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ject, and without any special claim to originality, the author may rest assured that he has produced a work which will be widely appreciated.

Extracts from British and Foreign Journals.

Unless otherwise stated the translations are made specially for this Journal.

Action of Iodoform.-HöGYES (Archiv für Experiment, Pharmakologie, x. 3 and 4) endeavours to arrive at a permanent settlement of the discrepancies between the statements made by previous enquirers concerning the toxic and narcotic properties of the compound in question; further to test the statements recently made by Binz with regard to its mode of operation. The following is a summary of the chief results of his enquiry; 1. Iodoform in adequate doses, is fatal to dogs, cats, and rabbits. Death is caused by a rapid paralysis of the circulation and respiration; it is preceded by wasting of the body, but not by convulsions. 2. After, death we find fatty changes in the liver, kidney heart and voluntary muscles. One or two hæmorrhagic extravasations are almost always present in the lower lobes of the lungs. 3. Large doses cause marked drowsiness in the dog and cat; no such effect is witnessed in the rabbit even after a lethal dose. During the period of somnolence, reflex irritability does not appear to be much interfered with. 4. What changes does iodoform undergo before its absorption? If it is introduced in an undissolved condition, the first step is its solution in whatever fatty matter may be at hand (in the intestines, the oily ingredients of the chyme; in the subcutaneous tissue and the serous cavities, the oily constituents of the tissue-juices and serous liquids). The oily solution of iodoform next gives up its iodine to any albuminous principles that may be present; the iodide of albumen thus produced is speedily taken up into the blood, while a few minute coagula and colourless oil-globules are left behind. 5. Precisely the same series of changes occur when a solution of iodine in oil is injected under the skin or into a serous sac. 6. An iodide of

albumen prepared by mixing white of egg with a solution of iodine in sodium iodide, produces narcotic effects in the cat and dog, just like iodoform; like this, moreover, it fails to produce them in the rabbit. Whether we administer iodoform, iodine dissolved in oil, or iodide of albumen, the iodine is gradually eliminated from the system in combination with the alkali-metals. Broadly, we may regard the action of iodoform, locally applied, as equivalent to the prolonged and gradual influence of iodine. Its action on the system after absorption, is likewise in the main, that of iodine, but with some hitherto unexplained peculiarities. -London Med. Record, May 15, 1879.

Use of Pilocarpinum Muriaticum in Children's Diseases.-WEISS (Pest. Med. Chir. Presse, 1879, 2) has had the opportunity of observing the effects of pilocarpine in fourteen cases where the patients were suffering from nephritis, complicated with general dropsy, following scarlatina. In four cases there existed extensive bronchitis, in two diphtheria, and in one pneumonia of the left side of the lung. In each of these cases the results produced by pilocarpine were most favorable, and the patients could all be dismissed as cured. One of the most important properties of pilocarpine is that it prevents the dropsy from increasing, keeping it stationary without implicating the kidneys, till the latter have recovered their power of secreting urine more abundantly. Two different kinds of solutions were used for the hypodermic injections; a 1 per cent. solution for children under four years, and a 2 per cent. one for children above four years. In such young patients, where collapse seemed to threaten from prolonged illness and great weakness, 4 or 5 drops of ether were added to the solution of pilocarpine in the syringe. The author observed, that whenever he used this mixture, the young patients did not present the phenomena which generally followed the injection of a solution of pure pilocarpine, viz., vomiting, nausea, hiccough, pallor, and feeble pulse. The injections were made once daily into the upper arm, beginning with half a syringeful, and rising to a whole one. The effects of pilocarpine generally appeared after

