1

introduced. And they will then be repeated and there are two great anxieties in married every three, four, or five hours, pro re nata. If there should be much tenderness to-morrow, a poultice will be applied to the abdomen. The vagina will be syringed with a solution of carbolic acid, and if there is no complication she will return to her home in forty-eight

hours.

As I have intimated, I use the dilator for dilating the cervix for the purpose of exploration in cases of hemorrhage. I consider it much safer than the use of sponge-tents. When a patient comes with hemorrhage, and you are sure that there is something in the cavity of the womb, the books will tell you to insert a sponge-tent. I should prefer to put the woman under ether, and rapidly dilate with this instrument. In such cases, we may dilate to the extent of an inch and a half, for usually the patient has borne children, and the parts are elastic from the bleeding. You can then usually insert the finger, but sometimes this cannot be done. I then pass in the fenestrated polypus forceps, and see if I can catch hold of anything. In this way it is often possible for one to catch hold of a polypus without one's knowing that the womb contained a foreign body.

women, and strange to say they are exactly opposite. One will go through everything, risking her life and even her soul trying to avoid having children, while another will do everything she can to have children, and indeed will go insane if she does not become pregnant. As I have said, I did a variety of things in this case, but all without benefit. Finally, it struck me that the fault might lie with the husband. An examination of the semen showed that it did not contain a single spermatozoon.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

HINTS IN MICROSCOPICO-HISTO-
LOGICAL TECHNOLOGY

FOR THE STUDENT IN NERVOUS DISEASES.
BY DR. EDWARD C. MANN, NEW YORK.

THI

HERE has been so much done and written by my friend Dr. Thomas E. Satterthwaite, of this city, on this subject, that I shall only give a few general hints, referring the general practitioner to Dr. Satterthwaite's excellent treatise on histology, and to Frey's work on the microscope and microscopic tech

I have said that in dysmenorrhoea this operation will usually effect a cure, but if the opera-nology. The student generally uses too strong tion is done for sterility, you cannot promise to relieve the difficulty. The reason of this is, that a woman who comes on account of sterility has usually been married a number of years, has taken all kinds of remedies, and used all sorts of injections, and the organic changes which have been referred to have developed. There has been hypertrophy of all the tissues of the womb, not only of the muscular structure, but also of the mucous membrane and glands, so that it is no longer a fertile soil. While this operation is successful for dysmenorrhoea, and is more successful for sterility than any other that I know of, yet it is not always successful on account of the organic changes which have taken place.

solutions of alcohol for hardening the brain. If a freshly removed brain be put successively into a sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety per cent., and finally to remain in a ninety five per cent. solution of alcohol, the effect upon the tissues of this gradual hardening will be vastly superior to the rapid hardening and shrinking produced by the careless method of at once immersing nerve tissues in absolute alcohol. Time, patience, perseverance, and skill, which will come by practice, will enable most persons to become fairly adept in microscopic technology. In using the microscope a large, steady table should be used, and the student should sit with the light coming in over his shoulder. Work by gaslight is to be deprecated. The technicalities. of microscopic work are soon learned, and practice makes perfect, and a few fairly good preparations will, with most, be the incentive to further investigations in microscopy. Something besides the procuring a microscope is I remember one case in which I cut the necessary in order to use it. The physician cervix, then dilated it a number of times, and must familiarize himself with the entire techhad the woman under treatment for a couple of nique of microscopy, and in place, as we have years. She was most anxious to have children, | known some to do, of procuring the volumi

Not infrequently the sterility is dependent upon the husband, who may have had an orchitis or epididymitis as a result of gonorrhoea. Although the secretions may appear to be normal yet they may not contain a single spermato

zoon.

they are examining. To make very thin sections from either fresh or from artificially hardened tissues, the Le Coultre razor is the most serviceable instrument, and much better than most "section cutters." The best test of a fine section is the ease with which it floats in a glass of water. Those sections which sink are too thick for mounting as a rule. Specimens to be examined under the microscope may be hardened in alcohol, mullein fluid, solution of one or two per cent. of bichromate of ammonia, and left for at least two weeks; or in chromic acid onę to six hundred, and left five to eight days; or in bichromat. of pot. one to two per cent. two to four weeks; also in Clarke's and Beale's mixtures.

nous literature of the microscope and confusing | high power), and also of any fine preparation his mind with the varied directions of authors, each of whom has his pet method of procedure, we advise him to buy Beale and Frey, and put himself under the direction of an experienced microscopist at first, until he is able to stand alone. After this, let him buy as many books on the microscope as he wishes. Another caution I would give is this, avoid the use of high powers at first, until with a weak objective the student understands the structural relation of the part he is studying. Definition is best with low power. My test for a good definition of an objective is the P. Angulatum, which a good one-quarter inch objective should resolve perfectly with oblique light. Cheap and good objectives are hard to get. It is easy to get good high-priced objectives. It is claimed that Spencer's professional series of cheap objectives do good work, but I cannot speak from any personal experience of them. By good definition, I mean a clear, sharp image, like the sharpness of a fine proof engraving, which is very different from the diminished distinctness of a poor one. The student wants a good, firm microscope stand, such as Beck, Hartnack, Nachet, Grunow, or Zentmayer make, and at at least two first-class achromatic objectives, which he should by all means get some friend who is a practised microscopist to obtain for him, as he will otherwise be very apt to get an indifferent lens. Personally we prefer the lenses made by William Wales, Grunow, Gaudlach, and Smith & Beck, although there are very good English and American objectives.

