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peared. The salicylate of soda was | any other known treatment. He recom. employed four days longer, whereupon mends inhalations of a 2 to 3 per cent. the exudation gradually but steadily diminished, until complete resorption had occurred. Oerl, who made this observation, has, during the past five years, treated nine other cases with sodium salicylate, after such other remedies as antipyrin, phenacetin and pilocarpin had failed, and in all but two cases the result was satisfactory. In these two cases the disease was but of one week's duration, and it would seem that the drug was employed too soon; for, after waiting four weeks, its administration in these same patients was followed promptly by partial resorption. The conclusions are:

solution of acetic acid for ten minutes two three times a day, and, besides, he injects every day one or two small syringefuls of this solution into the patient's larynx. Under the influence of this treatment the thickened spots in the larynx become more transparent, soften and diminish in volume; the voice loses its hoarseness and gradually becomes normal. The treatment is by no means disagreeable.

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TREATMENT

NORWALK, O.

OF PACHYDERMIA LARYNGIS-CHRONIC, DRY LARYNGITIS.

Under pachydermia laryngis one understands a condition, analogous to trachoma in the eye, where the vocal cords and the surrounding parts are so influenced that there is a hoarseness of voice, which may even run into complete aphonia, and thus remain either intermittent or continuous. Alcoholists are especially liable to be attacked. Dr. Scheinmann, of the Berlin Polyclinic (La Semaine médicale, No. 57, 1891), has found a dilute solution of acetic acid to have more influence than

DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP.

Dr. Gibert, of Geneva (Le Progrès médical, No. 48, 1891), employs the following potion in diphtheria and croup:

Pilocarpine,
cgms.
Ammon. carbonat., gms.
Potass. chlorat.,

Syrup polygalæ,
Cognac,

Aquæ,

2 (gr.).

2 (grs.xxx).

gms.

gms.

3 (grs.xlv). 30 (fl. 3j).

gms. 20 (fl. 3v).

gms. 130 (fl. 3v).

A spoonful every hour until the patient begins to perspire.

DOUBLE CHLORIDE OF GOLD AND

SODIUM IN DIABETES
MELLITUS.

Dr. J. A. Robinson (Gazzetta degli Ospetali, No. 82, 1891) reports two cases treated successfully with the double chloride of gold and sodium. Dose, five drops of an aqueous solution twice or thrice daily. The dose was gradually increased until the physiological effects were obtained. The sugar disappeared from the urine; the thirst and hunger, as well as the polyuria, yielded to a treatment of eight weeks or more, while the general condition much improved.

The nitrate of uranium, one-sixth to one-half grain, has been used with alleged success in the treatment of this disease.

Phosphoric acid in dilute watery solution has been recommended by a German writer (Deutsche medicinal Zeitg., 1890) to assuage the thirst of diabetic patients. Arsenic-Fowler's solution-is also praised by some, while others prefer the solution of the bromide of arsenic. Antipyrine, morphine and

Correspondence.

THE MEDICAL PRACTICE

codeine have a temporary inhibitory influence upon the production of sugar. Syzygium jambolanum, a drug brought by the Hollandish marine physicians from the Dutch colonies in the East Indies, has been used with success in the treatment of this affection.-Ber- Comments on the Powers of the Exliner klin. Wochenschr., No. 38, 1891.

cases.

TREATMENT OF DIABETIC
COMA.

BILL.

amining Board.

MARION, O., Jan. 1, 1892.

Editors Lancet-Clinic:

I have read with much interest the proposed medical practice bill, as submitted by the committee having the matter in charge, and published in the LANCET-CLINIC.(') On the whole it is a good bill: practical, liberal, and in no way inflicting hardship on any person who is a legitimate practitioner of medicine.

Dr. Reynolds (Wiener med. Presse, No. 47, 1891) recommends a plan which has given him excellent results in two The patients are put to bed, mildly purged, and receive every hour three decigrammes (five grains) of potassium citrate, and are told to drink much fluid tea, coffee, lemonade, water, etc. In all, four quarts of water a day should be taken. Under this treatment the two cases recovered, the only ones of twenty which were under his observation. An early diagnosis must be made. The approach announces itself by a feeling of malaise, anorexia, weakness, somnolence, pains in the left hypochondria, dyspnoea, an odor of acetone in the expired air and urine, albuminuria, and decrease of the gly-tutional power in trying to enforce it. cosuria. In pneumonia in diabetic persons, to have the sugar to reappear in the urine and the polyuria again to set in, are favorable signs (see LANCETCLINIC, October 31, 1891, p. 572).

