their menstrual indisposition when asked to -COCAINE IN SEA-SICKNESS.--According to join in a dance or sleigh-ride, and who after M. Otto, cocaine appears to have given good rea while pay a severe penalty for their mis-sults in sea-sickness, the nausea and vomiting placed bashfulness. That masturbation also enters a certain extent into the causes productive of sterility seems very plausible, though, of course, definite information in this direction is wanting. In some instances the fault lies with a deficient involution of the uterus subsequent to a confinement, while uterine catarrhs and residual exudations are to blame in other cases. Indeed, being quieted, and the nervous excitement replaced by a calming sleep. M. Otto prefers an aqueous solution of the hydro-chlorate 1 to 100 three times a day. Four or five drops should be administered on a picce of ice. In the vomiting of pregnancy and irritative dyspepsia it will also be found effective. -THE MORTALITY OF PHYSICIANS.-Accord metritis has been occasionally produced by ing to the experience of the life insurance com venereal excesses of husband and wife, so that even in this direction precautions are not out of place. In conclusion, Kisch advises every mother to fully instruct her daughter previous to an intended marriage of her future duties, and to give her such admonitions as will lessen or remove the chances of a future sterility.-Pacific Record. NOTES AND ITEMS. "A chiel's amang you takin' notes, -It is interesting to read a statement positively set forth regarding the length of time which should intervene between contracting syphilis and marrying. Dr. John V. Shoemaker, in an address delivered at the Chicago meeting of the A. M. A., says: "Fortunately, however, syphilis is a curable, and in some cases a self-limited disease, and when the system is no longer under its influence, marriage is permissible and even advisable." He says that as a general rule, patients presenting a mild type of syphilis may be permitted to marry within two or two and a half years after infection. If of the malignant variety, characterized by the formation of large pustules, bullæ, tubercles, etc., marriage should not be permitted for from three to three and a half years. -BACILLUS DECALVANS.-Prof. Von Schlen pany of Gotha, out of the whole number insured thse was a mortality of 11.53 per cent. Infectious diseases, diseases of the lungs, and apoplexy preponderated. Of the infectious diseases typhus carried off a number of the younger physicians. Of ten hundred and fifty-two deaths, there was only one from poisoning by a dissecting wound, but nine other cases of blood poisoning. eight of erysipelas, one hundred and fifteen of typhus, fourteen by suicide, and four of melan cholia.--Med. and Surg. Rep. -Dr. Louis Heitzman, of New York, says: "I have tried to abort furuncles with salicylic acid, plaster or salve, and the result was really surprising, for it acted beautifully. The first case in which it was used was that of a young man, who, for three weeks previously had suffered from a large number of boils of different sizes at the back of the neck. In spite of numerous incisions, new nodules appeared as soon as others were cured. I prescribed locally an eight per cent. salicylic acid plaster; When I again saw him, three days later, the pains had disappeared, he could move his head in every direction, and only a few superficial nodules remained; in three days more he was cured. I had opportunity to test the action of salicylic acid in furuncles several times, and almost every time with the best success. If applied early enough, it never took longer than six or eight has recently discovered the bacillus of alopecia days to cure furuncles of even a large size and of areata; has cultivated it and has succeeded in producing areas of baldness in the lower animals, by inoculating with the culture fluid. Now what is wanted is somebody to learn how to prevent baldness, since the professor has discovered how to produce it. Immortality awaits the man who will discover a microbe that will make the hairs grow instead of one that will prevent it-Pacific Rec. long duration, and the relief to the patient was manifested in a very short time. --Among many subjects at the Anthropological Society of Paris, one was the utilization of monkeys. It was proposed and the idea unfolded by M. Victor Meunier, to cross-breed and educate monkeys with a view to render them useful animals. the body in his studies of the physical signs of pleurisy; the space which bears his name is of interest to diagnosticians in examining the