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every four hours. I felt encouraged, but dreaded that some sequel might occur that would carry the woman off, but I felt confident that I had been on the right track so far as the antidote was concerned.

"The woman made a good recovery, and was subsequently killed by the cars.

teaspoonful; in fact, about all that I had. The patient wanted to be moved, and I took her under the armpits and drew her up in bed. She remarked that something had come away, and sure enough on examination I found the child's head born, but could not detect any evidence of uterine contraction. The mother now became quite delirious and talked incoherently and could not see the light. For the first time it dawned on me that there had been a mistake, and on looking at my medicine-case I discovered that the ergot bottle was in it and full, and the bottle containing | belladonna, and that from the time of taking

fluid extract of belladonna was empty and on the table. My feelings can be better imagined than described. I immediately admin istered half a teaspoonful of the sulphate of zinc, and prepared a good half-grain of morph. sulph. By the time I had given the morphine (hypodermically) she had vomited with the aid of a finger in the fauces. In the mean time I had tied the cord and disposed of the child. Symptoms were becoming more alarming every moment; pulse very rapid, and a marked redness began to show very plainly. This deepened until she looked like a lobster.

"I soon again repeated the dose of morphine. It seemed certain that I was to have a corpse on my hands, and I determined to push the morphine until I got some physiological evidence of its effect, so that within an hour I should think I gave a grain and a half. Patient was nearly unconscious, and no response could be got from her. Pupils were dilated to the utmost.

"I was anxious to get away, and told the husband that I would drive home and would be back directly. I said something about 'puerperal mania,' brought about by bearing children too fast, and that I did not think it possible his wife could recover.

"I went home in a bad state of mind, believing that I had killed the woman. In about two hours I returned, fully expecting to find a corpse. But no, the respirations were a little slower; pupils about the same. Gave another dose of morphine, and waited about an hour for effects, and fancied that other signs looked more favorable. Respiration was certainly improving, and the iris began to show itself. I gave still another hypodermic of morphine and left her, returning in about two hours. Her condition was then much improved; the iris was about half visible, and respiration quite natural. Again I repeated the morphine, and after waiting some time

"I have much regretted that I did not keep a more accurate record of symptoms, but really regarded the case as hopeless from the time my mistake was discovered. I am sure that she took at least f3iiiss fluid extract of

the first dose up to the emesis was about an hour and a half. Probably she vomited a little of the last dose (one-quarter of a teaspoonful), but the emesis was not thorough.

"I am also sure that I gave her not less than three grains of morphine in about six hours, hypodermically, and the larger part of this was given during the first two hours.

"Two facts I am sure that I have impressed on my mind. One is that belladonna relaxes all of the structures opposing the expulsion of the fœtus, and another is that morphine is an antidote to belladonna in large doses. I have also learned in my experience with morphine narcosis that atropin is very efficient, and indeed I depend mainly on it in such cases. "D. G. P."

TREATMENT OF WHOOPING-COUGH.

Concerning Dr. Kohlmetz's treatment of whooping-cough, I would add that I have given quinine for several years with the most beneficial results, but with this difference in the manner of administration, viz., that I have used it with finely-powdered white sugar placed dry on the tongue every two or three hours. Under this treatment all my cases have invariably improved rapidly, and, when followed up properly, were cured in a short time.

GEO. A. HETHERINGTON, M.D.

SAINT JOHN, N. B., December 31, 1886.

THE INEQUALITY OF THE PUPILS IN
VARIOUS DISEASES.

DR. PASTERNATSKI, who has been working in Professor Chudnovski's clinic in St. Petersburg, has published in the Vratsch an account of a number of observations he has been making on the inequality of the pupils in various diseases, thus carrying out a suggestion made by his chief in a work on the

left her some morphine powders, to be taken | methods of examining medical patients, published in 1883, in which he expressed an opin fourth, or fifth day; before the crisis the difion that careful examination of the pupils ❘ference decreases, sometimes even disappear

