EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.

J. F. BALDWIN, M. D., Columbus,

EDITOR.

Communications, reports, etc., are solicited from all quarters.

Authors desiring reprints, will receive fifty, free of charge, provided the request for the same accompanies the article.

Subscribers changing their location, are requested to notify the Publishers pomptly, that there may be no delay in receipt of the journal, stating both the new and the fome post-officed address.

We have no authorized Collectors, except such as carry properly made out bills, countersigned by the Publishers. HANN & ADAIR, Publishers, Columbus, ().

THE following are among the eminent foreigners in our profession who died during the past year.

Dr. John Hutton Balfour, emeritus professor of medicine and botany in the University of Edinburgh, died in February, aged seventy-six.

Dr. Alexander Tweedie, of Edinburgh, died May 30th, at the age of ninety. He was the originator of the Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine. Sir Erasmus Wilson, the well-known authority and author on dermatology, died in England August 7th, at the age of seventy-five.

Dr. Julius Cohnheim, professor at Leipsic, best known for his researches on the pathology of inflammation, died August 13th, at the age of forty-five.

Professor Reichert, late professor of anatomy in the University of Berlin, died, aged seventy-three.

Jean Baptiste Dumas, professor of chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, and the friend and disciple of Lavoisier, died April 17th, at the age of eighty-four.

Charles Adolph Wurtz, of Paris, an associate of Dumas, and an equally distinguished chemist, died May 12th. He was a successor of Orfila and of Dumas in the professorship of chemistry.

Dr. Herman von Zeissl, the eminent syphilographer and teacher of Vienna, died September 23d, aged sixty-seven.

Among our own number, we note the following:

Dr. L. P. Yandell, of Louisville, Ky., editor of the Lonisville Medical News and professor of practice of medicine in the University of Louisville, died in March, aged forty-seven.

Joseph Janvier Woodward, Surgeon U. S. A., an original worker in microscopy and micro-photography, and a collaborator upon the early

volumes of the Medical and Surgical History of the War, died August 17th, aged fifty-two.

Dr. Robert E. Rogers, Professor of Chemistry in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, died September 6th, aged seventy.

Dr. Willard Parker, of New York, died April 25th, at the age of eightyfour. He held professorships in the Vermont, the Berkshire, and the Cincinnati Medical Colleges, and from 1839 was for thirty years professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.

Professor Samuel D. Gross, of Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, the most illustrious American surgeon of his time, died May 6th, aged 79.

Alexander E. Dugas, of Augusta, Ga., professor in the Georgia Medical College, and best known for his test for dislocation of the shoulder, died in December, aged forty.

THE NEW SYSTEM OF MEDICINE.-Although not quite ready for general distribution, we have been permitted to examine the first volume of the American System of Practical Medicine, edited by Prof. Wm. Pepper and published by Lea, the issuing of which we announced in our last issue. The publishers were never known, during their entire century of existence, to issue any thing that was not strictly first-class, but they could scarcely have inaugurated a more monumental work than this, for marking their entrance into their second century.

Mr. K. A. Orvis, the veteran canvasser, is the soliciting agent for central Ohio.

CARBONATE OF TITANIUM:-Some of our exchanges are reproducing an article, which first appeared in an Eastern journal, laudatory of this drug(?) as an emmenagogue, or, to speak plainly, an abortifacient. Carbonate of titanium, on analysis, is found to be an impure ferrous salt. The article referred to recommends that it be given in pill form, with aloes, and as the latter is given in large doses the inference is evident that it, and not the titanium, is the real agent. The whole thing seems to be a scheme of a set of sharpers to make money out of a sudden demand, by a certain class of practitioners, for a drug which only those in the scheme can furnish.

TO REMOVE ODORS FROM THE HANDS.-It is said (Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.) that a few drops of fuming hydrochloric acid rubbed over the hands will remove all odor adhering after autopsies or dissecting.

THE SUCCESSFUL REMOVAL OF A TUMOR FROM THE BRAIN.-The patient was under the charge of Dr. Hughes Bennett and Mr. R. J. Godlee. He was a farmer, aged twenty-five, who had been in good health until three years before. He then began to suffer from paroxysms of twitchings in the left side of the face and tongue. Attacks of general convulsions with loss of consciousness supervened, and for two and a half years he continued to suffer from the local spasms and epilepsy. Then spas modic twitchings of the left arm appeared, and the general convulsions ceased. After several months the arm became paretic and the left leg began to twitch. The patient suffered from violent headaches, attacks of vomiting, and a double optic neuritis.

Dr. Bennett concluded: first, that there was a tumor in the brain; second, that it involved the cortical substance; third, that it was probably of limited size, as it had destroyed the center presiding over the hand, and had only caused irritation, without paralysis, of the centers of the leg, face, and eyelids which surround it; and fourth, that it was situated in the neighborhood of the upper third of the fissure of Rolando.

