September 7, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



The escape of gas from the wound of entrance, after rectal in- 

 sufflation of hydrogen-gas, afforded positive evidence of perforation 

 existing somewhere in the gastro-intestinal canal, and on this evi- 

 dence alone was laparotomy performed. The perforations were so 

 situated as to put this diagnostic measure to the severest test. It 

 was found reliable, and further e.sperience will prove that it is as 

 infalhble in the human subject as Senn has found it in animals. It 

 never once failed. 



In conclusion, we come to the medico-legal aspect of this case. 

 The man who did the shooting lias been committed for trial. The 

 symptoms present were oidy presumptive of the existence of per- 

 foration, until rectal insufflation was made. Had an exploratory 

 laparotomy been performed with the above fatal result, and no intra- 

 abdominal lesions sufficient to warrant such a grave operation been 

 found, the position of the surgeon would have been very embar- 

 rassing. The defence might affirm that the surgeon ought to be 

 held responsible for the patient's death, and not the defendant. 

 Naturally, this would deter one from operating; but if the surgeon 

 can demonstrate, by rectal insuftlation of hydrogen-gas, the pres- 

 ence of diffuse tympanites due to escape of gas through a perfo- 

 ration into the peritoneal cavity, even without the escape of gas 

 through the external wound, he may rest assured that perforation 

 exists somewhere in the gastro-intestinal canal, and he can then 

 safely proceed to the necessary operative treatment without incur- 

 ring any medico-legal responsibility. 



Dr. William J. Taylor, in the same journal, reports the successful 

 use of this means of diagnosis in another case. 



Antiseptic Ammunition. — According to the Medical Press 

 of May 9, a useful suggestion is being carried out by the Nether- 

 land Government, by which provision will be made for supplying 

 each soldier, during the time of war, with a cartridge containing 

 some antiseptic dressings. Each cartridge will be made of con- 

 venient size, namely, about three inches in length by two in width, 

 and will be secured at one end with a safety-pin. The dressing 

 contained in each will consist of a bandage about three yards long, 

 and two pieces of gauze, all of which have been rendered antiseptic 

 by a sublimate solution. Hence, in the event of wounds being re- 

 ceived, a ready means would be at hand for the immediate applica- 

 tion of antiseptic dressings. Soldiers, in the case of slight injuries, 

 would probably at once avail themselves of the dressings, and the 

 latter could not fail to be of much use to the surgeons. The idea 

 is well worthy of the attention of the military authorities in this 

 country, and might even with advantage be adopted, as it has been 

 for years past in the German army. In the wars in which, during the 

 past few years, England has been engaged in tropical climates, the 

 early application of antiseptics to the wounds received by the men 

 was admitted to be a matter of the utmost importance by the army 

 medical officers attached to the forces. 



A Medico-Leg.\L Case, — The following case of suicide, which 

 recently occurred in Jamaica, presents features of considerable in- 

 terest and no little importance. A colored man, after murdering 

 his sweetheart, entered his house, and cut his throat with a razor. 

 Some of the neighbors who had witnessed both deeds rushed into 

 the house, but were unable to find him. After a search, his dead 

 body was found under the house, which was a small one, built on 

 supports, raising it about two feet from the ground. After cutting 

 his throat, the man must have walked or run to the back entrance, 

 a distance of sixteen feet, and then have crept through a hole in the 

 partition, and have crawled on all-fours to the spot where his body 

 was found, exactly beneath the room where he cut his throat, and 

 therefore a further distance of sixteen feet. The throat was cut 

 from ear to ear by a clean sweep, both carotids and jugulars being 

 severed, as well as the trachea and oesophagus, the wound reaching 

 back to the anterior portions of the bodies of the cervical vertebrje. 

 A blood-stained razor, which was deeply notched, was found in the 

 room, and marks of blood were traced from the room to the back 

 entrance, by which the man must have gone out. Remarkable in- 

 stances of the retention of voluntary power after wounds of the 

 carotid artery, have been occasionally recorded ; but The British 

 Medical Journal, June 30, in commenting on the case, says that they 

 know of no occasion on which the vessels on both sides of the neck 



were divided, where so much power was retained by the subject of 

 the injuries as in the present instance. The case should serve as a 

 perpetual warning to medical men not to be too dogmatic as to 

 what is, and what is not, possible, even in the presence of the most 

 rapidly fatal wound. 



