Tocacco Lotion for Pruritus Vulvæ. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-If Dr. A. C. Machette will order a strong decoction of plug tobacco to bathe the vulva with, he will positively cure his pruritus vulvæ. AUGUST A. KLEIN, M.D., 2 Rutland St., Boston, Mass. Simple Treatment for Intestinal Catarrh in Chil dren. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-For the benefit of Dr. M. R. Peters (page 290) and others that may be concerned, I would say that I have had gratifying success with a simple treatment for infantile catarrh of the bowels. 1. Clean out the intestinal tract with a good dose of castor oil, including one drop of turpentine. 2. Make a four ounce solution of one tablet (gr.) arsenite of copper, and one tablet of chlorodyne, such as made by Mulford & Co. or Parke, Davis & Co.; sweeten with sugar or flavored syrup. (preserves syrup, as can be found in nearly every household, is good) and of this give one teaspoonful every hour the first day, every two hours the second day, and three every hours the third day, if necessary. I hardly ever use more than half of such four ounce solution in one case, and scarcely ever have occasion to supplement anything else. I always instruct to keep the child as comfortable as possible, guard the diet, and never wake it to give the medicine. I admire THE WORLD for its eminently practical character, and from that standpoint I offer this mite. A. S. TODD, M.D., Elberton, Ga. Tests for Alcohol. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-In regard to Dr. G. M. Morton's inquiry for a test for alcohol, I must say his question is a vague one. Alcohol is tested mainly for water, methyl alcohol, organic bases, fusel oil (amylic alcohol), aldehyd or furfurol, any one of which may exist as an impurity or adulterant in ethylic alcohol. From his letter I imagine he wants a test for water in alcohol. There are inany methods of detecting water and determining the percentage, some of the simplest of which I give. 1. Alcohol containing more than 25 per cent. of water will not burn in a lamp. 2. Add small amount of finely powdered, fused potass. carb.; shake; if 2 per cent. water is present, the carbonate becomes damp; if more, it dissolves. 3. Anhydrous cupric sulphate (white) becomes blue Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-The test which I desired to obtain for alcoholic liquors was to detect adulterations and fraud. I am satisfied that some druggists are using artificial cheap Wines and poor liquors in prescriptions. should be the fermented juice of grapes. distillation of ferBrandy is obtained by mented grapes. Whiskey by distillation of fermented grain, usually corn, wheat and rye. Rum from fermented molasses, etc. How are physicians to know that druggists are dispensing pure liquors in prescriptions? Fraudulent port wines are made of old hard cider, alcohol, cinnamon, cloves, alum and water. Sherry wine, of old cider, alcohol, water, coloring and flavoring. Brandy, of alcohol, water, acetic ether, caramel q. s. to color. Whiskey, of alcohol, essence of bourbon, prune juice, caramel q. s. to color. There are many other formulas which are used in preparing artificial liquors. I am of the opinion that many druggists are not dispensing the best liquors in prescriptions, and that the medical profession is being deceived, and that patients are being defrauded, and that possibly, in many acute cases, valuable lives may be lost on account of fraud and deception on the part of some druggists. Many druggists are not selling better grades than saloons and many are no more conscientious than saloon keepers in regards to the quality of liquors they dispense in doctors' prescriptions. I am anxious to find a cure for this evil. G. M. MORTON, M.D,, Toronto, S. Dak. four of the whisky were colored with caramel and flavored with essential oils. Every druggist should test his stock of such goods and report to his jobber. The State liquor law has practically made it impossible for a druggist to sell enough in ten years to pay his license for a single year. There are no drug stores known to this committee where doctors psescribe enough liquor to pay anything like $20 per year. If, then, any is kept in stock, it should be of the best quality. Any pharmacist can apply one or two rough tests that will answer his requirements. When half an ounce of liquor is shaken up with two drams of concentrated ether, on settling it should show a line of demarkation at the same height as when the same test is applied to a sample of dilute alcohol, that he knows to contain 50 per cent. by volume of absolute alcohol. On evaporating a weighed quantity over a water bath, the dried residue should not weigh more than of the total weight, and should not taste or smell of caramel, and should not taste unusually sweet or have a spicy flavor.] told her she would kill it, but she said she had raised more children