health has been fairly good, until about the first of last December, when she began to be troubled with borborygmus, which continued to a greater or less extent for several weeks, always being worse at night. During its continuence a morning diarrhea began and still continues, with the exception of occasional intervals of a week or ten days, as influenced by treatment. The diarrhea has never been excessive, seldom exceeling one action a day, which usually occurs very soon after breakfast and is about the consistency of soup. On the outset of this trouble she weighed 145 pounds. Notwithstanding a fairly good appetite, she has lost during the year about thirty pounds. There has never been complaint of pain, soreness, tenderness or distress of any kind, but rather a feeling of weakness and emptiness of the bowels at times, with a feeling of inability of the rectum to act with the upper bowels. Thus has the case progressed for a twelvemonth.

In regard to the treatment I will just say that it would be easier to tell of some things still untried than of the numerous remedies tested. Suffice it to say that, whereas, some have seemed to be beneficial for a week or two, all treatment has thus far failed to effect a cure. What makes the case doubly interesting to me is that the patient is my wife, and hence you will rightfully infer then that my chief concern is to attract the attention of some one who will suggest the remedy. DR. BRONSON.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I write to ask the opinion of my fellow practitioners in regard to my case. I have been ill for the past four months, during which I have lost over thirty pounds. My weight when in health was over 200 Am 38 years of age, and have always been robust. I will describe my symptoms as fully as possible:

Tongue slightly coated on base with white coating; no fever at any time; uneasy feeling through stomach and bowels; development of gas in bowels; liquid stools. three, four and five times per day, preceded by griping, cutting pain in bowels. All of the discharges of the bowels are horribly offensive. I feel weak and without ambition; hands and feet pallid and

cold. A good deal of the time I am quite dizzy. Would like diagnosis and treatment. Have tried many things without benefit. Columbus, O.

H. L. K., M.D.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Here is a case of some interest that I would submit to the WORLD family for solution: A deceased person was presented at the grave for burial, whom the mother was afraid was about to be interred alive. She requested the body to be looked at by another physician and myself. We found the body quite cold, no rigor mortis, no odor, the lips reddish purple, around the eyes the same color, eyes had the look or expression of a living person. She had fainted alway several times before dying and had the appearance of being dead for a short while.

Whilst I haven't the slightest doubt that she was really dead, since this other physician was present and witnessed her death, there is an interest in the case. I would like for some one with experience to inform me as to the correctness of my belief, that the treatment for consumption (Amick's), which I suppose consists mostly of creasote, had everything to do in the post-mortem appearances in the case just stated. Lever, S. C. J. D. F. LEVER, M.D.

[In all cases like the above we should advise keeping the body above ground until all interested are convinced beyond doubt that death has taken place. There is no harm whatever in keeping the body until unmistakable signs of decomposition begin to show. Some large cemeteries have one or more vaults where bodies may be kept until it is desirable to inter them. In these they may be kept under observation, if thought desirable.-ED.]

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I have an obsti

nate case of eruption of the face which has not yielded, so far, to any treatment I have given. The patient is a clergyman of middle age, a married man, and in every way in good health. There is no heredity of scrofula or any specific taint in the system, so far as is known. The eruption never entirely disappears, but is worse at times. The principal parts affected are the nose and cheeks and some on the forehead; It makes its appearance in little boils, with connever any in the scalp or beard or on the neck.

siderable redness of the skin. It is not a case

of lupus, rosacea or eczema. It is more like rupea, for the pimples degenerate into scabs, then return again like little boils, then break with a small amount of pus. Only a few go in this way, many appear under the skin and go away without coming to a head. I used a lotion made of corrosive sublimate, xx grs., and sulphate of zinc, dr. iii, rose water, oz. vi, well applied night and morning, and I direct the pimples to be squeezed. I also used a salve of tannic acid, dr. i, boric acid,grs. x, morphine,gr.

i, chloroform, grs. XX. These treatments were used for three weeks at a time, alternating. Meanwhile, I gave Fowler's solution, grs. iii, three times a day, with cascara and sulphate of magnesia at proper intervals, with light diet. Used Parke Davis & Co's liquid antiseptic soap for cleansing and kept the bowels free. Under this treatment the case seemed to be almost well at times, but would return to the discomfort of the patient and to my disappointment. I would request some treatment that would cure this MEDICUS.

case.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD.-Will you or some of your readers please suggest some means for the removal of an unsightly, brownish discoloration of the cuticle of the cheek, which resembles in every respect or appearance a "birthmark ?"

