N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 589 



CURE FOR ECZEMA. 



Dr. Sacc, of Neufchatel, communicates what he considers 

 to be a perfect specific against eczema, one of the most try- 

 ing and painful of cutaneous maladies, and one very widely 

 distributed. This is characterized by a redness of the skin, 

 in spots, over all parts of the body, accompanied by small 

 pustules filled with a colorless liquid, and by itching so per- 

 sistent and varied as to produce not only sleeplessness, but 

 even, at times, delirium. The usual remedies for this disease 

 consist of emollient baths (iodized, sulphurized, or saline), as 

 also the mercurial remedies. Dr. Sacc, however, has treated 

 it for fifteen years by the application of acetic acid of eight 

 degrees, rubbed on night and morning upon the parts affect- 

 ed, until the disease disappears. Generally two or three ap- 

 plications are sufficient to effect a temporary cure. Each 

 successive, return of the disease will be w r eaker and weaker, 

 and should be treated as at first, and finally the cure will be 

 complete. The smarting caused by the first friction will be 

 intense, but will soon cease with the other symptoms. 4 B, 

 August, 187 2 ,688. 



DEFECTS OF VISION IN THE YOUNG. 



Dr. Liebreich, the eminent ophthalmic surgeon connected 

 with St. Thomas's Hospital, London, has lately written an 

 article in regard to school-life in its influence on sight, and 

 attributes many of the permanent defects of vision from 

 which educated people suffer to the physical conditions of 

 the school-rooms in which they were taught. The more im- 

 portant changes in the functions of sight developed under 

 these circumstances, according to the author, are three in 

 number namely, decrease of the range of vision, decrease 

 of the acuteness of vision, and decrease of the endurance of 

 vision. Decrease of the range, or short-sightedness, he re- 

 marks, is developed almost exclusively during school-life, 

 rarely afterward, and very rarely before. It may be true 

 that short-sightedness is often hereditary, but this condition 

 is suspended, and in most cases would not probably be de- 

 veloped but for the tendencies of school-life. The effect of 

 short-sightedness is to injure the general health by inducing 

 the habit of stooping for the purpose of more readily seeing 



