Vol. XXIII. No. ic] 



POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 



157 



the ordinary rubber drainage tube, each has some 

 objectionable feature about it, which its originator 

 freely acknowledges. 



Dr. Beyer suggested to Professor S. H. Weeks his 

 views regarding the utilization of the arteries of 

 certain animals for drainage tubes, and the profes- 

 sor, after some preliminary and highly satisfactory 

 experiments on the lower animals, began to use 

 them in his private and hospital practice, with even 

 more success than he was led to expect from his 

 experiments on animals. The results so far obtained 

 by him will be found recorded in the Transactions 

 of the American Surgical Association for 1889, in 

 which the author claims these tubes to be superior 

 to any now in use, and supports his claims by 

 numerous examples of cases. 



In the preparation of drainage tubes from the 

 arteries of animals, two things must be kept con- 

 stantly in mind, namely: ist, any method of prep- 

 aration, to be of value, must insure the absolutely 

 aseptic condition of the tubes as its invariable result ; 

 and, 2d, all the different manipulations pertaining 

 to the method must be carried out under strictly 

 antiseptic precautions, just as much as any surgical 

 operation (or which the tubes are intended. 



The arteries to be used, are best obtained fresh 

 from the ox or cow, and scrupulously examined as 

 to their soundness. After trimming off all adherent 

 tissues, they are macerated in different clean waters, 

 and scraped and peeled to remove further adventitia, 

 and, when absolutely divested, are to be boiled for 

 fifteen minutes in distilled water, the boiling to be 

 done in a porcelain dish. This hardens and also 

 sterilizes their tissues. After the boiling, the arte- 

 ries are placed in another porcelain dish containing 

 a five per cent, solution of carbolic acid in water, 

 and any further detached shreds or tissues removed. 

 Holes are now punched into the coats of the arteries, 

 and they are returned into another five per cent, 

 solution carbolic in water, and kept there for the 

 next twenty-four hours, changing the solution once 

 or twice during that time After they have been 

 thoroughly carbolized in this manner, they must be 

 drawn over glass rods of sizes varying, respectively, 

 to put them slightly on the stretch. This must be 

 done very carefully, and with thoroughly clean and 

 carbolized hands. These glass rods, with the arte- 

 ries in place, are now slipped into a long, wide- 

 mouthed, thoroughly clean bottle, containing 

 ninety-five per cent, alcohol, which will need to 

 be changed but once during the next twenty-four 

 hours. After keeping them two hours more in 

 absolute alcohol, they must be removed from the 

 rods, carefully, without twisting, traction being 

 made in a straight line, and at once dropped into a 

 wide-mouthed bottle containing pure oil of juniper 

 berries, in quantity sufficient to keep the tubes im- 

 mersed. Here they are to remain forty-eight hours, 

 undisturbed, and they are seen to become transpar- 

 ent and of an amber tint, like the bone tubes of 

 Neuber. Finally, these tubes are transferred from 

 the oil into absolute alcohol, in which they are pre- 

 served until used. 



Dr. Lapervenche ( Oaz. Med. de Paris) gives an 

 article on juxta-articular fractures treated by mas- 

 sage. The vicinity of a joint enhances the gravity 

 of a fracture. As it must be our aim to aid the 

 resorption of the blood effused, — which acts as a 

 foreign body, and is capable of causing sub-acute 

 plastic arthritis, — massage is indicated. It facili- 

 tates the functions of the skin, renders the afflux of 

 the blood easier, favors nutrition and the contractil- 

 ity of the muscles, and overcomes stiffness of the 

 joint. Fractures of the several bones of the upper 

 and lower limbs have been treated with massage to 

 the best advantage. In this way, not only atrophy 



of the limb is avoided, and the movement of the 

 joint re-established, but the cure is also more rapid. 



Dr. H. H. a. Be.\cu, {Boston Med and Surg. 

 ■Jour.), prompted by records published in London, 

 1755, by Lawrence Heister, has revived the use of 

 balsam of copaiba as a surgical dressing. It was 

 applied to an indolent granulating surface, charpie 

 being saturated with balsam, and, after squeezing 

 out the superfluous balsam, bandaging the charpie 

 upon the ulcer. The unusually rapid growth of a 

 handsome bed of rosy granulations, ready for the 

 grafting process, was so clearly attributable to its 

 use that the doctor continued to employ it, and 

 finally adopted it as regular dressing to granulating 

 surfaces in his hospital (Massachusetts General 

 Hospital) wards. It has been adopted by all the 

 surgeons of this hospital, and is found especially 

 indicated for flat, pale, granulating surfaces that 

 commonly result from avulsions of the scalp, exten- 

 sive b.urns and scalds, and for the cavities after 

 operation for removal of necrosed and carious bone. 

 It has succeeded in raising healthy granulating sur- 

 faces for grafting, after other stimulating applica- 

 tions had failed. At the hospital it is applied on 

 picked cotton-waste instead of charpie. This porous 

 dressing readily absorbs pus, which is also disin- 

 fected by the fragrant odor of the balsam. 



Dr. T.J. Griffith, Crawfordsville, Ind., writes 

 an article to the Medical Brief on the treatment of 

 diphtheria with ice and snow. When he is called to 

 treat a case of diphtheria, if there is snow on the 

 ground, his first order is to apply a snow poultice, 

 folded in a cloth, from ear to ear, with additional 

 cloth to absorb moisture as the snow melts, and to 

 be renewed as long as fever and the exudation 

 exist. He says: "Don't be afraid of giving your 

 patients 'cold.' You can't give them 'cold,' while 

 they have fever, by the local application of cold. I 

 have kept ice to the throat for fifty hours, in a bad 

 case, and it saved life." 