stomach; it is given thus by Le Progress Medicale for July 23, 1887: "It is that portion of the left inferior anterior thoracic region corresponding to the tympanitic resonance of the stomach." Its determination is effected by following the usual rules for percussion. -Med. News. -At a meeting of the St. Charles County Medical Society held at Wentzville, the following resolutions were adopted, viz: Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to remove by Death our esteemed member, Dr. W. C. Williams, of O'Fallon, who was one of the founders of our County Medical Society and for the past 25 years an honored member of the medical profession in St. Charles county, therefore, Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Williams the society has lost one of its most useful members, and that we deeply deplore the loss of his wise counsel and broad experience. Resolved, That not only the medical profession has sustained the loss of one of its most enthusiastic workers, but society a thorough and cultured gentlemen, who was ever a generous, warm and sympathetic friend. Resolved, that we cheerfully testify to his kind and courteous treatment of his professional brethren, and to the lively interest he took in everything tending to advance the interests of the medical profession. Resolved, That we deeply symphathize with the afflicted family in the irreparable loss they have sustained. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the family of the deceased, and that the same be printed in the medical journals of St. Louis and the papers of St. Charles county. -Dr. C. Hamilton reports a successful Cesarean section made on a cow with a deformed pelvis, the result of a railroad accident. He made the incision a little to the right of the median line, commencing just at the edge of the mammary gland and cutting up, making an incision six or seven inches long--the cut in the uterus as small as would possibly admit the escape of the calf. The membranes had not ruptured, and he waited a few minutes for the bag of waters to form so as to dilate the cut in the womb. then ruptured the membranes and delivered the calf, and in a few minutes it was walking around. He closed the wound in the uterus with a catgut suture, as also that in the abdominal walls, and He -The daily papers of the city state that the first delegation of foreign physicians, which arrived recently, was tendered an exceedingly inhospitable reception, there being no one to meet them at the vessel or show them the place which had been fitted up to receive them. Although many things might have occurred which could have prevented the members on the reception committee from being personally present to receive this delegation, they certainly could have found substitutes, and we hope, for the sake of America's hospitality, that the gentlemen composing the reception committee will not allow this to happen again. -At the meeting of the American Association for the advancement of Science, Dr. C. P. Hart spoke of the peculiar fact that diseases of organs above the diaphragm were accompanied by optimistic views of life, and those below the diaphragm by pessimistic views. --The complete report of Dr. Robert Koch's journey to Egypt and India will soon be published. This journey was undertaken four years ago at the instance of the German government, and resulted in the discovery of the cholera bacillus. Europe, and that this emigration occurred about 35,000 years ago. --The Union Medicale states that when due consideration is given to what comes out of the river Seine, it must become evident that the water of this river is not the impure and deleterious fluid it has hitherto been supposed to be, but a most nourishing soup, made up of the most varied ingredients. The following defunct animal organisms were removed from the Seine within the limits of Paris during the year 1886: 2,021 dogs, 977 cats, 2,257 rats, 507 fowls and ducks, 210 hares and rabbits, 10 sheep, 2 foals, 66 sucking-pigs, 5 pigs, 27 geese, 27 turkeys, 2 calves, 2 monkeys, 8 goats, 1 snake, 2 squirrels, 3 porcupines, 1 parrot, 609 birds (various), 5 foxes, 130 pigeons, 3 hedgehogs, 3 peacocks, and 1 seal, besides 3,066 kilogrammes of offal. These statistics suggest in some respects the shipwreck of a menagerie. -"Science" says that a teacher of deaf-mutes has counted the average number of words which a pupil in his school wrote or spelled on the fingers per day, and finds it to be 1,118; the teacher similarly employs 216, but uses signs equivalent to 861 words daily. It has been estimated that a mother talks 27,000 words