the drug were the same as before reported. "On May 27, the third experiment was made. I took sixty grains of urethran at ten minutes past nine P. M. Pulse before taking stood at eighty-six; in ten minutes it had fallen to eighty-four, in forty minutes to seventy-two, and in fifty minutes to seventy. A tracing was taken ten minutes after taking the medicine, another forty minutes after, and another fifty minutes after. At 9:35, twenty minutes after taking the medicine, I fell asleep. At 9:45 sleep was profound, res piration seventeen. At ten P. M., I still slept, respiration sixteen. After this I was awakened, and though feeling profoundly sleepy, I did not yield further to the sensation. Retired at eleven o'clock and slept soundly all night, as usual. "In all these experiments the sleep seemed to be of a strictly physiological character. Its approach was normal, and on awakening there was no headache nor any other feeling than that of having been aroused from pleas. ant sleep. There was no subsequent disturbance of the stomach of any kind, and, in fact, nothing to distinguish it from a pleasant pe. riod of repose. "The drug was taken simply dissolved in water and no attempt was made to cover it, The taste is not unpleasant, resembling in a mild degree that of spirits of nitre. "For administration it can readily be covered by any of the ordinary excipients. In regard to the tracings taken, I was unable to make out any marked effect upon the character of the pulse, except a reduction in the number of the beats: hence these are not presented. "On analyzing cases of which notes were taken we find that there were nine of women and nine of men. Divided as to forms of insanity, acute mania, six; paresis, four; melancholia, four; chronic mania, two; dementia, two. "The dose most commonly given was thirty grains. In two instances, however, it was carried to the extent of sixty grains. This was ventured upon after my personal experience with the same dose. "So far the results have been quite favorable, and show that urethan has marked hypnotic power. There were in no case any unpleasant results of any kind. There is nothing to indicate any further action than upon the cerebrum. The effects of the drug were felt, so far as we were able to judge, within an hour after its administration, and the sleep lasted in most cases from the time of observation, commencing at ten o'clock, until five o'clock in the morning. "We do not consider these experiments sufficient to enable us to speak positively of the effects of the drug, or to give it its true position as a sleep-producing agent. This can be done only after it has been used a long time and in large quantities. They are, however, such as to lead us to recommend its trial in cases where other drugs are contra-indicated, either from the pathological state present, the unpleasantness of the dose, or the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the patient. "It may do well in private practice, where there is a demand for a variety of hypnotic drugs, and I would commend it for careful consideration and further use. "We have used in all something over five ounces of urethran. This, upon an average of thirty grains to a dose, which is probably very nearly correct, would give eighty doses as having been administered. "Equally good results followed in cases which have not been reported as in those which are referred to in this paper." THE NEURAL FACTOR IN GYNECOLOGY. At the late meeting of the Illinois State Medical Society, May 18, Dr. J. G. Kiernan, opening the discussion on Catherine Miller's paper on posterior displacements of the uterus, reflected the growing convictions of advanced gynecologists.and neurologists on an important field of medical practice. Legros and Onimus, a quarter of a century ago proved in regard to the fons et origo of leucorrhea what is coming to be now recognized as a fact. Dr. Kiernan said: With regard to the question brought up by Dr. Miller, relative to the influence of local conditions in producing constitutional effects, and also as to the effects of certain habits, such as climbing stairs, jumping rope, etc., much of importance might be said. It seems to me however, that the doctor omitted one condition, and that is this: a girl that springs from a defective family is more likely to have uterine displacements. Another fact there is much being said against the use of IDIOT SAVANTS. or sentiment. Another has been under my care who can draw in crayons with marvelous skill and feeling, in whom, nevertheless, there was a comparative blank in all the higher faculties of mind. Extraordinary memory is often met with, associated with very great defect of reasoning power. A boy came under my observation who, having once read a book could evermore remember it. He could recite all the answers in "Magnal's Questions" without an error, giving in detail the numbers in the astronomical divisions with the greatest accuracy. I discovered, however, that it was simply a process of verbal adhesion. I once gave him Gibbon's "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" to read. This he did; and, on reading the third page, he skipped a line, found out his mistake and retraced his steps. Ever after, when reciting from memory the stately periods of Gibbon, he would, on coming to the third page, skip the line and go back and correct the error with as much regularity as if it had been part of the regular text. Later on, his memory for recent reading became less tenacious, but his recollection of his earlier readundevel-ings never failed him. Another boy can tell the tune, words and number of nearly every hymn in "Hymns, Ancient and Modern." Often memory takes the form of remembering dates and past events. Several children under my observation have had this faculty in a remarkable degree. One boy never fails to be able to tell the name and address of every confectioner's shop that he has visited in London-and they have been numerous— and can as readily tell the date of every visit. Another can tell the time of arrival of all the children at an institution, and could supply accurate records in relation to it if needed. Another