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MEDICAL.

THE ANALGESIC EFFECT OF LACTOPHENIN.

Dr. Charles S. Potts reports that he has made use of this drug in five cases of neuralgia involving the branches of the trigeminus, four of which were relieved; in one case of severe sciatica that was benefitted for a time, in two cases of severe reflex pain, due to irritative conditions elsewhere; in two cases of migraine, two of muscular rheumatism, two of the characteristic pains of the tabes dorsalis, all of whom received benefit from its use; and in four cases of simple headache, presumably benefitted. The dose varied from four to ten grains.-Therapeutic Gazette, 1897. No. 1, p. 8.

THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE BRONCHO-PNEUMONIA IN CHILDREN.

Dr. Legendre states that fresh air in the sick-room is important, and water should be kept boiling to which antiseptic substances should be added, as carbolic acid, tincture of benzoin, or eucalyptus leaves. The decubitus should be frequently changed; in the case of larger children they should be kept in a half-reclining posture. During the active period nauseating drugs, as the antimonials (kernes mineral aud tartar emetic,) senega, and ipecac; stupefacients, as aconite and opiates; sudorifics and diuretics as ammonium acetate and jaborandi, should be avoided. Blisters should never be used. The therapeutic indications are based upon the congestive forms of asphyxia or upon the cardiac paralyses, or when there are nervous symptoms -delirium, convulsions-or when there is insufficiency of nutrition. To prevent active hyperæmia cold-packs over the chest are employed until the number of respirations falls one-fourth, one-third, or even to one-half of their former frequency. For cardiac paralysis caffeine holds first rank, given hypodermati. cally, as often and in as large doses as is necessary, avoiding cerebral excitement, headache, and insomnia by dividing the doses. Next comes digitalis, slow in its action, but more lasting.

Sparteine and strychnine are useful for combatting weakness, as is also alcohol in its various forms.-Bulletin General de Therapevtique, 1896, 6e liv. p. 269.-Amer. Jour. Med. Sciences.

A SIMPLE REMEDY FOR ENURESIS.

James F. Prendergast (N. Y. Med. Journal) recommends the use of cold shower baths, or cold douche, in the treatment of noctural enuresis. The treatment is administered every night. before retiring. The author reports eighty boys in St. John's Orphan Asylum treated by this method, 80 to 90 per cent. of recoveries being the result.

The method employed is as follows: Stand the patient in an empty bath-tub. Fill a basin or watering-pot with cold water, and pour down over the shoulders. In the case of nervous, delicate children one dash of water is sufficient. In sluggish, phlegmatic lads the dose might be repeated. This should be followed by a good rub-down. The result of the cold-water bathing is also good from a hygienic standpoint. Not one of the eighty boys had a cold during the winter.

The theory of the cure is that it adds "tone" to the whole nervous and muscular system, the shock producing a profound mental impression and a local action on the centre in the lumbar cord, which controls micturition.

The author believes that nearly all the cases of enuresis in children are due to a nervous temperament or laziness and indifference, rather than from reflex irritation. He suggests an icebag to the spine or an electric shock in obstinate cases.-Modern Medicine.

MALARIAL DISEASE PREVENTED BY SMALL DOSES OF QUININE.

Laveran (Revue d'hygiene) reviews the reports of many medical officers in charge of the health of bodies of European and American men exposed to severe malarial influences. His conclusion is that quinine usually proves very potent in preventing or at least mitigating malarial disease, even in very unhealthful localities. Against its use the objection has been made that daily administration of this drug induces attacks of indigestion, and that quinine becomes less potent in a given case if administered habitually, the system becomes habituated to it. Yet

these objections are not sound. A dose of from one-fifth to three tenths of a gramme a day can be employed for months with impunity. Quinine destroys the causative microbes by its power as a parasiticide. The microbes of paludism that chance to get into the blood of a person who has been treated preliminarily by the small preventative doses, find them a medium wholly or quite unfavorable to their development. At the most, they develop only with difficulty. The daily dose should not exceed three-fifths of a gramme nor be less than a seventh of a gramme. Some prefer a dose of one gramme thrice weekly. To procure a rapid absorption, the hydrochloride is preferable to the sulphate, and is better supported. The best time to take quinine is at meal times. The best way is to dissolve it in wine, although cachets or pills suffice. If added to coffee, that precipitates a portion of the quinine.-N. Y. Med. Journal.

THE SCIENCE OF OSTEOPATHY.

