Health, got the innings and put through, by packing the convention, it is said, a resolution to the effect that the profession of medicine of the United States desire a sub-bureau, and not a separate and distinct department, and proposed to put said proposed bureau under control of the Marine Hospital Service. This, no doubt, was very much to the liking of SurgeonGeneral Wyman, who, no doubt, instigated Cochran to the trick. When, therefore, the Association's Journal, edited by a M. H. S. sub-officer, kicked against it, then it was that Wyman put on his war paint and went for Hamilton's scalp. He got it, we are sorry to learn; that is, he ordered him to leave Chicago, leave the Journal (big salary, it is said), and take charge of the M. H. S. station at San Francisco!-practically, under the circumstances, Botany Bay! Just how the matter is going to be adjusted to the satisfaction of all remains to be seen. Seems to me, if we were in J. B.'s place we would resign the M. H. S.-Texas Medical Journal, October, 1896. Smithsonian Institution in Need of an Assistant that may be Offered to David President Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, is most prominently mentioned to succeed the late Prof. Goode as Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and Director of the National Museum, at Washington, D. C. The appointment is not likely to be made before the January meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian, but the question is already attracting much attention in scientific circles. The directors of the national museums in England, France and other European countries are from the ranks of the foremost scientists, and the hope is expressed that the successor of Prof. Goode will be one of the first scientists of this country, one capable of expanding the museum and making it truly national. New buildings are to be built, and these will afford the new director an opportunity for administrative work. The appointment is made by the Board of Regents, usually on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Prof. Langley. Pres. Jordan, of Leland Stanford University, is being urged for his eminent scientific attainments. He is one of the best known naturalists in America, and it appears to be conceded that a naturalist will be chosen, although an ethnologist is among those mentioned for the place. Dr. Jordan has recently completed a work on the fishes of North America. He was appointed last spring as president of the commission of experts to go to Bering sea and investigate the condition of seal life. Before going to Leland Stanford, Dr. Jordan was President of Indiana University. In both positions he showed marked executive ability, which, it is said, would be of value in the development of the National Museum. Dr. Chart Merriam, ornithologist of the Agricultural Department, is also prominently mentioned in connection with the appointment. He has developed the biological survey in which the government is now engaged, mapping the general distribution of animals and plants, and fixing the economic status of birds and mammals. In the course of the work Dr. Merriam has written the series of monographs on North American fauna which, when completed, will make the first exhaustive treatment on that subject. While other names are more or less discussed, the drift of sentiment in scientific circles is strongly toward President Jordan. It is not known that he would accept. His present salary is $10,000, while that of Director of the Museum is less than half as much. It is said, however, that the directorship would afford a scientist opportunities for conducting his researches which would compensate for any money loss.-Press Reports. Mercury in Heart Disease. There is a survival of the fit in medicine as in life, and if any drug ever did demonstrate its fitness to survive, that drug is mercury, since not the misuse of the ancients, the protestations of the moderns (led by quackery), nor the sometimes adverse findings of science have been able to more than temporarily lessen its influence. And in our day the medical annal ist may note more than one successful attempt to find new uses for, by demonstrating hitherto unknown qualities in, the grand old drug. Here is one such attempt from no less a therapeutist than Dr. Murray, of London. In the Lancet of the 28th ult. appeared the following: The patient, a hard-working man, was a Scotchman, and had all the talent, physique, and energy peculiar to his race. He gradually manifested symptoms of valvular disease and dilated heart when about forty-eight years of age. He went to Edinburgh and was under treatment there for several weeks. At last he was sent home with the assurance that nothing more could be done for him. Dr. Wilson, of Wallsend, was summoned to see him, and he called Dr. Murray in consultation on the case. They found the patient in the following condition; propped up in bed; countenance was anxious; his eyes seemed to protrude from their sockets, and his face was bathed in perspiration, with a livid color of the lips and skin. His breathing was shallow, frequent, and difficult, accompanied by a constant hacking and ineffectual cough. Hii pulse was hardly perceptible, irregular, and thready. The