PYRIDINE IN ASTHMA.-Pyridine is, according to the Union Médicale, valuable as an antiasthmatic, whether the affection is of cardiac origin or otherwise. About a dram of the drug is placed on a plate in a small room, to which the patient pays periodical visits of from twenty to thirty minutes duration three times a day. After two or three séances the ráles in the chest disappear, the expectoration is more free, and sleep is obtained at night, or at all events relief from the asthmatic attacks. In some cases the improvement is permanent, in others it only lasts unimpaired for five or six days. Iodine treatment is then required, which is usually efficacious, but which can not be borne by all patients.-Ibid.

LOCAL OPTION.-At the recent meeting of the American Public Health Association a valuable paper upon "Alcohol" was furnished by Prof. S. E. Chaillé. In view of the absence of its author and the pressure for time, it was read only by title. Our examination of it, however, satisfies us that it will be a very valuable addition to the literature of the subject. It disputes some ordinary conclusions as to the abuse of alcohol being upon the increase, and shows that intelligence is confining it more to classes. It takes very strong sanitary grounds, however, against the present system of licensing, and declares that local option is both a social and sanitary necessity.-Correspondence Medical News.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF COD-LIVER OIL.— Dr. W. Washburn, of New York City, writes that he has long been in the habit of administering cod-liver oil in milk to both infants and adults. Milk is taken in the mouth and held there, and the spoon is first dipped in milk and then the oil is poured into it. Just as the oil is taken into the mouth the milk should be swallowed, and then another sip of milk taken. Children, if interrupted in nursing, readily swallow a teaspoonful of oil, and then proceed with nursing as if nothing had happened. The oily nature of the milk seems completely to shield the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat from contact with the cod-liver oil.-Medical Record.

-The

THE JOHNS HOPKINS ENDOWMENT. Baltimore Sun of October 7th publishes a statement of the financial resources of the Johns Hopkins University. For the year ending August 31, 1886, the income was $225,922.38. The total expenses for the year were $185,020.96, leaving a balance of $40,901.42. Among the receipts $17,804.12 were credited to tuition. Among the expenses $126,828.26 are charged to salaries. The total endowment is $4,359,350.43. In addition the University owns the Clifton estate of two hundred and eighty acres, which is valued at $2,000 per acre, making the property of the University worth to-day about $5,000,000.

BACTERIA IN SEA AIR.-Moureau and Miquel have made microscopic analyses of sea air at various places, and state, as the result of their observations, that when the breezes come from the sea the air is almost free from bacteria. When one hundred kilometres out at sea the breezes coming from shore are also almost free from them, thus proving that the sea is an insurmountable barrier to contagion. On vessels making long passages it was noticed that although the compartments were not entirely free from bacteria, they contained about one hundred times less than in a Parisian home.Medical and Surgical Reporter.

A MONSTER CHILD.-Dr. N. E. Davies writes, in the Lancet, that a thin little woman gave birth to a male child sixteen months ago, at the village of West Camel, Somerset. When born the infant was of ordinary size in every way; it now weighs and measures as follows: Length, 36 inches; circumference round abdomen, 33 inches; chest, 30 inches; thigh, 17 inches; calf, 11 inches; neck, 15 inches; arm, 10 inches, and face, 17 inches. Its weight is 64 pounds. The father is a man of ordinary size. The infant seems very intelligent and happy, but on account of its enormous weight it can not be lifted without expressing pain.Medical Record.

A LONDON physician says that more than five hundred infants are yearly killed by their mothers lying on them.

THE LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH on Sunday, the first instant, revoked the quarantine against all of Harrison County, Mississippi, except Biloxi, which still remains under ban.

THE first issue of the British Pharmacopeia for 1885 (20,000 copies) is exhausted, and the work is about to be reprinted, with corrections, from electrotype plates.

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.-The fiftyfifth annual meeting of this Association will be held in Dublin, August 2, 3, 4, and 5, 1887.

THE London Lancet will continue to be edited by a Wakely, a nephew of the late editor.

THE cholera has reached Austro-Hungary, and seems to be surely spreading.

SPECIAL NOTICES.

CONGENITAL HEREDITARY ATONIC DYSPEPSIA. Mrs. H. L. S., Langside, Miss., was delivered of a male child in whom there was manifested wellmarked symptoms of atonic dyspepsia. The mother had been a victim of dyspepsia from girlhood, and had inherited the malady from her mother.

