home on Monday morning, April 10th, suffering great pain in the right lung, exceedingly weak and nervous. Immediately I put a hot stove lid under each lung and put another one of my sons to work with hot flat irons ironing his whole chest. I then gave him calomel, ipecac and soda triturates (1-5 grain calomel in each) until 10 were taken. Next I put him on balsam of fir capsules, 10 drops in each, one every two hours. No other drugs were used.

The ironing was kept up vigorously the first day only. After that (for three days) the patient was instructed to place one hot stove lid under his back and manipulate another over his heart. This kept him engaged and did much good. The calomel was used only one day. The balsam of fir was continued to the end. It loosened the mucus, corrected his stomach and improved his appetite. It is remarkable how it improves the stomach. I have had considerable experience with it.

The maximum temperature of the patient ranged from 103 to 104 degrees. On the seventh day it dropped to normal and remained there ever since. No hemorrhage nor any of the other bad symptoms which had been predicted made their appearance. The patient is still a little weak, but he was run down considerable before he was taken sick, hence his illness.

Balsam of fir is the greatest remedy to allay inflammation of the stomach. Any irritable condition of the stomach yields promptly when it is used.

Balsam of fir beats the witches in postnasal catarrh. In such cases I order balsam of fir, three parts, and olive oil, one part; mix and grease the nostrils with it night and morning. The result is very prompt and permanent.

Baltimore, Md.

W. C. K- —, M. D.

Points From Practice.

Editor Medical Summary:

The past winter and spring have brought a miscellaneous lot of cases, a kind of potpourri of catarrh, la grippe, measles, diphtheria, consumption and death.

I find the Loffler's solution, as manufactured by P., D. & Co., the best topical application for diphtheria.

La grippe I have treated with a combination of quinine salicylate, phenacetine and salol, with cactus and nutritious aliment. No alcohol. This malady makes ferocious inroads on the broken-down and aged. It plants, harvest follows; it may be one or three years afterward.

The measles has been a mild epidemic, which I have called the "Newberry" measles, in honor of the individual who brought it into the neighborhood. Mostly children and a few unprotected adults were attacked.

At this point let me throw in the statement that codeine is daily growing in my favor. It must supercede morphine for the relief of pain of internal organs, as colic, gastralgia, dysmenorrhea, etc.

Do you know that Scott's Emulsion is the best preparation of oil wherever the drug is indicated.

Among the best mild tonic preparations I have used is Tilden's solution of the hypophosphites compound, without sugar. It is delightful, palatable and effective.

Have you employed Succus Cineraria Maritima in your eye cases? It is an arm of precision. A patient with lenticular eataract of right eye is using it with most satisfactory results. It will repay a trial.

The winter brought me one case of carbolic acid poisoning, which ended fatally in 20 minutes. Two ounces of acid were swallowed, unconsciousness supervened in five minutes, patient dying in eight minutes after being seen. Attempts were

made to antidote, but without avail.

Carbolic acid is among the most popular poisons chosen by would-be suicides. Restrictive legislation on the sale of the acid is much needed, and it seems apparent that the medical press should pioneer a movement in that direction. Until something better may be accomplished the physician and pharmacist can do much in the way of prevention by dispensing only attenuated solutions, say not exceeding one-half or one per cent., which is quite strong enough for most, if not all, ordinary domestic purposes.

R. B. MCCALL, M. D.

Hamersville, Ohio.

Why Is It?

Editor Medical Summary:

I inclose a few ideas which I have jotted down from time to time, and which I think you might use at your discretion, apropos of Dr. Brodnax's article on page 73 of the SUMMARY,

I did not read his former paper, to which he refers, but gather from this one that he and I, as well as many others, are in unison, and I think that all those who think and feel in the same strain and light should form a union of forces to bring about a change of condition regulating the medical profession by laws which are either superanuated and therefore inapplicable to present times, or else have been devised recently by designing, selfish and unscrupulous politicians for their own benefit to the detriment of the medical art, as Dr. Brodnax aptly expresses it.

Perhaps some of these ideas, hastily jotted down, may go beyond the scope of the subject, still I think they are apt and pertinent and may do good, like blisters, properly applied.

Yes, why is it that respectable members of good standing, not only in the American Medical Association, but also in their local county medical societies, have forgotten their early training, as well as the hpocritic oath, which all members of the American Medical Association have sworn to (Cleveland meeting), not to use and prescribe any kind of patent medicine?

Why is it that the American Medical Association and the local county medical societies do not interfere with this pernicious practice?

Why is it that so-called physicians, such as advertising quacks, christian scientists and other unauthorized persons are allowed to impose upon the public?

Why is it that there is no censor to control the unscrupulous manufactures of patent medicines from enticing the generally unthinking public to buy worthless and frequently harmful nostrums, compounded by incompetent persons who do not think of the amount of harm their concoctions may do (Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup)?

