1. The time of natural, as well as premature delivery, is directly referable to menstrual periods. 2. The return of these periods, throughout pregnancy, is in relation to the date of the month corresponding to that of the day when the menses began, at their last occurrence, to appear, whatever may be the number of days reckoned in each month. 3. The premonitory signs of labor at full term, and of premature delivery, occur, in the greater number of women, on the day of the month pointed out, or during the seven following days. 4. Nevertheless, the commencement of the expulsive pains may date, in a normal manner, but much less frequently, from the fifteenth day of the tenth month. 5. Every delivery at full term, or premature, which is accomplished before the right period of the month, may be considered as being in advance. 6. Every accouchment which is effected after the seventh day of the same period, may be considered as delayed. 7. The preöccurrence of labor is much less common than its delay, and most frequently they do not precede the due time more than five days. 8. Delays, on the other hand, have not such limitations. 9. Lastly, in either case, the causes of advance or delay are very appreciable, although there are cases which it is impossible to fix with certainty.-[Lancet. Premature Puberty.-A short time since I had a little patient, aged three years, and when I was prescribing for her, the mother hinted to me the necessity there was not to administer violent medicine, as the little child was "poorly." I found, on inquiry, that, for twelve months this child had been regularly menstruating; and with the permission of the mother, I stripped off the clothes, to observe the external organization of my patient. The mamma were as healthily developed as in an adult of twenty years; the nates were also developed, the pubes having a slight flush of hair upon them; the labiæ, &c., as in a matured young person; the hymen was perfect, and the vagina anteriorly was of a large size. The countenance was antique, and altogether this babe of three years had the appearance and gait of a little old woman. I observed the child for a few months; she menstruated regularly, and suffered all the concomitant uterine, lumbar, and other divers aches and pains, as is usual in those who perform this function, as evidencing a capability of uterogestation.—[Mr. Embling in the Lancet. On Muriate of Opium, by J. G. NICHOL, M. D., of Crook, Durham.-During the last ten or twelve years I have made and prescribed a solution of opium, which I think is not mentioned in any work on materia medica with which I am acquainted. I use powdered Turkey opium and water, pretty strongly acidulated with muriatic acid. I have found, by experience, that this is the best anodyne I am acquainted with. I see, by Dr. Pereira's Materia Medica, that mention is made of Dr. Porter's solution of opium in citric acid. I made and used the same sort of preparation, ten years ago; but it did not answer; it caused a great deal of headache and other unpleasant symptoms; moreover, it became muddy, and appeared to be decomposed; therefore I gave up using it. I have called this preparation of mine "Muriate of Opium," but perhaps it is not a very correct name. I may mention that I prepared solutions of opium with acetic, nitric, sulphuric, citric, tartaric, and muriatic acids, and also prescribed them, but the muriatic solution was vastly superior to any one in every respect. All of them produce headache, with the exception of the muriatic. I prefer muriate of opium to the tincture, wine, or powder of opium, and also the muriate and acetate of morphia; in fact, to any other preparation of opium. It never makes my head ache, but all the other preparations do. My preparation is made according to the following for mula: Take of the best powdered opium, one ounce. Distilled water, twenty ounces, mix. Shake this mixture very frequently every day, during fourteen days, then strain and filter. The dose is from twenty to forty drops, according to circumstances. Many of my medical friends have tried this preparation, and they highly approve of it. I have taken the liberty of sending you a small quantity as a specimen.-Pharm. Jour. Coffee as a disinfecting or anti-bromic agent.-By FREDERIC WEBER.-Coffee is one of the most powerful means not only of rendering animal and vegetable effluvia innocuous, but of actually destroying them. A room, in which meat in an advanced degree of decomposition had been kept for some time, was instantly deprived of all smell on an open coffee-roaster being carried through it, containing a pound of coffee newly roasted. In another room exposed to the effluvium occasioned by the clearing out of a dung-pit, so that sulphureted hydrogen and ammonia in great quantity. could be chemically detected, the stench was completely removed within half a minute on the employment of three ounces of fresh-roasted coffee; whilst the other parts of the house were permanently cleared of the same smell by being simply traversed with the coffee-roaster, although the cleansing of the dung-pit lasted for several hours longer. Even the smell of musk and castoreum, which cannot be overpowered by any other substance, is completely dispelled by the fumes of coffee; and the same applies to the odors of assafoetida. It