permanently slow pulse, and 4 of tables. His observations, which extend over a year, lead him to the conclusion that neurasthenia can be cured more rapidly and thoroughly by this treatment than by any other, and that the remedy also exerts a favorable effect in other nervous affections.- Wein. Med. Presse, No. 11, 1892.

The Treatment of Scrofula.-Dr. S. Calandrucci, on the ground of his statistical studies, has arrived at the conclusion that scrofula is rare in malarial regions. The few persons who become scrofulous in malarious regions are refractory toward malaria. The author treated a number of cases of scrofula who improved considerably after an attack of malaria. These conditions led him to attempt the treatment of scrofula by subcutaneous injections of malaria blood. He experimented on persons suffering from slight scrofulous affections, injecting 1 to 1 grms. of fresh blood derived from otherwise healthy malarious patients under the skin of the forearm. After six, ten or fourteen days the injected persons developed malaria, but the scrofulous affections after becoming worse for a brief period, disappeared completely after the sixth or eighth attack of the fever. The malaria was then cured with quinine. In four cases in which this treatment was employed the cure of the scrofula appears to be permanent The author thinks that injections of malarial blood diluted with water, in which the parasites are dead, may be of use in cases of slight scrofulosis. This view was confirmed by two cases in which the disease was cured in this manner without the production of malaria.— Wein. Med. Presse, No. 9, 1892.

THE HYGIENIC VALUE OF HYDROTHERAPY IN CHILDHOOD.

Dr. J. Matas (La Cronica Medica) presents the following aphorisms on this subject :

1. It is certain that in the past the employment of

cold baths for children was recommended more frequently than at the present time.

2. The cold bath may be regarded as a gymnastic measure, inasmuch as it strengthens the body and favors transpiration and secretion, and when carefully employed it is capable of preventing many diseases. 3. Hydrotherapy is preferred by children to many other hygienic measures.

matism. and all diseases resulting from exposure to cold.

8. The best hydriatic measures are general sponge baths, and the various forms of the douche, of which the former are preferable in spring and the latter at other times of the year. In cases of very susceptible children tepid baths should be first used, these being gradually reduced to 13° or 14°.

9. Children of any age may be thus treated, and the more general use of hydrotherapy will certainly reduce the mortality.

10. Hydriatic procedures must be of short duration, not exceeding a period of one minute.

11. Friction, massage, hydrotherapy, sun-baths and gymnastics represent the best means of invigorating a weak or lymphatic constitution.

12. The judicious employment of baths in childhood is a necessary adjunct in any properly directed system of education.-Deutsche Medizinal Zeitung.

The Treatment of Diabetes.--In a paper read before the Balneological Society, March 11, 1892, Dr. J. Mayer protested against any sharp differentiation between gly cosuria and diabetes. In the treatment dietetic regulations are of chief importance, but it must be remembered that an abundant or exclusive meat diet is attended with dangers. The author rejects Cantani's scheme of diet and advises that on the average a daily ration of not over 100-120 grammes of albumen be given. The fats, especially butter, should be administered in amounts of 150-200 grammes per day; the carbo-hydrates in quantities of 80-100 grammes distributed in two rations according to the degree of progress of the disease. He regards milk as an important nutriment, which in some complications, such as albuminuria, is indispensable. Mineral waters such as Carlsbad, Nenahr, Vichy, Vals, Tarasp are of value as enabling the system to tolerate large quantities of carbo-hydrates. To

strengthen the entire organism hydrotherapy is indicated in some cases; gymnastic exercises are also serviceable, but should only be selected in suitable disease with diabetes.- Wien. Med. Presse, No. 13, forms owing to the frequent complication of cardiac

1892.

4. It hardens them against exposure to cold, and

number of diseases.