The cause is due to the application for too long a time of an alum and glycerine mixture to an inflamed spot about three months ago, which produced a blister of the epidermis and subsequent desquamation of the destroyed epithelium.

Any information enabling me to remove this most objectionable appearance will be highly esteemed as a valuable favor conferred to one who anxiously awaits a response. B. L. N.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD.-What will remove superflous hair from the body without injury to the skin? Will some reader please be so kind as to inform me in your next number. No electricity. X. X. X.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD.-I would like to ask the opinion of the readers on the following case : The umbilicus on an infant is five

eighths inch long, one-half inch or less at base and five eighths inch or more in diameter at the distal end. It is firm in texture and normal in color.

The nurse saw it on the second day. It was feared to be a hernia, hence I was called to see it. Condition of child appears to be good. One child 4 years old had hairlip.

Will some of the readers of THE WORLD kindly give their experience in the treatment of alopecia areata. DR. MANTEY. Minerva, O.

[The Doctor will find valuable assistance in the treatment of umbilical hernia by consulting the volume of this journal for 1893.-ED.]

Editor MEDICAL WORLD.--Will you kindly ask the readers of THE WORLD to give me advice in the following case :

Miss B., 36 years of age, white, extremely corpulent, has always been healthy and worked very hard. About three or four months ago I was called to see her. Found her suffering from suppression of urine; complained of severe "pain in belly." I passed a catheter without any opposition or distress to the patient, and drew off nearly a half gallon of healthy urine. to the intense relief of the woman, who declared herself "all right." She continued "all right" for fourteen days, when I was called again and found her in the same condioion, and again drew off a wash-basin two-thirds full of clear urine, and I have been going through this performance ever since with wonderful regularity about every fourteen days. She has no trouble between these times, passes her water freely, has no pain, eats and sleeps well. She has for a number of years been getting up once in the night to void water, generally about 12 or 1 o'clock, and it is always at this time that her trouble comes on. She passes the water freely just before going to bed, but about the time she usually gets up to urinate in the night she awakes with "a pain in the belly" and complete suppression of urine.

She suffers very much from that until she reaches my office, about 8 o'clock a m, when the catheter affords complete relief until "next time," as the poor girl says, when she leaves. "Good-bye, doctor, until next time." And that "next time" comes with vexing regularity in spite of all I can do.

She is wearing a nicely fitting abdominal belt (Flavell's) all the time except at night. Excessive fat makes examination difficult and uncertain.

Now, brothers, a word of advice through the columns of THE WORLD will be thankfully received. MEDICO.

Current Medical Thought.

Camphor-Menthol in Catharrhal Diseases. Dr. Seth S. Bishop, of Chicago, in a paper thus entitled, reported a large number of cases

Conception.

Dr. John T. Wilson, of Sherman, Texas, read a paper on this subject before the Southern Surg. and Gynec. Association.

He said it has long been known that gonorrhea in the female was sometimes attended with complications that proved troublesome and of serious import. Authors had for many years been describing endometritis, metritis, inflammations of the tubes, ovaries and peritoneum produced by an ascending specific vaginitis, these structures being invaded by the poison, it slowly creeping up through the cervix, involving first the mucous membranes in its track and extending by continuity of structure to the deeper tissues. The more serious results, however, were not appreciated nor so well understood until within recent years, laparotomy became so common an operation, and the pathology of the more important sequelae were studied from the specimens themselves, According to the experience of our best authorities it is so difficult to positively differentiate between gonorrheal and severe simple vaginitis without a clear and authentic history, it being attended with the same symptoms and the properties of also infectng the male, that it is not altogether an easy task to say when ovarian, tubal and uterine troubles, even with the presence of the Neisser gonococcus, have a specific origin, especially as simple vaginitis will sometimes produce them all. Dr. Wilson had observed quite a number of women who were the victims of gonorrheal infection, many of them innocently so, having contracted it from their husbands, and believed it to be an ordinary leucorrhea; many of those whose history he was enabled to follow afterward bore children for many years, were apparently healthy, and gave no evidence of the usual complications.

