THE TREATMENT OF DIARRHEA BY SUBGALLATE OF BISMUTH.-Investigations by Colasanti have determined that subgallate of bismuth is a valuable agent in the treatment of diarrhœas of different origin, especially that due to tuberculosis. It can be suspended in mucilage or given in capsules, alone, or combined with opium, if pains are present, in doses of from two to seven grains. The author has observed no bad results following its administration.

BENZINE IN PEDICULOSIS. -According to the British Medical Journal, Nedzwiecki strongly recommends ordinary benzine as the most effective, cleanly and convenient application for destroying pediculi capitis or pubis. The affected parts should be freely bathed with the fluid for three or four minutes. Both pediculi and nits are killed almost instantaneously. As a rule, a single application is sufficient, even in severe cases. The smell of benzine disappears very quickly. The remedy can be safely applied even in the presence of an eczematous rash, since it causes only trifling pain, which soon passes off. The only objection which can be raised against its application is, it is extremely flammable, which can be overcome by applying only during the daytime.

VIS MEDICATRIX NATURE. The Hospital Gazette has picked up the following legend somewhere, and publishes it without comment: "It is stated that a miser, named Elwes, when both his feet were equally injured by an accident, consulted a surgeon, who began to expiate on the severe character of the wound and on the good fortune of his having been sent for. On this Mr. Elwes said: 'Now, Mr. Sawbones, I have one thing to say to you. I do not consider myself much hurt, whereas you think I am, so I will make this agreement; I will take one leg and you shall have the other; you shall do what you please with yours, and I will do nothing to mine, and I will wager you the amount of your bill that my leg gets well first.' Elwes delighted in telling this story, and used to assert with triumphant glee that he 'beat the apothecary by a fortnight."

THE QUACK QUESTION IN MANSFIELD, OHIO.-At a meeting of the council of the city of Mansfield, Ohio, held on November 29, an ordinance was passed by a two-thirds majority which is intended to prevent any quacks, itinerant vendors of medicine, "tooth-pullers," or other impostors practicing their nefarious schemes in that city without first getting a permit from the health officer, who, by the ordinance, is required to be a regular physician. The ordinance also requires these persons to display a diploma from some respectable college before the health officer can give them the necessary certificate entitling them to a license at all. On the presentation of said certificate to the mayor they can receive a license for which they must pay not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars a day, and are also subject to a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each and every offense against the ordinance. The law goes into effect immediately after its publication, and applies to physicians, midwives, pharmacists, and dentists. If all the city councils throughout the state of Ohio would follow the example set by the council of Mansfield, they would take a grand step in the direction of getting rid of quacks and impostors, which infect all the large cities of the state. This plan has been tried in Kentucky and, so far, has proved to be of great advantage in getting rid of these leeches. It should be followed in all the states that have no special laws or cannot get special legislation to remedy this great evil.

IMMUNITY AGAINST TYPHOID.-Bruschettini, in his experiments to obtain cultures affording immunity against typhoid, tried the effect of cultures in rabbits' blood, and found that the liquid portions, when injected under the skin, did not cause death, but a prolonged rise of temperature and progressive wasting. Injections into the peritoneum caused death in from three to five days, preceded by a rise of temperature and wasting. Injections in the blood of three to five cubic centimetres of similar cultures also caused death with the same symptoms in rabbits after about four days. He found it possible to obtain immunity to the disease with the aid of these cultures, heated for an hour at 60° centimetres, and also with old gelatin and broth cultures; that to obtain such a result it is necessary to employ about twenty cubic centimetres of heated blood culture, or fifty cubic centimetres of old broth or gelatin culture, given subcutaneously; that the serum of such immunized animals has great bactericidal powers in relation to the typhoid bacillus, much greater than that of the normal rabbit; finaly, the serum of such immunized rabbits possesses marked antitoxic actions against the typhoid bacillus. --Times and Register.

WRINKLES AS INDICATORS OF AGE. In a certain town in the South, where "Judges" form a large part of the population, there was an elderly gentleman, familiarly known as "Judge" -, who, for reasons best known to himself, was quite averse to telling his age. His friends and acquaintances tried many devices in the effort to ascertain how old the "Judge" was, but to no purpose. Finally his physician, who was occasionally called upon to treat the "Judge" for hæmorrhoids, from which he was a great sufferer, thought of a plan by which the desired information could be obtained, and on the occasion of his next visit proceeded to put it into effect. Placing his patient in the proper position for an examination, he said: ""Judge,' I have recently learned of two methods for the effectual relief of piles; but both are dependent for their results upon the age of the patient, one being adapted to persons in youth, the other to those who have passed middle life. Now, in order to apply the proper treatment in your case, it is essential that I know how old you are." The "Judge," directing a knowing look into the eyes of his questioner, replied: "Count the wrinkles, doctor; count the wrinkles." - New York Medical Journal.

