tion and vaginal hysterectomy are recommended as the last resorts of obstetric art. Believing the first never to be justifiable treatment for these cases, and the latter only when destructive inflammatory changes have occurred, the writer proposes a new method of dealing with the complication. An incarcerated pregnant uterus which is irreducible by every effort of manipulation from below, becomes readily restored to his normal po sition if manipulated from above after celiotomy.

Pediatrics in the Volunteer Army.—In Havana, on January 13, forty-five men of the Ninth Illinois volunteers were reported sick from measles, in the Second South Carolina regiment seven men were down with mumps, in the Fourth Viginia regiment four had the measles, and in the Third Nebraske regiment two were suffering with scarlet fever.-Medical Record.

On April 24, 1896, the writer operated upon a case successfully. The abdomen was opened, the fundus lifted out from beneath the sacral promontory, and the gravid womb placed in normal position. To prevent recurrence of displacement after childbirth and the The Ninth International Congress of possibility of a similar complication in case of subse- Ophthalmology will be held in Utrecht on August quent pregnancy, the uterus was attached to the abdom 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. Only the English, French, and inal wall by two silk sutures. The case recovered, German languages can be employed in communications. passed through a normal pregnancy, and was delivered The registration fee is 25 francs. Gentlemen who inat term without any difficulty. The uterus remained in tend to be present are requested to write to Prof. H. normal position after the puerperium had passed.-Snellen, of the University of Utrecht, stating if they HENRY D. FRY, M.D, Washington, D. C., in Interna are to be accompanied by ladies, and if they intend to tional Journal of Surgery. present papers-N. Y. Med. Jour.

MISCELLANY

Official List of Changes in U. S. Marine Hospital Service.-The following is the official list of changes of station and duties of commissioned and non commissioned officers of the U. S Marine-Hospital Service for the seven days ended, January 19, 1899: WERTENBAKER, C. P., Passed Assistant Surgeon. To proceed to Clinton, Ga, for special temporary duty. January 3. GARDNER, Passed Assistant Surgeon. To report at Bureau for special temporary duty. January 14. BOARD CONVened.

Board convened to meet at the U. S. Marine Hospital at Chicago, Ill., on Tuesday, February 14, 1899, at 10 A.M., for the examination of candidates for appointment as assistant surgeon in the Service. Detail for the Board:

Surgeon HENRY W. SAWTELLE, Chairman,
Surgean CHARLES E. BANKS,

St. Louis Microscopical Society.-The following was the programme for the meeting of the St. Louis Microscopical Society of January 26: "Nissl's Granulations in Health and Disease," by Dr. Bremer. "Nissl's Granulations in Tetanus," by Dr. Crandall. Demonstration of specimens of cataract, by Dr. Alt.

deaths reported to the Health Department during the St. Louis Mortuary Report.-The number of week ending January 21 was 258, fifty nine less than during the previous week. Fifty deaths resulted from pneumonia, 20 from grip, 30 from consumption, 13 from bronchitis, 14 from senility, 4 from suicide, 3 from accident, and 1 from homicide.

Illinois State Board of Health.-Dr. J. A. Egan, Secretary of the State Board of Health, has writ ten a letter to Gov. Tanner, suggesting that no more charters be issued to educational institutions under the act now consisting concerning corporations. He cited that for the past 26 years any three persons could get a charter to conduct an educational institution from the Secretary of State by simply making application and

Passed Assistant Surgeon J. O. COBB, Recorder. paying the necessary fee, as the Secretary is given no

APPOINTMENTS.

