Summary Gleanings.

Remember that rheumatic conditions, bowel disorders and imperfect digestion, will often produce pains similar to labor pains in pregnant women, and must not be mistaken.

DR. Charles D. Aaron is of the opinion that there is nothing better than pure petroleum oil to get normal evacuations of the bowels.

Ar this time, when colds are so prevalent, and when coryza is so universally distressing, we would call your attention to the beneficial effects of the salicylate of sodium in acute cold.

Equal parts of flowers of sulphur, tartaric acid and powdered sugar given in dram doses before breakfast is said to be a sure cure for piles.

The following mixture is said to be almost a specific for typhoid fever: Put 30 drops of Lloyd's specific echinacea and 15 drops of specific hyoscyamus in half a glass of water. Dose: A teaspoonful every three or four hours.

Half a grain to a grain of the resinoid, cimicifugin, twice a day, has occasionally been found useful in conditions of nervous depression, hysteria and incipient melancholia.

A good way to disinfect instruments is to wash them well with soap and water, place them in pure carbolic acid for ten or fifteen minutes, remove them with forceps, and place them in alcohol.

Pain in the heart, with dyspnea, venous stasis, edema of the feet, and a murmur occurs in "valvular heart disease," especially in aortic regurgitation.

Ten to thirty drops of the fluid extract of cimicifuga after meals are used to cure seminal emissions.

A cold and clammy hand is said to be a pretty constant symptom in sexual neurasthenia.

Five to twenty drops tincture cimicifuga several times a day, has proved very helpful in scanty menses, especially in maiden ladies.

For fatty heart Dr. N. S. Davis, Jr., prescribes a capsule every four hours containing 2 grains of citrate of iron, 2 1-2 grains of caffeine citrate, and 1-4 to 1-3 grain of powdered strophanthus.

In lead poisoning, one hand is likely to be hot and the other cold.

Use peroxide of hydrogen or a strong solution of antipyrine in epistaxis. The case must be very rare and obstinate if a pledget of cotton, saturated in the above solutions fails to control the nose-bleed.Merck's Archives.

Bromocoll is a non-irritating substitute for potassium bromide, and is a combination of tannin and gelatin with a 10 per cent. of bromide. The dose is the same as of bromides.

Liq. potassii is an efficient application for corns. It renders them soft so they can be scraped away, and if pressure be then removed, the corn can be cured.

Canabis indica is one of the most valuable remedies in the treatment of migraine at our command.

Gelsemium should not be lost sight of in the severe cases of corea which resist the ordinary treatment.

Turpentine stupes applied to the neck in tonsillitis, although a very simple treatment, has produced gratifying results in many

cases.

It may not be widely known than an extemporaneous liquor ammonii acetatis may Le produced by simply dissolving the carbonate of ammonia in pure vinegar.

In incipient fatty degeneration of the heart, and myocarditis, a combination of exceeding value is iron with nitroglycerin.

It has been asserted that massive doses of iodide of potassium will cure gonorrhea.

It is stated that styptic collodion is an efficient application to bleeding hemorrhoids.

PRACTICAL

Vol. XXV.

MEDICINE,

PREPARATIONS, ETC.

TERMS.

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This journal has an extensive and constantly increasing circulation, is substantially established and therefore presents to business houses desiring to reach the rank and file of the medical profession throughout the land, a most valuable advertising medium.

Entered at Phila. Post-office as second class matter.

THE QUARTER CENTURY OF THE SUMMARY.

This issue of The Medical Summary completes the full quarter of a century of its existence.

During these many years it has maintained itself as an independent medical journal, keeping itself absolutely free from all alliances and the influences of firms, medical schools or cliques of interested practitioners.

No number of this journal has failed

No. 12

to appear in these three hundred consecutive months. It has been under the control of the sole editor, proprietor, and publisher, whose eyes have scanned nearly every page of the matter that is needed for its edition of a half score thousand copies every month of the year.

Surely the completion of these twentyfive years of the life of The Medical Summary is an epoch in its history and an occasion on which the editor and the publisher can compliment himself without an apology to any one.

Mutability is inherent in all things mundane, and it is an open question whether or not there is any other medical journal to-day that can boast of this continued existence without halt or break in the editorship or proprietorship, or any change of the slightest degree in either.

Even a cursory look at the advertising pages will show that our patrons in this department are all firms of the highest distinction in this country. Among them are those who have been with us continuously since the issue of the first number; and quite a number of others only dropped out of an issue or two, and quickly returned, recognising that The Summary is an indispensable journal for reaching the progressive practitioners every where, for it goes into every section of our whole country, and a goodly number are disseminated over many parts of the old world.

We would ask the attention of all our readers to the next number. The im

provements have already begun with the present issue, and in the next further changes will be found in the form of new paper, new cover, new energy, new purpose and determination to keep The Summary in the very forefront of Medical Journalism.

We again thank our subscribers, contributors and advertising patrons for their share in advancing the interests of this journal and keeping up its high standard. We shall be happy to act upon any suggestions they may make that will tend to still greater progress of The Summary, and thus enhance its value to any one or all of them.

The monthly edition of The Summary has not been less than ten thousand copies for a number of years, and adding only one thousand a year, a decade will double our circulation. We ask the assistance of all our friends to this end.

THE PRICE OF ANTITOXIN.

We very much regret to say that current rumor announces the fact that the producers of antitoxin have entered into a trust for the advance in price of the same. Being in a position to find out, and having investigated the matter thoroughly, we can answer our readers and all others interested, that this rumor is a fallacy. Perhaps it is not generally known that the manufacturers of all biological products labor under a federal license and that constant supervision is made by officials. This insures accuracy, competency and general trust-worthiness. Formerly two classes of antitoxin were marketed, the X and the XX being, respectively, 200 units to the cc. and 500 to the cc. January 1st, 1904, but one quality was placed on the market and that the best or strongest.

Prices have not advanced, but taking everything into consideration, are really lower than formerly. One great advance being an injecting device given free with each package, thereby saving the physi

cian the cost of buying a syringe, and the necessity of sterilizing it for use. Thus, as will be plainly seen, physicians are receiving more for their money under the present system than formerly.

THE TYPHOID EPIDEMIC.

The various reports that have come to us from Butler, Pa., in regard to the epidemic of typhoid fever there, show a difference in the aggregate-various estimates place the population of the town from 5,000 to 18,000 and the number of cases from 1200 to 1800, but regardless of

this discrepancy of calculation, that Butler has passed through one of the worst epidemics that ever befell any town can not be doubted. When, however, all its worst features were uppermost and there was dire necessity for immediate action, the state of Pennsylvania, both publicly and privately once again gave expression to her generosity and sympathy to those in distress; and now that the worst is over, Philadelphia in particular, can congratulate herself upon the degree of consideration she manifested for the misfortune of others; for the consideration of othersthat sympathy which is implied in its popular title, "The City of Brotherly Love."

THE VALUE OF RADIUM.

Much has recently been written and published about the new element called Radium. Much of this is bosh and appears in the yellow journals. The scientist knows absolutely nothing about this refractive mineral.

Radium reflects and refracts light without loss of a material nature; it is highly illuminative in character but it is doubtful if it has any power to cure cancers. We cannot judge much of its value until experimentors make further progress. Radium has therapeutical value beyond a doubt.