34 MEDICAL MISCELLANY. 



Diphtheria. — It has lately been discovered by a Boston physician that 

 hyposulphite of soda, which is extensively used in photography, is a sj)ecific 

 remedy against diphtheria. The discoverer, Dr. Chenery, reports a large 

 number of cases ^158 in his own practice) saved by the use of this remedy. 

 The dose is from 5 to 15 grains or more in syrup, every two or four hours,, 

 according to age and circumstances. A large dose will do no harm, except 

 that it will cause the patient to purge. The solution or mixture can be 

 used in doses of five drops to half a drachm in milk, which is perhaps the 

 best way of administering it to young children. 



Dr. David Price of Leveritt, Mass., writes that there is little danger 

 when the disease is taken in hand by the physician at the outset, with the 

 following treatment : Chlorate of potassa, 2 drachms ; hot water, 6 ounces ; 

 alcohol, 4 drachms ; Creosote, 8 drops ; muratic acid, 30 drops. This is to 

 be used as a gargle every thirty minutes. Internally, he prescribes the fol- 

 lowing remedy: Chlorate of potassa, 3 drachms; water, 6 ounces ; sugar, 

 1 ounce ; tincture of muriate of iron, 2 drachms. Dose, a teaspoonfull 

 every four hours. He says that with this treatment not one case in twenty 

 will die, but the disease will give way in a few hours, and convalescence 

 "will be rapid. 



Any effective method of treating that terrible scourge of childhood, scarlet 

 fever, is of universal interest. A correspondent of the London Lancet writes 

 that he has obtained remarkable success in treating the disease by anoint- 

 ing the patient twice daily with sulphur ointment, and administering five 

 to ten grains of sulphur in a little jam three times a day. Besides this the 

 room was filled twice a day with sulphur fumes. He states that under this 

 treatment " each case improved immediately, and none were over eight days 

 in making a complete recovery." 



If small-pox can be cured with cream of tartar, it is time everybody 

 knew the fact. A correspondent of the Liverpool Mercury says that it is 

 not only a never-failing remedy in the worst cases, but it is also a prevent- 

 ive. The directions are to dissolve one ounce of cream of tartar in a pint 

 of boiling water, and to drink, when cold, at short intervals. Not a very 

 exact prescription, to be sure ; but the remedy is so simj^le that it may be 

 well worth trying. It is said that thousands have thus been cured, and that 

 no marks of the disease remain. 



In regard to the use of fruits so that they shall promote, instead of im- 

 pairing health, a London journal saj's : "When fruit does harm, it is be- 

 cause it is eaten at improper times, in improper quantities, or before it is 

 ripened and is fit for the human stomach. A distinguished physician has 

 said that if his patients would make a practice of eating a couple of good 

 oranges before breakfast, from February to June, his practice would be gone. 

 The principal evil is that we do not eat enough fruit ; that we injure its 

 finer qualities with sugar; that we drown them with cream. We need the 

 medicinal action of the pure fruit acids in our system, and their cooling, 

 corrective influence." 



