oviforme. This organism, unicellular and animal in its nature, is otherwise known as gregarina, producing the socalled "Gregarinen krankheit" of fowls, and it was from this that these coccidia were obtained and injected experimentally into the hepatic duct of the rabbit, which died after several weeks. The lesion which they have produced is essentially an intra-canalicular epithelial proliferation, looking not unlike adenoma. It is certainly neoplastic in appearance. Just what relationship these coccidia bear to the bodies being studied in connection with cancer is uncertain. I shall reserve the privilege of making a further communication on this subject at another time. DR. KRAMER presented a specimen of encysted rabbit's liver as follows: I have placed under the microscope here a specimen that is intended to supplement those of Dr. Freiberg. You will find here a "cyst" as it frequently occurs in the rabbit liver, made up of a fairly well-marked fibrous capsule, filled with coccidia oviforme. They appear as oval bodies, with a well-marked cap sule and contracted potoplasm. This is the full-grown encysted coccidium as it appears very frequently. In this form the disease seems to be harmless, the parasites gaining entrance probably through the intestinal tract, reaching the liver through the bile duct, where they multiply and are walled off by a welldeveloped cyst-wall of connective tissue. Urea as a Diuretic in Liver Cirrhosis. Klemperer (Fortschritte der Medecin, November 1, 1896.) finds urea, in doses of 150 to 220 grains daily, of value in the treatment of ascites due to cirrhosis. He makes a 5 per cent. solution in distilled water, and gives a tablespoonful every hour. He records two cases in which ascites was completely removed in fourteen days. In one the quantity of urine passed daily rose from 250 c.cm. to 4,000 c.cm. Klemperer also recommends the administration in the treatment of nephrolithiasis; he says it acts better than piperazin. Med. Chronicle. Translations. THE PLAGUE. TRANSLATED FROM "HISTOIRE MEDECALE DES MALADIES EPIDEMIQUES,' PAR DR. JEAN ANTOINE FRANCOIS OZANAM. BY THOMAS C. MINOR, M.D., CINCINNATI. PLAGUE. (Continued.) We now come to one of the most memorable epochs of the plague, the year 1720, when it broke out at Marseilles, from thence spreading into Provence, where it destroyed 87,666 people in thirteen months. Drs. Chirac and Chicoyneau have left very inexact information regarding this outbreak. Dr. Bertrand, of Aix, is the one who describes this epidemic most carefully, and the information furnished by him, taken in connection with that offered by Drs. Peysronnel, Perrin and Croizet, gives us complete details of the type of disease that we shall mention at length. Captain Chateau, of Marseilles, left Sidon and touched at the port of Tripoli, in Syria, were he was obliged to take up some Turkish passengers for the Island of Cyprus. These persons had clean bills of health, although the plague was raging in that quarter; one of the Turks was taken ill aboard ship and died in a few days, when his body, along with its effects, was thrown into the sea. Two sailors who had handled the cadaver were next attacked by the same symptoms, and also died; then two of their comrades and the ship doctor, who had treated them, perished. Three more sailors fell ill on the passage and died at Livournia, where the vessel was obliged to land. Physicians united in saying that it was malignant pestilential fever. Finally, the captain entered the port of Marseilles on May 25, and his vessel was not quarantined; ten days after another sailor died. On May 30 three other ships arrived in port from the same parts, and on June 12 another ship; all stated that there were suspicions of the plague at parts they had touched; nevertheless, no sanitary precautions were taken by the authorities other than to put the merchandise in warehouses, and soon several more people died. Captain Chateau, with all his family, now fell victims to the malady; it was finally decided to quarantine the four vessels. Three porters engaged to purify the merchandise died with axillary buboes. The hospital port surgeon obstinately refused to declare the disease contagious; two other city doctors were called in consultation and declared that the porters had died of plague. The passengers of the vessels were allowed to enter the town after nineteen days' quarantine, after their effects had been fumigated. Drs. Peysronnel, father and son, had warned the authorities as to the contagious character of the disease, but the latter, fearing to excite the populace, took no measures to prevent the spread of the pestilence. Soon many quarters of the city were