LOSOPHAN.-Dr. Edmond Saalfeld, of Berlin, recently called attention to the value of a compound of iodine to which the name "losophan" has been applied. It contains 80 per cent of iodine, and presents itself in the form of white needles; it will melt at 250.7° F. It is slightly soluble in water. It dissolves readily in ether, chloroform, benzoil, and also at a temperature of 150° F.in fixed oils. It is useful in old cases of eczema. It cannot be used in acute forms of skin disease, as it is somewhat irritating. It relieves the itching and stimulates the absorption of exudate in chronic eczema. It is also useful in prurigo and urticaria. It is most useful in a one-per-cent solution, three parts alcohol and one part water. As an ointment it may be used in the proportion of one to three per cent.

A SUCCESSION TAX LAW.-Albert A. Pope, the great bicycle manufacturer, advocates a succession tax law, as the means of raising funds for the betterment of highways. Such laws already exist in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and have existed in England for more than a hundred years. It is a tax on legacies exceeding, in Connecticut, $1000, and in Massachusetts, $10,000. Mr. Pope suggests that in time, the succession tax law might take the place of direct taxation, as it would take but a short time, by means of such a taxation, to pay for the construction of excellent highways in every State in the Union, and then, as the cost of maintenance would be very

small, the tax could be devoted to the maintenance of the State, and there would be no necessity for public funds by direct taxation.

GLYCOZONE.-Mr. Chas. Marchand has recently developed a new preparation consisting of ozone in combination with glycerine, fifteen volumes to one of glycerine. Dr. Cyrus Edison, in a recent article in the Times and Register (Philadelphia), recommends it for acid dyspepsia, gastric catarrh, nasal catarrh, ulceration of the rectum, fistula-in-ano, follicular pharyngitis, chornic coryza, ulcerative stomatitis, and a variety of similar conditions. If glycozone proves to be as valuable an addition to the profession as peroxide of hydrogen, it will add materially to the fame of its inventor, and will become a staple article with all druggists as there is an enormous demand for more efficient remedies adapted to the treatment of the diseases named. We have not yet found the time to undertake original experiments with glycozone, but will do so at the first opportunity.

MALT EXTRACT.-Extract of malt is no longer an official preparation-at least it will very soon not be, as it is one of the dismissed articles from the Seventh Decennial Revision of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. Why this is "thusly," when it is an article of so much therapeutic value and so largely used, it is not within our province to say. It looks to us as if the Revising Committee were either perfectly satisfied with the quality of the present commercial supplies, or that they despaired of describing or defining the product in such a way as to permit of easily applied tests for limitation and verification of the standard by the ordinary druggist. If the former supposition be the correct one, it is evident that the revising committee based their opinion on the examination of some of the standard brands of malt extract, such as that manufactured by Parke, Davis & Co., which is guaranteed to respond to every test both as to diastatic strength and palatability. Malt extract is a valuable agent in cases in which the conversion of starch is not satisfactorily accomplished by the digestive organs. Recent investigations of the digestive process show that starch should undergo an almost complete conversion in the stomach. This process should at least be carried sufficiently far as to convert starch into erythrodextrine. This opens a large field for the use of malt extracts, especially in cases of hyperpepsia accompanied by fermentation.

Investigations made during the last year in the Sanitarium Laboratory of Hygiene of Battle Creek, Mich., show that starch digestion is usually imperfect in cases of hyperpepsia. This investigation included the careful chemical examination of more than 2000 stomach fluids. Many of the saccharine preparations of malt extracts on the market possess very little diastatic powers. In prescribing this agent as an aid to digestion, care must be taken to select a reliable product.

VOL. II.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

ENTEROPTOSIS.

BY PROF. E. MEINERT, M. D., Dresden, Germany.

(Concluded.)

THE examination of the solid abdominal viscera, to which we must now turn our attention, is made in accordance with rules which are generally acknowledged. I will only mention, in regard to the pancreas, that this gland, normally situated behind the stomach, is in cases of gastroptosis no longer covered by the stomach, and may be palpated as a cord which runs transversely across the vertebral column. Glenard's transverse cord

of the colon depends upon a change in the position of the abdominal viscera which renders the pancreas palpable. I shall present, together with the results of experiments which I have made with living persons, those which I have gathered upon the dissecting table. The number of published dissections in cases of enteroptosis is remarkably small. According to Ewald, there were, up to 1890, only four cases. Since then, another case has been added by Kreg (14).

