the lancet as the "lost art in medicine." This would apparently show that things in medicine grew rapidly old in the grasping for something new; for it is within my recollection as well as that of others present, when the lancet was unsheathed and bathed in blood, in all forms of undue febrile excitement, as the great remedial agent mightier than all others to quell a fever or destroy an inflammation. This fact seems to illustrate how short a time it takes for things to become old, or for new things to supplant them.

For a patient to see a glowing iron coming directly from the fire was a thing more terrifying before the days of anesthetics than now, and deterred many a timid one from submitting to its use where other means could be substituted.

For a remedy or agent in surgery to keep a place in the list of standard remedies for a period of 2,400 years is enough to prove its usefulness and superiority over many other things less obnoxious to the minds of those suffering from maladies demanding its use.

It is not my purpose here to state its many good qualities, or show a differential value between it and other agents, but simply to give to the Society my experience and knowledge of the different forms of the same, and the improvements of the present day in procuring an instrument well and constantly heated while in use.

Modern writers speak most highly of the electric cautery for procuring this result. This means of heating by electricity is one that can be used for some purposes better than any other. The means for generating sufficient intensity to make it efficient involves much cost and an instrument not portable. Those made for portable use are not capable of maintaining sufficient heat to make their work rapid. From an examination of most of the standard surgical authorities of the present day, I am satisfied they give the highest place to the electric cautery of any one means of commarding the heat as required in uterine surgery, and the cautery ecraseur for removal of tumors.

The form most highly spoken of is that of Middeldorpff's of Breslau. I have tried the Byrne portable battery many times, and found it required much care to keep in order, and a cost of about $80 to procure. The instrument that has given the most complete satisfaction, and the one that is practically as near perfect in its workings and supplies all the demands we can expect from any device for this purpose, is the "Cautere Paquelin," as it is made with its improvements and attachments by G. Tremoum & Co.

This instrument I will exhibit in working order.

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

The undersigned, who were appointed by the Regents of the University Examiners in the Medical Department for the year 1879, having attended to our duties at the June examination made to the honorable Board of Regents, now make to this Society the following report:

For the June examination we prepared six topics on each of six subjects (copies of which were presented to the Society last year), viz. Anatomy and Physiology, Materia Medica, Chemistry, Surgery and Surgical Anatomy, Practice of Medicine, and Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children.

These topics were sent to the Faculty, were presented, and during the first week in June were written upon by the candidates for graduation three topics on each of two subjects each day, by each one of the candidates in the presence of the Professors or assistants of said departments. These written papers were submitted to us, and formed the basis of our estimate of the practical intelligence on these subjects by the several candidates.

We desire to express our commendation and gratification in the great majority of these papers. Most of them showed their authors had mature and well disciplined minds. They also showed a great advance on those written by the spring graduates, demonstrating conclusively the benefit of the increased length of term of instruction.

We were particularly interested in the papers of the female candidates, whom we considered, as a rule, had had more educational advantages before entering the class than the young men. The papers also showed that they had been well grounded and thoroughly drilled in the subjects on which they

wrote.

We cannot help remarking, however, that there were several papers which did not appear to justify us in voting for

the graduation of their authors. All these papers were deficient in those directions which indicated want of mental discipline, and want of that degree of common education and mental training which should never be wanting in a physician. Had it not been that your Examiners were compelled to believe that the requirements of previous education, already adopted by the Faculty in Nov. 13th, 1873, had not been enforced upon those students entering the Medical Department of the University, we should have been compelled to enter a very strong protest against their graduation. And we should be especially remiss in what we owe to the medical profession if we had not then and there recommended and strongly urged upon the controlling powers of the University that they should advertise in their next announcement the requirements for admission as adopted in 1873 (with these modifications that the applicants should have at least a sufficient knowledge of Latin and Greek to enable them to readily read the Latin and Greek readers); and we trust that a standard equal to that for the admission of candidates to the Freshman course in the Literary or Scientific departments will eventually be adopted, and then that a rigid enforcement of the standard be required of the Faculty.

