to attribute the effects of the kola nut to this "rouge de kola," as he does not think the proportion of caffeine it contains sufficient to account for the marvelous results obtained; and, moreover, it must not be forgotten that these effects are still observed after all the caffeine has been carefully removed. M. Heckel has tried his experiments upon army men. On one occasion the colonel commanding the 106th Regiment, in garrison at Perpignan, took a small quantity of kola-nut powder (containing only about 0 gr. 12 of caffeine), and yet he was able to take a long walk, making the ascension of the Carrigon, a mountain over 9,000 feet in height, all in twelve hours, with only twenty-five minutes rest, and finished up his march in splendid style and without fatigue. Numerous other instances are on record where officers and men have performed arduous forced marches, without being in any way incommoded, upon a small pinch of kola-nut powder, such as would contain only about 0 gr. 15 of caffeine. The fresh nut, which is only chewed by the natives of Africa, also contains a rich oil; it is of an essential character, and is very active in exciting the nervous system. This essential oil, however, must be eliminated when the nut is used as an element of diet. It is in form of a dry powder, or as a cake that M. Heckel has introduced it to the army and Alpine clubs. Many of the Alpine clubs, it is alleged, have generally adopted the kola nut as one of the principal items for a touring outfit, and find that they are thereby enabled to perform far more work with much less fatigue, and also escape all sensation of giddiness. M. Heckel is anxious that the kola nut should now be regularly adopted in the French army, not only for the men, but for the horses. He points out that the German military authorities are making experiments in this way. M. Colin and other members of the Académie de Médicine are, however, of opinion that caffeine is a much safer substance to work with, more especially as the active principles of the kola nut are but ill-defined, little known to any of them, and their action scarcely understood with sufficient accuracy.-Med. and Surg. Reporter.

OLEORESIN PEPONIS.-Louis Augustus Minner, Ph. G., in an inaugural essay, of which an abstract appears in the Amer. Journal of Pharmacy, June, 1890, describes a test of two samples of oil of pumpkin seed procured, one each from New York and Philadelphia. They were of a pale yellow color and became semisolid at 32° F. One sample had considerable of a deposit resembling lard in color and consistency, and was rather freely soluble in alcohol. Both oils were administrated for tænia,

in the form of emulsion and in doses of half an ounce, followed by a dose of castor oil, without expelling the tape-worm. He found, however, that the same quantity of the oleoresin of pumpkin seed promptly ejected large portions of the tænia.

For preparing this oleoresin the seeds were reduced to a coarse powder by triturating them in a mortar with pumice stone, exhausting with ether by maceration and percolation, and evaporating the solvent at a gentle heat. After washing the oil with some alcohol it formed a thick liquid of a red color, had a peculiar unpleasant odor and a disagreeable, rank taste. Its specific gravity at 60° F. is about 0.924. It is almost insoluble in alcohol, soluble in chloroform, ether, benzine, and benzol, and does not congeal at 32° F. Strong sulphuric acid changes the color to green, then dark green, and after several hours to a dull redbrown, a blackish deposit being also formed. Strong nitric acid changes to red-brown, and after about five minutes causes violent effervescence, a disagreeable odor being given off, and, after cooling, a reddish-brown semi-solid mass is left.

Pumpkin seeds are not as frequently used as they would be if they could be administered in a more convenient form. The introduction of a reliable preparation seems desirable, and, in Mr. Minner's opinion, the oleoresin is both a convenient and elegant as well as effective preparation. It can be easily and readily prepared, and is probably the most concentrated liquid form of pumpkin seed that can be devised. It may be given in doses of 1 to 1 fluid ounce, in the form of an emulsion flavored with aromatics.-Ibid.

COLLAPSE FOLLOWING THE INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION OF SALICYLATE OF SODIUM. But few drugs, old or new, have escaped trial in the special treatment of chronic and subacute articular rheumatism. The effect of the salicylate of sodium (as sometimes prepared) in the following two cases is interesting in view of certain recent experiments.

J. M. had been under treatment for subacute rheumatism for six months, in another part of the country, without deriving any benefit. On May 1, 1889, I prescribed for her 100 grains daily of salicylate of sodium. On the 4th she complained of giddiness, confusion of ideas, and weakness. On the 5th the giddiness was excessive and the patient was unable to get out of bed. The next day, having now taken 600 grains, there were delirium and prostration. The drug was now stopped, and when the patient regained her faculties the joint symptoms had disappeared, and did not return.

