"The question of the safety of the patient as regards the remedies dispensed is a very important one, the druggists make the most extravagant claims for the great security of patients in taking remedies compounded by them, and boldly assert that such security is lacking in medicines dispensed by doctors. But druggists have no means of checking themselves in filling prescriptions. Placing a mark on the prescription beside the name of the remedy is no guarantee that the remedy was used as directed. The druggist could have picked up the wrong bottle. In a conversation on this subject with a wholesale druggist who asserted that physicians should not dispense at all, giving for one reason the possibility of error by the doctor, he was asked if the druggists did not make mistakes. He admitted, "That's it, they make barrels of them!'" Ignatia Amara. Ignatia constitutes a very useful medicament in many atonic conditions, and when clearly indicated it has no superior as a nerve tonic and nerve stimulant. It stimulates the heart and blood-vessels, and is often employed for this purpose with the most gratifying results. In angina, with feeble heart and arteries, the pain coming from distension and want of power to contract, it is above all others the indicated remedy. In hysteria ignatia exerts a controlling influence which is promptly manifested. In this connection a case in practice may not prove devoid of interest. A woman called on me and said she wished to consult me in regard to her daughter, before placing her under my professional care, as the young lady was unable to speak of her condition without crying. She said her daughter was very despondent and that the family feared that she was becoming insane. The following day the young woman called, and, as I questioned her in regard to her symptoms and sensations, she cried for a few moments and then began to laugh in a most boisterous manner. This continued for a few minutes, when she was attacked by cramps in her hands and chest. These disappeared in a few moments, leaving her very despondent and much exhausted. I prescribed pulsatilla and viburnum, and directed her to call again in one week which she did. She was less despondent and the cramps were less severe, but that the crying and laughing was not improved she afforded an abundance of evidence. I discontinued the pulsatilla and viburnum and prescribed ignatia in small doses. In one week she called again, when she appeared cheerful and said she had not had one of her "spells" in two days. The medicine was continued for two months, when she was discharged, as there was not the slightest indication of her old trouble. Ignatia is a potent remedy in general and local paralysis, and in facial twitchings it has often proved curative. In choreic and neurasthenic affections it is entitled to consideration, and in mental depression it has produced gratifying results. In neuralgia it affords marked relief, and in epilepsy it is said to have exerted a modifying influence. It is also a good remedy in atony of the reproductive organs. Ignatia is especially indicated in the treatment of anemic patients. The following are among the most important specific indications for ignatia: Deep-seated and dull pain in the epigastrium; pain shooting from the right hypochondrium to the shoulders; epileptiform diseases of women and children; sexual frigidity in women; hysteria, with mental depression or excitement; acute pain in the head and pressure in the medulla; general hyperesthesia of all the tissues; convulsions of children from intestinal irritation, when there is no cerebral irritation; dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea. Ignatia may be prescribed as follows: Ignatia, gtt. v to x; water, iv. Teaspoonful every two hours.-Dr. J. W. Fyfe in the Eclectic Medical Journal. Items A Happy New Year. Mother of Nine in Eighteen Months.-Mrs. Drewry of Spencer Co., Ky., is reported to be the mother of nine children in eighteen months. Mrs. Drewry, who is about thirty years old, gave birth to five children in May, 1914, and on November 5, 1915, to four boys. Seven of the nine, all boys, have thus far survived.-Ex. Dr. Cecile Lenore Greil, one of the survivors of the Ancona massacre, is a graduate of the New York Eclectic College in 1910, and was formerly assistant neurologist to Mt. Sinai Dispensary in this city.-Record. We had a very pleasant visit from Drs. W. S. Glenn, Sr. and Jr. Dr. Glenn, Jr., is at present serving an internship in one of Greater New York's hospitals. Dr. Charles Woodward announces the removal of his office to 607 Deming Place, Chicago. Homeopathic Recorder.