can that possibly affect this pro-peritoneal pocket? Of the seven cases reported, the ages varied from five months to twelve years. One case at five months was cured by means of a bandage. The remaining six cases were all operated upon, and only one was complicated by ectopion of the testicle. All the cases resulted in cures in from four to eight weeks.-Univ. Med. Magazine.

USE OF SILVER IN URETHRAL INFLAMMATIONS.

Guiteras (Jour. Cut. and Gen. Urin. Diseases) reports treating nine cases of acute urethritis, beginning with an injection of one grain to the ounce and increasing a grain each day, and presents the following

conclusions:

1. That nitrate of silver is not as dangerous in acute urethral inflammations as is generally supposed.

2. That by beginning with small doses and increasing daily a tolerance can be established (the same as in chronic cases).

3. That although a solution of the strength of fifteen or twenty grains to the ounce can be reached in this way, it is not wise to go above eight or ten grains; and then if the result is not favorable, to continue with some other means.

4. That in this, as in bichloride irrigations, and all other methods which try to cure this trouble quickly, a dry, congested and slightly irritated condition is liable to follow, which should be treated for some days by mild astringents, these to be left off gradually.

5. That when the discharge becomes very slight, it is better at times to decrease the strength of the arg. nit. than to increase it.

6. That in cases of gonorrhoeal cystis, which are usually acute, good results are obtained by instillations of this drug.

7. That in cases of chronic deep urethral inflammations, especially those of a granular nature, deep urethral injections are the remedy par excellence.

8. That nitrate of silver as an abortive should not be used, as in doing this peri-urethral inflammations may be set up, which might cause considerable trouble. -Epitome of Medicine.

A CASE OF PULMONARY GANGRENE TREATED BY ANTISEPTIC INHALATIONS AND THEN BY SURGICAL INTERFERENCE.-- MM. Constantine Paul and Ch. Perier, (Bulletin de l'Academie de Medicine,) gives the following account of a case: M. D., æt. 58, was seized with a severe bronchitis, his expectoration soon becoming fetid. On examination a focus was found on the left side posteriorly, marked by very fine rales. The disease progressed and symptoms of gangrenous septicæmia developed, with chills, cold sweats, diarrhoea and prostration. Antisepsis of the air passages was then practiced by passing the breathed air through a saturated solution of carbolic acid. Dr. Paul had previously cured fourteen cases in this way. In this case the septic systems rapidly disappeared. The sputum continued to be abundant, but lost its fetid character. The patient recovered sufficiently to attend to his business. An area without respiration remained at the sight of the lesion. A month later the symptoms returned, and again the same treatment succeeded. Nearly a month later another relapse occurred and about 300 g. of fetid pus was coughed up at once. Similar relapses recurred at intervals for many months. Signs of a cavity developed at affected spot

and the urine contained sugar. Dr. Perier was now called in and confirmed the diagnosis. An opening was made between the clavicle and mamma, the healthy lung tissue punctured with a trocar and a cavity with viscid pus discovered at a depth of one-half inch. After carefully cleansing the cavity drainage tubes were introduced. A perfect recovery resulted. -Univ. Med. Magazine.

