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The Current Medical Thought.

Cold baths are advocated in France by many authorities in the treatment of small-pox. They lower the temperature and respiration, and reduce delirium and nervous phenomena, while they modify the severity of the eruption. This treatment may have its uses in exceptional cases; but, in the suppurative stages, warm baths would rather suggest themselves as a more appropriate measure, especially during dessication, or when septicemia threatens.

Diphtheria.

The following is a recent French treatment of diphtheria: gr. vii of benzoate of soda in water every hour, and gr. one-sixth of sulphide of calcium in a pill. A ten-per-cent. solution of benzoate of soda as a throat-spray, every half hour, day and night. No interference with membrane. Tonics and antipyretics as occasion requires; and beef extracts, milk, and rare meat as nourishment.

Hyperidrosis.

Half an ounce of tincture of belladonna in three ounces of eau-de-Cologne will go far to arrest sweating of the hands, if a teaspoonful be rubbed into the palms two or three times a day.

Uterine Cough.

The uterus may be considered the physiological, if not the anatomical, centre of women; and her very existence is largely dependent on the health or ill-health of this vital organ. Cough may even find its origin in this distant organ, by reflex action, when not directly due to trouble in the respiratory apparatus. It is a not infrequent accompaniment of pregnancy, lasting often from the commencement to the seventh month; a dry, impulsive, frequent cough, not dissimilar to whooping-cough in its character. and especially noticeable on passing from a cold to a warm atmosphere. A similar cough often attends menstruation, the menopause, metritis, displacements, and . tumors. Uterine is not to be confounded with hysterical cough; its access is more regular, and it alternates with other neurotic manifestations. essential cause of uterine cough is in the condition of the womb, and it has to be carefully diagnosed from tuberculosis, which it may at first seem to simulate. Treatment consists in rectifying existing abnormal conditions of the uterus, and in calmative measures, when due to natural causes, as pregnancy. Bromides are here indicated, especially bromide of ammonium, and perhaps belladonna.

The

Sciatica.

Internally, arsenic, iodide of potassium, aconite, cimicifuga, and turpentine offer the best means of relief in the treatment of sciatica. Externally, massage, acupuncture, chloride of methyl spray, extension, actual cautery, blisters, and the application of precipitated sulphur to the whole limb, sprinkled over flannel and covered with oiled silk. Injections of morphia, atropia, and sulphuric ether afford but temporary relief, and sometimes even aggravate the pain.

Herpes Preputiatis.

This variety of herpes affects either the outer or inner surface of the prepuce, commencing as small, red patches, distinct from each other, and covered with transparent vesicles. Itching and smarting attend the eruption. Herpes of the inner surfaces is more irritating and chronic than in the outer situation. It may be mistaken for primary syphilis; but the latter commences from an ulcer, while the former begins from a cluster of vesicles. The treatment of external herpes preputiatis is simple, care being especially taken to avoid irritation by the friction of clothing. Oleate of zinc powder is a good application. The internal form is well treated by dusting with calomel, or by calomel ointment, oleate of mercury with morphia, or carbonate of zinc ointment. Plummer's pill or the alkaline sulphurets should be administered internally.

Treatment of the Uric Acid Diathesis. Dr. J. B. Johnson, in Practice, recommends for lithuria and the uric acid diathesis, attended with symptoms of gout and rheumatism, the following:

R Liquor. ammonii acetatiss.
Sodii phosphatis.
Acidi salicylici.
Ferri pyrophoiphat.
Glycerini...

Elixir aurantii. Aquam, ad..

fiss iss 3 iss

Э ij .fz ij

..f 3 vi

..f 3 viij

M. S. A tablespoonful every three or four hours.

Virulence of Syphilis.

Syphilis to-day is a very much milder disease. than it was formerly, partly on account of the wearing out of the poison and its attenuation from repeated transmissions (as is the case with vaccine lymph and eruptive fevers), and partly from specific treatment during a long series of years. Untreated syphilis still shows an excesssive and expected degree of virulence; but, by giving it battle in one generation, we shear it of much of its terror in the next. May it not become eventually "stamped out?"

Observations on the Nature of Small-pox.

A RARE FORM of liver disease-malignant Cow-pox is a modified form of small-pox,

jaundice-sometimes attacks pregnant women, and is rapidly fatal. It is characterized by a typhoid condition with absence of fever; sndden disappearance of urea and uric acid from the urine, with the substitution of tyrosin and leucin; and repeated hemorrhages from the nose, stomach or intestines, and the appearance of numerous ecchymoses under the skin. Abortion or miscarriage usually result. Syphilis, intemperance and grief are supposed predisposing causes. Jaundice is one of the least prominent symptoms.

Sycosis.

Sycosis proper is to be distinguished from mentagra or tinea sycosis, and from favus. True sycosis is not contagious and not parasitic, whereas the other mentioned diseases are both. Tinea sycosis is caused by a parasitic fungus, microsporon mentagraphyt, favus, by the achorion schonleinii. Sycosis affects the scalp, upper lip and chin, and is due to disordered circulation, local irritation, debility or scrofula. The treatment includes poultices, lead lotions, epilation followed by corrosive sublimate lotions, (two grains to the ounce), oleate of mercury, ointments of zinc, white precipelate, or "deachylon," and the local application of cod-liver oil. Sulphide of calcium and arsenic are recommended internally. The following ointment is highly recommended:

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and, through the medium of vaccination, acts as a preventive of the severer form of the disease; the germ which produced it-the germ of small-pox-having changed in its nature by passing through the cow. The vaccinated subject is then insusceptible to the severer form of malady for a long time, until, in fact, the tissues have become changed, and new matter has taken their place. This insusceptibility to take the disease a second time is characteristic of most zymotic diseases; for sufferers from constitutional or functional diseases are especially liable to their recurrence, as, for example, obtained in the case of gout or bronchitis. On the other hand, copaiba, taken medicinally, frequently produces a rash which may hardly be distinguished from the eruption of a typical case of measles. Yet this rash in no way renders the individual exempt from that disease; but it shows the power of a vegetable product to set up an almost identical condition.

