I do not find this treatment in books on diseases of the skin which I have read, and therefore offer it to the profession.-Stanley in Times-Register.

EFFECT OF MERCURY ON THE BLOOD OF SYPHILITICS. -Bieganski (Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis) from a research upon the alteration of the blood incident to syphilitic infection concludes that the syphilitic poison has no effect in altering the number of blood-corpuscles; that it increases the number of white blood-corpuscles, particularly the small mononuclear lymphocytes. At the same time the number of the polynuclear white blood-corpuscles diminishes. The hæmoglobin of the blood is distinctly lessened. On the administration of mercury, the blood count is subject to marked changes. These, however, are dependent upon the greater or lesser thickness of the blood, and are not due to any change or alternation in the nourishment of the patient. Mercury lessens the number of white corpuscles, and renders the relation between the white and red almost normal. It is particularly the mononuclear white corpuscles which are diminished in number, the polynuclear cells again becoming more numerous. The quantity of hæmoglobin is distinctly increased by the administration of mercury. Med. and Surg. Reporter.

LEDIBERDER, ON COCAINE IN UTERINE INJECTIONS. The writer often employs intra-uterine injections of tincture of iodine, and to lessen the pain caused thereby uses cocaine in the following manner:

The canula of the syringe is introduced to the fundus and slowly withdrawn, the piston being meanwhile gradually pushed home. Thus the cavity is filled with the solution (1, 2 or 3 per cent), while the

canula is held at the os a minute or two before the fluid is allowed to run off. This contact with the mucous membrane causes sufficiently strong anææsthesia, then the iodine is introduced in the usual way, and causes the patient no discomfort whatsoever. Gaz. des Hopitaux, Epitome.

Obstetrics.

THE EFFECT OF TRACHELORRHAPHY UPON PARTURITION. Anna M. Fullerton reports two cases in which the first stage of dilatation was so prolonged and attended with so unusual a degree of suffering because of previously performed trachelorrhaphy, as to cause her to question the wisdom of the procedure. The removal of large portions of tissue from a greatly hypertrophied cervix cannot but result in the absence of sufficient tissue to respond to the requirements of dilatation during delivery. The author urges the necessity for greater thought, on the part of the average obstetrician, to the management of the first stage of labor. An exact knowledge of the size of the pelvis, the relative size of the child, the extent of ossification of the foetal skull, the position and presentation of the foetus, the degree of extension or obliquity. of the foetal head when it presents-may all suggest methods of management which may avert the danger to the integrity of the cervix.-American Journal of

Obstetrics.

INFLUENZA DURING PREGNANCY AND THE PUERPERAL STATE. -Dr. Horrock's London Lancet, formulates the effects of influenza in these conditions as follows: 1. Influenza during pregnancy: The phe

nomena of pregnancy generally are in no way altered or modified by influenza, although some of the symptoms, such as retching, vomiting, and coughing, may cause rupture of the membranes and so cause miscarriage. 2. Influenza during the puerperium: Influenza may attack a patient after childbirth, and its symptoms are apt to be confounded with those of puerperal fever. The differential diagnosis is that the influenza does not affect any of the natural processes taking place during the puerperium. The milk is not lessened; the lochia are unaltered; the uterus involutes; vice versa pregnancy and the puerperium only slightly modify influenza. Advanced pregnancy intensifies the dyspnoea if present, and perhaps the blood changes of the puerperium may intensify the fever.

A NEW, SAFE AND SURE METHOD TO EXPEDITE DIFFICULT CASES OF LABOR.-Dr. Playfair, F. R. C. P., Professor of Obstetrics of King's College, London, writes in Braithwaite's Retrospect of an "entirely mod. ern oxytocic by manual pressure applied directly to the uterus to increase the force of feeble pains, etc.

Dr. Marshall L. Brown (Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.) says: It is something like ten years since I commenced the use of the herein described method of expediting difficult and retarded cases of labor with pelvic or breech presentations. I have made use of the same method in difficult labors with vertex presentations, since that time, when the presentation was a safe one, and, from any cause, the expulsive pains of the patient seemed inadeqate for the delivery of the child. I have at times applied so much force as to be apprehensive lest some harm might come to the patient; but in every instance the patients have made speedy and perfectly satisfactory recoveries. From the experience I have had in the use of this method, I am satisfied that it is a safe, sure and satisfactory help in the delivery of difficult and retarded cases of labor, with either breech or vertex presentations.