Why is it that our daily and weekly papers, and even our best medical journals are more than half filled with patent medicine advertisements?

Why is it that the medical examining boards require answers to such theoretical questions which could only be answered by a recent graduate of a medical college in its particular state, but which the old and long-tried practitioner has long ago forgotten and discarded as useless knowledge?

Why is it that druggists, pharmacists and apothecaries (who should be the helpmates of the physician) lower their profession to the level of a department store, selling silverware, chinaware, cut glass (not cut, but simply cast in moulds), and other articles of commerce which have no connection whatever with the dispensing of drugs according to the prescriptions of authorized physicians?

Why is it that apprentices in drug stores are allowed to prescribe over the counter, and even to dispense poisonous drugs without a recipe, when they have not as yet had sufficient training to understand the responsibility devoted on any one who is entrusted with the preservation of human life?

Why is it that the local and state boards of health are not required by law to take charge of the most necessary hygienic provisions, namely street cleaning and garbage gathering and the disposal thereof?

Why is it that the venders of vaccine virus are allowed to put upon the market a compound of manure and perhaps vaccine and foist it on the unsuspecting practitioner, only to cause him to induce septicemia by its inoculation instead of immunity from small-pox?

Why is it that there is no remedy in the laws of these great United States preventing the stealing of formulas by manufacturing drug firms and the use of the name of the author for a trade-mark with authorization ?

Why is it that there is no provision made by law for the punishment of persons substituting and adulterating drugs in the putting up of prescriptions?

Why is it that there is no uniform general United States law for the regula

tion of the practice of medicine, veterinary surgery, dental surgery and pharmacy which compels the recognition of a diploma, given by any of the reputable and recognized educational institutions, as a license to practice the different branches of the healing art anywhere in the United States ?

Why is it that there is no regulation and supervision by the authorities of persons practicing medicine in any of its departments with or without registration or diploma?

Why is it that the self-styled, so-called specialist in the different departments of medicine should not be required to undergo a special examination and obtain a special license in order to protect the general public against the gross ignorance displayed by such quacks?

Why is it that coroners are selected from among ignorant and unscrupulous politicians instead of being appointed by the authorities from among the medical profession?

Why is it that there is not more attention paid to the scientific and mechanical education in educational institutions instead of the theoretical and frequent nonsensical and untainable so-called knowledge which the practical physician finds absolutely useless, and congratulates himself on having forgotten it so soon?

If all these things exist, as undoubtedly they do, why should not the code of medical ethics be either entirely abolished or so amended that no approbium should be attached to the name of any member of the medical profession who makes use of the common media of advertising his profession or place of doing business, and the abolishment of all board of health examiners composed of designing politicians, whether members of the profession or otherwise.

Scranton, Pa.

CARL SEILER, M. D.

Starr has rarely, if ever, seen a case of spinal disease resulting directly from sexual excesses.

For posterior displacements of the uterus, Cleveland regards Alexander's operation as altogether the best when there are no adhesions fixing the uterus.

In pericarditis, Peabody thinks digitalis of great value in increasing the force of the heart's beat and in prolonging the diastolic period, thus giving it more rest.

In gonorrhea, Hayden says protargol is sometimes very effectual and sometimes not. He recommends its use in the form of injections of a strength of 1-200 twice a day.

Starr regards the rather common practice of foot baths in cold water to delay menstruation for any cause as an important factor in the production of myelitis.

Tuttle dwells on the wide spread practice of vaginal douching with cold water for the purpose of preventing conception, and says it is often responsible for cervical catarrh.

Peabody regards venesection as most beneficial in certain conditions. In poisoniug by gas and in congestive conditions in general, of which an obstinate headache is a very common manifestation, and in apoplexy, actual or threatened, it is of great value. One of the large veins below the bend of the elbow is selected, and from 15 to 30 ounces of blood taken in an adult. The flow of blood is accelerated by tightly grasping an object in the hands and alternately relaxing it.

Where, from any reason, inunctions are not given in syphilis, Hayden substitutes one-half grain of protiodide, tannate, salicylate or the thymol acetate of mercury. These are given from three to to four weeks at a time, when toleration by the stomach seems to fail and a rest for one or two weeks is necessary. Then they are begun again, and so on for two,

and Hospital Clinics.

Reported Especially for the Summary.

In the treatment of ranula, Bull advises against the injection of any fluid.

required for a complete cure by this means. The inunction treatment during the first year and the mixed treatment afterward is far preferable as a means of treatment.

Hayden condemns the Janet method of treating gonorrhea from its proneness to excite chronic inflammation of the urethra and the complications of phimosis, paraphimosis, prostatitis and epididymitis.

In acute gonorrheal endometritis, Tuttle recommends frequent irrigations with antiseptic solutions, especially bichloride of mercury, 1-10,000, without drainage, and if constitutional symptoms are not so relieved he uses curettage, with sharp curette, followed by irrigations.

