has nearly filled himself, and just before he is ready to stop sucking. The wound is kept free from coagulated blood by a warm sponge, or even by injecting warm water into the wound. If from rough handling the leech falls off, it takes hold again without difficulty. The process has been named Bdellatomy (bdella, a leech). At first sight it looks like taking an unfair advantage of the animal, if not treating him cruelly. But it is probably just the reverse, as it affords him an opportunity to feast longer on his rich beverage, without giving any noticeable pain. If carefully kept in clean water the same leech may be repeatedly applied, and incised at intervals of days or weeks. -Pacific Med. and Surg. Journal.

CHLORODYNE.-Dr. W. W. Ely (New York Medical Record) offers a formula which he considers preferable to any other, and similar to the original in pungency, color, density and other properties.-Heat molasses in a water bath and skim it till it is cleared. Mix with it half as much officinal mucilage of acacia. This forms the constituent. Dissolve 32 grains sul. morph. in 6 drachms of water, by heat, and add 32 grains powd. ext. liquorice and four fluid drachms ether sulph. conc. Then add one ounce chloroform with a portion of the constituent and shake the mixture, adding enough of the constituent to make four fluid ounces. Twenty drops of this contain one-sixth grain of morphia, ten drops chloroform and five ether. Dr. Ely says the formula given in Aitken's Practice is not a good one, as the ingredients separate on standing.-Pacific Med. and Surg. Journal.

RESTORATION AFTER CHLOROFORM.-In a paper read before the British Association, Dr. Richardson stated that the best method to restore a patient about to die from chloroform, was to introduce into the lungs by means of artificial respiration, air heated to 130° F. A bellows connected with a thin coiled tube of platinum, which could be raised to the necessary temperature by a spirit lamp, is the apparatus suggested. The air need only be forced through one nostril.— Amer. Jour. Dental Science.

FREQUENT VENESECTIONS.-In the Carmelite Convent of Mataro, Italy, there died, a short time ago, a nun, at the advanced age of 87, who had taken the veil seventy-two years before. She had been a great martyr to rheumatism, and had, for attacks of this complaint, been bled 317 times.-Tribune Médicale.

A CURE FOR WHOOPING COUGH.-A CORRESPONDENT writes: "The late discovery of a cure for whooping-cough, by inhaling the odors of a gas-house, is found to be of real benefit. It has been tried

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by some Hartford (Ct.) physicians, and it is said with success. children are taken to the gas-works, where they breathe the not very pleasant air there produced, and there is something in the chemical combination that cures whooping-cough. The people at the

gas-works state that during the last twelve months three hundred cases of whooping-cough have been thus experimented upon."

PRESERVATION OF ANATOMICAL SPECIMENS.-The Chemical News gives M. Von Vetter's process, as follows:-" Add to 7 parts of glycerin at 22° [72° Fahr.] 1 part of raw brown sugar and half a part of nitre, till a slight deposit is formed at the bottom of the vessel. The portion required to be preserved is then plunged in, dried or not dried, and it is left in the mixture for a time proportional to its dimensions; a hand, for example, should remain eight days in the liquid; when it is taken out it is as stiff as a piece of wood, but if it be suspended in a dry and warm place the muscles and articulations recover their suppleness."

DISINFECTANT PROPERTIES OF COFFEE.-It is not generally known that slightly roasted and ground coffee placed on a warm surface, such for instance as a fire-shovel, will neutralize vapors of ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen.

STOMATITIS FROM FRICTIONS WITH CITRINE OINTMENT.—It is well known that citrine ointment contains about one-tenth of mercury to one of fatty matter; yet it was lately shown, says the Journal des Connais. Med. Chir., that three frictions with it can give rise to very severe salivation. This was the case with a lady, who, not fancying sulphur ointment for the removal of itch, rubbed in citrine ointment by the advice of a chemist. The gums swelled after the second friction, and the most distressing symptoms of stomatitis set in after the third. We would, however, remark that very probably the frictions were made over a large surface, and that much of the ointment must have been used.-The Lancet.