was remarked, however, that in general animal effluvia are more readily affected by it than vegetable. That here an actual neutralization, and not a mere envelopment of matter, takes place, is shown from this—that the first fumes of the coffee are imperceptable, and continue so until a point of saturation, so to speak, is reached, whereupon the obnoxious smell disappears, and that of coffee predominates. The reverse happens with other aromatic vapors, and even with acetic acid and chlorine. Here both co-exist until the one completely preponderates. The simplest form in wich to use it against contagious matter is in powder. The well dried raw bean is to be pounded in a mortar and to be strewed over a moderatelyheated iron plate, until the powder assumes a dark-brown tint. Caffeic acid, and the empyreumatic coffee-oil, act more readily in very minute quantity.-London Med. Gaz. On the Etherial Solution of Prepared Cotton, by EDWARD PARRISH and W. W. D. LIVERMORE. This preparation, originally prepared by Professor Schonbein, was recommended as an adhesive substance adapted to the purposes of the surgeon, in an article in the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," under date of March 22d, 1848, by S. L. Bigelow. He there stated that he had accidentally discovered its remarkable adaptation to the rapid union of wounds by the first intention, and had tested its efficacy by a number of experiments. Its advantages were thus stated: "1st. By its powerful contraction, upon evaporation, it places the edges of an incised wound in much more intimate contact than is obtained by sutures and adhesive cloth; unites them by equal pressure throughout the whole extent of the wound, and maintains them immovably fixed. "2d. It preserves the wound perfectly from contact with the air-being impermeable to the atmosphere-while its adhesion to the skin is so intimate as to preclude the possibility of the air entering beneath its edges. "3d. The substance remaining in contact with the skin and wound after the evaporation of the ether, seems to be entirely inert, so far as any irritating property is concerned, and this can hardly be said of any resinous adhesive cloth or preparation. "4th. It does away with the necessity for sutures in incised wounds of almost any extent. "5th. It is sure to remain in intimate contact with the skin until union is complete-and being quite impervious to water, and presenting a polished surface, it allows the surrounding parts to be washed without regard to the wound or dressing. "6th. It is colorless and transparent, thus permitting the surgeon to witness all that goes on beneath, without involving the necessity for its removal. 7th. No heat is necessary for its application, and the presence of any moderate degree of cold is only objectionable in retarding the evaporation of the ether. "8th. It may be made at a trifling cost-an ounce phial, intrinsically worth little, being sufficient for a great number of dressings." In the same article we find allusion made to its applica tion in the formation of permanent splints, its use as a means of rendering pastboard splints impervious to moisture, and the advantage to the pathologist of coating his hands with it before post mortem examinations. The next number of the same Journal, issued one week later, contained an article on the same subject, by John P. Maynard, of Dedham, Massachusetts, in which he claims to have been the first to use the preparation as an adhesive plaster, and proceeds to detail its advantages as proved by a number of experiments made by himself and by numerous physicians and surgeons in Boston. In the same number of the Journal, an editorial notice appears, which recommends the Collodion, as it is there named, in terms of approval, and in relation to its adhesiveness says, "nothing known to us will compare with it in this respect." The discussion, as to priority of discovery, has been continued in several subsequent numbers of the same Journal., On the merits of this discovery, we have nothing to say, nor do the numerous uses of this solution in surgical practice fall within the sphere of our investigation. What particularly concerns us as pharmaceutists is its mode of preparation, and upon this subject, both the writers referred to have left us in the dark. As soon as a demand was created for the article, Dr. Maynard's formula for preparing it was placed in the hands of Maynard & Noyes, Druggists, Boston, who commenced the manufacture of it on a large scale, and measures were taken to introduce it in this city and elsewhere. As it became extensively known and esteemed among physicians and surgeons, of course a number of chemists attempted its preparation. This has been attended with varying success from ignorance of the precautions necessary to be observed, and from the absence of correct formula. The following observation are the result of a series of experiments in making the solution which have several times disappointed us: as far as they go, they are freely offered for the benefit of others who may be disposed to attempt it. 1st. Ordinary commercial gun cotton is not soluble in ether. 2d. The best formula that we have tried for the preparation of this solution, is as follows: Take of Nitric acid, sp. gr. 1.452, Sulphuric acid, (Commercial) each, 1 fluid ounce, |