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TRUSS FOR AN INFANT.-Dr. E. L. Strode, of Swan Pond, West Virginia, communicates the following to The Med. World, for August, 1893: The following case is reported, hoping the suggestion may be of practical use to some other young physician as it was to me.

Early in January Mr. M. requested me to see his baby, a boy, aged five months.

The little fellow was quite emaciated. Upon examination I found an umbiblical hernia as large as an egg, also inguinal hernia upon both sides, quite large, in fact, it appeared that the three hernias contained the greater part of the baby's intestines. Reduction was not difficult. On the umbilicus I placed adhesive plaster, and we (parents and myself) concluded that so long as no trouble came from the inguinal hernias we would wait until the umbiblical was healed. The surgical plaster would retain the hernia for a day or two and then would give way some where, no matter how carefully it was applied. After several trials this was abandoned, and an elastic bandage substituted. This bandage answered admirably. The conical button was removed from it before being applied, and over the abdominal opening a pledget of cotton was placed, over the cotton a coin, this the bandage held in place until the opening closed. The inguinal hernias in one so young was a puzzle to me, and it may still have remained a puzzle if the following from Dr. Handley, Tennessee, had not attracted my notice. I quote him from The Southern Practitioner:

"For infants I most heartily endorse the 'hand or woollen truss, first suggested by William Coates. * * * * It is made of woollen threads, thirty or forty in number, wound into a sufficient length to pass around the body, loop over the inguinal canal and descend beneath the perineum to be tied to the first horizontal band. By looping or tying the band over the abdominal ring, firm pressure is afforded the entire canal, and is in every respect comfortable to the child." He proceeds to give the advantages of this truss, but I will quote him no further; the article is in the February number of the journal mentioned and will repay perusal.

I applied it and my patient is as water-tight as youngster any of his age.

MEDICAL COOKERY.-The writer quite agrees with Prof. Keen, the eminent Philadelphia anatomist and surgeon, who asserts that every physician should have as perfect knowledge of the kitchen and the proper methods of food preparation as of drug-stores and the methods of compounding medicinal agents. Of the two, the knowledge of dietetics and cookery, would, in the writer's opinion, be found much more valuable than the knowledge of drugs. Both kinds of information are important, but a thorough knowledge of food stuffs and their relation to the needs of the body, must be of inestimably greater value to the physician, than the information gained by the most thorough study of pharmacy and materia medica. Physicians frequently prescribe iron for anæmic conditions without considering that blood cannot be made of iron, but must be made, if at all, from the food. Strychnia is almost universally administered as a remedy for weak nerves, the fact that nerves cannot be made of strychnia being ignored. Weak nerves can be improved by proper nourishment only. In proper nourishment lies the only remedy obtainable for nearly all chronic maladies. Hence the importance that the physician should be thoroughly posted on the subject of materia alimentaria. If a good cooking-school and experimental kitchen could be connected with every medical college and every student be required to take a thorough course of instruction both in practical and theoretical cookery, and dietetics a revolution in the methods of treating disease would quickly follow.-J. K. H. in Modern Med. and Bacteriological Jour.

ULCER OF THE STOMACH.-In a paper on this subject recently read in Philadelphia, L. Wolff, M.D., says in regard to treatment: The primary indication is physiologic rest. This is obtained by absolute rest in bed, and by the adoption of a system of rectal alimentation, withholding all food by the mouth. The colon should be well cleansed and emptied by a large clysma of tepid water before resorting to alimentary enemata. The alimentary injection should be introduced through a flexible rectal tube beyond the sigmoid flexure. All food should be predigested. The author gives two ounces of glucose with one ounce

of prepared peptone powder in about four ounces of peptonized milk, together with half a grain of cocaine, about three or four times a day. Treated in this way patients thrive and even gain weight.

Milk in large quantities is objectionable on account of the formation of large coagula. Partially peptonized milk, or buttermilk, is preferable. This may be varied by mutton broths containing one or two raw beaten eggs. As pain after ingestion diminishes or disappears, cream toast (well soaked), finely scraped meat, rice in milk, custards, or very soft-boiled eggs may be given. The diet may be gradually increased to stewed fowl, mashed potatoes, succulent vegetables, and progressively to ordinary light and full diet. Carbonated waters, champagnes, koumyss, are generally not well borne and are contra-indicated.

