Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Treatment for Ringworm.

Editor MEICAL WORLD:-Will some of THE WORLD family please give me treatment for an obstinate case of ringworm (tinea circinata) of eighteen months' standing? It has been treated by several physicians with various salves and ointments and acids. I can relieve it with muriatic acid for a few weeks, but it returns much larger each time.

Continue the monthly talks. They suit me all right.

J. L. WATSON, M.D.

Parker, Tex. [Few diseases are so obstinate to treat as tinea circinata, months being sometimes required to make any impression. It is a good plan to give tone to the general system by codliver oil and iron to paint the spots with either tincture of iodin diluted one-third with alcohol or with a mercuric chlorid lotion of from one to three grains to the ounce. Yet relapses are frequent and treatment tedious. See also Dr. Baker's article on scald-head elsewhere in this issue.-ED.]

From Dr. J. M. Jones of Newport, Ark., we have the following kind words: "I read THE MEDICAL WORLD all the time as I have for the last eleven years, keeping every volume well bound and at hand for ready reference. I have come to regard it as one of my standard works, and feel myself behind because I did not get acquainted with it sooner. It is my favorite of all journals. I like your style. Say what you please, and if any readers don't like it, why the family is a large one and the grand old WORLD will still live."

Formulas.

[In our issue for last November, we began republishing the formulas for the leading advertised nostrums. We do this believing that physicians have a right to know what the people are taking, and that they ought to know in order to administer proper antidotes if called in case of an overdose, which often happens, particularly with the various soothing syrups given to children. Back numbers can still be furnished to those who wish the series complete.]

Formula wanted for the preparation of the different kinds of antiseptic dressings, antiseptic wool, and the like, particularly in a form that they may be kept for some time. [There is little object in a physician giving time to the preparation of dressings of the kind mentioned, since such things are now made to so much greater advantage by reliable firms who possess every facility, thus producing better goods and at less cost than is practicable to the individual doctor.-ED.]

Formula wanted for P. Gombault's caustic balsam, a liniment largely used in veterinary practice.

[blocks in formation]

With a small camel's hair pencil or piece of fine sponge apply a little of "Albadermine A" to the tanned or freckled surface, until a slight but tolerably uniform brownish-yellow skin has been produced. At the expiration of fifteen or twenty minutes moisten a piece of cambric, lint, or soft rag with "B," and lay it upon the affected part, removing, squeezing away the liquid, soaking it afresh, and again applying until the iodid stain has disappeared. Repeat the entire process thrice daily, but diminish the frequence of the application if tenderness be produced. In the course of from three or four days to as many weeks the freckles will either have disappeared entirely or their intensity will be greatly diminished. "Summer freckles" yield very speedily to this treatment.-Secret Nostrums and Systems.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Manufactured by the Paris Medicine Co., Paris, Tenn. Is offered to the medical profession as the long-looked-for tasteless preparation of quinin, it being distinctly stated on the label that each bottle of twelve fluid drams "contains twenty-four grains of quinin."

Dr. R. G. Eccles declares in the Druggists' Circular, May, 1889, that he has investigated a preparation sold under the name "Febriline or Tasteless Syrup of Amorphous Quinin (Lyons)," by the Paris Medicine Co., of Paris, Tenn., and finds that it contains no quinine at all. Instead of quinin, quinidine is used, another alkaloid of cinchona bark, which is described as follows in the National Dispensatory, edition of 1879, page 1181: "Quinidia is not officinal. Being very slightly soluble, it should be administered in

Mix. A teaspoonful of this mixture, added to an ordinary hand-basin of water, makes an admirable cosmetic for the skin of the face and hands. Secret Nostrums and Systems.

MALVINA CREAM.

Prepared by Prof. I. Hubert, inventor and proprietor, Toledo, Ohio. "Warranted to remove freckles, beautify the complexion and preserve the smoothness of the skin." Used in conjunction with Malvina Lotion. According to our examination it is as follows: Put up in a white glass ointment jar, containing 386 grains of a white, pleasant appearing and pleasant smelling ointment, which consists of white wax, white petrolatum, a bismuth salt, and mercuric chlorid in very small quantities. We recommend the following formula as one which will make a preparation closely resembling the original:

[blocks in formation]

Oil of bitter almonds.. one-tenth minim. Warm the saxoline, white wax, and spermaceti together until melted. While cooling incorporate the bismuth oxychlorid and the mercuric chlorid, this last previously dissolved in a little alcohol, and when nearly cold, stir in the perfumes.-New Idea.

MALVINA LOTION.

"AN ADDITION TO MALVINA CREAM." "This lotion should be used as directed with the Malvina Cream, as it is of great importance to cure freckles, pimples, moth patches, liver mole, ringworm, and salt rheum. It straightens wrinkles in face, speeds the respiration of the blood, cleanses and softens the skin to youthful freshness."

