pyogenic for dogs, while for some other animals (rabbits, etc.) they are simply phylogenic.

In his normal condition man is not a very favorable medium for pyogenic microbes; for their development the resistance of the tissues must be lessened either in consequence of a traumatism or local alteration, or the general health must be impaired in some way. It is fortunate this is so, since pyogenic microbes are everywhere about us. They are constantly found in the skin, in the mouth and intestines, and while harmless generally, expose us to constant danger. In the course of infectious diseases suppurations often occur and always in localities previously attacked by the microbes. This explains the secondary suppurations in different skin diseases, and in consumption the destruction of the lung allows the pyogenic microbes to add their action to that of Koch's bacillus, so that at the same time the patient may be pyochemical as well as phthisical. In wounds of the skin and sores it is almost impossible to prevent their appearance. In the secretions of wounds where there has been perfect union and no suppuration Bloch has often found pyogenic agents.

All these facts prove that it is a great mistake to believe that a pathogenic microbe introduced into an organism causes disease and always the same disease. That such a result should follow there must be an organic consent and the clinical character will depend less on the invader than on the subject invaded.

Gangrene has the same microbic agents as suppuration, the clinical difference is due to the patient. Suppuration is therefore a morbid process which develops oftenest when the organism has no strength to resist the pyogenic agents which everywhere attack it. The causes favoring it are of two kinds, a local alteration or general modification of the organisms. It is produced in all cases by a reaction of the organism, diapedesis and karyokinesis, against certain irritating substances whether they be originally microbic or not. The causes are therefore multiple, the mechanism always the same.

But if the possibility of an aseptic suppuration has been demonstrated by numerous experiences, the result has only a theoretical interest. It explains the mechanism of suppuration, it has a primordial importance from a pathological and physiological point of view: next from a surgical stand-point it can be stated that there is no pus without microbes, but, there is no microbe of pus. Most bacteria can under certain circumstances acquire pyogenic properties.G. H. Roger in Revue de Chirurgie.—Annals of Surgery.

THERAPEUTICS.

EUROPHEN IN DISEASES OF THE EYE.

My observations concerning europhen agree with those of Siebel and Eichhoff. My experience, however, is confined to the use of the remedy in cases of inflammation of the conjunctiva and cornea.

With reference to the dose employed, I would mention that for the sake of precaution, I always observe the general rule when dealing with unfamiliar remedies, of employing small quantities, and therefore applied europhen in onehalf to one per cent. ointments. Hence I had never occasion to observe the

conditions of irritation which ointments of higher strength have produced upon the skin. The base of the ointment was vaseline, and patients never complained of this preparation as they do of ointments of the yellow oxide of mercury.

During the application of europhen it never happened, as in the case of iodol which I employed for the same purpose and which is of undoubted utility in the treatment of ulcerous keratitis, that I had to suspend the treatment on account of the pains experienced by the patient.

The cases in which I employed europhen may be divided into conjunctival inflammations, keratitis, and accidental traumatisms and operation wounds.

Case I.-J. U., mulatto, aged sixty-two, afflicted with subacute glaucoma and cataract, had iridectomy performed on September 12, 1891. Since the day following the operation was treated with europhen ointment 0.10:10 vaseline. The marked injection of the conjunctiva began to subside on the third day, and the wound of the cornea closed after eight days without any inflammatory reaction.

Case II.-S. P., negro, admitted to the clinic September 16, 1891. Eight days previously had got a drop of quicklime into his eye, which was followed by a burning sensation and severe pains so that he was incapacitated from work. From the day of admission europhen ointment was applied and the better to observe its effect the eye was not washed with antiseptics and no other medication was employed. The inflammatory injection of the conjunctiva was already diminished on the first day and the superficial ulcer presented a healthier appearance and is now cicatrizing.

Case III.-J. A., mulatto, aged twenty-eight, entered the clinic May 12, 1891, after having suffered for six months from trouble with both eyes. The diagnosis was kerato-conjunctivitis. Patient presented a marked scrofulous habitus. On my return from Europe, Dr. Madan told me that he had employed antiseptic washes of boracic acid and sublimate, salol ointment, and inunctions of petrolol, without obtaining any appreciable improvement, notwithstanding that these measures were combined with general treatment. Europhen ointment was then employed and considerable improvement was already manifest after fourteen days.

Case IV.-A. P., negro, aged twenty, suffering from keratitis-marginalis of the left eye. After application of europhen ointment rapid healing occurred. Case V.-R. C., underwent an operation for an artificial pupil September 15, 1891. On the following day europhen was applied which was well borne, and the keratotomy wound healed rapidly.

