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UNION CITY, Aug. 2, 1876. DR. J. J. MULHERON-Dear Sir-I have just read with much interest your very instructive address before the Wayne County Medical Society. Especially that portion of it which refers to the course which should be taken in reference to patent medicines, and having had my thoughts directed to that subject for some years past, I am necessarily interested in any thing that is said upon the subject. Now it is proposed to appeal to the secular press, and if need be dignify quackery by treating it as our adversary. Is this the best way to do? Is there no more effectual way of dealing with this subject? Can we not economize our time better by taking some other course? It seems to us we can. Newspaper controversies are necessarily indefinitely prolonged, and the issue is sometimes doubtful, and it seems to us that we can do better than to simply fight patent medicines.

But this is what might be done and it seems to us should be attempted, viz.: As far as possible a combined effort of the profession of the State should be made to procure the passage of a law somewhat like this: Every package or parcel of medicine compounded, which may be offered for sale in this State, shall have written upon such package, parcel or bottle, in the English language, a full and complete receipt thereof, and also that such compounds, before they are offered for sale, shall be subjected to analysis by some competent and legally appointed chemist, in order that it may be known that they are what they purport to be. Such a bill was presnted to the legislature at its last session. but it was killed by ridicule. It was started in this place and circulated for about an hour or so; about thirty names were signed to it (the petition) and it was sent up to Lansing to be slaughtered. It seems to us if the profession of the State would unite in such an effort and get the thing properly before the public, that an influence could be brought before the legislature that it would not be willing to disregard. Such a bill would mean no persecution; it would mean no restriction in sale. It would mean simply the putting of patent medicines just where

physicians' prescriptions are placed. It would mean the putting of patent medicines just where we put our whisky and illuminating oils. If patent medicines can live through such tests as those we have mentioned, they possess more merit than we give them credit for. The only thing which, as it seems to us, needs to be settled at once, if possible, is the constitutionality of such such an act. We have consulted with private lawyers upon the subject and they say there are no constitutional objections to such a law. We wrote to the acting Attorney General of the State and he refusd to give an opinion, and I am compelled to look upon him as a sort of a bass-wood man, who doesn't know enough to have an opinion.

The chemists of our State could aid such an effort by making analyses of the leading nostrums of the day, and giving the results to the proper committee of the legislature. If this subject can be brought before the legislature so that they will act upon it favorably at the next session, in our opinion the patent medicine question will be solved and that to in a manner satisfactory to the profession. Fifty thousand names could be had in such an effort, if properly managed.

E. TWISS.

PINCKNEY, MICH., August 3, 1876. MR. EDITOR-I send you the following report of a case occurring in practice, which you are at liberty to insert in your journal if you regard it of sufficient interest to merit such honor. Was called on June 30th to attend Mrs. in confinement.

Patient has borne seven children (this being her eighth confinement), four of which are living, but are of a decidedly lymphatic temperament. The remaining three, the mother informed me, died during their first year of "scrofula." Parents deny ever having any private disease, but the father finally admitted to me privately that he had once contracted gonorrhoea, and had several small sores on the glans penis.

Patient had a comparatively easy labor, and in my rather

hasty glance at the child I noticed nothing unusual in its ap pearance. While my attention was being being directed to the mother, I was hastily summoned to the child by the nurse, and upon examination ascertained the following remarkable con. genital malformations:

The sagital suture was united its whole length, and extended down to the root of the nose.

The face natural, but small compared with size of the head; chest well developed; double scrotal hernia enormously enlarged, and entire absence of the penis. Lower extremities not well developed, and femur may be bent at right angle without the child evincing any signs of pain. The spine is deficient in the three last lumbar vertebræ and sacrum.