GEORGE A. GREGORY, of Maine, to be Acting Assistant
Surgeon at Boothbay Harbor, Maine. January 14.

discretion in the matter under the law. He asserts that there are in the State of Illinois more than two dozen fraudulent institutions, aptly termed "diploma mills," which confer degrees in medicine, pharmacy, law, dentistry, divinity, etc., upon applicants from any point in the United States, or anywhere in the world. He reBacteria in the Salivary Glands.-Calvello cites that the Board of Health has protested against (Gaz degli Osp; Jour. Amer. Med. Ass'n.) finds, after these institutions for years, and suggests that the Legis. much experimentation, that pathogenic and non-patholature take action to revoke the charters of all such ingenic bacteria pass into the salivary glands, but are stitutions, and to grant power to license educational innever eliminated by them, and hence that they must be stitutions to some educational body. He suggests the destroyed by the epithelium of the gland. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

A Miniature Baby.-According to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for January 12, there is at present at Gouverneur Hospital a female infant said to be perfect in its development in every respect except as regards size; at the age of two months she weighed but thirty two and three-quarter ounces. When born, her weight was only sixteen ounces.-N. Y. Med. Jour.

Resolution of Thanks.-The following resolu tion was adopted at a meeting of the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni held January 19, 1899.

has developed a long while on its own products, also the action of common saprophytes, symbiosis with com. mon saprogenic germs, a constantly favorable temperature, darkness and lack of air. Without these conditions the cultures are sterile. The aërobic germ regains its toxicity as it becomes anaerobic again, but the toxicity is transient. These researches explain the sig. nificance of passages through the intestines of animals in which all the required conditions typically occur, and also the fact that a harmless non toxic bacillus entering the intestines emerges toxic and dangerous.

WHEREAS, It is the sense of the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni that the inspection of public St. Louis Medical Society Programme.schools, conducted under its auspices during the eleven The scientific programme announced for the meeting to weeks ending December 23d, 1898, has been pro- be held Saturday evening, January 28, 1899, is as ductive of good results to the public, to the pupils of the several schools concerned, and to its own member. ship from a scientific standpoint; therefore, be it

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be and are hereby tendered to the Honorable Board of Education for the opportunity afforded for initiating this service; to Superintendent Soldan and Assistant Superintendent Foster, and the principals and teachers of the several schools, for the active sympathy shown and efficient aid rendered in furtherance of its successful performance.

The Weekly Sanitary Report.-The sanitary division of the Health Department of St. Louis reports 25 cases of diphtheria and 5 deaths; 2 cases of croup and 1 death; 15 cases of scarlatina and 1 death; 5 cases of typhoid fever and 1 death; 6 cases of cerebro-spinal fever and 3 deaths; 2 cases of whooping. cough and 2 deaths; 4 cases of measles, and 2 cases of small.pox.

War-Tax on Medicine.-On December 24, 1898, A-sistant United States Attorney-General Boyd gave an opinion as to the incidence of the proprietory medicine section of the war-tax law. The rule that drugs intended for the use of physicians and pharmacists and to be sold only in physician's prescriptions and not intended for sale direct to the public, are exempt from the tax. Undoubtedly this carries out the intent of the law and puts the burden where it belong, on the patent medicine trade.- Cleveland Journal of Medicine.

Aerobiosis of the Tetanus Bacillus.-Vala gussa of Rome (Gaz degli Osp. e delle Clin.; Jour of the Amer. Med. Ass'n) asserts that the comparative rarity of tetanus, in spite of the universal presence of the bacillus, is due to the fact that it is only toxic when developing anaërobically, and that when exposed to light and air it loses its toxicity, although continuing to develop aerobically, under the proper conditions. It is impossible to isolate it from the surface of the soil, as it is rapidly killed by the action of air, sunshine and heat. The transformation from anaërobic to aërobic conditions is easier accomplished than the reverse trans formation, which requires an old aerobic culture that

follows:

DR. ROBERT M. FUNKHOUSER: Suppurative Puerperal
Peritonitis with Nephritis-Celiotomy-Recovery.
FRANK L. HENDERSON, Chairman, Executive
HOWARD CARTER,

H. MCC. JOHNSON,

Committee.

"The Kansas Medical Journal," which has been published for the last ten pears at Topeka, Kansas, has been discontinued, and its former editor, Dr. W. E. McVey, will have editorial control of The Medical Monograph, a one hundred and fifty page monthly, which will be published in the place of The Kansas Medical Journal.