Briefly, the method consists in applying a force. synchronously with the natural labor pains, by and through the hands of the obstetrician, so spread as to embrace as large a portion of the fundus of the womb as may be possible, and applied downward and backward in the direction of the axis of the pelvis.

The following are directions which should be remembered and followed in making use of this method:

1. As to the position of the patient. It can best be made use of when the patient is crosswise on the bed, in nearly the same position as when the forceps. are to be applied.

3.

The force should be applied when the pain. commences, gently at first, gradually increasing it to the end of the pain and should cease with the pain.

4. The force must be applied downward and backward in the direction of the axis of the pelvis. Finally, certain precautions should be borne in mind in the use of this method:

1. It should not be used unless the presentation is a safe or deliverable one.

2. It should not be applied spasmodically by jerks, but with a gentle, gradually increasing pressure. 3. It should not be used unless the os uteri is dilated or dilatable.

Following the above directions, and bearing in mind the cautions given, this method will, I am sure, be found of great value in difficult and retarded cases of labor, and for the average general practitioner, safer than the forceps.--N. Y. Med. Times.

THE RESULTS OF TWO HUNDRED LABORS WITHOUT INTERNAL DISINFECTION.-Mermann has continued in the clinic at Mannheim his usage in conducting labors without internal disinfection, and records in the Centralblatt für Gynäkologie, 1892, No. 11, the results of 200 recent cases. He had but one death, and that from rupture of the uterus complicated by placenta prævia and a large amount of amniotic liquid. In the two hundred cases there were 36 which presented complications of greater or less gravity. These cases complete a series of 700, presenting no death from septic infection. The morbidity rate was six per cent. In the last 200 cases there occurred but 2 cases of mild ophthalmia, and in all less than 10 cases of conjunctivitis were observed among infants. Mermann's practice is to omit injections, and, whenever possible, to also omit internal examinations, relying upon palpation and auscultation and a close observation of the case.-Amer. Jour. Med. Sc.

TREATMENT OF ALBUMINURIA OF PREGNANCY.--The many disastrous labors from albuminuria are causing greater study of the character of the trouble and of the measures necessary to preserve life. The following note from the Centralblatt fur Gynakologie shows what is done in one great clinic:

"At the Pinard clinic it is a rule to examine the urine at least every two weeks from the sixth month of pregnancy. Should any albumen be found the patient is put immediately upon a very strict milk diet, and in order to avoid cold is dressed in flannel and kept in a heated room. If edema, backache, and disturbance of vision occur, a purgative is given, and if there is oppressed breathing, the chest is cupped and inhalations of oxygen given. Operative interference is reserved for those cases in which the albuminuria is intense, with anasarca, visual disturbances, nose-bleed, and uræmic phenomena, and those cases in which the albumin has not decreased during eight days of rigid milk diet, even if the other symptoms have disappeared. Should convulsions occur, chloralhydrate is given, and chloroform administered and continued as many hours as necessary. The delivery should be hastened by the application of forceps, turning or breech extraction. The antisepsis is very rigid."-Medical Index.

REMOVAL OF EXTRAUTERINE FETUS FIVE MONTHS

AFTER TERM RECOVERY.-Delaissement (Annales de Gynec. et d' Obstet.,) operated on May 7th, 1889, on a single woman aged twenty, who had become pregnant after the cessation of the menses in February, 1889. On December 13th, 1888, labor pains came on; two days later the foetal movements were plainly distinguished, and the heart sounds were audible. The cervix was like that of a virgin. By December 17th the pains had ceased. Afterward the catamenia returned, the foetal cyst remained as a tumor, resembling a large fibroid, and extending to the left hypochondrium. The tumor did not press down into the pelvis, the uterus was distinct and pressed forward, and to the left. On May 7th the operation was performed. The foetal cyst was not adherent to the abdominal

walls; there was a fluctuating area on its upper part. In order to cut off all communication with the peritoneal cavity, sutures were passed through the cyst wall on each side of the wound. A brownish fluid escaped through the two uppermost suture tracts. The cyst was opened between the sutures. The foetus lay transversely, with the head to the left. The placenta, very thick, was attached anteroinferiorly; it was as tough as though macerated in alcohol, and was not vascular. The cavity of the cyst was washed out with hot water containing chloroform, and dressed with carbolized gauze; a large drainage tube was inserted. High temperature, with alarming symptoms, followed, and did not abate until the fifth day, when the placenta began to separate. Delaissement believes that the fever was due to infection of the peritoneum by the two upper sutures, and observes that sutures so applied should be made to pass along the substance of the foetal cyst wall, and never across the cavity of the cyst. By June 5th all the placenta had come away. A year after the operation the patient was seen by Delaissement. She was in excellent health, and the catamenia were regular. There was a slight hernial protrusion inferiorly.-British Medical Journal.