The

The infant was put to the breast a few hours after birth, and nursed readily; but almost immediately rejected the milk. Repeated trials all resulted in vomiting, followed by exhaustion. Various articles of food were tried, including cow's milk, etc., without improvement. child was in great danger of starvation. On the third day I began the administration of Lactopeptine. The effect was immediate and almost miraculous. I ordered one sixteenth of the adult dose to be dissolved in about two ounces of breast-milk (drawn from a robust, healthy wet-nurse) and administered every two and a half hours. There was no more rejection of milk-except the usual vomiting of curdled milk to relieve the crowded state of the stomach, which occurred occasionally, after the first ten days. Condensed milk, cow's milk (properly diluted and sweetened), Mellin's food, boiled bread (pap), were, after a while, substituted for breast-milk, but always with Lactopeptine. A steady improvement was manifest from the beginning, and kept up during the first dentition, which process was gone through with in a most satisfactory manner. No diarrhea or intestinal disturbance characterized this period, and, at ten months, the child was virtually cured of its dyspepsia, and could eat and digest ordinary food such as children of that age may do in good health. The parents of the child believe firmly (as I do) that Lectopeptine saved their infant.

In cholera infantum, in diarrhea, and in all of the disturbances of the alimentary canal, during dentition and early infant life, I find Lactopep

tine an ever-effective and reliable remedy. In adult dyspepsia, all are now familiar with its beneficial effects; but I should be glad if the profession would be induced to try it in the vomitings, diarrheas, and dyspepsias of infancy.—R. Walker Beers, M. D., in Medical Brief.

Army and Navy Medical Intelligence.

OFFICIAL LIST of Changes of Stations and Duties of Officers serving in the Medical Depart ment, United States Army, from October 31, 1886, to November 6, 1886:

Major J. S. Billings, Surgeon, granted leave of absence for eight days. (S. O. 246, A. G. O.. Octo ber 22, 1886.) Captain John V. Lauderdale, Assistant Surgeon, leave of absence extended one month. (S. O. 249, A. G. O., October 26, 1886.) Captain Jas. K. Corson, Assistant Surgeon, granted leave of absenee for one month, to take effect when his services can be spared. (S. O. 246, A. G. O., October 22, 1886.) Captain E. B. Moseley, Assistant Surgeon, relieved from duty in the Department of the Columbia and ordered to report in person at Headquarters Division of the Pacific, for assignment to duty. (S. O. 87, Division Pacific, October 16, 1886.) Major B. A. Clements, Surgeon, died November 1, 1886, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Major J. V. D. Middleton, Surgeon, ordered from Department Missouri to David's Island, New York Harbor. Major A. A. Woodhull, Surgeon, ordered from David's Island, Major J. W. Williams, Surgeon, ordered from DeNew York Harbor, to Department Missouri. partment Colorado to Department East. Captain J. K. Corson, Assistant Surgeon, ordered from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, to Department Colorado, upon expiration of present leave of absence. Cap tain H. S. Turrill, Assistant Surgeon, ordered from Department Platte to Department Colorado. First Lieutenant Benj. Munday, Assistant Surgeon, ordered from Department Colorado to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. (S. O. 252, A. G. O., October 29, 1886.) First Lieutenant Wm. O. Owen, jr., Assistant Surgeon, relieved from duty at Fort Schuyler, New York Harbor, and ordered for duty as Post Surgeon, Plattsburg Barracks, New York. (S. O. 170, Division, Atlantic October 29, 1886. First Lieu tenant Guy L. Edie, Assistant Surgeon, ordered from Fort McIntosh, Texas, to Post of San Antonio, Texas. (S. O. 152, Department Texas, October 27, 1886.) First Lieutenant H. S. T. Harris, Assistant Surgeon, ordered from Post of San Antonio, Texas, to Fort Clark. Texas. (S. O. 152, Depart ment Texas, October 27, 1886.)

OFFICIAL LIST of Changes of Stations and Duties of Medical Officers of the United States Marine Hospital Service, for the two weeks ended October 23, 1886:

Urquhart, F. M., Passed Assistant Surgeon, relieved from duty at Cape Charles quarantine, to proceed to Washington, D. C., with steamer Woodworth. October 20, 1886. Wasdin, Eugene, Passed Assistant Surgeon, promoted and appointed Passed Assistant Surgeon, from October I, 1886. October 20, 1886. Williams, L. L., Assistant Surgeon, granted leave of absence for three days. October 16, 1886.

VOL. II. [NEW SERIES.]

Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than any thing else.-RUSKIN.

Original Articles.

CREMATION VERSUS BURIAL.

BY HUGO ERICHSEN, M. D.

Recently Professor of Neurology in the Quincy School of Medicine,
Medical Department of Chaddock College, Quincy, Ill.;
Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons, Kingston, Canada, etc.