In

NEW METHODS OF PERFORMING ENTERORRHAPHY.Jessett, in the British Medical Journal, describes his method of performing enterorrhaphy with the aid of decalcified bone tubes. It was devised in order to avoid the difficulties experienced in invaginating the upper segment of the divided bowel into the lower. He describes the tubes and their application as follows: The two tubes when united form a hollow cylinder, the greatest diameter of which is at the union of the two parts. It measures 21⁄2 inches in length and the diameter at the center is nearly twice that of either end. The male tube may be described as consisting of two parts: the cylindrical portion, which is fastened into the proximal end of the intestine, and the spur which slides into the female portion of the tube. the end of the larger portion, at its junction with the spur, four holes are drilled: these pass in a slanting direction from without inward, ending just at the junction of the spur. Through the four holes two long threads of chromic gut, armed at the ends with ordinary sewing or intestinal needles, are inserted, one thread being passed through two holes and the other thread through the other two openings. The female tube is of a conical shape, and measures one inch and a quarter in length; it has four holes drilled in the edge of the larger end, through which two long threads of chromicized gut, armed with needles, are passed in a similar manner as in the male tube. The method of using these tubes is as follows: The portion of the intestine to be excised being removed, the male tube is inserted into the proximal end of the divided intestine as far as the flange, the spur being allowed to project beyond the divided surface. four threads are then passed, from within outward, through all the coats of the intestine, close to the edge. Care must be taken that two of the threads are passed close to the mesentery, one on each side, the other two being passed equidistant from them on the opposite of the gut; the needles are now removed and the four threads held by means of clamp forceps, while the female tube is being introduced in a similar manner into the distal portion of the divided intestine, and the threads passed through all its coats at points corresponding to those in the proximal end. The two divided ends are now approximated by passing the spur of the male tube into the female; the corresponding opposing threads are tied firmly. The ends of the sutures being cut away, the surgeon next steadies the proximal end of the intestine over the tube between his left thumb and finger-while with the thumb and finger of the right hand he gently slips the distal part of the intestine over the proximal for a quarter of to half an inch. He then, with four quilt. chromic gut sutures, fastens it in place, being careful to insert one suture on each side of the mesentric border. If a V shaped piece of mesentery has been removed, it must be brought together with a few interrupted sutures. The parts may now be dropped back into the abdominal cavity and the parietal wound closed in the ordinary way. It is of importance that

The

the tubes should slip quite easily into the intestine, as, if they fit at all tightly, there is much more difficulty in invaginating the one portion of intestine over the other; moreover, there is the risk of gangrene, as the tubes may swell somewhat after their introduction. Univ. Med. Magazine.

COCAINE ANESTHESIA IN THE RADICAL CURE FOR HYDROCELE. -Nicase (Revue de Chirurgie. No. 3, 1892), in a discussion before the Société de Chirurgie upon a case of death due to the injection of cocaine into the tunica vaginalis, stated that such cases should not lead surgeons to abandon a method which, if properly employed, is without danger, and which entirely prevents the pain incident to the injection of iodine into the serous investment of the testicle.

He describes his method of treating hydrocele. He first punctures the tunica vaginalis, and allows about one-fourth of the liquid to escape. He then injects into the liquid which remains within the vaginal tunic, forty minims of a four per cent solution of cocaine. The scrotum is then lightly manipulated for four or five minutes, when the rest of the liquid contained in the tunica vaginalis is evacuated, and an iodine injection is made.

The solution injected contains about one and a half grains of cocaine. This will secure absolute anææsthesia, even when it is diluted by a quantity of hydrocele fluid sufficiently great to make the percentage of cocaine about 1 in 4,000.

This method of procedure possesses the advantage of permitting the absorption of but a very small portion of the drug.-Therapeutic Gazette.

INTESTINAL EVACUATION IN OPERATIONS FOR OBSTRUCTION--Mr. Greig Smith, in a thoroughly original paper read before the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, strongly advocated operative evacuation and drainage of intestinal contents in cases of obstruction of the bowels where distension is a marked feature. Mere over-distension of the intestinal walls is, it was pointed out, a potent factor in the production of obstruction: Physical and physiological causes combine to render an over-distended gut incapable of passing onward its contents. Therefore operative treatment of intestinal obstruction is not completed until this continuing cause is removed. According to the nature of the case, Mr. Greig Smith pointed out that the measures adopted should be one of the following: (1) Simple evacuation of contents. with immediate return of the gut. (2) Evacuation with drainage for several hours or days, and subsequent closure and return of the gut. (3) Evacuation with drainage that may be permanent. In operations Mr. Greig Smith holds that while the stomach is distended with fluid, anæsthesia should never be carried out. Either the stomach should be artificially emptied, or the operation should be performed with the help of a local anesthetic. Again anæsthesia should be continued only for so long as is necessary to make the parietal incision and place the sutures. It must be clearly understood that the measures advocated are intended to supplement and complete the ordinary surgical methods for relief of the strangulation, and in no sense to replace these.-Brit. Medical Jour

nal.

