Vol. XXII. No. 5.] 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



79 



times, and consider that the use of a general anaes- 

 thetic enormously increases the danger in opening 

 the air-passages. When bleeding takes place in 

 the throat, and the patient is under the influence 

 of chloroform, the reflex act of coughing does not 

 take place, owing to the anaesthetic state of the 

 air-passages, and the patient becomes suffocated 

 because unable to cough out the blood. Many 

 patients have died from this condition. Ether is 

 even more objectionable than chloroform, being 

 more irritating. 



I have always found simple freezing of the sur- 

 face quite enough; but if more complete local 

 anaesthesia is desired, the subcutaneous injection 

 of cocaine, after using the spray of ether, will pro- 

 duce absolute insensibility during the entire oper- 

 ation. 



In the case of the Emperor of Germany, the 

 opinion of Sir Morell in favor of tracheotomy 

 versus resection has been lately confirmed by the 

 death of several patients who had undergone the 

 latter operation. 



It is not every day that the general practitioner 

 is called upon to perform the operation of aspirat- 

 ing the heart; but it is well to be informed upon 

 this subject, if the opinions of M. Budin should 

 become popular. He thinks that puncturing the 

 heart is not dangerous in the majority of cases, 

 and that it is calculated especially to remedy the 

 dilatation of the right heart incident to distension, 

 and where there is no organic lesion. 



He recommends that the aspirating nt-edle should 

 be inserted in the third intercostal space on the 

 right side, and close up Vs the edge of the sternum 

 in aspirating the auricular cavity. When the 

 ventricle is to be aspirated, the needle should enter 

 the fourth intercostal space on the left side, close 

 to the left edge of the sternum. 



Puncture of the ventricle should be preferred, as 

 the cardiac wall is much thicker and less prone to 

 tear, and there is less liability to hemorrhage into 

 the pericardium. 



In Progres Medical, Professor Adamkiewicz 

 claims to have obtained remarkable results from 

 the combined action of chloroform and the con- 

 stant electric current, in facial and other forms of 

 neuralgia. The electrode is made of hollow char- 

 coal, into which the chloroform is introduced, and 

 from which the current sends it into the tissues. 



That this power of penetration may be thus 

 obtained, is thought to be shown in the fact that 

 when chloroform is colored with gentian violet, and 

 applied as described to the ear of a rabbit, the 

 tissue becomes dyed. 



In the human subject, the action of the constant 

 current and the chloroform produced a burning 

 sensation, followed by local anesthesia, except 

 where the nerves are deep-seated, as in sciatica. 



Dk. a. H. Newth {London ianceO recommends 

 the hyposulphites in the treatment of the bites of 

 rabid dogs, and also their administration after 

 the development of hydrophobia. 



After a bite by a mad dog, he would give (to a 

 child) five or ten grains of the hyposulphite of 

 sodium or magnesium (the latter is richer in sul- 

 phurous acid), in caraway water with sirup, every 

 four hours for the first three or four days, then 

 three times a day for a week, then every morning 

 early for one month; recommending a Turkish 

 bath twice a week. When the disease has de- 

 veloped, he prescribes the hyposulphite every hour, 

 with hot-air baths to induce perspii-ation. The 

 hypodermic injection of hyposulphite might also be 

 tried, especially if the patient is unable to swallow. 

 Dr. Newth has used this remedy repeatedly in 



cases of blood-poisoning, with the most marked 

 success; as, for example, a patient has received a 

 punctured wound which has inflamed, the lym- 

 phatics have become swollen and reddened, the 

 parts are extremely painful, and there are rigors. 

 Within a short time after the exhibition of the 

 hyposulphites, the pain has decreased, the parts 

 are less inflamed, and symptoms of poisoning have 

 abated. Nearly thirty years ago Professor Polli 

 of Milan suggested the use of sulphurous acid in 

 cases of blood-poisoning, and proved by experi- 

 ments that dogs that had putrid blood injected 

 into their veins, quickly died; if the hyposulphite 

 of sodium was previously mixed with the injected 

 blood, they were not aiiected; also if the hypo- 

 sulphite was administered to the dogs either before 

 or immediately after the injection of putrid blood, 

 they did not suffer therefrom. 



M. Pasteur recently presented to the Acad- 

 emie des Sciences, Paris, a communication, the 

 work of MAI. Roux and Cumberland, claiming 

 that immunity may be gained against septicfemia 

 by the inoculation of certain soluble substances. 

 It is stated that the septic microbe, in its growth, 

 develops chemical products which react upon itself, 

 until finally it is destroyed by its self-engendered 

 poison. 



Roux and Cumberland have isolated these solu- 

 ble products, and, by injecting them into guinea- 

 pigs, have made these animals incapable of being 

 affected by the septic vibrio. 



These experiments have not been applied yet to 

 the human subject; but if they should prove suc- 

 cessful, their importance would be very great in 

 the prevention of blood-poisoning by absorption of 

 putrescent products. 



