Notes and Queries.

WILLIAM PEPPER, M. D., LL. D., distinguished as physician, educator, and man of enlightened public spirit, died suddenly on July 28th at Pleasanton, California. The end had been foreshadowed but by few and brief 'warnings, and his death from angina pectoris came with shocking suddenness. He had been ill during the past winter, but was improved by a month's sojourn in the South. A short time ago he left for California to rest and recuperate. Dr. Pepper's life has been marked by the accomplishment of noble and magnificent purposes, and his death, when not yet fiftyfive, is a source of universal public and professional regret. Dr. Pepper was an earnest teacher, a careful observer, an acute diagnostician, an able clinician.

He was a voluminous writer, his most important literary production being a "System of Medicine by American Authors," published in 1885-86, which he edited and contributed to. In collaboration with Dr. John F. Meigs he prepared the well-known work on "Diseases of Children." He was also the editor of and a generous contributor to the "American Textbook of the Theory and Practice of Medicine." In 1870 Dr. Pepper founded the Medical Times, and he was for two years its editor. Among his numerous contributions may be mentioned "Anematosis, or Pernicious Anemia;" "The Local Treatment of Phthisical Cavities," "Trephining in Cerebral Disease," "Catarrhal Irritation," "Report on the Mineral Springs of America," "Epilepsy," "Phthisis in Pennsylvania." Among other publications are: "Sanitary Relations of Hospitals," "Higher Medical Education, the True Interest of the Public and the Profession," "Report of the Medical Department of the Centennial Exposition," public addresses on "Force vs. Work," "Benjamin Franklin," "Benjamin Rush," and "The Relations of Graduate and Undergraduate Curricula."

Dr. Pepper had been largely instrumental in the establishment of the University Hospital, securing the gift of a site from the city. The material progress of the University during his occupancy of the provostship is shown. by conspicuous figures.-Philadelphia Medical Journal.

THE following is the preliminary program for the meeting of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, at Nashville, October 11-14, 1898, handed us by Dr. H. E. Tuley, Secretary:

B. Sherwood-Dunn, Boston, Mass., Why I Have Abandoned the General Practice of Vaginal Hysterectomy; J. A. Stucky, Lexington, Ky., Tonsillitis or Quinsy, Causes and Treatment; H. W. Whitaker, Columbus, O., Pichi A. Ravogli, Cincinnati, O., A Few Practical Points in the Treat

ment of Posterior Urethritis; Frank Parsons Norbury, Jacksonville, Ill., The Neuro Hypothesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis; A. M. Osness, Dayton, O., Diphtheria and its Logical Treatment; F. E. Kelly, La Moille, Ill., Varicocele; F. F. Bryan, Georgetown, Ky., A Plea for Pelvic Peritonitis and Cellulitis; John M. Batten, Pittsburgh, Pa., Syphilis; Geo. W. Johnson, Dunning, Ill., Gonangiectomy and Orchidectomy for Hypertrophied Prostate in Old Men; Geo. F. Keiper, Lafayette, Ind., Wounds of the Lachrymal Apparatus, Report of Operation for Restoration of Canaliculi Obliterated by Traumatism; Shelby C. Carson, Greensboro, Ala., A Consideration of the Limit to Operative Gynecology; W. H. Humiston, Cleveland, O., The Relations of the Gynecologist and the Neurologist; W. Gaston McFadden, Shelbyville, Ind., Intermingling and Changing of Type in Diseases; William F. Barclay, Pittsburgh, Pa., Mercury and Its Action; J. Rilus Eastman, Indianapolis, Ind., The Diagnosis of Gonorrhea in Women; S. E. Milliken, Dallas, Tex., Sub-Periosteal Removal of Caries from the Pelvic Basin, with the Report of Cases; Thos. Chas. Martin, Cleveland, O., Complete Inspection of the Rectum by Means of Newer Mechanical Appliances; Geo. D. Kahlo, Indianapolis, Ind., Hydrotherapy in Stomach Diseases; Alex. C. Wiener, Chicago, Ill., Surgical Treatment of Infantile Paralysis; James M. M. Parrot, Kingston, N. C., Suprapubic Cystotomy vs. Perineal Section; R. C. Pratt, McKenzie, Tenn., Report of Cases in Obstetrics with Complications; John L. Jelks, Memphis, Tenn., The Relationship Between the Genito-Urinary Tract and Rectum, with Special Reference to the Female; T. Virgil Hubbard, Atlanta, Ga., How Should We Treat Typhoid Fever? W. W. Taylor, Memphis, Tenn., A Clinical Contribution to Ectopic Gestation; M. Goltman, Memphis, Tenn., Interesting Surgical Cases; I. N. Love, St. Louis, Mo., The Bicycle from the Medical Standpoint; Jos. Price, Philadelphia, Pa., Surgical Treatment of Pus in the Pelvis; Andrew Timberman, Columbus, O., Operations on the Mastoid, When and How Performed; R. A. Bate, Louisville, Ky., Arthritic Diathesis; Chas. W. Aitken, Flemingsburg, Ky. Diagnostic and Therapeutic Uses of Tuberculin; G. W. Halley, Kansas, City, Mo., Some Pathological Conditions of the Ovaries and Adnexa Causing Pain.