5. In healthy persons cold baths are not attended with ill effects.

6. Hydrotherapy is a powerful tonic procedure, and an energetic alterative in chronic diseases of children.

7. It is an excellent preventive of caarrhs, rheu

that she refused to take food and hence suffered a mark ed loss of weight and strength. Under the use of kefir, which was administered every three hours, the vomiting at once ceased, the pains disappeared, and the bodily weight was restored. Wien. Medizin, Presse, No. 13, 1892.

The Medical Calendar.

PUBLISHER'S MISCELLANY.

THE CIVILIZED METHOD OF INFANT
FEEDING.

Dr. E. E. Turney, of St. Louis, says:

The principal thing demanded in feeding is cleanliness. The following general rules should be followed, except when extraordinary conditions warrant an intelligent physician in changing them.

Never allow an infant to partake of either water or food that is not sterilized.

Never allow the use of bottle, cup, spoon, nipple or any other utensil, except it be absolutely clean, and therefore never allow of its second use without washing in a hot solution of soda or borax.

ferment, besides interfering with the free action of a natural appetite in determining the proper proportions between food and drink-a proportion which varies according to constantly varying conditions. It also serves to convince that bulk of food, independent of its nutritive qualities, is a mechanical adjunct essential to the proper distention of the alimentary canal and the distribution of material to the numerous glands that cover its surface.-The Med. Fortnightly.

Constipation.-The most obstinate cases of constipation, where no real disease of the abdominal organ exists, can be overcome in time by purely hygienic means. The first essential is to properly regulate the diet. All starchy foods, except bread, should be excluded from it, and what bread is eaten should be of the coarser kinds. If fine white bread is insisted upon, it should be stale and dry toasted.

As a drink, give clear boiled water out of a nursing bottle ten to thirty minutes before feeding, and allow the child to drink without stint.

Never fail to offer drink whenever the child is uneasy.

Concerning the times of food-taking, its frequency and its relation to bathing or other exercise, the rule should be that an hour and a half or two hours elapse after giving an infant food, before giving a bath or allowing any unnecessary exercise; and not less than two hours before the giving of more food. Food may be given soon after a bath or other exercise; and a drink of water may be given at any time, since exercise immediately after drinking seems rather helpful than harmful. Quiet, and if possible, sleep should always follow eating; the prone position in sleeping is undoubtedly the best one, for the reason that the prone position insures a warm abdomen and that the spinal nerves shall be free from pressure and consequent irritation, which by relax action upon the sympathetic so often leads to convulsion.

As there is scarcely anything in the hygiene of infant or adult life that does not affect, either directly or indirectly, the functions of digestion, it is manifest that attention to the subject of feeding, without regard to other important necessities, will not accomplish the happy results that are insured by following all branches of the fundamental law which demands that the infant shall be guarded in rest and cleanli

ness.

The advice to feed an infant with food as hearty or more so than undiluted milk from a cow or goat, is perhaps somewhat unusual; but a moment's attention serves to convince that a more dilute food which delays digestion until the surplus fluid has been absorbed, surely increases its unavoidable tendency to

erally known that all malt liquors favor constipation. The same can be said of wines, and particularly those that are sweet.

In tea, if very strong and steeped too long, astringent properties become more pronounced, and intestinal movement is more or less obstructed by it. Coffee, with most people, favors constipation.

Salt is an absolute essential in the diet of man. It

promotes health in various ways. Those who use salt unusually freely almost always suffer more or less from constipation. And at times this becomes very intractable, even an obstinate stoppage of the bowels. So where this fault exists, a more reasonable use of this condiment is imperative.

To drink large quantities of water daily should be the rule with those who suffer from constipation. Each day the system needs at least two quarts of water, as about that quantity is used up in or thrown out of it every twenty-four hours. Fruits and vegetable foods contain much water; and in tea, coffee, soups, etc., considerable is taken habitually.

It is a good plan to drink one or two glasses of water from half an hour to an hour before eating breakfast; and it may be either hot or cold as preferred. Whichever is used, the water should be slowly sipped. To deluge the stomach with cold water would be to invite dyspeptic troubles.

