.gr. j gr. j .gr. iv Sig.-One at

bedtime, to be followed by a dose of castor oil in the morning.

SANTONIN.-A few months ago a paragraph in the "Summary Gleanings" made mention of 10 grain doses of santonin, which was thought an excessive dose, and now a subscriber writes: "Speaking of 10 grains of santonin as a dose, I have given a No. 1 capsule (P. D., & Co.) three times a day with no untoward effect to adults, and as much as four grains, one grain per hour till four were taken, to a four-year-old boy. I gave it by mistake for calomel."

ABORTION.-Dr. Frank A. Stahl, of Chicago, says: "Be conservative in the presence of a normally coursed abortion; wait and give nature time to act. Be radical when dealing with an abnormal coursed abortion; interfere and empty at once."

PASSIFLORA INCARNATA.-This is a drug that has come into extended use during the past two years, and justly so, because it is a valuable medicament there is no doubt. It is of special value in convulsions, epilepsy, hysteria, whoopingcough, insomnia and neuralgia. It is essential, however, in order to obtain results, to have a reliable preparation and, on account of so many worthless, cheap drugs on the market, there are more therapeutic failures than there should be.

EYE WATER.-The following formula will often give instantaneous relief in simple inflammation of the eye and lids: B. Boric acid........... gr. iv

Ext. hamamelis dist. Rose water...

3j

.q.s. ad 3j

CONIUM MACULATUM IN NERVOUS PROSTRATION.-Conium is an excellent remedy in old people suffering from debility, and

especially when mental effort produces great prostration. The patient dreads being alone and yet avoids society, and has great concern about trifles. The aggravation of the remedy is at night and the cough and the dizziness of the drug is always worse on lying down.

CHELIDONIUM.-Our eclectic friends use this remedy when there is a full, pale, sallow tongue and mucous membranes; skin pale and sallow, sometimes greenish. In jaundice of a catarrhal nature, and cough with pain in the liver, it is of great benefit. When melancholia is the result of liver inaction it always helps.

TO STOP NOSE-BLEED.-Grasp the nose between the thumb and forefinger and press backwards against the alveolar border of the maxilla and downward against the teeth. This compresses the lateralis nasi and septal arteries. Satisfactory results also follow the use of tannin and acetanilid.-The Laryngoscope.

body, not merely an excretion to be forthwith expelled.-Waller.

The bile is to be looked upon as a comparatively insignificant byproduct, resulting from the extremely complex and diverse chemical operations which have their seat in the liver, the largest and perhaps most important of all the glands of the body.-Gamgee.

Bile is almost entirely the residual matter that is passed out of the liver-is really an excretion of the liver.-Lauder Brunton.

Bile will be considered in this article as an excretion, in accordance with the opinions of the majority of surgeons who have paid particular attention to this department of surgery. Physicians as a rule conrider it a secretion.-Dr. Murphy in Twentieth Century Practice.

On the Absorption of Iron.

A. E. Austin (Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.), after having made a very extended series of experiments on lower animals upon the absorption of iron, has drawn the following conclusions:

1. That iron is constantly being eliminated both in urine and feces even during fasting.

2. That apparently raw meat furnishes an available form of iron for absorption under normal conditions.

3. That inorganic iron as represented by ferrous sulphate is nonabsorbable.

4. That albuminates and peptonates of iron are absorbable, but to a limited extent.

5. That organic iron, of which hematin and hemoglobin are representatives, furnishes the most easily absorbable and most valuable of all iron preparations.

Nauseating Cough Remedies.

There has long set in a reaction against nauseating remedies, and this accounts in part for the large number of tablets in use. Dr. Robert Reyburn, in the Charlotte Med. Jour., thinks it is a shame to give nauseants and emetics by the stomach when medicines in sprays might be used. In children full single doses of these medicines will cause emesis and bring up the

mucus, and the nausea will at once cease, Muriate of ammonia may be used in a spray and not swallowed. The coal-tar products should be used with great caution in children, as they may cause death by their depressing effects. Finally, all medicines, where possible, should be given by inhalation and by the bronchial mucous membrane rather than by the stomach.-Md. Med. Jour.

Cod-Liver Oil in Phthisis.

Dr. H. A. Hare in his "Practical Therapeutics" makes the following statements: 1. Never use cod-liver oil when the disease has passed the primary stages of thickening of the lung and roughening of the respiratory sounds, unless fibroid changes are going on and the changes are very slow indeed.