Columbus, Ind., March 25, 1897. Editor Lancet-Clinic:-Do you know anything of a class of people in the State of Missouri who practice what they term the "science of osteopathy." They claim to have a branch office at Crawfordsville, Ind., managed by a man named Still. If you can give me any light as to this, either by personal letter or through the Lancet-Clinic, it will be a great accommodation to an Ohio medical medical graduate. Fraternally,

A. M. KIRKPATRICK.

[The science of osteopathy is a combine of the old bone-setter's art, spiritualism, faith cure and Christian science constituting a method for the practice of charlatanry upon the innocents who are credulous. With some neurasthenics and hysterical cases it is altogether probable that they have met with a degree of success in their methods of treatment. In some instances their massage work may do good by breaking up some abnormal adhesions. I think that is all. Their methods of business are those of the charlatan, and quackish in the extreme. By their labors with the weak-minded they are likely to land some of them in the hospitals for the insane. Their science is the science of imposition upon credulity and nothing more.]-Lancet-Clinic.

FORMALIN AN APPROXIMATE SPECIFIC FOR RINGWORM.

An interesting editorial note has appeared in Guy's Hospital Gazette calling attention to a recent paper by Mr. Alfed Salter, on the treatment of ringworm by formic aldehyde, or formalin. This treatment is now so well known in Guy's, and has had such a conspicous success, that it should be part of the ordinary practice of every old Guy's man. There seems no doubt that it is the almost specfic treatment for the disease, especially in obstinate and hitherto incurable cases. And yet this discovery rose from the annoying fact that the inventor's cultivations of the ring. worm microbe were all killed one night through his having left the stopper out of the formalin bottle. So do fates at times turn good out of evil. The Theraputic (London) November 15. -Journal American Medical Association, January 2, 1897.

THE CAUSE OF WARTS.

Schall (Arch. f. Dermatol. und Syph.) saw a wart develop on his own finger in eight days, at a point where a number of minute glass splinters had entered the skin, but without producing any apparent wound. The wart was treated with caustic alkali and removed entire, and the splinters of glass were found in its base. The author raises the question whether all warts do not have a similar etiology. They occur usually on exposed portions of the body and especially in children whose tender skin, and their disposition to play in the sand and dirt, give abundant opportunity for the local irritation of the papillæ by foreign bodies.-Med. News.

THE ABILITY OF BACTERIA TO PASS THROUGH THE INTESTINAL

MUCOUS MEMBRANE.

The question of the permeability of the intestinal canal for different kinds of microorganisms has been revived by the investigations of French authors, who claim to have found bacteria in great quantities in the chyle. Neisser, however, (Centralbl. f. innere Med.) claims that the chyle, under ordinary circumstances, is entirely free from bacteria, and, although it does not possess any germicidal properties, he did not find any bacteria either in the lymph glands or in the blood-vessels associated with the intestines; so he eoncluded that the intestinal wall was not pervious to them. Nevertheless, the question is not entirely set.

tled, for there seem to be circumstances under which bacteria in t'he intestines are capable of setting up a general infection, while under other circumstances, countless germs of a highly pathonenic character may remain for days in the intestines without doing any injury.-Medical News.

OBSTETRICAL.

EXPERIMENTAL ECLAMPSIA.

Van de Velde (Wien. Klin. Rundschan) seeks to give the auto-intoxication theory of eclampsia an experimental basis. He began by comparing the case with which the injection of human urine induces convulsions in pregnant and non-pregnant rabbits, finding that the average dose required is in the former case 9 c.cm. per kilog. of body weight, in the latter 20 c.cm. per kilog. In only one out of 37 pregnant animals experimented upon was there any difficulty in evoking convulsions The causes of this increased susceptibility may be two in number: the presence of a greater proportion of the toxins producing convulsions in the blood of pregnant animals, or a greater vulnerability of their nerve centres to these toxins. Now the author finds that if the blood of a gravid and non-gravid animal be injected at different times into the same rabbit, 18 c.cm. per kilog. of the former induce eclampsia, as against 25 c.cm. per kilog. of the latter. If urine be substituted for blood, the figures are 18 and 30 c.cm. per kilog. The author concludes from these experiments that pregnancy leads to the formation in the female organism of substances whose principal action is the causation of convulsions, that these substances are normally eliminated by the urine, and that they circulate in the blood to greater extent in pregnant than in normal animals, indicating in the former an excess of production over excretion. He further finds evidence of the increased susceptibility of the nerve centres during pregnancy, in that for some days after delivery the animal is more easily convulsed by the injection of blood or

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