Vol. XXIII. No. 3.] 



PoPtfLAtl scTl:lNrcE nvM^. 



47 



The potaSs. is to be given at once when a trace of 

 albumen is detected in the urine. 



Dr. James D. Staple(//os/). Gaz.)uaes Glycerine 

 Enemata in Constipation. The quantity injected 

 was one drachm for children and two drachms for 

 adults. The bowels acted generally within 15 min- 

 utes ; in some rare cases half an hour has elapsed, 

 and in two cases of a hundred, the injections had to 

 be repeated. Tiiere is entire absence of pain or 

 griping, and the ease and rapidity of action com- 

 mend the glycerine enemata as preferable te aper- 

 ients administered bv the mouth. 



M. IcARD, (La Gazette Med.), after having tried 

 arsenic, bromide of potassium, sulphur baths, alka- 

 lies, emollients, etc., without good results in a case 

 of pruritus, caused the symptoms, which had con- 

 tinued for eight or nine months, to disappear upon 

 the day after the use of Salicylate of Soda, three 

 grammes a day. There has been no return of the 

 trouble. 



Dr. Alexander, London, cured a case of inconti- 

 nence of urine, in a woman, where the sphincter 

 was permanently paralyzed, by dissecting out the 

 urethra, and conducting it into the rectum. 



Dr. Gukrra Y. Est.\pe {New Orleans Med. and 

 Siirff. Jour."), regards the local application to the 

 larynx and pharynx, of a ten per cent, solution of 

 Resorcin as the best treatment of Whooping Cough 

 at present known. 



According to Dr. Stritzig, (Med,. Record), Cal- 

 omel as a diuretic acts best in Cardiac dropsy. 



fOri^inal in 7%e t*opular Scteace News.^ 

 THE AN/ESTHETIC REVELATION. 



BY H. J. SEYMOUR. 



In last year's August number of your paper on 

 page 127 is an article entitled "The Amesthetic 

 Revelation " treating of the peculiar dreams or vis- 

 ions, caused by inhaling sulphuric ether. Inasmuch 

 as I had an experience in 1S66 similar to what is 

 there described I thought it might be interesting to 

 your readers to see some extracts from an account 

 of it, which was written at the time. They are as 

 follows : 



About two hours ago I was at New Haven under- 

 going an operation for the relief of my shoulder. 

 The circumstances of the ca.se were these : 



Since December last, when my shoulder was dis- 

 located by a fall from a tree, the motions of my left 1 

 arm have been cramped and confined. Upon ex- 

 amination, the doctor said that in the healing of the 

 large rent made in the ligaments of the joint, ad- 

 hesions had formed between the ligaments and the 

 bone so as to interfere with the free motion of the 

 bone in its socket. He told me that I could secure 

 freedom of the joint by persevering in a long pro- 

 cess of gvmnastics, or by taking ether and having 

 the ligaments broken up : or, if I chose, I might lie 

 right down on the lounge, and let him perform the 

 operation at once without the ether. 



It took but little reflection to enable me to choose I 

 the ether process. Soon after I commenced breath- 

 ing the ether, as I lay on the lounge, I began to ex- 

 perience sensations utterly new and difficult to de- 

 scribe, though I will attempt it. I felt that the life 

 was quitting my extremities all around, and concen- 

 trating at the center of my body. Imagine an oys- 

 ter with his shell open, just withdrawing his inner 

 «elf within its covering llnd gradually closing it, 



leaving nothing but inert matter outside. A mo- 

 ment came when the last conscious wag of the 

 tongue was possible, and with it I said " Good-bye." 

 I was fully conscious that I was about to launch into 

 an unknown sea. The complete log-book of that 

 cruise is certainly not in my memory, but I find 

 some faint traces of it which I will endeavor to give. 



I seemed to be in the presence of a multitude of 

 persons who were being arranged by some mystical 

 agency in a series of classes or ranks, like soldiers 

 drilling. In some inexplicable wav this drill work 

 was identified with the great work of God, and his 

 purpose in creating the universe. I was a passive 

 subject of certain evolutions in which I was placed 

 for a short time in one class or rank, and then for a 

 short time in another. Mr. N. had much of the 

 care of marshalling us here and there, and Mr. B., 

 the noted almanac maker stood by, with pencil and 

 paper, full of intense calculations and mathematical 

 estimates of the results of each of these evolutions. 

 The stake that was involved in these movements 

 was nothing short of the everlasting settlement of 

 the destiny of the human race, and the casting out of 

 evil. The spirit that pervaded the whole movement 

 was that of intense care and precision in making 

 up and drilling the different classes, and enthusias- 

 tic bursts of rapture, applause, and laughter, followed 

 each successive arrangement as it was presented to 

 view. 



Regularly and rapidly a certain crisis approached. 

 Just at this stage of the proceedings two lines of 

 verses were put into my mind, one of which termi- 

 nated with " Ha, ha, ha," and the other with " Hur- 

 rah, hurrah," and I thought that I wa.s appointed to 

 finish the whole performance by repeating this dog- 

 gerel. 



I wondered much at the arrangement but said I 

 would obey. I spoke the first word or two of it. 