knows the home address of every resident who comes under his observation, and they are by no means few. The faculty of number is usually slightly developed with feeble-minded children, whilst memory is fairly well developed, and yet have had under my observation cases where the power of mental arithmetic existed to an astonishing extent. One boy, about twelve was Dr. Langdon Down, in Brit. Med. Jour., applies this name to children who, while feeble-minded, exhibit special faculties which are capable of being cultivated to a very great extent. One youth was under my care who could build exquisite model ships from drawings, and carve with a great deal of skill, who yet could not understand a sentence, who had to have his food dissected for him, and who when writing to his mother, copied verbatim a letter from "The Life of Captain Hedley Vicars," by Miss Marsh, although it had not the slightest appropriateness in word years of age, could multiply any three figures by three figures with perfect accuracy, and as quickly as I could write the six figures on paper; and yet, so low mentally was he that, although having been for two and a half years in the almost daily habit of seeing me aud talking to me, he could not tell my name. Another boy, who has recently been under my observation, can multiply two figures by two figures; while another can multiply rapidly two figures by two figures, and a short time since could multiply three figures by three figures, but since an epileptiform attack has lost this faculty to some extent. None of them can explain how they do it; I mean by what mental process. It has appeared to me, however, when by rare chances they have made a mistake, and some hesitation has arisen, the plan has been to clear off the multiplication of the higher figures first. Improvisation is an occasional faculty. I had a boy under my care, who could take up a book, pretending to read an art he had not acquired, and improvise stories of all kinds with a great deal of skill, and in any variety, to suit the supposed tastes of his auditors. Memory of tune is a very common faculty among the feeble-minded; they readily acquire simple airs and rarely forget them. I have had one boy under my observation who, if he went to an opera, would carry away a recollection of all the airs, and would hum or sing them correctly. In none of the cases of "idiot savants" have I been able to trace any history of a like faculty in the parents or in the brothers and sisters, nor have I had any opportunity of making a necropsy, except in one instance. This was in the case of a boy who had a very unusual faculty, of which I have never since met another example, namely, the perfect appreciation of past or passing time. He was seventeen years of age, and although not understand ing, so far as I could gather, the use of a clock face, could tell the time to a minute at any part of the day, and in any situation. I tried him on numberless occasions, and he always answered with an amount of precision truly remarkable. Gradually his response AN EVIL AND ITS REMEDY. There has of late years grown up a great evil, inadvertently nurtured by the medical profession. That evil is the medical advising apothe cary, the druggist-doctor and the panacea proprietor. The little learning, so dangerous in the immature physician that the profession of the country feels just now called upon to ask the teaching fraternity for a longer curricu lum in the colleges, is the capital of these confident public medical advisers and dis pensers of sure cures for maladies the best This great physicians have failed to cure. knowledge has usually been gained from the reading of physicians' prescriptions, purloined without conscience, and recommended with the conceit peculiar to little knowledge. and the "cheeky" confidence of great igno rance, to cure diseases requiring many remedies for their changing stages. Thus the liver invigorators, the safe kidney cures, the heart tonics, the spleen cleanser and the brain swashes, and the remedies which restore the blood, the brain and the nerves, are gotten up and offered to the credulous and deceived people. The profession is largely to blame for the growth of this great evil, and the remedy consists in sending no prescriptions to these druggist-doctors, and ordering only those proprietary preparations, which are evidently prepared for the profession, instead of ultimately for the public through preliminary professional boosting, and an ingeniously coined proprietary name. C. H. HUGHES. WEEKLY MEDICAL REVIEW, EDITED BY THE MEDICAL PRESS AND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Contributions for publication should be sent to Dr. B. J. Primm, 3136 Olive Street. All remittances and communications pertaining to Advertisements or Subscriptions should be addressed to J. H. CHAMBERS, 914 LOCUST STREET, St. Louis, Mo. SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1887. CHLOROFORM IN LABOR. A recent strong endorsement of the use of chloroform in labor by Dr. Fordyce Barker, coupled with favorable expressions on the part of the majority of active, studious practitioners, should go far to decide this question af firmatively. One of the most interesting features of the Crab Orchard meeting of the Mississippi Valley Medical Association was the discussion of the paper upon this topic of Dr. Preston B. Scott, the able and scholarly obstetrician of Louisville. The points he made were strong, positive and convincing, and were strengthened and emphasized by similar opinions from Prof. Jno. A. Larrabee, Wm. H. Bailey, W. H. Wathen and others. Stress was laid upon the idea that chloroform should be given at the proper time to the extent of producing obtundity of the sensibilities (not complete insensibility) and relaxation of the circular fibers of the uterus. Apropos to this Prof. Henry Orendorf of the Kentucky School of Medicine, one of the thoughtful and studious workers of Louisville says: 1. The sphincter uteri, which is of contractile fiber, should be relaxed, but not at too great an expense of the longitudinal fibers of the corpus uteri, which are not only contractile, but expulsive. 