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COCILLANA: AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO THE MATERIA MEDICA.-Respiratory inflammations always form a large proportion of the physician's cases. Bolivian remedy which gives promise of much therapeutic efficacy is cocillana, which was introduced a few years ago through the researches of Professor H. H. Rusby, the eminent botanist. Experiments were made with it by many medical investigators, who found its action very satisfactory in catarrhal inflammations of the respiratory organs, in coryza, hay asthma, bronchitis, acute and chronic, influenza, and pneumonia. It possesses also laxative and purgative qualities, and has been employed successfully as a substitute for ipecac and apomorphia in catarrhal conditions. Parke, Davis & Company, who introduced the remedy to physicians, will supply reprints of articles affording information concerning its therapeutic application, and invite the medical profession to test its virtues further by clinical experiment. They have after much difficulty obtained an ample supply of it, and will be glad to afford any facts desired concerning this or any other of their new remedies for respiratory affections.

MENTHOL IN PHTHISIS. -In the British Medical Journal for July the method of using menthol in phthisis as described by Brookhouse before the British medical association, is given as follows: Once or twice daily he injects into the trachea one drachm of a twelve per cent. solution of menthol in olive oil. This is effected by the aid of a laryngoscope and syringe especially made with a curved tube; the tube is passed through the rima glottidis, about half an inch down the trachea. After a little practice the patient becomes accustomed to its application and feels no discomfort whatever; on the contrary, there arises an agreeable sensation of warmth in the chest. One very early result is the marked diminution of cough and expectoration; the night-sweats, if previously existant, cease; the hectic temperatures become less marked; the curves often go to normal, and the patients often gain in weight.

BIRDS AS SURGEONS. -Some interesting observations relating to the surgical treatment of wounds by birds were recently brought by M. Fatio before the physical society of Geneva. He quotes the case of a snipe, which he has often observed engaged in repairing damages. With its beak and feathers, it makes a very creditable dressing, applying plasters to the bleeding wounds, and even securing a broken limb by means of a stout ligature. On one occasion he killed a snipe which had on the chest a large dressing composed of down taken from other parts of the body and securely fixed to the wound by the coagulated blood. Twice he had brought home snipe with interwoven feathers strapped on to the site of fracture of one or other limb. The most interesting example was that of a snipe both of whose legs he had unfortunately broken by a misdirected shot. He recovered the animal only on the day following, and he then found that the poor bird had contrived to apply dressing and a sort of splint to both limbs. In carrying out this operation, some feathers had become entangled around the beak; and, not being able to use its claws to get rid of them, it was almost dead from hunger when discovered. In a case recorded by M. Magnin, a snipe, which was observed to fly away with a broken leg, was subsequently found to have forced the fragments into a parallel position, the upper fragments reaching to the knee, and secured them there by means of a strong band of feathers and moss intermingled. The observers were particularly struck by the application of a ligature of a kind of flat leaf grass wound round the limb in a spiral form and fixed by means of a sort of glue.-Medical Record.

Ar the recent meeting of the American public health association, held in the city of Mexico, R. C. Kedzie, M. D., professor of chemistry in the Michigan state agricultural college, at Lansing, read an interesting paper entitled "The Ground of Safety," from which the following extract is taken: "Everything breathes, animate and inanimate, and as this function is maintained and left free, you have health, or conversely, sickness and death, because in man continuance in life or health is conditioned upon and limited by physical surroundings. Your clothing breathes, otherwise you could not tolerate it an hour; plastered walls breathe and yet without unhealthly air currents. I am often asked what is the influence of wall-paper on the unhealthfulness of a room? Let us test this question by seeing whether air will readily pass through wall-paper. I place a piece of wall-paper over the bowl of this pipe and try to blow the air through it, you see the flame (burning candle) is only feebly swayed, but if I use this filtered paper in the same way, I readily blow out the flame. The sizing used to lay on the colors of wall-paper fills the pores of the paper so as to nearly prevent the passage of air, even when we blow forcibly; but with the additional paste used to fasten the paper on the wall the papered wall becomes impervious to air. Over the plastered mouth of this pipe I have pasted some thin wall-paper; it is now dry, but you see I cannot blow the least air through it. A papered wall is a strangulated wall so far as respiration is concerned. When a wall is calcimined, the wall becomes impermeable to air. Here is a pipe the mouth of the bowl filled with mortar and this covered with calcimine; it has been thoroughly dried, but only a minute trace of air can be forced through it. The same is true of a painted wall. Here is another pipe filled with mortar. I have very thoroughly whitewashed the exposed face of the mortar, applying two coats of whitewash; yet you see I can blow air through it nearly as easily as through rough plaster, thus demonstrating how admirably a plastered wall when dry is fitted to make the wall of a healthy dwelling."