 Instantly the whole drama of the universe broke in 

 upon my spiritual vision like a lightning flash. I 

 was conscious that when I should finish the last 

 hurrah, the work of the world and the universe, so 

 far as it had anything to do with evil, would be fin- 

 ished, and my cheers would be joined by those of 

 untold millions, surging up from the hearts of the 

 redeemed of the human race. You may be sure 

 that I gave that last hurrah with an emphasis. 

 Those in the room can testify to that. But it was 

 scarcely out ol my mouth before consciousness re- 

 turned. 



I was afterwards told that my trance lasted about 

 twenty minutes; that about five minutes after I 

 had said "good-bye," the doctor gradually, and by 

 repeated eflTorts, forced my arm up over my head 

 and turned the bone in its socket in every direction 

 and that it was accompanied by an expression as of 

 intense pain. When this was done with I began to 

 laugh, and the laughter was accompanied with un- 

 intelligible talk relating to my dreams. I was af- 

 terwards impressed with a deep, solemn feeling, as 

 if I had been intrusted with some of the deepest se- 

 crets of the universe. The after effects of the ether 

 on my body seemed pleasant and stimulating. 



Niagara Falls, N. Y. 



GUM-CHEWING, THERAPEUTICALLY CON- 

 SIDERED. 



Dr. De Armond believes that gum-chewing will 

 cure certain cases of dyspepsia, and reports such an 

 instance occurring in a man whose trouble was that 

 after meals and until digestion was completed, which 

 seemed an interminable length of time, he had pains 

 in his stomach, a feeling of fulness more discomfort- 

 ing than painful, and a constant tendency to eructa- 

 tion of food. 



My treatment, he says, of the case was very sim- 



ple, and quite as satisfactory as simple. I directed 

 him to lay in a supply of chewing-gum, and after 

 every meal to chew a lump for an hour or two, 

 swallowing the saliva. That settled that ca.se, and 

 I got my fee quite as willingly as if I had given a 

 six-ounce bottle of medicine. This patient tells me 

 that he has never been troubled since he commenced 

 to chew the gum, except after a meal of sauerkraut, 

 pigs' feet, or other monstrous provender. 



The writer's idea as to the rationale of the remedy 

 is given as follows : 



There is a very grievous error in the statement 

 that saliva is valuable principally to aid in degluti- 

 tion and mastication. The saliva is possessed of a 

 peculiar power in a remarkable degree of changing 

 starch into sugar, in which state it is absorbed. Now 

 it is not to be supposed that this transformation can 

 be made in the almost immeasurably short space of 

 time of mastication and deglutition. This transfor- 

 mation also takes place in the stomach for a period 

 of fifteen or twenty minutes after deglutition has 

 taken place. The saliva being alkaline in its reac- 

 tion, and the gastric juice acid, is no reason why the 

 presence of the alkaline saliva should interfere with 

 the action of the gastric juice upon the food in the 

 stomach. Were this true, the best way to hasten 

 and encourage stomach digestion would be to follow 

 that plan our railroad companies observe, when thev 

 allow you ten minutes for dinner. You could then 

 wash the food down with water or other liquid, and 

 thereby not burden the stomach by the saliva ; but 

 it so happens that the saliva acts as a promoter of 

 the secretion of the digestive fluids of the stomach. 

 In experiments that have been tried, it has been 

 found that if the flow of saliva be directed elsewhere 

 than in the stomach, digestion takes place slowly 

 and sometimes not at all. Then we must understand 

 that the use of the .saliva in deglutition is simply a 

 mechanical one, and is the very least and most in- 

 significant of its uses. The writer condemns, how- 

 ever, the habit of chewing gum at all hours. — Medi- 

 cal Bulletin. 



OCCURRENCE OF FLUORINE IN THE OR- 

 GANISM. 



The method adopted by G. Tammann for the 

 quantitative estimation of fluorine is as follows : The 

 substance under investigation is treated with pow- 

 dered quartz and sulphuric acid. A current of drv 

 air carries the silicon fluoride so formed through a 

 narrow tube, where it is decomposed with steam and 

 the silicic acid collected on the walls of the tube, 

 hydrofluosilicic acid being also formed ; the latter is 

 absorbed in aqueous potash, and evaporated to dry- 

 ness; the residue is taken up with hydrochloric acid, 

 the potassium silicofluoride precipitated with alco- 

 hol, filtered, and titrated with potassa solution. 

 Fluorine is well known to be a constant constituent 

 of bone ; it is also known to occur in ploughed earth 

 and in wells. Horsford found weighable quantities 

 of fluorine in the human brain, and Salm-Horstman 

 found that certain plants did not fully develop in the 

 absence of fluorine. 



In the present research, plants grown in culture 

 liquids, which did not contain fluorine, were found 

 to die quickly when fluorine was added to such liq- 

 uids ; thus, the addition of o.i gramme of potassium 

 fluoride per litre, caused death in these plants in 

 twelve hours. 



The diff'erent parts of the egg were investigated ; 

 the shell contained imponderable traces only; the 

 white contained somewhat la.iger traces, but still 

 imponderable; the yolk yielded weighable quanti- 

 ties ; 84 grammes of fresh yolk contained 0.0009 

 gramme of fluorine. Attention is drawn to the fact 

 that the brain and the egg-yolk, tissues that contain 

 much phosphorus, are also richest in fluorine. In 