Medicinal treatment demands alkalies, evacuants, correctives, and measures adapted to meet the complications. Carlsbad salts, in broken doses, in hot water given while the patient is fasting, are advised. Sodium bicarbonate fifteen to thirty grains half an hour to an hour after the ingestion of food is given to neutralize the acid secretions. Nausea and vomiting are controlled by a pill containing extract of belladonna gr. and silver nitrate gr.. Pain may be met by a pill containing morphine sulphate gr. ; cocaine hydrochlorate gr. ; extract of cannabis indica gr. given every three or four hours, after the ingestion of food. For hemorrhage gallic acid and ergot may be administered; small doses of Monsell's solution may be given. In alarming hemorrhage subcutaneous infusion of a solution of sodium chloride may be practised.-Med. News.

TREATMENT OF ALOPECIA AREATA.-The treatment consists in rubbing the patches of alopecia areata with a pledget of cotton, twisted upon a wooden toothpick, dipped in a 95 per cent. solution of carbolic acid. This is freely rubbed into each patch and slowly into the tissue around, never however exceeding the extent of two square inches of surface at once. While, as we know, carbolic acid may produce a considerable amount of eschar when applied to other portions of the body, it is remarkable that when the same is made to patches of alopecia areata

upon the scalp, there is really very little reactive effect; among hundreds of applications which I have made, I have never yet had a disagreeable result, never more than a slight formation of a very superficial crusting, which disappeared without leaving any scar or doing any damage to the texture of the skin. In Inost instances, however, there is nothing more than a superficial scaling produced, which passes off, leaving the surface reddened, at the end of a week. In some cases in which I made special experiments with this remedy alone, portions of the scalp were painted in the shape of rectangular figures, and upon them the hair grew most luxuriantly in striking contrast to the surrounding bare parts. I do not put forward this remedy as the only one to use in this disease, for I am not only an unbeliever in its parasitic origin, but also a firm believer in its nervous origin; in conjunction with the local treatment referred to I would most earnestly recommend the internal administration of strychnia and phosphoric acid in full doses, and the use of all dietary measures which may both improve the general health, and nourish the nervous system, such as fats, phosphorus, etc.-L. D. Bulkley, M.D., in Jour. Am. Med. Association,

A SECRETARY OF PUBLIC HEALTH.-In the meeting of the Pan-American Congress there will be a good opportunity to say to the National Congress that the concensus of opinion of the medical profession of America is that this nation should have in its Presidential Cabinet a Public Officer of Health. This sentiment has been asserted by the American Medical Association and by nearly every State medical society. With such an officer in the Government councils, confidence will be given that the sanitary laws will be enforced intelligently. It is not the prerogative of either the Secretary of the Treasury, who is the credit man of the Nation, or of the Attorney General, who is the Nation's legal adviser, to investigate the cause and propagation of disease.

The disaster that overwhelmed Hamburg last year, and devastates Marseilles and Naples at this time, illustrates a condition that is possible in New York, Chicago or Cincinnati. The financial paralysis that is benumbing the nerves of commerce is

bad enough, and brings misery and want to many a household, but that is a minor condition in comparison with the weeping, wailing and want that accompanies a deadily epidemic disease.

Will Congress give the Nation a Public Officer of Health Great and costly battle-ships are being built in this time of profound peace in order to be immediately ready in case of war. Let the Government not wait until a city is isolated from the rest of the world because of a pestilence that is prevailing among the people before action is taken in this direction. The people should have the strongest sanitary warrior in the President's Cabinet.-Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic.

BLOOD CHANGES IN SYPHILIS.-Neumann and Konried (Wiener klinische Wochenschrift) have made a study of the blood in all stages of sypillis with the following results:

1. The hemoglobin is diminished in the primary stage from 15 to 30 per cent. It remains diminished during the first part of the eruption and in early treatment, but as the mercurials are pushed it rapidly regains its normal percentage.

2. Older contracted cases of secondary syphilis have only from 45 to 75 per cent. of hemoglobin. The anti-syphilitic treatment in these cases increases the hemoglobin, but does not raise it to the normal.

3. The late forms of tertiary syphilis are characterized by a low hemoglobin percentage, which improves under mercury.

4, 5, 6. The red-blood corpuscles are not diminished in the primary affection, but when constitutional symptoms appear they are reduced one-third. Anti-syphilitic treatment brings them back to the normal. Non-treated secondary forms have about one-third the normal amount, which become normal under treatment. In the tertiary stage there is some diminution. The number becomes restored by treatment.

7. The number of white corpuscles are diminished in proportion to the diminution of the red corpuscles.-University Med. Magazine.

POISONING WITH TURPENTINE.-Carveth (Canadian Practitioner) has reported the case of a woman who at bedtime, took about half an ounce of old spirit of turpentine mixed with an

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