SHALL SUCCESS IN THERAPEUTICS BE IMPERILED BY ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS? -William H. Hawkes, M. D., writing on this subject in the New York Medical Journal, says: I have read and weighed the contents of the letter in your issue of December 19, 1891, on this subject: "Shall Success in Therapeutics be Imperiled by Ethical Considerations?" That certain points in this letter have made a profound impression upon me is the main reason why I now address you, and respectfully ask that my letter be published in the columns of the Journal in vindication of the honorable standing to which all good and true practitioners of medicine aspire. Dr. Dodge states very clearly a point that is now appealing to every progressive physician-that in these days of advancement in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products we should no longer be confined, as were our forefathers, to prescribing drugs in their crude form, since there are to-day thoroughly attested remedies in palatable form which our patients can take without repugnance and with benefit. Now, while the code of ethics is an admirable exponent of the tenets which are acceptable to the great body of practitioners in our country, yet it is at least a question open to discussion whether there are not some points which in our progressive age might be reconsidered and revised. And I would suggest as one subject for discussion the question of the approbation and recommendation of certain proprietary articles which are in almost daily use by very many of our ablest practitioners. Why should those preparations be condemned simply because their manufacturers are protected under a registered trade mark? Is it not perfectly legitimate for our medical societies to elect competent committees to be judges of the therapeutical value of tried proprietary preparations? And could not their recommendation also be secured by their indorsement: (1) In didactic and clinical lectures and private instruction given to medical students? (2) In original articles acceptable to the editors of recognized medical journals; and (3) In standard medical works? I address you particularly on this subject for the reason that the readers of your journal have carefully observed the fearless manner in which you and your able associates have defended the worthy against the unworthy and given justice where justice was due. We have also seen that your journal has reviewed and commended works by others than medical writers. I have in mind the fact that the very excellent work on the therapeutical application of coca erythroxylon by Angelo Mariani, of Paris, France, the proprietor of the world-renowned Vin Mariani, was favorably reviewed in your journal.

ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF PERNICIOUS ANEMIA.-Dr. G. A. Gibson (Edinburgh), acting on the suggestion of Dr. W. Hunter, that the destruction of the blood in this disease may be due to the presence of toxic bodies originating in the alimentary canal, treated a case of pernicious anæmia with ẞ-naphthol. The patient, a man, aged fifty-five years, presented all the classical features of the disease with the exception of dark urine and retinal hæmorrhages. On admission there were eight hundred thousand red corpuscles per cubic millimetre, with obvious changes in shape and size. Arsenic was tried first, but rapidly abandoned on account of gastric symptoms. Protochloride and perchloride of iron were next tried, but the patient continued to lose ground so much that transfusion (six ounces of defibrinated venous blood) was performed. Two days later the red corpuscles were one million, one hundred and twenty thousand; but by the end of a week they had fallen again to nine hundred and twenty thousand, and the patient's strength was rapidly failing. -naphthol was now given thrice daily in two-grain pills and continued for three weeks. There was considerable intestinal disturbance during this period, and during the first week of treatment the red corpuscles fell from one million to eight hundred thousand. A severe attack of diarrhœa now supervened, during which the administration of the antiseptic appears to have been withheld. It abated at the end of a fortnight, when the general condition was noted as being distinctly better, anæmia of mucous membranes less marked, and red corpuscles one million, and six hundred thousand. β-naphthol was again given twice a day, and the patient from this time continued to make satisfactory progress. The author is disposed to attribute the good result to the antiseptic. By way of control-experiments he has administered ẞ-naphthol to several anæmic patients, and so far has observed a notable increase in the number of red corpuscles. Edinburgh Medical Journal.

"ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, AND ITS ADVANTAGES AS A CLIMATIC RESORT FOR PHYSICAL PATIENTS," is the title of an article by Professor J. W. Gleitsmann of New York, published in the December number of the New Yorker Medicinischer Monatsschrift. The writer, considering the essentials of climate for the cure of phthisis, shows that elevation, temperature, and humidity, are the main factors, and that an elevated resort lying between two thousand and four thousand feet above sea level, with a moderate winter and cool summer temperature, and a relatively dry atmosphere, is most desirable. Asheville, North Carolina, where he has resided for a number of years heretofore, presents such climatic conditions, being there favorable for the entire year. It has an elevation of two thousand, three hundred and fifty feet, is situated in the Alleghany mountains at their highest point between the Blue Ridge and Great Smokies. The whole plateau has excellent drainage, with no marshes or standing water, enjoying entire freedom from malaria. The city itself has been greatly improved in its local sanitary appointments; it has paved streets, good accommodations for tourists and invalids, and there is also located the Winyah sanitarium, a special institution for diseases of the lungs and throat, in charge of Dr. von Ruck, who is otherwise well known to the profession by his clinical results in phthisis and his contributions to medical literature on this subject. The climate in winter, while not warm, is not so cold as to interfere with the outdoor life of patients, and in protected places during the hours of sunshiue the temperature frequently reaches 70° to 80° Fahrenheit. The average mean temperature is 49° for the winter