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POTASSAS CHLORAS IN DYSENTERY.-We learn from the Wiener Med. Press that the above-named remedy has been use in the Kudolf hospital, Vienna, with the most gratifying success. They use it in most cases, by enema, in the following proportion: Potassæ Chlor. grs. xx. ad. aq. distil. 3ij. Blood ceased to appear in the dejections after the first clysma.

PEPSIN IN CHOLERA INFANTUM.-Pepsin has been strongly recom. mended in the advanced stages of cholera infantum and other diseases of children in which the digestive organs are weakened. For a child from one to three years old the dose is five grains every three hours, combining it sometimes with an equal quantity of subnitrate of bismuth.

CATARRH OF THE BLADDER.-In this disagreeable and obstinate complaint M. Mallez has found the following solution injected into the bladder very efficacious: water 10 ounces; tincture of iodine 45 drops; indide of Potassium 15 grains. When the pain is very annoying add 15 grains of extract of Belladonna to the above. He has also emplayed Carbolic acid, nitrate of silver, and hyp. sulphite of soda with advantage.

DANGER OF GIVING STRONG DOSES OF CAMPHOR.-A case illustrating the above has recently been brought under the notice.of the Société de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Grenoble. An enema consisting of five grammes of camphor dissolved in the yolk of an egg, was given to a child three years of age, suffering from typhoid fever. Symptoms of poisoning at once manifested themselves; convulsions, lividity of countenance, stupor, arrest of the urinary secretion, etc. The employment of coffee sufficed to restore the child.

CHAIRING A WOMAN DOCTOR.-The Medico-Chirurgical Academy at St. Petersburg conferred, at its recent annual conference, the degree of M. D. upon Mme. KASCHEWAROW, the first female candidate for this honor who had presented herself before them. When her name was mentioned by the Dean, it was received with an immense storm of applause, which lasted for several minutes. The ceremony of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow-students and new colleagues lifted her upon a chair, and carried her with triumphant shouts through the hall.

THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF LUPULINE.-M. Hétu finds that the resin of hop, in the dose of twenty to thirty grains, produces often an intense headache; sometimes nausea, and even slight vertigo; and always a state of insensibility, lasting several hours, but without hallucinations such as haschich causes. Each time he has found a subsequent and notable increase of appetite.

ACUTE RHEUMATISM.-Valerian.-Valerian administered in the the form of a bath is of extraordinary efficacy in subduing the pain of inflammation attending acute rheumatism. The bath is made simply by taking bj. of valerian root, boiling it gently for about a quarter of an hour in one gallon of water, straining it, and adding the strained liquid to about twenty gallons of water in an ordinary bath. (Dr. N. J. Butler.)

CANCER.-Chloride of Zinc.-A ready means of applying chloride of zinc in cases of cancerous or other sores, is to soak lint in the liquid produced by the deliquescence of chloride of zinc, aided by the addition of a few drops of water. It should be then hung up to dry as much as possible, and kept for use in a pasteboard box. The great convenience of the chloride of zinc lint is that the smallest piece may be used, even to a wart or pimple, or to parts, such as the eyelids, to which it would be almost impossible to apply the old paste. (Mr. W. Cooke.)

CAUSTIC ARROWS AND CARBOLIC ACID.-Two cases of cancer are related which were completely removed as follows: Punctures were made deeply round the tumors, by means of a broad lance, and into these caustic arrows were inserted. No pain or irritation resulted, and the tumours came away in three days, leaving a grey-coloured slough, which was detached in twenty-four hours more, by means of a linseed-meal poultice. The surface exposed was painted freely with carbolic acid, and the whole covered by wadding dipped in glycerine. It is singular that this treatment is quite painless. (Dr. J. R. Wolfe.)

DIGITALIS.-Therapeutic action of.-When digitalis kills, it does so not by producing paralysis of the heart, but by giving rise to tonic contraction and spasm of that organ. It is hence a most valuable remedy in the treatment of dilatation, and dangerous only when administered in cases of hypertrophy. When the pulse is feeble and irregular, and more especially when from any cause its feebleness and irregularity are temporarily increased, digitalis is of all known remedies the most useful.

Digitalis, like other medicines, bas a double action, it first excites the vaso-motor system, contracting the blood-vessels, this action being followed by more or less reaction to dilated blood-vessels. The primary action may be obtained alone by giving small doses, the secondary by large doses. Hence, when given for the purpose of checking uterine or other hemorrhages, large doses are not called for, and indeed would be injurious. (Dr. A. Keith.)

When Digitalis is given in cases of heart disease it should be in doses of ten drops every four hours, or half a drachm of the tincture night and morning. It is not likely to benefit functional disor

ders or palpitation, and it is inadmissible in cases of aortic regurgitation, for in such cases it might be dangerous to slow the heart's action. Digitalis, however, may be most useful in obstruct ve aortic disease; but that form of disease which it is most of all aiapted for is dilatation with feebleness of action. (Dr. E. Mackey.)

DYSPEPSIA. There are three varieties of dyspepsia: 1. The sulphuretted hydrogen dyspepsia, or that accompanied with "rotten egg " evacuations. This requires farinaceous diet along with a mixture containing strong hydro-chloric acid and chlorate of potash, filled up with a vegetable bitter. 2. The carbonic acid dyspepsia, with tasteless eructations, requiring a lean-meat diet, with avoidance of bread, potatoes, and farinaceous food generally. 3. The butyric acid dyspepsia, in which the eructations are sour and acrid. In this form the use of sugar and fat must be proscribed. A fourth form may be styled "tea dyspepsia; "this requires a daily allowance of wine, regularity of meals, and abstinence from tea. Browne.)