The battle between torch and spade is not new, it has been going on since early times. Tertullian, a writer of the second century, declares that many of the Gentiles were opposed to cremation on the score of the cruelty which it did to the body, which did not deserve such penal treatment. This is exactly what some are asserting now. The work of an ancient Greek poet even contains a passage requesting Prometheus to take back the fire which he had procured them. There was a time when the Pagans were disputing the propriety of burning the dead upon any consideration whatever. Heraclitus advocated cremation; Thales and Hippon, earth burial. In the war which a few Christians are now waging against incineration, we therefore only have another illustration of how history repeats itself. Peoples are still contesting the point in lands which are painted. in Pagan black upon the maps of the missionaries, and where Christians as yet have no footing. Some sects in Japan bury and some burn their dead; some of the Hindoos practice interment, others incineration.

The injudicious promotors of cremation are among the greatest enemies of the reform. The utterance that incineration should be obligatory was extremely unfortunate, as was the idea of

No. 11.

producing illuminating gas for general use from the combustion of corpses, something after the fashion of the twelfth century's lanternes des morts. The fancy of Sir Henry Thompson to use the ashes resulting from cremation as a fertilizer was also a mischievous idea, and did much to delay the progress of incineration in Great Britain.

The abhorence entertained by many of cremation depends, to a very great extent, on the universal tendency of individuals and peoples to resent any interference with established customs; to reject any innovation, simply because it is an innovation. For instance, if cremation should be the customary practice at the present time, a proposition to re-establish inhumation would meet, I am certain, with the most violent opposition.

The cremationists are now charged with enthusiasm and fanaticism by individuals who would be content that science should "stand at gaze like Joshua's moon in Ajalon." Most of the progress in all departments of learning has been made by enthusiasts, and a man must be an enthusiast indeed to withstand the prejudice 'dry as dust" which yields the ground slowly and grudgingly, but which is certain to be defeated in the end.

The first question that comes before us for consideration is, "Would not cremation destroy the evidence of crime?" This refers not only to cases of poisoning, but also to those instances where persons meet with a violent death by being shot, stabbed, or otherwise severely injured. This is the only tangible objection that has ever been made by the anti-cremationists. It is of great importance, and unless we are able to show that it can be obviated, we must admit that it constitutes a serious drawback to cremation. This, as Dr. J. O. Marble appropriately remarks, is, in fact, the one and

only real lion in the way of the progress of incineration as a substitute for inhumation, and unless we can muzzle this lion, he may frighten away the pilgrims.

If the charges made by the anti-cremation party were true, incineration, if established, would offer facilities for the commission and concealment of hideous crimes. A victim could be destroyed by poison, the dead body carried to a furnace and reduced to a small heap of ashes in a short space of time, and the crime thus forever placed beyond the reach of detection. The cremator, then, would become the instrument and accomplice of the murderer. It is urged that the agents employed in the commonest form of secret murder-poisoning -are often of a novel, subtle, and various character. We are apprised that it is extremely improbable that the physician called in, if he be called in, has ever seen their effects, either on man or animals; that care will be taken that he shall not see them; that the poisoner has the advantage of preparation on his side; and finally, that discovery, when made, is generally made at some variable period after death, and then rather in consequence of an aggregation of suspicious collateral circumstances pointing to the commission of other crimes of a like nature than of any possible observations at the bedside of the murdered person. Indeed, a formidable array of arguments, which can be, nevertheless, overcome in several ways. The question now before us for solution is not of recent date, but has already agitated the minds of the ancients, who, most probably, investigated the cause of death before they consigned their dead to the funeral pyre. Tacitus, the Roman historian, relates that the corpse of Germanicus lay in state in the forum of Antioch, the place fixed for sepulchral rites, but that "whether it bore the marks of poisoning yet remains undecided," for the people were divided in their opinions, some pitying Germanicus and suspecting Piso's guilt, others prejudiced in favor of the latter.

Pliny also relates in chapter 71 of his Natural History, lib. xi: "It is claimed that the heart of those who die of morbus cardiacus (organic heart disease) can not be destroyed by fire, and the same is said to be true of the heart of

poisoned persons." poisoned persons." An oration of Vitellus is extant in which he accuses Piso, the physician, of having poisoned Germanicus, since the heart of the latter would not burn. Piso defended himself by describing the disease of which the emperor had died.