TRIFACIAL NEURALGIA TREATED BY TORSION OF THE THREE MAIN BRANCHES AT THE FIFTH NERVE.-A lady 46 years of age, who had suffered for two years with

intense neuralgia of the side of the face, came under my care in the spring of 1891. I exposed the inferior dental branch of the nerve by incision and trephining the right inferior maxilla at the angle, divided the nerve at the distal margin of the button, lifted the proximal end out of its bed, seized it with a strong but slender Esmarch's artery forceps and carefully and slowly twisted it, holding the nerve slack as it was twisted in order to avoid parting it.

The second division was next exposed at the infraorbital foramen, a rim of bone surrounding this opening was chiseled off, thus freeing the nerve and its sheath. It was then divided and the proximal end twisted for from twelve to twenty rotations. The supra-orbital branch was next exposed and twisted in like manner. Relief was immediate, and so far is permanent.

CASE II. In July, 1891, I did this same operation on a man 54 years of age, who for six years had intense neuralgia of the right side of the face. I showed this patient to the New York Surgical Soabsolutely free from pain from the date of the operaciety in March, 1892. He was then and had been

tion.

It seems to me that this operation (which Thiersch recommends so highly) should be given a trial before undertaking the more formidable procedures of removing Neckel's ganglion, or that most formidable operation of intracranial section of the ganglion of Gasser. Denver Medical Times.

SECONDARY LAPAROTOMY FOR A PISTOL WOUND OF THE LIVER.-Gage (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, April 28, 1892,) reports a case of a boy, aged fifteen, who was shot in the right hypochondrium. There was but little hæmorrhage from the external opening and but little shock; and as the wound was supposed to be superficial it was closed. The patient was kept in bed for ten days, and then, on being allowed to get up, it was found that he could neither stand or sit upright on account of the pain in the region of the wound. This pain became so severe during the next three days that he was obliged to go to bed again. There was then noticed for the first time a decided fullness on the right side, with increased pain and tenderness. Four weeks later, his condition rapidly becoming worse, it was decided to operate. The incision was made over the seat of injury, and on opening the peritoneum more than three pints of thick, dark-green fluid escaped. The cavity was drained and for some time afterward pieces of degenerated liver, about the size of beans, continued to come away. This cavity contracted finally and discharge ceased, and the patient left the hospital two weeks later.

The author thinks the case of special interest because of the extreme tolerance of the liver, even to considerable injuries. In classifying wounds of the liver they divide themselves naturally into two groups: (1) The penetrating or direct wounds.

(2) Rupture from indirect injury and without perforation of the abdominal wall.

Of the former group the mortality is about thirtyfive per cent and of the latter eighty-five per cent.

Of fifty-four punctured wounds hæmorrhage only occurred in eight, and of these eight, five were fatal. -Univ. Med. Magazine.

HARDENING THE SYSTEM.-My chief rule for food is dry, simple, nourishing household fare, not spoiled by art or by strong spices. I am no Puritan, and

gladly allow a glass of wine or beer, but without regarding them as important, as many persons believe

them to be.

I oppose thick woolen clothing worn next to the skin, but I approve of clothing made of firm, dry, strong linen, or hemp cloth. The last named is to me the best on the skin, which never effeminates it, but does the good service of a rubber. The many branched, hairy, greasy texture of the wool on the bare body I look upon as a sucker of fluids and warmth, as a concurring cause of the dreadfully spreading want of blood in our weak, miserable generation.

The most natural and most simple means of hardening is walking barefooted. Grown-up people in towns, especially those who belong to the higher classes, cannot make use of this practice; that is quite clear. Yet what is to prevent them from taking a promenade in their bare feet for ten, fifteen, or thirty minutes at night before going to sleep, or in the morning when rising?