THE MANUAL TREATMENT OF NOCTURNAL Enuresis. -The method originally suggested by Thure Brandt -whose contributions in the field of massage are so well known--has been modified by Dr. Julius Csillag. Briefly described, it is as follows:

The patient is placed in the lithotomy position, and the physician introduces his right forefinger into the rectum, and seeks the urethra below the symphysis. Then, following its course in the direction of the neck of the bladder, presses the urethra against the bone and excercises a slight vibrating pressure with the finger. This is repeated five or six times. In the meanwhile the fingers of the left hand press externally in the direction of the internal finger and simultaneously execute this vibratory pressure. This act, which, as has been said, is reqeated five or six times, is designated by Csillag as pressure of the vesical sphincter. That the bladder should be emptied previous to this part of the treatment is obvious.

The patient is kept in the same position, and the physician, holding his hand parallel with the axis of the body, presses deeply into the pelvis with the finger-tips, and again executes a vibratory pressure. This is repeated twice or thrice, and is called by Brandt a pressure of the hypogastric plexus.

The patient is laid upon the back, with the limbs. outstretched and laying parallel to each other. The physician then grasps the patient by the ankles and pulls them apart, encouraging the patient, meanwhile, to endeavor to resist his movements. the patient brings his legs together, the physician resisting the movement.

Now

The patient is again placed in the lithotomy position, but with knees together. The physician stands at the side of the patient and presses the knees apart, the patient meanwhile offering resistance. Then the patient brings his knees together, while the physician offers resistance. By means of these last two exercises, the adductors and abductors of the thigh and the recti-abdominalis muscles are brought into play, but similtaneously also the muscles of the floor of the pelvis are exercised. The anal sphincter contracts

forcibly, and with it the vestical sphincter, owing to the synergism of the two muscles.

The patient stands, bending slightly forward, and resting his hands against a table crosses his legs, and then, upon command of the physician, contracts the anal sphincter as though he were endeavoring to restrain a movement of the bowels. This exercise, which can be intrusted to the care of the parents of the child, should be repeated four or five times in succession, and repeated hourly. It tends to greatly strengthen both the anal and vesical sphincters. The physician then stands to the left of the patient, and with the tightly closed fist strikes the sacrum. The movement of striking should proceed from the wrist only. The striking of the sacrum slightly excites the nerves leading from the spinal column to the organs in question.

Csillag's method is based upon sound physiological and hygenic principles, and is well deserving of thorough trial.--Medical and Surgical Reporter.

A SUCCESSFUL CASE OF CESAREAN SECTION.-Tho

mas Medical Record) records a case performed by him in the Nursery and Child's Hospital, New York, February 28, of this year. The patient was an English dwarf, 20 years old, 4 feet 5 inches in height, I-para, pregnant 834 months. A careful measurement of her pelvis gave the following diameters: Distance between antero-superior spines of ilia, 8 inches; greatest divergence of iliac crests, 10% inches; internal conjugate diameter of superior strait, 25 inches; spinal column straight; extremities of long bones large. The child was vigorous and apparently of large size. After determining upon the operation of Cæsarean section, preparations were made and the advent of labor pains was waited for.

The operation was performed five weeks later. The os was as large as a silver dollar, and the contractions were strong and decided, occurring every eight or ten minutes. The steps of the operation were as follows: A large incision was made through the peritoneum, extending from two inches above the umbilicus nearly to the symphysis pubis; three silk sutures were introduced at upper extremity of incision and left untied. The uterus was lifted out of the abdominal cavity and held by an assistant. The abdominal walls were partially closed by tying the three sutures, and a piece of elastic tubing was passed around the cervix, a single knot made in it, but no constriction. The lower angle of the wound and point of exit of the uterus were protected by towels and a sponge. A small opening was made in the uterus with a bistoury, and wound enlarged with scissors. The feet were seized, child extracted and cord secured and severed. Placenta was detached without effort. On account of a slight hæmorrhage the cervical ligature was tightened. The uterus was cleaned with a sponge and the cavity dusted with iodoform. The uterine incision was closed with deep silk sutures, three to the inch, involving the uterine muscular tissue down to the mucosa, and with intervening superficial sutures, one to each interspace. The uterus was then returned to the abdomen, and abdominal cavity closed with usual precaution, using silkworm sutures. Fluid extract of ergot was administered hypodermically. The child was a large, vigorous male, weighing 10 pounds 15 ounces.