2. If the sphincter uteri is sufficiently relaxed, the danger of a lacerated cervix is lessened. nancy, is a strong factor in causing that immunity from danger which obtains in the anesthesia from chloroform in labor. 4. The more powerful the muscle the greater the resistance to relaxation and paralyzation." After thorough consideration of the views and thinkers and workers above mentioned, together with those expressed by the best and most careful observers, adding the experience in hospital and private practice (administering chloroform almost invariably) of fifteen years, I feel justified in arriving at the following conclusions: 1. Chloroform is not only proper in labor but humanity and a regard for the best interests of the patient indicate that, as a rule, a case of labor is improperly, conducted unless chloroform be administered. 2. The long, tedious and exhausting preliminary hours of suffering, particularly in the primipara, should be relieved by positive doses either of morphine (hypodermically), or bromides combined with chloral. 3. A valuable aid in the earlier and later stages of labor, either alone or in conjunction with the remedies above referred to—in that it sustains the strength and courage, and obtunds the sensitive nerves of the sufferer, producing no bad effect whatsoever-is good Kentucky whisky. 4. The fact that any or all of these anesthetics may be abused or imperfectly used is no argument against them. I. N. LOVE. PASTEUR TRIUMPHANT. Long since, a commission was appointed in England to inquire into the treatment of hydrophobia, then practiced by Pasteur. On this commission were placed men of the highest rank in the profession, among those appointed being Sir James Paget, Sir Joseph Lister, Sir Henry Roscoe, Richard Quain, and others equally eminent. The Pasteurian feud has waxed fierce on 3. Hypertrophy of the left heart being the many occasions, and the complete and powerresult of a condition which exists in preg-ful defence of Pasteur by this commission will undoubtedly surprise many who have chanced to read his opponents' side of the question. In speaking of the report the Brit. Med. Jour. says: All attempts to estimate the value of M. Pasteur's method of prophylaxis against rabies necessarily involve the investigation of two propositions, which are distinct though nearly connected. The great French biologist first claimed that his inoculations were capable of protecting a man or animal from the risk of becoming infected if bitten by a rabid dog; but as the success of this method became noised abroad, he was compelled to attempt to prevent by its use the development of the disease in persons already infected. The "protective" treatment has been amply tested, and the committee is able to report that "it may be deemed certain that M. Pasteur has discovered a method of protection from rabies comparable with that which vaccination affords against infection from small-pox." The main question of human interest, however, is whether the second claim put forward by M. Pasteur, namely, that he has discovered an effective "preventive" treatment capable of preventing the development of the disease in persons bitten by rabid dogs is well grounded. Upon this all important point the committee has brought together an amount of evidence which will go far to settle the question, and certainly constitutes the report one of the most important documents yet contributed to the controversy. The report is founded upon observations made by certain members of the committee who visited M. Pasteur's laboratory and investigated a series of his cases, upon the opinions and statistics published by M. Pasteur, and upon experiments made for the Committee by the Secretary, Mr. Victor Horsley. Two rabbits inoculated by the originator of the method were brought back from Paris and kept at the Brown Institution, where, within a week, each developed the peculiar symptoms, of which the most notable is ascending paralysis, described as produced by rabies in these animals. The first step was to prove that this disease was communicable and was really rabies; four rabbits inoculated beneath the dura mater with the spinal cords of the Paris rabbits developed the same symtoms in six or seven days; four dogs similarly treated developed rabies in eight or nine days, and it is important to note that in two the disease took the furious form, while in two paralysis was an early symptom, and the animals had the disease in the form termed "dumb" rabies. The converse experiment was also performed, and it was found that bites inflicted by dogs found in the streets suffering from furious or dumb rabies produced the paralytic rabies in rabbits; inoculation with the spinal cords of these dogs produced the same result. The only difference to be noted between the disease as produced in rabbits by M. Pasteur's virus and as produced by the virus of ordinary dogs, was that, in the latter case, the period of incubation was longer (17 to 21 days), and that the symptoms lasted longer (a week instead of two or three days). These differences were in accordance with the statements made by M. Pasteur. The general result of the earlier experiments made by Mr. Horsley was to confirm the statement that the virus was contained in the spinal cord; that it could be transmitted without essential change by inoculation; that it was rendered more intense by transmission through rabbits; and that it might manifest itself either in the furious form commonly seen in dogs, or in the paralytic form usually observed in rabbits, or in intermediate forms, but that the disease was always the same always true rabies. Having thus cleared the ground and proved the correctness of M. Pasteur's preliminary observations, experiments were next made to test the claim that this virus could be so attenuated that it might be inoculated without danger to the animals, and that when used after the prescribed manner, it afforded protec tion to dogs against the effects of subsequent inoculation with rabid virus. Upon this point Mr. Horsley's investigations afforded equally conclusive evidence. Emulsions of the spinal cords of rabbits which had died of |