to her child in a day. Making due allowance for the habit of forming only parts of sentences which the deaf-mutes cultivate, and also for the suggestiveness of the sign language (which hearing people really also use in the form of an expressional accompaniment), the comparative meagerness of the deaf-mute's con--Dr. Goldscheider, of Berlin, has recently pub-versation and slowness with which his mental lished the following results of some experiments food can be brought to him, are plainly evident. which he made to determine the length of time necessary to perceive hot and cold sensations. The operations were made on parts equally susceptible to the effects of these two agents, the time of contact being recorded electrically by means of a metallic button fixed to the skin. Contact with a cold point was felt on the face after 13.5, on the arm after 18, on the abdomen after 22, on the knee after 25, hundredths of a second. The sensation of a hot point was felt on the same surfaces after 19, 27, 62 and 79 hundredths of a second respectively. --Dr. Daniel G.Brinton, the well-known archeologist, and formerly editor of the "Medical and Surgical Reporter," spoke, at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, upon "Prehistoric Chronology of America." Deriving his evidence from various sources, he concludes that man did not develop upon this continent, but reached it by the pre-glacial land bridge that once connected Northern America with -Prof. Potain, of the Paris faculty, has recently been called from that city to Moscow to attend M. Katkoff, who is seriously ill there. To call a doctor from such a distance, about as far as from New York to San Francisco, means with a man like Potain an expense of about $10,000. -ON DISEASES OF WILD ANIMALS.-Dr. H. C. Chapman says that nine-tenths of these suffer from heart diseases, Elephants suffer most from rheumatism, monkeys die ordinarily from lung or heart affections, the feline family of dysentery and heart disease, the canine of all possible diseases.-Reporter. --The pharmacopeia of Austria is to be revised by a committee appointed by the government for the purpose of bringing it up to the level of the recent advances in science. The last edition of the work was published in 1869. THE WEEKLY MEDICAL REVIEW VOL. XVI. No. 11. ST. LOUIS, SEPTEMBER 10, 1887. TERMS: $3.50 A YEAR. REPORTS ON PROGRESS. OPHTHALMOLOGY. BY ADOLF ALT, M. D. I. EXPERIMENTS WITH STENOCARPINE, THE LOCAL ANESTHETIC RECENTLY DISCOvered. By Mr. M. Goodman, V. S., and Dr. Allen M. Leonard. By Dr. H. Knapp. (Med. Rec., Aug. 13, '87.) II. A CASE OF WELL-NIGH FATAL HEMorrhage from tHE CONJUNCTIVE, THE RESULT OF AN INSTILLATION OF A 2 PER CENT SoLUTION OF NITRATE OF SILVER IN A DAY-OLD INFANT AS A PROPHYLACTIC MEASURE. By Dr. O. D. Pomeroy (Med. Rec., Aug. 20, '87). III. THE BACTERIOLOGICAL QUESTION OF TRACHOMA. (Bacteriologisches ueber Trachoma.) By Dr. J. Kucharsky, Centralbl. f. Prakt. Augenh❜lk'de. EXPERIMENTS WITH STENOCARPINE. The discovery of a new local anesthetic with qualities which, in certain directions, place it in a position superior to cocaine, seems to us of such an importance that we give the most important portion of Dr. Knapp's paper here in full: Therapeutical Experiments.-On the eye. -Some cataract patients had a drop instilled for the sake of examination. The pupils dilated ad maximum, and remained dilated three or four days. A few foreign bodies were removed after one drop had been instilled. In five minutes the cornea were anesthetic and the operation painless. The pupils remained dilated, and the accommodation weakened for three days and a half. In one case of acute syphilitic iritis I instilled one or two drops every five minutes for three-quarters of an hour without producing perfect anesthesia. The pupil dilated irregularly and only moderately. Then I instilled two drops of a three per cent solution of cocaine three times during the next fifteen minutes. The pupil remained unchanged, and the center of the cornea when touched was still sensitive, and caused the lids to close as before. The circumcorneal injection, diminished by the stenocarpine, was not influenced by cocaine. In a case of acute, very painful iritis, with a corneal pustule, stenocarpine caused only a very moderate dilatation of the pupil, even when used in combination with sulphate of atropine. It produced only temporary relief, the same as cocaine does. In a case of phlyctenular keratitis,stenocarpine instilled into the eye gave temporary comfort, dilated the pupil, and diminished the photophobia. In a case of trachomatous pannus, with excessive photophobia and blepharospasm, it relieved these symptoms and dilated the pupil. 