would lead to interesting results. Dr. Pasternatski examined a number of methods which have been proposed, but did not find any of them suitable for his purpose, and ultimately a much simpler plan, suggested by M. Follin, was adopted. This consists in bringing a catheter gauge-card close to the eye, and comparing the size of the pupil with the apertures in the card. By this means the size of the pupil in millimetres can be ascertained with a degree of accuracy sufficient for the purpose. It is important to make the observations in the shade, for the difference, when there is any, between the diameters of the pupils increases as the light is diminished. The best method of conducting the examination is to close the eye which is not being observed, for this causes a slight increase in the diameter of the pupil of the latter, as was indeed remarked by Hippocrates. It was found, for example, in a case in which this was tested, that when both eyes (being in the shade) were fixed on an object at a distance, the diameter of the right pupil was 5/5 mm., and that of the left 6 mm.; when, however, the eye not under examination was covered up, the diameters increased to 6 mm. and 63/5 mm. respectively. As to the diseases in which inequality of pupils has been observed, Dr. Pasternatski quotes a number of cases mentioned by continental physicians; also one of aneurism shown by Professor Gairdner to the Edinburgh Medical Society; as well as two reported by Professor Finlayson in the Lancet of January 3, 1885, in both of which aneurisms were found at the necropsy. His own observations gave the percentage of cases in which inequality was found in various diseases as follows: Croupous pneumonia, 85; heart diseases and aortic aneurisms, 61; pleurisy, 52; chronic catarrhal pneumonia, 38; acute articular rheumatism, 25; catarrh of the respiratory passages, 25; scurvy, 16; typhus, 16; recurrent typhus (relapsing fever), 15; abdominal typhus (enteric fever), 13. Inequality of pupils was also found in half the cases of catarrhal and hepatic jaundice and renal colic. The largest percentage occurred în croupous pneumonia, and study of the cases showed that the position and stage of development of the disease has a remarkable effect upon the pupils. At the very commencement the pupil on the same side as the affected lung is, as a rule, larger than the other. The difference generally increases with the lung inflammation, reaching its height on the third,

ing. Afterwards, during the stage of resolution, a difference is again manifest, the pupil on the affected side being now contracted. Not only do the pupils in pneumonia differ in size, but also in sensibility to light. Speaking generally, the author's observations lead him to believe that inequality of pupils is most frequently met with in those internal diseases which not only affect the system generally, but which, like pneumonia, pleurisy, and hepatic and renal colic, are definitely localized as well. It is also very usual in heartdiseases and aneurism, but comparatively rare in scurvy and infectious diseases, such as typhus, and when it does occur in these it is generally consequent on some complication.Lancet, January 15, 1887.

TEST-PAPERS FOR RECOGNIZING
ALBUMEN.

These are two papers, one of which has been soaked in concentrated solution of citric acid, the other in solutio hydrarg. potassica, which is potass. iod., 3.32 parts; sublimate, 1.35 parts; acetic acid, 20 parts; aquæ destill., 40 parts.

The paper is dried and cut in slips.

Both papers are dipped into the suspected urine, which is shaken, the paper forming a thread in the test-tube. If albumen is present, cloudiness or a precipitate forms.

This test is very delicate, reacting with .001 per cent. of albumen.

It precipitates also uric acid, mucin, and alkaloids. Uric acid dissolves on the application of heat; alkaloids are dissolved by alcohol. - Wiener Zeitschrift für Apotheker Vereins, December 10, 1886.

GUACHACATA.

M. CRESCENCIO GARCIA proposes to substitute for quassia, gentian, quinine, etc., the flowers of a Mexican plant commonly called guachacata, and promises further information about the botany of the plant. Garcia prepares a bitter elixir by extracting first with alcohol and then with water and mixing the products; this is done because the plant contains two chief bitter principles, one soluble in alcohol, the other in water. The formula runs thus: guachacata flowers, 30 grammes; rectified spirits of wine, 300 grammes; sweet orange peel, 15 grammes. Macerate for a week or a fortnight in sunlight; express; treat the residue with a little boiling water; express; mix the liquids.-London Medical Record, December 15, 1886.

PASTEUR'S INOCULATIONS IN RUSSIA.

PETERMANN, of Moscow, has established an inoculation station at Moscow in connection with the military hospital, and reports the following results: in three months 115 patients have been treated, of whom 87 were bitten by rabid dogs, 18 by rabid wolves, 5 by rabid horses, 4 by rabid cats, I by a rabid hog. As regards the portion of the body most exposed, 11 were bitten in the face, the remainder on the limbs and trunk. 55 were bitten in August, 31 in September, when apparently rabies is most common. The preparations of spinal cords used in inoculation varied from those which had been in course of development thirteen days to those which had been two days in preparing. Two of the 115 patients died, one who was inoculated fourteen days after the bite was received from a dog, and one who was bitten by a wolf, and inoculated eight days afterwards. The same method of treatment at Odessa was applied to 103 persons. In 36 cases the dog was probably rabid when the bite was inflicted; the others were doubtful on this point. The mortality was 7, greater than in Paris, but the virus used was weaker. Thirty to sixty-two days was the period of incubation in the fatal The Society of Russian Physicians at St. Petersburg has given the matter much warm discussion, and an earnest effort is being made to test the accuracy of all reports and the genuineness of the rabies to which the patients are thought to have been exposed.-Deutsche Medizinal Zeitung, No. 96.

cases.

