Apostolian treatment. Several prominent American gynæcologists, who had formerly written eulogistically of the method, had since changed their opinions with regard to it. Dr. Lycett referred to the disasters occasioned by delay in submitting to operation. He thanked Mr. Tait for his illustration of a simple method of performing Porro's operation. Dr. Saundby suggested that tumours which shrunk after simple abdominal incision may belong to the class myxomata, and that the diminution in size may depend on their giving up more or less of their watery constituents. Mr. Tait briefly replied, and the meeting terminated. At a meeting of the Council held subsequently, Messrs. E. Teichelmann and J. E. Thompson, M.B., were elected members of the Association. The first Ordinary Meeting was held on October 17th, at the Medical Institute; Mr. H. KER, President, in the chair. Mr. Geoffry Stead, of Walsall, was elected a member. Mr. Eales shewed a new lamp suitable for reading table and for ophthalmoscopic and laryngoscopic examinations. It is made in the Corporation Gas Department, and is moderate in cost. Dr. Suckling shewed a man with complete paralysis of the third, fifth, and sixth nerves due to syphilitic gumma pressing on the nerve trunks. Patient had syphilitic orchitis of four years duration. The primary sore was contracted twelve and a half years since. He was improving under mercurial inunction and the iodides. Mr. Eales commented on the absence of corneal ulceration, which he thought might be explained by the protecting influence of the dropped lid of the ptosis. He thought the symptoms pointed to multiple gummatous lesions affecting the central nuclei rather than the nerve trunks. Dr. Saundby said that intra-cranial gummata were usually meningeal in their situation. He should think the seat of lesion was in nerve trunks. Dr. Suckling replied. Dr. Saundby shewed two cases of purpura referred to in his paper. One followed an injury to the left index finger and spread up the limb to the trunk. Crops of purpura follow irritation applied at any time to the patient's skin. Mr. Eales shewed a case of symmetrical caries of the malar bones in a child. Mr. Jordan Lloyd shewed Dr. Macewen's instruments for spinal operations, also his hernia needles and periosteal raspatory. Dr. Suckling shewed a case of bilateral spastic hemiplegia in a child other members of the family suffered from allied disorders. Dr. Kirby shewed the kidneys and supra-renal bodies from a case of Addison's disease. The kidneys were large and the adrenals were broken down by suppurative changes. The patient was a young woman, ill four months; leading symptoms. were mental delusions, headache, constipation, enlarged spleen; bronzing of skin during last two months of life. Two years before, she had a similar attack from which however she completely recovered. Dr. Suckling referred to a case of complete supra-renal caseation without skin bronzing. Dr. Saundby thought the enlargement of the spleen was interesting, and had often seen it before in Addison's disease. The connection between skin bronzing and disease of the adrenals is not yet settled. Dr. Kirby, replying, said there was no evidence of tubercle in the case. Dr. Saundby then read a paper on purpura: its varieties, pathology and treatment. He divided the disease into two great classes: purpura simplex and purpura hæmorrhagica, which differed pathologically only in degree, and clinically in the bleedings from the mucous membranes seen in the latter. Purpura occurs in very many diseases, after local injury and the administration of certain drugs, in the aged and apparently healthy children. He read notes of a series of cases recently under his care. Many theories of the malady had been advanced but only four called for consideration, viz: the hæmic, the toxic, the mechanical and the neurotic. His observations led him to think most favourably of the toxic theory—that the disorder depended upon the presence in the blood of some chemical substance, a leucomaine-probably produced within the body. He shewed a boy in whom an outbreak of purpuric spots began in the neighbourhood of an injury to a finger and spread over the extremities and trunk, and expressed his belief that in this case an absorption of a chemical poison of some kind began at the local wound and gradually continued until the body became saturated. The blood in all the cases had been examined for micro-organisms by Dr. Crooke, both microscopically and by cultivation, but with negative results. number of hæmocytes and the amount of