Dr. Wilson then reported cases illustrative of some of these conditions and results. That gonorrhea does frequently prevent conception is probably well established; but he does not think it is by any means the universal rule, clinical illustrations are too many to the contrary. If Noeggerath's statements are literally true sterile women and fruitless marriages would be far more common and the increase in the race would be greatly lessened, for there are a surprisingly large percentage of men, judging from his experience, who, if they confessed the truth, have suffered at sometime in their lives with gonorrhea.

eases of the ear as having been treated with camphor-menthol with much better results than menthol alone produced. The presence of camphor seemed to intensify the action of menthol.

A number of hay fever sufferers, among them the president of the United States Hay Fever Association, had obtained greater relief from this inhalant than any other they had ever tried. The effect of camphor-menthol in reducing turgescence and consequent tumefaction of the turbinated bodies had rendered a contemplated operation for stenosis unnecessary in several cases cited.

Injections of a ten per cent. solution in lanolin into constricted Eustachian tubes had caused them to become patulous. The improved ventilation of the middle ear thus effected, together with inflation with a five or ten per cent. spray of the same liquid in hypertrophic tympanic catarrh, increased the hearing, and produced a sense of clearness in the head.

Cases of laryngitis, with the voices reduced to a whisper, had been treated with inhalations varying from five per cent. to twenty-five per cent, in strength, with the result of restoring the voices completely in from twenty-four to fortyeight hours.

No ill results had followed the use of this remedy in the nose, throat, larynx or middle ear. The ordinary strength of inhalation recommended by the reader was three per cent or five per cent. for very susceptible or sensitive individuals, like hay fever patients, and ten per cent. for less nervous patients with hypertrophic catarrh, etc. In order to reduce great swelling of the turbinates and relieve stenosis, the solution shall consist of twenty or twenty-five per cent. of the camphor-menthol. The full strength of the camphor-menthol applied to eczematous eruptions relieved the itching and dissipated the redness and swelling. Similar results followed its application to hepatic eruptions

Finally, camphor-menthol contracted the capilary blood vessels of the mucous membrane, reduced swelling, relieved pain and fullness in the head, or stenosis, arrested sneezing, checked excessive discharges, and corrected perverted secretions.--N. Y. Med. Times.

THE MEDICAL WORLD is a medical society in type, with monthly meetings in your office. No medical society in ihe world ever had as many members as the readers of THE MEDICAL WORLD; and no members were ever so mutually helpful. Cost of membership in WORLD Society, only $1.00 per year.

Abortive Treatment of Gonorrhea with Oil of

Cinnamon.

J. Chalmers DaCosta (Medical News) urge', first, the thorough cleansing of the urethral canal by injecting, or spraying within it, the fifteen volume solution of hydrogen dioxid with a caution about permitting it to produce much pain by over distention. The antiseptic solution is then used, either with the atomizer or by injection. It consists of the oil of cinnamon dissolved in one of the liquid petroleum prepara. tions. The first day the solution is made of one drop to the ounce; the second day, two drops to the ounce; and after that, three drops to the ounce.-Phila. Polyclinic.

8th.--It increases rather than diminishes the danger of post-partum hemorrhage.

9th.--It prevents digestion, assimilation, and intestinal peristalsis and tends to bladder trouble.

10th.--It is unsafe to apply it by any one except the accoucheur or an experienced nurse. -W. B. Conway, M.D., Athens, Ga., in South Med. Record.

Practical Observations on the Formulas and
Action of Certain Diuretics and Purgatives in
the Treatment of Some Forms of Dropsy,
Resulting From Various Causes, as
Cardiac and Renal Diseases.

BY JOSEPH JONES, M.D., LL.D.,
of New Orleans, La.

Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology, and of Clinical
Medicine, Tulane Univer ity, etc.

We shall, in this brief article, endeavor to avoid theoretical discussions, tedious classifica

tion, and needless detail, and shall content ourtained from our experience in the Charity Hosselves with expressing some of the results obpital, of New Orleans, during the past twentysix years, and in private practice.

The successful treatment of dropsy must be based upon a knowledge of its various causes and effects, and upon the action of the various remedies employed.

Derangements of the due relationship of secretion to absorption in the tissues and cavities of the body may depend upon-

1st. Derangements in the nutrition of the tissues, leading either to the increase of secretion or diminution of absorption.

2d. Derangements or alterations of the blood, leading to derangements of the nutrition of the tissues, with an increase of secretion or diminution of absorption.