Anatomists are familiar with mal-position of the abdominal viscera, and attach special importance to the frequency of the vertical stomach and the sunken transverse colon in women, but they appear never to have observed the simultaneous existence of the prolapse of other abdominal organs. Virchow (25) only mentions the discovery of the simultaneous dislocation of the stomach and of the transverse colon.

The frequency with which enteroptosis appears, naturally leads to the question Why has the disease been so long overlooked on the dissecting table? I would

NO. 10.

like to mention, first, as a cause of this oversight, the general practice of dissecting the stomach and the intestines last. The original site of these organs is thus disturbed, in consequence of the preceding examination of all the other organs. To determine and record the position of these organs immediately after opening the abdominal cavity, is considered a useless method, because we have been accustomed to look upon these deviations from the natural order as incidents without any clinical importance. Finally, the physician whose attention has been directed toward these matters, is troubled in making his post-mortem diagnosis, on account of post-mortem changes, which may be so great as entirely to obliterate the conditions recognized during life. (Compare Fig. 4, preceding article, with Figs. 8 and 9.)

In the small number of cases which I have had an opportunity to examine after death and in which I had, during life, clearly established the presence of enteroptosis, I have obtained the following results: First, the diagnosis of enteroptosis may be positively made during life by the methods of investigation which have been pointed out, and is always confirmed by the autopsy. The position of individual organs in the living person suffering from enteroptosis may be found quite different in a corpse, as might be expected, from observations made during life.

No clinical or anatomical researches and experiments have, as yet, fully explained this. The imperfection of clinical researches consists essentially in a defective method of performing the autopsy, while the anatomical examination of a case of enteroptosis not clinically diagnosticated, may lead to an incorrect. understanding, or to a total overlooking of certain displacements which have existed during life. The clinical examination is therefore the more valuable.

Among the organs which can only be recognized fully in the cadaver, the intestine must be placed first. Examination of the patient during life gives us a somewhat correct picture only, of course, of some portions of the colon. One portion of the small intestine can be seen only in the cadaver. On the other hand, we obtain a more correct picture of the form and position of the stomach, and of the position of the right kidney and the uterus, by careful and repeated examinations of living bodies. The stomach in the cadaver appeared more or less shrunken, in some cases more than would seem possible. The pylorus, espe

gynecologists. The loosely attached kidney of the anatomists is identical. with the movable kidney of the clinical physician.

The same difference of opinion recently existed between anatomists and gynecologists concerning the position and form. of the uterus (26). The anatomists considered retroversion of the uterus as the normal position, because it was generally observed in cadavers; but we now know, and anatomists have acknowledged their former mistake, that the uterus of the. living woman lies normally in anteversion, and bends backward only after death, if not held back by lesions.

cially, expands very much after the reception of food, and again is sometimes reduced to the thickness of the thumb.

The well-known picture of the long, sausage-like stomach may be considered a pathognomonic post-mortem form of enteroptosis. (Figs. 8, b, and 24.) Still there are stomachs which remain distended, even after death. A stomach which in life is usually directed downward and to the right, is in death often entirely normal. (Fig. 7, b.) The kidney, even if dislocated to a marked extent, slips back after death into its original "nest." From this fact originates the assertion of some anatomists, that a floating kidney is a rare occurrence, contradicting the frequency with which it is found by many physicians, especially by

In the post-mortem diagnosis of enteroptosis, the determination of the position of the stomach must be made very carefully, and still more carefully that of the kidneys, while the finding of the uterus in a retroverted or retroflexed condition furnishes no information concerning its position during life. The comparative condition in which the cadaver was found in Figs. 7, a, and 7, b, I call special attention to, because it seems to express best the existing type found in more than one hundred of my post-mortem cases. I add two other similar discoveries made in dissection as proofs, relating to the possible causes of these marked differences.

In Fig. 7, b, the stomach is found completely vertical, and is shrunken in all its diameters. This fact shows, at the