than I had, or ever will; said she would give it corn bread and meat and other articles, that I am sure would have killed me, much less the babe. To make matters short, she had her way, and last week she showed me the baby-as fine and hearty a child as I ever laid eyes on. She continued to feed it, she said, and had a good laugh at me, because I had said it would die if she fed it. "Why," said she, "you could not kill it if you fed it on litwood knots." I said that I had no doubt but that it could stand it. I find that many mothers raise their babies from the very cradle by hand, and many do not have cows' milk for it, either; and if you tell them about food hurting it they only laugh at you. While I always make mothers give nothing but milk to babies until the first tooth appears, and deem it brutality to feed an infant on such indigestible stuff, still I would like to know how a baby can live on such food at an age when the stomach is intended to digest only milk. Is the stomach of an infant sufficiently That Mysterious Skin Disease on the Hand.-As to developed to digest food that a man can hardly Feeding Young Babies. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Many thanks to some of your readers for replies to my queries, by private letter as well as through your journal. For gall stones every one recommends olive oil. I have been successful with that remedy once, but having used other drugs at the same time, I was not sure. Dr. Waugh says chloroform will not dissolve gall stones. I agree with him. My idea was taken from "Flint's Practice of Medicine," page 134. My case of sore hand is of some interest. Dr. Waugh is wrong when he suspects syphilis; but he only suspects. This case is one of a disease that is never spoken of in text books, and so was overlooked by me for the time, but I have it at last. It is a Southern disease, so far as I can learn, and is known as ground itch, dew poison, etc. All children who run barefooted in the morning dew have it. It was carried to the woman's hands from the cow's teats. It is caused by a microscopic insect, I am sure, as any germicide will cure it, and nothing but a germicide will. On January 9th, 1894, I was called to see a lady with pneumonitis, but found her moribund; and, she having a baby six weeks old, I warned the family to give the little one to a near relative, who had a babe about the same age. Greatly to my surprise, the grandmother said she could and would, raise it by feeding, and gave the little one a potato in my presence. I digest? While I do not believe it is still this baby has survived and gotten fat on it; and I can recall at least a half-dozen more babes in this section that have had the same treatment. I would be pleased to see the subject discussed in your journal. Knowing these facts, can one be surprised, in visiting a cemetery, to find two small graves to one large one? and is it justice to place the average life of man at the medium figure of all deaths, and let infantile mortality be taken into account? Why, many babes are murdered with food. W. WALTER TISON, M.D., Snead's, Fla. Metallic Body Swallowed. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-In THE MEDICAL WORLD of August, page 290, Dr. John M. Bingay, of Tusket, Nova Scotia, Canada, asks a question concerning a cent which trayeled down the throat of one of his little patients. On July 2d, a child of about eighteen months, swallowed a cent. The parents sought aid from the family physician, and he advised a physic and gave some medicine internally. The family became dissatisfied with the treatment, owing to the fact that the child was unable to swallow, except liquids. They sent for me on July 7th. I saw the case and succeeded in forcing the cent (which had lodged in the esophagus) into the stomach. I then ordered mashed potatoes and food of such a nature that would produce a solid movement of the bowels, so as to cause the cent to become coated and prevent irritation during its trip. The child did well until July 21st, when the cent passed, even without the parents knowing it until they found it in the napkin. Uncle Sam's money is good, and usually passes. Perhaps Canadian money is just as good. J. S. BEAMENSDERFER, M.D., Manheim, Pa. myself thought that her hours of life were very few indeed. I gave her pills containing iron, quinine and digitalis, also ordered the inhalations to be continued and to day I was told that she feels better, and in fact, feels quite well. I don't think she is going to be cured, be- Inhalations of Acetic Acid in Respiratory Affec- Editor MEDICAL and laboring for breath. She gave a history of night sweats, family tuberculosis, pain in the larynx, etc. I On examination, I was not able to detect any signs of tuberculosis, but signs of asthma. I gave her the following prescription: B. Ammon chlor...................................... Ext. grindis robustæ... ...drams ii ......dram i .........ounce i .q. 8. ounces iv At the same time I ordered acetic acid inhalations three or four times a day. A few days later I was called again to relieve her of an attack of pleurisy from a cold. She was perfectly satisfied with the first medicine I gave her. It relieved the asthma like magic, cured the trouble in the larynx, stopped the night sweats and gave her appetite. She told me no doctor before could ever relieve her and she don't remember the time when she had any desire for food. This time I gave her salicylate of soda. I always give that in the first stage of pleurisy, if there is the slightest heumatic history, with gratifying results. I also gave some digitalis, her heart being weak and the stitch disappeared before 24 hours. A week ago I was called again, she this time complaining only of weakness. She did not take any medicine for two weeks, put aside the inhalations, because she said it seemed to upset her stomach. pre scribed for her or the acetic acid inhalation. The patient thinks that the medicine prescribed acted like magic but don't deny the good effect of acetic acid inhalation. rational, because, by giving her digitalis, I certainly think that my treatment was quinine and iron, I put the heart, blood and stomach into shape, thereby enforcing the resisting forces to disease; but I also think, though not yet convinced of its specific action, that acetic acid inhalations had a good share in it. Acetic acid, I think, may prove a good remedy in respiratory affections. It is a very old remedy and perhaps one of the oldest in medical history. My grandmother used it as a house-hold remedy. I was delighted to read Dr. W. B. Thistle's treatment of typhoid fever in the July number. I carried that plan of treatment in my mind a number of months before it appeared in your valuable journal, which brings so many good tidings for humanity, and I thought, "I'll carry that treatment out as soon as I shall bave the first chance to do it." It is a good plan if treatment. By the use of cathartics, the septic material present in the alimentary tract is swept out and by the use of antiseptics, its formation is prevented. I adopted a similar manner of treatment for diarrhea and cholera infantum and other gastro-intestinal troubles of children, giving them ol. ricini. zizi, three or four times a day, following each passage by the proper dose of salol or sulpho carbolate of zinc. By this means not only were all my cases cured in a comparatively short time, in this city where so many children succumb to that disease every day, but also the nature of the disease changed it took on a much milder form. I based this method of treatment upon the words of an eminent authority who impressed it 4 upon my mind. "Learn to follow nature's foot-steps and help her where she is incompetent, etc."-McCorkle. If nature starts a diarrhea it is a conservative process to get rid of an irritant particle of food or poison introduced from without. One dose of castor oil or any other cathartic does as much work as five or six efforts on the part of nature, and, now by administering cathartics where there is a conservative diarrhea we lessen the severity of exhaustion which follows such a diarrhea. By lessening the number of nature's efforts, the poison is gotten rid of more quickly and we prevent absorption. Of course, stimulants, fresh air and regulation of diet should not be forgotten. Everybody knows the good effects produced by intestinal antiseptics. Brethren, this is not a new mode of treatment. Look up medical history, buy old books and writings of practice of medicine, the same as I do, and you will find that it was used be. fore. "There is nothing new under the sun." MAX FRIEDLANDER, M.D., 5 Sumner Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. Personal Reminiscence of Dr. Green. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I notice that J. R. Thompson, M.D., of Woodburn, Ky., would like to know who Dr. Green, a specialist in lung diseases, was. I matriculated as a practitioner of three years' practice in the New York Medical College in the winter of 1855 and 1856, located on Thirteenth street, East Broadway. Horace Green, M.D., L.L.D., was president of that college at that time. He informed me that he formerly resided in Vermont. He had an office at No. 12 Waverly Place, New York City, where he treated diseases of the throat aid Jungs as a specialist. He claimed to insert a rubber tube down the bronchial tubes, and also into cavities in the lungs, and inject nitrate of silver, from 5 to 60 grs. to the ounce of water. He claimed he had cured many cases of diseases of the air passages by this treatment. Some half dozen of us attended his clinics twice a week, at his office, 12 Waverly Place. saw him operate many times. We were of the opinion that he did not succeed every timethat occasionally the tube entered the esophagus. Nevertheless, he