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nate day until some effect is evident. Those who employ this method of dosage soon learn that comparatively feeble doses often suffice to restore normal equilibrium and the control of the nerve centers, and apparently serious pertubations subside.

Brucine has been insufficiently studied. Murrell says it is merely "a little strychnine," and codeine likewise "a little morphine," but neither assertion is correct. Codeine exercises a control over the vagus superior to that of morphine, and is consequently a better remedy against cough or pain and excited peristalsis in the stomach and bowels. Brucine differs from strychnine principally so far as is known, by the possession of very decided local anesthetic powers. This renders the milder alkaloid preferable whenever there is debility with irritation or erethism in the gastro-intestinal tract.

If strychnine seems to be indicated, but the stomach resents it, substitute brucine.

The writer has had a series of cases in which the local application of cocaine solutions as local anesthetics was followed by a serious failure of the circulation, threatening collapse. In these, when another application was required, brucine was added to the cocaine solution sufficient to make the dose of brucine injected from 1-40 to 1-20 grain. In every instance the anesthetic effect was enhanced and the depression did not follow.

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Sometimes the nerves become tomed to the stimulus of strychnine, so that they no longer respond to it, as in the case of old paralytics. If we change to another of the strychnine group we may find that a gratifying response will follow. I have found this to be the case when bruor thebaine was substituted, and I believe that experience along this line with the other members of the strychnine group would afford valuable results.

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Bricheteau, commencing with doses, gradually increased until he reached the huge dose of three grains a day. Evidently the brucine could not have been of the quality supplied by American pharmaceutic chemists. I have never had occasion to exceed 1-3 grain in twenty-four hours, and rarely reached one-half this

dose.

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TREATMENT OF TONSILLITIS.

Editor Medical Summary:

I have read Dr. Black's article in THE SUMMARY for September, 1908, and my appreciation of the results of his treatment for tonsillitis prompted me to add my mite also. The following method was original with my late Professor, Dr. John Croning, of Buffalo, N. Y. The method is as follows: The patient should be given a mustard foot-bath and ten or fifteen grains of Dover's powder at bed-time. Then either sodium bicarb. or sodium salicylate should be ordered to be rubbed over the inflamed tonsils. Personally, I prefer the salicylate. The patient should be instructed to moisten his index finger and then to immerse it in the sodium salt. Then with the right index finger to rub the left tonsil, and with the left finger to rub the right tonsil. This process of rubbing the tonsils should be repeated once every two or three hours. The bowels should be looked after by giving calomel and saline purgatives.

I have practiced medicine for thirteen years, and have never known this method of treatment to fail to cure the patient in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

GEORGE E. MOUR, M. D. Bartroun (Mt. Lebanon), Syria.

HERNIA CURED BY ELECTRICITY.

Editor Medical Summary:

There occurs almost daily in the life of every practitioner of medicine who enjoys a large practice, instances of cures out of the ordinary, and I believe that if more attention was given to reporting such instances to some wide-awake medical journal when our notice was called to them, that we would make far greater strides in reducing the practice of medicine to a fixed science. The case I am about to report I do not say that the cure could be reproduced on some other similar case, but I do know that it was affected in this instance.

About sixteen months ago Mr. J. B., who has been a sufferer for over twentyfive years with a right inguinal hernia caused by an old-fashioned hay-rake striking him in the groin while raking hay

when a boy, and for which he was compelled to wear a well-fitting truss which, at times, was hard for him to procure on account of the opening gradually becoming larger and his truss wearing out, and thus compelling him to have a new one adjusted.

I was cognizant of the fact that he was ruptured when he came to me for treatment of a pain in the lumbar region, which he claimed to have been a constant sufferer for more than two years, during which time he had resided at a considerable distance from me, and is, at the present time. I had forgotten about his rupture and that he wore a steel spring truss. I placed him upon the platform of the static machine, connected up the platform with the negative side of the machine, grounded the positive side and, using the sharp point electrode from the positive side, I administered about fifteen minutes' duration of severe sparks to his lumbar region and groin, gave him an 8-ounce vial of elixir fringe tree comp. to take in teaspoonful doses after meals, when he departed for his home and was not seen or heard from by me until to-day, and to my great surprise was informed that my treatment, above referred to, cured both his back and rupture. He was a very gritty fellow and made no complaint, and I gave him a terrible scorching with the electricity; so much so, that he was compelled to remove his truss after leaving my office, and he has never worn his truss a single hour since, and there remains no doubt of this treatment affecting a permanent cure in this man's rupture. H. J. CHAPMAN, M. D.