infected. Dr. Sicard observed several persons attacked by buboes and carbuncles; they died in a night; other patients appeared, and this physician, convinced it was the plague, formally notified the magistrates of the town. The latter, in place of appointing this clear-headed practitioner to make a report, named a surgeon to visit the sick; he, through utter ignorance or mean jealousy, declared the affection to be worm fever, simple in type and not contagious. After this other physicians held their tongues so as not to expose their confrère to mortification; then the contagion made frightful progress. On July 23 fourteen persons died in Escale Street alone, and many were attacked who died the following day. This state of affairs caused a reign of terror in the city. Dr. Peysronnel, the son, now openly published the fact that the plague was epidemic. The Parliament at Aix issued an order declaring that all communication with Marseilles should be cut off; very soon the disease commenced to be felt, and to remedy this three stations were established in roads from Aubagne and Aix, and at Estagne by way of the sea. Sellers were separated from buyers by barriers, and thus provided subsistance for the inhabitants. Four physicians, two surgeons and one apothecary were named | by towns to visit and care for the sick, and all declared it was the plague that raged. But the public officials would take no heed of this informstion, and published quite the contrary news, despite the formal protests of Drs. Perrin and Croizet. One physician proposed to light bonfires every day at 5 o'clock in the evening for three days on all streets and public places, and follow this up by burning sulphur in all the houses. This advice was followed; the air, thickened by a black burning smoke, increased the heat of the season, and contagion only grew more active. All the inhabitants deserted their houses, going to the country, camping out, or living aboard ships; all the public officers and nuns left the city, where only the clergy remained, animated by the example of the Bishop, the noble Monsignor De Belzunces, who exhibited heroic courage and a charity far above common eulogy. Measures were taken for the safety of the city and the furnishing of food. The common beggars and street vagabonds were obliged, by force, to remove the dead from houses and bury them. All functions — public, private, commercial, religious and judicial-were suspended, yet disorder of all kind was overcome, especially thieving and libertinage. The greatest disaster wrought by the plague occurred in August. Drs. Chicoyneau and Verny, of the Faculty of Montpellier, were sent by the Government to recognize the character of the disease; with a strange degree of contempt, they declared it was only a contagious pestilential fever, and the celebrated Chirac, first physician to the Regency, confirming this opinion, sent rules and regulations to Paris as to how this deplorable condition of affairs was to be managed. Nevertheless, the two first medical experts left Aix very suddenly. day. The bodies served to feed homeless dogs. spots were present, or if these eruptions were obscure. If the patients passed the third day there was hope of cure; if the disease was prolonged beyond that time, and the eruption kept out, the sufferers were usually saved; but the fading of the eruption, with violent symptoms, was promptly followed by death. Sometimes, coming on after a false period of calmness, without pain, agitation, and with a natural pulse, but with weakened vital force, death ensued, with frightened and sparkling eyes and a sinister aspect like that observed in hydrophobia. The hydrophobia. In general, the other symptoms of plague were the same as those observed in malignant fever, but had a greater degree of violence; from the commencement there was depression, despair, extreme agitation, nausea, vomiting, pain in the epigastric region, syncope, oppression, diarrhea, hemorrhage, lethargy or maniacal delirium. The estimable Dr. Bertrand, author of this history, fell a victim to his zeal in caring for the plague-stricken sick; he was attacked no less than three times by the disease, but fortunately always recovered. Many physicians succumbed to the malady; twenty-five doctors and almost all the druggists perished. More than eighty convicts, forced to remove and bury the dead, died in eight days. Almost all pregnant women fell before the destroyer, either aborting or from want of care during confinement. The plague was no less severe in the country, for it carried off five-sixths of the inhabitants in many small places. The disease gradually lessened in its intensity during the winter, and