N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE. 635 



same effect produced that is, in proportion to the percent- 

 age, even so small a quantity as one part in a hundred being 

 sufficient to produce a decided effect. In one experiment 

 five vials were filled, each with fifty cubic centimeters of 

 milk, and while one was left unaftected, the others had re- 

 spectively five, ten, fifteen, and twenty centigrammes of the 

 silicate of soda added. In three davs the first crave an acid 

 reaction not shared by the rest. After a little time, howev- 

 er, the rest exhibited the same reaction ; but the vial con- 

 taining twenty centigrammes experienced no change. A 

 similar experiment was made with a solution of fresh meat, 

 w'here, with larger percentages of the silicate, no traces of an- 

 imalcules developed themselves after the lapse of many days. 

 6 i?, November 4, 1872, 1125. 



HOSPITAL BUILDINGS. 



Dr. J. M. Woodworth, supervising surgeon of the United 

 States Marine Hospital Service, in his fii-gt annual report, just 

 issued, opposes the present course of the Government in re- 

 gard to tlie building of liospitals, and recommends that here- 

 after they shall be built of wood, to be destroyed after being 

 in use ten or fifteen years, on the ground that hospital build- 

 ings become poisoned after several years' use, and cause 

 unfavorable results in the treatment of injuries and diseases 

 by engendering erysipelas and its cognates. He claims that 

 his plan will not be as expensive as that now pursued by 

 tlie Government, as the wooden hospitals will not cost more 

 than a third as much as those of stone or iron. 



It will be observed that Dr. Woodworth does not advise 

 the Government to sell the wooden structures after they have 

 been used sufiiciently long for hospital purposes, but to de- 

 stroy them. The sale of such buildings, as heretofore au- 

 thorized, is highly reprehensible. In many cases they are 

 bought up by speculating builders, who use the infected tim- 

 ber in erecting houses for the poorer and middle classes. 



CHLORAL IX GOUT. 



A correspondent of the Medical Times and Gazette writes 

 ecstatically in regard to his experience of the use of chloral 

 as a remedy for gout, having been cured in four days of what 

 had been a very severe attack, and one which, according to 



