Vol. 25.

NEC TENUI PENNÂ."

MAY 1, 1898.

H. A. COTTELL, M. D., Editor.

No. 9.

A Journal of Medicine and Surgery, published on the first and fifteenth of each month. Price, $2 per year, postage paid.

This journal is devoted solely to the advancement of medical science and the promotion of the interests of the whole profession. Essays, reports of cases, and correspondence upon subjects of professional interest are solicited. The editor is not responsible for the views of contributors.

Books for review, and all communications relating to the columns of the journal, should be addressed to the Editor of THE AMERICAN PRACTITIONER AND NEWS, Louisville, Ky.

Subscriptions and advertisements received, specimen copies and bound volumes for sale by the undersigned, to whom remittances may be sent by postal money order, bank check, or registered letter. Address JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY, Louisville, Ky.

KENTUCKY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

The forty-third annual meeting of this society will be held in Maysville, May 11th, 12th, 13th, year of grace 1898.

The program promises a rich treat in matters medical, and the committee of arrangements has made abundant provision for the creature comfort of the visiting delegates.

The American Practitioner and News will publish a brief report of the transactions, and such papers as the authors may kindly place at its disposal. In this we would especially call attention to the fact that any paper sent to this journal must be a duplicate of the copy given to the Secretary for publication in the volume of Transactions if the author desires us to give it prompt issue. Any author who may prefer to publish his paper in some other journal will confer on us a great favor by furnishing us with an abstract for use in our report of the society's proceedings.

It is to be hoped that the Maysville meeting will be full and representative.

To Editor of the American Practitioner and News:

KENTUCKY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.-We again call attention to the fact that the Kentucky State Medical Society will hold its forty-second annual session at Maysville, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, May 11, 12, and 13, 1898.

Preparations for this meeting are very advanced.

The hotels offer special rates to all guests who visit the "Rock City," and the number of private houses at which good board may be secured will not be limited.

The railways will sell return tickets for one third fare, provided the purchaser obtains a certificate from the ticket-agent at the starting point setting forth the transaction, which certificate must be signed at Maysville by the Secretary of the society.

Also, it is gratifying to announce that the program for 1898 will be a very full one, as applications are coming fast, and we opine that the papers and discussions will go on record as worthy a place in the archives of medical progress.

We invite those who are preparing articles, but who have neglected to notify the Secretary, to do so at the earliest opportunity.

The opportunity to attend the forty-second meeting of this historic society is one that should, and we hope will, be taken advantage of by every physician in Kentucky interested in the advancement of his profession.

It is a fixed event in the blooming month of May, annually, and this year the promise is that it will be more interesting, scientifically and socially, and successful than ever before.

STEELE BAILEY, M. D., Permanent Secretary.

Obituary.

DR. JOHN SLOAN.

Dr. John Sloan, the venerable surgeon of New Albany, died at his home in that city on the morning of the 13th of April. He had long suffered from the effects of enlarged prostate, having to use the catheter daily for the last fifteen years. A few days before his death the excretion of urine became scanty and finally ceased altogether, followed by coma and death.

At the meeting of the Floyd County (Ind.) Medical Society, held April 14th, to pass appropriate resolutions relative to his life and death, Dr. E. P. Easley said: The time and occasion forbid more than a brief review of the long and active career of Dr. John Sloan, who after more than eighty years of life "has paid his breath to time and mortal custom."

Born and educated in New England, he came west soon after his graduation in medicine in 1838. Selecting this city as his home, he

began at once that life work which made him friends, fame, and fortune. Beginning practice among a people hitherto but little used to heroic surgery, his bold and successful operations soon gave him a position and prestige in the community and profession rarely attained by one of his years, and drew to him patients from a wide section of the country. Previous to his coming many surgical cases were considered by the local profession inoperable, and these had accumulated until the harvest was indeed abundant. These cases he made bold to attack, and with such a large measure of success that it was said of him that the very despair of surgery he cured.

A born surgeon, carefully trained, ambitious, bold to the very brink of daring, with such opportunities presenting, his success was assured, and so he acquired that ascendency in the profession which he maintained for more than fifty years; and which of us does not regret that his "scepter passes to an unlineal hand, no son of his succeeding.

His was a long career. He was in active practice before the days of anesthetics, when calomel was the cure-all and bloodletting a "fine art." He was in the prime of manhood when the civil war came and gave a new impetus to the study of surgery. The afternoon and evening of his life witnessed the advent and continuance of the antiseptic era. Though old in years he did not lag superfluous on the stage, but to the very last of his life was an eager reader of scientific literature and deeply interested in all medical matters.

He was direct of speech, quick at repartee, a master of sarcasm and ridicule, and strong in his likes and dislikes, a hater of shams within and without the profession.