THE CASTOR BEAN IN CALIFORNIA.-The experiments made in California in cultivating the castor oil bean have resulted, on the whole, successfully:

The bean plant grows luxuriantly, and the yield is very great, surpassing, in those instances which came under our observation, that of any other oil seed save the sun-flower. But there is no way of gathering the crops known to our people, which dispenses with a large amount of hand labor. The seeds do not ripen simultaneously; but a few only at a time, ranging over a period of several weeks. If the seeds are not gathered as soon as ripe, the balls snap, the beans are scattered over the ground, and in that condition are hardly worth the cost of gathering. The making of castor oil will soon come to be a special business, and we may say that much more skill is required in the manufacture of merchantable castor oil, than is required in the production of any other of the vegetable oils. With a powerful press, the grinding process may be wholly dispensed with; but the bleaching and clarifying process requires considerable skill and some knowledge of chemistry.

THE vocation of medicine having been actually and successfully adopted by women in numbers sufficient to constitute them a formidable element, the different medical organizations are now agitated with efforts to secure for them a proper recognition at the hands of their professional brethren. The Eclectics wisely opened the doors and gave them a cordial greeting from the first; and from none of their schools in good standing have women been excluded.

The question of recognition has also been tried in homœopathic associations, but a small majority succeeded in "capping the volcano;" so that to this day reputable women who are engaged in the practice of homoeopathic medicine, are compelled to follow their masculine compeers "afar off.”

The old school, however, seem to have fought the battle of conservatism with greater intrepidity. In their journals. they have discussed finically about the sphere of women, quoted the Apostle Paul, and indulged freely in ribaldry and vulgar innuendo.

To be sure, twenty years ago a woman made way into VOL. IV.-NO. 2.

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one of their colleges, but they took especial pains that there should not be a second. Two or three medical colleges have been chartered for the refractory sex, but every professor attempting to instruct in them soon found himself losing caste; and the students, when graduated, have been persistently refused all professional courtesy."

Repeatedly in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in Pennsylvania and Missouri, the subject of recognition of female physicians has been introduced by resolutions, which have been as regularly smothered or voted down.

More recently the matter was brought before the American Medical Association, which met in the city of Washington in the month of May. About six hundred were present, professors of colleges, editors of medical journals, and the picked men of the profession. On the first day of the session the Committee "on Medical Ethics on Consultation with Female Practitioners," made a not unfavorable report on the subject, concluding with the following resolution :

"Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting every member of this body has a perfect right to consult with any one who presents the only presumptive evidence of professional abilities and acquirements—namely, a regular medical education."

Doctor John L. Atlee, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, made a powerful speech in favor of the report, and demanded that the Association should recognize female practitioners. He cited the example of Europe, and said: "In other countries women have achieved the highest honors as medical practitioners; and what can be honorably done in France and Germany can be done in the United States."

Doctor Cowdie, of Philadelphia, remarked that "if women would confine themselves in their own sphere in the order of Nature, they would confer more happiness than by the pursuit of medicine."

* In one chartered institution in this city, two or three professors, part old school and part homœopathists, refused to sign the diplomas after they had been awarded. Self-respect on the part of the Board of Trustees would require as many vacated professorships.

Perhaps he may be correct; but the same logic would apply with equal force to the great majority of masculine. practitioners of medicine, as the annals of the profession abundantly show. The deathbeds of Presidents Washington, Harrison and Taylor, are evidences that the "healing art might better have been called "the destructive art." Hardly a female physician in America, or even an old woman dabbling in specifics, would have treated the cases so improperly or unsuccessfully.

The Association adopted the report of the committee; and so, by the authority of the highest old school tribunal in America, a male physician may act with a woman in consultation. The point of the wedge is now inserted, and the entire tree will yet be riven.

The next great struggle took place at Harrisburg in June last. The claims of the State Society of Pennsylvania appear to be more imposing than those of other organizations, as the following paragraph of self-laudation, in the Philadelphia Press, will abundantly show:

"This association, as regards practical benefit to the commonwealth, conferred by it, is not inferior to any in America, its action in organizing hospitals, and in fact in doing every thing which can tend to improve the practice of medicine and elevate it to a high-toned, honorable position, having been really wonderful. The members of the public have a very inadequate idea of their immense obligations to this society, and the pains which it has taken to guard their interest in every respect. They have been shielded by it from quackery in a country where those restraints known in Europe are inapplicable, and they have, without knowing it, been kept from overcharge and medicines of inferior quality to a degree which is literally incredible. Their proceedings are consequently of no little interest to all who closely watch our national progress."

It was eminently proper that the great battle should be fought in this field. The Sadducees of Bible times, and the men who procured the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, were not more conservative. Its practitioners accept no such construc