N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 561 



by the presence of certain fungi in the blood, which can be 

 seen by the microscope in the form of minute cell-like spores, 

 called micrococcus. In the course of treatment of persons 

 affected with the above diseases, care was taken to collect 

 the perspiration obtained from the patients under these cir- 

 cumstances, which, on being submitted to Dr. Hallier for ex- 

 amination, was found to contain the micrococcus in abun- 

 dance. 13 A x January 15, 1872, 29. 



XYLOL IN SMALL-POX. 



A good deal of interest has been excited by the published 

 success of xylol (dimethylbenzol, one of the many products 

 of the distillation of coal-tar) as a remedy for the small-pox, 

 for which it has been applied for a considerable time in Ber- 

 lin by Dr. Zeulzer. The experiments are stated to have 

 proved very satisfactory, and its use in one of the principal 

 hospitals of Berlin is becoming very extended. The dose of 

 this substance for an adult is from ten to fifteen drops, and 

 from three to five for children, every few hours. No injuri- 

 ous effect has hitherto been noted, even when given in con- 

 siderably greater quantity. It is applied from the earliest 

 period of the disease till the complete drying up of the pus- 

 tules. The best method of administering the xylol is in cap- 

 sules, which are now furnished, containing three, eight, and 

 twelve drops, although it can be given drop by drop in wine 

 or water. Toluol appears to have no effect. 8 C, January 

 18,1872,23. 



LETHEBY OX HE VACCINATION. 



Dr. Letheby, the eminent English sanitarian, in a recent 

 paper, states that the present epidemic of small-pox is one of 

 the severest on record, there having been nothing like it since 

 the practice of compulsory vaccination. It began to be un- 

 usually severe as far back as the month of November, 1869, 

 advancing steadily, month by month, throughout the whole 

 of the following year. Some idea of the force of the epidem- 

 ic may be gathered from the fact that while the average an- 

 nual mortality in England from small-pox for the last twenty 

 years has been only two in ten thousand, it was 24.2 during 

 the year 1870 in the population of London. In reference to 

 the prophylactic power of vaccination, Dr. Letheby shows 



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