In a

Dr. J. O. Marble, who has written of this subject, affirms: "It must be admitted that cases of criminal poisoning, such as would be detected by an exhumation and examination of a buried body, are very rare, for in our day Lucrezia Borgias and Brinvilliers are few and easily detected. In a community like ours cases of this kind are extremely rare. vast majority of cases the cause of death is perfectly evident to any intelligent physician. No doubt obscures the case. The list of causes of death, perfectly evident even to the friends and non-medical persons, embraces, probably at least, nine tenths of the whole mortality. Doubtful cases have generally been visited by more than one skillful physician. The fraction in which crime of any sort might have been perpetrated becomes thus very small. Moreover, in the present state of chemical analysis and expert medical testimony, the advantages of the posthumous examination of a body with a view to the detection of crime accrue less to justice than to the lawyer for the defense."

The medico-legal objection, as it is called, does not apply in every case, since every day individuals die of easily-determined causes, such as small-pox, consumption, hemorrhage from the lungs or stomach, drowning, or other accidents, and suicide; in short, in such a way as to place the cause of death beyond cavil and dispute.

It is true that a regular proportion of bodies are dug up every year on suspicion of foul play; but, aside from the fact that that proportion is very small, how many of these cases justify the exhumation? So uncertain and inaccurate is the post-mortem evidence of criminal poisoning, that no bodies have been exhumed for forensic purposes in Vienna, Austria's capital, since 1805.

Tarchini-Bonfanti, for twenty-six years perito-medico (medical expert) at the tribunal of Milan, Italy, declares that during this time,

although many thousands of litigations came before the court which was requested to pronounce judgment upon them, only in ten cases was it necessary to resort to exhumation. Only ten cases in twenty-six years, out of several thousands of lawsuits, and four only out of the ten exhumations led to the detection of the crime and the criminal. These four cases, however, occurred in a single lawsuit--that of Boggia. In this instance the disinterment would have taken place, even if cremation had been at the time an established and universal custom, for Boggia had buried his victims in his own cellar. Tarchini-Bonfanti asserts that exhumations for forensic purposes are extremely rare, and that those which are made yield either negative, or at best doubtful results.

Disinterment, instead of furnishing an explanation, instead of shedding light upon some mystery, more often is followed by confusion, and may give rise to erroneous conclusions. The assertion I have just made, brings to my mind the celebrated poisoning case of Madame Laffarge, which happened many years ago in France, and is now well-nigh forgotten. This instructive case, I am sure, will strengthen my declaration, for in this instance the exhumation led to the conviction of, I firmly believe, an innocent person.

Monsieur Laffarge, having buried his first wife, hunted for a second with a little money to relieve him from his financial embarrassments. As no one that knew him or his circumstances would have procured or intrusted to him the happiness of a female, he was obliged to have recourse to a marriage agent, a Mons. Foy, who kept a female slave-shop in the center of civilization, and sold ladies in marriage to the highest bidder. Poor Marie Capelle was an orphan with a fortune far beneath the usual property of young ladies in her sphere of life. She was a beautiful young girl, with regular features and jet black hair. She played excellently on the piano and had a delightful voice. Her singing is said to have been of a very superior kind. She was well versed in more than one science, read and translated Goethe with great facility, spoke several languages, and improvised in Italian

verse with the same grace and pureness of style as in French verse. Marie Capelle, in short, was a rare exotic plant in the bosom of the simple domestic virtues of a Limousin education. Full of religious sentiment and refinement, this unfortunate woman was destined to meet with a fate worse than death. She had no offers of marriage in her own circle, so that her aunt was glad to close with the first offer proposed by M. Foy, the marriage agent. What was the poor orphan to do? Refuse the man? But she had no objection to allege against him. He was old and ugly; that did not alarm her. But his temper, his avarice, his rudeness, his lone and deserted countryhouse, which even the poor curate shrunk from as worse than a cloister, how could the victim know all this till she experienced it? She submitted, therefore, to the fate of every French woman of that period, that is, to take the husband which her guardians provided. On the road, however, she discovered the terrors of her situation, and, arrived at Glandier, tried to break loose from it. She acquainted her spouse frankly with all she suffered and all she felt. The husband, however, cared little whether his wife loved him or not. To keep his live purchase and her fortune was his only aim.

Some time after the marriage Laffarge died suddenly and under suspicious circumstances. His wife, suspected of having poisoned him, was imprisoned. So great, however, was public sympathy in favor of her, that even such a callous individual as the Concierge of the Palais de Justice gave up his own room to her. Here she was incarcerated, during the trial, Iwith the faithful servant who attended her in her prosperity and would not abandon her in adversity. The example of this good girl seems to have had a powerful effect, for Marie Capelle lost few friends during her misfortune.

At the trial, which came off at Tulle, it was shown that the deceased had on one occasion actually attempted to take away his own life, but, being discovered in the act, was prevented. Laffarge was exhumed, and his body subjected to a chemical examination by M. Orfila, the noted Parisian toxicologist, who was assisted by two other chemists. These gentlemen,