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another case which he had treated with Asclepias, Tr. Serpentariæ comp. and Syr. Helianthus comp., in which there was chronic pleurisy, chronic pneumonia, with intestinal irritation. Menstruation was reëstablished soon after. Speaking of cholera infantum, he had found from a number of cases treated mostly at the Eclectic Medical Dispensary, that neither Gelseminum nor Dioscorea would stop the vomiting, while their combined action was in all cases successful.

Dr. Russell said that nature was the great agent in the relief of disease, a little medicine only being necessary in many cases to guide her operations. Dr. R. spoke of the prompt action of minute doses of the Tincture of German Chamomile (Matricaria Chamomilla) in relieving dysmenorrhea attended with a dark "tarry" discharge.

Dr. Day recommended that chloroform be diluted with 5 parts of alcohol, making a mixture which would readily mix with water or any fluid.

The committee on annual dues reported a new Article amending the constitution, providing for the payment by each member of an annual fee of two dollars, to be made on the 1st of January of each year. Laid on the table.

It was also moved that the constitution be so amended that the monthly meetings of the society be held on the second Wednesday of each month.

Drs. Wilder and Merwin were appointed essayists of the October meeting.

Dr. Newton announeed the purchase of the building occupied by the Eclectic Medical College.

Dr. Allen proposed two sessions per month. Dr. H. E. Firth, of Brooklyn, suggested as a substitute, that the society attend the meetings of the Brooklyn Academy of Eclectic Medicine on the 1st Wednesday of each month.

On motion, the society adjourned.

J. H. FITCH, M. D., Secretary.

ADVANTAGES OF GROANING AND CRYING.-A French physician publishes a long dissertation on the advantages of groaning and crying in general, and especially during surgical operations. He contends that groaning and crying are two grand operations by which nature allays anguish; that those patients who give way to their natural feelings more speedily recover from accidents and operations than those who suppose it unworthy a man to betray such symptoms of cowardice as either to groan or cry. He tells of a man who reduced his pulse from 126 to 60 in the course of a few hours, by giving full vent to his emotions. If people are at all unhappy about anything, let them go into their rooms and comfort themselves with a loud boohoo, and they will feel 100 per cent. better afterward. In accordance with the above, the crying of children should not be too greatly discouraged. If it is systematically repressed, the result

may be St. Vitus's dance, epileptic fits, or some other disease of the nervous system. What is natural is nearly always useful; and nothing can be more natural than the crying of children when anything occurs to give them either physical or mental pain. Probably most persons have experienced the effect of tears in relieving great sorrow. It is even curious how the feelings are allayed by their free indulgence in groans and sighs. Then let parents and friends show more indulgence to noisy bursts of grief-on the part of children as well as of older persons and regard the eyes and the mouth as the safety valves through which Nature discharges her surplus steam.

SIMILIA SIMILIBUS CURANTUR.-Says a learned Bohemian : "Homœopathists will be aghast to learn that they have been burning incense at the wrong shrine. Whatever claims Hahnemann may have upon their admiration and gratitude, he did not discover the principle that like cures like.' The learned Synd Ahmed Bahador is the iconoclast who has stripped the German savant of his borrowed plumes. In a lecture delivered at Benares, he asserted that the similia similibus maxim is only a little more modern than the Himalayas. It is laid down in the sacred books of the Brahmins, and has been current among the Arabs from immemorial times. These insatiable orientals seem determined to leave us nothing upon which to nourish our self-conceit."

CHRISTIAN AND HEBREW LIFE.-It may not be generally known, even by Life Insurance Companies, whose study is life, how much larger is the average life of the cautious and forbearing Israelite to that of the reckless and indulgent Christian. It is asserted by Dr. Michael Levy, a French physician, in his Annals of Public Hygiennics for 1866, that the average duration of life amongst the Christian population is twenty-six years, whilst among the Jews it is thirtyseven.-Ins. Reporter.

THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST PLAGUE.-In our recent trip through some of the Western and Southern States we observed the effects of these periodical visitors in Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee. They came in millions. We clip the following from a Washington paper of July, 1868:

After a fortnight made vocal with the multitudinous hum of the cicada (wrongfully called locusts), they have sunk into infinite space with a disappearance so total that not a specimen can now be found alive. This remarkably rapid exodus is on a par with their equally sudden appearance; but they have left behind them traces ineffaceable till another year of their short-lived two-weeks possession. The trees and shrubs for miles around the Capitol are spotted with dead leaves, great clumps of gray and brown and yellow sprinkled all through the green, and presenting a most mournful and funereal appearance to the eye. Not only the small trees and flowering shrubs are thus afflicted, but the malady extends to the tallest monarchs of the forest, which are seared in their proudest branches as with a hot

iron by this all-devouring pest of the insect world. The periodicity of this visitation seems to be its most remarkable feature, and has been strictly observed in Maryland ever since more than a century ago. The "locust years" in this vicinity were 1749, 1766, 1783, 1800, 1817, 1834, 1851 and 1868. As the first published notice we have of the seventeen-year locust in America dates back to Plymouth, in 1633, it is a plague recurring through centuries that we have just experienced.

IDENTITY OF SUBSTANCES IN THE THREE KINGDOMS.-It is not thirty years since the presence of ammonia in the products of the distillation of coal was considered very curious, because nitrogen was thought to be the characteristic of animal substances. Gradually, year by year, each substance that has been thought to be the property of the vegetable world, has been found to occur in animals. Thus, sugar, starch, woody fibre, vegetable coloring matter, as indigo, albumen, &c., &c., are common in animals and vegetables, and at length we have arrived at the fact that no distinction can be drawn between the kingdoms of nature.

BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND NAMES.-The records of births, deaths and marriages kept in Great Britain for thirty years past, now include the names of about 39,000,000 of persons, all reducible to about 30,000 family names. Of them the following have the largest num ber of representatives, and in the order given: Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor, Davis, Brown, Thomas, &c.

A POWERFUL HYPNOTIC.-Hyoscyamine in combination with opium produces the most powerful hypnotic action possible. Each increases the effect of the other. Quantities of morphia and hyoscya. mine, which of themselves are insufficient to produce sleep, will, when combined, speedily induce that condition.-Selection from Guestonian Lectures. Med. Gazette.

DEPILATORY.-For hair that will persist to grow where it ought not, a mild depilatory like the following may answer: Dry carbonate of soda, two parts; quicklime, one part, in powder, mixed with lard, eight parts. Drug Circular and Chem. Gaz.

FOR THE TOOTHACHE.-At a meeting of the London Medical Society, Dr. Blake, a distinguished practitioner, said that he was able to cure the most desperate case of toothache, unless the disease was connected with rheumatism, by the application of the following remedy: Alum, reduced to an impalpable powder, two drachms; nitrous spirits of ether, seven drachms; mix and apply to the tooth.

VERATRUM VIRIDE IN CONSTIPATION.—In an obstinate case of habitual constipation, Dr. T. C. Miller (Journal of Mater. Med.) gave three drops, five times a day, of the tr. of veratrum viride, and in the course of two weeks effected an entire recovery.

LOCAL TREATMENT OF SOFT CHANCRE.--The application of carbolic acid causes the rapid destruction of the ulcerating surface, with de

composition of the poison, and without any considerable degree of pain. The surface of the sore is turned white by the acid; this becomes a thin dry yellow scab, which separates in about two or three days. The application should be repeated to the third or fourth time, when it may be found that the sore has healed under the scab. The healing of the sore is generally completed in an average of ten to fourteen days.-British Med. Journal.

UNITY OR NON-UNITY OF THE NEGRO AND WHITE RACES.-In a letter to the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, Dr. E. B. Turnipseed says: "I am not aware that it is known to the scientific world, that the hymen of the negro woman is not at the entrance of the vagina, as in the white woman, but from one and a half to two inches in the interior, with a passage below for the escape of the menses. I have examined a good many cases and have found this invariable. This I thought to be abnormal at first, but finding it constantly situated as above described, in examining cases during a practice of fif teen years, I have concluded this may be one of the anatomical marks of non-unity of the races. I will say, further, that in this race I have never found the hymen situated as in the white race, at the entrance of the vagina."-Medical Record.