In the treatment of gonorrhea, after the acute symptoms have subsided and the urine is getting free from pus, Hayden's routine treatment is the use of irrigations of permanganate of potassium, beginning with a strength 1-30,000 and gradually increasing to 1-1000. The irrigations (of several ounces of the fluid) are given every other day. When the urine is clear and threads appear, instillations of nitrate of silver, beginning with a strength of 1-1000 and increasing gradually to 1-250, are used. Ten drops of such solutions are given at an instillation at intervals of every other day. A soft, velvet-eyed catheter is the best thing to apply the instillations with.

Hints and Suggestions.

Editor Medical Summary:

If Bro. Waller will try a glycerin enema in his next costive case he will be pleased. I admire his grit in his case of fistula.

Talking about brass pins, I saw recently in the Medical Era where two doctors operated on an Indian woman for appendicitis and found in the "attachment" two large brass pins tied together with thread. But the appendix was not at fault or inflamed. The woman died, and at the autopsy an immense abscess on the liver proved to be the cause.

The dates on page 43 should be 1874, 1875 and 1881, instead of 1894, 1895 and 1891.

It pleases me to see Bro. Cobb give the filthy newspaper advertisements a blow from the shoulder. If the reform of these filthy exudates, which are spread out in every catch-penny paper, were the sub

ject of persecution in the place of reputable medical doctors who wish to move from one state to another, there would be some good really done to the dear people, and who, by the way, do not want to be protected.

Bro. Kilmer, page 45, gives a good treatment for croup. Compare this with that on page 62. If you write to Dr. Spurgeon he will give you the address of a druggist who can supply you with a fresh tincture of the drugs mentioned.

In these small-pox days the treatment by whisky, page 46, comes nicely at hand. Evidently it is a specific, as there were no deaths in 18 cases.

Note, page 51, nitroglycerin injected in the region of the pain. It has cured two cases of sciatica for me. It is a drug that fits a good many bad cases. It is safe never to say a man is dead until you have injected, hypodermically, 1-50 grain, and

water for reaction

A friend of mine says, "Don't put too much faith in digitalis in heart trouble; push cactina." He is right. There is no cumulation in cactina.

"Nauseating Cough Remedies," page

53. The following, for bronchitis is nearly perfect: Into a tin vessel put two ounces of vinegar, one tablespoonful each of coal oil and turpentine, bring to a boil and inhale the steam several times in 24 hours. Often one inhaling of five minutes will cure a bad cough.

Page 54. The SUMMARY family will remember Dr. Shute's recommendation of rubbing ringworms with a raw Irish potato. Well, it does cure ringworms. Dr. Leachman says that raw Irish potato, grated and made into a poultice and laid over inflamed eyes, changed when it gets warm for a fresh poultice, will cure better than anything else he knows. These simple remedies are worth remembering, as they are at hand in almost every house.

Page 55. Another victory for acetanilid. How about making it into a paste with glycerin before putting it into the hollow of the tooth.

Page 59. Try, in your next case of neuralgia, magnesium phos. (3x trituration), 10 grains every half hour. It is a small dose but it does good work.

Brodnax, La.

BEN H. BRODNAX, M. D.

Editor Medical Summary:

The following are some of my favorite prescriptions:

A DRASTIC CATHARTIC.

I always precede my treatment with this cathartic if patients are over 12 years of ase:

B. Hydrarg. chlor. mit....... gr. v Ext colocynth comp......gr. x M. ft. caps. No. ij. Sig.-Take at once. I find this very valuable in starting off with my treatment, and it has given me much satisfaction in treating cases of insolation and sunstroke. I mean I use it before the stroke when the blood pressure in the head seems very great. Follow this with quinine and capsicum and some nervine.

M. Sig. A half teaspoonful in water every hour until the child rests quietly, then every two or three hours as required to control convulsions.

W. H. VAIL, M. D. Cor. Barrett & N. Grand Ave, St. Louis.

Anemia.

Editor Medical Summary:

The following formula, changed of course to suit individual cases, I have found valuable in the treatment of anemia, especially in that form which so frequently presents itself in young girls at or about the age of puberty.

B. Quinine mur..

M.

Ammonium chlor. Tr. Ferri chlor..

Syrup et aqua..

four times a day.

M. a day.

.gr. j

3 vj times a

3 ix 3 j

Liq. potass. arsenitis....
Sig.-Take 10 drops in water twice

Allow me to state, in this connection, that Pepto-Mangan (Gude) is also an invaluable remedy in these cases, believing that it represents iron in its most assimilable form; at least I have derived most excellent results from its use. In functional ammenorrhea it is a remedy of great merit.

Philadelphia, Pa.

The Best.

D. J. H., M. D.

I enclose $2.00 for two years subscription to the SUMMARY, the best and most practical medical journal, to my ideas, published. I could not get along without it. L. G. WALKER, M. D.

Pound, Wis.