Vaccine vs. Bovine Virus. — The fear of contracting disease 

 has to a great extent done away with the use of vaccine virus taken 

 from the arm of a vaccinated child, and caused physicians, often- 

 times against their judgment, to confine themselves to bovine virus. 

 That this latter virus is not always innocuous is well shown by a 

 report of the Royal Bureau of Hygiene at Berlin. Virus which 

 was oljtained from a vaccine-farm at Eberfeld produced in those 

 who were vaccinated with it eruptions of the skin, and in some 

 instances pustules formed. Among children, several deaths oc- 

 curred. In one of these cases post-mortem examination revealed 

 an abscess. Considerable constitutional disturbance followed the 

 occurrence of the eruptions. Contagion seemed to be promoted by 

 schools and the occurrence of the harvest. By order of the govern- 

 ment, the vaccine-farm was temporarily suspended, all instruments 

 and appliances were destroyed, the buildings most thoroughly dis- 

 infected, and the heifers destroyed. Vaccine-lymph subsequently 

 produced at this farm was excellent in its results. The physician 

 in charge sent a specimen of lymph to Berlin for examination. The 

 microscope showed isolated bacilli, and numerous micrococci which 

 multiplied in chains and did not liquefy gelatine. No control ex- 

 periments by inoculation were made. 



The Microbe of Dysentery. — Chantemesse and Widal re- 

 port the discovery of a specific bacterium in dysentery {Progrcs 

 Medical, April 21, 18S8). Working in Cornil's laboratory, they 

 have studied five cases of tropical dysentery, and have found the 

 same microbe in the lesions and stools of a fatal case and in the 

 stools of four others. The bacteria were found in colonies in and 

 between the tubular glands of the intestine, in the lymph-glands, 

 and spleen. The organisms develop rapidly at the ordinary tem- 

 perature, thriving on all the usual culture media. They are bacilli, 

 with rounded ends, and somewhat thicker in the middle than 

 toward the extremities. They grow luxuriantly in sterilized water 

 from the Seine. Fed to guinea-pigs, pure cultures produce intes- 

 tinal inflammation and necrosis, the stomach itself being affected. 

 The lesions are more marked when the gastric contents are ren- 

 dered alkaline. Intraperitoneal injections cause death in two or 

 three days with peritonitis, pleuritis, and pericarditis. The liver is 

 affected in these animals, necroses with colonies of bacilli being 

 found in the portal areas. All the lesions in the experimental cases 

 furnished pure cultures of the bacillus. From these facts, and the 

 absence of the bacillus in the fsces of healthy men, Chantemesse 

 and Widal feel justified in claiining specific properties for this 

 bacillus. In commenting on this paper, the Medical A^civs saj'S, 

 that, although the observations made are too few in number to 

 bring absolute proof, they are of interest as being the first in which 

 so much has been accomplished. Numerous other investigators 

 have described micro-organisms in dysentery ; but none, up to this 

 time, have succeeded in cultivating them. Further developments 

 will be awaited with interest. 



ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. 



The Danger of Alternating Currents. 



There has been a warm discussion before the Board of Elec- 

 trical Control in New York as to the relative danger of continu- 

 ous and alternating electric currents. Communications, most of 

 them of a partisan nature, have been addressed to the board, and 

 statements of a directly contradictory character have been made. 

 Mr. Harold P. Brown, who champions the continuous-current side, 

 has put the matter to a practical test by experiments tried at 

 Columbia College July 30 and Aug. 3. He has killed a number of 

 dogs, using both types of current, and he draws the conclusion 

 that the alternating current is much the more dangerous. On July 

 30 only one dog was experimented on. The continuous current 

 was first tried, the electro-motive force being increased from 300 

 to 1,000 volts, and the result was not fatal; then an alternating 



