REPORT OF THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. THE Committee regret that they are not able to furnish a more extended report upon medical matters of interest, as they have received no communication from any member of the profession throughout the county. The diseases of the county during the past year have presented little in their course, character, and treatment, that calls for special notice. The average health of the county during the past year was unusually good. Measles were abundant this spring, while scarlet fever prevailed to a very limited extent. Though last spring, as well as the present one, was very rainy, there was no increase of sickness produced by the "dampness," so much dreaded by people generally. The abandonment of the bandage in parturient women rapidly gains favor with the profession in our Society. The division of the umbilical cord without ligation, has been practised by a number of our members, and is by them highly extolled. In all the cases reported, the excision was made while the umbilical arteries were still pulsating, with a loss of very little blood, not more than a few drachms, hemorrhage ceasing in a few minutes. In no case did bad effects follow this practice, though one of the members, who was fearful to risk his case without a ligature, lost a child by hemorrhage, after securing the cord, as he thought, most perfectly. Meetings were held by our Society every three months, and the attendance was good. Several interesting papers were read before the Society during the year. One by Dr. H. Corson, on the utility of the sulphite and bisulphite of soda in diseases of the blood. In several cases of phagedenic ulcers, the sulphite and bisulphate of soda were used internally in proportions varying from one-half a scruple to one drachm or more, three times daily, with permanganate of potassa locally, with admirable success, by Dr. Stiles. Several cases of erysipelas were also treated by him by the use of those agents internally and externally, with marked success. Those remedies have not been employed by any of the members, so far as known, in scrofula, yet it seems to the writer highly probable that in strumous disease, the sulphite would be very beneficial. From our experience with these remedial agents, we do not believe they are applicable to all cases, or that they will positively neutralize the action of the morbid matters in the blood. But in cases where there is a prominence of white cell-blood, or where the blood is "vitiated by any special poison," their value is of great importance. A more extended trial of those remedies is greatly to be desired. Another paper of interest presented to the Society by Dr. Stiles, was a re-investigation of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's experiments with cold on the nervous system. These experiments, which were made upon kittens, were carried further than those by Dr. Mitchell, which were made on pigeons. Dr. Richardson's atomizer and rhigolene were the means used in these experiments, as in those of Dr. Mitchell. The results confirmed, in every essential particular, the accuracy of Dr. Mitchell's observations. Meteorological observations made at Plymouth Meeting, Pa., for the year ending June 1, 1868, and kindly furnished to us by Marcus H. Corson :: 66 66 cloudy" Minimum days on which it rained 15 Max. of thermometer 900 on 28th. 19 12 66 Minimum of thermometer 510 on 15th. The first frost of the season occurred on the 27th of this month. The first fall of snow occurred on the 12th of the month. In this month, snow fell on each day from the 9th to the 16th. The storm on the 12th of the month was remarkable, not only for the great fall of snow and the violence of the wind, but for the decrease of temperature during the day, the thermometer falling from 249, at 6 A. M., to 80, at 3 P.M. days on which it rained Max. of thermometer 500 on 20th. 1 Max. of barometer 30.68 in. on 1st. Minimum snowed 10 66 29.50 in. on 6th. Mean temperature of the month 220.8. No. of clear days cloudy 66 April. 15 15 Minimum of thermometer 180 on 13th. Max. of barometer 30.34 in. on 14th. Minimum days on which it rained 12 66 29.01 in. on 7th. Mean temperature of the month 450.6. snowed 4 Max. of thermometer 750 on 23d. Most remarkable changes of temperature occurred on the 12th and 23d of the month. The thermometer, at 10 o'clock in the morning of the 12th, marked 570, but by 9 o'clock P.M. of that day, it had fallen to 260.5, at which time it was snowing heavily. On the following morning the thermometer was 180, a fall of 390 in twenty hours. On the afternoon of the 23d, the thermometer marked 750. At 4 P.M. of that day, a shower occurred, the weather becoming much cooler. On the following morning, the thermometer was 320.5. Thus in the space of four hours, we experienced a change from summer heat to freezing cold. May. 9 22 No. of clear days cloudy" Minimum days on which it rained 17 Max. of thermometer 740 on 27th and 30th. Slight frosts occurred on the morning of the 11th and 12th. Recapitulation for the year ending May 31st, 1868. During the year ending May 31st, 1868, there were 1098 observations made on the direction of the wind. Of this number there OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. President.-A. STOKES JONES. Vice-Presidents.-WM. CORSON, MILTON NEWBERRY. Treasurer.-D. W. HARRY. Delegates to the American Medical Association.-HIRAM CORSON, J. K. REID. Delegates to the State Medical Society.-HIRAM CORSON, WM. CORSON, A. STOKES JONES, F. VANARTSDALEN, D. W. HARRY. Topographical Committee.-GEORGE STILES, J. K. REID, E. M. CORSON. Drs. Jos. ANDerson, D. W. HARRY, S. D. HARVEY, A. STOKES JONES, F. O. KNIPE, MEMBERS. Drs. E. C. LEEDOM, J. K. REID, F. VANARTSDALEN. |