changes and to discharge into the abdomen, rectum, or vagina. It can readi y be moved about in the abdomen by manipulation. Fluctuation. is indistinct. There is dullness over the tumor, tympanitis on all sides, changing somewhat as the patient assumes different positions, owing to the mobility of the tumor. If the hand is passed into the rectum the bony contents of the tumor may sometimes be felt. Adhesions are seldom present. The fluid contains masses of fat, hair, bone, nervous, muscular and fibrous tissue.

ABSTRACTS.

NITRO-GLYCERINE in Heart Disease.-Dr. L. v. Holst reports in a St. Petersburg journal a number of observations on the action of nitroglycerine in heart diseases. He considers that it is especially useful where little or no serious 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, the author advises that small quantities should be given at first, and increased gradually according to the effect on the particular case. The preparation he uses is a one per cent. alcoholic solution, and of this he gives from one to six drops three times a day.—London Lancet.

HOT BATHS in the Treatment of Renal Diseases.-The author has experimented on seven patients with different renal affections, to test the comparative usefulness of hot packs, hot baths, and pilocarpine used hypodermically.

The loss of weight is greater after a hot bath and subsequent enveloping of the patient in blankets. It amounts to 801 grammes. After a hot pack it is 94 grammes, and after pilocarpine it is 514 grammes, 306 by perspiration, and 208 by salivation. The temperature and pulse remain elevated three hours after the bath, and the subjective state of the patient is much better. The slow pulse, low temperature, nausea, headache, and even collapse which follow pilocarpine are not seen.— Bul. Gen. de Thérap.

DIAGNOSIS of Ascites by Means of the Vaginal Touch.-In an entirely accidental way the author found that even in the earliest stages of peritoneal effusion, when the amount of fluid was still very small, it could be readily detected by vaginal touch. The uterus yields

It can be moved in all

to the finger because of its abnormal mobility. directions as if the uterus were fixed to the vaginal roof by means of a joint, permitting movements in all directions.

This extreme mobility on the part of the uterus can only be attributed to a loss of weight of the organ; and the existence of a certain quantity of liquid in the pelvic cavity explains that phenomenon.

By this means slight peritoneal effusions can be detected which give rise to no other signs.-Lyon Méd.

SCARLATINA and Scarlatiniform Eruptions Following Injuries and Operations.-Unprotected persons who have suffered injury, or who have undergone surgical operations, are rather more liable to scarlatina than the unprotected healthy. This increased liability is probably due to diminished power of resistance from disease, and will probably hold with regard to other specific fevers. Scarlet-fever is more apt than the other exanthemata to attack such persons, because. its influence is usually more widespread, and because it varies within such wide limits that it often escapes the attention of those who readily detect other infectious disorders, and provide against them.

When an epidemic tendency of the symptoms we have been considering to prevail after injuries and operations is shown, it may be concluded with confidence that true scarlatina is present.

Septicemia is occasionally accompanied by a scarlatiniform rash which does not depend upon the scarlatinal poison.

Medicinal eruptions, especially those from cinchona and its preparations, not infrequently follow injuries and operations. These rashes. are probably for the most part usually attributed to true scarlatina or septicemia.

In obstetrical practice, scarlatina is unquestionably capable of exercing a most noxious influence, but as the distinctly scarlatinal symptoms are here decidedly less important than the obscure and dangerous. systemic symptoms that the virus seems to induce, the writer does not presume to enter upon the discussion of this branch of the subject. He inclines strongly to the opinion, however, that in so far as concerns a distinctly scarlatinal rash in these cases, the line of argument followed in this paper is equally applicable.-Jour. Cut. and Ven. Disease.