AN ANTIDOTE FOR ARSENIC AND
ACONITE.

In a recent number of the Indian Statesman there appears a communication from SYED WALAYET ALI XHAN, of Patna, Benga, on a specific antidote for poisoning by arsenic and aconite. It is described as being the bark of the common goolar-tree, generally known to Europeans as the Indian fig. It is administered in doses of from 10 to 12 drachms, ground fine, and mixed with water. In severe cases it may be necessary to repeat it at short intervals three or four times, but it is said never to fail. It has been found success

ful, according to the author of this statement, in every case in which it has been tried. We have consulted Dymock's "Vegetable Materia Medica of Western India," Waring's "Bibliotheca Therapeutica," and other works, but can find no reference to its use for this purpose. It seems strange that it should be an antidote both for arsenic and aconite, as these drugs do not produce the same symptoms, and are not allied physiologically. The matter requires further investigation, and we must admit that we are at present sceptical as to its value. Lancet, January 15, 1887.

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The calculation necessary to convert one system of measurements into the other is very simple. For example, suppose we are directed to use 175 grammes of chlorate of potassium, for making oxygen, how much is it in ounces? We see by the table that one ounce equals 31 grammes; divide 175 by this, and we have 5.6, the required number of ounces. If we wish to measure 53 cubic centimetres of any liquid, 53 29.5; the number of cubic centimetres in one fluidounce = 1.8 fluidounces, the required amount. Conversely, suppose we have a quantity of some chemical weighing three-quarters of a

pound, and wish to find the metric equivalent. As one pound is equal to .453 kilogramme, three-quarters of a pound will be equal to three-quarters of that weight, or 33975 of a kilogramme; or, as one kilogramme equals 1000 grammes, three-quarters of a pound will equal 339.75 grammes.

senile cataract, produced a state of delirium lasting many hours, leaving the patient totally unconscious of what had occurred. There was great muscular weakness, and many strange actions were performed. It was suggested that the susceptibility to this drug reached its maximum in old age, and that the similarity between the symptoms and those of senile atrophy, popularly known as "softening of the brain," might suggest that its action was by causing spasm of the ❘ cerebral arterioles, and might indicate a pos❘sible liability to that form of pathological change. Dr. Major said the symptoms closely resembled those he had noticed in a medical friend, who took for experimental purposes a large dose of hyoscyamine, being characterized by strange antics, with curious unreason1. To convert troy grains into centi- ableness. He attributed much of the effect grammes, multiply by 6.

The approximate figures in the second column are sufficiently accurate for ordinary work, while those in the third column are correct to the third decimal place. The table was purposely made simple, and only those weights and only those measures are given which are in constant use. In this connection may be added a set of rules, which, if committed to memory, would render the conversion of one system of weights into the other very simple indeed.

2. To convert centigrammes into troy grains, divide by 6.

3. To convert troy grains into milligrammes, multiply by 60.

4. To convert milligrammes into troy grains, divide by 60.

5. To convert troy grains into grammes, or minims into fluidgrammes, divide by 15. 6. To convert grammes into grains, or fluidgrammes into minims, multiply by 15.

7. To convert drachms into grammes, or fluidrachms into fluidgrammes, multiply by 4. 8. To convert grammes into drachms, or fluidgrammes into fluidrachms, divide by 4.

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to delusions of vision. - The Lancet, January 8, 1887.

WOOD-FIBRE AS A DRESSING.

DR. PORT, of the German army, recommends in the Deutschen Militär-Artzlichen Zeitschrift wood-fibres as an excellent base for dressings. This material is not only of an absorbing nature and free from germs, but possesses also greater elasticity than the cotton-fibres, and does not roll up when used. The elder-tree is most suitable for the purpose. The wood-fibres, before being used, are to be immersed into a solution of corrosive sublimate, expressed, wrapped up in mull, and then applied.

SUBLIMATE-GLYCERIN-GELATIN.

The Zeitschrift für Apotheker Vereins speaks of the success which has often occurred in veterinary practice with this combination, and describes its preparation as follows:

Common gelatin is treated with one per cent. sublimate solution twelve hours; the gelatin is then melted, and ten per cent. of glycerin added.

PILOCARPINE IN DATURA STRAMONIUM
POISONING.