The patient is also directed to swallow ice pellets, 

 and to gargle with iced antiseptic solutions, such as 

 strong solution of sodie sulphite. Febrifuges ac- 

 cording to amount of fever ; bromide potassium for 

 nervous irritability, and other treatment to meet 

 indications. The doctor asserts that no glandular 

 engorgement or effusion of serum ever takes place, 

 or can take place, during the ice treatment, and that 

 septic poisoning is arrested. 



He is equally confident of the value of ice, locally, 

 in the treatment of scarlatina, pharyngitis, tonsili- 

 tis, and croup, as originally recommended by Dr. 

 Hiram Corson (Pa.), and attested by twenty years' 

 experience. 



Intra-uterine compression of the aorta in post- 

 partum hemorrhage is the subject of an article by 

 Dr. Hoyos (Cuba) in the Revista de Ciencias Medi- 

 cas. Finding the patient in extremis, he proceeded 

 to clear away the clots from the uterus. While his 

 hand was in the cavity of the uterus, he was struck 

 by the distinctness with which he felt the pulsations 

 of the abdominal aorta, which he pressed with the 

 tips of his fingers against the vertebral column, 

 and, as he exerted this pressure firmly, at once 

 became aware that the gush of blood, which, up to 

 that time, had been welling up around his hand, 

 had stopped. Keeping his right hand in the uterus, 

 he managed, with diflficulty, to adrtinister a hypo- 

 dermic injection or two of ergotine with his left 

 hand, assisted by the nurse. After quite a time, he 

 withdrew his hand, he and the assistant keeping up 

 the pressure externally. The case was further 

 treated by brandy and ergot internally, intra-uterine 

 irrigation, hypodermics of ergotine, and the main- 



tenance of compression of the uterus, until the 

 crisis was safely passed. 



In the treatment of subinvolution of the uterus, 

 Dr. Wyman is reported {Med. Times) to have found 

 dry applications of the following powder to the 

 swollen cervix most satisfactory. The formula com- 

 prises : Chloride of sodium, § i. — powdered slip- 

 pery-elm bark, | iij. — powdered hyoscyamus leaves, 

 3i. Mix and rub in a hot and dry mortar until 

 thoroughly desiccated. This is applied to the cer- 

 vix uteri in quantities of an ordinary teaspoonful 

 once every other day, and sometimes daily. 



To detect pus in the urine, it is suggested {I'harm. 

 Era) to drop into the specimen of urine enough 

 tincture of guaiac to give it a milky appearance, and 

 heat it a few minutes to loo'^ F. If pus is present, 

 a blue tint will develop. Or, the urine may be 

 passed through a white filter, on which is then 

 allowed to fall a few drops of tincture of guaiac, 

 producing, if pus is present, a distinct blue colora- 

 tion. 



As a local application in cancer, the combination 

 of vaseline pure, §i. — chloroform, 3ii. — morphine, 

 grs. iv., thoroughly mi.xed and made into an oint- 

 ment, is recommended by the writer of The Asclepiad. 

 It is alleged to form the best possible sedative appli- 

 cation in cases of external malignant disease, in 

 which there is ulcerative breach of surface, with 

 continuous pain. It is applied spread thinly over a 

 piece of fine lint or soft linen, and may be renewed 

 twice in the twenty-four hours. 



The Concours Medical states that one of the most 

 dangerous incompatibilities of drugs consists in a 

 mixture of laurel cherry-water with morphine. In 

 this case an insoluble cyanide of morphine is 

 foriiied, which is precipitated in the mixture. If no 

 attention is paid to this phenomenon, it may happen 

 that the patient takes with the last portions of the 

 mixture a toxic dose of morphia and hydrocyanic 

 acid. 



Dr. Morpurgo, {Moniteur Therap.), of Trieste, 

 has employed carbolate of glycerine with great 

 success in cases of otitis of the middle ear, and in 

 hyperemia of the tympanum. The solution he em- 

 ployed was in the proportion of one-tenth, and, 

 notwithstanding its strength, no caustic effects have 

 ever been observed. 



Dr. Meniere, of Paris, employs solutions to the 

 strength of equal parts of carbolic acid and glycerine, 

 and he never observed any inconvenience. In 

 nearly all the cases, the morbid processes and the 

 suppurative otitis were arrested. We think it would 

 be safer to commence with the milder mixture, as 

 suggested by Dr. Morpurgo, of one part of carbolic 

 acid to nine parts of glycerine, and gradually in- 

 crease the proportion of carbolic, if required. 



Prof. Bokai {London Lancet) believes that the 

 best antidote for morphine is picrotoxin. The two 

 substances act in an opposite manner on the respi- 

 ratory centre, — morphine paralyzing its action, 

 while small doses of picrotoxin increase it. As in 

 poisoning by morphine, death occurs from paralysis 

 of the respiratory centre, and as picrotoxin hinders 

 this paralysis, it follows that picrotoxin is likely to 

 be of real use in morphine poisoning. Prof. Bokai 

 also believes that picrotoxin will be found of value 

 in preventing fatal effects from asphyxia from too 

 free administration of chloroform. 



Prof. Bronardel {Paris Cor.) recently reported 

 that six children died after having absorbed a mix- 