Oil of Gaultheria in Chorea.-Luigi (Rif. Med; Brit Med Jour) has met with considerable success in the treatment of chorea by means of oil of gaul. theria used externally. He used from six to ten grams of the oil, either pure or mixed with vaseline, as dressing for the upper and lower limbs, alternately, the limbs being afterward covered with oiled silk to prevent evaporation Phenol could be detected in the urine six hours after the oil was applied. In some of the cases the drug was given internally as well. The results were very satisfactory, so that the author recom. mends its use, especially in cases where the other sali. cylates are not well tolerated. Moreover, the good effects were not confined to cases where distinctly rheu matic symptoms were present.

Yellow Fever Contracted at Night.—A number of convincing instances are rel ted by V. Godinho in a study of yellow fever (0 Brazil Medico; Jour. of the Amer. Med. Ass'n) in which persons escaped yellow fever completely by leaving the infected spots before sundown and sleeping elsewhere at night. At Rio Janeiro and S. Paulo, business can be carried on during the day by non immunes, without danger of in. fection, if they have their homes at Petropolis or some other suburb. The head of a prominent German business firm at Santos thus passed unscathed through several epidemics, even the epidemic of 1889, but one

night found it more convenient to contracted the disease that night.

sleep at Santos and published a medical dictionary; Edward Ford, an emiSimilar instances are nent surgeon; Robert Blair, the scientist and astronconstantly being reported. Sanarelli has demonstrated omer; William Babington, the author of a "New Sys. that the bacillus icteroides is destroyed by seven hours' tem of Mineralogy," and one of the founder of the to sunlight. Globig, of the German navy, recently pub. Geological Society; John Haighton, the physiologist; lished a communication stating that while in port at Rio Robert John Thornton, author of the "Physiology of Janeiro, none but the sailors on night-duty contracted Medicine;" John Shadwell, a prominent physician, and yellow fever. The popular belief that yellow fever is John Aikin, publisher of a general biography. only contracted after an attack of indigestion, Godinho explains by the fact that the indigestion and fever are the initial symptoms of the invasion of the infection, caused by the efforts of the system to eliminate the toxins.

PUBLISHERS DEPARTMENT

As the edition is limited, we would urge our readers to send postal for same before the supply is exhausted, and mention the MEDICAL REVIEW.

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The president is John Coakley Lettsom, a Quaker, a protege of Fothergill, at the time one of the leading physicians of London; at his right is William Saunders, The Katharmon Chemical Co., of St. Louis, the author of "A Treatise on the Structure, Economy has published a Pocket Dictionary of Medical Terms, and Diseases of the Liver;" and next to him, Relph, which they will send to our readers free, upon applica the senior physician to Guy's Hospital; at Lettsom's tion, and mentioning this journal. This is a valuable left is Sir John McNamara Hayes, who had been made little book, and the Katharmon Chemical Co. are disa baronet on account of his distinguished services as a playing a great deal of liberality in furnishing the same surgeon; back of him, William Woodville, the author free. Drop them a postal and secure one before the of a valuable work on "Medical Botany." edition is exhausted.

Back of the table we find: Edward Bancroft, the naturalist; James Ware, then the demonstrator of anat omy at Cambridge; Thomas Bradley, the editor of the Medical and Physical Journal; James Sims, the botanist; Edward Jenner, whose name was to become one of the most famous in medicine; Robert Hooper, who

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The Cure of Cataract Without Operation.1 of a dream which had an ephemeral existence some ten