a few minutes, beginning with a slight flush on the face, which, however, gradually increased, and only disappeared when the perspiration had ceased. The latter set in after three or five minutes, beginning on the forehead and face, and gradually spreading over the rest of the body. The duration of the perspiration was different; in one case it lasted for 1 hours, in another 3 hours, in a third case, of very considerable universal dropsy, where the amount of urine passed in the 24 hours was only 150 c.c.m., the secretion lasted for 15 hours, after which, the oedematous infiltration decreased considerably. The quantity of fluid secreted in the saliva and the perspiration were in direct proportion to the amount of pilocarpine which had been injected, and to the strength of the solution. Thus, a 2 per cent. solution always called forth a more considerable secretion of perspiration and saliva than a 1 per cent. solution. Two out of the fourteen patients complained of pains in the abdomen after the injection, and four of headache. In eight cases, the pupil was seen to contract; the contraction began at the same time at which perspiration set in, and lasted from 30 to 45 minutes. The temperature was taken in every case both before and after the injection, and in several of them was observed to fall rapidly after the injection; the decrease, however, never lasted longer than from half an hour to three hours, after which time the normal temperature was again reached. Only in one case, where the perspiration had lasted for 16 hours, the temperature, which had been 40.4 deg. Cent. before the injection, fell to 86.6 35 seconds after it, and did not rise again. The pulsations of the radial artery increased in a minute from 12 to 30; the pulse was full and jerking; this accelleration lasted from 15 to 30 minutes, after which time the pulse regained its previous character. In four cases, the patients vomited. The vomited matter consisted mostly of mucus. After the injection, almost all the children coughed very much; in four cases where there was extensive bronchitis, and in a fifth, which had been showing symptoms of oedema of the lungs and uræmia, the lungs were entirely cleared from the secretion which had accumulated in them by the frequent coughing within 48 hours. In nine cases, there was

a strong desire to micturate immediately after the injection; and, in three to evacuate the bowels. The motions were thin and very offensive, and were passed in great quantity. In a case of constipation which had lasted four days, the bowels were moved copiously immediately after the injection.

There was no notable increase in the quantity of urine passed after pilocarpine had been injected; it was of a much higher colour than before. The following are the author's conclusions: 1. Pilocarpine has proved to be a very successful remedy for children who suffer from nephritis and scarlatina; 2. In giving it to children, care should be taken to begin at first with small doses, which may later on be gradually increased; 3. If the little patients are very weak and are likely to collapse after the injection, a few drops of ether should be added to the pilocarpine solution. 4. The drug produces a very copious and lasting secretion of sweat, such as no ether drug ever has been known to call forth-it acts quickly; 5. In cases of bronchitis, complicated by dropsy, which often produces dyspnoea in children, the affection of the bronchi vanishes very soon after the remedy has been administered.-London Med. Record, May 15, 1879.

Prevention of Relapses in Typhoid Fever.—IMMERMANN is of opinion (Centralbl., No. I, 1879) that relapses in cases of typhoid fever are due to the presence of the typhoid poison in the system, except in instances where the patient has committed some error in diet. The latter occurrence can of course be prevented by watching the patient carefully, and the author has endeavoured to prevent the former by putting the convalascent through a systematic process of disinfection. The process consisted in giving the patients daily from 4 to 6 grammes of salicylate of soda for ten or twelve days, beginning from the first day the temperature assumes its normal state. Fifty-one patients were treated in this way, and only two suffered from relapses; one owing to something she had eaten in secret, and the other because, owing to a mistake, the drug had not been given to him immediately after the fever had left him. Fifteen out of sixty-seven patients who had not been

treated with salicylate of soda had relapses. The author concludes from these observations, that salicylate of soda is not only a powerful preventive of relapses in cases of typhoid fever, but that it also would prove very useful in procuring immunity from the disease for the nurses and attendants.

Immermann has also observed that patients who had been treated exclusively with cold water showed a greater tendency to relapse than others who had undergone a combined water and quinine, or salicylate of soda treatment. - London Medical Record, May 15, 1879.

Treatment of Impermable Stricture of the Urethra.-At a meeting of the Clinical Society of London (Lancet, May 10, 1879), Mr. HULKE read notes of a case of Retention of Urine, caused by Impermeable Urethral Stricture, treated by tapping the bladder above the pubes, and later by external section of the stricture, a catheter passed through the bladder and a staff per penem, as far as the obstruction, being used as guides. The patient, 40 years of age, was admitted into the Middlesex Hospital on November 29th, with retention of twelve hours' standing, the bladder being distended to the umbilicus. He had been treated for stricture twelve years previously. It being found impossible to pass a catheter, Mr. Hulke emptied the bladder by aspiration above the pubes, Twenty-seven hours later, no urine having been passed, a trocar was passed into the bladder above the pubes, and a canula left in situ; and on the third day this was substituted for a gum-elastic catheter. During the next few weeks the patient had two attacks of pleurisy. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to pass a catheter per penem, and on January 3d, Mr. Hulke divided the stricture from the perineum, a staff pased through the urethra up to the stricture, and a catheter through the prostatic urethra from the bladder down to it being used as guides. The tough fibrous tissue was divided, and the cathether being withdrawn, the staff was guided into the bladder, and, lastly, another catheter passed over the staff into the viscus. The suprapubic

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