Put up in a white glass, square bottle, holding 4 fluid ounces of a milky-white fluid, with a powder in suspension. No quantitative estimates were attempted. In solution we found mercuric chlorid, and the powder in suspension is a carbonate or sub-carbonate of zinc. The milky fluid is evidently an emulsion of almonds poorly made. The following formula will make a preparation in most respects similar to Malvina Lotion. Make up an emulsion of almonds (2 drams to 1 pint) with rose-water. In one pint of this fluid dissolve two grains of mercuric chlor

id, and suspend in the mixture three drams of them, the eminent specialists, to appear bezinc oxid.-New Idea.

[blocks in formation]

fore this society for an hour's performance, the New York Medical News asks the following pertinent questions:

Why should reasoning physicians delude themselves that the advent, for an hour or two, into the range of their audition of a man who has given special study to some intricate, and very often laboratory branch of their profession, can possibly be of any advantage to them comparable to that which may be obtained by their gathering together in a spirit of mutual betterment to thrash out the truth by a comparison of individual experiences. It is only by such methods that the sinew and marrow of the ideal medical society can be developed. What are medical societies for? Are they for the glorification and lionizing of the individual, or are they arenas to which may be brought the difficult problems in diagnosis, the intricate questions of pathology, the vagaries of therapeutic results, in order that they may be discussed and elucidated by the clinical experiences of many men studying the same diseases amid the same environments and under similar conditions? No one can honestly say, after having listened to some great star who has indulged in glittering generalities and skipped lightly over a vast subject, within the hour, let us say, that he goes home better fitted to cope with the exigencies of his daily work. On the contrary, it is extremely probable that if a vote were taken to determine the influence of the

ordinary medical meeting of county and State keeping up the character of medical work, the societies in maintaining professional tone and

result would be no uncertain answer in favor of the present system-without stars.

All of which we heartily endorse; only adding that, in our opinion, next to the value of a good medical society comes a good medical journal. Indeed, considering the breadth and scope of the latter, in comparison with the narrowness of the former, it is even questionable whether the journal may not be the more valuable of the two. And by a good medical journal we esteem that one best which has the largest number of practical contributors on practical subjects from all parts of the country. The day has passed when the general practitioner has any longer either the time

or the desire to read the theoretical contributions of the theoretical specialist who writes merely for his own advertisement.

Thyroid Extract for Carcinoma.

A further use for thyroid extract has recently been suggested: Dr. William Bishop and Mr. Frederick Page, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, have recorded (Lancet, May 28, 1898, p. 1460) the case of a woman, aged 61, who had her left breast removed for carcinoma. There was no doubt about the diagnosis. Three

months after the operation recurrence took 'place in the neighborhood of the cicatrix. Portions of the recurrent growth were submitted to independent investigators, who reported upon them as carcinomatous. In September, 1896, nine months after the operation, thyroid extract was given the patient-quite empirically. She improved under it, and the dose, which after a short time reached 15 grains daily, was administered regularly for 18 months, i. e., until the spring of 1898. She is now quite well. She has gained flesh, is in good general health, and the nodules of new growth have disappeared. Of course no medical Of course no medical man would dogmatize from one case, but the story should, and probably will, encourage many medical men to make a trial of the therapeutic properties of thyroid extract in these sad cases, which by general consent are held to be incurable.-Phila. Med. Jour.

Castration as Punishment for Rape. A bill to amend the existing statutes of Ohio, relating to the punishment of the crime of rape, has been brought before the legislature of that State and may become law. The object of this proposed amendment is to render a man who is convicted of a criminal assault upon any female, and particularly upon any child under fourteen years of age, liable to castration. How effectually to protect women and children from becoming the victims of sensual libertines or criminal degenerates has long been the aim of social reformers. That extreme measures are called for and that a punishment sufficiently deterrent is needed are obvious, as unfortunately offences of this description show no signs of diminishing. It is claimed by many that nothing short of asexualization will bring about the desired result. Castration was practised was practised largely in very early times, and was then resorted to in order to limit the production of the human race. In eastern countries the custom has prevailed from times immemorial. Many, too, of the early Christians submitted themselves voluntarily to mutilation as a means of mortifying the flesh, although the church authorities generally were averse to the practice. The physical effects of castration are similar in men and animals; those operated upon when young grow taller and larger, as well as more fleshy. M. Loitet exhibited before the Société de Médecine of Lyons the skeleton of a eunuch of Cairo. In this specimen the thorax was short as compared with the

exceptional length of the legs. This phenomenon is quite in accordance with what is met with in the lower animals under like circumstances. Thus while the wings of a capon are no more highly developed than those of a cock, the long legs of the emasculated fowl give it a peculiar appearance. This same lengthening of the hind limbs in the ox corrects the sloping of the back which is so characteristic of the bull. Gall and later Haschke have shown that in animals deprived of their testes when young there was an arrest of the development of the cerebellum, of the medulla oblongata, and even of the cerebral hemispheres. As to the mental effects of asexualization of man, opinions widely diverge. Most modern authors contend that eunuchs are in all cases weak minded; however, this view was not held by the ancient writers, nor is it by many observers of the present day. Dr. Edmund Andrews, of Chicago, says: "Some writers assert that if castrated young the eunuchs remain perfectly indifferent to female attractions, and articles are often written in medical journals advocating the castration of sundry criminals in adult life, under the assumption that their sexual temptations will all be removed by the simple ablation of the testes.

