undertaken. Morrison believes that the surgeon should consent to operate only opon the urgent solicitation of the patient, and after she has been told of the recurrence of the disease. Velpeau, who regards cancers as primarily a local affection, says that an operation is justifiable only at the very incipiency of the trouble. And finally Verneuil has expressed some doubts as to the advisability of amputation of the breast, having observed after operation many cases of pleurisy which he regarded as cancerous in their nature. Lemaitre's plea is that as long as the cancerous disease is allowed to concen.rate itself in the breast the internal organs are comparatively safe, but that removal of the mammary glands invites a metastasis to other more vital organs.

The question is one which has not resolved itself into an axiom, and the indications are that it is destined to be the subject of still further discussion before it can be regarded as settled.-Medical Record.

THE ACTION OF MERCURY UPON THE BLOOD.-Dr. L. Gallard, in an experimental study to determine the action of mercury upon the blood, concludes:

1. That the number of the red corpuscles may diminish slightly at the beginning of the administration without regaining their original proportion, but more frequently it increases progressively, until about the fourteenth day of treatment, to undergo at this time a slight diminution.

2. The hæmoglobin always increases progressively until abou the twenty-fourth day of treatment, and having attained at thi time its greatest abundance descends to its original proportions and if the treatment is continued sinks below it.

3. The abundance of hæmoglobin increases in a proportion be yond that of the red corpuscles, and may even increase when thes diminish, whereby mercury may be compared to those metal which induce the production of hæmoglobin.

4. The weight of the body increases almost constantly, thoug it is impossible to determine the exact relation which exists be

tween such increase and the condition of the blood.--Archives Générales de Médecine, November, 1885.

PRURITUS OF WOMEN. Local Treatment.-All acquainted with the incessant suffering which some women undergo from pruritus at the period of the menopause, must be very desirous of being made acquainted with a prompt remedy for so distressing an affection. Whether it arise from the presence of prurigo, urticaria, eczema, herpes; or whether it exists without any eruption at all, it is alike difficult to allay, as the great number of remedies which have been proposed testifies. Of these varatria is by far the most efficacious. When the pruritus is localised at groins, arm-pits, walls of the abdomen, or behind the ears, gentle friction night and morning with an ointment, consisting of thirty parts of lard and a quarter of a part of veratria, usually gives relief. When the pruritus is generalised, the internal administration of the vetraria is preferable. Two centigrammes should be made into ten pills with liquorice powder, of which from two to six should be taken daily, either half an hour before, or three hours after meals. Only one should be taken at a time, an additional one being given each successive day until the maximum of six (three milligrammes) is attained.-Dr. Chévon, in Le Progrès Mdical.-Med. Times.

ATROPIA IN ACUTE CORYZA.-In all recent works on nasal diseases no mention is made of atropia as a remedy in acute coryza. The use of the drug in this disease is by no means a new one, and I make no claim to advancing a new idea. My object is simply to urge upon the profession a large use of the remedy, and note the results.

The first case in which I used atropia for acute coryza, was that of a man in middle life, who had "caught" a severe "cold in the head" several days previously. When he came for advice the disease had reached an extreme stage. There was severe

front headache, a hot, burning sensation in the nose, forehead, and cheeks, there was some conjunctivties, and very profuse mucopurulent discharge, which was extremely iritating. The skin about the nose was irritated and inflamed, and the general condition was one of great misery. Atropia was given with the idea of decreasing the amount of the discharge. The dose was 1.120th of a grain, repeated after four hours. It had a most marked effect, and the next day the patient was quite free from the headache, heat, and swelling, and from discharge.

Since then the remedy has been tried in a large number of cases, in all stages of the disease, and at all ages, with uniform success. It is now my established practice, and is preferable to cocaine in this, that no local application is needed to the nose, thus saving a very painful manipulation.

