Vol. XXII. No. 1.] 



POPULAR SCTETsTCE NEWS. 



15 



had been given internally, and cold injections ad- 

 ministered without much effect; but a single dose 

 of quinine produced a considerable diminution in 

 the amount of blood lost, and a second similar dose 

 completely arrested the discharge, which did not 

 return. 



The following illustration of the practical useful- 

 ness of bacteriology is given by the New- York Med- 

 ical Record: An Italian steamer arrived loaded with 

 immigrants. There had been no cholera on board; 

 but as the vessel reached this port, a suspicious case 

 of diarrhoea occurred in a child. The symptoms 

 were not perfectly typical of cholera. Some of the 

 dejections were taken, and sterilized tubes were in- 

 oculated, and taken to the Carnegie Laboratory in 

 this city. It would take four days to develop the cul- 

 tures ; and the question arose, whether the steamer 

 should be delayed for that period of time. It was 

 finally decided to do so. The cultures developed in 

 the way characteristic of Asiatic cholera, and the 

 diagnosis was made. Subsequently other cases of 

 cholera appeared, and the culture-diagnosis was 

 abundantly confirmed. 



During the last year Dr. Hartamann (British 

 MedicalJournal) has treated otitis with instillations 

 of several drops of a solution (one in ten) of car- 

 bolized glycerine with excellent results. Pain in- 

 stantly disappeared, and the progress of the affection 

 was checked. In cases where effusion existed, the 

 relief obtained was equally great. M. Rohrer, who 

 confirms M. Hartamann 's statements, recommends 

 a solution of twenty per cent. 



It is stated, in the New-York Medical Record, 

 that Nussbaum claims to quickly cure erysipelas by 

 the u.se of ichthyol. The erysipelatous surface is 

 first disinfected, and then painted with ointment 

 made of equal proportions of ichthyol and vaseline. 

 The part thus painted is covered with ten per cent 

 salicylic lint, and fixed with a gauze bandage. 

 Next day the border is found to have remained 

 stationary, while the inflamed surface is shrunken 

 into yellowish-brown creases, and is painless. After 

 three days the dressing is discontinued. Five con- 

 secutive cases treated on this plan gave equally 

 successful results. Ichthyol collodion is recom- 

 mended for applications to the face, and ichthyol 

 soap for the scalp. 



In the treatment of diabetes, Vigier recommends 

 lithium in pill form: — 



R . — Lithii carbonat gr. iss. 



Sodii arseniat gr. 1-25. 



Ext. gentian gr i- 



For each pill. 



Sig. — To be taken morning an<t niglit, and continued 

 until sugar has disappeared from tlie urine. 



TEETHING: IS IT A COMMON CAUSE OF 

 DISORDER? 



It is the belief of mothers almost universally 

 that most disorders of children are due to teething; 

 this belief is, very unfortunately, too common 

 among physicians. On the contrary, it is the 

 belief almost unanimously of experienced special- 

 ists who devote themselves to the treatment of 

 children's diseases, in America and abroad, and 

 whose books are authority with the profession 

 everywhere, that teething is rarely the cause of 

 children's disorders, and, as a rule, the cause of 

 none. The mistake is daily made, by the profes- 

 sion as well as the laity, of allowing the so-called 

 teething disorders to go on without treatment till 

 a stage is reached in which the health, and per- 

 haps the life, is in jeopardy. For example, every 

 mother says of her child's diarrhoea that it is a 

 sort of mysterious vent by which is thrown off a 



mysterious something that would otherwise " go to 

 the brain," and cause disturbance there; and she 

 not only feels sure that the baby's health is pro- 

 tected by this disorder, but is equally sure, that, 

 without it, other more serious disorders would 

 supervene: so she makes no effort to check it. 

 From the sixth month to the twenty-fourth, loosely 

 speaking, the child is cutting its teeth, so that 

 every ailment that occurs during that period will 

 most likely coincide with .symptoms of teething. 

 The physician is, of course, anxious to assign a 

 cause to every disorder; and as he knows the 

 mother's prejudice in favor of teething, and being 

 himself averse to careful physical examination of 

 the child, he yields to the mother's bias, and says 

 the child is teething, therefore the disorder. How 

 often have serious affections been thus overlooked, 

 and the symptoms misinterpreted or altogether 

 ignored ! 



If a disease is to be considered as a consequence 

 of teething, it must not simply now and then coin- 

 cide with the cutting of a tooth, but the coinci- 

 dence should be exact as to time, and repeated, if 

 not with every tooth, at least frequently. We 

 cannot consider any thing the sure cause of an 

 effect, so long as another cause is equally probable. 

 As our knowledge of the causes of disease in chil- 

 dren has increased, the importance of teething as 

 a cause has decreased, and we now reject many of 

 the alleged effects of teething that physicians 

 formerly admitted. The chief difficulty arises 

 from ascribing to teething, disorders due to other 

 causes, which might have been easily removed at 

 the outset. — S. .\. Russell, M.D., in Albany 

 Medical Annals. 



AMERICAN PATENT MEDICINES 

 GERMANY. 