H. C. had for years suffered from articular rheumatism, chiefly in the lower extremities. On May 24, 1889, I prescribed 100 grains daily of the salicylate of sodium, which was supplied by the same chemists as in the previous case. On May 30th I was summoned at midnight to the patient, who was said to be dying. Briefly stated, his symptoms were, great and stridulous dyspnea, extreme slowness of the pulse, and general paralysis, the patient being unable to speak. Delirium was not so marked, however, as in the other case. After appropriate treatment he recovered, and his malady was considerably relieved for a time.

It was

I think it worth while notifying these cases, as the symptoms present such a striking similarity to those experimentally induced in the rabbit by Professor Charteris, recently described in the Lancet and elsewhere. shown in these experiments that an element of high toxicity could be isolated from the artificial compounds commonly in use. Professor Charteris has kindly given me further information on the matter, and has shown me various specimens of the purified drug. Since then I have had opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of much larger doses of the drug so purified, without any untoward results.--Dr. A.G. Auld, London Lancet.

MORPHINE AS AN ANTIDOTE TO ATROPINE. A case of considerable interest occurred at Chadarghat in Hyderabad recently, and is reported in the Medical Record of Calcutta. A medical student, who was a great sufferer from neuralgia, for which he was accustomed to take antipyrin, went to indulge in his customary dose, but hit upon the wrong bottle and took six grains of atropine instead. In a few moments he became unconscious and fell. He was seen by a brother medical student, who instantly ran off and called Surgeon-Major Edward Lawrie. An emetic was speedily given, and the stomach pump used to wash out the contents of the stomach. The patient, how ever, seemed to be rapidly sinking from the effects of the drug. The pupils were dilated to their fullest extent, there were foaming at the mouth, stertorous respiration, and a rapid intermitting pulse. The condition seemed hastening toward the end, when Dr. Lawrie thought he would resort to the antagonistic effects of morphine, and injected one grain of this drug subcutaneously, with no apparent effect. He then injected another grain, but with no decided result. The patient, though still alive, seemed hovering in the balance between life and death. From eight o'clock in the morning till three in the afternoon artificial respiration was resorted to with varying intervals of rest.

Lawrie now determined to try the hypodermic injection of a third of a grain of morphine, and this seemed to be the determining antidote, for in an hour the pulse improved, the breathing gradually resumed its normal standard, and consciousness returned.-London Lancet.

BLADDER WOUNDED BY A DECAPITATING HOOK.-Dr. Berczeller, of Buda-Pesth, has related a case of some interest to all who have to conduct labors under difficulties. A note of his observation is contained in the Centralblatt f. Gynäk., No. 18, 1890. f. Gynäk., No. 18, 1890. He undertook decapitation in a case where delivery could not be otherwise effected; the presentation was transverse. Just as he had completed the severance of the head the bed broke down, and the end of the decapitating hook went clean through the anterior vaginal wall into the bladder. The wound was at once sewn up with two sutures, and a catheter retained in the bladder; it fell out on the following day. On the tenth day the sutures were removed. As the wound was a clean cut it might naturally be expected that it would heal more satisfactorily than the pared edges of a vesico-vaginal fistula caused by sloughing a portion of the anterior vaginal wall through pressure of the fetal head arrested for a protracted period in the pelvis. Dr. Berczeller's case also illustrates a more obvious fact. The obstetrician must feel sure that, before he attempts any operation or operations, the bed or table on which the patient lies is thoroughly secure. This precaution is especially to be remembered in country practice.British Medical Journal.

One

WHEN IS A CHILD VIABLE?-It is usually stated that children born before the seventh lunar month are incapable of living, and Voit mentions 1,500 grams, or 47 ounces, as being the minimum weight of a viable child. Exceptions, however, occasionally occur. such has recently been reported by Dr. Holowko, assistant physician in the Dorpat Obstetric Clinic. A female child was born in the twenty-seventh week, and weighed only 1,300 grams, or 31 ounces. Though it had to be subjected to Schultze's swinging movements in order to get it to breathe, it was ultimately brought into very good condition, and alter a time attained the weight it would have done had it remained in utero its full time. It was kept in a kind of couveuse, and fed by a wet nurse, and with milk diluted with four parts of water. Dr. Holowko thinks that the formation of the chest and general muscular development are of more importance for prognosis in such cases than the body weight.-London Lancet.

No. 1.

Editors.

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THE TABLES TURNED.

The Brooklyn Medical Journal treats its readers to a startling little piece of medical. jurisprudence. The case is as follows:

Dr. Cruikshank was called to see a sick child whose father's name was Gordon. The doctor made a diagnosis of malaria and treated the child accordingly. The patient did not improve as fast as the family expected, and another doctor was called.