heart's action was tumultuous and irregular, the cardiac sounds were almost inaudible, and a distant murmur could be heard with both sounds at both the right and left apex. No cardiac impulses could be felt except a wavy movement at the epigastrium. The liver was enlarged, and the abdominal cavity was distended with fluid, as were also the lower extremities and the scrotum. The pleural cavities were also occupied to a considerable extent by fluid effusion. They determined to abandon the usual cardiac stimulants and gave him two or three grains of blue pill three times a day, and at the end of two days he was given a smart purge of jalap. Greatly encouraged by the result, they pushed the blue pill (from two to three grains three times a day) for a week or more, and during that time a steady relief of all the symptoms ensued. The countenance became placid, the tongue (before dry and brown) became moist, and the pulse more regular, full, and soft; the dropsical accumulations gradually receded, and the breathing resumed a normal character. Now, says the author, was the time for digitalisalways best given on a falling tide in dropsyand doubtless the patient owed much of his rapid recovery to the temporary and occasional use of that drug; but the principal treatment was by the steady use of blue pill, now gradually diminished to two pills a day, and finally to a five-grain pill at bedtime. To sum up the results the man felt himself to be quite free from all his troubles in six weeks. The point of interest in this case, says Dr. Murray, is that during the next ten years the patient took his blue pill every night with few intermissions, and declared that whenever he omitted to take it for a few nights his heart began to trouble him and his breathing became difficult. This nightly dose was in some mysterious way enabling a heart massive with disease to discharge its duties in such a way as to make its owner feel quite well. The drug never salivated, purged, or nauseated him, and it never gave his breath a touch of fetor. At last, however, his old symptoms returned, the machinery was worn out, and he died chiefly from the pressure of abdominal fluid on his enormous heart. At the post-mortem examination the heart was seen to be excessively enlarged, and the space occupied by it measured eight inches across and eight inches from above downward. The lungs were displaced backward and compressed by the enlarged heart. The right auricle was very much dilated, almost to the size of a man's fist. The walls were thickened and the muscular tissue hypertrophied. The auriculo-ventricular orifice was very much increased in size and readily admitted eight fingers at once. The tricuspid valves were much thickened and opaque. The right vetricle was much dilated and the walls were thin. The left auricle was much dilated, the walls were thick, and the endocardium was opaque. In one part of the wall of the auricle there were two bars of calcified muscular tissue united by a crossbar of the same substance. The auriculoventricular opening was much constricted and hardly admitted the tip of the index finger. The mitral valves were adherent, so that there was only a small opening like a buttonhole between them. The valves were thick and rigid, but not calcified. The left ventricle was dilated, but its capacity was only about half of that of the right ventricle. The walls were not much increased in thickness.-American Practitioner and News, October 19, 1895. Exhibition of the Skeleton of a Eunuch. In the large cities of Egypt, chiefly in Cairo, one meets on the streets quite a number of eunuchs attached as servants to wealthy families, and especially employed as guardians of women confined in the harems. As Godard had already observed, during his remarkable scientific journey in Egypt, these unfortunate fellows present, when they are adults, a very slender statures and shape, by which they are easily recognizable, even from a distance. On the contrary, in childhood the castrated in no wise differ from other chil dren of the same age. But as soon as they reach puberty their growth occurs with great rapidity, and in a short time they almost measure two metres and above. During my last stay in Egypt, says M. Lortet, I had the opportunity of dissecting in Cairo the body of a eunuch, about twenty-five years old, coming probably from the Echillouk's lands, situated in the regions of Bahr el Gazal, far south of Kharthoum. The cranium was well formed, but the maxillary and dental prognatism is of the most pronounced type. The size of the skeleton is one metre ninety-six, while that of the subject alive was certainly above one metre ninety-nine. The thorax seems very short when compared with the length of the lower limbs. The pelvis is very small, almost atrophied. On each side the obturator foramen is so large that there exists between them but a very narrow symphysis pubis. The long bones are all exceedingly slender, and do not present the crests intended for the insertion of muscles. The humerus is comparatively short. The radius and ulna are long and weak. The metacarpal bones very elongated, and the phalanges alike, constitute a hand of lengthened and narrowed build, almost simian in shape. The femur