N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 561 



that in morphia we actually possess a remedy that not only 

 very materially reduces the excretion of sugar in this dis- 

 ease, but decidedly diminishes the metamorphosis of tissue 

 in the body generally. In this respect morphia resembles 

 alcohol and tobacco, and appears to form a valuable means 

 of making up for an imperfect supply of food, provided its 

 secondary influences are not in the way. 13 A, March 21, 

 1874,319. 



THERAPEUTICAL USES OF HOT BATHS. 



Professor Lasegue, in a paper on the therapeutical uses of 

 hot baths, remarks that these should be of short duration 

 from twenty to thirty minutes at furthest the temperature 

 on entering the bath to be lower than that on quitting it, 

 whatever extremes it may reach in the mean time, and the 

 increase of temperature always to be made gradually. The 

 maximum should be 118 Fahr., although 113 is perhaps a 

 better limit. This temperature is easily borne, provided the 

 escaping steam be not felt on the uncovered portions of the 

 body, and also provided that the maximum be not main- 

 tained over eight or ten minutes. On leaving the bath the 

 patient is to be placed in his bed, where he soon regains, not 

 his true temperature, which has varied but little, but his ap- 

 parent temperature. M. Lasegue finds that cold applications 

 immediately after the hot bath, contrary to what takes place 

 after vapor baths, are neither useful nor agreeable. The dis- 

 ease which yields most readily to this system of hot baths, 

 it is stated, is chronic rheumatism producing deformities of 

 the joints, which usually resists all ordinary modes of treat- 

 ment. 20 A, November 21, 1874, 588. 



INTRODUCING MEDICINES INTO THE SYSTEM BY GALVANISM. 



According to Herman Munk, the failures of the various 

 attempts to convey liquid medicaments into the living hu- 

 man body by means of the galvanic current have been be- 

 cause the current has been sent in one direction alone; as 

 he has found that, if a moist, porous body, between liquids 

 of various conductivity, be traversed by the current, the 

 speed of the conveyance of the liquid into this body rapidly 

 diminishes, and soon' becomes zero. If, under the same cir- 

 cumstances, the current is reversed, after a short interval, 



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