ment of Herpes Zoster with violent neuralgia: that in zoster of the head the galvanic, and in zoster of the trunk and extremities the faradic current predominates, and is exclusively operative.

Soetlin (Zur Therapie des Nystagmus mittelst des Constanten Stroms) effected cures in two cases of acquired nystagmus with the continuous current. The cathode was placed upon the closed lids, the anode behind the ear, and a current from seven elements was kept up for one and one-half minutes.

Nieden ("Ueber Nystagmus als Folgezustand der Hemralopie," Berlin Klin. Wachenschrift), who usually relieved mild cases of hemeralopy with nystagmus by glasses, tonics, strychnine, found all these remedies inoperative in a case where nystagmus had lasted fourteen years, but attained the desired result by the application of the constant current for ten weeks. The kathode was applied to the temple, the anode to the mastoid process. The current came from eight to twelve elements, kept up one minute.

Clinical Reports from Private Practice.

[The readers of the JOURNAL, especially those who reside in the country, should bear in mind our wish that this department BE KEPT FUll. Long histories of cases are not wanted, as they will crowd out other reports. Short, concisely written reports are wanted.]

MALIGNANT PUSTULE. By E. A. VOGT, M. D., of St. Louis, Mo.

I was called to see G. St-, a young man 17 years of age, on Tuesday, March 6th, 1878, apparently suffering from erysipelas. I found him in a very high fever; temperature, 104°; pulse, . 130; his eyelids were closed and oedematous, looking like bladders; the lips, cheeks and scalp, as well as neck, were mously swollen or puffed up; his breathing and deglutition was much embarrassed.

enor

The history as given at that time, showed that he had hurt his eye by falling from a milk wagon; this happened on the previous Saturday.

TUESDAY A. M.-Finding his eyelid blackened and swollen, he

went to a barber, who applied a few leeches to it; after that the pain, fever and swelling set in. Ordered

WEDNESDAY.-Continued medicine; collodium was applied to the swollen face and ice to the head.

THURSDAY P. M.The patient acted like a maniac, so much so that nobody could manage him; the swelling had so increased that his face did not resemble a human being, but was a shapeless mass. Dr. Hall was called in for consultation; he was not satisfied with the history given; inquired whether or not if the young man had handled diseased animals, but this was strongly denied; so he gave it as his opinion that this was not a case of simple erysipelas, but that blood poisoning must be the cause of

it.

He ordered bromide of potassium in ten grain doses, every hour; also quinine in two grain doses dissolved in diluted sulphuric acid; cranberry poultice was applied to the face and hot footbaths were ordered.

FRIDAY.-Patient little easier; the bromide of potass. continued, alternately with five grain doses of sulph. carbolate of sodium in a mixture.

Saturday.

The same treatment was continued on

SUNDAY.-Swelling begins to fall; patient sleeps well; bromide omitted; a solution of permanganate of potassi. applied to the eyelids, which looked black; could not be opened; quin. ferro-citri in one grain doses, internally.

Eight days later I had another consultation with Dr. Hall. The ulcer around the eye was gangrenous, and, nothwithstanding the repeated washings every hour with solutions of permangonate of potass. with chlorinated sodium, carbolized glycerine and chloral hydrat was tried in succession the ulceration had destroyed nearly every particle of the muscles of the orbit, so that the eye was laid bare as if it was pealed out from its socket. One could see deep into the orbital cavity, even to the lesser wings of the sphenoid.

Dr. Hall examined the patient minutely as to the possibility of his having contracted syphilis, but this he strenuously denied, So we arrived at the conclusion that the leeches must have been used previously on a syphilitic patient, and in this way poisoned his blood. Accordingly we ordered a mixture of corrosive sublimate and iodide of potassium and gave it freely. In a short

time a slight salivation was produced; from the hour that the mercury took effect, the sore eye began to heal, and fourteen days later a radical cure was effected.

Then, and not till then, the mother of the boy gave the true history of the case, viz: That her son, without the knowledgeof and against the will of the father, had skinned a cow which died from murrain. His brother, who aided him, had at the same time a very small malignant pustule on his right arm, but had it burned out immediately with caustic.

There is, so far as I know, not a case of malignant pustule on record, where the internal use of corrosive sublimate as an antidote is recommended, and in so far this case may be an interesting one.

JEFFERSON AVE. AND BENTON ST.

RIGID OS UTERI; DILATATION MANUAL AND INCISION WITHOUT SUCCESS. BY CARL WALLISER, M. D., of Highland, Ill.

