OBITUARY.

Dr. Frank Hastings Hamilton died at his home in New York City on Wednesday morning last. His illness dates from December, 1883, when he was attacked with pulmonary hemorrhage, due to fibroid phthisis.

Dr. Hamilton was born on September 10, 1813, in the old village of Wilmington, Vt., and after an academic education was admitted to the sophomore class Union College, and was graduated in 1830. Shortly after taking his degree at Union he began studying medicine with Dr. John G. Morgan, of Auburn. During the winter of 1831-32 he attended a course of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New York at Fairfield, Herkimer County, and in 1833 received a license to practise medicine and surgery from the Cayuga County Medical Society. After practising two years in Auburn he took the degree of M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and in the same year began a course of lectures on anatomy and surgery in his office at Auburn.

In 1839 Dr. Hamilton was chosen to fill a vacancy in the professorship of surgery at the college in Fairfield, and in August of the succeeding year was made professor of surgery in the Geneva Medical College.

In

Upon the organization of the Buffalo Medical College in 1846, he was made professor of surgery and held this position until November 28, 1858, when he accepted the professorship of the principles and practice of surgery in the Long Island College Hospital and removed to Brooklyn. April, 1861, he became professor of military surgery, fractures, and dislocations, and professor of clinical surgery in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He remained in these positions until May, 1868, when, upon the resignation of Professor James R. Woods, he was made professor of the principles and practice of surgery, with operations, and continued in this capacity until March 15, 1875, when he resigned.

In 1860 he published the first edition of his "Treatise on Fractures and Dislocations." This work, which, when first published, contained but 748 pages, reached its seventh edition, containing 1001 pages, in 1884, and is the best known work on the subject in the English language. M. G. Poinsot, of Bordeaux, translated it into French, and a portion of it was translated into German. Dr. Hamilton's "General Treatise on Military Surgery," the first edition of which was published in 1862. and the second in 1865, is said to be the only book on military surgery written in this country, excepting a small volume from the pen of a Confederate surgeon, published shortly after the war at Charleston. "The Surgical Memoirs

of the War of the Rebellion," in two volumes, were edited by Dr. Hamilton, and published in 1871 under the direction of the United States Sanitary Commission. The first edition of "The Principles and Practice of Surgery" was published in 1872, and the third edition, thoroughly revised, was issued early this year. Other works from his pen are: "Monograph on Fractures of the Patella," "Health Aphorisms" and "Medical Ethics." In addition to these he prepared a number of papers on surgery, and was the inventor of twenty-seven surgical instruments, most of which are now in common use.

Dr. Hamilton's war record, and his professional relations to the case of President Garfield are well known.

Among his fellow practitioners Dr. Hamilton was always held in the highest regard, and they availed themselves of every opportunity to show their respect for his abilities. In 1855 he was chosen president of the New York State Medical Society; in 1857 he was president of the Erie County Medical Society; in 1866 of the New York Pathological Society; in 1875 and 1876 of the New York Medico-Legal Society; in 1878 and 1885 of the New York Society of Medical Jurisprudence; from 1880 to 1884 he was vice president of the New York Academy of Medicine, and in 1881 was made vice-president of the Woman's National Hospital. In 1868 he was made honorary associate member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and in 1869 the trustees of Union College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.--Medical News.

BOOK REVIEWS.

Hand Book of Practical Medicine, by Dr. Hermann Eichhorst, Professor of Special Pathology and Therapeutics in University Medical Clinic in Zurich. Vol I. Diseases of the CirWilliam culatory and Respiratory Organs. Wood & Co., Library for 1886.

Very painstaking and concise is the author in this work. As a rule, he does not argue, he simply makes statements. There is no uncertainty in what he says. If there is any error it is because our present state of knowledge permits it. So far as science has yet attained he speaks plainly and decidedly.

In the beginning of the volume he says, "diseases of the circulatory apparatus are associated to a great extent with certain mechanical disturbances. This is owing to the fact that the organs in question mainly subserve mechanical purposes, inasmuch as they maintain the regular rhythm of the circulation by certain pump arrangements and canals.

We can readily, understand, therefore, that these very diseases can be recognized with great certainty by the aid of physical methods of examination. Only those who are masters of such methods of examination will feel themselves at

home in this class of diseases."

The section on diseases of the pericardum contains some novelties, especially the chapter upon pneumo-pericardium. For this unusual condition the author has catalogued six causes or ways by which the air may enter the pericardium, not including the very doubtful assumption that gases may have developed as the result of decomposition

of an exudation before death.

The chapters on diseases of the heart muscle are divided thus: 1-Dilatation; 2-Hypertrophy; 3-Atrophy; 4-Fatty Heart; 5-Inflammation; 6-Spontaneous Rupture; 7-Tumors, and 8Parasites. The number of these subdivisions might have been somewhat lessened; for instance, spontaneous rupture is not a disease but the result of a disease which has previously wrought changes in the muscular fibers, as fatty degeneration, or acute or chronic aneurism produced by myocarditis.

