584 
NEWS AND SUNDRIES. 
monia. It is believed that the parliament will grant double the 
sum, though the financial condition of the Government is some¬ 
what straitened. We need not look for the importation of 
more Dutch cattle for some time.— Prairie Fawner. 
Chloral as a Purgative. —Writing in the Gazzetta Medica 
Italiana , Provincie Yenete ,” Dr. Bonatti speaks highly of the use 
of hydrate of chloral as a purgative in cases of obstinate constipa¬ 
tion in insane persons, after jalap, croton oil and other drastic 
cathartics have been used without avail. He gives the chloral in 
doses of two or three grammes (thirty to forty-five grains), dis¬ 
solved in a draught of infusion of senna. It is said to act rap¬ 
idly.— New York Medical Journal. 
Tubercle Bacillus Notes. —Kussner has found that by in¬ 
jecting tuberculous sputa into the trachea of dogs and rabbits, tu¬ 
berculosis was produced ; the injection of non-tuberculous sputa 
does not do this. 
Weichselbaum, of Vienna, has published a criticism of Spina’s 
work and a defence of Koch’s conclusions. 
Dr Koch publishes, in the Deutsche Medicinische Wochen- 
schrift, an elaborate review of the criticisms made upon the bacil¬ 
lus of tuberculosis and defends his original views as to its nature, 
retracting nothing. He brings forward no new experimental evi¬ 
dence. The prophylactic importance of the discovery is enlarged 
upon.— Medical Record. 
Birthmark on a Colt. —A medical journal of recent date 
says : “ In a certain farming community of southern Ohio it was 
the custom of the neighborhood for farmers to render assistance 
to each other in threshing time, sometimes using the same set of 
horses for six weeks or two months, or until the grain in that 
neighborhood was threshed. A favorite mare thus used, three to 
four months with foal, while feeding one day, was startled by an 
unexpected noise which caused her to throw up her head with 
great violence against the sharp edge of a squared beam, thereby 
cutting an ugly gash across the forehead just above the eyes. In 
due time the colt appeared, having an ugly looking scar corres¬ 
ponding ^ in situation to the injury on the dam, and was totally 
