great he increases the dose from an ounce and a half to two ounces with perfect safety. pre Dr. Wade's experience with the drug in simple and in active melancholia confirms Dr. Keay's report; but in acute mania, notwithstanding Dr. Keay's statement, he has found that the drug produced sleep, although it took somewhat longer to act; and the sleep, he says, was as refreshing as that produced by other hypnotics.-Medical Review. ABDOMINAL DISTENSION. A large number of the women who present themselves at the dispensary complain of abdominal distension,-"bloating," as they call it. Many of them add that they cannot breathe freely for this distress. With it is usually associated constipation. For the relief of this condition Dr. Bloom has found the following prescription give good results: R Creasote (beech-wood), Purified ox-gall, . 72 minims. 72 grains. 36 grains. 12 grains. 36 grains. M. Sig. Make a mass. Divide into 36 equal parts and dispense in capsules. Dose: One capsule immediately after each meal. If this dose does not correct the constipation he adds to each capsule 1⁄2 grain to a grain of compound extract of colocynth.Philadelphia Polyclinic. 13 ARECOLINE AS A MYOTIC. Dr. Lavagno has found that arecolinéC,H,,NO,, the alkaloid of Areca catechu (areca-nut)-energetically contracts the pupil of the eye. In man this effect is produced three minutes after the instillation into the conjunctival cul de sac of 1 drop of a 1-percent. aqueous solution of arecoline hydrobromate; it persists for fifteen to twenty minutes, and is entirely dissipated in about one hour. The effects of arecoline upon the ciliary muscle are said to be even more rapid, and induce a spasm which lasts from seven to eight minThe faculty of accommodation remains normal during the first two or three minutes, then it diminishes temporarily somewhat. utes. The instillation of arecoline hydrobromate never determined cephalalgia or other nervous troubles, so it is reported.-American MedicoSurgical Bulletin. INJECTIONS OF SALICYLIC ACID IN THE TREAT MENT OF UTERINE CANCERS. The Province Médicale contains an account of this mode of treatment, which has been employed successfully by M. F. A. Fafiousse in seven cases of uterine cancer. The author used a 6-per-cent. solution of the acid in alcohol in the following manner: The patients received previously vaginal antiseptic injections from two to three times a day, one of these injections always preceding those of the salicylic acid. From 1 to 4 cubic centimetres of the solution were injected into the vaginal portion of the neck of the uterus in five or six places in the affected region. The vaginal portion was then dried and rubbed with tampons of cotton and dusted with iodoform powder, and the vagina was packed with two or three tampons of cotton saturated with a mixture of glycerin and iodoform. The patients were then put in bed and ordered to remain there during the day without moving; in the even ing (or the following morning if there were abundant hæmorrhage) the tampons were withdrawn and a vaginal injection was given. "The first injections," says the writer, "are usually followed by a rather profuse hæmorrhage; but, the more frequent the injections, the less abundant will be the hæmorrhage. The places subjected to many punctures give very little blood. In the majority of cases the injections are painful, but the pain disappears very rapidly, and there are no secondary unfavorable symptoms of any kind. The injec tions are repeated more or less often, according to the gravity of the case and to the intensity of the patient's suffering. "The results of these injections are the almost complete cessation of metrorrhagia, the disappearance of the leucorrhoea, the diminution of the pain, the amelioration of the general condition, and the arrest of the progress of the disease. "It will be seen, then," says the writer, "that the injections of salicylic acid are superior to all other means of treatment proposed for inoperable cancer. If it is true that the amelioration is partly due to more favorable conditions in which the patients find themselves in the hospital, it cannot be denied that the restorative action of the salicylic acid was prompt in the seven cases observed by the author."-New York Medical Journal. FORMULAIRE DES SPECIALITES PHARMA CEUTIQUES. From the "Formulary of Pharmaceutical Specialties," compiled by Dr. M. Gautier and F. Renault, pharmacien, we extract the following: Dr. Carpenter very often prescribes, of the Syrup of Chloral and Strontium Bromide following combination, a teaspoonful every (d'Acard). three hours:— R Sodium salicylate, 4 drachms. 21⁄2 drachms. 1⁄2 fld. oz.-M. citrate, TRICHOPHYTIC BLEPHARITIS. Mibelli thinks that blepharitis of children is more often due to the trichophyton than is supposed. It clinically very closely resembles the ordinary form of the disease, but is more apt to be confined to the lids of one eye, while it is usually possible to find some hairs broken off at the level of the lid. Often there are patches of ringworm on other parts of the body. A microscopical examination will reveal the true nature of the disease. The treat ment recommended is systematic epilation of the diseased hairs, washing the margins of the lids with a 2-per-cent. corrosive sublimate solution, and alternate applications of tincture of iodine and the following ointment: B Sulphur, 10 gr. 6 gr. -International Medical Magazine. PALMETTO-WINE. the creasote with magnesia, allow the mixture to dry (which takes but a short time), powder, and suspend in syrup. In this manner a syrup can be prepared containing 10 per cent. of creasote. OZONE IN THE TREATMENT OF WHOOPING. At a recent meeting of the Société Française d'Electrothérapie, a report of which appears in the Progrès Médical, M. Labbé and M. Oudin, referring to a former communication, said that they had demonstrated the favorable influence of ozone on the blood and on nutrition; also its antiseptic action, and they thought that, as whooping-cough was evidently a microbian. affection, it would be well to try the effect of ozone in the treatment of this disease. They had collected twenty-two observations of cases of children