DEATH AND TORTURE UNDER CHLOROFORM.-The current number of the Nineteenth Century contains a paper in which, under the above melodramatic title, Mrs. King deals not so much with "death under chloroform" as with the methods of giving the anesthetic. Were it not that her paper will probably be read by many persons as little acquainted with the subject as she is herself, we should not deal with so singularly weak and carelessly prepared a diatribe. As it is, one or two points are advanced based upon absolutely mistaken and false premises, and ought to be noticed. Relinquishing all her former positions, this lady now states that there are two schools among those who give chloroform-those who hold "the pad" at a respectful distance from the patient's face, and those who do not. For

the latter Mrs. King suggests the picturesque name of "stiflers." She assures us that Dr. Lauder Brunton and others state that most deaths occur under chloroform from asphyxia. But this statement might be extended, as Dr. Lawrie would tell her that all fatalities result from it. Mrs. King, however, is unfortunately talking about what she does not understand, for she mistakes the meaning of the word "asphyxia," assuming that it connotes not the paralysis of the respiratory center in the medulla oblongata due to over-narcotization, but the mechanical act of smothering by holding something tightly over the nose and mouth. Of course, to speak of “a school of anesthetists" which teaches what Mrs. King calls the stifling method is a fond fiction arising from her personal experience with some medical men who appear to have made her very unhappy while she inhaled her chloroform. It is really absurd that a lady whose articles show in every paragraph how completely ignorant she is about chloroform, should, after a personal experience of inhaling an anesthetic only twice in England and twice in India --we are not at all sure that it may not in two instances have been ether after all-and having acquired some crude notions from the Hyderabad Report and the Hospital, undertake to enlighten the public about chloroform and the correct way of administering it. Nor is this all. She appeals, with all the persuasive force of the shrieking sisterhood, for legislation to protect the "unhappy poor" who take chloroform in our hospitals, and warns the richer folk to avoid the "stiflers" and patronize those gentle souls who will solemnly vow never "to hold the pad" near the face! There is no doubt that individual practitioners might be found whose method of giving chloroform leaves much to be desired. Happily the old method of Syme, of unstinted chloroform poured on a towel, is passing into desuetude, and the special study given during the past years to chloroform and its administration, in which the British Medical Association has taken so conspicuous a part, has led most medical men to adopt methods that allow of the regulation of the dose of the anesthetic to the need of the individual. And yet Mrs. King upholds the "open method" to admiration, and sniffs in contempt at the "young men," who, she is informed, refuse to give chloroform unless from a regulating inhaler. It is curious to find Mr. Knowles, the most exacting of editors, admitting such a production. It is pretty certain that an article on history, or literature, or politics containing mistakes of a similar grotesque kind would never have appeared in the periodical which he directs with so much ability. The occurrence suggests certain obvious reflections as to the present state of scientific education in this country.-British Medical Journal.

PREVENTIVE HYGIENE IN FRANCE.-The statement that in our own insulated country the opponents of sanitary notions are not as rare as Juvenal's black swans will probably not be gainsaid; but in the case of enlightened France, the land of Pasteur and progress, it is truly remarkable to find a man of education publicly disavowing all belief in the benefits of

