lOO 



SCIENCE. 



'[Vol. X. No. 238 



of twenty-five patients, Dr. Bruen deduced the following conclu- 

 sions : — 



1. In nearly all cases lasting effects have been secured in the re- 

 duction of temperature, suspension of night-sweats, lessened cough 

 and expectoration, and in some all physical signs of bronchial 

 catarrh abolished. 



2. Temporarily reduction of pulse-rate fifteen to twenty beats, 

 and temperature one-half a degree to one degree during the ad- 

 ministration of the gas. 



3. The amount of gas introduced into the bowel has varied from 

 three quarts to a gallon at each injection. It has been introduced 

 very slowly, from fifteen minutes to half an hour being demanded 

 by the operation. The administration has been practised in most 

 cases twice in the twenty-four hours. No injurious effects from the 

 gas have as yet been observed. 



4. Administration of the gas in different amounts and varying 

 degrees of concentration is now being practised, and also investiga- 

 tions into the characteristics of the sputa. 



5. In only one of the cases of phthisis the effects of the gas have 

 been entirely negative. 



6. In cases of phthisis complicated by intestinal lesions, e.xperi- 

 ence is still insufficient to make it possible to state positive results. 



7. The ultimate value of the treatment can certainly only be 

 established by time. The probable mode of action would seem to 

 be antiseptic, and, by reducing suppuration and the relief of the at- 

 tending serious symptoms, the patient is permitted to gain by food, 

 exercise, and general treatment. Thus far, the value of the gas 

 seems to be that of a useful therapeutic measure, rather than a 

 curative plan of treatment. 



8. The method of preparing the gas for use in the hospital is as 

 follows: the carbonic-acid gas is passed through a solution of 

 chloride of sodium and sulphide of sodium in twenty-two ounces of 

 v^^ater. The proportion of the salts has been increased in some 

 cases, and some trials of other combinations are being made. 



Of the twenty-five cases treated in the early part of the year. Dr. 

 Bruen has been able to follow fourteen of them continuously. Two 

 have since died. In twelve the physical signs remain unchanged, 

 the temperature still above normal, the flesh and strength not in- 

 creased after the first gain of an average of five pounds. Yet the 

 patients undeniably feel better. The process of suppuration, with 

 its attendant evils, has been modified, suppressed, or controlled, 

 and it must be admitted that the patients have been benefited by 

 the treatment. More recently Dr. Bruen has applied this method 

 in the treatment of twenty-four cases in private practice, and to 

 thirteen additional hospital cases ; so that, in all, he presents sixty- 

 two cases in which the treatment has been applied in a systematic 

 manner. 



In commenting on the cases which have come under his care, in 

 a paper read before the Association of American Physicialns, Dr. 

 Bruen says that two suggestions may be given for the failure of the 

 treatment to give better results. The first applies only to hospital 

 cases. It is impossible, in a large general hospital, to secure the de- 

 tailed attention to diet necessaiy to suit the capricious appetite of the 

 consumptive. In treating consumption it is absolutely necessary to 

 increase the vitality of the tissues so that they will be unfavorable 

 culture-media for the bacilli. The second suggestion is, that in 

 cases with inherited tendencies to phthisis, or in those who acquire 

 a phthisical tendency, there is great vulnerability of the mucous 

 membrane, which even fosters an outbreak of catarrhal processes 

 in the bronchial structures. In this way the good effects of the 

 treatment are constantly opposed. He thinks that suitable climatic 

 environment is an all-important adjunct to the proper settlement of 

 the value of Bergeon's treatment. But it is certainly an important 

 addition to the therapeutic equipment to have an agent capable of 

 influencing very markedly bronchial catarrh in so many cases, 

 especially the stay-at-homes. In a word, Bergeon's treatment is 

 chiefly valuable in those cases of pulmonary disease attended with 

 bronchial catarrh ; but it is to be feared that the trouble and detail 

 necessaiy to its successful use will prevent many from employing 

 the method, and the limitation of its power will cause it often to be 

 set aside for other plans of treatment. 



