He

Of the many theories advanced none seem to account for all the facts observed under them, and so cannot be looked upon as satisfactory. Santos, Archiv für Gynak., has made a study of fifty-three cases in Buda-Pesth clinic, and has concluded from such study that the albuminuria is caused by a reflex irritation of the sympathetic and renal nerves due to the increasing distention of the uterus, and the irritation of the uterine nerves by this distention, and subsequent contraction. considers it physiological in pregnancy, and diagnostic of pregnancy. This accounts for the more frequent occurrence of albuminuria in young women, in whom reflexes are most easily excited. Any condition heightening the general reflexes favors albuminuria. Santos regards eclampsia as an "acute peripheral epilepsy," whose genetic zone is the uterus. Upon this basis he readily explains the action of narcotics, and rare cases in which eclampsia occurs without albuminuria.

ERGOT IN INCONTINENCE OF URINE IN CHILDREN.

-A writer in the Med. Analectic, says: I have been using for many years the fluid extract of ergot in the treatment of incontinence of urine in infants and children; and I almost regard it as a specific for the disease. I prefer to give it simply, and to treat separately any conditions of the patients that may require therapeutical aid to correct those states of physical debility which either predispose to incontinence of urine or aggravate its presence. I give to an infant from one to three years old, 5 to 10 drops; and to a patient from three to ten years, 10 to 20 drops every three hours. Few children object to its taste, and it should be continued uninterruptedly

for two or three weeks, and resumed if the disease should return, in which case the doses ought to be gradually increased.

LACTIC ACID in the DIARRHOEA OF TUBERCULOSIS.-We have recently noted the good results obtained from lactic acid in certain diarrhoeas of children. It has been found valuable also in the diarrhoea attending phthisis. The idea seems to have been suggested (Lyon Méd.) by the good results obtained by the administration of this drug in other tubercular troubles, notably ulcer of the larynx and tongue. It has been found necessary

This amount to be given three or four times daily, according to the effect produced.

The rhubarb may act as a vermicide or as an agent which simply detaches the worms. In either event it causes the expulsion of great numbers of them and induces regular bowel movement.

BIRTH PALSIES. In a clinical lecture by Gowers (Lancet) birth palsies are divided into peripheral and cerebral. The former are generally of the facial nerve and of the nerves supplying the arms. They are not of a severe nature and recover spontaneously. Cerebral palsies occur most frequently after first and difficult labors. Extravasation of blood over the cortex, or at the base of the brain, is the usual condition, resulting in death or tedious recovery. In diagnosis, symptoms of severe injury or defective development of the nervous system are present, without history of definite onset. Chronic spinal disease is rare in children. In birth palsies, reflexes are excessive; in muscular diseases, they are not increased. Prognosis: tendency to slow improvement. Treatment by drugs, by electricity and tenotomy is useless. Rhythmical gymnastic training, with hygiene, is of value.

PUERPERAL PERITONITIS, DRAINAGE.-Dr. Woodword (Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.) reports a case of puerperal peritonitis, which came under his care about six weeks after labor. There was a large amount of pus in the abdomen, an abscess having burst into the abdominal cavity thirty-six hours before labor. He performed laparotomy, evacuated a large amount of offensive pus, and irrigated the cavity with hydronaphthol, 1-1100, introduced a drainage tube and dressed the parts antiseptically. He freqently irrigated the cavity with warm water. The patient recovered.

NASAL ECZEMA. This affection is said (Herzoy, Archiv. Fur. Kind.), to be found in persons with a strumous diathesis. Chronic rhinitis is present in all cases. The junction of the skin and mucous membrane is most attacked. The disease is peculiarly intractable when it attacks the inner side of the point of the nose. It is frequently followed by furuncles. Erysipelas frequently accompanies it. The crusts should be softened and removed. Yellow mercury oxide ointment, or equal parts of lead ointment and vaselin accurately applied to the affected part, give good results. The chronic rhinitis also needs treatment.

NEW DRUGS--Dr. W. Ellis, in the Am. Pract. and News, in a paper on "New Drugs," says that antipyrine in doses of grs. x to xx, or antifebrin in doses of grs. iii to x, will relieve the worst case of neuralgia or migraine, in from twenty m nutes to one hour, without any bad after effects. Another use of these drugs is in the treatment of chorea, which is cured in one quarter or one eighth the time required by the usual remedies. M. Legroux treats all his cases of chorea by gr xv. t.i.d. Dr. Thor, of Bucharest, says that vii to xxx grs. of antipyrine, just before retiring for the night, is superior to any other method of treatment for nocturnal emissions and sexual neurasthenia, and Dr. J. P. Griffith, of Philadelphia, gives antipyrine the first place in the treatment of whooping-cough.

SAPRÆMIA.Dr. Wm. S. Gardiner in the Med. Reg., says that four objects should be kept in view in the treatment of Sapræmia, viz.: (1). To keep the cavity of the uterus clean, which he does by antiseptic intra-uterine injections of corrosive sublimate, 1 in 4000, at the temperature of the body; and by keeping in a drainage tube when the temperature is high. (2.) Secure tonic contraction of the uterus by xv to xx m doses of fl. ext. of ergot every two or three hours, the dose being regulated by the effect. (3.) To control the temperature, and he finds antipyrine the most suitable remedy to reduce excessive body heat. (4.) To support the patient by nutritious diet.