hæmoglobin were reduced. Retinal hemorrhages were absent and the gums were healthy in all. A diagnosis had to be made from hæmophilia and scurvy; the former is always congenital and is characterised chiefly by the tendency to bruise easily, the latter by the sponginess of the gums and the previous abstinence from fresh vegetable foods. Prognosis should always be guarded, because an outbreak of purpuric spots in the course of many maladies is often of portentous significance. The causes of death were due to heart failure, bleeding into the intestinal tract and gangrene. In treatment he had found large and small doses of turpentine to be inefficient in both forms of the disease; ergotin given hypodermically was of great value in the hæmorrhagic variety, but was useless in the simple form. The Dr. Suckling referred to six cases of pernicious anemia which had recently come under his care. In all there were retinal hemorrhage, fever, epistaxis, and diminution in the number of the red blood corpuscles. He had found Burroughs and Wellcome's Ergoticine to be most useful. Dr. Hogben referred to an outbreak of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis which had come under his observation, and in which purpura was a leading feature. Mr. Bennett May spoke of the value of the local application of perchloride of iron and of strong solutions of cocaine. Mr. Jordan Lloyd thought that purpura should rather be regarded as a symptom, or an incident occurring in the course of some other disorder. He failed to see the essential difference between homophilia and purpura. The assertion that the former was congenital and continuous and the latter acquired and temporary would not satisfy the requirements of clinical observation. Dr. Crooke suggested that where organisms had been found they were accidental rather than causal, and probably made their appearance in the blood shortly before death. He had proved this to be the case in the "purples" of pigs. Dr. Saundby briefly replied, and the meeting terminated. Local News. Ar a recently held Congregation Mr. J. T. J. Morrison, F.R C.S., Casualty Surgeon to Queen's Hospital, was admitted to the degree of Master of Arts in the University of Cambridge. NEW INVENTIONS, DRUGS, ETC. NESTLE'S FOOD.-The best food for an infant is without doubt the milk of its mother, provided it is sufficient both in quantity and quality. Next to the mother's milk should be ranked the milks of the goat, the ass, or the cow, provided the stomach of the child can be made to tolerate them. Unfortunately, however, from various reasons, we have to look to other sources than these for our baby's nourishment, and these are tɔ be satisfactorily found in the various artificial foods which flood the market. Some of these are good, some bad, and some indifferent, and amongst the foremost class must be placed the special preparation of Nestlé. A reference to its manufacture is the best way of stating its merits to the public. The basis of Nestlé's food is Swiss milk of the finest quality, concentrated in vacuo at a temperature which preserves its freshness unimpaired, and which, at the same time, is sufficient to sterilize it. flower, made into a paste, thoroughly baked by a special process, and then finely pulverised, is mixed with the concentrated milk in a definite proportion. The mixture is dried, and again pulverized with the greatest care. It requires only the addition of water to prepare it for use, and is not only one of the best, but also one of the cheapest foods for infants. We have found Nestlé agree with delicate children after having failed with many other artificial foods, and but the least of its advantages is the readiness with which infants take it. Wheat New Books, etc., Received. L'Hystérie Pulmonaire. Par le Dr. LEON-PETIT. The Illustrated Medical News. No. 1, Vol. I. September 29th, 1888. London: Illustrated Medical News Publishing Office. The Elements of Practical Medicine. By A. H. Carter, M.D. 5th edition. London: H. K. Lewis. 1888. Manual of Ophthalmic Practice. By C. HIGGENS, F.R.C S. London : Lewis. 1888. On the Relief of Excessive and Dangerous Tympanites by Puncture of the Abdomen. A Memoir. By J. W. OGLE, M.A., M.D., Oxon. F.S.A. London Churchills. 1888. Hydrophobia: A Review of Pasteur's Treatment. By W. COLLIER, M.A., M.D., Cantab. M.R.C.P. The International Journal of to Surgery and Listerism. Quarterly. Vol. I., No. York, US.A. London Lewis. 1888. Surgery and Antiseptics. Devoted exclusively 2. The Vomiting of Pregnancy and Menorrhagia. M.D. Edin. By JOHN MEREDITH, |