For imbedding delicate substances, equal parts of pure white wax and olive oil melted together and kept in the thin metallic covers of wine corks, for this purpose, is excellent. When imbedding, this or a paper case should be used, somewhat larger than the specimen, and the melted wax poured in, and the substance (when the wax commences to solidify at the sides of the case) should be dropped in with a needle beneath the liquid, so as to be covered by it. When the wax is cool put in alcohol.

Staining. To stain with a weak solution of carmine, we take thirty grains of this substance and rub up with a few drops of distilled water. Then add liquor ammonia fort. ten fluid drachms, and distilled water fifteen ounces. Mix with a glass rod and filter. Keep in stoppered bottle. In staining, take one drop of the above and add to it twelve drops of distilled water, and leave sections which are to be stained from sixteen to twenty-four hours. To stain rapidly, the section may be placed in the above strong solution without the addition of water. In this case the strong solution should be exposed to the air long enough to let the excess of ammonia escape. Accordingly, keep two bottles, one for rapid and the other for gradual staining. The time for rapid stain

The use of weak eye-pieces and a field not brightly illuminated give the best results, together with a low power objective at the commencement of any given examination. These points are all simple, but are important to the student in microscopic technology. Another caution for the student, which may save him some good lenses and preparation is to first get the coarse adjustment by screwing down the microscope tube in its sheath, until the end of the objective is seen to almost touch the cone-ing varies from thirty seconds to five minutes. glass of the preparation. Then, applying the eye to the eye-piece, slowly screw the tube up until the coarse adjustment is obtained, and then obtain the fine adjustment by the screw head which is placed for the purpose. This is much better than focusing down to the microscopic preparation as many students do, to the great risk both of their objectives (if of

The sections when removed from the staining solution must be washed in water containing one-quarter per cent. of acetic acid. The student is referred to page 150, of Frey, "On the Microscope," for full details as to methods of staining.

The carmine fluid, the Fuchsin, Thiersch's indigo-carmine solution, hæmatoxylin so

F

FAITH CURE.

BY W. C. CAHALL, M.D. AITH CURE has been well named, for it is the faith which cures and not the object upon which the faith is reposed. Neither does it appear important what the object of the faith is. It is only necessary that the patient shall have implicit confidence in its power and willingness to be healed.

absurd that it may strike many of the readers as unworthy of a serious consideration. But not so, for while scientific physicians need have no fear of all their patients being cured by their new rival, so that "there shall no longer be sickness throughout the earth," still there is enough truth in the matter to keep breath in its little body.

lution, the double staining method with carmine and picric acid, osmic acid solution of one-quarter to one per cent., and the various metallic impregnations are all good. Satterthwaite, J. W. S. Arnold, Gerlach, Thiersch, Beale, Schultze, Cohnheim, Kölliker, Frey, and Tuke have all done beautiful work in microscopic histology, and there is yet much remaining to be done in this most fascinating field of research, especially in the nervous system. Preservation and Mounting of Specimens.- Within the last few years this new treatment We have glycerine, Canada balsam, copal var- has secured no little notice on the part of the nish, and dammar. The latter I prefer for public by means of articles in the press and permanency. After staining and washing the through the agency of the increased number of preparation we wish to mount, first place it in disciples. The tenets and doctrines of the adabsolute alcohol for fifteen minutes. This ex-vocates of this method of cure are so palpably pels the water. From the alcohol transfer to oil of cloves or turpentine, the superfluous alcohol being first removed by blotting paper. In the oil of cloves the section becomes transparent in a few seconds. Remove the superfluous oil by blotting paper and the section is then ready. In order to make more secure we place a layer of varnish round the edge of the covering glass a few days after mounting. To make dammar varnish we take gum dammar in powder one-half ounce and dissolve in turpentine one and a half ounce; filter. Then take gum mastic one-half ounce, and dissolve in chloroform two ounces, and filter. Mix the two filtered solutions and again filter, and we have resulting dammar varnish for mounting microscopic preparations. To render sections of spinal cord and nerves beautifully transparent, use a mixture of acetic acid and glycerine, one to three. To render embryonic tissues transparent and hard, use ten drops of solution of caustic soda to each ounce of alcohol. By means of a one per cent, solution of chloride of gold, I have rendered visible the finest primitive nerve fibres of the cornea, and shown their distribution and termination in the epithelium of the cornea. I have also been fortunate not only in making sections, but also in successfully photographing sections of the retina, showing perfectly, first, layer of rods and cones; second, the external granular layer; third, the inter-granular layer; fourth, the internal granular layer; fifth, the fine granular layer; sixth, layer of ganglion cells; seventh, expansion of the optic nerve fibres; ninth, their insertion into the inner limiting membrane, which is, tenth, the membrane limitans interna.