2. The use of cod-liver oil when rapid degenerative changes are occurring in the lung is distinctly harmful, as it is not of any service, disorders the digestion, and destroys the appetite.-Md. Record.

Cannabis Indica in Excessive Menstruation.

While the curette is the ideal instrument for attacking excessive menstrual flow, there remains a number of cases that will not permit operation, and others in which the trouble is entirely one of functional derangement. In such cases, especially where the exciting cause is an irritation arising in the Fallopian tubes or in the ovaries, 10 to 15 drop doses of tr. cannabis indica, given every three or four hours, is often curative. It should be commenced a few hours after the flow sets in, say twelve to fifteen hours after, and continued until its effect is produced or the symptoms abate. Much will depend upon the character and purity of the product used as to the amount of benefit received.-Kansas Med. Index.

Indispensable.

I find the SUMMARY indispensable to me. Its articles are brief, varied, pertinent and very practical. May it ever prosper. L. B. BATES, M. D.,

St. Matthews, S. C.

You

Try this plan in a typical case. have the advantages of not disturbing your patient, cleanliness, etc.

I want to hear you laugh, so will relate the following: I have recently witnessed the cure of two cases of acute Bright's disease by an old negro woman by means of two roasted leeks (a specie of onion). the juice being pressed out and mixed with sugar and water; this dose to be taken three times a day.

I have also witnessed in the past year the successful treatment of three cases of severe burns by the same old negro woman. The bark of the common elder

M. Sig.-Use as an injection, after urinating, three times a day.

I use acid iron tonic with Sharp & Dohme's No. 3 tablets (calomel, two grains; podophyllin, 1-4 grain) taken at bedtime, which never fails to move the bowels, and the acid iron tonic after the bowels act, etc. I used to think that I could not cure chills and fever in Louisiana without quinine. That was the only treatment in Kentucky.

I now employ chloroform and olive oil, equal parts, in obstetrics. Apply over the abdomen and cover with cloth. I have much better results than by inhalation.

Opelousas, La.

I. E. SHUTE, M. D.

A Few Notes and Comments. Editor Medical Summary:

en

In looking over the February SUMMARY, an article by Floyd Clendenen, M. D., titled, "Are Anesthetics Dangerous in Post-Puerperal Conditions," is a subject well worth looking into, and he should receive the thanks of the profession for mentioning it. Renal hyperemia and often nephritis, which can exist in any degree, is a condition of the puerperal state, and must not necessarily continue for some time after confinement. I have had trouble from ether poisoning where it has been given in labor in a few cases, and probably caused by nephritis, and for the past few years have discarded ether for chloroform on this account. I have seen ether poisoning occur in the male two or three times, and whether the cause was

renal, or hepatic derangements, or due to sepsis, I am unable to say.

In the January number there is an article on "Our State Medical Laws," by B. H. Brodnax, M. D., who touches a vital point. We, as physicians, should at once enter upon a crusade against unjust medical legislation, and, as the remedy is in our hands, begin at once. Let us petition Congress to pass a law empowering the registered physicians of any state to practice in any other state.

The facts are, that under the guise of protecting the public and the profession from illigitimate practitioners, there are a few persons in each state who are making some money out of this thing, to the detriment of the profession at large.

On the 10th day of February there was introduced in the Connecticut legislature a bill to compel every physician to register in every town in which he is practicing, and if this bill becomes a law he must register 50 times, or be fined, if he practices in 50 towns. To what extent this legislation flimflam business is going to be carried cannot be guessed.

In this present registration there are some of the most notorious quacks and charlatans in the country, and as this is a state registration it is hard to see how, once having been legally admitted to practice, any new laws would prohibit the quack, as a license is good as long as the person holding it lives.

Dr. Brodnax's article is sound all through, and when he speaks of "educated technical failures" he speaks the naked truth. No man should be licensed

to practice medicine and surgery who has not seen actual practice. Every embryonic physician should be examined in the art of cooking, and in regard to the dietetics of the sick. The number of deaths caused by feeding patients improper food is beyond computation. Take for example nephritis, enteric fever, hepatic diseases and gastro-intestinal ailments. The late war is an example of the stupidity of many medical men in the treatment of fevers.

As for specialists, I know of one who is said to have ruptured nine perineums almost in succession and then charge an extra fee for sewing up the same. It is

needless to say the lacerations were caused by instruments to hurry up the

cases.

