5th. Each Examiner shall have the privilege, if he so desire, of supplementing his written examination by an oral one, in the presence of two other members of the Examining Board. 6th. The scale of marks shall be from zero to ten; ten being perfection, and anything below six being a failure to pass the examination. 7th. The questions and answers with their marks shall remain in the possession of the Board of Regents, and shall be open to inspection. 8th. When the candidate shall have completed all his examinations, the Board of Examiners shall meet and hear the result of the examination in each branch. And within ten days thereafter, each member of the Board shall make a written report as to the merits and acquirements of the candidate; being guided in this report, not alone by the result of the examination in his particular branch, but also by the result of the examinations in the other branches. And each member of the Board shall send his report, together with the questions and their answers and their marks in his branch, to the Secretary of the Board of Examiners, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary of the Board of Regents. And, furthermore, it is the opinion of the Board of Examiners, that in order to receive the degree of Doctor of Medicine, the candidate should successfully pass in every branch, or at least in every branch but one. State Board of Medical Examiners. President-Abraham Jacobi, M. D., Examiner in Pathology. Vice-President-Albert Vanderveer, M. D., Examiner in Surgery, and Clinical Surgery. Secretary-Henry Hun, M. D., Examiner in Clinical Medicine, and in Materia Medica and Therapeutics. James P. Boyd, M. D., Examiner in Obstetrics. Franklin Townsend, M. D., Examiner in Physiology. [As will be seen, nearly all the above are professors of the Albany Medical College. They are men committed to the policy of higher medical education. Instead of licensing unqualified men they doubtless will send many back to the colleges for further study. Let us hope that such a board as this will be given power to compel all persons to come before them for examination before they can practice.-ED.] THE MICROBE OF CANCER. Dr. Domingo Freire, who claims to have discovered the preventive inoculation of cholera, has recently attempted to demonstrate the microbic nature of cancer. Freire examined the blood of a cancerous woman and discovered in it zooglea capable of cultivation in gelatin kept at a temperature of from 37° to 40° C., and developing into bacilli o.o11 m. in length by 0.002 in breadth, enlarged at one extremity and resembling the bacilli of typhoid fever. In the cultivation he observed also spores, zooglea and collections of small bacilli which appeared to be the various stages in the development of the bacilli. Without determining whether he had cultivated one or many varieties of bacteria, Freire concluded that he had found the specific microbe of cancer, and that this microbe passes through two stages in its evolution. The first is represented by. the micrococci in zooglea and the second, more advanced, by the bacilli which are capable of living only outside of the blood, but are found in the cancerous juice which covers the ulcer. The writer does not mention the cultivation of these latter bacilli, and has apparently not determined whether or not they will produce bacilli like the former. To explain the cancerous cachexia he examined the urine of cancerous patients and discovered a ptomaine, which is very poisonous to birds, causing death with convulsions. But the recent experiments of Gautier and Bouchard show that even normal urine contains poisonous alkaloids, and the progressive development of the tumor in the organs essential to life would explain the cachexia. Freire then inoculated guinea pigs with the cultivation. He produced a slight wound and injected into it a solution containing the germs. At the end of a month one animal died and the autopsy revealed the presence of a tumor about the size of a hen's egg, located in the left iliac fossa below the fold of the peritoneum. The tumor was soft, and on pressure exuded a viscid substance of about the consistency of brain. This is the most characteristic of all the experiments reported by the author. Microscopic examination of this tumor, as well as of the others obtained, demonstrated that they were encephaloid carcinomata. There were agglomerations of giant cells, and there was no doubt in Freire's mind that the tissue was really cancerous and produced by the inoculation. The experimenter also succeeded in attenuating the cancerous virus by passing it through a number of birds, and the animals that had been inoculated in this manner acquired immunity from the stronger preparations. The investigation demonstrated to a certain extent the nature of cancer, and indicates a method of treatment for this terrible affection, hitherto looked upon as incurable. It will be interesting to refer here to the experiments of Galippe and Landouzy, who communicated their results to the Sociedad de Biologia. These writers announce that they have discovered microorganisms in fibroid tumors of the uterus and in ovarian cysts. The parasites are of three varieties, 1, sphero-bacteri in diplococci and in chains; 2, other micrococci, less common, smaller and forming cancer; 3, bacilli, isolated or united, forming threads. They succeeded in cultivating these microbes in warm gelatin, but did not make inoc ulation, and in consequence no conclusion as to their pathogenetic properties have been reached. These authors compare these tumors with those found at the roots of the teeth, studied by Malassey, and express the opinion that they are both due to the penetration of microbes from the neighboring cavities, the buccal and vaginal. mata of the uterus are more frequent than myomata of all other organs combined, and ovarian and radiculo-dental cysts are those most frequently developed. Here, then, is a new field opened up to bacteriologists. Galippe and Landouzy believe that many anima tumors are absolutely identical in their origin with many vegetable tumors known to be of parasitic origin. This is a legitimate deduction in general pathology, which will sooner or later be demonstrated. The idea of a neoplastic diathesis, advanced by Verneuil, is thus reduced to a question of soil and auto-inoculation.