A special and extremely efficacious kind of walking barefooted, is walking in the grass, no matter if it be wet with due, rain, or watering. This practice I can highly recommend to young and old, healthy or sick, no matter what other application they may be using. The wetter the grass, the longer one perseveres in the exercise, and the oftener it is repeated, the more perfect will be the success. The exercise is generally taken for from fifteen to forty-five minutes.

About the same effect is produced by walking on wet stones, which is more convenient and easy for many people. Walking in newly-fallen snow produces even greater effect than the two practices mentioned. Walking in water reaching as far as the calf of the leg, has influence on the entire body, and strengthens the whole system. In winter, snow may be mixed with the water. With weaklings, warm water may be used in the beginning, then, by and by, colder, and, lastly, quite cold water.-Abbe Kneipp, Times and Register.

Therapeutics.

ARISTOL IN CHRONIC DYSENTERY.-Dr. Randall (Med. Neuigkeiten, No. 17, 1892) has treated three cases of chronic dysentery with aristol with excellent results. The most serious case was that of a sixtyyear-old man, who had for six months suffered from chronic diarrhoea, and for the last six weeks had been obliged to keep his bed. The localization of the pains pointed to the lower portion of the transverse colon being involved in the ulcerating process. A suppository of two and a half grains of aristol and one-third of a grain of morphine was ordered, to be inserted. three times a day. Two days later the stools became less fetid, more consistent and free from blood. Within a week the painfulness disappeared, and only one more hæmorrhage appeared. The stools, which. had been very painful and of hourly occurrence, were reduced to six or eight per diem; they were soft, but not thin, and nearly free from epithelial débris. In ten or twelve days all traces of rectal ulceration had disappeared. Then only one grain was given per diem, and morphine in the evening. In a short time he was on the road to recovery.-Lancet-Clinic.

THIOL IN SKIN DISEASES.-Buzzi's (Charité Annalen, 1891, Band xv.) experiments in Professor Schwening

er's clinic in Berlin lead him to regard thiol as superior to ichthyol. It is valuable in many diseases of the skin, and possesses the following advantages over ichthyol: It is clean and never irritates, whereas ichthyol is impure and often irritates; ichthyol smells disagreeably, thiol does not; ichthyol spots the linen, thiol does not. It moreover has the advantage of costing only one-half as much as ichthyol.-Med. and Surg. Reporter.

BELLADONNA IN GALL-STONE COLIC.-Dr. Sticker (Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben, No. 5, 1892) finds the direct anodyne action to be less than that of opium, yet the subsequent attacks seem to decrease in severity. He gives ten to fifteen centigrammes (one and a half to two grains) of the extract of belladonna in thirty grammes (one ounce) of water, and of this twenty drops every half hour to an hour. The remedy is especially indicated when the stone has wedged itself in the ductus choledochus. Here its action is explained by its relaxing action on the circular fibers of the duct. If the pains are very severe and collapse threatens, then one will have to have recourse to morphine.--Lancet Clinic.

TRIONAL AND TERTONAL IN MENTAL DISEASES.-Kast and Baumann, in their work upon the relationship between the chemical constitution and physiological action of certain sulphones, concluded that the hypnotic energy of these bodies would be increased in proportion to the number of contained ethyl groups: thus trional (diethylsulphon methylethylmethane) would be more active than sulphonal (diethylsulphondimetyhlmethane), and tetronal would be more powerful than either of the preceding. Barth and Rumpel tested the point, and failed to discover that the new compounds were superior to sulphonal.-Schulze (Therap. Monats., October, 1891.)

SULFONAL IN THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY.-Dr. Bannatyre (Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben, No. 5, 1892) uses this drug in the treatment of those inveterate and incurable cases where the bromides have only a slight action or none at all, and where the attacks are very numerous, with over-excitibility of the brain. Here it diminishes the frequency and severity of the attacks. The dose varied between six decigrammes and two and two-fifths grammes (nine to thirty-six grains), with the ordinary precautions of sulfonal. Lancet-Clinic.