Dr. Rkdard has communicated to the Paris 

 Academy of Medicine some observations regarding 

 the advantages of the skin of birds for grafts on 

 wounds in human beings. He takes the skin from 

 beneath the wing of a chicken, carefully securing 

 the subjacent cellular tissue, but avoiding the adi- 

 pose tissue. The transplanted pieces varied from a 

 sixth to a third of an inch in size, and they were 

 maintained in position by means of a little cotton- 

 wool and iodoform gauze. The skin of birds and 

 fowls has the advantage of being supple, delicate, 

 and vascular, and is readily adapted to the surface 

 of a wound, where it adheres without undergoing 

 absorption. 



In a case of severe burn of the scalp of eight 

 months' standing, in a child two years old, he ob- 

 tained rapid cicatrization by means of grafts from 

 a fowl. The wound measured three inches by two 

 and a half, and completely healed in two months. 



Dr. D. Lichty of Rockford, III., communicates 

 to the New York Medical Record a strong indict- 

 ment against the butter-makers, and charges that 

 butter may be a carrier of the germs of disease. 

 He says it is the custom among the farmers in win- 

 ter time to keep the milk in the kitchen, to pre- 

 vent freezing, as it is often the only place in the 

 house where a constant fire is kept. In this room 

 the convalescents stay ; and to it are often carried 

 the sick, whatever may be the nature of their ill- 

 ness, whether diphtheria, scarlet-fever, or what 

 not. Here the milk from which butter is made is 

 kept in large shallow pans, sometimes on open 

 temporary shelving. There is nothing to prevent 

 the exhalations, desquamations, or disease-germs 

 from being absorbed into the surface cream, which 

 is skimmed off and made into butter, which is 

 shipped any and every where to be consumed, with- 

 out having been subjected to any influences, either 

 thermal or chemical, to destroy or impair the in- 1 



fectious germs. Butter made in such an atmos- 

 phere and shipped to city markets cannot fail to 

 be a dangerous factor, and doubtless many a well- 

 watched and carefully isolated child has developed 

 scarlet-fever or diphtheria from this source, with- 

 out the mystery ever being explained. 



In the treatment of tapeworm. Dr. Bettelheim, 

 Vienna, recommends keratinized pills made of ethe- 

 rial extract of male fern, extract of pomegranate, 

 each a hundred and fifty grains; powdered jalap, 

 forty-five grains. Mix and divide into seventy 

 pills, to be keratinized. 



In the case of adults he gives from fifteen to 

 twenty pills on the fasting day, the day before the 

 cure; and on the latter day he gives the rest of 

 them. These pills are insoluble in the stomach, 

 but are soluble in the intestines, where they act 

 directly upon the tapeworm. It may be advisa- 

 ble to follow the pills on the second day, after a 

 few hours, by a brisk cathartic. 



Dks. Doi-eris and Dubois announce, in the Ar- 

 chives of Gynecology, that they have used a solution 

 of four per cent of cocaine to lull the pains of 

 labor. A little glycerine may be added to the water. 

 The cervix, vaginal walls, and vulva were freely 

 swabbed with this solution during the first, second, 

 and third stages of labor; the result in every case 

 being to suppress the pains due to contraction of 

 the uterus, dilatation of the os uteri, and to the 

 dilatation of the vulva. The drug in no way in- 

 terfered with the progress of labor. The uterine 

 muscles contracted with their usual strength, labor 

 was completed in the usual time, and pain was 

 altogether absent. 



— »— 



[Original in Popular Science Newa.] 

 PHARMACEUTICAL NOTES. 

 The use of saccharin to replace sugar in the 

 diet of diabetic patients, has led, in a recently 

 reported case, to a curious result. After using it 

 for some time, the patient found that he constantly 

 had a sweet taste in his mouth, which was so dis- 

 agreeable that the saccharin had to be discon- 

 tinued. This effect is attributed to the fact that 

 saccharin passes through the system unchanged, 

 and so part of it found its way into the salivary 

 secretions, and thus again did duty as a sweetener. 



Antoine Chiris, the celebrated flower-grower 

 of Grasse, has found the climate of Algeria well 

 suited to the production of the plants and flowers 

 yielding the more important essential oils and po- 

 mades. His plantations occupy an area of over 

 two hundred and fifty acres. The geranium plan- 

 tations of the entire colony are estimated at over 

 twelve hundred acres. Ottar of roses is also largely 

 prepared in Algeria, the average production being 

 about two hundred and twenty thousand ounces, to 

 obtain which some eleven million pounds of rose- 

 leaves are required. 



In a paper read before the Pharmaceutical Soci- 

 ety of (ireat Britain, by Dr. B. II. Paul, editor of 

 the Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, the 

 statements of Dr. Squibb regarding the relative 

 purity of various forms of cocaine hydrochloiide 

 are criticised quite severely. Dr. Paul finds that 

 the chloroform test proposed by Dr. Squibb is 

 unsatisfactory, since benzoylecgonine and other 

 undesiiable contaminants are soluble in chloro- 

 form. The acidity of commercial samples noted by 

 Dr. Squibb, and attributed by him to the decom- 

 position of the salt, is thought by Dr. Paul to be 

 due rather to the presence of an amorphous alka- 

 loid, salts of which give an acid reaction after 

 heating in a sealed tube. 