Thomas concludes with the statement, that in view of the recent results obtained from the operation of Cæsarean section in his hands, he should not feel war

ranted in performing lapara-elytrotomy. - Univ. Med. Magazine.

Toxicology.

EFFECTS OF AN OVERDOSE OF CODEINE. An overdose of codeine is not a common occurrence, and therefore Dr. Mettenheimer, who has met with such a case, has reported it. An elderly lady consulted him for a slight catarrhal, nonfebrile affection which, however, gave rise to a troublesome spasmodic form of cough. For this he prescribed 0.03 gramme (about half a grain) of phosphate of codeine, in the form of a pill, to be taken every three hours. The patient, however, swallowed four of these pills, or about a grain and a half of the codeine salt, at once. Shortly afterward she vomited twice and suffered from abdominal pain. There was, too, suppression of urine and she felt very ill, being sleepy but unable to go to sleep. The next day she was still drowsy and had no appetite but there was no return of the sickness. She was then seen by Dr. Mettenheimer, who found the pu

pils contracted, the pulse hard and quick, and the respiration accelerated. The cough had entirely disloss of appetite, and the abdominal pain persisted for appeared. The contracted state of the pupils, the several days. No urine was passed until thirty-six hours after the pills were taken. On the third day the drowsiness had passed away. The cough did not return for a week and when it did it was comparatively slight. This case seems to show that codeine in large doses has a very similar effect to opium and that it may prove a most efficient remedy for some kinds of cough. As the tongue remained clean it would appear that the vomiting was due to cerebral, rather than to gastric irritation. —Lancet.

TREATMENT OF POISONING BY COCAINE.-Eloy, in the Revue et de Clinque et de Therapeutique, for December 30, 1892, gives the following directions for the treatment of acute poisoning by cocaine. The patient is to be placed in a horizontal position in order to prevent syncope, and his face is to be bathed with cold water. If convulsions come on, cold should be applied to him. If asphyxia is present, flagellation, massage, and artificial respiration are to be resorted to, and if the respiration depends upon the tetanic contraction of the respiratory muscles inhalations of chloroform are to be employed. For the intense pallor it is well to give inhalations of nitrite of amyl, which will provoke vaso-motor dilatation and so diminish arterial pressure in the large vessels by increasing the peripheral circulation. Should these means prove insufficient, it may be well to administer to the patient strong coffee or caffeine, or, if swallowing is impossible, hypodermic injections of ether may be used. In other words, the entire object of the treatment is to moderate the reflex excitability of the nervous system, to sustain the heart, and to reëstablish the equilibrium of the circulation. Therefore, the treatment of acute cocainism is to be particularly directed to the arterial system.-Therapeutic Gazette.

HÆMATURIA AND GARDEN RHUBARB.-Several correspondents of the Lancet have recently reported some unusual urinary troubles consequent upon eating ordinary rhubarb, or pie-plant, as it is occasionally called. The symptoms are frequency of micturition, hæmaturia, dysuria, and lumbar pains. The

effect of the rhubarb seems dependent upon the use of hard water for drinking purposes, the oxalic acid of the rhubarb combining with the calcium in the water and forming numerous small crystals of oxalate of calcium that, it is suggested, lacerate the uriniferous tubules in passing through them. Similar consequences have been noted after eating gooseberries and acid apples; and an explanation of obscure urinary troubles in localities where hard water is used is thus afforded.-Med. Bulletin.

DEATH FROM THE A. C. E. MIXTURE.-R. H. Gilpin, L. R. C. P., reports in the London Lancet the death of a woman of thirty-five to whom he was administering the A. C. E. mixture. Three months previously the patient had been anæsthetized for twenty minutes or more by the use of the same drug and developed nothing unusual. Injections of brandy and ether and the performance of artificial respiration did no good. At the autopsy it was found that the lungs were hypostatically congested with a few scattered old adhesions. The pericardium was markedly adherent, especially in front. The heart was of average size, slightly dilated; the muscular walls of the left ventricle were flabby; the valves were normal. Liver and kidneys seemed healthy. It was learned that the woman was a chronic alcoholic and had recently recovered from the effects of drink. It is suggested that this combined with the condition of the heart and lungs accounted for her death.

