Editor Summary:-There has been much writ. ten in the last few years on diphtheria, and many and various remedies have been recommended for its cure. The disease is of common occur. rence in the locality in which I live and practice. There has not been a year for the past thirty that I have not had to contend with it. Every few years we have it as an epidemic. It principally attacks children. It is not confined to the poor and ill-fed, but to all classes alike, though the poor seem to suffer most. I think it is from want of proper nursing and other necessary attention during sickness.

I deem it unnecessary in an article of this kind to say anything of its history, etc., all of which may be found in most of the text-books, but I propose to speak of it as it prevails here.

In the spring of 1883 there came one of those terrible cyclones through this country, destroying all the timbers in its course. The direction of the cyclone was from west to east. The route through which it passed was thickly timbered with the long-strawed pitch pine, and the timber was left to decay and rot where it fell. The width of the cyclone would average about a half mile. In the early fall afterwards an epidemic of diphtheria made its appearance and followed the route of the cyclone, though moving from east to west, and

spreading over a strip of country for about five miles on each side of the line of the cyclone, though there were many cases at a greater distance from the line. We heard of it before it struck us. It had killed many children in an adjoining county. The first case in our neighborhood was that of a child about fifteen months old. I was called to see it in consultation with my friend Dr. GThe patient was in the last stage of the disease and died a few hours after my

arrival.

It was at this consultation that my friend and I agreed upon a line of treatment in our future cases. We advised that every one commence to take tinct. mur. iron, from five to thirty drops every six hours. Within a few days the disease had taken a severe hold in the neighborhood, Two-thirds of the families in the neighborhood had a case or more in it, and the doctors were kept busy. Our treatment was to give from five to 30 drops of tinct. mur. iron in from one-half to two teaspoonfuls of a saturated solution of chlorate of potash, according to age of the patient, every four hours, and swab out the throat twice daily with spts. turpentine, and saturate a strip of old flannel in beef's-foot oil and kerosene equal parts, and wring it sufficiently to prevent the oil from running, and have the patient to wear it around the neck and throat, scrupulously avoiding the giving of cathartics, especially mercury in any of its forms. Nine out of ten of our patients had no other treatment. We advised milk and cora bread diet where it could be obtained.

The

treatment seemed to dissolve the exudation and prevent its formation. Some cases that were seen late and the formation had become great and seemed to be choking the patient to death, were relieved by the fumes of crude turpentine. We would put the turpentine in a pot or something of the kind, and by heating it and letting the patient inhale the fumes and smoke. I have known patients that seemed to be hopeless cases relieved and asleep within a few minutes after the room was filled with turpentine smoke. In all my experience in treating the horrid disease I have never seen it relieved so readily and effectually as with the above treatment. The number of deaths in proportion to the number of those sick was unprecedently small. The disease lingered in the neighborhood about two months, when it left us. We have had sporadic cases every year since, which yielded promptly to the same treatment. There were a good many cases of paralysis as the sequel, but they all eventually recovered, and strange it seems, it occurred in those who seemed to have diphtheria the lightest.

ANÆSTHETICS IN OBSTETRICS.

Dr. Fordyce Barker, in his paper read before the Medical Society of the State of New York, as reported in the Medical News, says:

"I may here say that I have long regarded chloroform as the best and safest anæsthetic in obstetrics, and that since 1830 I have used no other.

patient in the interval being comparatively free from the influence of the anæsthetic. Thus, in the aggregate, not only is a much less qnantity of the agent required, but the patient is exposed to the dangers from the anaesthetic, if any danger there be, tor a much shorter period of time.

3 By chloroform we are able to regulate the degree to which we may desire to carry anæsthesia with a certainty and security that are not possible with the ether

4. The danger from anesthesia by ether, where disease of kidney exists, first pointed out by my friend Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, and confirmed by several observers, has not been noted by anyone as resulting from the use of chloroform.

now

INTERNAL AND LOCAL MEDICATION IN THE TREATMENT OF HERPES ZOSTER.

During the past year and a half there have come to my notice, at various stages of the disease, a number of cases of herpes zoster, and as the following method of treatment has given very gratifying results, it occurred to me that it might be of interest to your readers. The treatment consists briefly in the administration of a blue pill (two or three grains) twice or three times during the day, and the local application of zinc ointment carbolized (two per cent.), the parts being

I. Its odor is to most persons much more agreeable, and it is much less persistent. When sulphuric ether is used, it frequently, at first, pro. duces more or less irritation of the fauces and bronchi and an annoying cough or choking is ex. cited. The effect of this is bad, both on patient and on the surrounding friends. It excites apprehension which more or less tend to counteract the influence of the agent.

2. The influence of chloroform is much more rapid and a much less quantity of this agent is required than of ether. We are thus saved, in majority of cases, the preliminary stage of excitement which the ether produces, and we are able to use the chloroform for each recurring pain, the

other external influences. In every case so treated the pain ceased and the eruption was controlled in the course of a day or two, or after the purgative effects of the drug had disappeared, the vesicles drying up, leaving brownish crusts, the latter dropping off in the course of a few days.-Medical News.

A correspondent writes to the Medical Record that he has used the ether-spray on several cases of strangulated hernia, one of two day's duration, with the best results. The operation was painless, and reduction occurred "spontaneously, or with slight pressure.'

ABDOMINAL SUPPORT DURING PREG

NANCY.

