46 



POPULAR SCIEN'CE NEWS. 



[Makch, 1888. 



ably well on many trying occasions; and to this he 

 accredits his clean record of over ten thousand 

 cases of general anaesthesia and no death. 



Dr. Chisolm, in a paper read before the Balti- 

 more Academy of Medicine, details some desperate 

 cases of apparent death suddenly supervening upon 

 the administering of chloroform for surgical op- 

 erations, -which were resuscitated by prompt sus- 

 pension by the feet long enough to allow the blood 

 to gravitate sufficiently to the brain. 



In his concluding remarks Dr. Chisolm advises 

 never to administer an anaesthetic without there 

 being present sufficient help to quickly handle the 

 patient. Should there be any sudden and alarming 

 weakening of the heart's action, — and of respi- 

 ration, for they always go together, — without a 

 minute's delay hang up the patient. Should the 

 patient be bulky, and should there not be force 

 present to elevate the foot of the bed or table, 

 be the patient male or female, quickly stoop, 

 throw his or her legs over your shoulders, hang on 

 to the feet in front of you, and then lift yourself. 

 The patient's body, as you get upon your own feet, 

 wiU hang from your back, with the head down. 

 Now you have time to call for help ; but never wait 

 for the help to come before you practise suspension, 

 because with the moment's delay your patient may 

 have passed from dying into death. 



Should the alarm have been a needless fright, 

 with only weakening, and not suspension, of the 

 vital functions, no harm has been done. The 

 feeble pulse will always respond promptly to sus- 

 pension; and this suspension is preferable to 

 hypodermics of whiskey or ether, or the in- 

 halations of nitrite of amyl. Should vomiting 

 occur, the suspended position is better for the 

 patient than while lying upon the table, because 

 there is less liability of food-particles getting into 

 the larynx. Inversion of the body gives the con- 

 tents of the stomach free vent. Dr. Chisolm has 

 so much confidence in the value of suspension with 

 chloroformed subjects, that he is disposed to believe 

 that the vital centres cannot fail with the body 

 hanging head down, and has often operated with 

 the body in this position when there was tendency 

 of failure of the heart, even lying supinely. 



Dr. Walker Downie reports, in the London 

 Practitioner, a number of observations on pharyngi- 

 tis from excessive tea-drinking. This pharyngitis 

 produces intense dryness of the throat, and is 

 found in women badly nourished and anaemic, and 

 who are in the habit of swallowing strong de- 

 coctions of tea with about every morsel of food of 

 which they partake, as well as indulging between 

 meals. In such cases he looks upon this form 

 of dry pharyngitis as due to, not only the local 

 effect on the pharynx itself of this frequently 

 applied astringent and irritant lotion of stewed 

 tea, but to a gastric derangement induced by the 

 same. 



He prescribes a chalybeate tonic, with a liberal 

 diet of farinaceous food, with milk, and the total 

 avoidance of the tea, just as we forbid the use of 

 tobacco in inflammations of the mouth and fauces. 



Dr. Thomas Barr, surgeon to the Glasgow Ear 

 Hospital, reports, among other traumatic affections 

 of the ear, a case of injury to the auricle, or ex- 

 ternal portion of the ear, exciting mastoid perios- 

 titis. The patient was a boy, who stated that 

 three weeks previously a man caught hold of his 

 ears, lifted him off the ground, and suspended him 

 in this way for a few seconds. 



The boy alleged that there was no pain at the time. 

 A few days afterward, however, pain and swelUng 

 commenced around the auricle, which was treated 

 by hot fomentations. On admission he was suffer- 



ing from intense pain over the right mastoid region 

 and side of the head. The pain was so severe, that 

 he had not slept for two nights. The auricle was 

 jutting from the side of the head, and the swelling 

 and oedema extended from the mastoid region very 

 markedly over temple, right side of forehead, 

 lower eyelid, and front of ear. The swelling over 

 forehead pitted deeply under pressure with the tips 

 of the fingers. There was, however, very little 

 redness anywhere. The internal ear was normal. 

 There had been no rigors, but the temperature was 

 101°. Although there was no evidence of the 

 existence of pus, it was resolved to cut into the 

 tissues forming the seat of greatest pain. 



Chloroform was used, and an incision two inches 

 in length was made through the soft tissues and 

 periosteum, to the bone. Only a drop or two of 

 pus escaped, apparently from beneath the perios- 

 teum. The effects of this incision were most 

 satisfactory. All the unpleasant symptoms rapidly 

 abated, and in the course of a fortnight the boy 

 was at work again, and the incision wound almost 

 healed. 



During the epidemic of small-pox last summer 

 at Warsaw, Russia, the assistant physician in the 

 University Clinic convinced himself that calomel 

 applied as powder on the face when vesicles or 

 pustules were developed, caused them to dry up, 

 and prevented the formation of marks or pitting. 



The calomel did not prevent the development 

 of vesicles from the papules, and was only effec- 

 tive after maturation. Either calomel pure, or 

 mixed with about a third of starch, was used ; and 

 no damage to the eyes followed the strewing of the 

 mercurial powder into the eyes of the patient, as 

 sometimes happened. 



