matic of a wide range of disordered function need not be said, yet they follow certain well defined laws. That a pale face, and feeble pulse, need the instanstaneous remedy of nitro glycerine or stimulants, to remedy the anæmic condition that causes it, or that the flushed face and full, bounding pulse, need emetics, or rapid, saline cathartics, is self evident; but there are also finer shades of meaning in the local manifestations.-Pacific Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy. DIAGNOSIS of Infantile Diseases.-Dr. Bradley contributes the following points on this subject: 1. Congestion of the cheeks in children, excepting in cases of cachexia and chronic diseases, indicates an inflammation or a febrile condition. 2. Congestion of the face, ears and forehead, of short duration, strabismus with febrile reaction, oscillation of the iris, irregularity of the pupil, with falling of the upper lip, indicates a cerebral affection. 3. A marked degree of emaciation which progresses gradually, indicates some subacute or chronic affection of a grave character. 4. Bulbar hypertrophy of the fingers and curving of the nails are signs of cyanosis. 5. Hypertrophy of the spongy portions of the bones indicates rachitis. 6. The presence between the eyelids of a thick and purulent secretion from the meibomian glands may indicate great prostration of the general powers. 7. Passive congestion of the conjunctival vessels indicates approaching death. 8. Long continued lividity, as well as lividity produced by a motion and excitement, the respiration continuing normal, are indices of a fault in the formation of the heart or the great vessels. 9. A temporary lividity indicates the existence of a grave acute disease, especially of the respiratory organs. 10. The absence of tears in children four months old or more, suggests a form of disease which will usually be fatal. 11. Piercing and acute cries indicate a severe cerebro-spinal trouble. 12. Irregular muscular movements, which are partially under the control of the will during the hours when one is awake, indicates the existence of chorea. 13. The contraction of the eyebrows, together with a turning of the head and eyes to avert the light, is a sign of cephalalgia. 14. When the child holds his hand upon his head or strives to rest the head upon the bosom of his mother or nurse, he may be suffering from ear disease. 15. When the fingers are carried to the mouth, and there is, besides, great agitation apparent, there is probably some abnormal condition of the larynx. 16. The act of scratching or pinching the nose in children indicates the presence of worms or of some intestinal trouble. 17. When a child turns his head constantly from one side to another, there is a suggestion of some obstruction in the larynx. 18. A hoarse and indistinct voice is suggestive of laryngitis. 19. A feeble and plaintive voice indicates a trouble in the abdominal ⚫organs. 20. A slow and intermittent respiration accompanied with sighs, suggests the presence of cerebral disease. 21. If the respiration is intermittent but accelerated, there is capillary bronchitis. 22. If it is superficial and accelerated; there is some inflammatory trouble of the larnyx and trachea. 23. A strong and sonorous cough suggests spasmodic croup. 24. A hoarse and rough cough is an indication of true croup. 25. When the cough is clear and distinct there is bronchitis. 26. When it is suppressed and painful there is pneumonia and pleurisy. 27. If the cough is convulsive it indicates whooping cough. 28. Sometimes one sees a dry and painless cough in the course of typhoid and intermittent fever, in the course of difficult dentition, or an attack of worms; under these conditions the cough is often due only to a bronchitis which has been caused by the original disease.— L' Union Med. du Can. BEER YEAST as a Therapeutic Agent.-The European medical press has circulated very largely the assertion that during cholera epidemics, the employés of breweries have been singularly free from the contagion. The experiments with beer yeast, made by Dr. Heer, the attending physician of the penal institution at Ratiber, as communicated by him to the Deutsche Medizinische Zeitung, may be of considerable interest. He says that he had noticed more than twenty years ago that in more than four hundred cases, pure beer yeast would rapidly cure scurvy, and that its use was without danger or even the slightest unpleasant consequences. In 1866 he tried the same remedy in the treatment of cholera, and met with better results than with any other mode of treatment, and thus came to the conclusion that the yeast plant was an antagonist of the commabacillus as well as to the microbe causing scurvy, and that thus a remedy was found which, without injury to the human system, would deprive these bacteria of their sustenance. The following were the conclusions arrived at : 1. Yeast is probably a powerful remedy for zymotic diseases, and in scorbutis and purpura, undoubtedly so. 2. In several cases of well advanced tuberculosis I have seen it overcome high febrile conditions, followed by a well-established arrest of the solidifying of the lung tissues, which had progressed several months. 