Faith cure is not of recent birth, but has cropped out in one form or another in all times and among all people. Mind cure is the latest modification of this same old principle of belief. Under whatever type or name it may appear, hope, belief, imagination, are the active principles of cure. Among the most noteworthy of its phases which have become historical, are the royal touch for the cure of scrofula, or king's evil, and the miracle cures, by means of relics or sacred objects.

There can be no doubt that the mind is capable of powerfully influencing the cure of scrofula, for the old historians tell us that the royal touch, originated by Edward the Confessor, and which continued down to the reign of Queen Anne, was practised with astonishing success.

To show how universal was the belief in the efficacy of the royal touch, it is but necessary to mention the fact that Edward II. touched in one year 100,000 persons, who came to him from all parts of Great Britain.

The French kings also touched for the evil, the practice being traced back to Clovis, 481 A.D. On Easter Sunday, 1686, King Louis XIV. is said to have touched 1600 persons, using the words, Le roy te touche, Dieu te guérisse. Richard Wiseman, who was surgeon to Charles II. says, that "His Majesty cured

more persons of scrofula in one year, than all | and more elaborately considered by Dr. Carthe chirurgeons of London in an age." It is penter. It has been found that muscular possible that had iodine and its compounds movements, ordinarily considered involuntary, been known in his day, Wiseman would not may be easily induced in persons of peculiar have been obliged to make this humiliating susceptibility, where the mind can be strongly confession. impressed with the idea that certain movements will positively take place. On the other hand, purely voluntary movements are disturbed or interfered with by a morbid fear or dread being persistently entertained by the mind that such muscular actions will become uncontrollable.

As to the reality of the so-called miraculous cures in post-apostolic days, they come too well attested to leave room for any doubt.

The writer, though a devout believer in a Divine Providence, holds that mind and not spirit is the active agent, and expects to show in this paper, that all these cures, attributed to spiritual agencies, have been or can be duplicated by means and methods clearly and demonstrably mental. As a familiar instance of the effect of pure imagination upon involuntary physiological processes, I would cite the cases of disappearance of warts after resort to charms.

Here, as after the imposition of the royal fingers or sacred relics, it has been noticed that the success of the treatment is proportionate to the expectation of the candidate.

Much the same effect is found to be true in relation to nutrition and secretion. The secretion of organs and their organic processes of nutrition are materially modified by simple expectation of the change.

The half imaginary and half real ailments of the hypochondriac and hysterical sufferer result from concentration of the mind on the part, and the success of the systems of faith cure or mind cure is due to the fact that the majority of applicants for treatment are mainly drawn from these classes of sufferers. It is a fortunate "It is now amongst the established truths of circumstance that the same susceptibility of mental physiology that ideas may become reali- mind which in the first place induced the disties, without the coöperation of the conscious ease, can, if properly directed, be made to ness; and that whether they originate spon allure it away, and this without the conscioustaneously or not, a physiological or patho-ness of the individual as to the important part logical change suggested to the mind of an | he himself plays in the treatment. individual may take place really and actually, without the coöperation of any other agent than the suggestion itself. . . . . The stimulus to the nervous system of hope and desire, and through the nervous system to all the vital processes is often very powerful, and always more or less efficient, so that not unfrequently the most incurable diseases seem to derive and sometimes do derive benefit from remedies taken with hope or expectation of benefit. To misunderstand the nature of this stimulus, and esteem it as something immaterial, is a common fallacy. So far from this being true, it is as material as any of the stimuli received by the system. Nor is it apparently limited to the nervous system; the blood itself, as to its constituents and vital forces, is probably influenced directly and immediately, as well as the organized tissues and the viscera." (Laycock on Medical Observation.)

It is only necessary that the applicant shall have implicit confidence in the treatment he is to undergo, but woe to the director of any treatment, however scientific, in this class of diseases, who is not in possession of this confidence, for his days will be filled with disappointment and chagrin.

Hypnotism, or mesmerism, is not, as is popularly supposed, due to the subjugation of the will of one individual to that of another, but to this same principle of suggestion during a state of mental abstraction. Not every one can be hypnotized, but only those of peculiar mental susceptibility. The mesmerizer possesses no especial power over these subjects, except so far as he is able to make them believe he has the power; his part in the performance being to place the subject in the best possible condition for abstraction, and the remainder is accomplished by the mind of the ready subject. The influence of expectant attention on mus- When the abstraction becomes profound the cular movements and upon processes of nutrition faculties become dormant, and the whole mind and secretion, has been noticed by Dr. Hol- seems to be alive upon only one point, that of land in his "Chapters on Mental Physiology," | expectant attention, and whatever suggestion the