3d. Derangements of the circulatory apparatus attended with venous obstruction and congestion, increased serous effusion from the distended blood vessels, and diminished absorption.

4th. Derangements of the functions of those organs which regulate the amount of the blood, as well as the constitution, by regulating the amount of the watery element, by the elimination of excrementitious materials.

A. Dropsy arising from the prolonged action of the malarial poison, characterized by destruction and diminution of the colored blood corpuscles, splenic enlargements, and hepatic derangements.

Chronic hepatitis, parenchymatous hepatitis, portal obstruction, anemia, and general anasarca, are frequent results of the prolonged action of the malarial poison in the Valley of the Mississippi.

The remedies best adapted to relieve the distressing and dangerous conditions induced by the prolonged action of the malarial poison may thus be enumerated :

(a) Sulphate of quinia, bromide of quinia, valerianate and hydrochlorate of quinia.

(b) Arsenic (arɛenious acid, Fowler's solution.)

(c) Iron (the various preparations of ironsesquichloride, citrate of iron and quinia, tribasic phosphate of iron, etc.)

(d) Mercurials in occasional doses, to relieve hepatic congestions and derangements, as blue mass, calomel, carbonate of soda and calomel.

(e) Saline purgatives, as bitartrate of potassa, Rochelle salts, sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesia.

(f) Diuretics, as juniper berry tea, nitric ether, jaborandi, pilocarpin, digitalis, etc.

The results are doubtful in those cases in which the liver has been structurally altered by the prolonged action of the malarial poison.

B. Dropsy resulting from valvular disease of the heart, mitral and tricuspid obstructions. Valvular disease of the heart is attended with more or less hepatic obstruction, and benefit is often experienced by the judicious use of mercurials. Purgatives and diuretics.

essential.

are

The agents used in the treatment of cardiac dropsy may be considered in connection with the following class

C. Dropsy resulting from various structural alterations of the kidneys, included generally under the head of Bright's disease, acute and chronic nephritis, parenchymatous and interstitial nephritis, gouty and cirrhotic kidney, etc. In this class of dropsy (C), as with that indicated by (B), all portions of the cellular tissue, as well as the abdominal and pleural cavities, may be enormously distended with serous effusions, and the skill of the physician is often taxed to the uttermost to relieve the great embarrassment of the circulation and respiration

The lesion of the kidneys attended with albuminuria may result from the cardiac lesion, and the latter may also result primarily from the former. In many cases, great and immediate benefit may be derived from various purgatives and diuretics.

The following formula may be used in many cases of dropsy arising from cardiac and renal lesions :

tartar), in a small porcelain pitcher or vessel. Cover the mouth of the vessel with a piece of mosquito netting or strainer, so as to prevent the juniper berries from pouring out.

Sig. Stir the bitartrate of potash in juniper berry tea well, and drink a wineglassful every three or four hours, so as to consume the entire pint in twenty-four hours.

This mixture will induce both purgation and diuresis, and will, in many cases, rapidly induce the reduction of the most extensive and obstinate dropsies. The tincture and extract or infusion of digitalis will greatly promote the diuretic action of the juniper berry tea and cream of tartar.

I am in the habit of using from 6 to 10 drops of the tincture of digitalis every three, four, six or eight hours, with marked benefit, in many cases of cardiac and renal dropsies.

In my opinion, digitalis is used in too large doses, and in a reckless manner, and often with fatal results, by many practitioners, who employ it usually in large doses.,

In some cases, the practitioner may resort to various diuretics in addition to digitalis, as jaborandi, pilocarpin, uva ursi, buchu, acetate of potash, nitrate of potash, sweet spirits of nitre (nitric ether), and other agents.

I have found a benefit from several combinations, as the following:

Diuretic Wine for dema, general anasarca and dropsy, in cardiac and renal diseases.

R. Spirits of chloroform. Acetate of potassa... Tincture of digitali.

....f drams iv .....drams iv ..f drams ij

Infusion of buchu to make in all.........f oz x M. Sig.-Tablespoonful to two tablespoonfuls every two to four hours..

We have thus presented a few practical observations and suggestions, with the hope that they may prove of practical value.

In the treatment of the dropsical effects of hepatic, portal, cardiac and renal lesions and obstructions with purgatives and diuretics, the physician should endeavor to sustain the strength of his patients. No fixed rule can be laid down as to the amounts of the various diuretics and purgatives to be used in any given