(U2 PROGRESS OF MEDICINE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



nofO.ssuiT pint of the oxaiiiiiuition in cases of sii.spectod diphtheria, 

 tuberculosis, or typhoid, and a minute drop of blood under the micro- 

 scope may furnish data which will enable the skilled physician to pre- 

 dict the result in certain cases of aniemia, or to make a positive 

 diagnosis as betw^een malaria and other obscure forms of periodic fever. 



The means at the command of the physician for the i-elief of pain 

 now include, not only the general ana'sthetics — chloroform, ether, and 

 nitrous oxide — but also the hypodermic use of the concentrated alka- 

 loids of opium, belladonna, and other narcotics, and the local use of 

 cocaine; and restful sleep for the weary brain ma}" l)e obtained by 

 sulphonal. chloral, etc. Some agonizing forms of neuralgic pain are 

 now promptly relieved by tlie section or excision of a ])ortion of the 

 atiectt^d nerve, or it may be forcibly stretched into a condition of 

 iruiocuous desuetude. Relief to the sutferings of thousands of neurotic 

 women, Jind of their families and friends, has been produced b\' the 

 systematic scientitic- ap]>lication of the rest cure of Dr. Weir Mitchi^ll. 



A hundred years ago the medical advertisiMuent which was most 

 prominent in New York and Pliila(l(dj)hia news])apers was one of a 

 remedy for worms. Many symj)toms of luM'vousand digestive troubles 

 in children were in those days wrongly attributed to worms. Nevei-- 

 theless there is good reason to believe that parasitic diseases derived 

 from animals were much moie ))re\alent in those days in this country 

 than thev are to-dav. Our knowlinige of the mode of origin and 

 development of the tiqx'wonn, the Irichiun sjnraliH, the liver fluke, 

 and the itch insect has been gained during the nineteenth centuiy. 

 Much the same may be said with regard to the jx'culiar worm known 

 as A)i(lij/J<tsfi(iii^ the cause of Egyptian chlorosis and of the St. (ioth- 

 ard tuiuiel (liseas(>, although ]>rescriptions for this parasite are found 

 in tlie Papyros Ebers, written l)efore the time of Pharaoh. 



The limits of this article permit of but a l)rief reference to the prog- 

 ress in preventive medicine during the century. The studies made in 

 England of the results of the cholera epidemic of 184*J, and the expe- 

 rience gained in the English army during the Crimean war, led to some 

 of the most important advances in sanitary science, more especially to 

 the demonstration of the importance of pure water supplies and of 

 proper drainage and sewerage. During our Revolutionary war and 

 the Napoleonic wars the losses to the armies from disease greatly 

 exceeded those from wounds; and hospital fever — in other words, 

 typhus — was dreaded by a general almost more than the opposing 

 forces. During the wars of the la.st twentA'-five years typhus and 

 hospital gangrene have been unknown, but some extensive outbreaks 

 of tj'phoid fever have occurred, showing that our knowledge of the 

 causes and mode of transmission of this disease has not been practi- 

 cally applied to the extent which it should have been. This remark 

 applies also to some of the most fatal diseases in civil life. In the 