Case VI.-L. M., aged forty. Partial extirpation of a tumor connected with the eyeball. Notwithstanding strict antiseptic precautions the anterior segment of the wound failed to cicatrize. Eight days after the operation we commenced the use of europhen ointment. After the first application the suppuration at the site of operation ceased, although lotions of boric acid and sublimate had been employed daily without success.

Case VII-V. A., a native of Navarra (Spain), mechanic, had sustained a wound in the middle of the right cornea from an iron rod. The medical attendant at the factory at which he worked employed moist cataplasms with aqua blanca (concentrated solution of lead acetate). At the consultation the cornea showed two opaque areas, the one running in a straight line toward the periphery

and originating from a commencing hypopyon, the other in the center, of an elliptical form, measuring one-half centimetre in its greater and one-quarter centimetre in its lesser diameter. The central opaque area was due to a deposit of lead resulting from the too early use of the lead lotion. Notwithstanding the removal of the lead deposits the nocturnal pains persisted, together with the inflammatory injection of the conjunctiva, until we decided to employ europhen ointment, 0.15:10 vaseline. After the first application of this ointment these symptoms began to subside, and notwithstanding the increase of the dose to five centigrams, no after-effects were observed.

Case VIII.-Man, aged thirty, workman in a brewery, had suffered an injury of his left eye from the caustic action of ammonia, on July 25. Extensive inflammation present for five days, followed by suppuration attended with violent pains which prevented sleep and radiated toward the left side of the head and face. September 22, he presented himself for the first time at our clinic, after having been under treatment elsewhere. The conjunctiva was the seat of cedematous swelling and purulent secretion was found at the bottom of the lachrymal sac. The cornea was necrotic in its entire extent, and at its lower part the iris appeared about to prolapse. The eye was irrigated thrice daily with boric acid solution and europhen ointment was applied. Improvement at once ensued, the pains subsided, the suppuration of the cornea diminished and after the lapse of eight days the corneal surface began to present a normal appearance at its upper part.

In spite of these observations and of others to which no reference has been made because no regular account of them was kept, we are not prepared to say that these are sufficient to prove that europhen possesses greater curative virtues than other remedies employed in the treatment of diseases of the eye. Inasmuch as the eye is a very sensitive organ, we first satisfied ourselves of the innocuous character of the preparation and found that in a few serious cases in which other drugs are also servicable it has a high degree of utility.

This comprises the first part of our experiments with europhen in diseases of the eye. Later we will report concerniug its employment in severe cases, and as we have already made extensive use of europhen we will soon be in a position to institute a comparison between it, iodol, artistol and iodoform in eye practice. By Dr. Juan Santos Fernandez: translated from Cronica Medica-Quirurgica de la Habana, Volume XVII, Number XXIV.

TURPENTINE IN TYPHOID FEVER.

H. C. WOOD believes that when, in the convalescence of typhoid fever, the existence of local intestinal symptoms points toward slowness of healing of the ulcers, turpentine is an invaluable remedy. It is also indicated when there is marked tympanites, with dryness of the tongue, developing in the end of the second week of typhoid fever. The action of turpentine is believed to be a local one upon the ulcerated surface. The terebinthinates are slowly absorbed, and, indeed, volatilized at the temperature of the stomach and intestines, and we may readily believe, from the results of laboratory researches, that there is a special relation between the oil of turpentine and the bacillus of typhoid fever (Omelchenko). This practice has been in vogue for more than half a century, and

the author believes that it is a good one, and distinctly tends to lessen the severity of the local lesions in enteric fever. The formula recommended is oil of turpentine, 1; glycerin, 4; mucilage of acacia, 6; peppermint water to 32. The dose is one tablespoonful every four hours during the day.-Therapeutic Gazette, 1892, Number VI, page 366. [This sound practice, based upon intelligent empiricism of half a century ago, has recently received support from the results of laboratory experiments, and is now placed upon a scientific basis; and it is likely to outlast many of the modern methods now so much in vogue].-American Journal of Medical Sciences.

PATHOLOGY.

INOCULATION OF CHOLERA BACILLUS IN ANIMALS.