(Dr. H.

GLYCERINE OF TANNIN.-Glycerine of tannin is a very valuable application in a variety of trivial but troublesome complaints. These are, excoriation of the inside of the nose with discharge of a thin sanious fluid; cases of sanious or purulent discharge from the ears, so commonly met with in weak and unhealthy children; chronic vaginitis of children; eczema, in which disease the itching, tingling, and burning so commonly present are at once removed; the eczema which occurs behind the ears of children is admirably treated with this remedy. Glycerine of tannin is an extremely useful application to the throat for a variety of purposes, not during the existence of acute inflammation, but during the subsidence. (Practitioner.)

PRURIGO. Nearly all cases of prurigo arise from the pediculus corporis. The insect differs from the other two species, which infest respectively the head and the pubes, in that it dwells on the underclothing, and also deposits its eggs on the underclothing. Hence if the skin is ever so carefully examined nothing is discovered, and even the shirt requires great care to discover the cause of the affection. The nits are often found inside of the wrinkles or folds about the waist. Warm baths and washing the clothes have no effect whatever in killing the parasite. The only way to destroy the ova in the clothes is to bake them. It is also a good plan to grease the skin with very dilute citrine ointment (unguentum hydrargyri nitratis,) or indeed with any greasy substance, and this for the same reason that olive oil or lard, per se, is a cure for the itch. An ointment containing the oil obtainable from stavesacre seeds is a capital application, better indeed than the citrine ointment. (Dr. B. Squire.)

OPHTHALMIA.-Chloride of Zinc.-Chloride of zinc used in a solution of two grains to the ounce is a capital astringent application in certain forms of ophthalmia. It is suited for the same class of cases that we use nitrate of silver or alum for, i. e., the catarrhal or purulent. It is less painful than nitrate of silver, and may be used freely to the youngest infant. (Mr. J. Hutchinson.)

PRURITUS OF THE SKIN.-No remedy is better than creasote mixed with ten times its bulk of oil. (J. H. Bennett.)

OVARIAN NEURALGIA.-In cases of ovarian irritation or neuralgia, give an eight-once mixture containing two drachms of the muriate of ammonia, with five-drop doses of tincture of aconite. This combination of remedies has sometimes a most marked effect in causing the subsidence of the pain. (Dr. J. Waring-Curran.)

CAPSICUM." Dr. Lyons sums up his experience of this drug as follows: 1. Capsicum is a valuable and reliable drug when opium fails, or is, for any cause, contraindicated. 2. It is a safe drug for general employment in delirium tremens, and, as such may be confidently recommended to the country practitioner for general employment. 3. It is not open to the objection which attaches to the continued use of opium, which, when it fails to tranquillize and produce sleep, adds to the state of excitement; and, if pursued beyond a certain limit, kills, as it has undoubtedly done in numerous instances, by suddenly induced opium-coma. 4. In some few instances, Dr. Lyons informs us, he has employed capsicum in the delirium of fever, when opium had failed to induce sleep, and with marked success in certain cases.

"As a member of the family of solanaceous plants, capsicum might, a priori, have been expected to contain a narcotic principle.As yet, the alkaloid in which it resides has not been isolated; but, in some researches on the subject, conducted at the request of Dr. Lyons, M. Alphonse Gages, a distinguished member of the chemical staff of the College of Sciences for Ireland, has found sufficient indications of its presence to warrant him in predicting its ultimate detection and isolation. It will, Dr. Lyons expects, form a valuable boon to practical medicine, when isolated and eliminated from the acrid oils of the capsicum fruit. "-Brit. Med. Journal, Nov. 7, 1868.

BAPTISIA IN INDURATED INGUINAL GLANDS.-Dr. Waldron (ibid.) gives a case of inflamed inguinal glands of the right side, from cold. No pain except when standing. Cured with Baptisia.

NUTRIMENT OF BEER.-Prof. Liebig says that 1460 quarts of the best Bavarian beer contain exactly the nourishment of a two-anda-half pound loaf of bread.

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Professor of Physiology and Pathology in the Eclectic Medical College of New York.

THE spleen is one of those organs which are known as ductless glands. It is situated in the left hypochondriac region, and embraces the cardiac end of the stomach. Its external surface rests against the diaphragm opposite the ninth, tenth, and eleventh ribs. Its internal surface is in relation, in front, with the great end of the stomach; below, with the tail of the pancreas; and behind, with the left crus of the diaphragm and corresponding supra-renal capsule. On the internal surface is a large fissure, or rather several large irregular openings, for the entrance and exit of vessels. This fissure is called the porta lienis, or gate of the spleen.

The color of the organ is a dark, bluish red; its texture soft, spongy, and highly vascular; its shape irregular and variable, but generally a section of an ovoid.

Its size and weight "are liable to extreme variations at different periods of life; in different individuals; and in the same individual under different conditions." Generally it is about five inches long, three inches wide, and one and a half

* Extract of a lecture delivered before the class in March, 1869.

VOL. IV. NO. 10.

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