People who live in towns and cities, and are dependent upon a general water supply, should remember that there is danger in lead pipes, and water which has stood in them should not be used for drinking purposes. In most houses, in order to free the pipes, the water would need to run nearly twenty minutes at the kitchen faucet. It would be well for those who drink before breakfast to draw the water before going to bed and keep it over night.

Upon very many people milk in any considerable

quantity has a constipating effect. Such effect is lessened, if not wholly obviated, when lime water is freely added to it, say, in the proportion of one part to three. Milk, on skimming, loses in a great measure, if not entirely, this objection to it. Some who have suffered from obstinate constipation have found a purely skim milk diet to have a curative effect upon them. Fruits hold the first place in the dietetic treat ment of constipation. An exception should be made of bananas, which are not generally well borne by those whose bowels are sluggish. About all other good ripe fruits act well, provided they are eaten before, or with, the first meal of the day. Acid fruits are the best. It is quite a common custom to have fruits on the dinner table. To eat them after indulging heartily in other foods is extremely unwise, and a bid for dyspepsia. Green vegetables are next in importance to fruits. All that are easily digestible have a good effect.

Persons suffering from the difficulty will do well to indulge often in salads, not only for the green vegetables of which they are made, but for the oil used in them, when they are easily digested. Eggs, when fresh and rightly cooked, favor intestinal activity.

Poorly nourished persons who suffer from constipation should have a generous diet. Those who can do so without discomfort should drink cream. The next best thing to do is to use fresh butter freely on their foods. Cocoa to a certain degree is nourishing, and, therefore, as a beverage is preferable to coffee or tea, provided, of course, it is well borne. Fresh meats and fish of the digestible sort can be eaten by those who suffer from constipation. Those which are salted or otherwise cured should not, as a rule, be indulged in. It should be borne in mind that a diet consisting largely of meat, but a few vegetables being eaten, has a tendency to keep up, if not excite, constipation.

In the treatment of this trouble exercise is imperative. Walking is good, for it stimulates the intestines. Some one has recommended the use of a

cannon ball in constipation, the one complaining lying on his back, and rolling the ball around on his abdomen. This also stimulates the intestines; but the same effect is produced by massage-rubbing, pinching and kneading the abdominal walls. Exercise, such as stooping, lifting, etc., which calls into play all muscles of the abdomen, has a remedial effect.

As for the use of medicines in constipation, there are only a few-perhaps two or three-as far as is known, which can safely and wisely be given habitually-Boston Journal of Health.

Artificial Eggs. The interesting intelligence has come to hand that the artificial manufacture of eggs is now an accomplished fact. Mr. James Storey, of Kansas City, has taken out a patent, and is said to be erecting a factory in view of doing a large busi

ness. Mr. Storey's ingredients are lime water, bullock's blood, milk, tallow, peas and a few other things, including some secret chemical preparations. The machinery for putting the egg together is very ingenious. First, the yolk is run into a mould to be properly shaped, and is then dumped into a second mould, which contains the right proportion of the preparation which stands for the white. This being a gelatinous substance, encases the yolk very rapidly. Then, by means of a special machine, the whole is covered with a shell, made of lime water and glue, which hardens after it is set. Mr. Storey guarantees his eggs to keep "new laid " for a month, and he says that he can turn them out at a cost which will allow of their being retailed at the rate of three cents per dozen.-Amer. Druggist.-Maryland Medi. Jour

nal.

DIET IN FEVER.