L. VINCENZI (Arch. delle Scienze Med., Volume XXI, fasc. 3, 1892) has made experiments on animals with cultures of the comma bacillus isolated at Massowah. By injecting a minute quantity of such cultures in guinea-pigs he produced acute subcutaneous œdema followed by the characteristic phenomena of cholera intoxication and death in less than twenty-four hours. On injecting a few drops of culture into the peritoneal or pleural cavity death speedily occurred. Attempts to produce the infection by introducing the virus into the stomach failed. Vincenzi further made a series of experiments on the production of immunity, and succeeded in making pigeons and guinea-pigs insusceptible of cholera by inoculating them with cultures grown in broth and filtered by Kitasato's method. In this way immunity was very quickly conferred. The serum of animals rendered immune was found to have the power of killing the cholera bacillus, and subcutaneous injections of it instead of being followed by cedematous infiltration with scanty leucocytes caused œdematous inflamation with rapid and effective phagocytosis. Vincenzi also made guinea-pigs insusceptible of cholera by inoculating them with a few centimeters of blood drawn from a guinea-pig rendered immune in the way just described, but the immunity produced by the serum of vaccinated guinea-pigs lasts only a very short time.— British Medical Journal.

CHEMISTRY OF THE CHOLERA BACILLUS.

FERRAN (Compt. Rend. de l'Acad. des Sciences, CXV, CI) states that when the comma bacillus is cultivated in a slightly alkaline bouillon, containing lactose, paralactic acid is produced in a quantity sufficient to render the liquid distinctly acid. When this microbe is sown upon agar that is slightly alkaline, and containing lactose as well as litmus, the medium becomes red from the formation of paralactic acid. A cultivation in a slightly alkaline bouillon containing lactose presents, after being left at rest at 30° centigrade for five days, a floating mycoderm, consisting of large comma bacilli, in the interior of which may be seen one or two very small granulations analogous to spores; eventually all the protoplasm of the bacillus disappears, leaving exposed these small granulations, which are readily colored by methyl violet. The same bacillus sown in a small quantity of alkaline bouillon, contained in a capacious flask, may remain alive for more than three years, provided that the flask is closed by cotton wool,

which will allow of the renewal of the air. Under the very same conditions, and with the sole difference that the bouillon contains some lactose, the vitality of the microphyte is rapidly extinguished by reason of the acid character communicated to the medium by its own action. In ordinary culture bouillons the growth of this microbe is always rapid and luxuriant; but when the bouillon contains lactose it is disproportionately less prolific. The colonies become very numerous in consequence of the addition of that substance within a few hours; but the growth ceases completely as soon as the medium becomes acid, and before long the vitality of the microbe is destroyed. Ferran calls attention to the resemblances between the chemical function of this microbe and that of bacillus coli communis. In many particulars their pathogenic functions are also similar. Paralactic acid paralyses the chemical activity of both. The known value of that acid as a remedy for the diarrhoea caused by bacillus coli suggests the probability that its administration in cases of diarrhoea caused by the comma bacillus might be equally efficacious and beneficial. M. Ferran therefore thinks

that as a remedy for cholera it would be reasonable to administer lactic acid in the form of lemonade and to assist its action by morphine, which might probably prevent the absorption of toxines and prolong the influence of the lactic acid by reducing the rapidity of its elimination.-British Medical Journal.

Misce. Fiat pil. Number 1. (Use no water to form mass). (Keep in air tight vials). Dose: one pill once or twice a day.

THE TREATMENT OF PUTRID DIARRHOEA BY MEANS OF ANTISEPTIC SOLUTIONS.L'Union Médicale states that Dujardin-Beaumetz recommends the following treatment: For infectious and putrid diarrhoea, he orders that the intestine shall be flushed by means of rectal injections with antiseptic solutions of boric acid ten parts to one thousand, or a solution of naphthol in the strength of one part to one thousand, taking care that the injection is given slowly, and that the liquid penetrates as far as possible into the intestinal canal. In certain cases this treatment may be resorted to for lavage of the stomach. It is also particularly useful in cases of cancer of the rectum, especially when they are of slow progress and cachectic. The treatment should be associated with mild purgatives and vegetable diet.-Therapeutic Gazette.

AGES before the terms "septic" or "antiseptic" were known or used, our ancestors were practicing antisepsis with chloride of sodium, without knowing the philosophy of its action, and were nearer to nature than many scientists of our scientific era. The antiseptic property of chloride of sodium is inherent in the chlorine, sodium, like lime and mercury, having no antiseptic properties. The more readily a chloride decomposes and gives up its chlorine, the more marked are the antiseptic properties of that chloride. All the chlorides are now classified as antiseptics, while the bases of the various chlorides are usually inert,