It is more desirable, in the treatment of consumption, to adopt 

 those measures which tend to establish the general health, than to 



hunt up specific forms of treatment. Suitable climatic conditions, 

 judicious alimentation, and appropriate personal hygiene, are the 

 first principles in the therapeutic management of phthisis, and Ber- 

 geon's method should be considered an adjunct to these. 



Hydrophobia Inoculation in New York. — Dr. Sommer, 

 an Hungarian physician, obtained the consent of the mayor and 

 president of the Board of Health of New York to conduct experi- 

 ments vi'ith the Tjirus of hydrophobia upon the dogs collected by 

 the dog-gatherers and taken to the pound. The Society for the 

 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have, however, interfered, and 

 require the doctor to obtain the authority of some medical college 

 or university in the State before they will permit him to conduct his 

 investigations. We should think that an application, properly 

 made, to any of the medical institutions of the city, would be fol- 

 lowed by the granting of the requisite authority. 



Use of Opium. — Dr. Boynton is authority for the statement 

 that Woodstock, Vt., consumes a large quantity of opium. There 

 are four druggists in the town, and they report that their sales of 

 opium in a single year are sufficient to make one hundred gallons 

 of laudanum, equivalent to one hundred and sixty-seven ounces of 

 morphine. Of this, only five per cent is sold to physicians. It can 

 hardly be possible that there is any greater demand for opium in 

 Woodstock than in other towns of the same size, and yet we can 

 hardly believe that this represents the true condition of things in 

 our New England towns. If so, the thought is a startling one, and 

 should receive more than passing notice. 



Seasickness. — We have already mentioned a number of rem- 

 edies for seasickness. Dr. Sutherland suggests another, which 

 he employed successfully in crossing the English Channel, he 

 escaping when almost every- one was sick. He takes a tight hold 

 of one of the pillars supporting the deck, and, as the boat rises in 

 going over a wave, he runs uphill, as it were, reversing the direc- 

 tion of his run when the boat descends the wave. 



Cetti's Fast. — It will be remembered that Cetti, a Norwegian, 

 fasted for twelve days in Berlin under the observation of Professor 

 Virchow. In June he began another fast, of thirty days, for scien- 

 tific purposes. During the fast he was detected eating gelatine 

 jujubes, about a half-pound of which were found on his person. 



Scarlet-Fever. — Dr. Edington of Edinburgh claims to have 

 discovered a bacillus in the blood, and desquamation, of patients 

 suffering with scarlet-fever. The Medico-Chirurgical Society of 

 Edinburgh has appointed a committee to investigate the bacillus, 

 and its relations to scarlet-fever. 



BOOK -REVIEWS. 

 Romantic Love and Personal BeaiUy: their Development, Casual 

 Relations, Historic and Natio7ial Peculiarities. By Henry 

 T. Finck. New York, Macmillan & Co. 8° 



In the current issue of an American weekly this volume is re- 

 viewed under the heading of ' A Curious Book.' This epithet it 

 most decidedly merits. Though the first impression of the work is 

 that of its uncommon character, this feeling gradually gives way to 

 an ever-increasing recognition of the intrinsic importance of the 

 argument it sets forth, until in closing its pages one feels that some- 

 thing has been added to his stock of knowledge, a new light has 

 been more or less brightly cast upon many problems, and that these 

 acquisitions will always be associated with Mr. Finck's book. 



The fundamental note of the book is the evolution of love, the 

 most conservative element of human nature, that which poets and 

 essayists delight in pronouncing as always and always to be the 

 same, is shown on proper analysis to be subject to that same devel- 

 opmental process which Darwin has associated with his name. 

 Not only have the affections a natural history in the animal world 

 closely affiliated with appearances in early man, but that form of 

 love that to-day is the love par excellence — romantic love — is 

 itself only a very modern development, not a thousand years old. 



The passion that gives the ground-tone to modern social life, 

 that plays the chief role in imaginative literature, that attracts the 

 attention of all travellers and observers, that has revolutionized and 

 is modifying many of the problems which to the sociologist are of 



