Vol. XXII. No. 7.] 



POPULAE SCIENCE ITEWS. 



Ill 



Dr. Shiumunsky of St. Petersburg (Monatsohr. 

 f. Ohr.) reviews the different artificial membranes 

 for the cure of perforated tympani that have 

 been suggested. Berthold was the first to suggest 

 and use the membrane of the hen's egg to close 

 these perforations. Dr. Shirmunsky has tried this 

 method in several cases with the best result, and 

 reports a case where there was an ulcer in the 

 external auditory canal, following an operation. 

 A piece of the egg membrane was nicely adapted 

 to the sore, and in seven days it fell off, leaving 

 the part entirely healed. 



In the case of a boy, where tlie drum of the ear 

 was gone, and discharge persisted. Dr. Shirmunsky 

 transplanted the e.gg membrane. The discharge 

 diminished markedly, and a second transplantation 

 stopped the same. The membrane is thrown off 

 after a few days, and works by shielding the 

 inflamed parts from outside hurtful influences. 



IwANOW {Wralsch.) found, in the examination 

 of a hundred and thirty-four healthy young recruits, 

 only twelve who had pupils of equal size. 



According to Jordanis {Bui. Gen. de Therap.), 

 very satisfactory results may be obtained from 

 the employment of electricity in atrophy of the 

 mammary glands, in those cases where, after 

 delivery, the mammae are small and shrunken, and 

 do not secrete milk. In a case reported, the patient 

 had been confined eight days; but the child wa« 

 not put to the breasts, as they were small and soft, 

 and not secreting milk. 



Electricity was applied, and after a few seances 

 the breasts became firm and rounded, milk was 

 secreted, and the infant was suckled. The im- 

 provement was lasting. The faradic current was 

 used ; the positive pole was placed over the breast, 

 but the intensity of the current is not recorded. 



Dr. a. L. Smith (Canada Medical Record) re- 

 ports the use of electricity in causing the disappear- 

 ance of a large "seed " wart on the index finger, 

 of three years' growth, upon which nitrate of sil- 

 ver, nitrate of mercury, and various acids had no 

 effect of a curative nature. He passed a steel 

 needle, attached to the negative pole of the gal- 

 vanic battery, well into the substance of the wart, 

 on three different occasions, at intervals of three 

 or four days, with the result, that in three weeks' 

 time, the wart was entirely gone, leaving so little 

 mark that its site was scarcely discernible. 



Professor Parvin treated a case of umbilical 

 hernia in an infant by reducing the hernia, pinch- 

 ing the skin together, and painting with collodion, 

 and ordered the painting to be repeated three 

 times a week. This superseded the truss, which 

 caused too much irritation. 



D. Boni recommends (Giorn. Farm. Trent.) a 

 new blistering liquid composed of camphor, twenty 

 parts; chloral hydrate, thirty parts; cantharides, 

 ten parts. 



The pulverized camphor is mixed with the 

 chloral hydrate, and heated to 140° F. until fused. 

 The bruised cantharides is then added, and the 

 mixture digested at 140° to 158° F. one hour, 

 with occasional stirring, then strained, and pre- 

 served in a glass-stoppered bottle. It is to be 

 applied by a compress, or, in cases of children or 

 delicate women, simply pencilled over the surface. 

 Being non-volatile is said to give it an advantage 

 over cantharidal collodion. 



An application for gout and rheumatism is 

 made of ether, fifteen parts; flex, collodion, fifteen 

 parts; salicylic acid, four parts; morphine, one 

 part. ]\I. Paint hourly on the affected joints. 



In a case of severe iodoform poisoning, the Rep. 

 de Pharm. states that Dr. Behring recently gave a 

 twenty per cent solution of bicarbonate of potas- 

 sium. The best results followed its use, it seeming 

 to act as a direct antidote to iodoform. 



In smallpox the following ointment is said 

 {Medical and Surgical Reporter) to act as an anaes- 

 thetic and antiseptic, and to prevent pitting: E. 

 pulv. iodoform, half-drachm; vaseline pur., one 

 ounce; pulv. camphor, one drachm. M. ft. Ung. 

 Apply by gentle inunction to the affected skin. 



Seltzer-water allowed to flow slowly but con- 

 stantly from a siphon bottle upon a burn , is said 

 to instantly relieve pain, and to hasten final cure. 



CARE OF THE EARS. 

 The usefulness and importance of the organ of 

 hearing to civilized man is not properly appreciated 

 until its functions have been temporarily interfered 

 with, and some of the many symptoms of disease 

 have been experienced. Nature speaks to us 

 oftenest " in the still, small voice ; " and if we have 

 learned to listen, and can rightly interpret her 

 meaning, we may be guided by her precepts, and 

 avoid danger. We are too apt to neglect the ears. 

 Even if we become conscious of having such organs, 

 we do not know what the natural condition is, and 

 when disease comes we are more ignorant still. 



The outer ear (with a canal leading inwards to 

 the drum membrane) , the drum cavity, and the laby- 

 rinth compose the organ of hearing, — an external,- 

 a middle, and an inner ear. 