EAR-ACHE.--Dr. D. D. Spear recommends the tr. of digitalis in this affection. His recommendation is to drop one or two drops into the ear and then exclude the air with a piece of dry cotton.-Richmond and Louisville Med. Journal.

CANCER A LOCAL DISEASE.-Charles H. Moore (St. Bartholomew's Hosp. Reports) has contributed an interesting article, showing that cancer is, at its origin, in all cases a local affection; and hence an early and complete extirpation is the mode of treatment to be adopted. This doctrine of the pathology of cancer is now rapidly growing in favor with pathologists.

A BREEDING MULE.-A curious occurrence at Mont-de-Marsan has been communicated at a recent meeting of the Société impériale d'acclimation, namely, that a female mule of 12 years of age has dropped a male colt, born at term and perfectly formed; the dam gives milk and the foal sucks, but the mother manifests a profound indifference for her offspring and does not exhibit the slightest solicitude when separated from it.-Gazette hebdomadaire, No. 20.

WOOD'S STYPTIC FOR HEMORRHAGES.-Prof. James R. Wood makes use of the following styptic in hæmorrhages: R Liq. ferri persulphat., 3j.; alumen, q. s., so as to form a paste.-Med. Record.

NUX VOMICA IN THE DYSPEPSIA OF HYPOCHONDRIACS.-Professor Trastour, of Nantes, has occasion to highly praise the employment of nux vomica in all forms of atonic dyspepsia, and especially as a relief for the painful digestions so common among the hypochondriacs. His theory is based upon the two facts, that nux vomica stimulates and regulates the activity of the spinal cord, especially in

regard to its reflex action, and that the integrity of the functions of the grand sympathetic is subordinated to the regular accomplishment of the functions of this part of the nervous system.

The following is a useful formula:

B-Pulv. nux vom. 1 to 4 grammes,
Pulv. cassiæ ligneæ 2

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Carb. calc. or carb. mag. 2 grammes.

M.-ft. pulv. 20.

One powder at the beginning of each meal, in unfermented bread. -Med. Record.

LONDON HOSPITAL WORK.-According to hospital statistics recently published in the Lancet, it appears that fourteen metropolitan hospitals, to say nothing of the numerous smaller and special institutions in existence, given annual relief to over 33,000 in-patients, and to more than 550,000 out-patients. Or, taking the gross total, it will be seen that nearly a fifth of the three million inhabitants of London received relief from public charity, supposing the same patient to be relieved but once in the year. With regard to the outpatients, it appears that their number at each hospital (allowing a proportionate deduction for casualties at those hospitals where the numbers are not stated separately) ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 per annum, depending both upon the locality of the institution and the strictness with which governors' orders are required.-Medical Record.

CHILDREN BORN WITH TEETH.-M. Guéniot (Med. Times and Gazette) related to the Société de Chirurgie, a case of an infant, nine days old, exhibiting the two middle upper incisor teeth, which looked like two solid shells covered with enamel. He also speaks of several celebrated persons who were born with teeth, such as Mirabeau, Mazarin, and Louis XIV.

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THE Medical Department of Vienna University has 46 Profes

TREATMENT OF THE HABIT OF OPIUM-EATING.-A writer in the British Med. Journal says: "The sudden suspension of the habit is infinitely more efficient and easier to the patient, than the gradual diminution of the dose. The administration of large doses of phosphoric acid, and lupulia, materially helps the system in overcoming the effects of the immediate suspension of the drug, and in checking the craving for a further supply. Zinc, iron, and quinine, in large doses, also assist powerfully, at a later period, to restore the impaired health and strength of the patient. I feel certain that the sudden and complete suspension of the drug is less trying to the physical and moral powers, than a gradual diminution of the quantity; because, after every dose, however small, the same reaction takes place, the physical and mental craving remains the same, the temptations to an occasional increase are so many, and the trial is so protracted and exhausting, that very few have the courage to persevere."

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