Dr. Cruikshank took his discharge very philosophically, until it came to his ear that Mr. Gordon had said: "He treated my child for malaria when it had another and entirely different disease. He nearly killed my child, and would have killed it if another doctor had not been called in."

This was too much for Dr. Cruikshank's equilibrium, and he speedily brought suit for Islander with claim for indemnity.

"The jury rendered a verdict for the plaintiff for $1,600 damages, which was confirmed by each successive court, and finally by the Supreme Court of the State of New York. In addition to the specific charge, the slanderer repeatedly stated that the doctor was generally incompetent as a physician. The most important point reached by the decision was, that the

physician need not prove the damages sustained, as that would be impossible, but, the slanderous language being uttered, the damage resulting therefrom may be assumed."

Suits against the doctor by Smith, Jones, or Robinson for malpractice are always coming up sporadically here and there, while at times the evil becomes epidemic, and sweeps over some State or region like yellow fever or the plague. But these cases, founded, as most of `them are, in malice or covetousness, and nullified as is common by the failure of the evidence to hold together in open court, no longer inter

est us.

When, however, a physician goes into court to indemnify himself of damaging criticism made upon his professional character and management of a case, and gets a verdict of such cohesive strength that it can successfully stand the testing of the lower and higher courts, the case is one that may not be lightly passed over.

That Dr. Cruikshank had a grievance need not be doubted. That it is a common grievance every good practitioner of medicine knows. But if the amenities of professional life are in New York what they are in other parts of the world, we will wager ten to one on it that the real offender was that "other doctor," and that the defendant did no more than indiscreetly repeat or paraphrase words fitly spoken at a time most unfit for the reputation of the first doctor in the case.

Be this as it may, neither sixteen hundred nor any other number of dollars can pay a physician for loss in professional reputation. If the sifting of this matter in court had led to the verification of Dr. Cruikshank's diagnosis and established the correctness of his treatment, an approximative vindication might have been reached; but a damage of one cent and costs is all that the plaintiff in even such a case could afford to receive.

The office of the true physician is priestly, not commercial. Such a man must needs suffer in purse and in fame at the hands of those who, having an eye to business, enlarge themselves at his expense; but the remedy is worth, work, and long-suffering, and no substitute for these can be had of the courts, however liberally they may dispense justice.

THE INCOMPATIBILITIES OF ANTIPYRINE.

The Pharmaceutical Era calls attention to a paper recently read before the London Chemical Assistants' Association, which gives the following imposing list of incompatibles for the very much used and abused drug, antipyrine. It should be duly pondered in all its sublime proportions by the practical physician.

Acid carbolic, strong solutions, a precipitate; acid hydrocyanic dilute, yellow coloration; acid nitric dilute, faint yellow coloration; acid tannic, insoluble white precipitate; alum (ammonia), deep yellow coloration, fading and precipitating; amyl nitrite (acid), green coloration; chloral hydrate, strong solution gave a precipitate, with weak solutions no apparent change; copper sulphate, green coloration; decoction of cinchona bark, precipitate; extract (fluid) of cinchona bark, precipitate; glycerine of carbolic acid, precipitate; glycerine of tannic acid, precipitate; infusion of cinchona bark, precipitate; infusion of barberry leaves, precipitate; infusion (acid) of roses, precipitate; iron sulphate, brownish yellow coloration, deposit, on standing solution turns red; mercury perchloride, white precipitate, soluble in excess of water; solution of arsenic and mercury iodides, dense white precipitate; solution of iron perchloride, bloodred coloration; solution of iron pernitrate, blood-red coloration; solution of permanganate of potassium, reduction quickly takes place; soda salicylate (solid), becomes liquid; spirit nitrous ether (acid), green coloration; syrup of iodide of iron, reddish brown coloration ; tincture of cinchona bark (simple and compound), precipitates; tincture of perchloride, red coloration; tincture of galls, precipitate; tincture of iodine, precipitate; tincture of kino, precipitate; tincture of larch, precipi

tate.

In view of the above, it is interesting to note how often the drug may be given or taken under conditions which must very much retard its action or render it totally inert. That some of the products of these incompatibilities are poisonous there can be little doubt, and in this may be found the solution of the puzzle of

its strange and sometimes fatal effects. That such a drug should become a common domestic remedy is one of the appalling facts of this wonderful era.

KENTUCKY PIONEERS IN SURGERY.

The President's address before the American Surgical Association appears in full text in this issue. We promised it to our readers some weeks ago, but the illness of the author, with Society matter, made the delay in its publicathe undue pressure upon our columns of State tion unavoidable. In the opinion of the junior editor of this journal, no apology is here in place, since the address is a piece of classic historical work which can not but interest the doctor at any time.

