function, as function is of organization. Illustrations of modification of structure in response to function are very numerous, in which it is shown how an organ may be com pletely changed or a mere rudiment be fully developed by the demand for the performance of a function unknown before."

A century ago Lamarck laid down the following laws concerning the development of organic life, which we, with all our accumulated facts, can change but little. In his second law he said that, The production of a new organ in an animal body results from the supervention of a new want continuing to make itself felt, and a new movement which this want gives birth to and encourages. Third law The development of organs and their force of action are constantly in ratio to the employment of those organs. Fourth law: all that has been acquired, laid down, or changed in the organization of the individual in the course of this life, is commenced by generation and transmitted to new individuals which proceed from those which undergone those changes." Altered wants lead to altered habits which result in the formation of new organs, as well as in modification and growth of those previously existing.

"SECTION OF CONTRACTURED TISSUES ESSENTIAL BEFORE MECHANICAL TREATMENT

CAN BE EFFEctual.”

Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, of New York, in a paper on this subject defined his position as follows: A contracted tissue is one that is simply shortened, but which can be elongated by careful, continuous, and judiciously applied traction and manipulation. A contractured tissue is one which has undergone some change of structure in the fibrilla of the muscles, and which cannot be elongated or stretched. Distortions or deformities which are the results of contractured tissue can only be removed by forcible rupture of the same, or by cutting before traction is applied; but similar deformities resulting from simply contracted tissue may frequently be rectified, by manipulation and constant traction, prop

erly applied, without section of the tissue. How are we to know whether the tissue is contracted or contractured? If in any case of club-foot or other deformity from muscular contraction we stretch the shortened parts to their utmost tension by manual force or me chanical aids, and when the parts are thus stretched we suddenly add to the tension by pressing with the thumb or finger on the part thus stretched, or by pinching the stretched tis sue between the thumb and finger, and if by either of these acts we produce a reflex spasm or sudden shivering of the whole body, that muscle, tendon, or tissue, thus yielding this reflex spasm is contractured, and cannot be elongated without severing of its fibres. If, on the contrary, when the test is applied as above described, and no reflex irritation or muscular spasm is produced, it is evident that the parts are simply contracted, and can be further elongated by persistent constant traction and proper manipulation, and therefore do not require divulsion.

To attempt to stretch a contractured tissue causes unnecessary pain, and exposes the patient to the risk of disturbances of the nerv ous system through long-continued irritation. In all such cases it is infinitely safer to make such division by subcutaneous section than by manual or mechanical force. Treatment is to be completed by massage, friction, active and passive motion, electricity, and such mechanical appliances as may be required in each case. A number of illustrative cases were given.

THE TREATMENT OF ABSCESSES AND UlceraTIONS OF THE CORNEA WITH JEQUIRITY.

Dr. E. Smith, of Detroit, in his paper read at Washington, remarked upon the experience, common to all, of the difficulty in procuring the absorption of pus in the cornea, and noted the existence of the same tendency in all closed abscesses. The best means of arresting suppuration and of getting rid of the pus when formed has engaged the attention of the writer, with many other, for years. A paper on the above subject, in the spring of

1883, with another published in October, 1883, gave the result of his observations up to that time. He had since had many cases of ulceration of the cornea speedily relieved, and an astonishing clearing up of the cornea after its use. He believes the remedy affects the proliferation in corneal corpuscles. After explaining his impression of the mode of action of the remedy, he proceeded to describe his manner of using it. He does not use a strong preparation, and aims not to produce a sharp inflammation, as is done in trachoma. He uses a three per cent. solution, or a very minute quantity of the powdered seed. It is ap. plied sparingly, till a mild catarrhal inflam mation is set up, characteristic of the remedy, and in some cases there may be slight membrane. The object is to avoid a high degree of reaction. The eye is kept washed out with a two per cent. solution of boric acid, and the result is almost uniformly surprisingly good. The corneal cicatrix is often hardly apparent to anyone but the patient.

TREATMENT OF SUPPURATION OF ANTRUM.

Dr. E. Fletcher Ingals recently presented a paper on this subject, which attracted much notice from medical journals. The treatment therein described is the rational method, which would have been followed by any phy. sician who had recognized the difficulty, but we are inclined to think that his idea of the results gained from the method would very probably be quite different from that of Dr. Ingals. It has been our misfortune to meet with two of these cases recently, and our most strenuous efforts to check the catarrho-suppurative condition have not met with success. Free openings were mantained, and all kinds of antiseptic and astringent solutions used, but with only temporary benefit, and we are inclined to think that they are not always cured in from two to six weeks, the time given by Dr. Ingals. His treatment as given is as follows:

The opening into the antrum may be made with a common trocar, but a bone drill answers the purpose better. The drill may be

worked by a dental engine, but this is unnec essary, as with a conical burr bone drill the opening is easily made by hand in three or four minutes. Care should be taken to hold the drill so that as it enters the cavity it may not plunge suddenly through and wound the opposite wall. The opening should be drilled on a line with the internal canthus of the eye upon the same side, which insures striking the central position of the antrum, providing it is of normal shape. Occasionally the antrum varies much from the typical size and shape, and in a few instances bony septa have been found traversing it. In cases of this kind it is necessary to scrape out the partitions sufficiently to allow thorough cleansing.