We cannot see or reach far beyond the external 

 ear, or the auricle. Just within the entrance to 

 the canal, and above on its upper wall, are placed 

 the glands which secrete the wax which aids in 

 preventing entrance of insects. Nature has very 

 cunningly arranged for the natural removal of the 

 excess of this secretion by causing it to form in 

 the upper part of the canal, from which, when it 

 becomes dry by exposm-e to the air, it may fall 

 upon the floor of the canal, which, just beneath it, 

 forms an inclined plane outwards. If one knows 

 this fact, he need not try to aid nature in removing 

 the wax; for, in so doing, he will most probably 

 defeat her plans by pushing the wax far within, 

 where the canal slopes in an opposite direction, and 

 will leave it within the rigid walls of the bony por- 

 tion. Many people incautiously make themselves 

 deaf by using a towel or handkerchief rolled in 

 the shape of a wedge, or, worse than this, some 

 ingeniously constructed device "to assist nature" 

 with. 



All sensations, such as of fulness, burning, 

 itching, or pain, as well as peculiar noises or sounds 

 heard in one's ears, though suggesting the presence 

 of disease, should not be self-treated. These vari- 

 ous feelings, the noises and the pain, all mean 

 something, and, if constant or recurrent, should 

 arouse the patient to make inquiry as to their caus- 

 ation. Where there is itching, a diseased condition 

 of the skin is to be found, and may be temporarily 

 relieved with warm weak saleratus- water dropped 

 into the canal. It is best to refrain from picking 

 the ears, because foreign substances of an irritat- 

 ing nature, and dirt, so called, may be left upon 

 the very delicate and highly sensitive skin. The 

 ears should not be syringed; and, above all, no 

 " sweet oil " or mixtures containing fats should be 

 turned into the canal. 



In all cases of earache, unless soon recovered 

 from, the sufferer should have the ear examined, 

 instead of first trying the effects of poultices, " ear- 

 ache drops," onions, or tobacco-smoke. These 

 need never be used to relieve painful ears. Often- 

 times the earache is only a sign of disease in dis- 



tant parts; as, for instance, decaying teeth often 

 cause reflex pains in the ear. How absurd, then, 

 the practice of filling the ear-canal with various 

 nostrums! Usually, and almost always in children, 

 an earache signifies inflammation within the drum 

 cavity, and one should seek for other signs to 

 decide if such is the case. Stop up the good ear, 

 and have the patient asked a question. If he 

 replies promptly, he hears readily ; if not, there is 

 disease. In such cases, an accurate knowledge of 

 the condition of the ear must be had before rational 

 treatment can be given. 



The common practices among all classes of peo- 

 ple, like those above referred to, cannot be too 

 strongly spoken against. If there is any thing 

 serious, the oils, pieces of cotton, lotions, and so 

 forth, produce more trouble, and prevent often- 

 times an otherwise easy examination of the affected 

 organ. 



It is not possible to give general directions for 

 the relief of earache, though we may refer to two 

 methods of procedure which often avail in the 

 early stages of tympanic inflammation. These are 

 the application of dry heat over the ear, and hav- 

 ing the upper air-passages (nose and throat) cleared 

 of existing obstructions. We here emphasize the 

 importance of giving early attention to what may 

 seem matters of trivial account; for usually one 

 finds that the predisposing causes leading to the 

 disease of the drum and adjacent structures ex- 

 tend from the nose or throat. Young children 

 furnish by far the largest number of patients suf- 

 fering with earache, and they are the ones who 

 have not learned how to " blow the nose," and so 

 mechanically open the passages through which the 

 air finds its way within the tympanum. 



There are certain sounds having their origin 

 inside the head which are physiological and natu- 

 ral, produced by the ordinary movements of mus- 

 cles and structures about or near the ear. Unheard, 

 or not taken notice of, by the ear in healtli, they 

 become the source of considerable annoyance when 

 apparently magnified by the ear in its diseased 

 state. To illustrate this, it is necessary only to 

 tightly close the ears, and listen to such sounds as 

 are made by speaking, swallowing, or chewing, 

 and noting how much more loud they seem. In 

 such a way, an obstruction placed within the canal, 

 as wax, fluid exuded into the drum cavity or into 

 the tissues by sweUin'g, may stop the passage out- 

 wards of sound, cause it to rebound upon the nerve 

 of hearing, and so be interpreted by our perceptive 

 faculties as " noises." It is thus that the murmur 

 of the blood-current in its rush through large blood- 

 vessels within the bone and very near the ear, the 

 crackling and snapping sounds heard in certain 

 conditions of the middle ear, and sometimes even 

 the noise made by the movements of muscles 

 themselves, become annoying. 



There are other shrill, "ringing" sounds pro- 

 duced in different ways from other coarser ones 

 which are even more distressing, and are very diffi- 

 cult to drive away, if their warning notes have not 

 been early heeded by the patient. They are pro- 

 duced in the labyrinth ; and, while very seldom the 

 result of disease there, they should not be allowed 

 to continue long unnoticed, because they always are 

 the precursors of a very intraclable form of disease, 

 which usually brings deafness. — Boston Journal of 

 Health. 



THE STIMULUS OF A CHANGE OF AIR. 

 Dr. Alfred J. H. Crespi of England has writ- 

 ten a very practical paper on the " Change of Air as 

 a Therapeutic Agent." The ideas are not exactly 

 original, but the truth is very well and forcibly put 

 by Dr. Crespi ; and he takes a position somewhat 

 counter to that which fashion has assigned to the 



