cases in which the cod liver oil had been ordered, besides several other cases, such as hysteria, etc., and have found it most useful. It is not so disagreeable to take, does not rise, and I consider it feeds and gives general tone to the system much more than cod-liver oil. It is very easy of digestion, consequently the patient gains strength. In consumption, the night perspirations subside under its use; but in some of my lady patients I have been obliged to lay it aside during the monthly period, as I found it to increase the menstrual flow; it is, therefore, useful in chlorotic cases. I give the pilcher oil in the same doses and way as the cod liver oil. Seldom have I found it necessary to give the former more than once a day, viz., every night at bed-time, the last thing. Should any member of the profession feel disposed to try this oil, I trust the same good results will be found as I have experienced."

Pagliari's Hemostatic.-The following formula has been given for the preparation of this article: Eight ounces of tincture of benzoin, one pound of alum, and ten pounds of water, are boiled together for six hours in a glazed earthen vessel, the vaporized water being constantly replaced by hot water, so as not to interrupt the ebullition, and the resinous matter kept stirred round. The fluid is then filtered, and kept in stopped bottles. It is limpid, slightly styptic in taste, aromatic in odor, and of the color of champagne. M. Hepp, of Strasbourg, has substituted white resin for the benzoin. Every drop of this fluid poured into a glass containing human blood produces an instantaneous magma; and by increasing the proportion of the styptic to the quantity of the blood, a dense, homogeneous, blackish mass results.

Hypophosphate of Quinia is proposed as a new remedy, by Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, and suggested by him as useful in hectic fever of phthisis, as a tonic in the same disease; also in the various forms of cachexy, where quinia is used.

Its solubility in cold water also recommends its use in place of the less soluble salts of quinia, where the presence of acids in extemporaneous solutions is objectionable.

The hypophosphate of quinia may be made, in a small way, by adding an excess of recently precipitated quinia to a hot solution of hypophosphorus acid. Upon cooling, the salt crystallizes in beautiful silky tufts, resembling, when dry, asbestos in appearance.

It is very soluble in hot water, and in water at 60° F., in the proportion of one part to sixty.-Semi-monthly Medical News.

This preparation contains nearly two grains of the ferruginous compound in the teaspoonful, and may be given thrice daily before meals. It is said to be very effectual, and is much approved.-London Pharmaceutical Journal.

DISEASES OF CHILDREN.

Purulent Leucorrhoea in Young Children.-Prof. Barker says that this disease is not rare, and sometimes occurs epidemically. He has observed it to follow measles and scarlatina. Medico-legal investigations have been instituted upon the supposition of direct infection, and charges of rape have been founded upon its existence. The mucous membrane of the labia is red, and studded with aphthous spots. Its existence is no proof of infection. He treats it thus:

R Argent. Nit. Chryst. gr. 2.

Aq. Distill. 3j.

M. ft. lotio.

To be applied with a camel's-hair brush every two hours.

R Potass. Acetat., 3ss.
Syr. Tolu, 3j.

Aq. Puræ, iij.

M. S. Two teaspoonfuls three times a day.

The Identity of the Meconium and Vernix Caseosa.-Prof. Forster says: "The general opinion respecting the meconium is, that it consists in a mixture of bile, intestinal mucus, and intestinal epithelium; but microscopical examination shows that besides the coloring-matter of the bile, it is composed chiefly of the vernix caseosa. For the most part it consists of small flat scales, which present all the characteristics of horny epithelial plates completely corresponding to the horny scales of the vernix. Under the microscope, the meconium only differs from the vernix by the presence of the yellow coloring-matter, and the smaller number of fat globules. A proof of the identity is its containing minute hairs in just the same numbers as the vernix, which, indeed, without the microscope, may be separated from it by a needle. The horny scales could have no other source than the vernix, for the stomach and intestinal canal are lined with cylinder epithelium, and the mucous membrane of the mouth and oesophagus does not give rise to them. Besides these scales, we observe in the meconium fatty globules of different sizes, crystals of cholestearine, and irregular yellow and brownish clodlets, which give the dark color to the meconium, and are doubtless biliary coloringmatter. The fatty globules are evidently of cutaneous sebaceous matter, and the cholestearine is in part derived from the bile, and in part from the decomposition of the vernix during its passage to and deposit in the

rectum.

"The foetus swallows from time to time some of the liquor amnii, having the vernix swimming in it, and the hairs and horny scales pass unchanged along the intestinal tract. Whether any of the sebaceous matter is taken up by the lacteals, may perhaps be determined by microscopical examination of the intestinal villi of the foetus; and it would be interesting to determine, by numerous examinations of the intestinal canal, at what period this swallowing of the liquor amnii commences. As the elements of the vernix are only suspended in the liquor in small quantities, a large quantity of this must be gradually swallowed to lead to the amount of meconium usually present. The water must be soon

absorbed from the stomach, as it is never found in it. The greater proportion is probably excreted by the kidneys, and again reaches the amnios. That it in nowise contributes material to the nourishment of the foetus has been shown by Bischoff; but that does not prevent it serving some purpose in the economy. A regular examination of the entire contents of the intestinal canal in numerous foetuses of different ages, is required to elucidate these points; and especially would such examination be of interest in the case of monsters. That the acephala have no meconium has long been known, and has usually been attributed to the absence of the liver. This would, however, only explain the absence of its dark color; and the meconium will only be wanting when, by reason of the malformation of the intestinal canal, the reception and transport of the liquor amnii holding the vernix caseosa are prevented.- Wien Wochenschrift, 1858, No. 32.-Medical Times and Gazette.

CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY.