Notes and Queries.

INGERSOLL ON VIVISECTION.-Colonel Ingersoll's large capacities for unbelief have taken. in the practice of vivisection, which he recently places in the same category with Moses and the Prophets. In a letter to a Boston gentleman the distinguished rhetorician calls vivisectionists "scientific assassins." He asserts that human sympathy and sense of justice are higher than all discoveries and inventions; furthermore, Colonel Ingersoll, though agnostic, knows as follows:

'I know that good for the human race can never be accomplished by torture. I also know that all that has been ascertained by vivisection could have been done by the dissection of the dead, or, at least, of animals completely and perfectly under the merciful influence of ether. I know that all the torture has been useless. All the agony inflicted has simply hardened the hearts of the criminals without enlightening their minds."

The Colonel adds: "Never can I be the friend of one who vivisects his fellow creatures. I do not wish to touch his hand. When the angel of pity is driven from the heart, when the fountain of tears is dry, the soul becomes a serpent crawling in the dust of the desert."

This sounds well, although as a matter of

fact serpents do not crawl in deserts; but, ignoring this slight concession of the truths of natural history to the demands of oratory, the eloquent writer continues:

"The wretches who commit these infamous crimes pretend that they are working for the good of man, that they are actuated by philanthropy, and that their pity for the sufferings of the human race drives out all pity for the animals. They slowly torture them to death; but those who are incapable of pitying animals are, as a matter of fact, incapable of pitying men."

Now, if the "fur" be removed from all this entrancing rhetoric, we find it amounts simply to the statement that vivisectionists are all "criminals,"" assassins," and "torturers," and that their work has been utterly valueless to humanity. Or, if any thing has been achieved, it might have been done in other ways.

This plain condensation of Colonel Ingersoll's long argument shows how densely and inexcusably ignorant of the whole question the new apostle of the anti-vivisectionists is.

It would be interesting, in the cause of history and ethics, to compile a list of Ingersoll's "assassins, criminals, and torturers," so-called. Chief among them, doubtless, would be William Harvey, who was, to be sure, thought in his day to have been a modest, kind, and generous man, but who begins his work announcing his great discovery, "Ex vivorum dissectione, qualis sit cordis notus." Among the "torturers' and "assassins" of the last century would be Galvani, Haller, and John Hunter. The nineteenth century list would include the heretofore renowned names of Sir Charles Bell, Marshall Hall, Magendie, Bernard, and later of a dozen great men, with each of whom no taint of viciousness or personal cruelty has heretofore ever been associated. One can fancy Mr. Ingersoll refusing to shake hands with the late Professor Dalton, or the happily still living Weir Mitchell, because these amiable gentlemen were so depraved in character!

As for the question whether vivisection has been the means of securing great and useful advances in knowledge, it is settled beyond all doubt or peradventure. We have repeatedly been over the recorded list of practical discov

eries. They are accessible to every one, and, considering this fact, it is worse than ignorance, it is a culpable knavery, which puts forth such utterly false statements as those of Ingersoll's.

Mr. Ingersoll says "I know," but he does not know about what he writes. He has been at pains to tell the world why he is an agnostic. We can help to the solution. It is because he does not inform himself, as other and more conscientious people can and do.

The discovery of the circulation of the blood, of the functions of the spinal nerve, of the action of galvanic currents, of the localization of brain functions, the use of the ligature, the discovery of the bacterial causation of disease and the modes of prevention, the methods of inoculations against rabies and anthrax, the improvement in surgical methods, the action of many important drugs, have been learned through vivisection.

Mr. Ingersoll's specialties are, we believe, law and religion. "Ne sutor ultra crepidam."Med. Record.

FASHIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE DARK CONTINENT.-There is a sad monotony in our European fashions. Even the so-called changes. are often fugues on a trivial theme, or thinlydisguised variations and reproductions of forgotten trivialities. Our new communications. and lively interest in the gentle inhabitants of Central Africa may suggest some startling novelties. Besides the graceful extravagances of their head-dress-which, however, hardly beat those of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, reconstructed for the public edification a few years since by Mr. Lewis Wingfield, and which may yet live again-there are many varieties among our new African protégés of the way they wear their heads. The ruling families of the Monbuttu tribe flatten their skulls so as to elongate their heads. The Bari apply pressure just in front of the ears so as to heighten the head in that place. The Beli distinguish themselves by extracting the four front teeth of the lower jaw. Then there is a variety of ways of wearing a tail, which beat the Court train of the modern beauty in simplicity and perhaps in grace. The Madi wear cotton tails, which swing when they dance.