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either sulphate of atropia or duboisin. The solution need not be stronger than 1:1000, and even then it is more active than the

% atropine solution. It is also less poisonous than the latter. Even at its present price, it is a cheaper as well as a stronger mydriatic than atropine.

BORATE OF CHINOIDIN-A FEBRIFUGE.-According to Dr. de Vey, three grams of this salt are an equivalent to two grams of the sulphate of quinine. He recommends it highly as a new and inexpensive febrifuge, which, in addition, possesses the antiseptic properties of boracic acid. The cost is about that of quinine.

IODOFORM IN EYE DISEASES.-At the meeting of the Ophth. Society of Germany Dr. Brettauer strongly advocated the use of iodoform in diseases of the conjunctiva and cornea, asserting that it not only causes no irritation but also diminishes the secretion of the conjunctiva, brings about retrogressive changes in granulations, and acts very beneficially in sclerosing keratitis. It is used in form of a powder, or as a salve in equal parts with vaseline.

PILOCARPINE IN DISEASES OF THE EYE.-Dr. Carreras-Avago of Barcelona says Pilocarpine is indicated in all affections of the eye in which an energetic contraction of the pupil is desired; for instance, in corneal ulcers threatening incarceration of the iris. Dr. Kanders, in the Weiner Med. Wochenschristen, recommends Pilocarpine as a speedily-acting and sure antidote of Atropine.

HEREDITY. During the discussion of Robert Koch's paper on the "Ethiology of Tuberculosis," before the Congress of Medicine in Wiesbaden, April 22, which elicited the approval of all pathologists present, the question of heredity was brought forward, and answered by Koch as follows: "It is a known fact, that the quality of the substratum has the greatest influence upon the proliferation of micro-organisms. The human body also does not offer a uniformly good substratum to pathogenous micro-organisms. Thus one individual is more easily attacked by them than another, on account of a difference in disposition toward infection. This disposition is hereditary; and hereditary tuberculosis is not

a transmission of the bacilli of this disease, but the transmission of conditions which are favorable to their growth."

AN EARLY SYMPTOM OF DIABETES.-Prof. Bamberger mentions, as one of the earliest symptoms of diabetes mellitus, a peculiar odor of the urine, resembling chloroform. This odor is due to Aceton, one of the most recently discovered constituents of urine, rich in grape sugar.

THE BACILLI OF CONSUMPTION.-On March 24, 1882, Dr. Koch (who, though young, already has secured for himself a worldwide reputation by the penetration, skill and thoroughness of his researches on the contagium of splenic fever) delivered an address before the Physiological Society of Berlin, in which he announced his discovery and described the precise character of the contagium of that terrible tubercular disease, to which of the deaths of the human race are due. He has subjected the diseased organs of a great number of men and animals to microscopic examination, and found, in all cases, the tubercles infested with a minute rodshaped parasite, which, by means of a special dye, he differentiated from the surrounding tissue. It was, he says, in the highest degree impressive to observe in the center of the tubercle cell the minute organism which had created it. Transferring directly by inoculation the tuberculous matter from diseased animals to healthy ones, he in every instance reproduced the disease. To meet the objection that it was not the parasite itself, but some virus in which it was embedded in the diseased organ, that was the real contagium, he cultivated his bacilli artificially for long periods of time, and through many successive generations. Generation after generation of bacilli were developed in this way without the intervention of disease. At the end of the process, which sometimes embraced successive cultivations extending over half a year, the purified bacilli were introduced into the circulation of healthy animals of various kinds, as cats, rabbits, rats, mice, etc. In every case inoculation was followed by the reproduction and spread of parasite and the generation of the original disease.

Koch determines the limits of temperature between which the

tubercle bacillus can develop and multiply. The minimum temperature he finds to be 86° F., and the maximum 104°. He concludes that in the temperate zone animal warmth is necessary for the propagation of these bacilli. In a vast number of cases Koch has examined the matter expectorated from the lungs of persons afflicted with phthisis and found in it swarms of bacilli, while in matter expectorated from the lungs of persons not thus afflicted he has never found the organism. The expectorated matter in the former cases was highly infective, nor did drying destroy its virulence. Koch points to the grave danger of inhaling air in which particles of the dried sputa of consumptives mingles with dust of other kinds.

ACCIDENTAL VACCINATION OF EYE.-Dr. Calhoun of Atlanta reports a curious case of vaccination of the eye, occurring in a little boy seven years old, who, getting some virus on his fingers from a pustule on the arm of his little sister, scratched himself on various parts of the body and on the left eye, thus inoculating himself. The pustule on the eye developed upon the edge of the lower lid, involving the conjunctiva, and ran its regular course, destroying the cornea, either by pressure or by the ulcerative process induced by the virus. The other eye also became inoculated, but did not develop a pustule, the virus producing a suppurative ophthalmia.