DELIRIUM TREMENS.-Dr. L. B. Anderson, Va., Gaillard's Med. Jour., in writing of the pathology and treatment of delirium tremens, refers to cases not affected by hypnotics, as opium, potassium, bromide, etc. These are cases resulting from very excessive,prolonged drinking, and which result in exhaustion and collapse from the excessive and long-continued cerebro-spinal irritation. They are laboring under torpid liver. and distension of the gall-bladder, with black, viscid, acrid bile. A twenty gr. dose of calomel relaxes the ducts, enables the bladder to discharge its contents, excites the functions of the acini, relieves the blood of its vitiated freight, and unloads the bowels, and the patient becomes enabled to sleep in a few hours. A teaspoonful of cayenne-pepper, and then x grs. every hour, while awake, gives the same result in the majority of cases.

DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP.-Dr. Galicier, of Versailles (Am. Pract. and News), lauds the use of sulphuret of calcium, in large doses, in the treatment of diphtheria and croup. He also associates digitaline and quinine with it. To a child one year old, he gives sulphuret of calcium from one to two centigrams per hour, digitaline and the arseniate of quinine from one-half to one milligram per hour. For a child of two years, sulphuret of calcium two to four centigrams per hour, digitaline and arseniate of quinine from one to two milligrams. After the age of 4 years, sulphuret of calcium five centigrams, digitaline and the arseniate of quinine from one to two milligrams. They are administered in the form of granules. A case that is cured in 8 to 15 days, by the ordinary treatment, is cured thus in two or three days.

DYSENTERY. Surgeon Major Dobie, of India (Am. Pract. and News), treats dysentery by small doses of ipecacuanha, with Dover's powder and cannabis Indica, repeated often enough to produce nausea, and to check the irritability of the rectum and the tenesmus. Locally, he uses an enema of nitrate of silver, consisting of six grs. to six ounces of water. The patient may retain it or not; as a rule he does not. One enema generally allays the symptoms for the day. The bowels have rest, the stools become feculent, and a warm bed and diet complete the cure.

University, of Baltimore. This change will, we trust, be as satisfactory to the learned professor as he can wish. His many Canadian friends congratulate him, and wish him God speed in his new field of labor.

THE management of the Medical Library Association are to be congratulated on having brought their labors to a completely successful istue. The rooms at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, will be open on and after Nov. 1st from 10 to 1 a.m., and from 2 to 6, and 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. The supply of literature already on hand is considerable, consisting of about 1000 volumes and 50C0 pamphlets; while there will be found on the tables eighteen or twenty weekly or monthly journals on various subjects, connected with the science of medicine.

CONVULSIONS IN CHILDREN CAUSED BY OPIUM.—

It has been proved (Roth Bull. Méd.) that very small doses of opium may cause fatal convulsions

in infants.

The foetus may be affected, as shown by Roth, who gives a case in which a pregnant woman distinctly felt almost unendurable fœtal movements after rather large doses of opium. He thinks therefore that opium should not be used to prevent abortion.

FOR INFANTILE CONVULSIONS. The following mixture is recommended (Jour. de Méd. de Paris). Tincture of musk, tincture of castorium, sulphuric ether, each 32 minims; paregoric, 8 minims. Six drops are given each hour in a teaspoonful of sugared water or a teaspoonful of milk. The doses are less frequently repeated as improvement takes place.

HICCOUGH. It is said that the best means of stopping hiccough is to take a very deep inspiration and hold the breath as long as possible. If the breath can be kept past a rising singultus the trouble is, as a rule, over.

MR. LAWSON TAIT read a paper at the Brit. Gyn. Society, in which he brought forward such an amount of evidence to show that removal of the ovaries and appendages has no effect on the sexual appetite, so that surgeons need not now hesitate, on this ground, to remove them when they are obviously diseased.

The variety of diarrhea to which I propose to call your attention occurs during the summer months, and almost exclusively among children under two years of age who are artificially fed. Eustace Smith says: "In bottle fed infants this disease is especially common, and is answerable for a large part of the mortality which occurs in cities during the first twelve months of life. Severe inflammatory diarrhea appears to be almost confined to large towns, and the mortality from this cause is greatest during the months of July, August and September.

It is now generally admitted that the exciting cause of this disease is the presence of microorganisms, or ptomaines in the alimentary canal, or the irritating, or poisonous substances which are formed in the processes of fermentation, or putrefaction, which are induced by these.

The

reason assigned for the prevalence of this disease only during the summer months is that a temperature of 60° F., or higher, is requisite for the active multiplication of germs.

The age at which this disease occurs being the period of first dentition explains why teething has in the past been considered one of its causes, but it is evidently only a coincidence, and not in the relation of cause and effect, as teething is a purely physiological process, many children passing through the whole period of dentition without having diarrhoea. If teething could produce it, it would be as common during the winter as during

Read before the Torouto Med. Society, Nov. 17th, 1888.

Not so

Cow's milk rarely disagrees with children during the winter, although the chemical composition remains the same throughout the year. however with the bacteria which are present in large quantities during the summer, but almost entirely absent during the winter, as evidenced by the fact that milk can be kept for a long time during the winter without undergoing any change.

Ordinary market milk, which is that used in infant feeding in cities and towns, is well known to be loaded with bacteria during the summer months. In fact, from the time that it leaves the udder it is contaminated with impurities at every step until it reaches the consumer. In the case of breast milk the child receives it directly from the breast, and when the mother is healthy, the milk is free from germs. Escherich proved this by drawing milk directly from the milk ducts into sterilized capillary tubes under proper antiseptic precautions, and sealing these tubes hermetically; he found that this milk could be kept for a number of days exposed to the temperature of the body without undergoing any change. Ordinary market

milk, when placed in similar tubes and subjected to the same temperature, decomposed within a few hours. Professor Vaughan, of Ann Arbor, tried a that it also was sterile as it came from the milk similar experiment upon cow's milk. He found ducts. I think it is quite evident that if mother's