The question of diet in fever is a most important one, and demands careful attention at the hands of the practitioner. The various metabolic changes associated with a high or raised bodily temperature, and the physological effects which result therefrom naturally indicate that proper or improper dieting during the febrile state may be all powerful for good or emphatically harmful. A French contemporary, in discussing a new work by Mauquat, draws attention to some practical facts in connection with this subject, to which some reference may here be made. digestion is at a low ebb, owing to the diminished It is generally admitted that in the febrile state gastric secretion of gastric juice; moreover, there is a sensible deduction in one of its constituents, namely, hydrochloric acid. It is for this reason that patients suffering from fever find acid drinks so grateful to their palates. The proportion of pepsin is not reduced, but both the pancreatic and biliary secretions are much diminished, rendering the digestion of fatty matters almost impossible. It is pointed out that their digestion requiring a large amount of hydroeggs are very unsuitable for food in the febrile state, chloric acid, which is always deficient in these cases. Meat, of course, falls into the same category. regard to milk, its chief utility seems to be in the water and salts which it contains. If a little hydrochloric acid be added to it, its digestion would be almost assured. Farinaceous materials are digested by fever patient, and for this reason may be administered in suitable cases. Beef tea as ordinarily made does not contain much albumen, but is rich in salts, and is useful on these grounds. To generalize, however, beyond a certain point in regard to diet in fever would fail to be practically serviceable; each case, therefore, of fever must be treated, from a dietetic point of view, on its own merits, and the practitioner would do well to bear in mind that he

With

well

has to steer a middle course between over-feeding and under-feeding. A too low diet is obviously disadvantageous to the patient, while the other extreme is just as harmful.-Med. Press.

The Dangers of Tinned Food.-Yet another case of poisoning by tinned fish, this time from Birmingham. Eight persons belonging to the family of a laborer named Woodford partook of the contents of a sixpenny tin can of salmon purchased from the grocer's on the 12th ultimo. With the exception of two, all suffered from sickness, and one child, between seven and eight years of age, who scraped the tin to secure the adhering particles of fish, became so ill that peritonitis supervened with fatal effect. The jury, on Monday last, returned a verdict of death from eating tinned salmon not properly preserved. The frequency of such cases as the above leads us to wonder that something has not been done to acquaint those who use such goods as food with the fact that under certain conditions the contents of the can may become unfit for food and even poisonous, and the suggestion presents itself to us, Why not have printed on the usually highly colored label a statement of the symptoms of putrefaction, together with a word of caution to the user? A little carelessness on the part of the manufacturers in not properly sealing the tin before it leaves the works will often occasion serious results, and it is only just to expect those who place the goods on the market to do their utmost to prevent accidents and to warn the public of possible danger. -Hospital Gazette.

Dust and Its Dangers.-Dr. Wm. B. Canfield read an excellent paper before the Clinical Society, which he dwelt on dust as a causative factor in pulmonary disease in factories. The treatment is to take the patient from his dangerous occupation when improvement begins at once. Owners of large factories are adopting stringent prophylactic measures in order that they may not lose so many good workmen. The best methods are:

Common Mistakes of Doctors:

1. To promise a patient that you will cure him. 2. To promise to call at an exact specified time. 3. To promise that the malady will not return. 4. To promise that you can render more efficient service than your fellow-practitioner.

5. To promise that your pills are not bitter or the knife will not hurt.

6. To promise that the chill or fever will not rise so high to-morrow.

7. To allow your patient to dictate methods of treatment or remedies.

8. To allow yourself to be agitated by the criticisms or praises of the patient's friends.

9. To allow yourself to buoy up the patient when the case is hopeless.

10. To allow yourself to make a display of your in

struments.

11. To allow yourself to experiment or exhibit your skill uncalled for.

12. To allow yourself by look or action in a consultation to show that you are displeased, and that if you had been called first matters would have been different.

13. To allow yourself to indulge in intoxicating beverages.

14. To allow yourself to rely wholly upon the subjective symptoms for your diagnosis.-Pacific Record.

Hurry and Worry Kill Men.-"It was heart failure," say the doctors, and they say it so often that we put on our thinking caps. One business man after another falls out of sight, and when we ask what the trouble was the reply is sure to be "Heart failure!" A great deal of worry, a habit of constant hurry, keeping at high tension year after year-that's what's the matter. We sleep with one eye open, talk business in our dreams, swallow a whole meal-soup, entrees, roast and dessert-with one gulp, and then when we hover about the fifties, the heart gets dis

N. Y. Herald.

2. To prevent inhalation of dust by wearing respirators, etc., but these are uncomfortable and the men remove them at every opportunity.

