The more diffusible stimulants may also be indicated. Several years ago, Dr. Wells, of Minster, Ohio, published a little paper on the treatment of the algid condition by the mustard pack. He directs that a cloth, sufficiently large to envelope the child from the feet to the chin, be saturated with highly sinapized warm water and wrapped suddenly around the child, the whole being covered by a thick and warm blanket. After the lapse of half an hour, more or less, warmth will have returned to the surface, a natural perspiration will have appeared, the vomiting will have ceased and the alvine discharges will have become less frequent. The child is now to be taken from the pack and kept closely enveloped in a warm blanket.

Opium is generally indicated, but should be used cautiously. Calomel, finely subdivided by trituration with sugar of milk, acts as a sedative to the nerve-ends, and checks fermentation. It is supposed also to act as a deobstruant—if any body knows what that means.

To aid the digestion of food, pepsin and lactopeptine are indicated. Limewater, freely used (25 per cent.) with the milk, will prevent the formation. of hard curds, and thus render digestion easier. Where the milk passes away undigested, after the failure of these means, the latest remedy, recommended by Prof. J. Lewis Smith, is extract of pancreas, prepared by Fairchild. For an infant up to six months, one and one-fourth grains of the extract, with four grains of bicarbonate of soda, should be placed in the nursing bottle with a gill of cool water and a gill of fresh milk. Place the bottle in a basin of water (as hot as the hand can be immersed in, without discomfort, for a minute), and let it remain there for twenty minutes. The milk thus becomes sufficiently peptonized. If the peptonizing process is continued longer, the milk becomes bitter. The milk should be prepared just before feeding, and not allowed to stand.

The subject of infant foods is an interesting and important one, but cannot be taken up here.

THIS IS THE SEASON when college circulars add largely to the physician's mail, and also to the contents of his waste-basket. Many of our exchanges are given to moralizing, as they view these accumulating evidences of thrift, but this JOURNAL, though, like Barnum's show, "highly moral," never moralizes.

ONE OF THE Cleveland Medical Colleges announces, as one of its Faculty, a Chaplain! We know of several colleges which need praying for —and with—but we know of no others that own up to it.

A DISAPPOINTMENT.-Some three years ago, a wealthy citizen of Columbus, since deceased, donated $10,000, in R. R. bonds, and a lot, to a local medical college for the purpose of establishing a hospital. The lot is located at the extreme limit of the city, on the flats west of the river; a location about as illy adapted to hospital purposes as could well be imagined. On the strength of this gift, the aforesaid school has stated in its announcements, for two years, that it was in possession of an "admirable site" for a hospital, and of the "necessary funds" for its erection; and students came on fully expecting to find the hospital, which was to "contain one hundred beds," fully equipped and running. They were disappointed. The last announcement of the school indicates that the building of the hospital has been indefinitely postponed, owing to the "high prices of building materials and of skilled labor." As these prices are, however, absolutely lower now than for years past, we suppose the reference is to the prices as "high" relating to the small amount of funds; for prices must certainly be very low when it shall be possible to erect a $75,000 hospital with $10,000.

And when it is built, if ever, where is the $20,000 per annum to come from to run it? Columbus already has a hospital, commodious, wellarranged, and centrally located, containing 200 beds, and capable of meeting all demands that will be made for many years to come; so that our citizens are not likely to feel like taxing themselves to support an unnecessary institution, even if certain interested parties are disappointed at their apathy.

THE TOLEDO Medical College has certainly turned over a new leaf; although whether in response to our kindly criticisms it does not state. It has, almost entirely, dropped the boasting style of its former announcement, with its numerous superlative adjectives. It has abandoned its summer graduating course, and now, nominally at least, meets all the requirements of the different Boards of Health. Some doubting Thomas may question the sincerity of its preliminary examination, and the extent of its clinics, but we are glad to find its trying to avoid at least the appearance of evil. Its class of matriculants has increased to a flattering degree.

MEDICAL COLLEGE STOCK seems to be a drug in the market, in this city. One of the largest stockholders in the Columbus Medical College, has been offering his stock for sale for several months, in one of our leading newspapers, but without effecting a sale, though asking only ten cents on the dollar.

THE LAST CATALOGUE of the Columbus Medical College gives the names of 77 students as being in attendance at that institution last winter. Although several of those here named were not really in attendance, and hence the class is made to appear larger than it actually was, this is perhaps excusable, on the ground of human weakness, when, on examination of the previous catalogue, we find that the class of the year before was sixty per cent. larger than that of last year! other medical college of this city had, meanwhile, increased over twenty per cent.

While the class of the

The cause for this enormous falling off is, of course, apparent. The immediate cause was the exposure and ventilation which this school received during the previous session: few students, when other and better schools are open to them, care to subject themselves to the stigma of having attended, or graduated from, a college whose diplomas are disgraced and whose record is foul. The young graduate finds it difficult to estab

lish himself, even under the most favorable circumstances; and he must be thoughtless indeed who would voluntarily handicap himself by practicing on such a diploma, whose legality, even, has always beeen questionable.