Mrs. B, aged 27 years, primipara, was suffering much from fluor albus as a girl. On the evening of the 26th of July, 1876, she had the first pains which dilated the os to the size of a ten cent piece; since the evening of the same day no further advancement; the liquor amnii flowed very freely. On my arrival on the night of the 27th, I found the uterus in the condition of tetanus; the patient complained of continual pains, which left the local state of the os unchanged; the latter was open one-half an inch in diameter and was very hard, rigid; the portio-vaginalis and vicinity swollen; membranes ruptured; head in first position stood deep. As manual dilatation failed, I made with the buttoned bistoury, three lateral incisions in the os and gave, there being no appearance of further dilatation, morph. per os and subcutaneously; chloroform could not be borne; half an hour later I found the diameter of the os still unchanged; continual spurious pains with only short intervals; the os is so contracted that I could not introduce two fingers into it. I then ordered chloral hydras to be given in the dose of 1.80 (thirty grains). The first dose to be taken at 3 A. M., fifteen minutes after the exploration should dilatation be one inch; the intervals of pains becoming longer, a second dose (1. 80) was given at 4:20 A. M., and from that moment the os dilated fast. The application of the forceps not being permitted, I injected in order to alleviate the pains, 0.2 (three grains) ergot in the abdominal walls; at 4:40 A. M. the child was born. Mother and child did well.

Mrs. B., was again confined the first day of October, 1878; no medicine being given, all went well.

In the above described cases it was attested by the midwife, that at the beginning of the labor secale powders were given. There is much abuse of ergot by midwives in this country. I have found, that when (which often happens) secale was given in the first (dilatation) period, it arrests further development, because the uterus becomes tetanus-like contracted; the labor is thus made continual and the pains spurious. Every accoucheur should forbid to the midwife the use of secale and its preparations before the expulsion period has begun and the head stands deep. If this rule is observed, many child-births will less frequently become abnormal, and the mortality and morbility of both mother and child will diminish.

AN UNUSUALLY SMALL CHILD. By T. A. WINN, M. D., Libertyville, Mo.

I take the liberty of sending you the following cursory account of an anomalous case that occurred in my practice, presuming that it would not be altogether uninteresting nor unprofitable:

I was called on hastily to visit a Mrs. H-, a multipara, who was represented by her husband to be suffering from excessive hemorrhage from the uterus. Upon arriving at the bedside I found that blood had been flowing more or less for about a week, and that the uterus was contracted powerfully, this accompanied with great pain. She was in the sixth month of pregnancy. She stated that these symptoms had been superinduced by lifting. My patient was a stout, hearty young woman, and had never had any trouble with former conceptions, always going to full term. I immediately instituted the usual treatment to control the contractions of the womb, hoping thereby to stop the hemorrhage and carry her through the critical period, and thus be enabled to prevent miscarriage. My hopes were not realized, for in about six hours she was delivered of a six months' old foetus, a male child, tolerably well formed, weighing two pounds. It contained very little viability, and had to be faithfully worked with by friction and tepid bath impregnated with camphor and alcohol before there was much indication of resuscitation. was fed on fresh cow's milk, diluted and sweetened. It finally revived so as to be able to move its limbs, take the nipple, and to perform the usual functions of a child that had gone to full time.

It

Of all the babies that I have had the honor of assisting to

make their entrance into this wide world of ours, during a practice of seventeen years, this one certainly beat them all. To give you an idea of its diminutive size, allow me to state that a lady who was visiting took a ring off one of her fingers and readily passed it around the hand and up over the arm. I was beginning to be quite hopeful of the little fellow's future, but I was disappointed, for in about eight days he passed away.

Will not some one of our gynæcological savants please inform us, through the columns of your valuable journal, if such minute specimens of Adam's race ever live to approximate anything like maturity. In concluding this too long and imperfect report, I can not but help notice the great contrast between the size of this child and those reported in the September number of the JOURNAL by Professors McPheeters and Maughs, the former weighing fifteen and one-half pounds, the latter sixteen pounds.

ON THE TREATMENT OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA WITH NITRATE OF PILOCARPIN. By T. H. NEWLAND, M. D., of St. Louis.

As the season is fast approaching when we shall be called upon to treat the diseases of the thorax, and as there are a variety of modes of treatment resorted to, to check or at least to guide the patient to a favorable issue, it behooves us to be prepared with the easiest possible manner of giving relief as speedily as pos

sible.

Pleurisy or inflammation of the lining membrane of the thorax and lungs, is ordinarily brought on by exposure to cold and dampness, in which case it is denominated idiopathic pleurisy.

Considering that in the first stages of both diseases there is an engorgement of the capillaries, both of the pleura and lung substance, I thought that diaphoretics and diuretics must certainly be of service.

There has lately came to the notice of the profession a remedy which in the future bids fair to be a very valuable addition to our materia medica. I allude to jaborandi. It is said to possess very powerful diaphoretic, diuretic and sialagogue properties. It was discovered in California, but was first used in South America. The action of the remedy no doubt depends upon the alkaloid, pilocarpin, which has been used lately by French physicians in phthisis. From reports of the therapeutic action of this remedy I was induced to try it in pleuro-pneumonia. So far