The sections on diseases of the endocardium and neuroses of the heart are well written, and we notice with pleasure that while the definition of angina is given, neuralgia of the heart, the most frequent cause is stated to be change in the coronary arteries.

Throughout the whole book, and especially in the last part, in which disease of the respiratory organs is considered, one cannot help but notice how comparatively much more attention has been given to the pathology and etiology, than to the treatment, but one cannot embrace all that is to be said on such important subjects in four hundred pages.

WILLIAM PORTER.

NOTES AND ITEMS.

"A chiel's amang you takin' notes, And, faith, he'll prent 'em."

-The late meeting of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association was a great success. Hence it elected as president our genial friend, Dr. I. N. Love.-American Lancet,"

Thanks! It did that, and better than that, it adopted as part of its organic law, the national code of ethics, and placed itself in line under the banner of the American Medical Association, and proposes to keep step to the music as played by our grand old mother association. It did more than that, it resolved to invite the entire profession of the West and South to

aim in making the Mississippi Valley Medical Association the great Western medical association of America, second only to the A. M. A.

-Dr. James H. McLean, dispenser of pills and strengthening cordial in St. Louis for forty years past, died a few days ago. His income had been over $100,000 per year for many years. He indulged in the expensive luxury of going to Congress, also of attempting to discover a system of death dealing artillery, more dangerous even than his pills, by which wars would soon have ceased to be, owing to the fact that the use of his artillery pieces would have resulted in the complete annihilation of the opposing armies.

Who says patent physic doesn't pay financially better than legitimate medicine?

-A notice of the dinner tendered by Alumni of Jefferson Medical College, at the end of June, to Prof. W. H. Pancoast, on the eve of his departure for Europe, after resigning his chair in that institution, was accidentally crowded out. Suffice it to say, at this late hour, that it was a well-deserved compliment, thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants. [Exchange.

Crowded out!!! There has been too much "crowding out" about the Jefferson College of late. There will be plenty of room without crowding for students soon about the "Jeff" if the present methods prevail.

-The "American Practitioner and News," of Aug. 7th, says: "A well known American physician writes to us," and then adds (but does not give credit, if credit could be given to such a thing) what that unknown quantity said in the "N. Y. Med. Jour." of July 24, to whom we paid our poor respects in a recent number. The "Medical and Surgical Reporter," of Aug. 7, says it was a shame to write such a thing, and a shame to publish it. We add that it is also a shame to plagiarize it.

-The Fishing was Good.-Recently we cast a hook into the troubled waters of medical journalism, baited thus: "We do not think it right that a Chicago Medical College should procure its anatomical material from the "St. Louis Potter's Field." We did not say that it did. However, the "Medical Record" again taking an hypothesis for a fact, labels it "The dog in the manger," and swallows it, dog, manger, anatomical material and all.

--Dr. Harry Hodgen, our orthopedic editor, has returned to the city after several months spent at the Polyclinic in New York city. He is full of new ideas, and our friends will soon hear from him.

-Work for the coming International Congress. American honor is at stake.-"American Lancet."

Since the metric system has been applied to the prescribing and grinding of glasses, the refraction of a metre-lens was taken as the unit of measurement and given the name, dioptrie. This name, if the writer is correct, has been originated by Nagel, and as such is always used in the German ophthalmological literature. In the English language, as the title of Dr. Loring's paper shows, the word has had to undergo different changes. Loring in trying to come come at a conclusion which would be the correct spelling of the word, states that he personally should prefer dioptric with the plural dioptrics, but further states that he is inclined to think that dioptre with the plural dioptres, is the

cases of granular lids, a quantity should be introduced sufficient to cover completely the parts to which it is applied. The frequency of application will vary from three times a day to three times a week—this difference depending on both the individual and the disease. It will be safe to repeat the application as soon as the disagreeable symptoms which have been relieved by the remedy, begin to appear again.

EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THE POWDER.-Its immediate effect is to produce a burning, gritty sensation, with some pain, lasting for five or thirty minutes, and a free serous discharge, after which relief is experienced, and the lids feel freer, lighter and smoother than before its use.

This beneficial effect lasts for

a period varying from a few hours to several days. The conjunctiva at times shows reduction in swelling and thickening as soon as the irritation following its use has passed off. This is, however, more noticeable after the remedy has been used for a week or more, when perceptible thinning of the conjunctiva is observed, and clearing up of the cornea if pannus is present. When boric-acid powder is applied to succulent tissue or a swollen mucous membrane, a free serous discharge free serous discharge quickly appears, which lasts for ten or twenty minutes. This discharge occurs largely at the expense of the volume of the tissue to which it is applied, and it is followed by a shrinkage of the same. This is best illustrated in the nasal cavities, when they are closed or nearly so from swelling of the mucous membrane. A short time after the use of the acid the passages become clearer and freer, and this is noticeable to the examiner as well as to the patient. This serous flux is probably of an osmotic character. Its escape relieves succulent tissue of its superabundance of serum, thereby causing contraction, which facilitates a healthier circulation and better nutrition. Its action as an irritant is in the same direction, and is especially instrumental in the cure of corneal affections. The power possessed by boric acid of restraining micrococcal development, of diminishing diapedesis, of lessening the ameboid movement of leucocytes, and other tissue and chemical changes which it produces, are factors which enter into the theory of its action. When the powder is applied to a granular conjunctiva, it not only covers the entire membrane, but enters the cracks and crevices between the granulations, and brings about the changes indicated upon the conjunctiva as a whole, and upon the granulations individually.