Speed, Kansas.

THERAPEUTIC NOTES.

Editor Medical Summary:

The winter ailments of children constitute a goodly portion of the physician's business at this season of the year. Pneumonia in children less than six months' old may always be looked upon with a good deal of gravity. Medication in children of this age must be carefully guarded. Small doses of calomel are useful throughout the illness, supplemented by castor oil to effect thorough elimination. Free catharsis must be employed, as the con

stant swallowing of mucus coats the stomach over, and more or less re-absorption occurs, with gastric disorders. Atropine

and veratrine may be given to advantage provided they are carefully watched. Dover's Powder is an old, but useful, sedative. Hydrotherapy is the safest antipyretic. If there are symptoms of convulsions the mustard bath or warm pack are our most useful expedients.

In older children-from one to five, or older-stronger medication may be ememployed. Aconitine and veratrine are safe remedies and dependable ones. Calomel and oil are always indicative. I do not believe strychnine is a remedy for acute febrile conditions when the heart is already working overtime. The heart needs slowing down rather than whipping up. Strychnine is a remedy for the nonfebrile, atonic condition of convalescence. Nourishment is very important. The nearer it approaches a liquid form the better. Mustard plasters and warm camphorated oil are better local medicaments than onions, mush, and other sloppy applications. Ipecac and squills are good expectorants, but should not be pushed to the point of producing gastric irritation. During convalescence the arsenate and iodide of iron are useful.

Croup always makes the doctor hustle, no matter how dark or cold the night. Calcidin is now quite generally used. It is a dependable remedy, and when it is used it is seldom necessary to produce emesis. Calomel greatly aids it and helps to prevent recurrent attacks. Cloths should be wrung out of water to which ammonia has been added, and these applied to the throat and chest.

Rheumatism is another seasonable ailment. In acute attacks salicylate of soda and salithia are good remedies. Small doses of calomel, followed by salines, are indicated. Inflamed or painful joints should have oil of wintergreen applied, and then swathed in cotton or wool. So far as possible the patient should keep a quiet, recumbent position, for by so doing there is a great tendency to obviate cardiac complications. The patient should take water abundantly, and if the kidneys do not excrete freely, a citrate or acetate of potassium preparation will be serviceable. W. T. MARRS, M. D. Peoria Heights, Ills.

WHAT A HAIR WILL DO.

Editor Medical Summary:

John B., age 40 years, gave me the following history: For two months he has been suffering a great deal from neuralgia -lateral surface of head-extending over cervical region, axilla, and arm. Following this he noticed swelling over cervical region of neck and under his arm. In this condition he came to me for relief.

Examination of Case.-The lymphatic glands, beginning from under lobule of ear, extending along cervical region of neck to axilla, were enlarged. Under lobule of ear and axilla these glands seemed to be broken down, so I made an incision in axillary region, but found no pus. I dressed the wound and placed him on internal treatment. The glandular swelling left the axilla, but remained along the cervical region, increasing in inflammation. I made an incision at angle of jaw along the cervical line, and found a hair that had penetrated through the lymphatic gland and had coiled itself in the shape of a washer. I expect the hair was eight inches long.

At the location where the hair was removed I found a small amount of pus. In a week these wounds were healed and patient had no more trouble.

I report this case as it is a very rare one, and might be interesting to the readers while looking the journal over.

I sent this hair, which is in a coil, to the editor.

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Editor Medical Summary:

The usual method recommended to remove foreign bodies from the nostrils of children by closing the child's mouth and inserting a tube in the open nostril and the giving of a sudden, hard blow through the tube by the operator. This method works fairly well, but of late years I have used the Politzer bag with good results, the foreign substance generally coming out with force sufficient to send it across the room.

The following wrinkle is handy and avoids mistakes in giving medicines when there are several patients in the same family, or if patients take medicines from several glasses. This is done by sticking an ordinary gummed label on each glass, writing name of patient, the dose and the hours for taking the medicine. Apropos of cotton jackets, etc., for pneumonia, etc. In place of the cotton-wool I use ordinary sheet wadding, such as is sold in every drygoods store, using double thickness and cutting two slits for arms, pining over shoulders and on side.

Roxbury, Conn.

LOUIS J. PONS, M. D.

The public school must teach the science of hygiene. It is not its business to reject children for defects and deprive them of school benefits by returning them to the parents or guardians.