protective hygiene. When the Budget of the Agricultural Department was recently under consideration in the Chamber of Deputies the section devoted to epizootic disease was discussed at great length, prominent among the speakers being M. Denis, member of the Landes, who demanded a supplementary credit of two millions (francs) in order to indemnify the owners of animals slaughtered under the pretext that they were tuberculous. According to M. Denis veterinary surgeons are inclined to see tuberculosis everywhere; but he confessed that the zeal of these honorable practitioners filled him with the gravest anxiety. "Doubtless," continued the honorable member, "statistics will be invoked to support them, but we protest against men of science who under the pretense of saving our lives render that life intolerable. I am aware that I am tilting against theories that are generally admitted; but in these latter days, as it seems to me, veterinary surgeons as well as medical men have become far too scientific. I should like to see the return of those good old times when, instead of inventing diseases with jaw-breaking and barbarous names, doctors used simply to give their patients purgatives and gummy syrups. A great many highly scientific things have been said of tuberculine [sic]. Before this discovery our flocks and herds used to wander none the less joyously and actively o'er hill and vale, and I do not believe that tuberculosis ever caused the slightest uneasiness to our forefathers." "After an exhibition such as this," says a medical critic, "can anybody be surprised when deputies and even ministers call in quacks to treat themselves and their families? Poor humanity! Verily the opponents of progress are not always to be sought for in the ranks of ignorance." It is, of course, true that the apostles of sanitation have ever encountered depreciators. Just as Pasteur had his Pouchet, so Goiffon had his Pestalozzi, the amazing author of a scientific dissertation on Jonah in the whale's belly, who nevertheless wrote as follows to the Lyons physician: "You have gone quite far enough, sir; you have gone too far. Let us abstain from creating in our brilliant imaginations troops of flying insects which multiply themselves ad infinitum, whereof the generations never cease, which swarm in the air, in merchandise, even in the bodies of living creatures!" Goiffon's theory was correct, but as yet the world was not ready for it. In this connection, however, it may be as well to recall the fact that the enemies of hygiene have not always been confined to the laity. The foolish utterances of Pestalozzi were well-nigh universally applauded by the various medical authorities of the day.-Lancet.

SYMPOSTHION.-Deutche (Wien. Med. Presse, 1898, No. 19) describes two cases of an affection, named "symposthion" by Lang. It consists in adhesion of the inner surface of the prepuce to the glans penis, and is of some importance as a complication of venereal diseases, as it leads to the formation of niches and recesses in which secretion can accumulate and organisms multiply. Thus the first of the cases under notice was one of gonorrhea, which improved somewhat under irrigation with permanganate,

but subsequently relapsed. The adhesions between prepuce and glans left two recesses into which sounds could readily be passed. These recesses were found to contain pus, in which gonococci were abundantly present. The other case was one of soft sores complicated by inguinal buboes. In both the symposthion was operated on with success, the adhesions being separated and the foreskin completely retracted. The free edge of the latter was sewn round behind the sulcus, and the raw surface, where necessary, covered in with Thiersch grafts. Any exuberant granulations were touched with lunar caustic. The author states that the condition is usually inflammatory in origin, but may in a certain number of cases, as pointed out by Düring, be congenital.—British Medical Journal.

THE CLAIMS OF OSTEOPATHY EXPOSED.-The Secretary of the Illinois State Board of Health, Dr. J. A. Egan, announces in a circular letter over his signature that the assertion made in a circular issued by a concern in Chicago claiming to teach the alleged science misnamed osteopathy is a lie in the fullest acceptation of the term. This institution advertised that its "Terms of study are so graded and the courses of study so broad and complete, that they comply with all the requirements of the Illinois State Medical Board, and allowed our students two years' credit on the regular medical education. These credits are recognized in any medical college in this country, and will be equivalent to two years' work done there." Dr. Egan also declares "it is not true that the 'credits' named are recognized in any medical college in this country."-Medical News.

LORD LISTER.-Lord Lister will in October next open the new Physiological and Pathological Laboratory at University College, Liverpool. The honorary degree of Doctor of Science will be conferred upon him by the Victoria University on this occasion. A clause in the charter prescribes that all honorary degrees must be conferred in a building provided by Owens College, but the Court of the University at its meeting recently gave its consent to the degree on this occasion being conferred in Liverpool.— British Medical Journal.

BIRDS TO PRODUCE TUBERCULOSIS ANTITOXIN.-Professor E. Behring claims that he has discovered a method of avoiding the injurious aftereffects of horse and other animal serum, to which consumptives seem particularly sensitive. He substitutes the serum of birds.

APPROPRIATION FOR JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.-The Maryland Legislature has appropriated $400,000 to this institution to tide it over its financial straits, due to the loss sustained in the default of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

THE eighth semi-annual meeting of the Southern Kentucky Medical Association will be held in Russellville, Ky., in the month of October, date to be announced later.