patient is etherized, the amount passing over can be regulated by a stopcock at the bottle end of the tube.

The apparatus I have used is very crude, made only for the purpose of experiment, and I am having an improved one made, which I hope will be more satisfactory in some of its details.

The quantity of ether used to produce complete insensibility in no case exceeded three ounces; in some it was less than an ounce and a half.-The Medical Age.

TREATMENT OF WRITER'S CRAMP.-In a late number of the British Medical Journal, Dr. De Watteville reports the very successful treatment of Writer's Cramp by a system of massage and gymnastics. This system is carried out most successfully by a Mr. Wolff, with whom it originated. Mr. Wolff is well known to the leading physicians of Europe and is highly thought of by Dr. Charcot :

The massage consists of rubbing, kneading, stretching, and beating of the fingers, and the several muscles of the hand and arm, with or without the simultaneous assistance of elastic bands.

The gymnastic exercises are active and passive. The latter consist of flexions and extensions of all the joints of the fingers, hand, and arm. Active exercises include systematic voluntary movements of the parts affected; and if the general condition of the patient requires it, of all the limbs and trunk. As a rule, at least two sittings daily are required, extending from twenty to forty minutes each on an average; and, in addition to this, the patient may be required to practice the gymnastic exercises at home. Later on, graduated exercises in writing are prescribed. It is impossible to euter into minute details concerning these operations, which must vary with the idiosyncrasies and peculiarities in the case of individual patients.-Canadian Practitioner.

THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE GERM THEORY.-Uadoubtedly there are many of our readers who are convinced that Klein has dealt a staggering blow to that particular phrase of the germ

theory which teaches that the common bacillus is the contagium vivum of Asiatic cholera, and there are many who seem willing to admit that Tait has fairly unhorsed Listerism. This surgeon, with defiant enthusiasm, rejects anti-septicism in toto, and, insisting only on the most punctilious cleanliness, sunshine, and ventilation, boldly ransacks the abdominal cavity, washing it out with sponges that are scrupulously clean, but not specially asepticized, and undertakes every variety of extirpation with as much confidence as ordinary surgeons amputate an arm or tie an artery.

In this country the weight of evidence, with certainly a great preponderance of authority, is unequivocally in favor of a rational of Listerian principles; and, whatever may be the final fate of the germ theory, which many investigators have come to consider as quite positively demonstrated, it is evident that extreme and inflexible views on either side of the question are not in accordance, in its present status, with the true scientific spirit, and not calculated to evolve the truth that must underlie the whole discussion.

Even if we admit, as is asserted by Mr. Tait's admirers, that Listerism is of no importance beyond the systematic cleanliness it involves, it must be acknowledged, nevertheless, that much better results are now produced by surgeons in general than were seen before the practice came into use. However we may try to account for this fact, certainly great praise is due those who have done so much to rob surgery of its danger and uncertainty, whether indirectly or as the strict consequence of their theories. New York Medical Journal.

OXYGEN TREATMENT OF PHTHISIS.-Dr. Albrecht, of Neuchâtel, has submitted many of his patients in the Children's Hospital at Bern to the inhalation of oxygen, with a view to ascertaining its effects upon the development of phthisis, and whether by increasing the rate of organic combustion by this means the bacterium of consumption would not be destroyed and eliminated from the system. The subjects were tuberculous patients in whose expectorations the bacterium of phthisis had been discovered with

certainty on several occasions. The patients were first submitted to an appropriate highly-nutritious diet, consisting of milk and peptone, and twice a week they were weighed with great care. It was observed that as soon as the oxygen inhalations began, the daily loss of weight was checked, and in some cases the weight increased, dyspnoea diminished, and the number of bacteria seen under the microscope appeared smaller.-New York Tribune.

STRICTURE.—In urinary obstruction, due to prostatic hypertrophy or thickening of the mucous membrane of the urethra, Professor A. B. Palmer says that relief can frequently be obtained, and the evils of catheterization avoided, by simply making the stream of urine act as a hydrostatic dilator in its passage. This can be readily done during micturition by compressing the urethra between the thumb and fingers so that no urine can escape. An effort is to be made at the same time to forcibly empty the bladder. The result is that the urethra is gently and uniformly distended without risk and without pain. This distension can be obtained and sustained at will, and in a majority of cases, if daily repeated, will soon be followed by the power of almost completely emptying the bladder, with a fair and often a full stream.-Medical Bulletin.