who had had whooping-cough and had been treated exclusively with inhalations of ozone. The results of the examination of Dr. Ira W. Porter writes to the Southern these cases had shown very convincingly that Medical Record : "Palmetto wine is a new and elegant preparation of raw palmetto and combines all the medicinal virtues of the drug in a palatable form. "It is best known as palmetto-wine (Wellington), and is made and used in large quantities in Sanford, Florida, and the surrounding country. The menstruum is the elegant and pleasing orange wine, made from the famous orange-wine, Florida orange. "I have used it on children and on the aged, as a tonic, with good effect. Its fattening properties are astonishing. "I used it on a middle-aged man, who was suffering from nervous impotence, with very gratifying results. “In women I have used it to promote the growth of the mammæ, and internally in gonorrhoea I have used it with better results than with sanmetto. "It is also of use in bronchial troubles. The raw palmetto seems to have a peculiar action on all mucous surfaces and has been used with gratifying effect in bronchitis, laryngitis, follicular pharyngitis, tonsillitis, etc." TASTELESS CREASOTE. To overcome the taste of creasote El Siglo Médico gives the following method: Saturate the use of the ozone had produced an immediate amelioration in the little patients. The spasms of coughing had been rapidly modified, not only in frequency, but also in intensity and duration. The respiratory troubles, the cyanosis, and the vomiting had almost entirely disappeared. "The general condition," said M. Labbé, "naturally felt this favorable modification; the children recovered their spirits, their appetite, and their former healthy appearance." None of M. Labbé's patients had been attacked with the broncho-pulmonary complications which were so often observed in this disease. The principal facts observed after the inhalations of ozone were the rapid diminution of the duration, the intensity, and the number of attacks of coughing, and the modification of the general condition of the patients. The authors thought that in whooping-cough ozone seemed to have a special antiseptic action.— New York Medical Journal. THE Medical Bulletin. JOHN V. SHOEMAKER, A.M., M.D., Editor. Philadelphia, Sept., 1895. the lessons which an abundant experience has taught him, and which, in form well adapted to the needs of the general practitioner, he has published in the columns of an esteemed exchange. In a recent number * he discourses of the value and position of iodine in diseases of children. This writer draws attention to the fact that iodism is of exceptional occurrence in children, and, the younger the patient, the less is the liability to this accident. The immunity is presumably dependent upon the IODINE AND THE IODIDES IN rapid elimination by the kidneys, salivary INFANTILE THERAPEUTICS. HE immense development of medical glands, and all the emunctories. In children, as in iodine and the literature, especially periodical litera- iodides mind their special application in syphilis. ture, in our generation, quickly brings us all into close relation with every step of progress in scientific and clinical medicine. For laboratory experimentation we must chiefly depend upon great centres and great schools. Close observation by the bedside, however, can be practiced in the most sequestered hamlet. The symptoms of disease and the effects of remedies are daily studied by painstaking physicians all over the country. Our time is so far favored that the medical press disseminates to every corner of the civilized world intelligence concerning the doctrines, methods, and discoveries of the great world centres of medical learning, teaching, and thought. The man who deprives himself of medical journals deprives himself of efficient assistance in his daily work. By their means, also, we may compare our own methods of practice with those of our brethren at home and abroad. Few fields are more important than that of infantile diseases and therapeutics. Until of late all too little systematic and clinical instruction was provided by the schools in this department. Now, however, it has attained the rank of a vigorous specialty. The amelioration of suffering and the saving of life among little ones have, without doubt, been promoted by the attentive study of the maladies of the young. We need to be informed as to the variations of disease in those of tender years and the peculiarities of systemic reaction to powerful remedies. Hereditary syphilis in the newborn agrees with the tertiary form of acquired disease in demanding the use of the alkaline iodides. The potassium salt is of value not only in cases of undoubted syphilis, but also in cases where a syphilitic basis may be suspected, as coryza, obscure lesions of the buttocks, pseudoparalysis, etc. Furthermore, even in the absence of any eruption upon the skin or mucous membranes, if the babe is cachectic without reason, if it does not thrive, our author advises that it should be treated as a syphilitic. When a child is born before term and the mother has had one or more abortions, has lost one or more children at a tender age, it is prudent to adopt antisyphilitic treatment. Convulsions without apparent cause, meningeal manifestations, etc., indicate the administration of potassium iodide. At a later period, children afflicted with subcutaneous gummata, osseous tumors, or perforation of the soft palate improve upon the use of the same remedy. Dr. Comby has found iodine efficacious in several cases of paroxysmal hæmoglobinuria occurring among children. We are justified in giving potassium iodide in other maladies allied more or less indirectly to syphilis (the parasyphilitic affections of Professor Fournier), in hydrocephalus, for example; in cerebral tumors, chronic meningoencephalitis, partial epilepsy, etc. In grave cases it is well to associate the mercuric iodide, "De l'lode et des Iodures en Médecine Infantile," par le Dr. J. Comby, médecin de l'hôpital Trousseau. La Médecine We have taken pleasure, from time to time, in drawing from the writings of Dr. J. Comby Moderne, No. 55, 1895. |