Dr. Frank, in the Berlin Med. Wochensch., 

 contributes a paper on the albuminuria of strangu- 

 lated hernia. He finds that in 61.5 per cent, of 

 such cases the urine becomes albuminous. The 

 frequency of albuminuria in strangulation is in 

 proportion to the severity of the latter. The les- 

 sening and disappearance of the albumen also 

 show that the obstruction to the bowel-contents has 

 been removed. Practically, the appearance of 

 albumen in the urine in a case of strangulated 

 hernia means a serious, prognostically unfavor- 

 able form of it. One should be very wary with 

 taxis in such cases, and rather proceed to an 

 operation by the knife. In the case where herni- 

 otomy has been performed, if the albumen dis- 

 appear, one may be satisfied that the bowel-con- 

 tents are again on the move. 



Dr. R. Faria of Brazil is reported, in the 

 Rev. Gen. de Clin, et de Therap. , to have obtained 

 good results from the administration of an etherial 

 tincture of phosphorus in the pneumonia of infants, 

 when asphyxia is threatened. 



lie gives a teaspoonf ul every hour of a mixture 

 of eight drops of the etherial tincture of phos- 

 phorus in four ounces of cinnamon-water and 

 sirup. It is stated that the cyanosis disappears 

 under this treatment within twenty-four hours, 

 the cough becomes easier, and the general con- 

 dition rapidly improves. Dr. Faria adds, that the 

 same treatment seems to give excellent results in 

 senile broncho-pneumonia. 



The Philadelphia Bulletin, in an article on 

 "House-Poison," says, "If the condensed breath 

 collected on the cool window-panes of a room where 

 a number of persons have been assembled, be 

 burned, a smell as of singed hair will show the 

 presence of organic matter; and if the condensed 

 breath be allowed to remain on the windows for a 



few days, it will be found, on examination by 

 microscope, that it is alive with animalculas. The 

 inhalation of air containing such putrescent matter 

 causes untold complaints, which might be avoided 

 by maintaining a circulation through the room of 

 fresh air." 



Mr. Bailly of Paris gave to the Societe de 

 Therapeutique an account of the methods he has 

 tried, to render the use of the actual cautery pain- 

 less. He advocates it for hydrarthrosis, incipient 

 tuberculosis, and in certain scrofulous affections. 

 He finds that the spray of chloride of methylene 

 deadens the sensitivenes of the derm in from two 

 to four seconds. 



As soon as the skin whitens, the cautery may be 

 used. 



M. Glinsky recommends subcutaneous injections 

 of ammonia in acute alcoholism. He directs to 

 inject under the skin a mixture of one part of 

 ammonia with two to six parts of water. Two or 

 three minutes after the hypodermic, an erysipela- 

 tous redness is observed around the puncture, and 

 the next morning some soreness. It is claimed 

 that the patient, comatose from alcohol, recovers 

 consciousness within three minutes after such an 

 injection. 



V. Lange of Copenhagen is said to have re- 

 moved polypi occupying the posterior nares in 

 four cases by the introduction, through the ante- 

 rior nares, of an instrument somewhat like a 

 button-hook with a long handle. The hook is 

 adjusted around the pedicle with the assistance of 

 the left index finger pressing behind the soft palate. 

 Slight traction detached the growths. 



A SOLUTION of chloroform in cold water ap- 

 plied to bleeding or wounded parts is recommended 

 as a good haemostatic. 



THK HYGIENE OF PHTHISIS. 



From a paper on the above subject by Dr. F. L. 

 Flick, and published in the Philadelphia Medical 

 and Surgical Reporter, we make the following selec- 

 tion : — 



"Pulmonary gymnastics are powerful weapons 

 against phthisis, and should be especially used by 

 those who are unable to extricate themselves from 

 the unhygienic surroundings and circumstances in 

 which their necessities have placed them. Though 

 the use of a gymnasium is very desirable for prac- 

 tising these, it is not necessary. The principle 

 involved is ventilating the unused air-cells, and any 

 combination of forced respiratory movements that 

 will thoroughly inflate the lungs will accomplish 

 this. Gradually filling the lungs with air whilst 

 retracting the shoulders and extending the chest, 

 or taking a deep inspiration whilst extending the 

 arms above the head, and expiring whilst placing 

 them parallel with the body, are two simple exer- 

 cises which do all that is necessary, and can be 

 taken without interfering with the most busy life, 

 or causing fatigue. A habit should be made of 

 thus ventilating the unused portioi^of the lungs, 

 and it should be done at times when the purest air 

 can be secured. The most practical germicide that 

 we as yet know of for the bacillus tuberculosis is 

 fresh air; or, more correctly speaking, it furnishes 

 the least favorable habitat for its development. 

 A better oxygenation of the blood is, moreover, 

 secured by such exercises, the circulation is stimu- 

 lated, and, indirectly, the digestion and assimila- 

 lation improved. 



" As regards the hygiene of phthisis, when the 

 disease is once established, it is based upon the 

 same principles as that for its prevention. Suffi- 