IN 



The following official notice was published 

 in the Berlin Deutsches Tageblatt of Nov. 17, 

 and gives some interesting information re- 

 garding a preparation widely advertised in this 

 country : — 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



Under the name of " Warner's Safe Cure," a 

 brown liquid in flat bottles, containing about five 

 hundred grams, has been for some time recom- 

 mended for kidney complaint, and sold at the price 

 of four marks [11.00] a bottle. 



The official chemical examination of the same, 

 together with the declaration of a Berlin apothe- 

 cary who introduces it, makes known that its essen- 

 tial ingredient is American wintergreen, and that 

 the bottles are, at the highest valuation, worth only 

 two marks [50 cents] each. 



The foregoing is published for the warning of 

 the public. 



The Police President, 



Bahon von Richthofen. 



Bkrltn, Nov. 15, 1887. 



IRREGULAR PRACTICE IN GERMANY. 



Before the year 1868 the Prussian law prohib- 

 ited irregular practice by unqualified men. In 

 that year, however, the law was repealed, under 

 the feeling that it was impossible to put down such 

 practice, and that there was a sort of unfairness in 

 having a law of such a nature that a wholesale 

 breach of it was inevitable. Since then, efforts 

 have been repeatedly made by the profession for a 

 return to the former condition of prohibition ; but 

 even in the profession itself a wide difference of 

 opinion prevails as to the advisability of such a 

 step. For the purpose of arriving at some kind of 

 concerted action, a joint meeting of members of 

 the Berlin Aledical Society and the Central Com- 

 mittee of the eight Medical District Unions was 



called. Two speakers were selected, one on each 

 side, to discuss the subject. Professor Mendel, as 

 the advocate of those who were opposed to a re- 

 newal of the law, opened the discussion in a length- 

 ened address. The champion of the opposing 

 party was Dr. Becker, president of the Central 

 Committee of the Berlin Medical Unions. It is 

 scarcely necessary to follow the discussion ; sufiice 

 it to say that at the close the following resolution 

 was proposed and put to the vote : " That the re- 

 newal of the prohibition of irregular medical prac- 

 tice, by the introduction of a decision to that effect 

 in the German Strafgesetzbuch, is necessary in the 

 interests of the common weal." The resolution was 

 passed by 168 votes against 164, not a very brilliant 

 triumph for the coercionists ; or, as Professor Vir- 

 chow, who is opposed to a renewal of the law, put 

 it, " Das ist nur ein Pyrrhus Sieg! " It is scarcely 

 likely that any action will be taken by the govern- 

 ment, when even professional opinion is so evenly 

 divided on the subject. — Medical Press. 



CHANGES IN THE TEETH. 



Dr. B. C. Windle of Dublin, in a paper read 

 before the British Dental Association on "Man's 

 Lost Incisors," reaches the following conclusions : — 



1. Man's original dentition included six incisors. 



2. Man's lost incisor is the lateral In. 3. 



3. This loss is consequent upon the contraction 

 of the anterior part of the jaw. 



4. Suppression of the two present lateral inci- 

 sors is now taking place. 



5. Conical teeth are a reversion to the primitive 

 type. 



—* — 



MEDICAL MEMORANDA. 



An Anomalous Muscle. — John Hunter point- 

 ed out that the sphincter muscles of the eyes differ 

 from other muscles, inasmuch as their natural 

 state, their excited condition, is that of relaxation; 

 for example, the orbicular muscle is in excitement 

 or action during the repose of sleep. 



The Indian and Physical Pain. — The gen- 

 eral idea that the Indian endures pain stoically, is 

 not sustained by the observations of Dr. Corbusier 

 among the Apaches. He says that " they do not 

 endure physical pain any better, if as well, as the 

 whites. Great or continuous pain renders them 

 stupid, and oftentimes delirious; and the stolidity 

 with which Indians in general are credited is not 

 well maintained by them under small surgical 

 operations, the one of tooth-extracting almost 

 always eliciting a groan or a yell." 



Chemical Nature of Vaseline. — C. Engler 

 and M. Boehm have analyzed natural viiseline, a 

 product obtained by simple decoloration of petro- 

 leum, or residues of petroleum, with animal black, 

 and then by elimination of the more volatile por- 

 tions by distillation with superheated steam. The 

 average composition of vaseline is given as 7.10 C, 

 14.83 H. 



A Garbage Crematory. — The garbage cre- 

 matory at Wheeling, W. Va., is completed, and 

 working. It was recently tested, and a medical 

 gentleman present states that it was entirely odor- 

 less. The solid portions remain on the floor of the 

 furnace in the form of a very fine ash. The carcass 

 of a horse left a very small residue of fine calcareous 

 powder, both odorless and tasteless. The gases 

 coming from the burned substances are passed 

 through several very hot chambers before being 

 liberated. 



Poisoning by Laburnum Seeds. — One of our 

 medical contemporaries records the case of a num- 

 ber of girls who went into their play-yard after 

 dinner, where they picked up and ate some labur- 

 num seeds. The seeds had been blown over into 