Hydatids.

Dogs and wolves are infested with the "tania ecchinococcus," the embryo of tape-worm, which they develope through eating the flesh of sheep, which are always prone to their presence. The ova discharged by the dog in the usual way, are introduced into the human body through the medium of food or water, and set up hydatid tumor of the human liver. The human hydatid thus produced is without sex.

Guaiacol for Phthisis.

Guaiacol comes well recommended as a remedial agent in the treatment of pulmonary phthsis. It is advised as a substitute for creasote, which has lately been in much favor. Guaiacol is much more efficacious in alleviating the cough and sputa, and improving the general condition. It is also quite pleasant to take, and an admirable adjunct to a dose of codliver oil. Creasote consists mainly of guaiaco and creasot; and the former is the more active agent of the two.

Diminution of urea in the urine is an almost constant symptom of the presence of cancer in some part of the body, though the same obtains more or less in all conditions involving inani

tion, especially where the liver is diseased.

Verneuil considers that boils, carbuncles and acne are all due to the ravages of the same parasite the "staphylococcus aureus."

Tape Worm. Emaciation, debility, hypochondriasis, flushing, malaise, shifting pains, night sweats, fever simulating ague, formication, prurego, headache, drowsiness, dimness of vision, dyspnoea, palpitation, globus hystericus, dyspepsia, flatulence, hiccough, pain in the stomach, sinking at the pit of the stomach, loss or excess of appetite, bad taste in the mouth, furred tongue, rolling of the stomach, constipation, alternated with diarrhea, dysuria, diabetes insipidus, uterine derangements, insomnia, dry cough, epilepsy, pruritus ani, itching of the nose, deafness, typhoid symptoms; all these, or any of them, if not otherwise satisfactorily diagnosed, may be advisedly examined into as possible symptoms of tape worm.

Some Symptoms of Diabetes.

A chloroform-like odor of the breath, a cider-like smell of the urine, a longing for meat, a white stain on the under-linen, a scarlet color in the mouth, and a tendency to boils, carbuncles, cataract and pruritus, each and all should direct attention to the possible existence of diabetes, when not distinctly referable to other causes. The presence of sugar alone does not indicate diabetes any more than do inordinate thirst or loss of flesh. L. LEWIS, M. D.

Diet of Dyspepsia.

Dujardin Beaumetz teaches that a meat diet, with milk, beef-tea, wine, and brandy, is suitable for dyspepsia caused by lack of gastric juice; while a vegetable regimen, with milk, but no wine, is adapted to dyspepsia due to over-secretion. Milk, lime-water, and medicinal doses of bicarbonate of soda are advised in gastric ulcer.

Test of Death.

In case of uncertain death, it is proposed to divide the radial artery. If life is not extinct, the blood will run; if otherwise, the individual is dead.

Infantile Convulsions.

When called to a child in convulsions, it is best first to eliminate those forms of attack which may be due to the commencement or decline of febrile diseases. This may be done by ascertaining some history of the case, and by the absence of fever signs at the time of examination. Next, the patient should be stripped, to make sure that no pins, tight clothing or other external mechanical irritants are present. The mouth should be carefully explored, for

dentition may be the trouble. Then inquire into the state of the digestive apparatus, and search for worms or their ova in the dejections. Round worms nearly always induce convulsions in children; thread worms less frequently. Examine also the ears and nose. If the temperature be high, beware of pneumonia, broncho-pneumonia, and eruptive fevers. Convulsions are nearly always grave, especially the first attacks. Hot baths with mustard, or, better still, the hot wet blanketpack, cold to the head, an ice bag or ether spray to the cervical spine, emetics or purgative enemata, bromides in appreciable doses, a whiff of chloroform, chloral hydrate (about five grains internally, or per rectum); the sixth part of a grain of morphia, subcutaneously in older and urgent cases, constitute the most effectual remedies. Belladonna and gum lancing are serviceable when the attack is plainly due to dentition; calomel, gray powder, chamomile, ignatia, when teething is associated with intestinal irritation and diarrhea. The possible existence of Bright's disease and albuminuria should never be overlooked, whether the child has had scarlatina or not; bitartrate of potash here suggests itself, to help withdrawal of poisonous elements from the blood, together with water from the system. Rickets, eardisease, and some diseases of the brain are among the various causes of convulsions. Epilepsy closely simulates infantile convulsions, especially those due to Bright's disease and brain affections, and needs similar general treatment during the paroxysm, the bromides being especially favored. Hysterical convulsions are more readily distinguished. Convulsions have been noticed in children as a result of the administration of "soothing syrups" and "powders" containing opium.

LOUIS LEWIS, M. D.

The sum total of disease, as understood today, means perverted function with correlated changes of nutrition, caused by diminished vitalism. Thus, treatment is in the main supporting and sustaining, as contra-distinguished from the hypotheses and false convictions of a passing age. "Feed a cold and starve a fever" was once a medical adage; now it is "feed them both."

Dusting Powder.

"Soapstone," or French chalk, mixed with equal parts of oxide of zinc, constitutes an admirable application as a dusting powder for bed sores, intertrigo of infants, and similar conditions of the skin. It adheres nicely, without forming a sticky paste.

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