felt after the mother's death, it was immediately removed by Cæsarean section, but was found to be dead. Examination of the viscera of the child discovered no tubercles, but tubercular bacilli were found in the umbilical cord and in the blood of the umbilical vein. Pieces of the liver, spleen, and kidneys introduced into the peritoneal cavities of guinea-pigs and rabbits were followed by tuberculosis in all the animals. The mother was in the seventh month of pregnancy at the time of her death. RESECTION OF THE LIVER. Dr. W. W. Keen (Boston Med. and Surg. Journal) reports the successful removal of a rare form of cystic adenoma from the liver. The diagnosis before operation was a probably floating and diseased kidney. The growth was removed by thermo-cautery and enucleation. The patient went home entirely well in six weeks. The report is accompanied by a table of twenty reported cases of removal of tumors of the liver, all but three of which recovered. It is to be noticed that almost invariably these cases had been diagnosticated incorrectly by some eminent physician or surgeon, and in a number of them the correct diagnosis was only made by means of the operation. A METHOD OF ACCELERATING Dr. Jamieson (The Lancet, September 12, 1891) says: Carbolic acid in proportion of three per cent. in ointment or oil constitutes the most reliable agent. With this, however, should be combined daily ablution with soap and warm water, so as to remove as rapidly and completely as possible the dry epidermic particles as they become loose, the carbolized oil being rubbed on the surface after it is dried. Such measures alone render isolation, when that can be carried out, effectual: even without isolation, when such can not be carried out, they reduce to a minimum the risk of infecting others. Va rious methods of accelerating desquamation itself were tried and rejected as unsatisfactory; but eventually a plan was discovered. The action of resorcin in causing the outer layers of the epidermis to separate without injury to the deeper ones is well known, and has been made use of in the treatment of ichthyosis and acne. Rubbed on as an ointment it did not produce the desired result in scarlet fever. A resorcin soap would fill the indications, and in time Eichhoff suc ceeded in obtaining a staple resorcin soap. This was accomplished by mak ing a soap chemically acid by adding salicylic acid. When this soap is used to wash cases of scarlet fever, warm water being al ways employed from the commencement to the close of desquamation, a notable diminution of the period occupied by peeling is observed. From the consideration of a large number of unselected cases the conclusion has been arrived at that the average day on which desquam Whatever influence the early symp-ation is first visible is the ninth. The toms may exert in communicating scar-average period from the onset of the let fever, it is universally admitted that disease till the end of desquamation the main danger of imparting the dis- was 55.5 days, no treatment having been ease to others depends on the diffusion employed. of the desquamating flakes which separate from the surface of the body during convalescence. Mild measures of disinfection repeated at frequent intervals throughout, are much more certain and satisfactory than stronger ones employed solely toward the close of the process of skinning, or just before permitting a return to free intercourse and association with all. In cases treated by the method detailed the average duration was 40.26 days. In using the soap the nurses found it necessary to protect their hands by India-rubber gloves, or to use a sponge carefully in washing the patients, else their palms became tender from a thinning of the epidermis. On the average a patient must be isolated two months. By washing with the resorcin salicylic soap, and smearing on some flank oil, he may be permitted to associate with his friends at the end of six weeks. ALCOHOLISM AND TUBERCU- In Miscellany. HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF Statement of Contagious Diseases for week ending May 20, 1892: I. 2. 3 4. 5. 6. 7 8. Hector W. G. Mackenzie (British Med. Journal, February 27, 1892), has analyzed the histories and post-mortem records of seventy-five cases of tuberculosis dying in St. Thomas' Hospital, in which there was a strong history of alcoholism. In only ten of these was there a family history of phthisis; in forty-six the liver was cirrhotic. four cases tubercle affected the peritoneum alone, in one case the pleura alone and in three cases affected the peritoneum and pleura alone. In the remaining sixty-seven cases the lungs were affected, cavities being present in fortyseven. In twenty-nine there was broncho-pneumonic consolidation, in twelve increase of connective tissue, in fortythree gray tubercle, in nineteen caseous tubercle. Both varieties of tubercle 15. were present in eleven cases. There 16. was tubercular ulceration of intestines in twenty-one, of larynx in thirteen, 19. tubercle of pleura in five, of the perito- 20. neum in twelve, of meninges in five, of 21 kidneys in eight, and of spleen in four cases. As would be expected, the middle age furnished most cases. 9. 10. !I. 12. 13. 14. 17. 18. 22. 23. 25. 26. 27 28 29. WARD. Public Institu tions...... His conclusions are that the commonest type of alcoholic phthisis is that of excavation with broncho-pneumonic consolidation, with usually a consider- 30.. able deposit of gray tubercle; that the rarer form is that of fibroid change; that a considerabe proportion of phthisical cases have an alcoholic history; that the Totals pulmonary lesion is generally more extensive than physical examination would suggest; that the progress of the disease in alcoholic cases is rapid; and that microscopic examination of the sputum in alcoholic cases exhibiting pulmonary symptoms is imperatively necessary. The Climatologist. YEARLY subscription to the LANCET CLINIC $3.00 if paid in advance. Last week. THE DEGRADATION OF THE Humanity presents many disgraceful instances of bartered honor, but the debasing effect upon the finer feelings and sentiments of men from continually being under vicious influences is probably 9 best exemplified by the editorial man3 agement of our newspaper. 16-42 24 92 11-35 Health Officer. The wretch who now boasts of being 15.94 the destroyer of virtue, for a time hid his face in shame after a successful seduction; there came a time, though, when his manhood became so befouled and disfigured, as that he forgot the sensation of shame, and blushing became an impossibility. OHIO HEALTH BULLETIN. 