involved in uncertainty. The chemist can trace the conversion of hydrocarbons into lactose, and this into lactic acid; but why this pathological accumulation of a normal, proximate principle? No doubt, however, the department of aetiology has received an addition, though my present paper is limited to the contents of some statements of mine published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in June last

I may, finally, remark that I am at present placing a couple of cats (male and female) on the use of lactic acid,

with the hope of perpetuating the disease.

At the close of this report the author exhibited a fœtus of seven and one-half months, the result of a miscarriage, during the previous night, of the woman who had attended to the feeding and administration of the acids to the animals; which child, dying after several respirations, presented marked appearances of congenital rickets; but that this occurrence was the result of the occupation of the mother, the author was not prepared to affirm.

H. G.

ESMA

SMARCH, of Germany, has recently proposed a method of saving blood in operations upon the extremities, which is attracting great attention in Europe. As it is a novelty, the following trial of it at the Mercy Hospital clinic, by Prof. Andrews, will be read with interest:

The patient was a large-framed young woman, suffering with incurable neuralgic cicatrices in the left foot, following the cure of extensive caries of the tarsal and metatarsal bones. Every other resource of medicine and surgery having been exhausted, it was determined to remove the offending part by Pirogoff's amputation.

Anæsthetics being administered, Prof. Andrews took a six-yard roller of elastic bandage, and, commencing

at the toes, applied it tightly, lapping each turn over half the previous one, until it extended four inches above the knee. A piece of common rubber tubing, about half an inch in exterior diameter, and four yards long, was then wound several times very tightly around the thigh, just at the upper edge of the elastic bandage, and secured by tying its ends together. The effect of these manipulations was, that the elastic bandage expelled all the blood from the limb by its great pressure, while the girdle of rubber tubing acted as a tourniquet to prevent its return. The elastic bandage was now removed, when the limb appeared blanched and somewhat shrunken. The amputation was performed rather slowly and deliberately, so as to test the efficiency of the new plan. The incisions.

yielded not a stain of blood, except at one point, where three or four drops were visible; at every other place they were as bloodless as they would have been on a stick of wood, so that the minutest dissections could have been made as easily as upon the dead subject. It was only after the incisions were over, and the tubing was loosened in order to ascertain the position of arterial twigs requiring ligatures, that any oozing of blood occurred.

Modifications of this plan have already been introduced in Europe,

one of which was described in the last number of THE EXAMINER; but it is not possible to say, at present, which method is the best. It is obvious, however, that the principle involved is a great improvement, and will be the means of saving much blood and many lives.

One incidental effect is to render the regular tourniquet almost an obsolete instrument, and to confirm the fact demonstrated by Prof. Andrews at the Mercy Hospital clinic a year ago, that rubber bands may be substituted for it in almost every position where it is now employed.

for papers after that date. Six months have now elapsed since July 1st, 1873, and seven months and a half since the Annual Meeting was held, and no Transactions yet. Some of those who prepared papers, and presented them in due form at the meeting of the Society, are getting a little anxious to see them in print. What is the matter? Who is delinquent? Will the Committee of Publication explain?

THE CHICAGO JOURNAL OF NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASES.--This

is the title to a new medical periodical to be published in this city by Prof. Y. S. Jewell and Henry M. Bannister, M.D., to be devoted to the special department of nervous. and mental diseases. The first number is promised about the first of February next, and is to be continued quarterly thereafter. We know that the editors and proprietors of the proposed journal have been making the most ample preparations for their work, and we hope they will be rewarded by a liberal patronage from the profession.

To SUBSCRIBERS.-Our readers will notice some changes in the present number of THE EXAMINER. The size of the page has been lessened slightly, but retaining the double columns; and the number of pages have been increased to the extent of adding one-third more of reading matter. This adds several dollars to the cost of each number, and ought to induce every subscriber not only to pay his subscription promptly, but also to use his influence in inducing his neighboring practitioners to subscribe.

THE Society met in Parlor No. 1

of the Grand Pacific Hotel, the President, Dr. A. Fisher, in the chair. The censors reported favorably on the application for membership of Drs. Charles Hayes, Simons, Tucker, Henrotin, jr., Hews, and Hamill, who were unanimously elected.

Dr. Wood read a paper on Waxy Kidney," which he illustrated with a case from practice.

Dr. Jackson, chairman of the section of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, then read the report of the sub-section of Gynæcology, which consisted of extracts from the recent literature on the subject. The topics considered were: Cancer of the uterus treated by dried sulphate of zinc, ergot, and gastric juice; dysmenorrhoea treated by hysterotomy and mechanical dilitation, by means of bougies and laminaria digitata; use of fuming nitric acid in chronic inflammation of the uterus; intrauterine medication; treatment of prolapsus by means of tannic acid; of procedentia by the actual cautery and pessaries; use of the intra-uterine stem in flexions; treatment of uterine fibrous tumors by hypodermic injections of ergotine, and of their removal by means of a steel wire; drainage tubes for the prevention of septicamia, following ovariotomy; latent

gonorrhoea in females; and dilitation. of the female urethra.

After the reading of the report, the Doctor, by request, gave an account of two cases of fibroid tumors of the uterus, which were treated with hypodermic injections of ergotine. One of the cases had recovered, while the other was yet under treatment and improving. The solution used was one part of ergotine and three of water. In one case, the injection over the tumor was followed by abscesses. Subsequently, the region of the deltoid was selected, and the injection. introduced deep into the muscular fibres, with as good result as when made over the tumor.

