VARIETIES. 
467 
Frictions  with  petroleum  water  (60  gr.  per  litre)  immediately  cleanse 
the  domestic  animals  of  the  parasitic  insects  which  annoy  them.  The 
animals  should  be  washed  with  soap-suds  a  few  minutes  after  the  friction. 
It  is  also  stated  that  a  house  infested  with  rats  and  mice  was  freed  from 
these  guests  a  little  while  after  the  introduction  of  a  large  quantity  of  the 
oil  into  the  cellar. — Ibid. 
New  form  of  Antiseptic  for  local  use. — The  liquor  carbonis  detergens  is 
recommended.  It  is  an  alcoholic  solution  of  coal-tar,  contaiuing,  we  pre- 
sume, the  carbolic,  phenic,  and  other  acids,  with  dark  tarry  matter,  and 
differing  from  carbolic  acid,  as  the  liquor  cinchonee  does  from  quinine.  It 
readily  mixes  with  water,  forming  a  permanent  emulsion,  and  in  various 
strengths  is  available  as  a  mouth-wash,  a  gargle,  an  injection  for  fetid 
uterine  discharges,  cancer,  retained  placenta,  etc.,  gonorrhoea  in  the  fe- 
male, foul  ulcers,  sloughing  sores,  and  all  maladies  dependent  in,  or  com- 
plicated by,  parasite  beings,  lice,  fungi,  etc.  It  is  also  used  combined 
with  soda. — Buffalo  Med,  and  Surg.  Journal,  June,  1867,  from  Med.  Times 
and  Gazette. 
Coating  of  Pills. — There  i3  much  ingenuity  wasted  in  the  coating  of 
pills.  Our  apothecaries  have  "  swung  round  the  circle,"  and  revived  an 
old  and  exploded  practice  of  coating  them  with  silver  or  tin.  This  is  an 
abominable  plan.  Both  chemistry  and  therapeutics  are  at  war  with  it. 
Collodion  protects  the  pill  from  solution  in  the  stomach.  Sugar  and  gum 
are  the  only  legitimate  materials.  At  best,  however,  there  is  but  little  use 
in  coating  pills.  Any  properly  educated  person  can  swallow  an  uncoated 
pill  without  tasting  it.  It  comes  natural  to  boys  to  swallow  cherry  stones, 
and  everybody  can  take  down  grape  seeds  by  the  pound.  Only  by  some 
trick  or  perversion  of  the  apparatus  of  deglutition  can  difficulty  arise,  and 
this  may  be  corrected  by  discipline.  It  is  extremely  unfortunate  for  a 
chronic  patient  to  be  unable  to  swallow  pills.  Some  medicines  can  scarcely 
be  administered  in  any  other  form,  and  many  a  dose,  otherwise  nauseous, 
mav  be  smuggled  into  the  stomach  in  this  form,  without  awaking  from 
slumber  the  gustatory  sentinels.  Parents  should  always  see  to  it  that 
their  children  do  not  grow  up  with  the  distressing  trick  of  shutting  down 
the  gullet  against  a  friendly  pill. — Pacific  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal, 
June,  1867. 
War  and  Insanity. —  In  the  last  Annual  Report  of  the  Taunton  (Mass.) 
Lunatic  Hospital,  referred  to  in  the  Boston  Med.  and  Surg.  Journal  for 
March,  the  Superintendent,  Dr.  Choate,  says:  "  At  the  commencement  of 
the  great  rebellion,  contrary  to  common  expectation,  there  was  an  imme- 
diate and  general  check  to  the  numbers  thronging  to  all  public  institutions, 
and  to  insane  hospitals  among  the  rest.  This  continued  throughout  the 
war,  but  with  its  cessation  there  has  been  an  immediate  though  gradual 