It is best to make a comparatively large opening, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, in order that it may be easily kept free, and that drainage and washing may be perfect. During the treatment the opening should be filled with a roll of cotton or gauze to prevent the entrance of food and to delay healing until the lining of the cavity has become healthy, or it may be kept patent by a small metallic tube which a dentist may fasten to an ordinary plate, and which may be closed while the patient is eating, by a small cork. After the operation the subsequent treatment of the case consists of washing out the cavity with antiseptic and astringent solutions. I have used with greatest satisfaction a spray or small injection of per oxide of hydrogen, three or four times a week, and a wash of listerine 3 ss-3i. to 3i. of saturated solution of boric acid twice a day. This wash should always be used luke-warm.

If there is no necrosis of bone the case may be expected to recover in from two to six weeks, though occasionally a tendency to renewed inflammation may make it expedient to keep the opening much longer.

QUACKERY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

In the editorial columns of the Med. Rec., appears an article consisting of what was written by Dr. Samuel Johnson concerning the art of quackery in his time, and of the ad

vice then given by Dr. Mead as to the manner of acquiring a practice in a large city. It is striking to see how the details of the last are followed in our own day. Dr. Samuel Johnson says:

"A physician in a great city seems to be the mere plaything of fortune; his degree of reputation is, for the most part, totally casual; they that employ him know not his excellence; they who reject him know not his deficiency. By an acute observer, who had looked on the transactions of the world for half a century, a very curious book might be written on the fortunes of physicians."

Dr. Mead gave the following choice bits of advice, in a letter to a young London physician, on the art of getting a practice. It perhaps shows why the reputation of the physician was "totally casual."

"The first thing I advise you to do is to make all the noise and bustle you can, to make the whole town ring of you, if possible, so that everyone may know that there is such being, and here in town, too, such a physician."

"The old and the simple, the riotous and the whimsical and the fearful, are your best company, and those who will provide you with most business. Or if you would be es teemed very wise, sober, and grave, you should then learn to fawn and soothe man, woman, and child, since few else will thrive unless blessed with wit, in which case they may be allowed a little more liberty.

"To make yourself known, the making friends for some public lectureship is not amiss.

"If you can be introduced to a hospital your business is done for life, be your success

what it will.

"If your wife mind business in her way it will certainly increase yours.

"It will not be amiss to set up an equipage, to purchase a mountain of books, and add anything by which you will acquire the reputation of being a learned and ingenious gentleman.

"Let your religious and political opinions swim with the tide.

"Dancing and dressing well are not such slight accomplishments as you may imagine his fashionable gesture and agreeable way of feeling the pulse is half the business.

"Should you have an itching to write a book on physic, I would advise you to choose a subject by which you think you will get most money, as fevers, small-pox, etc. For in these diseases some must always live, some die; it is a hard matter to tell when right or when wrong.

"And next, then, I would advise you, whatever the subject you write upon (if uncommon, the better), rather to write so as neither to make downright sense or nonsense thereof, than otherwise, because thus none of the profession can well lay hold of you for any par ticular part, or, if they should, there is room for you to defend it, being as easily understood one way as t'other."

TREATMENT OF URETHRAL STRICTURE BY ELECTROLYSIS.

He

For the past year many articles on this subject have appeared from the pen of Dr. Newman of New York, who has had an immense experience with this mode of treatment. now tabulates the results of the second hundred cases of strictures treated in this manner, and gives concisely the rules to be ob served in using electricity for this purpose, among them are the following:

1. Any good galvanic battery will do, which has small elements and is steady in its actiou; the twenty-cell battery, carbon and zinc elements is an excellent instrument, and particularly sufficient for the beginner.

2. The fluid for the battery ought not to be used too strong.

3. Auxiliary instruments, as galvanometer, etc., are important to the expert, but not nec essary for the beginner.

4. For the positive pole a carbon electrode is used, covered with sponge, moistened with hot water, and held firmly against the cutaneous surface of the patient's hand, thigh of abdomen.

6. Electrode bougies are firm sounds insulated with a hard-baked mass of rubber. The extremity is a metal bulb, egg-shaped, which is the acting part in contact with the stricture. 7. The curve of the bougie is short; large curves are mistakes.

8. The plates must be immersed in the fluid before the electrodes are placed on the patient, and raised again after the electrodes have been removed.