Poisoning by Cyanide of Potassium.-At a late meeting of the New York Pathological Society, Dr. Finnell presented a specimen of a stomach removed from a patient who was poisoned by cyanide potassium. The patient was a Daguerrean artist. He swallowed a piece of the salt as large as the end of the finger. Immediately he cried for water, but before he could get his mouth to the pipe of the hydrant, he died. Death took place in from three to five minutes after he swallowed the poison.

In answer to a question from Dr. Clark, he stated that the symptoms of poisoning by this salt were very like those from poisoning by prussie acid. The death was very rapid. This was the third case he had met with. This man lived but three minutes, another lived twelve minutes, and a third, he was not certain how long he survived; it was a very short time, however. In each of the cases the stomach was intensely reddened.

Dr. Dalton thought it was important to know that injection of the stomach took place in so short a time as three minutes, unless most of the change was post-mortem.

Vivianite.-M. Schiff has proved, by chemical analysis, that the blue color which pus sometimes presents is owing to phosphate of iron in an amorphous state. It is this same salt which gives the blue color to animal remains which have been interred for a long time. The demonstration of this fact is owing to M. Nickles, who has found in human bones phosphate of iron crystallized in the form peculiar to the vivianite of mineralogists.-North American Medical and Chirurgical Review.

Treatment of Poisoning by Strychnine.-Many antidotes have been recommended for strychnine-camphor, oil, milk, iodine, etc.-but as yet none of them have proved sufficiently efficacious to be relied on. Probably the best treatment will be a modification of Bouchardat's method:

1. Emptying the stomach promptly; 2. Administration of large doses of iodurated water-(iodine, six grains; iod. potass., four scruples; water, one quart;) 3. Controlling the tetanic symptoms by the inhalation of chloroform.

Free vomiting should in all cases be induced as speedily as possible. Nicotina, or infusion of tobacco, has been recommended, and is worth a trial in desperate cases, especially as tobacco is a remedy so easily obtained.

A case was successfully treated by Dr. Thomas O'Reilly, of St. Louis, in which the infusion from an ounce and two drachms of tobacco leaves was administered. The patient had taken six grains of strychnine.

Treatment of Poisoning by Opium.-Dr. N. L. Folsom reports in the N. H. Jour. of Medicine a case of poisoning by opium, of a child six years old, treated successfully by local application of scalding water to the feet.

ANATOMY.

A new Muscle.-Prof. Budge, in the dissection of the muscles of the human eye, noticed a muscular fasciculus, which, separating from the M. Levator palpebræ, proceeded inwards, dividing into two portions, each of which ended in a tendon, and were inserted into the trochlea. Further investigation was made upon thirteen eyes, with the following result: In one case the muscle was absent; in the remaining twelve it was invariably present, although in some cases very thin and attenuated. Of the thirteen eyes three were from new-born children, and in each the muscle was very evident; six from females, in three of which the muscle was strongly developed, in two was merely perceptible, and in one was absent; four from males-in two very marked, and in the other two consisted of a tendinous chord. To this muscle Budge gives the name of tensor trochleæ, from the necessary action thereof. It is possible that it may have some effect upon the direction of the action of the M. obliquus superior.-Medical and Surgical Reporter.

Circulation of the Vena Porta in Hepatic Obstructions.-M. Sappey endeavors to show the road by which the blood of the vena porta returns to the inferior vena cava, when its circulation through the liver is arrested, as happens in some cases of cirrhosis. According to his researches, the blood is conducted through the small vein which is comprised in the suspensory ligament of the liver, the vein being abnormally enlarged for that purpose. It is this vein which has been mistaken for a persistent umbilical vein. The blood is thus conducted downwards, and by anastomosis passes into the principal vein of the leg, the crural vein. The venous current thus passing downwards to the leg, is perceptible to the hand by a frémissement, and to the ear by a murmur. This symptom therefore becomes a sign of cirrhosis, and a favorable sign, because ascites is prevented by the stream of blood which it indicates.-Gaz. Hebdom.

PHYSIOLOGY.

Salts of the Blood.-M. Robin has been experimenting on the subject, and he finds that the proportion of salts in the blood during life varies in a notable manner; that it is augmented particularly when alkaline salts are administered for some time in doses which do not cause a purgative action; that in such doses, when they pass into the circulation without exciting purging or vomiting, those of the salts which are alkaline, neutral, or slightly basic, are incapable of absorbing oxygen, act as if by diminishing combustion-they make the circulation slower, lessen animal heat, and, according to the dose, are calming and asthenic.

Physiology of Secretion. Supposed influence of one Nerve upon another.-Last March, M. Bernard related to the Society of Biology some facts, which have afforded the foundation of an explanation of some of the phenomena connected with this subject.

1. When the main cervical cord of the sympathetic nerve is divided below the superior cervical ganglion, no effect is produced upon the circulation of the blood in the submaxillary gland. If, on the other hand, the section involves the nerve-branches which pass from the ganglion to the gland, the local circulation becomes thereby increased in a greater or less degree, according as the section is made near to or remote from the gland. This acceleration of the circulation is due to such a paralysis of the vessels as occurs in the face, when the cervical trunk of the sympathetic is divided. If the section of the sympathetic filaments of the submaxillary gland be made in the hilus of that body, the effects alluded to are most marked.

2. When a dog is poisoned with woorara, the above-described phenomena-increased circulation, salivation, altered color of the blood-occur at the moment when the nerves become paralyzed by the action of the poison.

3. Finally, it is possible to poison locally the submaxillary gland, by injecting a minute amount of woorara into its substance, when the same phenomena are observed.