BINOXIDE of Manganese in Amenorrhea.-The effects of manganese in stimulating the menstrual flow, when its suspension is not due to pregnancy, has fairly been established by trials extending over nearly eighteen months. In the articles contributed to the medical journals on the subject, at the beginning of last year, the permanganate and the binoxide were both mentioned as possessing emmenagogue properties, but experiments have so far been made almost exclusively with the permanganate. In consequence, however, of certain disadvantages which are apt to attend the administration of this salt, unless several conditions are complied with, aided, perhaps, by theoretical notions as to the transformation which so unstable a body may undergo immediately after being swallowed, the binoxide, which is equally potent and less irritating, has latterly come into favor. Manganic dioxide, it is true, has been

described as possessing no therapeutical value; but it is conceivable that if its effects are limited, even approximately, to the menstrual function, they may have escaped the attention of observers, especially if, as is not improbable, their investigations were confined to men or animals.-Brit. Med. Jour.

PALPATOMETRY as a Means of Diagnosis.-A Russian physician Dr. V. V. Filipopovitch, has recently published a pamphlet containing some observations on the advantage of ascertaining the degree of tenderness over particular areas by means of an instrument corresponding to Eulenberg's baræsthesiometer; it may be compared to a vertical spring letter-weight, the plate of which is replaced by an extremity having the desired form. The term used is "palpatometry;" the highest pressure, by variously shaped extremities, which could be borne without pain, was tested. This was found, by trial on a number of healthy subjects, to vary from 1,500 to 2,000 grammes, when the instruIment with the knob was used. The work of M. Peter is referred to, as also Dr. Burney Yeo's lectures on Pain in the Region of the Heart and Palpitation (which have been translated into Russian), and several diagrams and charts are given of heart and other diseases, where the mapping out of the surface, according to iso-æsthesic, or, rather, isoanalgesic, areas, indicates with great exactness the course of the disease whether favorable or otherwise. The author has observed that, in typhoid fever, the spleen undergoes a marked and sudden increase of sensitiveness within the forty-eight hours immediately preceding deferThis was quite appreciable to ordinary manual palpation, and, during an epidemic of typhoid, he was able to predict pretty accurately the occurrence of defervescence. He points out the value of more exact means of estimating tenderness in affections where peritonitis is feared.-Brit. Med. Jour.

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VAGINAL Injections in the Parturient Woman.-The process of child-bearing is purely a function of health, as much so as deglutition or conception; sickness is not an incident of this condition, but an accident, hence it is absurd to begin prophylactic treatment unless there is reason to apprehend danger. In malarial districts, when the autumn winds begin to blow, we are not surprised to meet with patients suffering from malaria. But he would be called a crank who would go around stuffing twenty grains of quinine into each of his healthy patrons as a prophylactic against malaria.

To my mind the wiser and more scientific course in the management of the parturient is absolute cleanliness, as near as possible, on the part of both physician and nurse, to leave no spots of blood upon the person, the bed or linen of the patient; to see that the air is sufficient in quantity and pure; exclude all officious friends and visitors; avoid as much as possible all causes of nervous excitement; let the patient arise over vessel, in bed, each day, that the vagina may be drained as nature intended it should. Use disinfectants all you are a mind to, externally, and keep the atmosphere pure and sweet, but don't be constantly injecting irritants, be they ever so mild, into the vagina of your patient,

thus disturbing her quiet and interfering with her natural recuperative powers, unless there are indications of pathological disturbances. Vigilance is at all times proper, but this is the signal for active interference, and if there are suspicions that the disturbing cause is in the genital tract, send your hot water and mercuric chloride after it, at once; or, if it is in the uterus, don't hesitate to inject that organ. Meet the enemy wherever he presents himself, and you need have no twinges of conscience because of doubt as to whether you have done your duty.

The physician who follows this course, being governed by reason and a conscientious regard for the good of his patient, following no hobbies or fashions except what the requirements of each individual case demands, is the one whose work is most likely to be crowned with success.-St. Louis Cour.-Med.