Dr. Owens described a method of treating the pedicle after ovariotomy, by means of an instrument which kept up a continuous traction on the wire ligature. He gave a description of the means employed in cleansing and disinfecting the abdominal cavity after ovariotomy, which consisted of a nasal douche that had inserted in the end of the tube a gum-elastic catheter, which was introduced into the abdominal cavity through the lower portion of the wound, the douche holding the liquid being at the same time held above the patient. When the douche was nearly emptied, it was held below the patient, thus form

ing a syphon of the tube, and emptying the abdomen.

Dr. Owens then presented a patient for examination by the members of the Society, of whose case he gave the following history: Mr., aged thirty-three, contracted syphilis when in the army. Two years ago, the epiglottis, uvula, and part of the soft palate, were destroyed by syphilitic ulceration. The cicatrix contracting, left only a small orifice between the pharynx and the mouth. The patient could not talk above a whisper; and when eating or drinking, lies on his back, with head and shoulders somewhat elevated. He forms a bolus of his food, and, by means of the tongue, throws it into the throat, where it is grasped by the pharyngeal muscles, while the pos- | terior portion of the tongue partially covers the larynx. He experiences more difficulty in swallowing liquids than solids; but rarely does anything

enter the trachea.

Dr. Hyde submitted the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

WHEREAS, We have read the memorial relative to the medical corps of the army, addressed to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, which memorial was prepared in compliance with the

unanimous resolution of the American Medical Association, adopted at its last meeting in St. Louis, Missouri; and, whereas, we heartily concur therein, therefore, be it

Resolved, That we, the Chicago Society of Physicians and Surgeons, respectfully invite the attention of our representatives in Congress to the memorial, and earnestly request their aid in securing the passage of the draft of a bill which accompanies it, entitled, "A bill to increase the efficiency of the medical department of the army."

Upon a motion of Dr. Jackson, the President appointed Drs. Jackson, Lyman and Davis a committee to prepare and submit a fee-bill to the Society.

Dr. Lyman moved that a committee be appointed to consult with the Chicago Medical Society in regard to the feasibility of having quarterly union meetings of the two societies. The motion was laid over until the next meeting.

Dr. Owens proposed the following resolution, which was carried:

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed by the chair, to be known as the Committee on Clinical Reports, who shall cause to be presented to the Society monthly clinical reports from all medical institutions which may be found accessible. The meeting then adjourned.

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE STOMACH. -A case is recorded in Il Raccoglitore Medico (No. xvi., 1873), by Dr. Benedetti, in which a nun, aged twenty-two, after suffering for some days from symptoms of gastric fever, with obstinate vomiting, ejected from her stomach a brass cross, one-third of an inch long, the cross-piece being one-fourth of an inch long. She re

membered having swallowed it when she was nine years old. In the interval it had not produced any inconvenience. A case is also related in the Imparziala for June, in which a soldier swallowed a tablespoon. vere dyspnoea followed; and in about three-quarters of an hour the spoon was ejected by vomiting. - London Medical Record.

Se

G

present

ENTLEMEN: The topics which I shall present to you today embrace many features which are of much interest and importance, but which I shall be able to consider only in part. We have already considered acute desquamative nephritis, and now I wish to introduce for your consideration and study the different forms and manifestations of chronic disease of the kidneys. The existence of these affections is recognized by the changes which are manifested in the urine, and also by certain consequences resulting from renal disease. I wish to call your attention to certain points which will somewhat simplify and systematize your study; and I shall ask you to carefully read what has been written by some standard author or authors upon the different forms of chronic degenerative diseases of the kidneys, the effects which result from these different forms, and the circumstances which are involved in the differentiation, each from the others.

The most generally adopted classification of chronic diseases of the kidneys, or chronic Bright's disease, embraces four forms, namely: The large white kidney; the cirrhotic, or fibroid kidney; the fatty kidney, which some authors do not regard as a distinct form; and the amyloid, waxy, or lardaceous kidney. What effects do these different affections, severally and collectively, produce in the body?

These may be conveniently arranged in two classes: First, a diminished density of the blood, due to

a constant elimination of albumen in the urine. This undoubtedly is an important element in the production of the dropsy which is so constantly present in these affections; but I would not be understood as saying that the loss of albumen, and consequent reduction in the density of the blood, is the sole cause of the dropsical manifestations.

The second class embraces effects which are due to the retention in the blood of excrementitious materials which should be eliminated from the system by the kidneys.

With the impoverished condition of the blood, which is in proportion to the loss of albumen, we have the dropsy, anæmia, and all those ulterior effects which arise from an anæmic condition; and, with the second class, we have all the effects which arise from the morbid conditions of the blood, caused by the retention of the excrementitious constituents of the

urine.

The symptoms to which the latter of the two classes of effects give rise may be divided into the minor and grave symtoms. Among the minor symptoms are headache, nausea, and vomiting; looseness of the bowels, muscular cramps, etc. These are important symptoms, for the reason that they furnish evidence of a renal affection leading us to investigations which relate to the kidneys. More serious symptoms are those which denote in flammations, chiefly of the serous membranes, namely: pericarditis, pleuritis, and meningitis. Still graver symptoms are convulsions and coma.