a

In the November number of your valuable journal I notice an extract from the Chicago Med. Times, in which formula for an alkaline antiseptic solution is given, and Dr. Fothergill is credited as being the originator of it, for the treatment of nasal catarrh.

All I want to say is that I published the formula in a paper read before the New York Academy of Medicine in 1885, and in this paper gave the reasons for the combination of drugs, viz: to attain a solution at once antiseptic and alkaline and nonirritating by virtue of its specific gravity. The formula quoted in the extract is incorrect, and I send you the correction: *B. Sodium bicarb.,

Exhaust the capsicum with a portion of the alcohol, powder the camphor with the aid of a small quantity of the alcohol and triturate with the chloral hydrate and salicylic acid; add the oils, dissolved in the chloroform and the tincture of capsicum, and enough wood alcohol to make the quantity measure 16 fluid

ounces.

The salicylic acid seems to be readily absorbed, but its action is so modified by the camphor that it does not affect the heart.

The oil of wintergreen is added to destroy the odor of the wood alcohol, and may be replaced by oil of sassafras or origanum. The castor oil is added to make it rub better, and the capsicum may be omitted if desired.

GEO. A. STUART, M. D.

Mix and strain through cotton.

CARL SEILER, M. D. 203 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, Pa.

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New Publications.

An Atlas of the Bacteria PathogenIC IN MAN; with Descriptions of their Morphology and Modes of Microscopic Examination. By Samuel G. Shattock, F. R. C. S., of London. With an Introductory Chapter on Bacteriology: Its Practical Value to the General Practitioner. By W. Wayne Babcock, M. D., of Philadelphia. Sixteen full page

Colored Plates. E. B. Treat & Co., Publishers, 241-243 W. 23d St., New York. 1899. Price $1.00.

All but the introductory part of this brochure, of 82 pages, was previously published in the "International Medical Annual" in two sections, one in the 1898 edition and the other in that for 1899,

The perfection of the plates, illustrating the appearance under the microscope of the bacteria pathogenic in the human subject have elicited high commendation. The descriptive text is succinct and practical; written especially for the use of physicians desirious of keeping up to date. The introductory chapter is also of practical value to the general practitioner. This is an interesting little work; one that can be studied with profit by every practitioner.

THE PHYSICIAN'S VISITING LIST FOR 1900. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia.

This is the 49th year of the publication of this list. and is believed to be to-day among the most popular of all such lists now published. This list comes in several different sizes and prices, and is bound in leather, with pocket and pencil, gilt edges, etc.

A TEXT-BOOK OF MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS AND PHARMACOLOGY. By Geo. Frank Butler, Ph. G., M. D. Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons; Professor of General Medicine and Diseases of the Digestive System, Chicago Clinical School. Third Edition; Thoroughly Revised. W. B. Saunders, Publisher, Philadelphia. 1899. Price, cloth, $4.00.

A notice of the first edition of this most excellent book appeared in the SUMMARY for December, 1896, and one of the second

edition in the October, 1898, number, and now we have before us a copy of the third edition. No better evidence than this could possibly be brough forward to substantiate the fact of its great popularity.

The author has devoted special care to the revision of this edition, it being his aim to omit nothing that would add to the completeness of the text. Important changes have been made where deemed necessary, and unimportant matter has been excluded in favor of new and more useful material.

BEE-LINE THERAPIA AND REPERTORY. By Stacy Jones, M. D. Boericke & Tafel, Publishers, Philadelphia. 1899. Price $2.00.

This is a handsome, pocket size volume of 333 pages, bound in morocco. From a homœopathic standpoint this is evidently a most admirable and useful pocket companion; not only from that, but from any other point it most be admitted to contain some very valuable points. Its arrangement is such as to make it in correct form for handy reference.

THE SURGICAL DISEASES OF THE GENITOURINARY TRACT, VENEREAL AND SEXUAL DISEASES. A Text-book for Students and Practitioners. By G. Frank Lydston, M. D., Professor of the Surgical Diseases of the Genito Urinary Organs and Syphiology in the Medical Department of the State University of Illinois; Professor of Criminal Anthropology in the Kent College of Law; Surgeon-inChief of the Genito-Urinary Department of the West-Side Dispensary. Fellow of the Chicago Academy of Medicine, etc., etc. Illustrated with 233 Engravings. Pages 1040. The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers, Philadelphia. 1899. Price, extra cloth, $5.00.

This work, we predict, will command admiration by the general practitioner everywhere, being a comparatively comprehensive treatise particularly adapted for his use. It is full of instruction and contains some unique and many valuable features. It is not simply a reflection of other men's thoughts, but its contents indicate careful, painstaking, original observation by the author in its compilation. The book is carefully and system

atically divided into 10 parts, and these are divided into 43 chapters, which make it easy for reference.

No attempt has been made by the author to cover the literature of the various subjects comprised in this volume, but the endeavor has been to give a practical survey of the field of genito-urinary and venereal diseases, and in his efforts we believe the author has been most admirably successful. We believe this book will hold a place of its own in medical literature.

A

OF

TEXTBOOK OF THE PRACTICE MEDICINE. By James M Anders. M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine, Medico Chirurgical College, etc., Philadelphia. Illustrated. W. B. Saunders, Publisher, Philadelphia. 1899. Price $5.50.

We notice that, the third edition of this admirable volume, contains a few new subjects that were not mentioned under special headings in former editions, and a number of affections have been substantially rewritten and many more have been extensively revised.

These extensive changes gave the author an opportunity to present in many places an improved classification of the practical portion of the matter under appropriate headings. The demand of a new edition of this work within a year after the issue of the second, plainly indicates it to be one of the most satisfactory text-books on practice that has recently been placed within the reach of the medical profession.

unique in covering a special field but little touched in other literature. The fragmentary parts have been brought together here, making a comprehensive treatise on the subject, more readable and philosophical, from our point of view, than anything that has heretofore appeared on the subject, and its careful perusal will surely prove of interest to the practitioner of medicine.