According to the Paris correspondent of the British Medical Journal (January 15, 1887), DR. ROTH (Nagy Bajour, Hungary) was summoned to a little girl aged 4, whom he found quite unconscious. The pupils were dilated, the face and the rest of the body were swollen as in dropsy, and covered with a rash resembling that of scarlatina. The little patient was uneasy and restless, and ground her teeth. Pulse 146, slight and weak; respirations 40; temperature 39° Cent. (102.2°

TOXIC EFFECTS OF ONE-ONE-HUNDREDTH Fahr.). Her bowels had not been opened,

OF A GRAIN OF SULPHATE OF
DUBOISINE.

At a recent meeting of the Leeds and
West Riding Medico-Chirurgical Society Dr.
CHADWICK related a case where this amount
of the drug, instilled for examination of a

nor had she passed urine since the commencement of the attack. A local medical man had prescribed 15 centigrammes of antimony; but her father, who was a chemist, being persuaded that this would do no good, gave her a solution of sulphate of copper. She vom

ited a large quantity of the fruit of the datura stramonium. Dr. Roth, remembering how Professor Purjeck had cured a case of atropine-poisoning by means of subcutaneous injections of pilocarpine, administered half a centigramme of that drug in twelve hours. This produced neither salivation nor perspiration, and there was no improvement. After a centigramme had been injected, however, the rash and the swelling began to subside. A quarter of an hour later another centigramme was injected, and the child's condition improved still more. The injections were continued, and at six o'clock the pupils had | become almost normal. Pulse 120; temperature 39.7° Cent. (102.9° Fahr.). The patient spoke with ease, and said she felt hungry. An hour later, as there was still no perspiration, another half-centigramme was injected. Salivation and perspiration ensued, and rapid recovery followed. Altogether, five grammes and a half were administered. Dr. Roth considers that this dose was necessary to neutralize the poison.

NATHTHOL IN EXCESSIVE SWEATING OF EXTREMITIES AND THE AXILLA.

The Journal de Médecine et de Chirurgie recommends against excessive sweating of extremities or of the axillary region the following lotion :

Naphthol, 5 parts; Glycerin, 10 parts; Starch, 100 parts.

After having applied this lotion, the parts are to be dusted with the following powder:

Powdered naphthol, 2 parts;
Powdered starch, 100 parts.

In excessive sweating of the feet little cotton-balls saturated with the powder may be inserted between the toes.

AMMONIA APPLICATIONS IN MALIGNANT

PUSTULE.

DR. LEONIDAS AVENDAÑO, of Peru, who has previously written (vide The Lancet, January 9, 1886) in favor of the local treatment of anthrax by ammonia, now publishes in a Lima medical journal an account of a recent case of undoubted malignant pustule in which he successfully adopted this treatment. The patient was a married woman, aged 34, who, two days after being stung by some insect in the forearm, began to experience the symp

toms of acute inflammation in the spot. Thinking an ordinary boil was forming, she applied poultices. The next day, when seen by the writer, the pulse was 105, there was a great deal of edema and redness about the arm, and there was a papule, which was blackish at the centre and surmounted with a circle of vesicles. The etiology, the rapid development, and the local symptoms all pointed to the malignant nature of the case. A crucial incision was made, and a brush saturated with the ordinary solution of ammonia applied to the cut surfaces. An acetate of ammonia and aconite mixture was ordered, and in a few days the patient was well. Dr. Avendaño thinks that other caustics which have been employed in anthrax-as nitric acid, chloride of antimony, and Vienna paste-only partially and incompletely destroy the bacillus anthracis, but that ammonia has a much more powerful effect. This makes the fifth case in which he has seen remarkably successful results follow its employment. - The Lancet, October 2, 1886.

BROMIDE OF ETHYL IN CONJUNCTION WITH CHLOROFORM.

At the meeting of the Baltimore Academy of Medicine held November 2, 1886, Dr. J. J. CHISHOLM stated that he has now employed the bromide of ethyl, in conjunction with chloroform, as an anæsthetic. His method is to anæsthetize the patient first with bromide of ethyl, and then to keep up the anesthesia with chloroform. The advantage claimed by him for this method is that he accomplishes the desired result much more quickly than when chloroform is used alone.

TANGENA VENENIFERA.

Tangena venenifera, the ordeal-bean of Madagascar, has been made the subject of physiological experiment by QUINQUAUD. He finds that applied to frogs, the drug suspends voluntary motions, heightens the reflex excitability, and causes clonic and tonic convulsions. Later, symptoms of paralysis set in, though the excitability of the muscular apparatus and of the peripheral motor nerves remains intact at first, but ultimately the system appears as if affected by a curare poison. In dogs, vomiting, diarrhea, and tenesmus precede the convulsions. The muscular power, however, remains normal until death ensues. Tangena fruit quickens the respiration, then slows it. The frequency of the pulse is increased for a

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