98 129 109 104 Excepting in rare cases, the editorial management of city newspapers has no investment in the stocks of the concern. From the start, the editor is the tool of capital. Personal opinions upon politics, religion, and morality, if he has views to the slush standard of low grade any, are laid aside and he adapts his or no grade in everything human which his employers may dictate. Moneyed men of a flexible turn of mind seek to keep such a man between themselves and their capital. The price of a socalled man, of some men, is here shown in dollars and cents. It is asking too much of human nature to expect that a man so starting in a life business, and so completely under subjection to his salary, should long retain in his memory the principles of manhood. This is the "we" of the newspaper-the "we," whose (?) ideas of morality, whose (?) ideas of honesty, whose (?) ideas of decency, whose (?) ideas of anything else are, he modestly alleges, to mould public opinion. The Lord pity public opinion when it ema nates from such a source. The principle, upon which newspaper enterprises rest is that of putting a tool between self-reputed respectable wealth and a dirty job. The advertisers own the newspaper's capital, and the capital owns the editor. To-day the newspapers of Ohio, with a few honorable exceptions, enjoy the distinction of being just as obscene and nasty as they can be and pass through the mails. It would indeed be a rank, stinking thing | Cincinnati LANCET-CLINIC, let us name which could not appear as an advertisement in any of our city papers. The viler the sheet the louder its " we sounds its virtues. Not long since a Cincinnati newspaper which is antagonistic to principles which one of our papers ostensibly advocates, printed upon its first page, in display type, some of the advertisements taken from the columns of its virtue-assuming opponent. To say that the page was filthy only half describes it. Our city "we made no reply. Moulder of public opinion! Providence is making "the wrath of men to praise him," by permitting the secular press to become so filthy, as really to incite men to a better life from the abhorrence to sin which they create by their beastly wallowing in the mire. Unless such a calamity befalls this nation, which may God forbid, as that a man devoid of all decency becomes Postmaster-General, the limit of vulgarity in newspaper advertisements has been reached. A pure home and the daily newspaper are as far apart now in teaching and principle as are heaven and hades, and some time an insulted people will resent the scandalous insinuation that they approve of such vileness, and refuse the opinions of "we" (?) admittance to their homes.-Toledo Med. and Surg. Reporter. MEDICAL NIHILISM IN OHIO. 66 these Nihilistic crank legislators of Ohio: Price, of Hocking county; Doty, of Cleveland; James, of Wood county; Ely, of Fulton county; Baird, of Ashland. Of course, the newspapers were generally on the side of "Physio-medicals," the patent medicine men, the drug stores, and a horde of nondescript quacks, who combined to laugh down the bill through their representatives here named. Let us specialize as guilty of this infamy, besides the hounds' chorus of the county newpapers, the Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette, the Columbus State Journal, and the Toledo Blade. These should be well remem. bered. On the other hand, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Cleveland Leader, and the Ĉincinnati Times-Star are mentioned as in favor of the bill. What a revelation of ignominy and ignorance this fact discloses! The only consolation that can be gotten out of it is that lower depth can hardly be reached, and we may hope that the inevitable progress upward may at last be begun. And this consolation also, the folly of compromise, and the shame of it! After the disgrace of combining with the homœopathic and eclectic quacks in the desperate game, and then to be beaten! The only compromise with certainty. of immediate success is that single one still left to clasp hands with all the patent medicine syndicates, and the humbugs and deviltries that sail under our benign-malign laws, and as a body of physicians without a spark of honor, suicide in the open legislative market. Better to have been defeated with honor than thus besmirched with the shame of an ignoble and useless compromise. A medical practice bill, described as "a moderate one," that has been formulated under the combined advice of the physicians, the homeopaths and the eclectics, of Ohio, was lately defeated in the Ohio Legislature, the whole matter being treated as a screaming-Medical News. farce" by these worthy examples of American nineteenth century politics. In Europe, and, as we have seen, in Chicago, it has been shown that a half dozen half insane cranks can endanger the whole structure of civilized society and bring social life to the point of barbarism. In Ohio, then, we have an example of the same fact in a medical [Our esteemed contemporary is misinformed, we are sorry to say, as to the side which the Cleveland Leader took on this question. Although advocating the right of many of the important topics which come up for discussion, that journal has never yet been able to rise above the influence of those who advertise in its columns. The intelligence it displays in other matters makes DEAR DOCTOR: You are kindly invited to examine the merits and therapeutic application of PYROLIGNINE the new "wood tar" product, a definite chemical substance obtained from Pine Tar by an original process. Pyrolignine is a decided antipyretic, analgesic, anodyne and nervine. It reduces temperature and subdues pain with remarkable promptness and certainty, involving no unfavorable secondary effects. It has been employed with highly gratifying results in various cases where remedies of the above class were indicated, and, so far as its physiological action and effects have been observed, it presents the characters of a true and valuable therapeutic agent; the best results having been obtained from 4 to 10 grain doses, repeated as circumstances require. May be had through regular channels of commerce, or sample and descriptive printed matter mailed to you on request. Your correspondence and careful investigation solicited. ward all communications to JNO. ALEX. BORST, M.D., P. O. Box 196. For Montreal, Canada. In answering to the above please mention the “Lancet-Clinic." |