was called, and he refused to act without counsel. Two excellent physicians were called, and the diagnosis of inversion of the uterus was made. The patient was anesthetized and an attempt made to reinvert the organ, which failed. The doctors did not give the patient much encouragement, and I was called on the following day. I found the uterus completely inverted and exceedingly tender and irritable, caused by the manipulation of the previous day. I ordered injections of warm water every two or three hours, and promised to return in two days. On my return at the time specified the tenderness was very much lessened, except at the orifice of the right Fallopian tube. Here the gentlest touch caused excessive pain. Considering everything favorable, I proceeded to reinvert the uterus. I placed a small rubber bag inflated with air in the palm of my right hand, surrounded the cervix with my fingers and thumb, fixed the uterus by my left hand upon the abdomen, and commenced the taxis. I worked steadily for three hours, and succeeded in returning the cervix-the fundus still remaining inverted. At this stage of proceedings my patient became exhausted, and I was obliged to stop. I placed an inflated rubber bag against the fundus uteri, packed the vagina with cotton saturated with glycerine, introduced a catheter into the bladder, adjusted a "T" bandage to keep all in place, and came home. I returned next morning and was delighted to find that my elastic pressure had dilated the cervix so fully that by pressing with my middle and index fingers against the fundus it returned without difficulty.

This case I consider interesting in two particulars: First, the history proves exactly how the inversion was produced. The pulling on the cord in attempting to deliver the placenta partly inverted the organ, and the effort made in lifting the basket completed the inversion. Again, to me the efficiency of the elastic pressure was significant. It accomplished more than I expected, and I believe that after returning the cervix the elastic pressure alone would have reinverted the organ in a short time.

G. W. GUTHRIE, M.D.,

Chairman.

MEMOIR OF WASHINGTON G. NUGENT, M.D., 1822-1877.

BY G. UNDERWOOD, M.D., PITTSTON, PA.

The Luzerne County Medical Society is again called upon to announce the loss of one of its brightest and best members. Last year we lost a Dennis, this year it is Nugent-both men of unusual attainments and eminently worthy of esteem.

Washington G. Nugent was born in Philadelphia on the 29th of December, 1822. While very young his parents took him to the vicinity of Norristown, Montgomery County, where they found a home. Much of his boyhood was spent in Burlington, New Jersey, at the school of Samuel Gummere, a well-known teacher of that time. He was afterward fitted for college by private instructors—but not wishing to take a college course, he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Hiram Corson, of Montgomery County, while yet in his minority-and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1843.

Immediately after graduation he began the practice of medicine in Norristown, and was very successful. In April, 1848, he was married to Sarah Thomas, youngest daughter of Dr. George W. Thomas, an eminent physician of Norristown, and the first President of the Montgomery County Medical Society. Dr. Nugent was one of the founders of this Society.

In the year 1855 he came to Pittston and began the practice of his profession, and remained here until the war of the Rebellion, when he enlisted as a private soldier. He was speedily sought, however, by the Surgeon-general and commissioned as a surgeon, in which capacity he served his country and his suffering fellow-beings with a fidelity. characteristic of the man. After the close of the war, in 1866, he returned to Pittston and resumed the practice of his profession. From this time until his death he never was absent from his post of duty, save on the most urgent business. About eight years before his death he had an attack of pneumonia from which he never fully recovered. Other men would have been unable to work; but Dr. Nugent plodded on, ministering to the suffering-often himself the greatest sufferer-until the 9th of March, 1877, when he peacefully passed away, leaving a whole community of mourners.

Who can do justice to a character like Doctor Nugent's? Who can portray the beauty of a truly manly and useful life?

Dr. Hiram Corson, in an address before the Montgomery County Medical Society, thus refers to him: "It is fitting that I should speak to you of the character of our deceased friend and former fellow-member, for I became acquainted with him while he was yet a little boy in his father's home-one of a group of seven joyous and gentle children; and for three years he was a beloved inmate of my family. I should indeed be liable to the imputation of partial eulogy, were I to speak to you of him as he impressed me in those days; of his modesty, his gentleness, his unvarying kindness, and his desire to perform every duty assigned him. Those of you who knew him then can never forget that young, lithe, graceful gentleman whose suavity of manner and gentle deportment were the admiration of all who knew him. Though quick to perceive even the slightest shade of insult, and brave as Cæsar, he never was betrayed into paroxysms of passion, but was uniformly kind, courteous, and forbearing to all in his intercourse with society. To the very lowest he was as kind and courteous as to the highest, and wherever he lived, these characteristics won for him the esteem and confidence of the community. There was no affectation in his behavior; his manners were not put on before society, but were part and parcel of his nature. In the home

of his youth among his brothers and sisters, in his own family with his wife and children, among his neighbors, with his servants, or the poorest offcasts of society, he was ever the same kind, courteous gentleman."