OPIATES AND PERISTALSIS.-Prof. Nothnagel gives the results of experiments on the action of opium and morphia on the intestine. The constipating power of these drugs is due to their being irritants of the splanchnia, the inhibitory nerve of the intestine. That nerve is specifically influenced by morphia, just as the vagus, the inhibitory nerve of the heart, is acted upon by digitalis; in fact, in both cases small doses excite, large doses paralyze.

IODOFORM IN GOITRE.-At the last meeting of the American Medical Association Dr. Carpenter reported that for the past nine or ten years he had used Iodoform internally in the treatment of exophthalmic goitre with highly gratifying results. He

gives it in gelatine coated pill, in three grain doses, three times daily, combined at times with iron, and has seldom found it necessary to increase the dose. He says: "The action of this drug I believe to be sedative and tonic upon the sympathetic nervous system, and to act chiefly in that way in the process of curing exophthalmic goitre." Prof. Wm. Pepper and Dr. J. Sales Cohen endorsed the treatment.. Dr. Glasgow recommended the treatment of recent and old goitre by the external application of solutions of Iodoform in chloroform, or ether or collodion.

NEW METHOD OF ANÆSTHETIZING THE Larynx.-Prof. Rossbach's method of anesthetizing the larynx is as follows: He directs an ether spray on each side of the neck until a portion of skin the size of a silver dollar has been frozen, and says that he has found that the larynx, which previously had been absolutely intolerant to the introduction of an instrument, becomes quite insensible to the presence of the forceps.

TO RELIEVE THE PAINS OF LEAD COLIC.-Dr. Geneuil lately succeeded in giving complete and permanent relief by the following simple procedure. Having directed a napkin. to be heated at the fire, he first applied a towel wetted with almost ice-cold water to the whole surface of the abdomen, and having retained it there for five seconds, rapidly replaced it by the almost burning napkin. The effect was like enchantment, the pain instantly disappeared and sleep followed without return of suffering.

POISONOUS SALIVA IN MEN AND ANIMALS DURING FASTING.— M. Pasteur has startled the savants of the world by the announcement that the saliva of persons during fasting contains venomous qualities. Pliny, the elder (born A. D. 23, died A. D. 79), already asserted the same fact. (See Plutarch's Lives, Vol. IV., published 1804,.at Worcester, Mass.) In a note at bottom of page 366, Pliny maintains that every man has in himself a natural poison for serpents, and that these creatures will shun human saliva as they would boiling water; the fasting saliva in particular, if it comes within their mouths, kills them immediately.

PILOCARPINE IN SEROUS PLEURISY. - Dr. M. A. Coriveaud recommends the nitrate of Pilocarpine subcutaneously in doses of from 1 centigramme to 25 milligrammes at the outset of Pleurisy. He asserts that it so modifies the inflammation as to prevent the formation of effusion, and to accelerate the absorption of the secretion already formed. "It seems," says he, "to act by the power which it possesses of causing the abstraction of water, and is therefore analagous in its action to purgatives and diuretics." It produces no local disturbance.

CHIONANTHUS VIRGINICA.-Dr. John A. Henning, after giving a full description of this native shrub, says that the bark of the root is in jaundice and hypertrophy of the liver reliable in nearly all cases, and that it doubtless stands at the head of all other remedies for those pathological conditions. Its selecting tendencies are for the liver, kidneys and skin, stimulating those organs to normal action and renewing innervation.

PELLETIERINUM TANNICUM.-The alkaloid Pelletierinum, lately extracted from the cortex radicis granati, is, according to Dr. H. Witt, the most certain of all our remedies for tapeworm. In 5 cases, in which for a number of years all the usual remedies, even ext. felicis marisarth had proven themselves unsuccessful, 22 gr. of pelletierinum tannicum, followed by a tablespoonful of castor oil, had the effect that the dead tapeworm appeared unbroken in the stool. The remedy is easily administered, as it is perfectly tasteless.

Saturnine NeuraLGIA.-Contrary to the opinion expressed by Tanquerel des Planches, that neuralgia, in the true sense of the word, is never met with in cases of lead poisoning, Dreyfuss gives a description of two such cases. In the one the neuralgia affected the ulnar nerve, in the other the sciatic nerve. In both the neuralgia existed symmetrically on both sides, as has been observed lately to happen also frequently in persons suffering from diabetes. In the two cases reported by Dreyfuss the urine contained no sugar.

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