very weak, hardly shows any curvature. The tibia and fibula, both very slender, are surpassingly long. The feet are flat. The metatarsal bones and the phalanges are also very slender and very long. The unsual lengthening of the limbs is very remarkable, chiefly in the lower limbs. It was most interesting to point out this fact. It corresponds entirely with what we can verify in animals. The ablation of the testicles, therefore, when performed before the growing age, brings on an increase in length of the abdominal limbs. In Egypt castration is at present performed on boys from seven to ten years old by the monks of certain Coptic convents, who reap a good profit by supplying the harems of wealthy Mussulmans with some of their mutilated victims. The operation is made in two different ways, and I am sure of these facts. The first operative method consists in cutting off with a razor the sexual parts as near as possible to the pubic region, carrying away in a single stroke both the penis and the scrotum. Then the patient is buried, dry sand for the purpose of staying the almost up to his neck, in some fine and hemorrhage. After four or five days the sufferer is dug out and the wound is dressed with a few rags sprinkled with oil. The The second operative procedure consists in dividing or rather in crushing the spermatic cords and the penis by means of a strong twine whose extremities the operator pulls apart with his might. sufferings of the child are then horrible, but hemorrhage is not to be feared so much in this case. The sufferer is, therefore, not buried in sand, and his wound is dressed with acacia bark, which is rich in tannin. But in either of the two procedures entailing these barbarous mutilations two-thirds of the children succumb. -Medical and Surgical Reporter, August 29th. Dr. Dan Milliken on Credulity in Medicine. Dr. Dan Milliken, of Hamilton, Ohio, is evidently a man of comprehensive knowledge, close reasoning, rare humor, and remarkable power of expression. This we infer from a perusal of his presidential address, entitled "A Study in Credulity." delivered before the Ohio State Medical Society at its last annual meeting. After picturing the humoral pathology as "only a higher form of personification of the morbific principle," which “substituted a vague and shadowy entity for the half-corporeal demon which had haunted pathology for so many centuries," Dr. Milliken says: "We do much better now. We have a pathology of the zymotic diseases which is harmonious and strictly scientific and conformable to the true spirit of induction. But it falls in my way to say, to-day, that it is not at all to the credit of our craft that the old credulity breaks out anew with every announcement of progress in bacteriology; greedy, gulping acceptance of principles, unproved and half proved, in bacteriology is the disgrace of the day; most of us have been obliged to change front three times on the bacteriology of diphtheria, and it is certain as death and taxes that we shall play the jumping-jack through future years if we do not, after the manner of scientific men, receive valuable hypotheses as hypotheses." Proprietary preparations, Dr. Milliken declares, "do not differ in any regard from the patent medicines which are swallowed in such quantities by the laity to feed the inextinguishable laughter of the doctors." "It is not in order," he adds, "for you or me to sneer at the girl who buys lovepowders in the kitchen, or madam who buys subscription books in the parlor, if we, snickering in the office, are seduced by the drummer's smooth tongue into the purchase and use of secret remedies. I am told that the formula is on each bottle. The formula, indeed! The Egyptian sphinx has a very open countenance, yet the ages have not wrested her secret from her. The formula on each bottle! Spare us such formulas in the kitchen, for if the cook has only the names of her ingredients hinted to her, 'combined with aromatics,' she will never be able to concretely realize the theoretic difference between pudding and bread, or between plain omelet and baked custard, and the only certainties she will deal out to us will be dyspepsia and consuming wrath. There are superstitions in medicines to be sloughed; there are noble certainties to be attained. Throw away your samples and practice medicine!" But it is not Dr. Milliken's opinion that, judged as a whole, the medical profession is credulous; its genius, he does not doubt, will meet and neutralize the evil tendency to credulity, for "it has ever been the proud boast of the doctor that he has dis sipated doubt and superstition, has gone far beyond the bounds of his art to bring certainty and scientific apprehension to the world."