Current  Literature. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
January,  19 18. 
vinced  that  the  use  of  Carrel's  tubes,  as  the  committee  saw  them 
employed,  is  a  very  valuable  means  of  applying  an  antiseptic  fluid 
to  a  wound,  the  committee  is  not  satisfied  that  Dakin's  fluid  is 
markedly  superior  to  eusol,  and  was  prepared  to  find  that  other 
antiseptics  can  be  used  with  advantage  by  the  Carrel  method. 
The  results  of  the  Carrel-Dakin  treatment,  as  seen  in  a  large 
series  of  unselected  cases,  were  remarkably  good.  The  most  strik- 
ing evidence  of  the  value  of  the  treatment  seen  by  the  committee 
was  a  printed  notice  put  up  in  a  prominent  place  in  Turner's  wards, 
said  to  be  the  expression  of  his  own  opinion  after  a  considerable 
experience  of  the  Carrel-Dakin  treatment.  The  notice  is  as 
follows : 
"  Tout  blesse  qui  suppure  a  le  droit  d'en  demander  la  raison  a 
son  chirurgien"  (every  patient  whose  wounds  suppurate  has  the 
right  to  demand  an  explanation  of  his  surgeon). 
The  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  Carrel-Dakin  method  of 
treament,  if  carried  out  thoroughly,  is  full  of  promise,  and  believes 
that  it  will  (1)  diminish  the  dangers  incidental  to  sepsis,  including 
secondary  hemorrhage;  (2)  hasten  the  patient's  convalescence:  (3) 
lessen  the  liability  to  stiff  joints  and  cicatricial  deformities;  (4)  en- 
able the  patients  to  leave  the  hospital  with  better  general  health 
than  they  otherwise  might,  and  that  (5)  when  secondary  operations 
become  necessary,  these  operations  are  more  likely  to  be  free  from 
septic  complications  than  when  some  other  system  of  primary  treat- 
ment has  been  adopted.  (From  The  Journal  of  the  American 
Medical  Association?) 
Antityphoid  Vaccination  and  Agglutination  Test. — The 
total  number  of  quantitative  tests  performed  by  Rist  from  February 
to  November,  191 5,  amounted  to  11,648.  He  found  the  greatest 
practical  value  for  diagnosing  infection  caused  by  the  bacilli  of  the 
typhoid  group.  But  when  it  comes  to  discriminate  between  the 
three  subspecies  belonging  to  that  group,  the  information  given  by 
the  Widal  test  should  be  accepted  with  great  caution.  A  pre- 
dominance of  the  agglutination  titer  of  B.  paratyphoid  A  or  B 
speaks  almost  certainly  in  favor  of  B.  paratyphoid  A  or  B.  But  if 
the  agglutination  titer  of  B.  typhosus  predominates,  the  probability 
of  the  disease  being  due  to  B.  typhosus  is  only  73.3  per  100.  In 
individuals  having  been  previously  vaccinated  against  B.  typhosus, 