A CASE OF ACETANILIDE POISONING.-I was called hurriedly to see a man twenty-five years old who had been suffering with an intense headache for six hours. He had taken eight grains of acetanilide every hour for five hours, and his head continued to ache worse. His lips were blue, his finger nails were intensely cyanotic, extremities cold. I immediately placed his feet in hot water, and gave him two ounces of whiskey every hour for six hours. His head grew better and in a few hours was relieved. Strange to say, he was a man not accustomed to drink, and yet he did not become the least intoxicated. I have noticed several cases of poisoning from acetanilide recently. I think the drug in some cases in small doses acts well, but there seems to be a prevailing tendency among the laity and some physicians to use and prescribe this drug with no discrimination whatever. - Charlotte Med. Journal.

IODOFORM DERMATITIS.—A well marked case of this affection is recorded by Legiehn. The patient was a man suffering from purulent catarrh of the right middle ear, for which syringing with warm water and insufflations of idoform were prescribed. The discharge, which had lasted five weeks, ceased in three days, and the hearing power considerably improved. In order to be on the safe side, the patient continued to use the iodoform, until one evening he experienced immediately after an insufflation a feeling of warmth in the ear, and in the morning found to his astonishment his face swollen. The right ear and right half of the face and neck were reddened, much swollen and oedematous; and the cheek was covered with eczematous bullæ. There was moderate itching and marked feeling of heat complained of in the inflamed parts; and there being a possibility that the iodoform had something to do with it, the powder was discontinued, and ichthyol ointment used, under which the eczema rapidly healed. Two weeks after, the patient

noticed a return of the otorrhoea, and although convinced that the insufflation of iodoform was the cause of the previous swelling of the face, he again employed it, hoping to receive marked improvement of the discharge. About an hour after, he perceived a hot sensation in the outer ear; and in the course of the night, the ear and face had assumed the same appearance as before. The former treatment sufficed to make it disappear as rapidly as before. Legiehn thinks there cannot be the least doubt that the dermatitis depended upon the iodoform, as on the first examination there was nothing in the ear passage that could possibly cause it, and its recurrence on the second occasion confirmed this fully.-Practitioner (Therap. Monatshefte.)

2d Portion.--Bulbar, paralysis of the extremities. 3d Portion. Intracranial, injury to the neighboring nerves.

4th Portion.--Intercranial, gustation of the anterior part of the tongue abolished. Hyperæsthesia of audition.

5th Portion.--Extracranial, paralysis of the facial muscles not of the palate.-Med. and Surg. Reporter.

CEREBRAL LOCALIZATIONS.-A. Brunati (Archivio Italiano XXVII. fasc. 3 and 4, 1891) reports a case which is of interest in a certain point of view. The subject was a young man twenty-one years of age, who had had, when three or four years old, a fall injuring the parietal region of the left side, and for five years he had been considered insane though previously he had been of weak mind and neurotic disposition. He was of small size and unsymmetrical and deformed in the lower limbs. There was no paralysis nor sensory disturbance, and there had been no convulsions. The patient died of ileo-typhus, and the section showed adhesions of the scalp to the skull at the point of injury, also of the dura to the calvarium and to the cortex below, and an old lesion involving the two ascending convolutions of the left side with extensive destruction of the gray matter of the cortex, also involving the frontal and parietal convolutions. Another case is reported in the same number of the Archivio Italiano by Dr. G. Antonini, which has a similar interest in some respects. The patient had suffered with convulsive attacks which

had left him with paralysis of the right arm and facial and lingual hemiparesis of the right side with amnesic aphasia. The autopsy revealed diffuse general endoarteritis obliterans, atrophy of the convolutions insula with softening of the same which also involved the first and second temporal convolution and extended inward deeply in the centrum ovale to the lenticular nucleus and external capsule. Posteriorly it reached the external occipital convolution. On the external surface of the brain the softening was apparent at the foot of the third frontal, the two ascending and the posterior portion of the inferior parietal convolutions. The membranes were adherent in various portions of the cortex. The most interest here attaches, it seems to us, to the absence of sensory aphasia depending on the lesions of the temporal convolutions, which absence is not to be explained by any exceptional functioning of the corresponding parts of the intact right hemisphere, as the patient was not left-handed. There was apparently no evidence of verbal deafness.--Med. and Surg. Reporter.

