I Alcoholism, Describes Seven Cases Treated by Hypodermic
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980 being 184° C., and of cresylic acid 203°C. Dr. Muter reason- evacuated. The girl had had no return of convulsions ably says, "Why should this fact not be very generally reco- many months after the operation, and her mental deteriora- gnised by medical officer of health, contractor, and analyst tion, which had been extremely marked, greatly improved. alike?" There can exist no doubt of the great importance of Another case is reported by Dr. Keen of Philadelphia. The a control analysis of such a well-established and widely used patient was a child who, after a fall when fourteen months antiseptic. When, then, the report of the official analyst old, became permanently obstinate and irritable. A year states that the powder contains so much per cent. tar later he had an epileptic fit, and during the next two years phenols or cresol, the authorities not unnaturally demand he had as many as 5000, 80 per cent. of them beginning an explanation, as they distinctly contracted for " carbolic in the right hand, but soon becoming universal. Dr. Keen acid." The author quoted an instance-and he appears to therefore decided to remove the arm- and wrist-centre. be acquainted with many similar instances-where a firm, After marking on the skull the extremities of the fissure of having taken a contract to supply carbolic acid powder, Rolando with a chisel, he removed part of the skull, and the medical officer threatened to compel them to supply a then, following the rules laid down by Mr. Horsley, stimu- powder containing 10 per cent. of pure absolute phenol, as lated the cortex with a weak faradaic current, and, having that was what he understood by the simple term" phenol." localised the centre for movements of the hand and wrist, Dr. Muter submits for consideration the advisability of he excised it. Four months later there had been no return impressing Lhe authorities and the manufacturers with of general convulsions, although there had been a few the necessity of dropping misleading technical names, attacks of petit mal, and there was a very great improve- and, when contracting for a carbolic liquid or powder, ment in the mental condition of the child. to offer or regard it as containing so much per cent. of uncombined tar phenols (chiefly cresol). This appears to us THE TREATMENT OF ALCOHOLISM BY a wise and the out of the suggestion, decidedly way STRYCHNINE. .difficulty, especially as it is now generally admitted that DR. in the Meditsinskoë Obozrenie on cresylic acid, or cresol, is in no way inferior-indeed, some POMBRAK, writing describes seven cases treated affirm it to be superior-to carbolic acid, or true phenol, as alcoholism,I by hypodermic regards its antiseptic qualities. injections of strychnine-a method that seems especially in I favour in Russia, where, however, it must be remembered drunkenness as a rule forms somewhat "THE LANCASHIRE CURE" FOR HYDRO- that presents from those in this Dr. PHOBIA. different prevalent country. Pombrak found strychnine a very valuable remedy, both in cases A CURIOUS instance of the readiness of the lay mind to of chronic alcoholism and in those of dipsomania, not accept statements on the efficacy of methods of treatment merely curing the attacks, but abolishing the desire for has without the necessary support of scientific evidence just drink. Even attacks of delirium tremens were influenced ’been shown in the resolution of the Rabies Order Committee beneficially. The treatment must be carried out in a of the Town Council to recommend the council to Heywood systematic manner, and must frequently be kept up for a a testimonial under the seal to the owner grant Corporation very considerable period. As to the dose, Dr. Pombrak in of a secret "cure for It that last hydrophobia." appears cases of moderate severity commenced with one-thirtieth of November five in were bitten persons Heywood badly by a grain, in more serious ones with one-fifteenth. He found an mad and were alleged dog, treated by this "cure" " on that while the treatment was being carried out there was -the of recommendation the chief constable of Clitheroe. no necessity to order the patients to abstain from the use of The was made that ex- statement the remedy had been in spirits, as they always did so of their own accord. istence for over 100 years, a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1783 saying that 400 cases had been success- HOT FOMENTATIONS IN ATROPHY OF THE fully treated by it. Since then it was said "that 600 more OPTIC NERVE. cases had been treated, and not a single failure." As every- A CASE of atrophy of the centre of the optic nerve is thing, of course, turns upon the actual rabidity of the reported Dr. Segall, in which, after mercurial inunctions animals inflicting the bites, nothing can be