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There is, however, one clause in it which, in my opinion, might as well be stricken out. I refer to Sec. 11, which confers on the examining board the power to refuse and to revoke licenses for unprofessional or dishonorable conduct. However salutory this clause might prove as a a corrective agent, I have grave doubts whether the board would not exceed its consti

The examining board will not sit as a judicial body, consequently will have no right to inflict punishment on an individual for dishonorable or dishonest conduct. Neither will the board be an arbiter of ethics, hence will have no right to decide what is unprofessional conduct in a physician. The right, and the sole right, which will be vested in this board will be the right to examine into and decide on the applicant's technical fitness to practice his profession. If he submits to the examiners a legal diploma, or passes the required examination, they will be in duty bound to grant him a license to practice, no matter what his moral or ethical status

may be. Neither can they, after having once granted, revoke a license, and thus deprive a person of his means of liveli

hood.

This very clause, incorporated into the Illinois medical act, has been fruit

I See issue of LANCET-CLINIC, December 12, 1891, p. 773.

ful of much litigation, and I am under the impression that the courts of that State have decided against the board in

THE CINCINNATI

the matter. That the practice of medi- LANCET-CLINIC:

cine should be regulated by statute no sensible medical man will deny. Such regulations will, to borrow a mossgrown expression, "supply a long-felt want," in Ohio. But the committee intrusted with this matter must see to it that the bill presented to the legislature is not jeopardized by containing any clause of doubtful constitutionality.

D. S. MADDOX, M.D.

SCIENTIFIC CONGRESSES IN

RUSSIA.

International congresses of anthropology, prehistoric archæology, and zoology are to be held at Moscow in August, 1892. M. Bogdanow is president of the Organizing Committee, which includes representatives of the principal civilized countries. Thus England is represented by Messrs. Flower, Ray Lankester, and Günther; France by fifty-six members, among whom are Prince Roland Bonaparte, MM. Pasteur, Milne Edwards, de Quatrefages, G. Pouchet, C. Richet, etc.; Germany by Virchow, Weismann, Rosenthal, Leuckart, etc.; the United States by Messrs. Agassiz, Packard and Riley. Med. Record.

LOCAL SOCIETY NOTICES. CINCINNATI MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Tuesday evening, January 12, DR. RUFUS B. HALL will report a case of "Vaginal Hysterectomy for Cancer," with exhibition of specimen.

DR. OLIVER P. HOLT will report a case of "Primary Tuberculosis of the Tonsils."

PUBLISHER'S NOTICES. BINDING.-Preserve your files of the LANCET-CLINIC and make a convenient library of reference by sending your unbound volumes to to this office. Any style of binding desired, at uniformly low prices.

SAMPLES of Sander & Sons' Eucalypti Extract Bucalyptol, gratis, through Dr. Sander, Dillon, Iowa. Lucalpytol stands foremost as a disinfectant, is a perfect check to inflammatory action, and invaluable in zymotic diseases. Meyer Bros. Drug Co., St. Louis, Mo. Sole Agts.

3 Weekly Journal of MEDICINE AND SURGERY

ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY.

EDITORS:

A. B. RICHARDSON, M.D.
J. C. OLIVER, M.D.
L. S. COLTER, M.D.

TERMS, $3.50 PER ANNUM.

All letters and communications should be addressed to, and all checks, drafts and money orders made payable to

HENRY C. CULBERTSON,

PUBLISHER,

199 W. 7th Street, CINCINNATI, OHIO. Cincinnati, January 9, 1892.

Editorial.

WHAT NEXT?

"We are living, we are dwelling in a grand and awful time." One sign of the times is the wholesale slaughter of old and generally accepted beliefs. There was a time when medical men thought they had definitely and forever settled certain questions, but now nothing escapes the wrath of the modern iconoclast. In fact, we begin to feel that there has been some grand mistake in the economy of nature; that our eyes are not for seeing nor our ears for hearing; and that we have been imposed upon by those who thought they had really determined these things to be true and worthy of our acceptation.

These remarks are prompted by an article which appeared in the Weekly Medical Review of December 19, 1891. The subject of the essay was "Hygiene of Infant Life," and Elliott E. Furney, M.D., was the author. In the paper

there were some statements which we

think ought not be allowed to go unchallenged.

The portion devoted to the feeding of infants is so wonderfully original that we shall make liberal extracts therefrom, and offer some old-fashioned comments upon them.

The first statement is one which shows a wonderful insight into the condition of babies at birth, for we are told that" every infant is born hungry." We are not in a position to say whether this be true or not, because our memory fails us, but we should not be surprised if it were so. We do know that this feeling begins early and lasts for a long

time.