2. On the ear.-In a case of otitis media purulenta chronica, with swelling of the mucous membrane in the upper part, repeated instillations diminished the sensitiveness only moderately. In a case of the same disease, with a small polyp (treated by Dr. Weeks), stenocarpine instillations rendered the polyp anesthetic, but not the surrounding tissue. In a case of large destruction of the drum and moderate discharge the instillations of stenocarpine made the tympanic cavity almost completely anesthetic. I will add that before the instillations the ears had been carefully cleansed and wiped dry. In one case the instillations caused general symptoms. A very painful furuncle, situated at the posterior wall, was treated for twentyfour hours with instillations of a warmed solution of bicarbonate of soda. When it had perforated, four drops of stenocarpine were instilled into the ear-canal. The pain diminished, but in ten minutes the patient, a young lady, felt dizzy, nauseated, weak and fainting. She was very pale. Without removing the stenocarpine, I let her lie down five minutes. She felt better. I forcibly pressed the furuncle out with a strong probe and cleansed the canal with absorbent cotton on a dentist's holder. These manipulations were not painless, but the tenderness was greatly reduced. Conclusions. From the preceding and Dr. Claiborne's observations, it follows that Drs. Goodman and Seward have presented us with a new local anesthetic that is very simiar to cocaine, chiefly differing from it by its more powerful and lasting mydriatic property. This difference determines its range of applicability. 1. Everywhere, when dilatation of the pupil is desirable-i. e., in all conditions that have a tendency to congestion and inflammation of the iris-stenocarpine, either alone or in combination with atropine, is beneficial, and preferable to cocaine. 2. Though its mydriatic effect be less persistent than that of sulphate of atropine, stenocarpine may be used with more advantage when in iritis there is increase of eye-ball tension,a tendency to glaucoma and where there is great pain. Further observations have to show whether or not stenocarpine, as other mydriatics, leads to granulations of the conjunctiva. If it do not, it will be very valuable in cases of chronic iritis. 4. Stenocarpine is inferior to cocaine when we want anesthesia without mydriasis, as is the case in the majority of operations-removal of foreign bodies, paracentesis and incision of the cornea, iridectomy, extraction of cataract more especially when in this opera tion the iris is spared-operations on the conjunctiva, the lachrymal apparatus and the eyelids. For an ophthalmoscopic examination, homatropine will be preferable. 4. If we want to be certain of a complete paralysis of accommodation, for which stenocarpine is as reliable as sulphate of atropia, stenocarpine deserves preference because its action lasts only half as long. 5. Applied externally to an unbroken cutis, it produces no anesthesia. Observations to the contrary mentioned by Goodman and Claiborne must be owing to peculiar conditions which further experience has to determine. 6. Small doses (four drops) rapidly absorbed may produce transient general symp. toms-pallor of the skin, cold perspiration, dizziness, stupor, fainting, nausea, and weakThe same symptoms are produced by ness. cocaine. 7. Larger doses cause the most alarming general symptoms-violent tetanoid convulsions, opisthotonos, dilatation of the pupils, excessive acceleration of pulse and respiration, and prostration. 8. Introduced into the veins, stenocarpine is the strongest poison, causing death almost instantly by arrest of respiration and pulsation. 9. It is certainly dangerous to inject even small quantities into vascular tissues, such as the orbit, for instance; it appears even unsafe to inject it under the skin in quantities exceeding ten minims of a two per cent solution-i. e., about 0.01 (one-sixth grain). We should also be on our guard if we apply it to an open wound during the progress of an operation. 10. The symptoms of poisoning, as has been seen from the above description, are like those from strychnine. The affinity of the two substances should be further investigated. The chemical tests for the detection of strychnine applied to stenocarpine have proved negative. The reflex excitability from stenocarpine is less than from strychnine, also its toxic effect is considerably less. I instilled into the eyes of a rabbit four drops, and into |