DR. BYRON ROBINSON.

Salicin, 5 grains every three hours, is a most valuable remedy in acute rheumatism and in all muscular pains.

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All Books reviewed in this department, will be sent postpaid by the publisher of the Summary upon receipt of the price quoted.

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THE ARTERIES OF THE GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT. With Inosculation Circle, Anatomy and Physiology with Application. in Treatment. By Byron Robinson, B. S., M. D., Professor of Gynecology and Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera in Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery (Medical Department of Valparaiso University); Consulting Surgeon, Mary Thompson Hospital for Women and Children. Chicago Medical Book Co., Publishers, Chicago, Ill., 1908. Price, $1.50.

As is indicated in the title of this monograph, it deals with the arterial supply of the digestive tract. This distinguished author, in a most thorough, painstaking manner, and in extraordinary detail, describes the arteries here concerned, and the bearing of their course and distribution upon the functionating of the viscera. They supply under both, physiologic and pathologic conditions. The author states that one of the chiefly desired objects of the book is to present the unlimited utility of the "inosculation circle" in the cure and prophylaxis of disease.

. Dr. Robinson is an anatomist of wellknown ability. His special work is in the intestinal, urinary and genital tract, where he has reduced physiology to elementary principles, and none other has so clearly recognized or so consistently taught the functional significance of his findings. The "circles," which are so lucidly described in the text, are also admirably well presented in illustrations. A number of articles from the pen of this indefatigable worker or delver in research work, have appeared in the columns of THE SUMMARY. His con

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Prof. Edmund von Neusser, M. D., Professor of the Second Medical Clinic, Vienna, etc. Authorized English Translation by Andrew MacFarlane, M. D., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Physical Diagnosis, Albany Medical College, etc. Part II. Bradycardia and Tachycardia. E. B. Treat & Company, Publishers, New York. Price, Cloth, $1.25.

The heart being the vital center of the organized body of man, or the fons et origo of circulation, as it were, must be seriously considered in practically every disease, and its condition is very often the most reliable indicator of the result and best indicates the progress of the disease or affection. All the factors involved in the decrease and increase of the heart's action have been brought together in a most admirable manner, and the author emphasizes the fact that the study of the cardiac phases is an important part of the work of every practitioner. The value of the study of symptoms, as observed at the bedside of the patient, is particularly emphasized throughout this series of monographs, and hence their worth for careful

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The subject of this small volume interests all of us to a certain degree, at any rate, and as "Bacterial Food Poisoning," in the original has, within a year, become favorably known as one of the best presentations of the subject, and as in the translation

the American editor has incorporated descriptions of a number of recent outbreaks of food poisoning, elaborating upon the prophylaxis applicable to American conditions, and also going more fully into detail on the subject of treatment, slightly re-arranged the material, an index added to facilitate reference, this, with the other changes and additions, greatly enhances the value of the volume.

CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF DISORDERS OF THE BLADDER WITH TECHNIQUE OF CYSTOSCOPY. By Follen Cabot, M. D., Professor Genito-Urinary Dis

eases, Post-Graduate Medical School; Attending Genito-Urinary Surgeon, PostGraduate and City Hospitals, New York. 225 Pages. 41 Illustrations, I Colored Plate. E. B. Treat & Co., Publishers, 241-243 West Twenty-third St., New York. 1909. Price, Cloth, $2.00.

Between the covers of this small volume, containing some two hundred pages, we find much of interest to the general practioner on the subject treated. In fact, it would be a rather difficult matter to name another book, treating the same subject, with a similar amount of matter, that would present anything like the practical knowledge to be gained from the book under consideration. The author, a thoroughly practical physician with vast clinical experience, and a specialist on genitourinary diseases, has fulfilled every promise and intention of this work in making it a guide for the general practitioner, giving practical methods for the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the urinary bladder. While the technique of cystoscopy has been beyond the reach of the general practitioner in the past, recent improvements and reduction in cost of the instruments for the purpose have now brought it within the reach of all. We believe that this little volume will be quite popular in a very short time, as it well deserves to be, and all will profit by its careful perusal undoubtedly.

The best way to prepare a fly blister is to spread the ceratum cantharidis upon a piece of zinc adhesive plaster, and the free margin of the plaster will permit its attachment to the surface of the body.

Subjective pain in reno-ureteral tuberculosis may refer to the healthy or diseased organ-it may be reflex and is uncertain as to locating the disease.-BYRON ROBINSON.

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