I found on the dorsal region of the spine a cleft in the spinal muscles about four inches in length and two in width, commencing at the lower border of the scapula. It was devoid of skin, being covered by a membrane of a reddish color. The vertebræ appeared to be perfect in this region. I found on a subsequent visit partial occlusion of the anus. I saw the child two weeks later in connection with my father and Dr. Haze, and we then found strong symptoms of a syphilitic taint, skin being rough and rose colored, coryza, mucous patches on the genitals, etc., the case terminates fatally (as may be reasonably expected), and a post mortem allowed, will report more fully.

etc. If

H. F. SIGLER.

ATTLEBORO FALLS, MASS., August 10, 1876.

DEAR DOCTOR-In examining the genealogical records among my father's papers, I noted the following interesting fact. It is recorded in "A Genealogicat Sketch of the Descendants of Thomas Green[e] of Malden, Mass. By Samuel S. Green. Boston, 1858.

Capt. Josiah Green, of Stoneham, on the 27th of April, 1806, had a child, a grand child and a great grand child all born on that day. "The same accoucheur, Dr. Hart, of South Reading, and the same women attended all three of the cases." Capt. Green

had two wives. The first having borne him eight children, died Oct. 27, r798, at 65. "He then, at the age of 64, married Aug. 23, 1799, Sarah Skinner, a woman 22 years of age, and 42 years younger than himself. When he married her he told her that his first wife had borne him eight children, and he should expect her to do the same. She fully met his expectation." Eight children were born from this marriage, the youngest when the Captain was 79 years old. Twelve of his great-grandchildren were older than some of his own children. His widow survived him, married again, and had three more children by her second husband.

In the appendix to "The Cutter Family of New England," is an account of the family of Rev. Samuel Cooke, of Cambridge, by himself. On page 292 is this entry : "On Dec. 29, 1758, a daughter was born, and was baptized on the 30th, Rebecca. (N.B. She was heard some weeks before her birth by the whole family and some others, distinctly to cry for some minutes, without possibility of mistake.")

The older obstetric authors all contain accounts of this socalled vagitus, but comparatively little or nothing is said of it by recent writers. I have always been skeptical regarding it, for we cannot expect sound without air, and air, we know, is not, except under some peculiar pathological conditions, found in the cavity of the uterus. The sound of air rolling through the intestines, borborygmi, might easily simulate and be mistaken for the cry of a foetus in utero. Assuming, however, that these statements are correct, it would be an interesting point to determine whether in such instances there is deficiency or absence of the liquor amnii. Can any of your readers furnish information regarding this?

Very respectfully,

E. S. DUNSTER, M.D.

Selections and Cranslations.

ADMINISTRATION OF CHLoroform.

Prof. Geo. H. B. Macleod, F. R. S. E., of Scotland, in a lecture to students, urges the grave responsibility of the person who administers chloroform-the anaesthetic so extensively and successfully used in that country-and says: "Every time it is administered a certain menace is directed against the life of a fellow creature, and it is only by the utmost attention to certain rules that safety is secured." He has not had an accident from its use in an active surgical career of over twenty years. He regards it as a good surgeon does a very sharp instrument—a splendid thing when directed by skill and intelligence, but bad in the hands of children. He regards it as being much safer than ether, and believes that death occurs from culpable negli gence in its administration as in many cases from the shock of the operation for which it was given, the patient not being sufficiently under its influence. No examination of the patient for cardiac or other affections is required, for if the patient is fit for the operation he is fit for chloroform. "We recognize almost no disease as rendering a patient an unfit subject for chloroform." Heart disease is often alleviated by its employment, the chief danger being from shock in consequence of incomplete anæsthesia.

No person should be charged with any other duty when he is asked to administer chloroform, for many deaths have resulted from neglecting this rule. The state of the patient is ever changing, and these alterations must be watched and guided, a duty sufficient for any one.

Before administering the anesthetic care should be taken to have ready at hand artery forceps to pull the tongue forward, cold water to dash on the face and chest in case of syncope, a kettle of hot water, a bowl, and a sponge large enough to fill