THE Action of Perfumes upon the System.-W. P. Ungerer in the Pop. Science News says:-I have watched for years the action of inhaling perfumes on the hun.an system, and come to the conclusion that inhaling perfumes and odor of flowers is not only a valuable therapeutic agent to the human system, according to Professor Schoenbein's statement, but it is my personal opinion that living in perfumed air will prevent lung-diseases, and arrest development of consumption. In my connection with perfumery manufacturing, for over thirty years, I have had several consumptive persons in my employ of both sexes, who were condemned to die young of the inherited disease, outside of that occupation, but lived to a good old age in the saturated air of perfumes. In my late visit to Grasse, in the south of France, which is called the flower-garden of Europe, my assertions were confirmed, as consumption is of rare occurrence in that locality. The air is full of the escaping vapors from the distilling of perfumes and ethereal oils, which is the chief occupation of that country; and the in and out door air is saturated with the exhalation of the flowers and plants all the year round.

APOCYNUM in Sciatica and in Lumbar and Crural Neuralgia.There has appeared from time to time in our medical literature so-called specifics for sciatica, and I know of no affliction more painful and heretofore harder to get rid of than this form of neuralgia. I recently had to treat three cases which were somewhat different from each other, but all having the characteristic symptom of very severe pain. They were all adults, and two of them were women and the other a man. In the first case the pain was in the right groin and in the region of the trocanter, and it was so severe as to extort cries of anguish from the sufferer. After trying other remedies for her relief for three days, during which time the pain grew worse, and temporary rest was only obtained by hypodermic injections of morphia, I gave her apocynum and in a few hours there was cessation of pain and it never returned. The medicine was continued two days. The next case was a woman with pain in right hip and side, which was also so severe as to extort screams, and apocynum again very promptly relieved her. The third case was that of a man, and the pain, which came on in the night was located seemingly in the right kidney, and forced him to get

out of bed screaming with terrible suffering. This was so sudden and severe that morphia was given at first and then other remedies were administered for four days without the slightest benefit. At this time I gave apocynum every half hour, and in one hour there was improvement, and before two hours there was entire relief. This patient had been unable to straighten up or walk on account of the slightest jar hurting him. If apocynum had been given in the beginning of all these cases, as it was in the second one, there might have been reason to suppose that had it not been given other remedies could have been found that would have relieved, such as colocynth or colchicum or rhus tox. or arsenicum, etc., but these and others were tried first, and apocynum was held in reserve to test the matter. I would like others to try it in painful affections of the hips and back and test it on neuralgia of other parts of the body. I gave it by mixing thirty drops of specific apocynum with four ounces of water, and giving a teaspoonful every half hour until improvement set in and afterward less frequently.-Ec. Med. Jour.

THE Influence of Alcohol on the Functions of the Stomach.—Dr. Gluzinski has just published in the Deutsches Archiv fur Klinische Medicin, the results obtained by his experiments instituted to ascertain the influence of alcohol upon the gastric functions. We epitomize his main conclusion by the following theses:

1. Alcohol disappears quickly from the stomach.

2. Aldehyde can not be recovered, and alcohol very probably enters, as such, the circulation.

3. The digestion influenced by alcohol can be divided in two distinct periods-viz., one, during which alcohol is still present in the stomach, and another after its disappearance.

4. The first period is characterized by an impeded or rather slowed state of digestion of albuminates, the second by the secretion of an energetic and concentrated gastric juice.

5. The mechanical working power of the stomach is moderately diminished.

6. The secretion of gastric juice after completed digestion lasts considerably longer than without the presence of alcohol.

7. Under the influence of alcohol larger quantities of fluid collect in the stomach, and assume through the action of the bile a yellowish coloration.

Comparing these results with daily experience, according to which alcohol is known to facilitate digestion, especially after a copious ingestion of food, it must be conceded that alcohol in small doses actually exerts a favorable influence upon the functions of the stomach. Especially to be noticed is the increased quantity of free muriatic acid which, at the time when the alcohol itself has long left the stomach, effects the digestion of large quantities of albumen. The momentary slowing of digestion during the first period after the ingestion of a small quantity of alcohol, such as a glass of cognac, is of too short a duration to be at all considered. The experimenter even saw that 100 cc. of