-The Homeopathic Recorder is one. of the brightest of our exchanges. Subscribe for it. Do you own a copy of Extracts from Lectures on Therapeutics(Boskowitz)? It contains much of value to the practicing physician. Dr. J. De Beer of Brooklyn paid us a call last month and seems as active and energetic as he was twenty years ago. Modern Medical Science. Here is a bit of it from a paper by Frank Cole Madden, M. D., Melb., F. R. C. S., Eng., Professor of Surgery, and so on. He has the leading place in the Lancet, Aug. 7: "Vaccines may be used diagnostically also. Thus, if a good dose of a strongly gonococcic vaccine fails to produce any reaction in a case of urethral discharge, it almost certainly means that the organism producing it is not the gonococcus." Granted. But after the injection does not the patient have the infection who did not have it before? The gonorrhoeal infection, we are told, persists for years, if not for a lifetime, so why subject the patient to it merely to learn what a good physician should learn from observation and inquiry? If public drinking cups are a "menace" what must be the effect of a strong injection of the gonococcus?-Homeopathic Recorder. The "Wassermann Test."-This is from the Ohio Transactions, 1915: "Dr. J. E. Studebaker, Springfield: I want to commend Dr. Grosvenor on one thing, and that is his strong statement as to the unreliability of the Wassermann reaction. This is the most important thing heard today, that the Wassermann reaction is a failure. Any variation in the technique of the smallest iota will vitiate the whole process. I commend him for his public statement to that effect. I believe that people have been led to believe that the Wassermann reaction is a thing that never fails." Dr. Grosvenor dryly remarked, "The Wassermann is a good test for discernible syphilis."-Homeopathic Recorder. Ellingwood promises us a new book soon, and it is sure to be a good one. Dr. Joseph Lieberman has removed his office to 622 Tyler Place, West New York, N. J. Christmas Seals.-The State Charities Aid Association of New York has distributed throughout the State 15,000,000 Red Cross Christinas seals, the proceeds of the sale of which will be devoted to tuberculosis work as usual. Wasserman's Test.-One learned gentleman recently told the medical world that alcohol made the Wasserman test useless. Another that alcohol was the chief factor in the acquisition of the disease for which the test is made. So the honest and youthful searcher after truth goes round and round until he gets dizzy. Change Hospital Name.-By a recent order of the Supreme Court the Red Cross Hospital on Central Park West, New York, will be permitted to change its name to the Park Hospital. The institution was founded in 1894 as a branch of the National Red Cross, but it is felt now that the change in name will give it a wider scope and permit of greater accomplishments. Prof. Charles Lloyd of Brooklyn was in to see us last week and in spite of his 77 years is an active, enthusiastic practitioner. The Committees of the National as printed in the last Quarterly do not contain a single name of the "Old Guard" of the State of New York, but the membership can be assured that they are still alive and active. To Study Microbes.—A course of lectures on "The Haunts and Habits of Microbes" is to be given to the employees of the Department of Health in the laboratory of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College on alternate Saturdays from November 20 until next May, under the direction of Dr. William H. Park, director of the Research. Laboratory. It is thought that such a course will serve to familiarize. the sanitary and food inspectors of the department with some of the advanced scientific aspects of their work. The tincture of dioscorea villosa, five drops given three times a day, rarely fails to cure nocturnal emissions.-Summary. Au Revoir. AN EFFICIENT ENDAMEBICIDE IN AMEBIC DYSENTERY AND PYORRHEA ALCRESTA TABLETS OF IPECAC LILLY An Adsorption Compound of Ipecac Alkaloids with Lloyd's Reagent. CAUSE NO NAUSEA Alcresta Tablets of Ipecac are uncoated and disintegrate readily in the stomach, but do not release the alkaloids until the alkaline intestinal secretions are reached, hence they cause no gastric disturbance and obviate the necessity of hypodermatic injections. Convenient, Economical-The Most Successful IN AMEBIC DYSENTERY-Indicated in acute and chronic cases and meet the requirements of a prophylactic, being inexpensive; give good results quickly and are easily administered. IN PYORRHEA-The usual local dental surgical treatment should be given in conjunction with their administration as an endamebicide. Supplied through the drug trade in bottles of 40 and 500 tablets. Each tablet contains the alkaloids of 10 grains of Ipecac, U. S. P. For further information address the Home Office ELI LILLY & COMPANY Home Office and Laboratories-INDIANAPOLIS, U. S. A. NEW YORK CHICAGO ST. LOUIS KANSAS CITY NEW ORLEANS |