BROMIDE OF ETHYL.-During the past three years about twenty thousand anæsthesias have been produced by this drug in Germany, and not one case of resulting death from it can be proven following the use of a chemically pure preparation. The advantage and disadvantages resulting from the use of bromide. of ethyl may be briefly counted thus:

1. Extreme simplicity and convenience of its application.

2. The safety of anesthesia produced by small quantities of the drug.

3. The very rapid occurrence of anesthesia, and very rapid awakening from it.

4. In the great majority of cases the almost absolute comfort (good health) upon the return of consciousness.

5. The rare occurrence of vomiting.

6. The fact that a second physician is not necessary.

But, on the other hand,

1. Its uselessness for long operations.

2. The occasional occurrence of great excitation. 3. The bad odor remaining in the patient's mouth for two or three days.-Therapeutic Gazette.

THE ACTION OF STRYCHNINE.-Dr. E. T. Reichert, Therapeutic Gazette, has made "an experimental study of certain actions of strychnine in excitant and paralytic doses," and reached the following conclusions :

1. The minimum lethal dose for dogs when intravenously injected is about .0002 gramme to the kilogramme of body weight.

2. Doses of from .015 to .02 gramme to the kilo intravenously cause a condition of absolute muscular quiet, and by means of artificial respiration the animal may be kept alive in excellent general conditions.

3. Quantities in excess of .094 gramme to the kilo may be injected intravenously in divided doses without causing death, provided artificial respiration is practiced.

4.

The toxic action of this remarkable substance is so directed to the motor cells in the spinal cord that the minimum poisonous dose is exceedingly small, owing to the production of asphyxia or exhaustion by the violence and persistence of the tetanic seizures. Should artificial respiration be maintained, nearly five hundred times the minimum fatal dose may be injected without causing death.

5. By a proper regulation of the size of the dose and the method of administration, the stage of excitement may be prolonged over an almost indefinite period, or may be so brief as to last for but a few seconds.

6. During the stage of excitement the following effects and actions are observed:

a. The motor disturbances and convulsions are of spinal origin.

b. The sensory nerves and muscles are unaffected. c. The motor nerves, after the onset and continuance of convulsions, become depressed from overwork.

d. The pulse-rate is first lessened in frequency, then increased, and finally diminished, the first effect being due to a stimulation of the cardio-inhibitory apparatus, the second to its depression, and the last to a depression of the excito-motor or automatic-motor ganglion in the heart.

e. The arterial pressure is primarily diminished, then greatly increased, and at last diminished, the first effect being due to some obscure action on the vaso-motor centers in the medulla oblongata, the rise to a stimulation of the vaso-constrictor centers in the same part, and the final fall to a depression of the heart and vaso-motor centers.

f. The respiration-rate is not specifically affected unless it be decreased, or during the period of convulsions, when it may be decidedly increased.

g. The bodily temperature is increased, this being due to an increase of heat production, which is to some extent independent of the motor excitement.

7. During the stage of paralysis the following points are noted:

a. The muscles do not seem in the least affected. b. The sensory nerve-fibers are inexcitable to strong electrical currents.

C. The motor nerves do not respond to strong elec

trical stimulus, although they may transmit impulses. from the nerve-centers.

d. The pulse-rate is reduced, but the height of the curves increased, the first effect being due to a depression of the motor ganglion in the heart, and the second to the greater filling of the viscus with blood, and perhaps to a direct stimulation of the muscular substance.

The cardio-inhibitory fibers are paralyzed, but no increase in the frequency of the pulse rate is observed, owing to the predominance of the depressant action on the heart ganglia. Stimulation of the vagi causes smaller pulse curves and a slight increase in the frequency of the beats.

e. The blood-pressure is increased, unless the dose has been greatly in excess, when it is diminished. The increase is due to a stimulation of the vaso motor centers in the medulla oblongata, and the decrease to a depression of the heart and vaso motor palsy.