The college has poor accommodations; no hospital, or prospect of any; no adequate means of illustration; not a single medical clinic has been given for two years, and its surgical clinic last winter was so barren as to be simply farcical. Its only positive possession, indeed, seems to be that of a badly soiled reputation. With such a state of affairs, its present meager showing is but a natural result, and simply indicates the near approach of its end. Ohio has plenty of good medical colleges, with untarnished reputations; it has no need of its poor ones, which assuredly "must go."

Ar the meeting of the W. Va. State Board of Health, last month, Dr. T. A. Harris was elected President, and Dr. James E. Reeves re-elected Secretary. The Secretary was instructed to put the State in the best possible sanitary shape, in anticipation of a visitation of cholera.

DR. JAS. E. REEVES, of Wheeling, W. Va., and Dr. T. A. Emmet, of New York, were elected to Honorary Membership in the Connecticut State Medical Society, at the last meeting of that body..

DR. N. F. SCHWARTZ, formerly of Ohio, but for several years practicing in Pittsburgh, has just located at Canal Dover.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE Dublin Journal of Medical Science, speaking of the use of vaseline to prevent the loss of alcohol from specimen jars, says that in a paper with this title, by Prof. Burt G. Wilder and Dr. Simon H. Gage, of Ithaca, N. Y., attention was called to the fact that the petroleum preparation termed vaseline was known to be practically unaffected by ordinary temperatures and by most substances. In the Journal of the Chemi

cal Society for July, 1882, page 785, it was said to be sparingly soluble in cold, strong alcohol, and completely in hot, but to separate out on cooling. After trying various substances-wax, paraffine oil, and glycerine—with but partial success, the use of vaseline was suggested by the two authors independently and nearly at the same time. The experiments tried last spring indicated that during three months, at ordinary spring and summer temperatures, there was no appreciable loss of ninety-five per cent. alcohol from glass phials or jars, whether upright or inverted or on the side, provided the corks were smeared on the bottom as well as on the side. Ground-glass stoppers were anointed and firmly inserted, and the rubber rings of fruit jars and the specimen jars, made by Whitall, Tatum & Co., were coated on both sides and the covers well screwed down. The authors had also used the vaseline for preventing the loss of other liquids, including chloroform and oil of turpentine, as a lubricator of drawers, and to prevent the sticking of the covers or stoppers of cement phials, and for the prevention of rust upon steel instruments.

SAD OUTLOOK FOR THE BRITISH PROFESSION.-During the past ten years we have watched the medical practice in London very closely, and we can truly say that, as regards general practice, it has been going from bad to worse, and from worse to still lower depths up to the present time. At no time has the outlook been worse than it is just now. Every department of practice is overcrowded, and a large proportion of practitioners have no notion whatever of professional honor and dignity. They act as if they were engaged in a trade, and do not care how small a fee they accept. There is scarcely a district in the metropolis but swarms with so-called "dispensaries" and open surgeries, where advice and medicine can be obtained for a shilling, and in the poor neighborhoods qualified surgeons are content with a fee of sixpence, whilst some are even content

with fourpence for each attendance, and we have known a qualified doctor advertise to give advice and medicine for twopence! And it is of no use to complain of those who so degrade the profession; their answer is that they must accept low fees or starve.—Students' Journal.—Louisville News.

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SIZE OF DRAINS AND SOIL PIPE.-In Great Britain 6-inch soil pipes were formerly common to receive the wastes from four or five waterclosets. At present 5-inch and 41⁄2-inch are the usual sizes, even for a single water-closet. Hellyer claims that the soil pipes should be no larger than the outlet of the water-closet, and sarcastically says it is not wanted for a coal schute or dust-shaft, but to be well flushed at every using. For a private house, where care would be shown in using fixtures, he thought a 31⁄2-inch lead soil pipe ample for a tier of three waterclosets, and a 42-inch pipe for twelve closets; the smaller pipe kept cleaner than one of larger size. Whether Mr. Hellyer would favor an iron soil pipe of like size is not to be taken for granted, as he always assumes that lead is smoother and can be kept cleaner than cast iron. Hellyer refers to the architects and others who want good strong plumbing-using the best material, but requiring very large soil pipes and drains. These are as common here as in Great Britain, and we have frequently come upon their work-huge 10-inch wrought iron drains, with hubs as large as a barrel.

Col. Waring's vigorous advocacy of small drains has converted most persons to admit their advantage. His experiments at Saratoga showed that the drainage of a large hotel, containing 2,000 occupants, could be carried off in a 6-inch pipe. For an ordinary city dwelling a 4-inch drain is ample, even including the rainfall, while for a large house or a French flat a 6-inch pipe will suffice. The common objection to small drains is that they may get choked with articles thrown into them by careless servants—as scrubbing brushes, towels, broken glasses, crockery, spoons, forks, etc., all of which have been found in them; but a 4-inch drain will carry off any article which can pass through a water-closet or sink trap, and hence it is quite large enough to meet that objection, so long as it is laid with a proper pitch, no angles, and is well flushed. The growing use of modern water-closets which discharge several gallons of water each time they are used, is an additional aid to keeping house-drains clean and clear from obstructions. Small drains are more likely to be self-cleaning than larger ones. A stream of sewage that fills the former