844 
EDITORIAL. 
improving under treatment by electricity at the time it was re¬ 
corded, with all prospects of recovery. 
* 
* * 
Intravenous Injections. —Should this mode of therapy 
be accepted in general practice? Such is the question that 
was presented lately by Mr. P. Chaussee, at least for the appli¬ 
cation of therapeutic serums, antitetanic, antistreptococcic or 
artificial. By a series of experiments which he has made, Mr. 
C. seems to answer his question in the affirmative, and consid¬ 
ers this mode presents advantages over the hypodermic method. 
For him, the dangers of the operation have been exaggerated ; 
he has never met with any of the complications of thrombus, 
abscesses or phlebitis, although he acknowledges having 
operated in several instances without any antiseptic prepara¬ 
tions. In using antitetanic and anti-streptococcic serum he 
has injected io, 20 and 30 cubic centimetres without any com¬ 
plications, and of the artificial serum he has introduced 800 and 
1000 grammes in the general circulation of mares and cows 
after difficult parturition and has obtained most magnificent 
results. 
Prof. Moussu, of Alfort, to whom the paper had been re¬ 
ferred, gives, however, a cold answer of “ no ” to the principal 
question, viz., Have intravenous injections real advantages in alt 
cases ? With the antitetanic injections, there remains but one 
indication for its use, the preventive injection. Kxcept the 
clinical cases, experimentation has shown that intracerebral in¬ 
jections remain inefficacious. Must it be the same for intra¬ 
venous injections ? As to saline injections (artificial serum) 
they cannot answer for all cases. They have many advantages, 
but there are many abuses, and are indicated in the form of in¬ 
travenous injections only after severe haemorrhages, when there 
is danger of death; they are indicated in infections with 
cardiac collapse, where they raise the blood tension, stimulate 
the heart, arrest or retard the destruction of the globules, etc. 
And even in these cases it must be done under some special 
condition and special care. 