I have never before recommended any "outside" preparation, but wish to call attention to Waterbury's Cod-Liver Oil Comp. with creosote and guaiacol. Each teaspoonful contains 25 per cent. of the pure oil, two drops of creosote carbonate and one drop of guaiacol. It is combined in such a way as to be almost odorless and tasteless. A child will take it and it does not offend a weak stomach. I am no way interested in it excepting as a valuable addition in the treatment of tuberculosis.

WILLIAM V. WILSON, M. D. West Haven, Conn.

Toothache.

Editor Medical Summary:

We have been experimenting with acetanilid in a rebellious tooth of our own. Pack the cavity with dry acetanilid and in a few minutes there is no toothache. A more convenient way is a saturated solution of alcohol and acetanilid with a few drops of oil caryophyllus. This preparation is an elegant one and meets many a demand, but a paste made of the oil just mentioned and arsenous acid, while it is painful for a few minutes, will soon leave no nerve to ache if applied on a little cotton.

Mosheim, Tenn.

M. G. PRICE, M. D.

Answers to Correspondents.

Editor Medical Summary:

F. C. L. asks why leclanche cells sometimes grow weak just after being refilled, when the whole cell is apparently in good order. There are several reasons why this happens, and in towns like Philadelphia the cause is frequently from the water being very dirty; after a little time the debris becomes affixed to the carbon and interferes with conduction through the electrolyte. In a day or two the dirt settles and then the cell works o, k. Sometimes in cleaning the carbons one may get a little greasy matter on them and this sticks till the hydrogen washes it away

during closure of the circuit. Again the ammonia muriate may not have been thoroughly dissolved, and this coats the elements for a short time. All of these defects will disappear shortly, and then the cell will work properly. In many instances some of mine will respond weakly for a day or two, although I am careful in fixing them, and yet they grow extremely active in awhile, especially when used a good deal. It pays to amalgamate them although it is some trouble. By doing this you stop all local action in the zincs if they are contaminated with iron, as they often are. Pay more and get pure zinc, well rolled and compressed.

F. F. asks if a bunch of electric light carbons will do for a home-made battery? Yes, they will, but they cost more than solid carbons, and are no better, and are hard to fix in the top plate.

Since writing the above I have met with a somewhat unique experience as to batteries, and one which is difficult to explain, or, more correctly speaking, probably impossible, yet it is true. My readers in this city will remember the severe thunder-storm of Saturday night and Sunday morning just before daylight, on March 4th and 5th. Now, I had replenished my faradic batteries about ten days before that event and they were in fair condition. say about half run down, and would require some hour or two to recover from polarization of fifteen minutes use; i. c., if used for that time, they would have to rest the two hours; even then they would not be full in pressure. Now, for the curious part. On Sunday afternoon I had an unusual number of electrical treatments to do, and some of them required long applications, yet all the patients were grumbling about the battery being "too strong!" They were not right in nomenclature, for they all referred to the faradic part. To see what was the matter I intercalated a volt-meter and found that all the faradic cells were far above the normal voltage, much more than when freshly charged, and this was due entirely to the electrical condition of the atmosphere during the night and early morning. So, also, with all the series of galvanic cells; they were tremendously above par, as shown by both am

Reported Especially for the Summary.

In hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver jaundice is the rule and ascites the exception.-BALL.

Cases of typhoid fever running a twoweek's course are prone to present a condition of relapse in a few weeks after the first attack.-Delafield.

In papilloma of the tongue Bull recommends a thorough extirpation as soon as discovered, as not a few cancers of the tongue are traceable to these.

After thorough irrigation with hydrogen dioxide in suppurative otitis media, dermatol is an excellent remedy to prevent an early recurrence of the trouble.-BUCK.

In chronic endocarditis Delafield recommends such exercise as horseback riding, bicycling and bowling where these are carried on to a moderate degree and the patient has the strength to undertake them.

In cases of dilatation of the heart where neither endocarditis nor any other discoverable cause is present the cardiac stimulants are generally of no effect whatever. Morphine is about the only thing to use here.-DELAFIEld.

In malignant affections of the anterior part of the tongue the lower cervical glands just above the clavicle are involved; in similar affections of the sides and base of the tongue the upper cervical glands are involved.-WEIR.

Bull gives the durations of life in cancer in different parts of the body as follows: Carcinoma of the tongue, I 1-2 to 3 years;