CASES SUITABLE FOR AND FACTS GOVERNING ITS USE. I have used boric-acid powder in all forms of granular lids, and in most varieties of conjunctivitis, with benefit. I think, however, that the papillary form of granular lids is most amenable to its influence. Pannus in every instance has been markedly improved, and in many cases cures have been ef

fected. In ophthalmia neonatorum some cases have received benefit, but I rely but little upon the powder in purulent cases. On the contrary, it acts best when the secretion is scanty and serous. I have often noticed that the conjunctiva became less tolerant of its action after the powder had been used for three or four weeks, and in such cases the treatment has been changed with success. Boric acid in this particular is similar to other agents in general use for the treatment of granular lids, for it is often noticed that a remedy will wear itself out, as it were, and it becomes necessary to substitute another agent for the one which has been used. Boric acid is only one of these remedies, and is no more of a specific than others, yet it is an important addition to our list of efficient remedies for a disease which is often rebellious and al. ways obstinate and protracted. It is less painful than other remedies, its effects in this particular being often recognized by the patient, who will ask to have the powder repeated, because it is less painful and more efficient in affording relief than other agents which have been employed. Jequirity has done much toward simplifying and hastening the treatment of granular lids, but there will always remain a large contingent in which the special condition or the general surroundings of the patient will debar its use, and in such cases as these we must resort to those remedies that are known to be of value—possibly less brilliant, but entirely free from danger.

ENUCLEATION WITH TRANSPLANTATION AND REIMPLANTATION OF EYES.

Dr. May has proven by a series of experi ments on rabbits, that the implantation of an enucleated eye in this animal is successfully accomplished when the bandage can be kept on the eye throughout the process of healing. Out of a series of twenty-four cases operated upon, he succeeded in this manner perfectly in six cases. Not only did the implanted eyeball retain its shape, but, as proven by microscopical examination, even the optic nerve of the implanted eye became united to the

stump of the optic nerve in the orbit, to which it was stitched with sutures of catgut. This union took place by means of a granulation tissue intervening between the two nervestumps, which gradually became transformed into firm connective tissue with blood vessels, but no nervous elements. The retina were invariably degenerated.

[The fact that an eye may be implanted into the orbit, has, by these interesting experiments, been proven beyond doubt, at least in the rabbit. It will therefore no longer be necessary to experiment on the human being. The writer has, in a former number, expressed his opinion with regard to the usefulness of this operation. It is to be hoped that it will now be speedily abandoned. Those that went even so far as to expect the restitution of sight from the union of the optic nerves (although it should seem that it was hardly necessary), have here the histological proof that their Utopian idea is not to be realized].

HARD CHANCRE OF THE CONJUNCTIVA AND EYELIDS.

Dr. DeBeck having had occasion to see and treat a case of true hard chancre of the eye. lid, gives us his case and a carefully prepared synopsis of the literature on this subject, and a table of eighty-three published and of nine hitherto unpublished cases, accompanied by some very fine illustrations.

The site of the lesion was:

On the cutaneous surface of the lids
Lower lid-margin, inner surface and cul-de-sac..
Inner angle...

Upper lid and cul-de-sac..
Ocular conjunctiva....

35

25

23

6

The symptoms he gives as the following: the lesion usually appears at first as a small swelling, tumor or pimple, not painful but irritated. At the summit of this, an excoriation takes place which gradually broadens and deepens, and finally forms the characteristic ulcer. This ulcer is not deep, but saucer-shaped. Sometimes there are several points of ulceration. The edges are not steep, but rather sloping and rounded; they are, however, slightly raised, and, as a rule, firmly indurated. The floor is covered with

a grayish and dirty yellowish debris, or red and granular, and bleeding very easily.

The diagnosis should not be difficult in typical cases. A sluggish, torpid ulcer in a person with opportunities for syphilitic infec tion, where the ulcer and neighboring glands are indurated, where its course is chronic and it fails to respond to ordinary treatment, is almost certainly specific.

The course is distinctly chronic and indolent. After several weeks, the ulcer undergoes cicatrization, and, as a rule, a small, frequently linear, or tendinous cicatrix remains. The induration is very persistent, and may remain for weeks or even months as a small cartilaginous-like nodule. The neighboring glands likewise remain indolent for a long while.

The prognosis is very favorable as far as regards the eye and adnexa.

With regard to treatment, Dr.De Beck gives preference to the local application of the yellow ointment, (yellow oxide of mercury gr. v, vasel. alb. 3ss).

[The writer has had occasion to see one case of primary and one of tertiary lesion of the upper lid. In both cases he used the yellow oxide of mercury ointment, but found in the latter case that inspergation of calomel seemed to act quicker and better.]