Wonderful as is the first discovery, it is not to be compared with the one we now ask you to peruse:

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'Every mother who loves her offspring ought to be taught the truth; that woman's milk is an unsafe food."

Shades of our ancestors! we tremble when we think of the terrible risks you

ran before this discovery was made! We are alarmed at the ignorance you displayed in blindly withdrawing your nourishment from a woman's breast. You nearly spoiled our chances in life by your indulgence in so unsafe and unscientific a method of eating. It is only through divine mercy that we are here at all. How could you, while professing love for your offspring, offer them so deadly a draught?

After throwing us into a state of profound nervous prostration by the above-mentioned statement, the author comes to the front with the following dietary:

Almost any cooked food, if cleanly prepared and administered, is safer than woman's milk. The hygiene of infant life bears heavier on the one requirement of cleanliness than on all others combined. By attention to that one

requirement more children can be raised in health with any one of a score of sterilized foods fed from a tin-cup with breast of even healthy mothers who live a spoon, than with milk direct from the with their husbands."

From the above we gather that the innocent husband is the real disturbing cause, and that a live husband, or at least one who lives with his wife, will cause more disturbance in the intestinal canal of an infant than will cabbage and cheese, provided these latter are cleanly prepared and administered. Positively, it is too bad to place the husband in such an embarrassing position! We also judge from the above

that the world would be far better were women never to live with their husbands.

The final statement we shall call upon our readers to read is:

"An infant whose mother or physician insists upon its being fed from the breast has a right to demand not only this attention to cleanliness, but, in addition, that the one who acts as its wet-nurse shall in all practices be as simple and in accord with Nature as is a cow, that she shall live apart from her husband; and only eat, drink and sleep like a simple, milk-giving animal, which for the time being she

has chosen to be."

We believe that the ideas advanced

by the essayist will be heartily approved by that class of women who desire to shirk the cares of maternity and would gladly avail themselves of any pretext for so doing; but we do not believe that the experience of ages and the accumulated observations of the entire medical profession should be set at naught by dogmatic assertions which are entirely at variance with facts. We believe in progress, but not in backward progression.

Any physician who has accurately observed the facts cannot fail to be im

pressed with the fact that an infant deprived of mother's milk leads a precarious existence, and that the mortality among children who are fed with artificial food is many times greater than among those who are reared upon breast-milk.

If the mammary glands of woman are not for the purpose of furnishing food for the infant, why in the world do they exist? How can we close our eyes to this evident design of Nature? It would be equally reasonable to state that our eyes are not for seeing, or our ears for hearing.

We believe that such articles as the one referred to may do harm, because they may be taken as giving medical sanction to methods which are known to be faulty and which involve serious risk to infants.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Now, who would ever suspect that there lurked beneath the solemn exterior of Dr. A. N. Ellis the spirit of chivalry and romance? Yet it's there evidently, for it came to the surface most actively, when, on the 1st inst., the staid and snow-crowned doctor surprised all his friends by calling on a medical friend of this city and requesting him to accompany him and a young lady to a minister.

This gentle hint could have but one significance, and sure enough there was no mistake. The doctor actually had made up his mind to join the benedicts, and had also really prevailed on a most charming young lady to help him in his execution of this dire purpose. The Cincinnati Enquirer of the 2d inst. gives an interesting account of the method of the doctor's escapade.

The bride is Miss Laura Murphy, of Oxford, O., a beautiful and accom

plished young lady, President of the Oxford University Alumnæ Association, and daughter of a wealthy farmer and stock raiser of Butler County. The Enquirer says: "The proposal, acceptance and marriage occupied about one hour's time, while the courtship extended over a period of ten years."

The doctor may be a little slow in making up his mind-or perhaps it was not the doctor-at any rate, when the decision was once made it did not take long to carry it into execution.

We congratulate the doctor most sincerely on his good sense and good fortune, and commend his action to all the other venerable bachelors and widowers, with whom the profession in our city abounds.

ANENT the proposed legislation in Ohio regarding "itinerant vendors" we notice a communication from the State Board of Health of Kentucky which makes known a provision of the Kentucky law particularly applicable to that proposed in Ohio. Their medical regulation act has this section: "Nothing in this act, or the acts to which this is an amendment, shall be so construed as to authorize any traveling empiric to register or practice medicine in any county of this State."

A circuit court judge has held that "even a physician properly registered and of previous good character lost all his privileges secured by registration when he became an advertising and traveling quack."

In the light of this legislation, that asked in Ohio against "itinerant vendors of drugs, medicines, etc." is not open to the just criticism of undue severity, at least.

Our Louisville brethren are preparing for an organized fight against quacks of all kinds, and we wish them

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