inferred from by and strychnine injections had been with very such statements ; but as to the Heywood cases, it may be employed only benefit, the of hot fomentations two pointed out that, if actually rabid, it is still somewhat temporary application or three times a to the for fifteen minutes at a -premature to present testimonials in support of the efficacy day occiput time a marked the amount of of the produced very improvement, remedy. - vision being doubled. A still more marked improvement CASES OF CEREBRAL SURGERY. was noted when fomentations were applied simultaneously over the closed eyes. Unfortunately, however, the good Two CASES of considerable interest and importance have effect of the fomentations was, like that of the more usual .recently been recorded in America. The first was under forms of treatment, of but very limited duration. the care of Dr. Beach of Boston. The patient was a child twelve years old, who, at the age of four, had a kick THE ORGANISMS IN THE BLOOD IN MALARIA. in the left parietal region, and a month later was noticed to have considerable weakness of the right arm. She DRS. CELLI and MARCHIAFAVA of the Hospital di had subsequently a series of epileptiform convulsions, S. Spirito in Roma, who in a previous research had made which appeared to be due to suppuration at the site of out the different forms of amoeboid parasites existing in the the injury. From this time onward she had epileptiform blood in the different stages of malarial fever and also in .fits about once a month. When she was nine years of age the different types of fever prevailing in the spring and in she had a severe general epileptic seizure, the convulsions the summer or autumn, now publish in La Riforrna Medica being as frequent as before, but always affecting the whole some further observations concerning these organisms as :body. After each fit, however, there was marked paralysis they exist in the malarial fevers met with in Rome in the of the right arm only, and consequently Dr. Beach decided to winter. These, it must be premised, are in the majority .explore the site of the injury. He found a traumatic cyst of instances simply relapses of fevers which have com- pressing on the convolutions in the neighbourhood of the menced in the summer or autumn, and are generally fissure of Rolando, and anteriorly there was a spicule of bone mild in character and of a tertian or double tertian type, ,projecting into the brain. This was removed and the cyst yielding readily to quinine. Here, instead of finding 981 small coloured amoeboid forms undergoing cyclical changes, trust that when the Committee meets it will find nothing to- becoming pigmented and then non-pigmented, and semi- prevent it taking evidence from representatives of a few of lunar forms, other forms similar to those previously the chief provincial hospitals. Of one thing we are satis- found in the cases occurring in the spring were observed- fied, and that is that in promoting this inquiry Lord pigmented amoebse, which gradually invaded entire red Sandhurst acts in no spirit of hostility to hospitals. Such. corpuscles. It M a question whether these winter forms a spirit, indeed, can scarcely exist in this nineteenth are mere developments of summer and autumn forms of a century of the Christian era. But Lord Sandhurst himself polymorphic organism, or whether they are entirely new is chairman of the Middlesex Hospital, and must know too forms coming into existence because of a fresh infection well the value of such institutions to do anything to injure some time after the former ones have disappeared when the them. His main object, we are sure, is to make them more patient was cured of the original attack. useful, and more entitled, by the elimination of every fault of administration, to the generous treatment of the PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATION IN RANGOON charitable. The attitude of the profession towards this inquiry should be one of entire confidence and satisfaction. THE difficulties of health officers in are England equally No profession owes more to hospitals than ours ; and if of shared their brethren in the far East. We have not by recent years there has been a tendency to use hospitals in a those of Dr. in Calcutta or the vindica- forgotten Simpson sort of competition with legitimate medical practice that- tion of the accuracy of his reports by the Viceroy of India ; needs only to be demonstrated to be abandoned. now we learn that Dr. Pedley, the health officer of Rangoon, has resigned his appointment, and the Rangoon Gazette of March 28th contains a long letter from this gentleman SECTARIANISM IN NURSING. the reasons which have led him to take this explaining SOME Nonconformists are still disposed to make much of allowed to attend the of committees rarely meetings special the grievance that at some of the hospitals-very few Dr.