I always advise patients in a preg::ant condition to leave off their corsets (from about the fourth month onward, shouid I see them at that time), and having supplied the want of a corset by a suitable bodice, to wear a supporting belt with elastic sides, so arranged as to exercise a comfort able pressure, from below, on the muscles, and fitted with tapes or straps to relax the pressure as the uterus enlarges. In every case in which I have recommended this to be done, and where my directions were followed, the patient not only expressed herself as feeling far more comfortable, but I have remarked that subsequent labor was of much shorter duration than usual, owing, I believe, to the support afforded in time to the abdominal muscles, and which by husbanding their tone and strength, enabled them to assist the uterus in its efforts of expulsion in a marked degree.

When engaged to attend primiparæ, I also direct the bandage to be left off at night, and the abdomen well rubbed with lard at bedtime. When this treatment is followed in primiparæ, I find there is little or no trace of the "linea albicantia" to be discovered after the patient recovers from the lying-in, and the abdomen also resumes its natural appearance, which the patient as a rule is the first to remark.-Dr. Duke in the Provincial Med. Jour.

THE TREATMENT OF RHEUMATISM IN THE HOSPITAL OF THE UNIVERS

ITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Dr. Osler employs in mild cases, with only one or two joints involved and the temperature not above 102° F., the citrate of potash in 3ss doses every four hours. If there is much pain and the patient is restless, Dover's powder grs. x at night, In more severe attacks, with polyarthritis, and fever above 103°, he orders salicylate of sodium grs. xv every two hours, with a similar quantity of the citrate of potash. The important influence of the salicylate is believed to be in the reduction of the pain and fever. It is not thought to have much influence in lessening the duration of the disease; and, on the other hand, when pushed for

many days and in large doses it is thought directly to favor the occurrence of relapse. Hence, as soon as the pain is relieved, the amount of the salt is reduced, and it is stopped as soon as possible. It does not probably influence, one way or the other, the occurrence of endocarditis. When the temperature is above 103.5° antipyrin, grs. 20, is ordered. With fever of 105° the cold pack is employed. Lemonade and carbonated waters are allowed freely. An unstimulating liquid. diet is given. Blankets are preferred for the bedding of the patient. Special care is enjoined in changing the clothing, and a wad of cotton-wool is placed over the front of the chest. The joints are wrapped in cotton-wool, or, when very painful, in spongi-opiline or flannel, soaked in Fuller's lotion (hot) (Liquor Opii Sedativus, 3j; Potass. Bicarb., 3 iv; Glycerin., 3 ij; Aquæ, 3 ix). If the salicylate and the local application fail, as they sometimes do, to relieve pain, opium is freely given. During convalescence iron and tonic doses of quinine are ordered.-North Carolina Medical Journal.

DECOCTION OF

COTTON-ROOT AS A UTERINE HÆMOSTATIC.

The experience of Dr. Garrigues, a most capable and conscientious observer, as reported in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Clinical Society of the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, apparently conclusively proves that decoction of cotton-root is a remedy of great value. Dr. Garrigues has used it in one hundred and thirty-nine patients, and in the majority he obtained more or less decided beneût. He finds that it lessens the pain, checks the bleeding from uterine fibroids; in sarcoma and carcinema it lessons, or suspends altogether for a time, hœmorrhage. The remedy should be used in the form of a freshly-made decoction. It will fail to produce any benefit in about one in ten cases.

The following directions are given for preparing and administering the preparation :

Three heaping teaspoonfuls of the powdered root are boiled in a pint of water for fifteen minutes; after cooling, the preparation is strained; one-third of the decoction is taken in the forenoon, another in the afternoon, and the last at bedtime.

treatment seemed to dissolve the exudation and prevent its formation. Some cases that were seen late and the formation had become great and seemed to be choking the patient to death, were relieved by the fumes of crude turpentine. We would put the turpentine in a pot or something of the kind, and by heating it and letting the patient inhale the fumes and smoke. I have known patients that seemed to be hopeless cases relieved and asleep within a few minutes after the room was filled with turpentine smoke. In all my experience in treating the horrid disease I have never seen it relieved so readily and effectually as with the above treatment. The number of deaths in proportion to the number of those sick was unprecedently small.

ANÆSTHETICS IN OBSTETRICS.

Dr. Fordyce Barker, in his paper read before the Medical Society of the State of New York, as reported in the Medical News, says:

"I may here say that I have long regarded chloroform as the best and safest anesthetic in obstetrics, and that since 1830 I have used no other.

INTERNAL AND LOCAL MEDICATION IN THE TREATMENT OF HERPES ZOSTER.

During the past year and a half there have come to my notice, at various stages of the disease, a number of cases of herpes zoster, and as the following method of treatment has given very gratifying results, it occurred to me that it might be of interest to your readers. The treatment consists briefly in the administration of a blue pill (two or three grains) twice or three times during the day, and the local application of zinc ointment carbolized (two per cent.), the parts being

I. Its odor is to most persons much more agreeable, and it is much less persistent. When sulphuric ether is used, it frequently, at first, pro. duces more or less irritation of the fauces and bronchi and an annoying cough or choking is ex. cited. The effect of this is bad, both on patient. and on the surrounding friends. It excites apprehension which more or less tend to counteract the influence of the agent.

2. The influence of chloroform is much more rapid and a much less quantity of this agent is required than of ether. We are thus saved, in a majority of cases, the preliminary stage of excitement which the ether produces, and we are able to use the chloroform for each recurring pain, the

other external influences. In every case so treated the pain ceased and the eruption was controlled in the course of a day or two, or after the purgative effects of the drug had disappeared, the vesicles drying up, leaving brownish crusts, the latter dropping off in the course of a few days.Medical News.

A correspondent writes to the Medical Record that he has used the ether-spray on several cases of strangulated hernia, one of two day's duration, with the best results. The operation was painless, and reduction occurred "spontaneously, or with slight pressure."