To this estimate of Dr. Nugent's early life and character I cannot do better than to add the following words of Dr. J. B. Crawford, President of the Luzerne County Medical Society, who, for twenty years, occupied a contiguous field of labor with him. Dr. C. says: "We necessarily came often in contact, and both of us, no doubt, felt something of the spirit of rivalry which is necessarily engendered by the circumstances in which we were placed. But throughout the many years of our professional intercourse, I never had to complain of an unkind, an unfair, or an ungenerous word or act on the part of Dr. Nugent. He had opinions of the most decided kind; he had principles and purposes to which he tenaciously adhered; he had objects which he zealously sought to promote, but, in the advocacy of his opinions, he endeavored always to convince, not to offend, those who opposed him. He never sought to gain an unfair professional advantage over his professional brethren. In consultation he was always frank, candid, and confiding; ever willing to share responsibility, and never willing to gain popularity at the expense of those who called upon him for counsel and assistance. I need not speak of him as a patriot, as a Christian, as a philanthropist, as a generous and devoted attendant upon the sick and suffering; these were qualities known and appreciated by all who knew him. I prefer to speak of Dr. Nugent as I most distinctly remember him: as a learned, a cultivated, a wise, and discriminating physician. I prefer to remember him as I used to meet him at the bedside of the sick, and in the consulting-room: witli a suavity which nothing could disturb, with a serenity which nothing could ruffle, a moral courage which nothing could daunt, with mental resources which nothing could exhaust, and with a patience and perseverance which nothing could tire. These were the qualities which most distinctly impressed themselves upon my mind as characterizing Dr. Nugent during the many years of our professional intercourse. Others may have been as generous, as unselfish, as devoted, as philanthropic as he, but few had ever such rich gifts, as those with which he was endowed, to offer upon the altar of the public welfare."

Since his death, the people of Pittston have determined to erect a monument to his memory, and already a large sum has been raised, and a committee appointed to procure a suitable memorial. It was said of England's great architect: "If you would see his monument, look around you." So it may be said of Dr. Nugent; his most enduring monument is in the hearts of the people. From the humble home of the miner to the palace of the millionaire his name is a household word, and his memory a rich and chosen treasure. What better inscription for his monument than this:

REPORT OF THE LYCOMING COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Ar the August meeting of our County Society a resolution was offered to appoint a recording secretary, whose duty should be to take notes on cases related and subjects discussed, and make abstract of papers read, from which to prepare our annual report to the State Society. This was done to obviate the difficulty experienced each year in preparing our annual report, believing that through the medium of our Society more valuable and accurate information can be obtained of the prevailing diseases of the county, and their causes, than is usually recorded in the ordinary way of preparing the report. As only a few meetings of the Society have reported, the design of the resolution this year cannot be carried into full effect, and we shall have to depend on voluntary contributions to complete the report.

The Society holds its meetings the first Tuesday in each month, and during the past year has been well attended. There seems to be a growing interest among its members to increase its usefulness, and at no period of its history has there been a more friendly and fraternal feeling existing in the profession.

The health of Williamsport and its immediate neighborhood during the past year has been generally good, and in that respect in direct contrast to the year previous. The winter of 1875 and 1876 was a very open one, mild and changeable weather. Little snow, but considerable rain. The whole winter was a succession of freezing and thawing. During the latter part of the winter and spring of 1876, scarlet fever and diphtheria prevailed with unusual severity, and with greater malignancy than had been experienced here for a number of years.

The epidemic of diphtheria seemed to take a westerly course. First met with in the eastern part of the city, gradually spreading westward, and up the river, reaching the Susquehanna bottom about ten miles above Williamsport a few months later in the season, but as fatal in its effect as when it first appeared here.

In the discussion of diphtheria before the Society, Dr. Crawford thought he could trace the cause of all the cases that come under his observation to decayed vegetation and accumulated filth. Dr.

Chas. Lyon, living on the Loyalsock Creek, says the epidemics in his neighborhood are usually confined to the red-shale land ridges, other soils escaping in a great measure. In one epidemic it confined itself to the blood relatives of the family first taken. Quite a number of the neighbors and relatives visited this family during their sickness, but none took the disease but the blood relatives.

Scarlet fever prevailed at the same time with diphtheria, but seemed to occupy different parts of the city, mostly on clay soils, and where there was a poor surface drainage. It was very malignant; a number of children dying inside of twenty-four hours from the date of the first symptom; a number of families losing from two to four children. These two diseases have only been met with in isolated cases during the past year, and these have been very mild; in fact all the dangerous contagious diseases have been of a mild nature. The winter was a severe one, but an equable temperature prevailed. Snow covered the ground from the first of December till late in the spring, and the contrast between the two winters in the health of the community was as great as that of the weather.

The only epidemic we had was hooping-cough, which spread over the whole city, attacking all classes who had hitherto escaped; the child at breast as well as the mother. An unusual number of grown persons had the disease.

Dr. THOMAS LYON contributes the following:

Acute Rheumatism.-In the winter of 1876 and 1877, and spring of 1877, I treated quite a number of cases of acute rheumatism; the majority of which were complicated with pericarditis and endocarditis, and also affecting the sclerotic coat of the eyes, the intercostal spaces, and the synovial membranes of the joints. A hereditary predisposition could be traced in nearly every instance, but the sudden atmospheric changes were usually the exciting cause. The treatment in the first stages consisted of remedies calculated to excite the secretions. Alkaloids were invariably given until they produced their effect upon the system. Have used salicylic acid. with obvious good result, but am satisfied it is not a specific in acute rheumatism. As to local remedies, cotton batting covered with oilsilk seems the most grateful to the patient, and relieves pain better than any other means I have used. When the breathing is difficult from intercostal rheumatism, nothing affords relief as quickly and permanently as a fly blister.

Cholera Infantum.-This disease prevailed to a considerable extent in my practice during the months of July and August, affecting alike the wealthy and those in the humbler walks of life. In nearly