Vol. XXII. No. 9.] 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



143 



diffusible stimulant, in doses of an ounce or two. 

 Boiling dissipates some of its strength. Even the 

 tincture differs in its action from the infusion. But 

 the leaves, dried or green, are uniform in action 

 if properly prepared. Like Withering's infusion 

 of digitalis, which Dr. Meigs preferred to any 

 other preparation; so the infusion of kuhnia is 

 the preferred method of using it, and the best form 

 of administration. Native remedies are too much 

 ignored, and costly foreign products are too often 

 substituted. America has a materia medica of 

 her own, unequalled by any other continent. Will- 

 ing hands to gather her products ; able chemists to 

 extract the medicinal virtues; and careful, intelli- 

 gent, experienced physicians to properly administer 

 these .remedies, — are all she needs to ameliorate 

 the sufferings of a misguided humanity. 



[Specially compiled for the Popular Science J^etcs.] 



MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 

 PROGRESS. 



BY W. 8. WELLS, M.D. 



Dr. Abril communicates to the London Medical 

 Record a rapid and simple method of reducing 

 dislocation of the shoulder. In the methods ordi- 

 narily employed for the reduction of dislocations 

 downward of the humerus, the trunk is fixed, and 

 the head of the humerus is raised into the glenoid 

 cavity. Dr. Abril inverts this procedure. His 

 plan is to fix the humerus, and to make the glen- 

 oid cavity descend on the head of the displaced 

 bone. He makes the patient stand with a crutch 

 in his axilla; he then holds the hand of the affected 

 limb, making slight traction downward; the pa- 

 tient is now to let himself down as if he were 

 going to fall on his knees, and as he falls, the head 

 of the humerus glides into its normal place. Dr. 

 Abril claims for his method that it is most simple, 

 easily and quickly done, that chloroform is not 

 necessary to obtain muscular relaxation, that the 

 pain is trifling, and that no assistants are required. 



The British Medical Journal, July 14, calls 

 attention to the treatment of wounds by continued 

 irrigatiou, and describes a permanent apparatus 

 now in use in the London Hospital. This com- 

 prises a large tank supplied by hot and cold water- 

 pipes ; a window in its side shows the level of the 

 water, and exposes a thermometer, by which the 

 temperature of the water is adjusted. From 

 the tank, irrigating-pipes pass to different beds, 

 and the water is drained off by a pipe leading to the 

 basement. Irrigating-tubes are passed through 

 the wound to be treated, and the passage of the 

 water through the tubes is kept up as long as may 

 be necessary. A case is mentioned in which a 

 stream of water has been running over a crushed 

 elbow, day and night without intermission, for 

 nearly three months. In the same Journal of July 

 7, Mr. Treves describes this method, and reports 

 a case in which a stream of water ran through a 

 patient's knee-joint, without a moment's cessation, 

 for a period of thirty days. Cold water was em- 

 ployed, to which was added a minute quantity of 

 corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid, or horacic acid. 

 Mr. Treves found the effect of this plan of treat- 

 ment very pronounced. It relieved pain, reduced 

 temperature and swelling, and promoted the cure. 



Tjie London Lancet reports a case, described by 

 Dr. Desvernine, of repeated hemorrhage from the 

 mouth, occurring in an otherwise healthy man, 

 aged fifty-three, the cause of which for some time 

 was obscure. 



On making a laryngoscopic examination, an 

 ovoid tumor, measuring two centimeters by one, 

 was found attached by a peduncle to the laryngeal 



aspect of the epiglottis. The tumor appeared to 

 be lobulated, and was of a violet color. From the 

 hemorrhages, the color, and general appearance of 

 the tumor. Dr. Desvernine diagnosed it as an 

 angioma, and decided to remove it by means of 

 the galvano-cautery, which was accomplished with- 

 out difficulty, the pharynx and larynx having been 

 previously ansesthetized by means of a strong 

 solution of cocaine. Examination of the tumor 

 showed it to be a pedunculated and encapsuled 

 angioma, or tumor consisting chiefly of newly 

 formed blood-vessels. 



At the last meeting of the American ^Medical 

 Association, Dr. Henry J. Reynolds of Chicago 

 read to the section on dermatology and syphil- 

 ography, a paper on the galvanic method of treat- 

 ing the vegetable parasitic diseases of the scalp. 

 He said the reason that all heretofore adopted 

 methods for treating these diseases had been ineffec- 

 tual was because the parasiticide applications em- 

 ployed to destroy the fungus could not be so applied 

 as to penetrate the hair-follicles and into the hair 

 structure itself, — the parts invaded by the disease. 



The great object to be attained, therefore, must 

 be the penetration of the remedy employed to the 

 heretofore inaccessible parts. He employs the gal- 

 vanic current for this purpose. 



After first washing well with soap and water, he 

 applies a one-per-cent solution of bichloride of 

 mercury, or other parasiticide lotion, with the 

 sponge of a positive electrode of a Mcintosh bat- 

 tery, to the affected part for about ten minutes 

 once a day, the circuit being completed by placing 

 the negative on some adjacent point, and the cur- 

 rent should be as strong as the patient can bear. 



This plan is indorsed by Drs. Charon and Ge- 

 vaert of the Hospital de St. Pierre, Brussels. 