totally disappeared by the end of May, 1721. It was propagated in towns and their suburbs, especially at Aix and Toulon, where it was carried through means of contraband merchandise. D'Autrechaux has printed a narrative of this. It ceased outside in the month of August, 1721. The mortality caused by this plague in Provence alone from July, 1720, up to August, 1721, was 84,719. two Dr. Bertrand distinguished distinguished varieties of the malady, one benign, the other malignant. The first type was characterized by a slight chill at the start, pain in the epigastrium, nausea, vomiting, headaches, vertigo, more or less acute fever, that ended at the end of the sixth day by sweating, or a fetid bilious diarrhea, without any eruption of buboes or any other exanthemata; in some cases buboes appeared at the time of the invasion of the malady, or fifteen or twenty days afterward, but these buboes passed to a happy termination by suppuration, or were dissipated by insensible resolution without being accompanied by other accidents. This benign variety was very common. The second variety of plague evidenced itself under many forms; while some of the patients died suddenly without any precursory symptoms, or rather in six, eight or twenty-four hours, the end was speedy; the majority of persons attacked perished on the third day, especially if no buboes nor exanthematous It is almost useless to speak of the treatment; it was purely empirical, and theriacum,' dioscordium, and sudorifics, cordials, etc., were employed without much profit. This was the time that the aromatic elixir called Quatre Voleurs acquired a great reputation as a prophylactic. Jean Fredric Schreiber, of Koenigsberg, published, in 1750, at Petersburg, a narrative of the plague as it prevailed in 1738 and 1739 in the Ukraine county, to which it was brought by the Russians after the capture of Oxzacow, where it raged among the Turks. It was ushered in by a febrile paroxysm, followed by inexpressible precordial anxiety, lateral pains, burning heat internally, red face and a furious delirium, that preceded an eruption of buboes at the groins, with I Theriacum is one of the most ancient of all medical agents. Bordeu once stated that it was "a monstrous mixture, and the meeting point of all medical systems." The spiritous liquors contained in theriacum seem to be its principal medicinal merit. Stahl regarded theriacum as an odd mixture of all kinds of drugs, and deemed the best formula a mixture of serpentaria (Virginia snake root), scordium and Armenian bole, together with opium. Some authors believed the aqueous extract of opium was the best for use, observing proper proportions in the dose of medicine. The old London and Paris pharmacopeas contain formulæ.—TRANSLATOR. with chronic ulcers were saved from the affection as well as those who had consumption; the debauched and all the drunkards met a fatal end. carbuncles and petechiæ; the pulse, at | seven months aborted and died. Persons first slow and feeble, became accelerated; there were violent palpitation, oppression, nausea; bilious vomiting of a green, black and fetid character, with alvine dejections of the same nature; soporosity or convulsions and death on the second or third day. Sneezing was a sure sign of approaching death. Some bodies were opened and showed the lungs to be black and gangrenous, the gall-ents, acidulated drinks and sour broths. bladder full of fluid yellow bile. At the end of the disease those who were attacked noted the appearance of buboes or carbuncles, both together, without any febrile symptoms; when the buboes suppurated a cure was certain; this suppuration lasted five or six weeks or even longer. When the parotids were affected they were the seat of carbuncles, or became cancerous and their amputation was the only remedy; the carbuncles announced themselves by a red point encircled with a livid or blackish areola under the epidermis; little by little tumefaction occurred, they were at times covered with pustules similar to those observed in variola; this was a favorable symptom. Carbuncles weighing a pound were noticed; they dipped into the muscles and the cellular tissues of the skin. Such carbuncles did not bring themselves to a head, changing into livid or black petechial spots, that induced death on the second or third day after their appearance. If the buboes did not tend to suppuration from the fifth day the black petechiæ came on and were the fore runners of death. A few of these buboes underwent resolution; if they remained in the same condition for nine days a general heat was observed, especially in the loins, that were deprived of motion. From thence, a few hours