In noncurarized animals the pressure sinks below the normal within a few minutes after the tetanic paroxysm, but in those curarized this depression is less marked, and the stimulant action on the vaso-motor centers is stronger.

Asphyxia, or electrical stimulation of sensory nerve, is unable to cause a rise of pressure as in the normal animal, the former always inducing a fall.

f. The hæmoglobin is in some way affected, so that it cannot be oxygenated to the normal degree. The spectroscope reveals nothing but oxyhæmoglobin.

8. The sensory and motor nerves seem absolutely inexcitable to strong electrical stimulus, although the latter may be capable of conveying impulses from the nerve-centers to the muscles.

h. The temperature is increased, owing chiefly to a decrease of heat dissipation. Heat production may be slightly increased or decreased.

Cocaine is unable to cause a marked increase of heat production and temperature, as in the normal animal.

Apparently strychnine in paralytic doses paralyzes the hypothetical accelerator heat-centers, and leaves intact the automatic heat-centers.

i. The paralytic condition caused by large doses of strychnine resembles that produced by curare, but is in many important ways entirely distinct.

OLIVE OIL IN LARGE DOSES IN ILEUS.-Dr. Mitchell (La Semaine Méd.) has used large doses of olive oil with success in the treatment of eight cases of intestinal obstruction. Seventy grammes (223) of oil were taken every two hours, or even more frequently. One patient took 500 grammes (163) during one night, another a liter (a quart) in a few hours. An improvement took place in from three to twenty-four hours.

ACONITINE IN THE TREATMENT OF ERYSIPelas.—According to the Journal de Médecine de Paris, Tison treats cases of erysipelas in the following manner: At the onset of the disease, for the intensity of the fever, he administers an emetic and also produces catharsis, after which he administers aconitine in the dose of 26 of a grain every six hours. The drug must be pushed actively in order that its full physiological effect may be shown. At the same time that the aconitine is given the part which has been invaded by the erysipelas is washed every two hours with a cloth soaked in sulphuric ether which has been satu

rated with camphor. The application is not disagreeable to the patient, as the cold caused by the evaporation of the ether gives comfort and the ether evaporating leaves upon the surface a fine covering of pulverized camphor which removes the pain.Therapeutic Gazette.

CAMPHOID.-The London Lancet contains the following notice on this new compound. It is prepared by mixing equal parts by weight of camphor and absolute alcohol, and dissolving pyroxylin in this solution in the proportion of 1 in 40. This mixture rapidly dries, and yields an elastic film, which is uneffected by water. It forms an excellent substitute for collodion. Camphoid readily dissolves salicylic acid, carbolic acid, iodoform, and many other medicaments intended for external application. As a convenient protective it is likely to supersede sticking-plaster, as the thin film formed is not unsightly, does not present awkard corners liable to catch, and is not washed off even when moderately warm water is used. Healing of small abrasions rapidly follows the application of camphoid or of the mixture of camphoid and salicylic acid.

PERMANGANATE OF POTASH IN PHOSPHORUS POISONING. Permaganate of potash having been found by Dr. Antal, by experiments on animals, to act as an antidote in acute phosphorus poisoning, Dr. Hajinos. has employed it with apparent success in some cases which recently came under his care in the Rochus Hospital, Buda-Pesth. One case was that of a patient who drank a solution of phosphorus made from two boxes of matches and was immediately brought into hospital. The stomach was washed out and within half an hour of swallowing the poison Dr. Hajinos introduced 500 grammes of a ro per cent solution of permanganate of potash into his stomach. There was no vomiting or pain, and the next day, as the man felt quite well, he left the hospital, and nothing more was heard of him. The stomach was washed out within half an hour of the phosphorus being taken.--London Lancet.