We believe such a course will insure the best prosperity of the Medical Department, and we know it will meet the most earnest wishes of the great body of the medical profession, besides saving to the applicant not only his time and money, but also the disgrace of rejection in final examination.

We also take pleasure in announcing that the action of the Regents in the appointment of Medical Examiners has met the approval of the medical profession of Michigan.

WM. BRODIE,

H. O. HITCHCOCK.

ECLAMPSIA WITH URÆMIC TOXÆMIA, PROMPTLY RELIEVED BY VER

ATRUM VIRIDE.

BY A. F. KINNE, A. M., M. D., OF YPSILANTI.

Mrs. E. R., aged 30 years, seven and one-half months along in her first pregnancy, came under my notice March 2, 1880. She was dropsical; the swelling of the lower extremities extended quite up to the body and involved the labia, and the discomfort from this was such as to make a recumbent posture desirable. But in view of the case as it rapidly developed itself, it was remarkable that beyond the local uneasiness which she felt when on her feet there was not much of which she could complain; there had been no headache, no dimness of vision, no failure of the eyesight upon stooping, no dizziness, and she had not then noticed that the urine was scanty or high-colored. During the night, however, there came on a distinct headache, and at 12.30 the next day she had her first eclamptic spasm; and upon boiling a specimen of the urine which, in the mean time, had been handed me, it was "solid" with albumen.

At 2.30, soon after my arrival at the house, she had a second spasm, and with the advice and assistance of her father-in-law, Dr. F. K. Rexford, I bled her, say, 16 oz. At 3.15 she got ten grains of chloral hydrate, and at 4.15 the same; but this second hourly dose she rejected. At 4.45, therefore, I repeated the dose, and the same at 5.45, and both these doses she retained. These doses of the narcotic made her sleepy decidedly, but this effect, though encouraging in appearance, was deceptive, and at 6 o'clock she had a third spasm. At 6.45 gave her 10 grains chloral; at 7.15 had the fourth spasm; at 8, ten grains of chloral; and at 8.30 she had spasm No. 5.

Up to this time, not counting the dose rejected, she had taken fifty grains of chloral in about five hours; but its action had disappointed me. The spasms were recurring with an increasing frequency, The coma had become profound, and yet she was not apoplectic. She was narcotized, and the medicine and the malady were coöperating to increase the narcotism.

No sign of labor had been at any time detected, and a digital examination confirmed this observation. It was a case of eclampsia from albuminuria, or rather from uræmia; or, better still, from the deep and extensive kidney lesion upon which these depended.

But it is not enough to say that the urine was very highly albuminous, I must add, also, that it was scanty, and, not "high colored" exactly, but of a reddish, almost bloody, appearance, and muddy. I was reminded of the urine which we sometimes see in bad cases of croupous nephritis after scarletina. The two secretions are nearly the same in appearance and composition; and I believe, also, that these convulsions were about the same as those we sometimes witness in that formidable affection.

In both of these maladies the blood is loaded with effete materials in consequence of the failure of the function of the kidneys; and by the circulation of an impure blood, "a high degree of impressibility and excitability, accompanied with congestion," is induced in the great nerve centres of the true spinal cord, and hence the convulsive spasms and the coma(Tate in Obst. Gazette, April, 1880, p. 439); and the therapeutic question for me to decide, therefore, was: through what channel other than the kidneys should this blood poisoning be eliminated?

With the use of pilocarpine in eclampsia I have had no experience. I sent for some croton oil, but did not wait for its arrival, and gave instead at 8.55 three minims of the fluid extract veratrum viride by hypodermic injection.

At 9.30 occurred the sixth and last convulsion. It had come on after an interval of only forty minutes, and was very severe. At 9.30 I repeated the injection of veratrum, and the effect was sufficiently decisive. In a little time the pulse, which had risen to 120 (T. 100° F.) began to drop, and continued to fall rapidly off until it counted fifty; and the heart's action was unsteady, peculiarly so. It seemed to stagger (if I may use such an expression), and I began to have a little fear that the action of the veratrum would be excessive. But at 10 o'clock she vomited freely, and after that the pulse rose a lit