ANTISEPTIC SILK.-Freeman uses Chinese twist which has been rendered aseptic by boiling for ten minutes in a two-per-cent. solution of chromic acid, and then soaking for twelve hours in a one-per-cent. solution of the same. He states that the sutures may be left in situ for three weeks without the occurrence of either suppuration or softening of the silk. Silk thus prepared is especially useful in operations about the genital organs in women as well as in laparotomy-N. Y. Medical Journal.

THE American drug Rhamnus Purshiana (Cascara sagrada, as it is often called) has lately been the subject of considerable investigation in France. Prof. Grasset, of the Montpellier faculty,

and others have made a series of experiments with it, with the result that while they do not entirely confirm the opinion of Dr. Emeri, that it is a specific for all cases of habitual constipation, still they find that it is a most valuable laxative, and assert that certainly there does not exist a remedy that is as efficacious in the treatment of chronic constipation.-Correspondence, Philadelphia Medical Times.

JABORANDI IN OBSTINATE HICCOUGH.-Pagenstecher (Ctrlbl. f. d. ges. Therap.; Bull. gén. de Thérap.) reports a case of hiccough which had resisted every known remedy, including the bromides, morphine, chloroform, and electricity. The patient's diaphragm contracted in the most violent manner about twenty or thirty times a minute, and he had been unable to take any nourishment for three days. After receiving four grains of jaborandi-leaves, in the form of a decoction, he had a profuse perspiration, after which the hiccough was completely checked.— The Medical Age.

CHANCROID.-As a stimulating application to a chancroid, Prof. Gross recommends:

R Acid tannici......................
Ung. hydrarg. nit......

Adipis benzoat ad.....

gr. ij. ....3 j. ...3 j. M.

Sig. Apply on a piece of lint.-Medical Digest.

NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS.-According to the Northwestern Lancet a physician of St. Paul recently played a trick upon a midwife, who sent to him to borrow a pair of forceps, by giving her two left-handed blades. On returning them the next day, however, she reported that she had brought the child with. them. Few men could have done more.-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

ACCORDING to the census of 1880, there were 86,000 physicians, 64,147 lawyers and 64,698 clergymen, in the United States. Comparing these figures with the census of 1870, the increase was for physicians 23 per cent cent., for lawyers 57 per cent, and for clergymen 47 per cent. The increase of population was 30 per cent.-Exchange.

Editorial.

FIFTY-SECOND MEETING OF THE TENNESSEE STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

The State Medical Society of Tennessee met in annual session in the Hall of Representatives, at the Capitol, Tuesday, April 14th, at 12 o'clock, and was called to order by the President, Dr. D. D. Saunders, of Memphis.

Prayer was offered by Rev. William Graham, rector of Christ Church.

The address of welcome was delivered by Dr. W. F. Glenn, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.

The following members were present and registered:

J. I. Arrington, Nashville; R. T. Bush, Gallatin; W. T. Briggs, W. C. Blackman, M. H. Bonner, Nashville; W. G. Bogart, Sweetwater; W. F. Clary, Bellbuckle; J. H. Callender, Nashville; F. M. Capps, Coxburg; Duncan Eve, Paul F. Eve, W. I. Edwards, Richard Douglas, Jno. E. Fry, C. C. Fite, Nashville; G. W. Drake, D. E. Nelson, Chattanooga; F. Ferguson, Rich Creek; G. B. Garner, Hillsboro; W. F. Glenn, J. E. Harris, W. D. Haggard, R. A. Hardin, J. Berrien Lindsley, Van. S. Lindsley, Thos. L. Maddin, J. W. Maddin, O. H. Menees, J. B. W. Nowlin, J. S. Nowlin, J. D. Plunket, Nashville; S. T. Hardison, Lewisburg; R. J. Jameson, Appison; R. F. Keys, Eagleville; C. M. Lovell, Dickson; J. R. Harwell, Nashville; Thos. Lipscomb, G. W. Moody, Shelbyville; J. B. Neal, Lewisburg; T. K. Powell, Dancyville; J. W. Penn, Humboldt; Deering J. Roberts, N. D. Richardson, James B. Stephens, J. Bunyan Stephens, J. G. Sinclair, T. G. Shannon, N. G. Tucker,