was quite successful in treating many cases of throat and lung diseases. He prescribed cod liver oil and tonics. He relied on nitrate of silver for a local application, and his treatment for the throat gave good results. His office was thronged with patients. We Dr. Horace Green has been dead many years. A. R. CUMMINGS, M.D., Claremont, N. H. Quiz Department. Questions are solicited for this Column. Communications not accompanied by the proper name and address of the writer (not necessarily for publication), will not be noticed. The great number of requests for private answers, for the information and benefit of the writer, makes it necess ary for us to charge a fee for the time required. This fee will be from one to five dollars, according to the amount of research and writing required. What was the Cause of Death? Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Mrs. C. J., age 37, widow, youngest child age 11, light build, suffered six months with wha' she described as indigestion. At the beginning of illness she had been white washing ceilings, and ever since had felt as if her head wanted to fall backwards. No treatment until a month ago. When seen was emaciated. All organs apparently normal except stomach. Was vomiting everything. Had more or less vomiting for weeks, undi. gested food, stringy mucus and sometimes bile. Temperature normal. Pulse 80 to 90. Tongue bluish and but little coated. Pain in back of neck extending to occiput. Was treated for a catarrhal condition of stomach. In less than three weeks there was marked improvement. Then she became apparently hysterical. In a day or two she thought she was offending certain persons. In another day she had done some things that she thought people would misunderstand and think her dishonest. In another day she was mentally deranged; wanted to poison herself; thought her soul was lost. Eyes and facial expression indicated melancholia. Pulse 120. Head at times would fall back and if not watched she would fall on the floor. Much difficulty in swallowing. Not much difficulty in speaking, but she spoke seldom. Was very excited at times. These stages in mental symptoms all occurred in less than a week. On the second day preceding death, she was given a dram and a half of aqueous extract of opium (6 grains morphia to the ounce). This quieted her. On the day previous to her death she was given at 3, 6, 9, and 12 P. M., the following dose : warm until death. Pulse 110 to 80 up to time of death, shortly before which it became weak and intermittent. She died at 2 A. M., ten hours after this condition set in. Was given hypodermically during the first four hours of time, five grains of permanganate of potash. During the last four hours, three sixteenths grain of strychnine. Kept up pretty steady artificial breathing. Used ammonia. Drew off about twelve ounces of normal urine. Could the case be one of acute bulbar paralysis? If simple opium poisoning, then here is a case where the permanganate of potash was of no use, and it was not a bad case of narcosis, if dosage counts for anything. E. T. How Does He Live? Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I have recently made a partial acquaintance with a case of such extraordinary features, at least, to myself, that I wish to place it before the readers of your journal. The reason I have not reported it before now is I have resided in this vicinity only a few months, and the case, from its almost incredible chronicity, had ceased to excite an interest sufficient to be a topic of general conversation; consequently I did not know it till a few weeks ago. On the 23d of July, 1894 I saw the case, and found it as follows: On the forehead, near the scalp, two ulcers, covered by a scab each, of exuded matter, I think very nearly or quite one inch high; near the outer canthus of left eye an enormous depression or hole; alveolar of left sub maxillary broken up. His right arm is flexed on the humerus, right hand extended or thrown back on forearm; first phalanges drawn backward at right angles; the remaining phalanges drawn inward; both hands are in the same condition. In his left arm, in the neighborhood of where Colles' fracture occurs, is a solution of continuity, or a separation of radius and ulna. The cuticle and tissue, if besides any, the skin, is deeply constricted. In order to be sure about this, I took hold of the hand. It admitted enarthrodial movement. Lower extremities are covered with scaly scabs, which almost defy description. The most wonderful part of this brief sketch is that this person, George W. Johnson, is thirty-one years old, and has been afflicted, more or less, during twenty-nine years of his life, and during the sixteen years past has been a literal helpless burden on his parents and family. His position, which is intermediate between the supine and right lateral, has been continuously maintained, day and night, during the |