3. The exhibition of yeast is very easy, doses up to two litres per day were given without the slightest bad results. The remedy is readily taken by the patient and replaces the use of milk. 5. By its easy assimilation it becomes a nutrient. Dr. Heer suggests the administration of beer yeast in diphtheria, and hopes for the best results from its use. As beer yeast can be obtained at any lager beer brewery, it would seem as if our physicians should give this new remedy a thorough trial, remembering, in this connection, the good effects generally obtained from the use of the old-fashioned yeast poultice.-Analyst. NITRO-GLYCERINE in Heart Disease.-Dr. L. V. Holst reports in a St. Petersburg journal a number of observations on the action of nitro-glycerine in cases of heart disease. He considers that it is especially useful where little or no şerious organic change in the heart muscle or valves has taken place, and where the affection is mainly due to a debilitated condition of the organ. In angina pectoris Dr. von Holst has found nitro-glycerine very useful; in one case, indeed, it produced a permanent cure. He recommends recourse to this drug, instead of to camphor and musk, in cases where great cardiac weakness threatens immediate danger to life. He considers that the diuretic action is not due to any direct stimulation of the kidneys, but is a consequence of the regulation of the heart's action. He finds that dropsy, if due to heart weakness, diminishes under the use of nitro-glycerine, but that the renal form is uninfluenced by it. With regard to the dose, Dr. von Holst advises that small quantities should be given at first, and increased gradually, according to the effect on the particular case. The prepara tion he uses is a 1 per cent. alcoholic solution, and of this he gives from one to six drops three times a day. GUAIACUM as an Emmenagogue.-Sir James Sawyer states that he has given guaiacum in a large number of cases, and regards the drug as an active remedy in promoting the menstrual secretion in a large proportion of cases of amenorrhoea. It appears most efficient, when given alone, in those cases in which the cause of the amenorrhoea is obscure; that is, in those cases in which there is no obvious spanæmic deterioration to which the menstrual deficiency is referable. He gives Io grains of the powdered resin of guaiacum, stirred in a wineglassful of milk, every morning before breakfast. The remedy may thus be given safely for some weeks. In a few instances it has been found to be necessary to suspend temporarily the administration of the drug, on account of the production of a little abdominal pain and purging. In some cases of dysmenorrhoea guaiacum has been found to possess considerable curative efficacy. In those cases of dysmenorrhoea in which we can find no vice producing menstrual obstruction of a mechanical nature, and in which there are no inflammatory or plethoric signs, the ammoniate tincture of guaiacum is a reliable remedy when given during the painful period. From half a drachm to a drachm may be given as dose in a wine-glassful of water every two or three hours until the pain is relieved.—Birmingham Med. Rev. DISINFECTANT-A new disinfecting compound for purifying. the atmosphere of the sick room has just been presented to the Berlin Medical Society. Oils of rosemary, lavender and thyme, in the proportion of 10, 24, and 24 parts respectively, are mixed with nitric acid in the proportion of 30 to 1. The bottle should be shaken before using, and a sponge saturated with the compound and left to diffuse by evaporation. Simple as it is, the vapor of this compound is said to possess extraordinary properties in controlling the odors and effluvia of offensive and infectious disorders.-Pac. Jour. Med. and Pharm. CANTHARIDES In Hydrophobia.-Dr. Karchevski mentions in the Russkaya Meditsina that he has successfully treated some patients, who had been bitten by a rabid wolf, with cantharides. The wolf attacked three men, inflicting on the first a large and deep wound in the left groin, a piece of skin several square inches in area being torn off. The other men were wounded in the face, legs and arms, but more superficially. Still the bites of a rabid wolf are peculiarly dangerous. Cantharides plasters were applied to all the wounds, and powdered cantharides were administered to each of the three patients in doses of a grain a day. The internal administration was continued for a week, till the patients complained of some heat in the urethra. Seven months have passed, and all the patients are still perfectly healthy. IMPROVEMENT In Artificial Limbs.