GLYCERINE FOR ACCELERATING LABOR.-For the in

duction of premature labor, and also for facilitating labor at term, Pelzer, in Centrulbl fur Gynak, (translated for British Medical Journal) recommends the injection of one hundred cubic centimeters (about 3% ounces) of pure sterilized glycerine, between the uterine wall and the membranes, under strict antiseptic and air-excluding precautions.

THERAPEUTIC USES OF OLIVE OIL.-Dr. A. M. Osborne (Pacific Druggist) points out many uses for olive oil which, in ordinary practice are either unknown or overlooked. For supplying nutrition to the feeble, correcting faulty digestion, overcoming anæmic conditions, righting the errors of the emunctories, feeding the hungry tissues of brain and body, and for treating an almost innumerable train of ailments, he found pure olive oil efficacious in every instance. He recites several cases, of widely different nature, in which this oil was used almost to the exclusion of all other remedies, with results of the most gratifying nature. During an epidemic of measles, in an institution of which he is the head, he ascertained that frequent inunctions of olive oil relieved the most distressing symptoms of the malady entirely, and generally effected a cure. He thinks that

it stands unrivaled as an element of natural food; that it is unsurpassed as a remedy in most, and probably all wasting diseases, where it relieves the stomach, rests overtaxed digestive organs, lubricates inflamed alimentary tracts and arrests their further congestion, satisfies almost all demands of the system for a concentrated heat-producing food, and restores to a worn-out or broken-down tissue just such elements of repair as its reconstruction demands; that it possesses a direct alterative effect in constitutional diseases; that it exerts a distinctive influence upon the liver, and apparently, also, the kidneys, and that the benefits to be derived from its use in liver derangements are not at all chimerical; and that its reconstructive properties follow its external application quite as readily as when given internally, and in some cases the former seems to be preferable.-N. Y. Med. Times.

CREASOTE IN TUBERCULOSIS.-Sommerbrodt in the Berliner Klinische Wochenshrift in relating his further experience with creasote in the treatment of tuberculosis lays down the rule "The more creasote the patient can take the greater the benefit." In his earlier reports he says that eight minims a day would cure every case if taken in the beginning: he is now convinced that larger doses up to 25 to 60 minims a day will cure even severe and advanced ones. He does not, of course, claim to cure every case; but he is positive that large doses of creasote will do more for many tubercular patients than any other drug; and his motto is, "The more creasote that can be borne the better." The maximal dose given in the pharmacopoeias are much to small, according to him; he begins at ten years of age with 15 minims daily, and increases this to sixty. He formerly gave it in capsules with balsam of tolu; but this method he abandoned as soon as he discovered that very often the balsam was not absorbed, but passed by the bowels undigested. He now gives it in capsules mixed either with cod liver oil or olive oil. Sommerbrodt claims that creasote, if its use is persisted in for years, will allow people who cannot get away to remain at home in comparative comfort. No fear need be felt of a bad effect upon the stomach, as Sommerbrodt has given patients as high as 20,000 capsules without affecting the appetite injuriously; the most that was noted was slight belching during the first week, which soon disappeared.-Medical Index.

A SPECIFIC FOR RHUS AND IVY POISONING.--A. H., aged 60, came to my office with an inflammation of the skin of the hands and forearms extending to the middle of the arm. Beginning with lotions of leadwater, I tried the most effective remedies for rhus poisoning, which careful inquiry into the patient's habits proved this to be, and was much chagrined to find that nothing gave relief to the itching and burning, or held in check the inflammation.

As a dernier resort, a strong decoction of chestnut leaves (Castanea Fagus) was used, bathing the inflamed parts every three or four hours. In twentyfour hours all the distressing symptoms had subsided, and the patient was discharged cured.

Since using the above, which was in August, 1888, I have prescribed the castanea treatment for all cases of rhus and ivy poisoning, and in all stages of inflammation, with the single result in every case of perfect relief from all symptoms in from twenty four to seventy-two hours.