14 



POPULAR SCIEl^CE NEWS. 



[January, 16 



subdued harmony of coloring. The ceiling will 

 bear some tinting, but do not let the plasterer 

 waste his mortar in massive stucco-work. Heavy 

 cornices, panellings, and centre-pieces loaded down 

 with masses of heavy lines in fresco, are in bad 

 taste in a small room. Elegant and expensive 

 styles can be devised with the aid of a good archi- 

 tect. The mediaeval mouldings, with their infinite 

 variety of tracery and capital, furnish a rich field 

 of suggestion for mantel and sideboard. But do 

 not run into the Grecian forms, with the tiresome 

 sameness of fluted columns and acanthus foliage. 

 The Greek styles bind you down in close servitude, 

 while the Gothic unfold a never-failing source of 

 shape and ornament. The Gothic idea can be 

 carried into the ceiling, with oak ribs and riblets 

 in panelled designs Rare old china, or the odd 

 bits and shapes in ceramics that have come down 

 as heirlooms, can be arranged around the room on 

 brackets, or displayed in a quaint cabinet with 

 glass doors. A great variety is ofiered in wall 

 decorations in shape of rich medallions, bronzes, 

 and articles of virtu ; while good engravings from 

 the masters, and a few oil paintings, are desirable, 

 but these need not all be suggestive of slaying and 

 eating. The floor should be laid in solid wood in 

 mosaic patterns or tile border, with a large rug of 

 firmly woven texture under the table. 



Inside shutters or simple shades will modify the 

 light from tiie windows ; but if draperies are used, 

 they should be hung with rings upon rods, for easy 

 adjustment. The thick textures in rich Oriental 

 patterns arranged in this manner add to the warm, 

 cosey look of the room on a cold night, when the 

 house is open for guests, or when the family sur- 

 round the board for the evening meal. By ob- 

 serving some of these hints and suggestions, the 

 healthiness and beauty of the dining-room may 

 be distinct and satisfying. 



Haverhill, Mass., December, 1887. 



[Speciiilly compiled for the Popular Science JVigM!«.] 



MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 



PROGRESS. 



BY W. 8. WELLS, M.D. 



The British Medical Journal says of saccharine 

 tabloids: "This remarkable product of chemical 

 science is likely to come rapidly and extensively 

 into use, and these tabloids are of a most conven- 

 ient form for ordinary domestic purposes. One 

 tiny tabloid dropped into a cup of coffee or tea, 

 sweetens it most agreeably and inocuously; and 

 thus the diabetic or glycosuric patient, who has 

 been so long deprived of the pleasure of sweeten- 

 ing his food, can carry a little glass tube of these 

 tabloids in his waistcoat pocket, using them as he 

 would lumps of fiugar. One tabloid is the full 

 equivalent in sweetening-power of an ordinary 

 lump of white sugar. Saccharine is not easily 

 soluble in water : these tabloids are therefore in- 

 telligently mixed with just enough alkali to make 

 them perfectly soluble." 



Dr. Hidalgo of Mexico reported to the Acad- 

 emy of Medicine of that city, at a recent meeting, 

 the case of a man who had been struck by light- 

 ning, and was at first thought to be dead, but who, 

 after having had cold water thrown over him at 

 the suggestion of a passer-by, recovered conscious- 

 ness. When taken home he was put to bed, and 

 during the night did not sleep, but kept talking in 

 a delirious manner, and complaining of pain in the 

 head, oppression of the chest, and general rheu- 

 matic pains. Dr. Hidalgo saw him the next day, 

 and found him in a semi-comatose state. The pulse 

 was seventy-five, full and compressible, the tem- 

 perature normal, and the respiration rather rapid. 



He was so deaf, that he could only be made to 

 open his eyes by shouting close to his ear. The 

 pupils were contracted. He complained of pain 

 all over, but especially in the head and arms. He 

 had passed three badly smelling liquid stools dur- 

 ing the night. He was neither hungry nor thirsty. 

 The electi'ic spark had entered the upper part of 

 the right parietal region, just behind the auricle. 

 The scalp was burned over a surface of several 

 inches, and a spot of dried blood was seen on the 

 upper part of the auricle. The right side of the 

 neck was reddened as by a burn of the first degree ; 

 below this, as far as the umbilicus, the efieets were 

 equal to those of a burn of the second degree. The 

 electric fluid had passed down the inner aspect of 

 the right leg, producing a burn of the second de- 

 gree. It had then passed down to the foot, where 

 the burn was of the first degree, and the strip of 

 skin affected much narrower than above. The hat, 

 coat, and trousers were injured — as if torn — 

 along the course of the current, but they were not 

 burnt in any part. The patient was treated with 

 sedatives and some clysters, and in sixteen days 

 was perfectly well. Dr. Hidalgo supposes that the 

 pneumogastric was affected by the shock, which 

 paralyzed respiration, and subsequently the heart's 

 action, similarly to the behavior of an overdose of 

 chloroform. The indication, therefore, was to re- 

 establish respiration ; and this was admirably ful- 

 filled by the cold affusion, which, fortunately, was 

 administered quickly, before the paralysis of the 

 heart had become absolute. 