-The engraving represents an artificial arm with ball and socket wrist joint, recently invented and manufactured by George R. Fuller, successor to the late Dr. Bly, of Rochester, N. Y. The improvement admits of placing the artificial hand in any position that can be attained with the natural hand, and is an important advance in the progress of prosthesis. "NUX VOMICA In Certain Neuroses Of Organic Life."-" M. Brugnoli has employed nux vomica successfully in the nervous movements of pregnancy, gastralgia, dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, nervous palpitations of the heart, nervous and periodic cough, asthma, and finally, in albuminuria. This remedy acts either on the pneumogastric, or on the great sympathetic, or on the spinal cord. He records a case of a lady affected with a severe cough recurring every evening, and lasting throughout the night, who was cured in two days by the use of the nux vomica. Another patient was affected every evening with violent cough accompanied by catarrhal expectoration, and was also cured in two days by the use of the alcoholic extract of nux vomica, mixed with the extract of gentian. Cough may always be allayed by this means, whether it be caused by bronchitis by pneumonia, by pulmonary phthisis, or by emphysema. It proves a useful remedy also in cases of cardiac pulsations, and in irregular or two frequent action of the heart. In albuminuria, M. Brugnoli thinks the administration of nux vomica has retarded its progress to some extent, especially in cases of scarlatinal albuminuria."-Journal de Medicine. URINE-Its Changes During Acute Febrile Diseases.-Dr. L. Duncan Buckley, gives the following as the changes which occur in the urine during acute febrile diseases : 1. In erysipelas the urea in the urine is increased somewhat, the uric acid augmented threefold, the chloride of sodium diminished, and albumen not unfrequently appears. 2. In measles the urine is rich in uric acid and urates; lower products of metamorphosis, albumen and blood are not uncommon. 3. In scarlet fever the urea is not necessarily increased; uric acid is almost entirely suppressed at first, and largely in excess at the close of the fever. The chloride of sodium is diminished. Sediments of uric acid and urates are common, and albumen epithelium and casts generally appear. 4 In small-pox the quantity of urine is diminished and its specific gravity not proportionately increased; uric acid is precipitated, and the chlorides are diminished; albumen is sometimes seen.-Arch. Dermatology. AN Interesting Observation, by Prof. Marius Odin, M. D., Nice.Madame de G., of Austrian nationality, 25 years of age; married; no children; average constitution; lymphatic temperament; sent for me February 2, 1884. I was struck at first sight with her pallor ; her skin and the mucous membrane of her eyelids and lips were quite colorless. She complained of weakness and general atony, dizziness, vertigo, tendency to lipotynie, caused by sorrows, sitting up late at night, and depressing influences. There was gastralgia, with alternnate constipation and diarrhoea. Menstruation was irregular, and an abundant leucorrhoea was accompanied with gastralgic exacerbation. Her pulse was weak and depressible; there was a blowing sound with the first heart-beat; very accentuated in the carotids. On auscultation I found weak respiratory murmurs, much prolonged expiration; dry and jerking cough. There was insomnia, and a tendency to night sweats. Remedies had been tried but could not be borne I prescribed Vin Mariani Erythroxylon Coca, from which I had had much satisfaction on several previous occasions, but which I had never used alone. At the end of eight days there was a notable amelioration. Appetite appeared food was taken and the digestive functions were becoming more regular; she has has since resumed her daily occupation, and can bear, without fatigue, long conversations, and, at the same time, her vocal powers have acquired ampler development. At the end of a month's treatment, her state was most satisfactory; there remained a slight blowing with the first heart-sound, which, however, was disappearing, and was not at all perceptible in the carotids. This observation shows its useful effects upon the vocal organs-a fact first determined by the eminent specialist, Professor Fauvel, who has given to it the name of Tensor of the Vocal Cords.-Gazette de Therap. THERAPEUTIC Uses of the Hot Bath.-Dr. Notley contributes an article on the uses of the hot bath. By the hot bath he means a wet bath at a temperature ranging from 100° to 110° Fahr. In the dryair bath a temperature much higher than this can be borne. A case is related of a man of middle life, spare, and somewhat below the average height, who complained of languor, debility, want of energy, lowness of spirits; the circulation was weak, but the heart and arteries were sound. The quantity of food taken was below the average, the digestive system |