ract, or even at a later period, patients not infrequently to the full ripeness may extend from a few days (as in become aware of an improvement in their vision. This traumatic cases) to many years. I know patients who occurs in people with a hypermetropic refraction with are afflicted with cataracts in whom I have observed no or without presbyopia and in myopes in which the progress of the opacity or but very little in many years, presbyopia had outbalanced the myopia. Such patients in one patient for twelve years. Allport (Amer. Jour. find out that they can lay their glasses aside or can at of Ophthalmology, February, 1896) reported a case in least get along with weaker ones than they used to wear. which no progress had been observed even for about This apparent improvement of the refractive condition twenty-five years. of such eyes is probably due to a swelling and conse. In the cases just mentioned no form of treatment has quent increased convexity of the crystalline lens from been attempted with the direct aim of retarding the imbibition with fluid from its surroundings. In this progress of the cataracts. If, however, cataract is, as by manner what may be called a lenticular myopia is pro- many it is thought to be, the result of malnutrition, duced and as long as this myopia nearly or exactly off- then a trial to influence its progress by means of approsets the pre existing hypermetropia or presbyopia, the priate methods of treatment in order to remedy the expatients think that their eyes are really getting stronger. istent general ill-health of the body and the malnutrition Yet, the ophthalmoscope may show that this cataract of the eye especially, is not only justified, but even deis quietly progressing while they rejoice at their im- manded. Some sixteen years ago these considerations proved sight. Only, when the increasing lenticular led M. Landesberg, then of Philadelphia, who believed myopia forces patients to wear concave glasses instead of their convex ones for distant vision, or when they bave to use concave glasses for the distance, while form erly they could see well without any, the patients usually get conscious of the fact that there is something wrong with their eyes and they seek medical aid. Not only have I for many years considered such a change in the refraction as an indication of the coming on of a cataract, but this condition furnishes undoubtedly also the explanation for many a case of so-called second sight. In the development of almost every case of cortical cataract there comes a time when for another reason patients notice an improvement in their already quite impaired vision. This is the very period that the spectacle venders and other quacks count upon in promising a cure of the cataract by the use of their wares. In such cases the patients themselves believe, that the remedies, whatever they are, are actually curing their eyes. The explanation of this improvement of vision during the progress of a cortical cataract lies in the fact that as More recently J. H. Woodward, of New York, read a long as the cataract has not reached a certain stage the paper before the New York State Medical Association, opacities, forming more or less radius-like striæ, are in which he reported thirty-seven cases of cataract in very unequal in density and leave clearer spaces between which he thought that by his management he had at them. The extremely irregular refraction of light pass-least retarded the progress of the opacity. This maning through and between them caused thereby produces agement he sums up in the following words: "To do a very confusing image. When, however, this condition what was possible to maintain, within the limits com. has progressed to one of more uniform dimness, although interfering materially with vision, it allows of a more uniform refraction of the light entering the eye and the picture received, though dim, is much less confusing. This condition, however, marks only a stage in the progress of the cataract and the apparent improvement is again lost and gives way to greater dimness of vision as the cataract advances.

that cataract was due to some choroidal disease, to try whether the nasal forms of treatment for choroiditis would not also beneficially influence the resulting cata. racte. What he expected, evidently occurred, for he was enabled in a short time to report a series of cases in which such treatment had improved and even cured incipient cataracts. I have tried the same procedures quite a number of times and have repeatedly had occasion to treat patients who had an evident choroiditis and incipient cataract at the same time, but in most cases, while the choroidal trouble became stationary or yielded to the treatment, the formation of the cataract went on undisturbed in its slow and steady progress. In some cases the cataract, as long as I had a chance to observe them, remained stationary. In two or three cases the opacities seemed for a time to retrograde, but the patients, thinking themselves, perhaps, cured, disap peared from my hands and their further history is not in my possession.

patible with health, the nutrition of a structure not itself provided with blood vessels. In order to accom. plish this purpose it is necessary to provide for the wellbeing of the general economy, as well as to establish a proper régime for the organ itself." From his experi ence with these cases he draws the conclusions that— "(1) in the natural course of senile cataract there is not a progressive loss of vision; (2) that improvement of vision in such cases is often observed; and, (3) that complete cataractous degeneration of the senile type is a process often requiring many years for its consummation."

However, all cataracts do not progress in the same ratio nor in the same manner. There are almost as many variations as there are cases. It is, therefore, impossible and consequently very impolitic for the physician to even approximately predict the time when a While, then, in his cases this complete cataractous given cataract will be complete enough to be called ripe degeneration has not yet been consummated, it is very and ready for operation. The time from the beginning likely that, if Woodward and his patients live long