The treatment of keloid by various methods has 

 been so unsatisfactory, that the results of electrol- 

 ysis in a case reported by Dr. Hardaway, if con- 

 firmed, will prove important. In a woman of thirty, 

 after the extirpation of a small nodule of keloid on 

 the chest, a second developed, and attained the size 

 of a quarter-dollar, and was the seat of constant 

 sensations of burning and pain. Hardaway oper- 

 ated on this tumor on several occasions by multiple 

 punctures of the electrolytic needle, now tattooing 

 the surface of the lesion, now burying the needle 

 into its interior in various directions. At the end 

 of several sittings, the patient refused to persevere, 

 because the operation was too painful. Meanwhile 

 the keloid had already commenced to disappear, 

 and the painful symptoms were much relieved, and 

 finally disappeared altogether. Some time after- 

 wards the situation formerly occupied by the keloid 

 was found to be covered by a white pliant cicatrix, 

 hardly elevated above the general surface. 



In cases of pneumonia, etherization, etc., where 

 there is great embarrassment of breathing from 

 accumulation of secretion in the bronchial tubes, 

 great benefit may be derived by inverting the 

 patient, and having him cough while in this posi- 

 tion. It is easily accomplished, according to the 

 Polyclinic, by a strong assistant standing on the 

 patient's bed, seizing the sick man's ankles, turn- 

 ing him with his face downward, and then lifting 

 his feet four or five feet above the level of the 

 mattress. If the patient, with his face over the 

 edge of the bed, and his legs thus held aloft, will 

 cough vigorously three or four times, he will get 

 rid of much expectoration that exhaustive efforts 

 at coughing failed to dislodge when not aided by 

 gravity. Life has been saved by repeated perform- 

 ances of this maneuvre, in pneumonia accompanied 

 with great cyanosis due to inundation of the bron- 

 chial tubes with mucous secretion. 



PnoFESSon Runebeug some time ago advanced 

 the view that pernicious ansemia may be dependent 

 on the presence of intestinal tape-worm (Bothrio- 

 cephalus latus). His views were supported by some 



and combatted by others. A case which tends 

 to support Runeberg's view is I'eoorded by Dr. 

 Schapiro in the London Lancet. A lad thirteen 

 years of age came under treatment for intense 

 anaemia of a progressive type, characterized by 

 great diminution of red corpuscles and of haemo- 

 globin, with liability to cutaneous hemorrhage, 

 epistaxis, etc., marked cardio-vascular bruits, 

 pyrexia, and without any emaciation It was not 

 until the administration of anthelmintics had re- 

 sulted in the evacuation of a large quantity of seg- 

 ments of bothriocephalus, that he began to regain 

 strength and color. His recovery from that date 

 was rapid. The writer attributed the anaemia to 

 the disintegrating action, on blood-corpuscles, of 

 some chemical product of the parasite which was 

 ab.sorbed into the^ blood. 



It is asserted by Dr. Robert H. Sabin, that gall- 

 stones are found only in an acid condition of the 

 system, and that preventive treatment consists in 

 rendering the .system alkaline, as indicated by test- 

 ing the urine. This change is effectually accom- 

 plished by administering alkalies. 



Himself subject to gallstones, and to his patients 

 similarly afflicted, a teaspoonful of bicarbonate 

 sodium in a tumblerful of water, drank at inter- 

 vals through the day, corrects the condition of 

 aciditj' in the system. 



Du. Leloir, in Jour, de Med. de Bruxelles, gives 

 an article on diseases of the skin, occasioned by 

 shock or emotional causes. When following such 

 causes, the progress is usually rapid, and the lesion 

 soon attains its maximum development. The 

 affection is always superficial, scarcely ever involv- 

 ing the deeper part of the skin, and being chiefly 

 of the vaso-motor, catarrhal, or pigmentary sort. 

 Excessive pruritus is a feature of these dermatoses. 

 Their duration is relatively short, and they are 

 especially to be observed in females. Whenever 

 treatment is required, it should be of a character 

 to give tone to the nervous system, and with care 

 to avoid the emotional cause. 



In a case of tetanus neonatorum, in which a 

 Belgian physician had given chloral and other 

 remedies without benefit, he determined to use 

 ether by inhalation. In addition to this, artificial 

 respiiation was employed from time to time by 

 means of a tube inserted into the nostrils. Some 

 pieces of Rigollot's mustard-leaves were also applied 

 to the chest. The child was laid on its side, ac- 

 cording to a suggestion made by Marion Sims. 

 The result of this treatment was, that in a few 

 hours the little patient's condition had improved to 

 a very marked degree. The next day profuse per- 

 spiration occurred, and the spasms entirely ceased. 

 Shortly after this the child was convalescent. 



Two cases of uterine colic are reported by Dr. 

 Chouppe to have been successfully treated with 

 antipyrin injections. The first was in the case of a 

 woman who suffered at each menstrual period with 

 very painful colic, which was with difficulty over- 

 come by opium and chloral. Antipyrin in the dose 

 of fifteen grains gave rapid relief. The second 

 was the case of a woman suffering from uterine 

 colic after childbirth. The pains were subdued for 

 five hours by a first injection, and disappeared com- 

 pletely under the influence of a second. 



Dr. Ramos, in a Brazilian journal, publishes an 

 article on the "Effect of Quinine on Uterine 

 Hemorrhage," and cites cases in which a very few 

 full do.ses — fifteen grains — of quinine served to 

 check, and indeed to cure, violent and intractable 

 uterine hemorrhage. In one case iron and ergotine 



