AFebr0uaryP?8a98m'}  Gleanings  from  the  Medical  Journals.  1 1 1 
ward  -gL-  grain  of  strychnine  sulphate  was  administered  hypo- 
dermically  and,  at  4.50,  grain  of  atropine  sulphate,  and  at  5.15 
1^  grain  of  strychnine  sulphate  similarly  administered.  Infusion 
of  coffee  was  now  given,  this  acting  as  an  emetic.  At  9  and  12 
p.  m.  strychnine  grain,  per  or  em,  was  repeated.  Patient  was  kept 
walking.  After  midnight,  1.30  a.  m.,  the  patient  had  some  difficulty 
in  breathing,  but  this  symptom  passed  off  gradually,  and  at  4  A.  M. 
the  patient  was  allowed  to  sleep.  By  7  o'clock  the  next  morning 
the  patient  was  considered  out  of  danger,  and  was  left  in  care  of 
family. 
While  the  above  cases  do  not  prove  conclusively  that  the  per- 
manganate of  potassium  was  the  one  agent  which  produced  anti- 
dotal effect,  the  physician  above  mentioned  seems  confident  that,  had 
he  not  administered  the  permanganate  solution  in  the  above  cases, 
he  would  in  all  probability  have  lost  these  patients. 
GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  MEDICAL  JOURNALS. 
By  Ci/ement  B.  Lowe. 
Dr.  John  C.  Sundberg  writes  a  very  interesting  letter  to  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  American  Medical  Association  about  "  Asiatic  Plagues  and 
Cholera  Centres."  One  item  of  it  should  be  given  a  wide  circula- 
tion. He  says :  "  There  are  three  very  holy  cities  in  this  region 
where  good  Shiah  Mahommedans  choose  to  be  buried,  and  thus  it 
happens  that  some  eight  or  ten  thousand  defunct  immigrants,  some 
of  whom  have  been  dead  two  or  three  years,  pass  annually  through 
Bagdad  on  the  way  to  their  final  resting-place.  The  coffins  being 
leaky,  putrid  cadaveric  liquid  pours  out  through  the  seams  and 
drops  on  the  road,  to  there  dry  and  scent  the  dust.  Thus  one 
smells  the  approach  of  a  funeral  caravan,  with  its  three  or  four  hun- 
dred corpses,  for  miles  to  leeward.  They  come  mostly  from  Persia, 
and  bring  also  with  them  great  loads  of  the  finest  Persian  carpets 
and  rugs.  From  Bagdad  these  rugs,  which  have,  perhaps,  for 
twenty  or  more  years  been  exposed,  in  inconceivably  filthy  homes, 
to  the  contagion  of  every  known  disease  germ  and  other  abomina- 
tions, are  now  shipped  to  Europe  and  America,  to  henceforth  adorn 
the  parlors  of  the  rich  and  undermine  the  health  and  shorten  the 
lives  of  their  children.  Let  the  quarantine  authorities  take  due 
notice  thereof,  and  govern  themselves  accordingly." 