Pediatrics.

AN INTERESTING CASE OF TOO EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS IN A CHILD.-At a meeting of the Paris Academy of Medicine, M. Crivelli (Wiener Klin. Wochenscrift, July 24, 1890,) showed the photograph of an eighteen-months' -old girl whose genital organs presented a degree of development such as is usually found at the age of eighteen. The mammæ and the nipples were also well developed; the mons veneris covered with lanugo, the clitoris being also very large. By investigation, Crivelli found out that the child was addicted to masturbation. The menses had appeared regularly since three months, and lasted from three to four days. Before the appearance of the menses the child feels sick for about twenty-four hours.

TREATMENT OF CONVULSIONS.-Dr. Blacklock, London Lancet, describes his treatment of convulsions in children as follows:

When summoned to one of these cases, I take with me a 11⁄2-oz. bottle containing sixty grains of chloral hydrate dissolved in water, and a small glass male syringe, which holds two drachms; I prefer that the nozzle of this shall have been shortened and rounded by heating in the gas or spirit lamp. As the child lies on the nurse's lap, it is turned on one side, the syringe introduced into the rectum, and one, two or three drachms of solution injected, according to age. A child between one and two years old will take one drachm, one three or four years old will take two drachms. When withdrawing the syringe, press the buttocks firmly together to prevent the solution escaping, and keep up this pressure for about five or seven minutes, by which time the convulsions will have greatly moderated-they generally cease altogether within ten minutes. I find that a solution of this strength causes no irritation. I have tried the same hypodermically, but with less success, and parents object to the repeated punctures which are necessary for injecting the required quantity. In no case has any evil result happened in my experience.

A PRECOCIOUS DEVELOPMENT.-The following is contributed to the N. Y. Med. Journal by Dr. W. R. Howard:

On the 16th of April, 1891, Mr. H., of Zephyr,

Brown county, Texas, brought his son to my office by request. The boy was born on October 20, 1887, and was at this time three years and a half of age. He was born in Mills county, Texas, and his age is sworn to before the county clerk at Goldthwaite, the county

seat.

He is three feet ten inches in height; waist measure, twenty-eight inches and a half; circumference of head, twenty-one inches and a half; neck, twelve inches; arms over biceps, ten inches; calf of leg, eleven inches and a half; weight, sixty-six pounds. Hair on his head very thick and dark, eyebrows heavy; downy moustache; hairs under arms, about the nipples, and on the lower half of the abdomen; heavy growth of hair on the pubes; penis and testicles those of an adult, well developed. Glans penis naked, and during erection the penis is four inches and a half in length and four inches and a half in circumference.

His body and limbs are well developed; pulse rate, 84; respiration, 18; respiratory and circulatory organs, normal. He has a deep bass voice; face, teeth, and mental development those of a child.

Chemistry.

A NEW SOLVENT OF CAMPHOR.-From the frequency with which the indications for the subcutaneous injections are met with it is evident that a good and reliable solvent for this substance is a great desider

atum.

Ethereal solutions rapidly evaporate and the camphor becomes precipitated, so that injections of such solutions produce severe pain or even absces. Solutions of camphor in oil are difficult to employ, besides possessing the disadvantage of the liability of becoming rancid.

In the Zeitschrift für Thérapie for September 1, 1891, Dr. Karl Rosner recommends in the highest terms a solution of camphor in liquid paraffin, which when slightly warmed, forms a perfectly clear and limpid solution. He states that he has kept this solution for more than five years without its properties becoming changed.-Med. and Surg. Reporter.

Hygiene.

RELATION OF DRINKING WATER TO DISEASE.-At the Washington meeting of the Association of American Physicians, Dr. H. P. Walcott read a paper on this subject, in which he said that a method for determining the safety of drinking waters had been lately somewhat practiced in this country and had attracted much attention. It consisted in the injection into the abdominal cavity of the rat of a minute portion of the water to be tested, previously mixed with a sterilized bouillon, and kept in a thermostat at the temperature of the body for twenty-four hours. If the animal survived the introduction of the fluid, the water was pronounced safe; if the animal died, the water was rejected. It was found that water polluted by the excreta of typhoid fever patients was fatal to the animal, as also were some waters known to be safely used by large communities, but contaminated by bacterium colli commune, and waters to which had been added cultures of the bacterium. This was a bacterium found in all our sewage polluted streams,