The only objection that has been made to the treatment, is where the eyesight is troubled. But the dose needed to cure the coryza is not sufficient to produce much disturbance of vision. It is only necessary to influence the secretion, and an extreme degree of dryness of the throat and nasal passages is of no advantage.-R. Gray, M.D., of Jacksonville, Fla., in Medical News.

THE METRIC SYSTEM.-Whatever may be the absolute merits of the metric system, as applied to physicians' prescriptions, in communities where it has been a part of every man's education, from childhood up, it is evident, as we have several times insisted on, that the attempt to transplant it to America is beset with some practical difficulties that are likely for many years to stand in the way of its adoption. Not the least of these difficulties lies in the fact that the use of the system adds an element of perplexity to acts which in themselves are always more or less fraught with danger-the writing and the compounding of prescriptions. This objection has lately had an illustration that wellnigh proved tragical, a Jersey City apothecary having put up a certain number of grammes of a violent poison, instead of the same number of centigrammes, and having expressed the opinion

that his error was in part due to the confusing effect of the metric system.-N. Y. Medical Journal.

SURGICAL METEOROLOGY.-According to Dr. B. W. Richardson ("Asclepiad "), the time is favorable for operation: a. When the barometer is steadily rising. b. When the barometer is steadily high. c. When the wet-bulb thermometer shows a reading of five degrees lower than the dry-bulb. d. When, with a high barometer and a difference of five degrees in the two thermometers, there is a mean temperature at or above 55° F. The time is unfavorable for operation: a. When the barometer is steadily falling. b. When the barometer is steadily low. c. When the wet-bulb thermometer approaches the dry-bulb within two or three degrees. d. When, with a low barometrical pressure and approach to unity of reading of the two thermometers, there is a mean temperature above 45° and under 55° F.-N. Y. Medical Journal.

BISMUTH IN THE TREATMENT OF SWEATING FEET.-The "Union médicale" cites Vieusse's recommendation of daily frictions with subnitrate of bismuth as a remedy for fœtid perspiration of the feet. The spaces between the toes should not be forgotten. The treatment is to be continued for about a fortnight. After the second or third friction, the sweating becomes less abundant, and the soreness rapidly subsides. The epidermis soon loses its white tint, and adheres more firmly to the subjacent derma, the excessive action of the sudoriparous and sebaceous glands diminishes, the perspiration becomes less irritating, and about the sixth day the skin resumes its natural look.-N. Y. Med. Journal.

A LITTLE fellow, looking rather squeamish, went into a druggist's shop, and with a very doleful look asked for a pennyworth of salts. During the operation of weighing the article he said to the chemist, "Don't give us full weight, for it's me that has to take them!"

The medical wisdom of many of our most important cities was represented on Monday, 'December 9, 1885, at Willard's Hall, in Washington, where this important and eminent Association convened in its thirteenth annual session. The delegates came from nearly every State in the Union and the dominion of Canada. It was called to order at 10 A. M. by the President, Dr. J. C. Reeves, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and after the general routine business was disposed of, the reading of papers commenced.

The first paper was read by Dr. E. M. Hunt, of Trenton, N. J., in which he discussed the various terms now used in sanitary, statistical and parasitical nomenclature.

Dr. John S. Billings, U. S. A., followed in an able and lengthy paper on "Forms of Tables for Vital Statistics." After discussing different forms now in use, he proceeded to explain what ought to be included in or rejected from such tables.

In conclusion, attention was called to the importance of using graphic representations of the results of studies of vital statistics, to be given in the form of diagrams and shaded maps, which, although rather expensive, would be much more satisfactory and cheaper in the end.

An interesting paper followed upon "The Relations of Rain-fall and Water Supply to Cholera," by Dr. Henry B. Baker, of Lansing, Mich., which showed that where the water supply was good and the rain-fall abundant cholera was greatly decreased.

"The Virus of Hog Cholera" was the subject of a paper read by Dr. D. E. Salmon, D. V. S. He estimated the ravages of hog cholera