3. The removal of dust as fast as it is produced by using fans and air shafts. This is by far the best plan.

Still further the following rules should be enforced. 1. Workmen should change their outer clothing after work.

Therapeutics of Chloranæmia.-The gastro-intestinal troubles of chloranæmia, as dilatation of the stomach, ancholorhydria or hypercholorhydria and habitual constipation, have long been recognized and treated more or less wisely, up to the present time, by means of general intestinal antisepsis and the systematic administration of purgatives. In Nothnagel's clinic in Vienna, Dr. Pick reports the best results are obtained by lavage of the stomach, fasting. In other cases where this procedure is re

be mixed with six of sugar of milk. This is then divided into twenty powders, of which one is taken three times a day.-Medical Record.

Contributious and Selections.

THE STATUS OF WATER IN MODERN

MEDICINE AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION AT SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. BY SIMON BARUCH, M.D., ATTENDING PHYSICIAN TO THE MANHATTAN GENERAL HOSPITAL, PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON TO THE NEW YORK JUVENILE ASYLUM AND CONSULTING PHYSICIAN TO THE MONTEFIORE HOME FOR CHRONIC INVALIDS, NEW YORK CITY.

Therapeutics is that branch of medicine which is concerned with the treatment of disease.

It includes all measures-hygienic, medicinal and non-medicinal.

It is really the most important branch to the patient, for to it he longingly turns for the cure of disease and relief from suffering.

The predominance of so-called natural methods of treatment is a characteristic of modern medicine; it is indeed the legitimate corollary to the recognition of the natural history of many maladies adopted by the modern physician. The adaptation of food and drink in certain diseases, the attention to climatic influences, occupations, methods of exercise and removal from injurious environments furnish to-day a wider field for study and practice than do the products of the chemical laboratory. But while the latter possess undeniable value, the modern physician regards them as subordinate to those agencies, which, like food, exercise, air and water, affect by a more physiological and less perturbing method those changes in the system which contribute to the restoration of health.

WATER.

The chief among these is water, a remedy which has again and again been brought forward only to be again forgotten. Unlike other powerful remediesblood-letting for instance-water has never entirely lost its hold upon the profession. In all epochs of medical history its value was recognized by a few justly eminent men.

A brief historical review may interest you in this connection. The religious usages of many primitive people involved free and repeated ablutions, as is witnessed in the prescription of baths in the Holy River Ganges, and the cleansing baths referred to in the Old Testament and the Talmud. The practical application of water as a remedy is clearly and authentically recorded in the work of the fathers of medicine, whose distinct recognition of its value testifies to the excellent judgement and true medical tact of these grand men.

Hippocrates, who was born 460 years before Christ, wrote a tract on air and water, in which he insisted upon a study of the latter. He recommended cold ablutions in inflammation of the lungs and erysipelas, and formulated rules for its application in these and other diseases, which are to-day regarded as replete with sound judgment. His teachings were perpetuated in that great centre of learning-the Alexandrian School--and their influence continued in Egypt until the sixteenth century.

When the sun of Roman greatness was in the ascendant many Greek philosophers and physicians sought fame and fortune among their world conquering people. Among those was Esclepiades of Prusa, a man whose great learning and gentle character swept aside his social inequality and made him the friend and associate of Cicero. His life and works, as handed down to us in history, serve as an illustrious example of the true physician. His great accomplishments were combined with a genial and sympathetic nature which endeared him to all who came under his ministrations. This perfect specimen of the physician popularized the use of baths in health and disease and won for himself the title "Physchrolutes" (water doctor). It was said of him that he was willing to lose his title of physician if he sickened, so positive was he of the prophylactic value of the cold bath. He died at an advanced age from an injury. This learned man was not an Empirical water doctor. He founded a medical school (as was the fashion in that day) at which philosophical doctrines were taught which left their impress upon succeeding generations, and from which emanated some of the