later, pustules with white points appeared; if these degenerated into carbuncles it was a favorable sign; if not the patients died on the ninth to the thirteenth day. Some persons died suddenly without any signs of plague, overcome by fright. Children of eight years and under were usually spared; women and young girls were the most affected. Women preg. nant three months did not contract the malady, while those pregnant five to Ipecacuanha, or white vitriol given at the start, were excellent remedies to cut short the contagious action; afterward theriacum was prescribed, with absorbents, sudorifics, camphor, dilu Blisters were applied to the buboes; when suppuration occurred they were dressed with an ointment of precipitated mercury. The carbuncles were scarified in circles, or were circumscribed by nitrate of silver; they were afterwards dressed with soft poultices and various ointments. Orazio Turiano, Secretary of the Messina Senate, in his "History of the Plague of Messina," that occurred in 1743, draws a frightful picture of the ravages it then occasioned. It killed 43,400 people in three months, as many in the city as in the suburbs. It was introduced by a vessel from Genoa, the Maria della Misericordia, Captain Giacomo Bozzo commanding, that arrived from Missolonghi, a small seaport situated at the entrance of the Gulf of Lepanto, opposite Cephalonia; the vessel was loaded with grain, wool and fine linen. A sailor and the Captain died on their arrival, having all the symptoms of plague. The Senate ordered the ship burned and the merchandise was quarantined, but, despite these sanitary precautions, the contagion soon spread throughout the city. It was announced by violent symptoms, such as pain in the head, soporosity, furious delirium, convulsions, dry and blackish tongue, the buboes often covered by aphthæ; wakefulness, uneasiness, acute pains in the kidneys, vomiting, diarrhea or dysentery, with worms; petechia and buboes. During the whole month of May no carbuncles were observed, although the disease was in its full vigor. This pestilence only commenced to diminish about August 15, and it entirely disappeared in September. It was observed that a woman who had had the plague at Marseilles in 1720, and a slave who had suffered an attack on the Levant, assisted sick THE persons without themselves contracting Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic: the malady; the convents were also exempt. NOTICE! The "Physician's Vest-Pocket Formula Book," published by McKesson & Robbins, will be found very useful to the practitioner. It contains a table of weights and measures, antidotes to poisons, various tables of reference, and a very complete series of tables, showing the composition of foods and alcoholic liquors. These tables should prove valuable to the physician in cases where special attention to dietary is necessary. The book also contains an extended series of notes on some of the new pharmaceutical preparations and a complete list of formulæ of the McK. & R. Gelatine Coated Pills. A copy will be sent free of charge to any of our readers on application to McKesson & Robbins, 91 Fulton Street, New York. THE Laryngoscope, published in St. Louis, has been selected as the official organ, for the year 1897, of the Laryngological Section of the New York Academy of Medicine. This selection, and the great probability of the same journal being chosen by other Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Societies as their official organ, would indicate that The Laryngoscope has become what its proprietors stated they intended to make it, i.e., The American Journal of Record for the specialties repre sented. A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY. AN INTERNATIONAL SANITARY Nature is so bountiful in her productions in this country that it is almost, if not quite, a surprise to be informed that there is a scarcity of food in any locality, and this is particularly applicable to the wonderfully fertile regions south of the Ohio River; but, through natural causes, a scarcity does pertain in a portion of Louisiana. It is believed efficient means have been taken to relieve the distress. Famine, with all of its horrors, continues in India. The land of that country is perhaps as fertile as the soil of any portion of America, but it is greatly over-populated, and through a lack of judgment in statesmanship on the part of England, the resources of the country have been drawn upon beyond that which is necessary to support the people who are living there, and without resources of trade and commerce sufficient to meet the deficit there is gaunt and pestilential famine. At best it may be said the people of |