The boastful pretender and that class of physicians who teach one thing and practice another were especially objects of his scorn and contempt.

NEW ALBANY, IND.

E. P. EASLEY, M. D.

ASEPSIS IN BARBER SHOPS.-The recent detailed set of instructions to barbers issued by the Imperial Board of Health in Austria, as to the care they must take in the cleansing of their instruments, as to the avoidance of using the same brush or powder-puff on different customers, has attracted a good deal of medical attention in Berlin. Already there are some strict police regulations for barbers as to cleanliness and the precautions necessary to avoid the transference of disease, and it is probable that these will be made more stringent.-Philadelphia Medical Journal.

Notes and Queries.

THE EXERCISE TREATMENT OF LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA.-Dana (The PostGraduate) says treatment of locomotor ataxia by means of systematic exercises has been found to produce considerable improvement in the ataxic limbs.

The method was first elaborated by Fraenkel (Munch. med. Woch., 1890, No. 52), and has been recommended by many continental physicians. Of course no influence on the cord changes can be expected, but diminution of the ataxia has been recorded.

The following are Dana's directions for carrying out the movements. The exercises are usually taken twice a day; and each exercise is to be done with the utmost care and precision by the patient:

Exercises for the Hands and Arms. 1. Sit in front of a table, place the hand upon it, then elevate each finger as far as possible. Then, raising the hand slightly, extend and then flex each finger and thumb as far as possible. Do this first with the right and then with the left. Repeat once.

2. With the hand extended on the table, abduct the thumb, and then each finger separately, as far as possible. Repeat three times.

3. Touch with the end of the thumb each finger tip separately and exactly. Then touch the middle of each phalanx of each of the four fingers with the tip of the thumb. Repeat three times.

4. Place the hand in position of piano playing, and elevate the thumb and fingers in succession, bringing them down again, as in striking the notes of the piano. Do this twenty times with the right hand, and same with the left.

5. Sit at table with a large sheet of paper and pencil, make four dots in the four corners of the paper and one in the center. Draw lines from corner dots to center dot with right hand; same with left.

6. Draw another set of lines, parallel to the first, with the right hand; same with left.

7. Throw ten pennies upon the paper, pick them up and place them in a single pile with the right hand; then with the left. Repeat twice.

8. Spread the pennies about on the table, touch each one slowly and exactly with the forefinger of the right hand; then with forefinger of left.

9. Place ordinary solitaire board on the table, with the marbles in the grooves around the holes. Put marbles in their places with right hand; same with left hand. Patient may, with advantage, practice the game for the purpose of steadying his hands.

10. Take ordinary fox-and-geese board, with holes and pegs, and, beginning at one corner, place the pegs in the holes, one after the other, using first the right hand, then the left.

These exercises should be gone through with twice a day, and should be done slowly and carefully, with a conscious effort every time of trying to do one's best.

Exercises for the Body and Lower Limbs. I. Sit in a chair, rise slowly to erect position, without help from cane or arms of chair. Sit down slowly in the same way. Repeat once.

2. Stand with cane, feet together, advance left foot and return it; same with right. Repeat three times.

3. Walk ten steps with cane slowly; walk backward five steps with cane slowly.

4. Stand without cane, feet a little spread, hands on hips. In this position flex the knees, and stoop slowly down as far as possible; rise slowly. Repeat twice.

5. Stand erect, carry left foot behind, and bring it back to its place; the same with the right. Repeat three times.

6. Walk twenty steps, as in exercise No. 3; then walk backward five steps.

7. Repeat exercise No. 2, without cane.

8. Stand without cane, heels together, hands on hips. Stand in this way until you can count twenty. Increase the duration each day by five, until you can stand in this way while one hundred is being counted.

9. Stand without cane, feet spread apart, raise the arms up from the sides until they meet above the head. Repeat this three times. With the arms raised above the head, carry them farward and downward, bending with the body until the tips of the fingers come as near the floor as they can be safely carried.

10. Stand without cane, feet spread apart, hands on hips; flex the trunk forward, then to the left, then backward, then to the right, making a circle with the head. Repeat this three times.

II. Do exercise No. 9 with heels together.

12. Do exercise No. 10 with heels together.

13. Walk along a fixed line, such as a seam on carpet, with the cane, placing the feet carefully on the line each time. Walk a distance of at least fifteen feet. Repeat this twice.

14. Do the same without cane.

15. Stand erect with cane; describe a circle on the floor with the toe of the right foot; same with toe of left. Repeat twice.

Between the fifth and the sixth exercises the patient should rest for a few moments.-Medical Chronicle.

THE USE OF Gloves at OpeRATIONS.-I desire to call attention to some gloves which have been recently recommended by a German surgeon, and which are a very decided aid in the prevention of infection by the fingers in operating.

It is unnecessary in so brief a sketch to go into the details of steriliza