-Editorial in New York Medical Journal. The Woman's Medical Journal. The Woman's Medical Journal of Toledo is now in its fifth year of existence. While in many respects it is a very creditable example of woman's energy and perseverance, it is nevertheless far from creditable to medical women as a class, as we believe the following extract from the April number will demonstrate. We could not refrain from an investigation of the advertising pages, twenty-four in number, containing an assorted lot of advertisements, ranging from bad and indifferent to good. The class among which the following belongs will not be difficult to establish: OUR "JUST WHAT YOU WANT! · TURKISH EMMENAGOGUE CAPSULES.' CHEM. CO., NEW EGYPT." Would it not be more creditable to succeed by easier stages and through less questionable assistance? We leave this question for the able corps of editors of the Woman's Medical Journal to answer. -Pittsburg Medical Review. Report of Nine Hundred Extirpations of Goitre. In commenting on his "Report of Extirpation of Goitre" (Journal Nervous and Mental Diseases), Kocher remarked, during the past ten years, in which he had performed the operation on nine hundred patients, he had met but one case in which cachexia strumipriva had developed. This was entirely owing to the fact that he always left a part of the thyroid gland, which was sufficient to carry on the functions of that organ. In the single case in which the cachexia developed, the extirpation was unilateral, but after the operation it was found that the other side was atrophied. A very interesting statement by Kocher is that he had several times noticed that tetany, which he is pleased to call acute cachexia, developed. It is interesting, likewise, to hear that the patient in whom. cachexia strumipriva developed recovered through thyroid feeding. In speaking of the mortality in his operations, Kocher says that he deducts thirty cases of malignant goitres in which unusual and peculiar difficulties militated. against success. Of the remaining 870, eleven died, but in six only was death the direct result of the operation, and of these three were operated on for Graves' disease. The extirpation of the goitre in the latter disease he regards as dangerous. For the latter he prefers to ligature the thyroid arteries, but never more than three of them. Referring to some researches that had been made under his observation by Lanz and Trachewski in the treatment of goitre by the injection of thyroid extract, the author said that in the long run this method may determine complete atrophy of healthy parts of the thyroid gland. He further remarked that all the symptoms of Graves' disease had been produced in healthy animals by these experiments. He found also that the symptoms of exophthalmic goitre improved greatly under treatment by phosphate of sodium. -Maryland Medical Journal, September, 1895. A Wisconsin Diploma Mill. The following letter was sent to a graduate of Jefferson Medical College: Dear Doctor-We notice your name in a Medical and Surgical Directory, but with a appended. This usually means (although not necessarily so) that the person so designated is not a graduate of a medical school, and has no diploma. If, however, it should be that you are a graduate, and have a regular diploma, then we can but tender our most sincere apologies for troubling you on the matter. But, on the other hand, if you are not a graduate, and have no regular diploma, then the perusal of the enclosed prospectus cannot fail to be of the most primary importance and interest to you. We would also desire to draw attention to the fact that to practicing physicians our fees are much reduced from the regular rate. To this class our fees are $35, all inclusive. As proof of our legal standing to confer the degree of M. D., we can supply certified copies of our charter at 25 cents each, simply covering the cost of certifying officer's fee. Trusting soon to hear from you, and standing ready to answer any or all questions you may wish to submit, we are yours very sincerely, WISCONSIN ECLECTIC MEDICAL COLLEGE. This "college" does not make attendance, even, a requisite to graduation! It is "regularly chartered."-Texas Medical Journal. Carbolic Acid. The use of carbolic acid in full strength upon the fresh tissues, raw surfaces, etc., causes the formation of a protective albuminate, a condition which renders further absorption impossible. The same takes place when the strong acid is applied to a raw burned surface. It is not claimed that an aqueous dilution is safe when applied extensively to raw surfaces; on the contrary, the more dilute the more dangerous. In a case of washing out the thorax in the treatment of purulent pleurisy, the late Roger Keys, a most careful and judicious physician, came near losing a patient from absorption of the dilute acid. "It will strike many of you with astonishment when I say that it would be safer to pour a gallon of pure carbolic acid into. a purulent thoracic cavity than to pour in a gallon of water into which a single ounce of carbolic acid has been placed. I will go even further, and say that excess of the strong acid in a cavity such as an abscess cavity, or upon exposed tissues, as a burn or a fresh wound, does no harm, while excess of a dilute solution, if left in a cavity or used over an extensive raw surface, will be promptly followed by dangerous if not fatal toxic effects."-Dr. Oscar H. Allis, in Philadelphia Polyclinic. (We know of no treatment which gives such complete satisfaction in burns, of whatever extent or degree, as does the application of pure carbolic acid. This opinion is based upon a considerable experience extending over a period of more than eighteen months.-Ed.)-Ft. Wayne Medical Magazine. |