Dr. Edward Lang of Vienna (Wiener Med. 

 Blatter) reports four eases in which cancer and the 

 lesions of syphilis coexisted in the same individual. 

 He believes that cancer was developed upon a syphi- 

 litic foundation, and that the latter is therefore to 

 be regarded as one of the possible, though very 

 rare, exciting causes of carcinoma. 



The Medical Times regards a solution of chromic 

 acid, from two to five grains to the ounce, as 

 perhaps the best application to mucous patches, 

 especially to those in the mouth and the pharynx. 



Dr. Hoffmann of BaAen-Baden (Medical News) 

 suggests, regarding the treatment of enlarged ton- 

 sils, that, instead of cutting off portions by the 

 knife or tonsillotome, a blunt hook should be 

 passed into the apertures on the surface of the 

 gland, and made to tear its way out, or blunt- 

 pointed scissors may be used instead. 



The result of this treatment is to evacuate any 

 retained secretion or curdy pus, and afterwards to 

 secure diminution in size of the gland, by cicatri- 

 cial contraction of the tears or cuts. Dr. Hoffmann 

 prefers the blunt hook to the scissors. 



The principle of this practice is based on the 

 view, that there shall not be allowed to remain, 

 either in the tonsils, or posterior thereto, any open- 

 ing which has not been explored to its base, and 

 then laid open, and converted into a cleft, which, 

 during every act of swallowing, opens, and thereby 

 empties itself, so that no inflammatory producte 

 can attach themselves. 



The Paris correspondent to Philadelphia Medical 

 Times writes that intestinal antisepsis in typhoid- 

 fever cases is receiving marked attention. In the 

 treatment of such cases. Professor Bouchard first 

 introduced naphthol ; and Dr. Legroux is at pres- 



ent applying it in his service at the Children's 

 Hospital with great success. As soon as a child is 

 brought in, suffering with symptoms of typhoid, 

 the intestines are at once cleared out with calomel, 

 given in doses of .30 to .60 centigrams, depending 

 on the child's age. The next day the intestinal 

 antiseptic treatment is commenced as follows: 

 li. — Naphthol beta, bismuth salicylate, ail 2.50 

 grams. M. Divide into ten powders, and give 

 one every hour in a wafer, or mixed with a little 

 milk or brandy. If the diarrhoea is not important, 

 the bismuth may be left out, and only the naphthol 

 given; and if, on the contrary, there is constipa- 

 tion, then g^ve the following: B. — Naphthol beta, 

 2.50 grams; magnesia salicylate, 2.50 to 5 grams. 

 M. Divide in ten powders, and give one every 

 hour until the bowels are free, and then continue 

 with naphthol only, as before. There will be found 

 a diminution or entire suppression of intestinal 

 meteorism, and that the stools are disinfected, no 

 longer giving the fetid smell of typhoid. The 

 mouth and tongue will clear up, the general condi- 

 tion will improve, and the disease will run a short 

 course. 



With the view of preventing ammoniacal changes 

 in the urine in chronic cystitis, Dr. James Little 

 (Dublin Journal Medical Science), in several recent 

 cases, has used saccharin, giving about six of the 

 tabloids daily. In all these cases, when the urine 

 was passed, or the residual portion drawn off, it 

 was free from ammoniacal odor. 



The Medical Record states that the sticking- 

 plaster treatment of erysipelas is highly recom- 

 mended by Professor Wcilfler of Griitz. Strips of 

 isinglass plaster, about the breadth of the thumb, 

 are applied over the affected surface. 



THE SIGHTSEER'S HEADACHE. 

 Of the lighter penalties which pleasure entails, 

 none probably is more widely known and felt, or 

 more persistently endured, than the sightseer's head- 

 ache. It is nature's tax levied on the comfort of 

 that great body of busy idlers to which we all at 

 some time or other belong. It is endemic among 

 the frequenters of museums, picture-galleries, and 

 exhibitions, varying somewhat, perhaps, in different 

 cases in its precise causation, but associated always, 

 in a manner significant of its origin, with the habits 

 of the observant loiterer. The circumstances in 

 which it arises afford the most reliable clew to its 

 true character. Among these, temperature, atmos- 

 phere, and strain, both of body and mind, though 

 commonly combined, play their several parts in 

 varying degrees of activity. The influence of a 

 warm and close atmosphere as a cause of headache 

 is too well known to require more than a passing 

 notice. The torpid congestion of tissue which it 

 tends to induce, and from which the bi-ain is not 

 exempted, is familiar to most of us as a morbid 

 process too often illustrated in our painful expe- 

 rience. It contributes its proportion, doubtless, 

 towards that total of malaise which affects the 

 visitor to a crowded picture-gallery or assembly- 

 room, and culminates in the localized ache which 

 renders the slightest mental effort a weariness. 

 The very general prevalence of this variety of head- 

 ache, however, and its independence in many in- 

 stances of any vitiation of atmosphere, teach us 

 to look for its explanation in other causes. The 

 effort of mind implied in long-continued observa- 

 tion, even though this does not involve tlxe strain 

 of study, has probably an appreciable though a 

 secondary influence. Fatigue certainly has an 

 important share in its production; but it is with 

 most persons rather fatigue of muscle than of 

 brain. The maintenance of the upright posture 