November 25th, Mr. Godlee trephined the skull, and removed a triangular piece of bone over the region corresponding with the upper part of the fissure of Rolando, After the bone was removed, the dura mater was slit up, and the cortex of the brain exposed, but no tumor was visible. The ascending frontal convolution, however, seemed to be somewhat distended. An incision about an inch long was therefore made into it, in the direction of the blood-vessels, and one-fourth of an inch below the surface the growth was found. This was carefully removed, and proved to be a hard glioma about the size of a walnut. The superficial part of this was distinct from the brain matter, and was easily enuclated. The hemorrhage was arrested by means of the galvano-cautery, and the wound brought together with sutures.

The patient did well for about twenty days, all bad symptoms subsiding; but on December 16, he became ill and died on the 20th, of meningitis.

Trephining for the relief of traumatic epilepsy, and for opening abscesses, has become a standard operation; and this is now the third time* that a tumor has been removed, after being accurately located by the symptoms produced. As our knowledge of the different centers of the brain has been almost entirely derived from vivisection of lower animals, this case, notwithstanding its unfortunate result, can but prove a powerful argument in the hands of physiologists against anti-vivisectionist cranks.

*The other two operations being done by Macewen, of Glasgow.

STATE SANITARY ASSOCIATION.-We have received the programme of the second annual meeting of this association, which will be held in the Board of Trade Room, at Columbus, February 5-6. The following papers are announced:

"The Tobacco Habit."-Lew Slusser, M. D., Secretary City Board of Health, Canton.

"Sewer vs. Surface Drainage and Combustion."-O. D. Childs, M.D., Akron.

"Privies-Sanitary Care of Privies."-G. S. Franklin, A. M., M. D., Past Assistant Surgeon U. S. N., Chillicothe.

"A General Knowledge of Medicine an Essential Part of the Equipment of a Superintendent of Schools."-Hon. LeRoy D. Brown, Ph. D., State Commissioner of Schools, Hamilton.

"The Relation of the Literary to the Medical Colleges."-E. T. Nelson, Ph. D., Professor of Physiology and Geology Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware.

"Education the Basis of Sanitary Advancement."-G. C. Ashmun, M. D., City Health Officer, Cleveland.

"The Hygiene of the Working Classes."-W. J. Scott, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, University of Western Reserve, Cleveland.

"Effects of School Work on Female Health."-C. A. Lee Reed, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, Hamilton.

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Heating and Ventilation."-D. R. Silver, M. D., Member City Board of Health, Sidney.

"Some Observations on the Means of Water Purification, with Reference to the Water Supply of Youngstown, Ohio."-John McCurdy, M. D., President Mahoning County Medical Society, Member City Board of Health, Youngstown.

"Impurities of Water, and Nature's Way of Cleansing."-H. J. Herrick, M. D., Professor of Gynecology and Hygiene, University of Western Reserve, Cleveland.

"Climatic Changes in Ohio, from the Destruction of the Forests and the Drainage of the Land, and its Effects on the Health of the People." -R. Harvey Reed, M. D., Mansfield,

"What Shall be done with the Sewage."-Prof. Ed. Orton, LL. D., State Geologist, Columbus.

"The Plumber and his Relation with the Architect."-James Allison, Esq., Vice-President American Master Plumbeas' Association, Cincinnati.

Full information can be obtained of the Secretary, R. Harvey Reed, M. D., Mansfield, Ohio.

MIXED ANESTHESIA. *-At a debate in the Societe de Biologie the following remarks were made by M. Dastre: "I have for a long time sought to increase the effects of chloroform, at the same time diminishing its dangers by preceding its administration by some narcotic, as morphia or chloral. I have associated atropia with the morphia for some time past, and with the best effects. This plan has been also followed by M. Aubert, a surgeon of Lyons. Before etherizing the patients he gave them hypodermically one gramme of a solution made by adding to twenty grammes of distilled water, ten centigrammes of chlorohydrate of morphia and five milligrammes of sulphate of atropia. The anesthesia obtained in this manner is perfectly calm and motionless, it is not accompanied by muscular movements, nor by vomiting. The association of a small quantity of atropia is especially beneficial when morphia precedes the inhalation, as this combination avoids the accidents of nausea and vomiting inherent to morphia during recovery."

DR. MARSHALL, of Dublin, Ohio, states that he has found that the best disinfectant, by absorbing the watery vapor of the air, and moisture of all organic substances undergoing decomposition, in cellars, closets, sleeping apartments, and even privies, is the recently burned carbonate of lime. One barrel will prevent mould in a cellar of common size a whole season.

MR. WILBUR F. HOYT, a student at Starling Medical College, has discovered that the disease commonly known as "Illinois Scratches," "Scioto Scratches," "Pan-Handle Itch," etc., is due to a parasitic fungus, which he has described. He has also described the disease, and has tentatively named it Tinea discreta. The full text of his paper will appear subsequently.

THE following is the Committee of Arrangements of the State Medical Society for the Dayton meeting: Dr. J. M. Weaver, Chairman; Dr. E. Jennings; Dr. H. S. Jewett; Dr. A. H. Iddings; Dr. Geo. Goodhue.

SELF-CASTRATION-An inmate of the Soldiers' Home, at Dayton, castrated himself a few weeks ago. He performed the operation neatly, and with very little hemorrhage. Such cases are by no means unknown, but they are quite rare.

*This translation is kindly sent us by Dr. Reeve, of Dayton, being from Am. de Therap.