LOVE AND ITS AFFINITIES, By George F. Butler, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of the University of Illinois; Author of "Materia Medica Therapeutics and Pharmacology," etc. Octavo volume, cloth, gilt top, 134 pages with photogravure frontispiece, Cupids Sharpening Their Arrows," by Raphael Mengs. G. P. Engelhard & Co., Publishers, Chicago.

In this handsomely printed little volume the author has endeavored to present a philosophical study of love and its relationship to psychical, as well as physiological phenomena, with which the most exalted sentiment of sexual attraction is closely allied. The thoughts and deductions herein expressed should tend to awaken moral rather than immoral thoughts in the minds of those who peruse it thoughtfully. This work assumes a distinctly higher plane than other publications of this character.

ESSENTIALS Of Diseases of THE SKIN. Including the Syphilodermata Arranged in the form of Questions and Answers. Prepared Especially for Students of Medicine, by Henry W. Stelwagon, M. D., Ph. D., Clinical Professor of Dermatology in Jefferson Medical College; Dermatologist to the Philadelphia Hospital, etc. Illustrated. W. B. Saunders, Publisher, Philadelphia. 1899. Price $1.00.

This is the fourth edition of this admirable compend, carefully and thoroughly revised, the text having undergone numerous small but important changes, in order to bring the subject matter up to our present knowledge of cutaneous diseases.

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Summary Gleanings.

A solution of the iodide of lime is valuable in stomatitis.

Benzoic acid used as a gargle is valuable in sore throat, including diphtheria.

Prolapse of the rectum may be relieved by warm injections of hamamelis distilate.

Hemorrhage from any cavity is most satisfactorily checked by the hot douche.

Passaflora is a good remedy for tetanus, but it must be pushed to full tolerance.

It is stated that quinine is indicated only in such cases as have a moist skin and tongue.

The mere washing out of the bladder with hot boracic lotion often checks vesical hemorrhage.

Colchicine acts upon ligamentous tissues and relieves rheumatism and gout of the joints and ligaments.

In gall colic give morphine hypodermically, inhalations of chloroform and hot applications to the abdomen.

The internal administrations of yerba santa in acute attacks of hemorrhoids is one of our most useful remedies.

After an abortion the patient should be kept in bed three times as many days as the number of months of the abortion.

Be careful how you administer the preparations of opium to the aged with bronchorrhea and feeble respiratory powers.

Dr. J. L. Jelks recommends a bandage applied tightly around the body or lower portion of the ribs as a remedy for obstinate hiccough.

Give iron when the menses are scanty and lack color; give arsenic when the flow is too profuse, prolonged or frequent.Fordyce Barker.

Salines operate in three or four hours; croton oil in one or two hours; jalap, gamboge and senna in three or four hours; rhubarb and castor oil in from four to six hours; aloes and mandrake in from 10 to 14 hours.

In hysterical women suffering from costiveness, cathartics often prove useless. They need treatment directed to their nervous systems.

That dry, parched, tickling sensation of acute laryngitis or pharyngitis can generally be relieved by the administration of yerba santa.

Glycerin is highly recommended as a dressing for the umbilical cord. It is antiseptic, and has also a distinct effect in promoting cicatrization.

Foaming tooth washes should be avoided as indicating the presence of soap which is injurious to the gums. Precipitated chalk is the best of all dentifrices.

To destroy pin worms inject per rectum cod-liver oil, pure or made into an emulsion. By mixing with the yolk of an egg it is non-irritating and will do good work.

To relieve convulsions give, according to age, one to five grains of acetanilid with two to six grains of calomel; also chloroform by inhalation, until perspiration comes on.

An ointment of 60 grains of oleate of tin to one ounce of ointment of rose water is an elegant and efficient application to the finger nails when brittle or marked with spots and ridges.

Dr. H. N. Moyer, of Chicago, says that cascara sagrada is the only drug that stimulates peristalsis of the intestine and at the same time permits of a gradual lessening of the dose without marked decrease in its therapeutic effect.

In accidents in giving anesthetics see that respiration is not mechanically impeded, use forced respiration promptly, tincture of digitalis hypodermically; invert the patient quickly and temporarily, apply external warmth and stimulation to the surface and avoid the exhibition of alcohol.

Dr. R. N. Foster, of Chicago, states (Med. Brief) that the only remedy known by him to cure goiter is fucus vesiculosus, which, in a series of 27 cases, under 30 years of age, all were cured. Dose for an adult is a teaspoonful in a cup of water before meals.

VOL. XXI.

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Address THE MEDICAL SUMMARY,

No. 11

cases, and the one remedy to which we desire to direct attention is strychnine, which, in suitable cases, will act as a specific.

We believe that a brief analysis of the conditions attending this complaint will better enable physicians to select the cases in which this drug is indicated, and therefore present the following, which we hope may prove of value to some at least.

When pregnancy takes place the menstrual molimen is usually arrested, and as this discharge carries with it an uncertain amount of morbid material, the natural channels are blocked. At the usual period with many women, it will be noticed that the complexion assumes a peculiar sallow appearance, and along with this condition there is more or less malaise, not to mention the derangement of the nervous system. These circumstances point to the function of the liver as that which is made to suffer during the earlier months of pregnancy, and if measures can be adopted looking to the increased activity of this organ, it is but reasonable to suppose that these patients will be greatly relieved from the embarrassment incident of early morning sickness during the first two or three months of pregnancy. Close observers will have noted that those women who are subject to what is known as the "bilious" condition are generally more susceptible, and suffer