.112  Gleanings  from  the  Medical  Journals.  {m^S^Bl' 
The  danger  of  self-medication  was  recently  exemplified  by  the  case  of 
a  woman  who  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  after  taking  a  number  of  pills 
containing  belladonna  and  strychnine.  The  woman,  who  was  suf- 
fering from  indigestion,  received  the  pills  from  a  young  woman  em- 
ployed in  a  wholesale  drug  house  in  New  York  City,  and  was  told 
by  her  to  take  one  after  each  meal.  Death  was  due  to  an  overdose. 
— New  York  Medical  Journal,  December  n,  1897. 
A  PRESCRIPTION  FOR  GASTRIC  ACIDITY. 
Boas  (cited  in  the  Journal  de  Medicine  de  Paris  for  October  3d) 
recommends  the  following  : 
Be       Sodium  sulphate,    30  parts. 
Potassium    "  5  " 
Sodium  chloride,    30  " 
"      carbonate,  25  " 
"      biborate,     10  " 
— S.  :  Half  a  teaspoonful,  in  half  a  glass  of  warm  water,  three 
times  a  day,  two  hours  before  eating. 
PLAGUE  ATTACKS  MONKEYS. 
The  bubonic  plague,  which  is  still  raging  in  British  India,  has 
attacked  a  colony  of  monkeys  near  Hardwar.  The  local  authori- 
ties are  trapping  and  isolating  the  diseased  animals. 
ACCIDENT  INSURANCE  FOR  STUDENTS. 
At  the  University  of  Heidelberg  all  students  doing  laboratory 
work,  and  even  those  who  attend  experimental  lectures  in  chemistry 
or  physics,  are  required  to  take  out  an  accident  insurance  policy 
covering  casualities  which  are  liable  to  occur  in  such  institutions. 
Students  who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  be  entirely  disabled  are  to 
receive  $500  per  annum,  with  a  corresponding  allowance  for  lesser 
injuries.  The  premium,  however,  is  low — but  two  and  a  half  cents 
for  lecture  courses  per  semester. 
TYPHOID  FEVER  AND  CERTAIN  GAMES. 
An  English  practitioner,  in  writing  to  the  Lancet,  refers  to  the 
fact  that  many  cases  of  typhoid  fever  occur  in  the  autumn,  and 
attributes  the  cause  of  the  disease  to  games,  such  as  marbles  and 
peg-top,  which  are  played  in  the  street  at  this  time  of  the  year, 
after  the  cricket  season  is  over.  In  playing  marbles  a  boy  frequently 
licks  his  fingers  to  prevent  the  marble  slipping,  and  the  whip-cord 
of  a  top  is  wet  in  the  mouth  for  the  same  reason.  In  this  way  the 
germs  are  conveyed  into  the  alimentary  tract.    The  writer's  theory 