9. All operations must begin and end while the battery is at zero, increasing and decreasing the current slowly and gradually by one cell at a time, avoiding any shock to the patient.

10. Before operating, the susceptibility of the patient to the electric current should be ascertained.

11. The problem is to absorb the stricture, not to cauterize, burn or destroy tissues.

12. Weak currents at long intervals.

Objections. In reality there can be no valid objections to the method of electrolysis in the treatment of urethral strictures, and those which have been raised from time to time come either from men entirely ignorant of the first physical laws of electricity, or from such who had a personal interest or feeling in the matter. To the latter class in the opposition belong some surgeons of high standing, who are wedded to the knife, have not tested electrolysis, and hence are opposed to any innovation. Most of such objections are entirely unfounded.

ALCOHOL AS AN ANESTHETIC.

Dr. Link, of Indianapolis, Ind., in his paper on this subject said he had used it in over a hundred cases and never had a fatal result, while the anesthesia was complete. The whiskey was to be given in two ounce doses, every two to five minutes, until a pint to one and a half pint had been taken and the patient became stupefied. Then about two drachms of

few respirations would put him to sleep; the

16. Anesthetics I like to avoid; I want the patient conscious, so that he can tell how he feels.

17. Force should never be used; the bougie must be guided in the most gentle way; the electricity alone must be allowed to do the work. Avoid causing hemorrhage.

18. During one séance two electrodes in succession should never be used.

19. All strictures are amenable to the treatment by electrolysis.

20. Pain should never be inflicted by the use of electrolysis; therefore it should not be applied when the urethra is in an acute or even sub-acute inflammatory condition.

speaker's reasons for using the method was that in cases of shock there is depression; the alcohol increases the heart's action, while the chloroform, which is a depressant administered as stated, secures the equilibrium of the heart's action.

DELIVERY OF THE PLACENTA.

Dr. Junius C. Hoag, in a lengthy article on "Puerperal Fever and its Treatment." speaks as follows concerning the treatment of the third stage of labor: The management of the third stage of labor is a more important consideration. In his anxiety to terminate labor, and thus relieve his mind of that bugbear post-partum hemorrhage, the physician often makes light of introducing his hand into the uterus and hastily removing the pla

centa, an act which not only subjects the patient to some danger from infection introduced by the hand, but also results frequently in the failure to remove in their entirety the placenta and membranes which would otherwise have been completely expelled by the natural forces of the patient.

Any one who has witnessed in skilful hands the application of the Dublin or Credé method of expelling the placenta, cannot fail to be entirely convinced of the superiority of these methods over any plan which involves the presence of the hand in the uterus or vagina. In practicing these methods, the physician should be deliberate and gentle in his manipulations. An exhibition of great force is not necessary, but such force as is required must be properly directed and exercised only when the uterus is in a state of contraction, otherwise it will largely fail to profit the patient. He who fully understands the management of the various degrees of post-partum hemorrhage will neither be precipitate in his actions nor deem it necessary to resort to a painful and often uncalled for operation, simply because the patient is losing a little blood. If he fully understand the methods of external manipulation, he will seldom find it necessary to introduce even a finger into the vagina for the purpose of removing the placenta.

LUPUS TREATED BY MULTIPLE

TIONS.

The results of his treatment are most satis. factory-in some cases most surprising. Faces marred and rendered unsightly by these hideous reddish patches of disfigurement are in a few weeks by his method of treatment made smooth and white with scarcely a trace of the original disease. His method of treatment is by multiple scarifications. The incisions are made with a single blade, the multiple scarificator having been abandoned. The entire area of diseased tissue is rapidly gone over by numerous parallel incisions closely approximated, and these crossed at right angles or diametrically by other incisions, their depth being regulated by the char acter of the lupus. The bleeding is checked by compresses of absorbent cotton, the surface sprayed with a solution of the bichloride (1-2000), and afterward dressed with the em plastrum de vigo or red cinnabar plaster (1-20).

SOCIETY PROCEEDINGS.

OBSTETRICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA.

Dr. Prince A. Morrow, editor of the Jour. of Cut. and Gen-Ur. Dis., is at present in Europe, and in a letter from Paris to his pub. lication speaks very highly of the plan of treatment of lupus practiced by M. Vidal. He says; I have been greatly interested in the service of M. Vidal, especially in the observation of his method of treating lupus. Every Thursday he operates on from forty to seventy-five patients, illustrating every variety of lupus. I had supposed that lupus must be much more common in Paris than in New York, until I learned that lupus patients came from all over France to be treated by M.

Vidal.

during the preceding day.

Four weeks afterward, which was in the seventh month she had a repetition of the hemorrhage losing a much larger quantity. She became quite alarmed and sent for me. The hemorrhage had entirely ceased before my arrival. I made a vaginal examination and found the external os patulous and the internal rigid. A slight discharge of blood continuing, I requested Dr. B. C. Hinst to see