The fact appears to be that men castrated in adult life often retain a troublesome amount of sexual desire, and that even if it is done in childhood there is by no means a total absence of it, though it is much lessened." Dr. Louis Tercheron, the eminent French authority on medical jurisprudence, states that there is a physiologic possibility of fecund coition after a castration has been performed on an adult. The opinions held in regard to the moral qualities of eunuchs are very conflicting. The majority of writers believe that the moral nature of these men is wholly perverted. M. Temturilie, in his work on the Skoptzy, a religious sect in Russia, who practise emasculation as one of their religious rites, says that these people, altho susceptible of a certain attachment, are egotists, deceitful, liars, cunning, and greedy, but adds it is difficult to say if this is the effect of castration. Temturilie noticed among the Skoptzy an attenuated sense of responsibility, and this has been observed of eunuchs by many writers. Dr. Andrews is of the opinion that eunuchs differ little in moral qualities from the ordinary run of mankind. It seems, how

ever, only reasonable to suppose that castration has a pernicious effect on the moral

nature as well as on the mental and physical vigor of a man, altho probably exaggerated notions exist on this point. Even allowing that ablation of the testes will remove sexual temptation, as doubtless it will in most cases, there will still remain among civilized people a strong prejudice against so degrading a punishment. The time may come when this matter may be viewed from a different standpoint, and when as some predict, the operation will be esteemed necessary to stamp out many of the evils of modern civilization. As yet these advanced opinions will not receive general indorsement, and the action of the Ohio reformers will not commend itself favorably to the sense of the country at large. The use of the cat-o'-nine-tails has been found in England to act as an effective deterrent in the case of hardened criminals, and, while it is an inhuman form of punishment, it is preferable on the whole to that of castration.-Med. Rec.

Summer Diarrhea.

The time is now here or fast approaching for the occurrence both in adults and in children, of that group of gastro-intestinal disturbances usually called summer diarrhea. It may, therefore, not be out of place to repeat our usual annual advice upon this subject. Three factors are usually concerned in the production of the symptom complex: irritation of the intestine, heat prostration and toxemia. The irritation of the intestine may be due merely to indiscretion in diet, or there may be an element of bacterial or ptomain excitation. Often it will be found that the vital resistance of the gastro-intestinal tract has been lowered by the undue drinking of icewater. It seems, moreover, to be true that those germs which take on virulence in the bowel are more active during hot weather.

The best means of prevention, therefore, is care in diet. Ice-water should be entirely forbidden; and in cities which, like Philadelphia, are blessed with a municipal council and a body of eminently respectable citizens to whom the purity of the public water supply is of less importance than the maintenance of individual and partisan control of the public crib, it is more than ever necessary to boil all the water intended for household uses. After boiling the water, which is intended to be used for drinking purposes, it may be

cooled by having ice placed about the container, but ice should never be put into it. The most scrupulous care in regard to the milk supply is necessary also, and the milk should be boiled and cared for in the same manner as the water. Cheese, creampuffs, canned foods, and the like, should be regarded with an increase of suspicion during the summer months. Ice-cream should be made at home, all due precautions being taken as to cleanliness of vessels and purity of ingredients; or it should be purchased from dealers in whom perfect confidence can be placed. Especially is the ice-cream furnished at Sunday-school picnics to be avoided. The consumption of large quantities of beer, more especially if with this be mingled a great variety of cooked and uncooked food, frequently gives rise to the attack.

However caused, rational treatment is simple. The alimentary canal is to be cleansed and to be kept clean, and this being done mediation may not be required. A calomel purge, or the use of a mixture containing equal parts of castor oil and aromatic sirup of rhubarb, may be followed or preceded by irrigation of the colon with hot water. All food, except barley water, should be interdicted for a day or two. Especially is it necessary with infants to stop the use of milk or any food prepared with milk. When there is much pain, it may be advisable to combine with the castor oil or calomel some preparation of opium, but not enough, however, to prevent the purgative action of the other drug. Usually the camphorated tincture of opium is the most available preparation for this purpose. Sometimes spirit of camphor without opium will answer. the more severe cases the purge or irrigation may be followed with the use of a sedative, astringent and opiate combination, such as the powder which we have long been in the habit of using, and which contains benzo-naphtol, bismuth salicylate, and Dover's powder. In the less severe cases the opium may be omitted, and in the mildest no medication whatever is required.

In

The mistake usually made, both in domestic practice and by physicians, is to begin treatment with bismuth or opium, or some vegetable astringent, as logwood or kino. These may be harmless or even necessary in the further course of the case, but they are always harmful at the beginning.-S. S. C., in Phila. Polyclinic.

« PreviousContinue »