-Revista Med., Quirurg de Buenos Aires. Myo IMMUNITY BY INJECTION OF CHEMICAL BODIES. Dr. L. C. Wooldridge recently communicated to the Royal Society a method by which he had been able to protect rabbits from anthrax, which is of considerable interest in connection with the general question of the nature of protection in this and other diseases depending on micro-organisms. The method consists in cultivating the anthrax bacillus in an alkaline solution of a peculiar proteid body which can be obtained from the testis and thymus gland. The growth is not abundant, and, after two days at 37° C., it is removed from the culture-fluid by filtration. A small quantity of filtered liquid is injected into the circulation of a rabbit, and the animal can then withstand the inoculation of extremely virulent anthrax blood. The bacillus itself grown in this peculiar culture-fluid has no protective influence; it either kills or it has no effect. The result is extremely curious, for hitherto protection against zymotic disease has been effected by the communication to the animal of a modified form of the disease against which protection is sought. In Dr. Wooldridge's experiments the protection must be produced by some chemical body, the product of the activity of the bacillus. The observation belongs to a new order of facts, and appears to fall in with M. Pasteur's theory as to the method in which immunity to hydrophobia is produced by inoculation of the spinal cord of rabid rabbits. Both find some sup port in Professor Cash's experiments with perchloride of mercury, in which it was shown that after animals had taken a sufficient quantity of the drug, they were no longer liable to anthrax.—The British Medical Journal, May 21, 1887. THE TOPICAL TREATMENT OF TUBERCULAR PHTHISIS. The researches of Koch and others demonstrate that bacilli are found in larger or smaller numbers in all forms of tuberculosis, and further, that some idea of the extent of the phthisical process may be determined from the number of bacilli. It was found that the bacilli are more abundant where there was recent caseous infiltration, and in the interior of cavities whose walls were undergoing rapid softening. When the walls of the cavities are firm and indurated, the bacilli are few in number, and they are fewest in the cicatricial contracting and pigmented lung-tissue. By examining the sputa of the phthisical patient, much light may be thrown on the condition of the lungs. We may surmise that the fewer the bacilli, the less the destruction, and vice versa. If we admit that bacilli are the cause of tuberculosis, bacillicides are naturally indicated. The experience of various physicians of the favorable resuits obtained from the use of bacillicides at any rate warrants their employment, even though they may not admit that the bacilli are the causation of the disease. Many bacillicides have been recommended; among them is corrosive sublimate, and this Dr. J. L. Porteous (Edinburgh Medical Journal, May, 1887,) in his experience has found to be the best. Various modes have been suggested for applying the remedies; inhalation of the spray containing the bacillicide being the most effectual, as it gets directly to the part affected and retains the original strength of the solution. The method which Dr. Porteous employs is to use a spray producer with a reservoir graduated to hold the exact quantity to be inhaled at one sitting. The patient is then directed to deeply inspire at the same time that the ball of the vaporizer is squeezed. By this means the vapor is drawn directly into the lungs and is in no way diluted before reaching the part affected. This process is repeated every four or six hours. Dr. Porteous reports three cases in which extremely favorable results followed this method of treatment.—Therapeutic Gazette. PATHOGENY OF GASTRIC ULCER. The precise pathogeny of chronic ulcer of the stomach is one of those undetermined questions which have led to considerable speculation, with comparatively little profit. The position, form and nature of the ulcer have done more than any positive demonstration of the vascular lesion to favor the current doctrine of its dependence on arterial blocking. But every one knows the difficulties in the acceptance of this view, not the least being the comparative frequency of the disease in the female sex, and the great preponderance of cases where the ulcer is solitary and seated on the posterior surface near the lesser curvature. Dr. Decker, of Würzburg, has the last word on the subject, (Berl. Klin. Wochenschrift, No. 21,) and he advances evidence in support of the initial lesion being traumatic, or rather thermal. Thus, he believes that the contact of hot thickened fluids with the gastric mucosa excites hyperæmia, which becomes localized, and may lead to venous statis and hemorrhage in a limited territory, with all the subsequent necrotic changes. He supports his view not only by reference to the clinical history of cases of gastric ulcer, (he points to the great prevalence of gastric ulcer among cooks, who habitually test the flavor of their dishes when very hot,) but by two experiments on dogs into whose stomach food heated to 50° C was introduced. In one of the animals a patch of hyperæmia, with hemorrhage between the gastric mucosa and muscularis near the lower curvature, was found; in the other, a deep ulcer of characteristic shape and position had been produced.-The Lancet, May 28, 1887. |