358

MORTALITY OF LOS ANGELES.

REGISTERED MORTALITY OF LOS ANGELES.
WITH SEX AND NATIVITY OF DECEDENTS.

OUR ADVERTISERS.

ARE YOU IN PAIN?

You will probably ask this question more frequently than any other. Nothing appeals to one more strongly. To be able to relieve pain, whether it be a slight nervous headache or the most excruciating suffering from a severe neuralgia, brings the height of pleasure to both patient and attendant.

The ideal remedy must not only do its work, but it must also do it quickly. Touching this point is an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Reporter, by Hugo Engel, A.M., M.D. The author says:

"Antikamuia has become a favorite with many members of the profession. It is very reliable in all kinds of pain, and as quickly acting as a hypodermic injection of morphia. It is used only internally. To stop pain one five-grain tablet (crushed) is administered at once; ten minutes later the same dose is repeated, and if necessary, a third dose given ten minutes after the second. In 90 per cent of all cases it immediately stops the pain."

LACTOPHENIN.

Pediatrics (March 15, 1897) quotes from a "Report on New Remedies," by Dr. P. Phillip (Archiv. für Kinderheilkunde):

"Stein, Strauss, Schlutius and Riede publish their experience with lactophenin. Its sedative qualities, which makes it useful, particularly in typhoid fever, are praised by most of its friends. According to Stein it may be used wherever phenacetin is indicated. Because of its relative safety and possibility of longer use it is much superior to phenacetin. Riede calls it a specific in acute articular rheumatism, producing no ear-symptoms or depression of the heart, as does salicylic acid and salophen."

This summary of the therapeutic value of lactophenin has been variously confirmed by clinical reports during the past year from sources widely apart. We note, for instance, in a report on "Treatment of Typhoid Fever in Children," by Dr. F. Gordon Morrill, Visiting Physician at the Children's Hospital of Boston, Mass. (in Archives of Pediatrics, March, 1897) that lactophenin is used in that institution, and that three to eight-grain doses "are very effective, and do no harm, as far as my experience goes;" lactophenin produces a drop of 3.5° F. in four hours, according to careful records. "Restful sleep may often be obtained in this way."

IMPERIAL GRANUM.

A prominent Vermont physician writing to thank The Imperial Granum Co. for copies of their famous clinical record, adds the following convincing words as to the merits of their product as a food for children: "I can show a baby that has been raised on IMPERIAL GRANUM, after trying numerous other foods until he was reduced to a mere skeleton-that is now as tough and strong a boy of 14 months as can be found anywhere."

SANMETTO IN DIABETES MELLITUS.

R. A. Miller, M.D., of Atchison, Kan., writing, says: "I used Sanmetto in a severe case of diabetes mellitus in a gentleman 54 years of age, in which there was an excessive flow of urine, patient having to arise some four or five times during the night, severe irritation at neck of bladder and enlargement of the

prostate gland, dry, hot skin, with cousiderable emaciation. After using Sanmetto for three or four days the trouble was greatly improved, patient not having to arise more than once during the night, and has since, by the use of one more bottle of Sanmetto, almost recovered. I think Sanmetto a most excellent remedy."

SANMETTO IN GONORRHEAL INFLAMMATION AND EMACIATION. I have used Sanmetto in a number of cases of gonorrheal inflammation and find it all that could be desired. I also consider it as a good constitutional treatment where there is an emaciated condition of the system superinduced by venereal disease.

Earlington, Ky.

G. B. FAYNE, M.D.

"EISEN-HUNGER."

Physiological aud clinical tests prove that ferratin supplies the needed iron to nourish the blood-and hence the system.

On page 341, of Prof. Schmiedeberg's "Arzneimitellehre” (latest edition), this eminent pharmacologist states: "The fact and effect of a craving for iron (Eisen-Hunger) can be experimentally proved on animals. A strong, frisky dog, after a moderate loss of blood, was fed for five months on pure milk only, and gradually became so weak that he refused further nourishment, became reduced in body-weight, tottered when on his legs, and finally was at the point of death. At this stage one gramme of ferratin was added to the milk per day; the dog ate this with ravenous appetite, and within 14 days had regained his weight and general condition to nearly equal the normal strength and activity possessed before commencement of the experiment."

Ferratin in eight-grain doses, three times daily, was recommended by Germain See, the late distinguished French therapeutist, for "those suffering from anemia from hard work, though apparently in good health; those, of both sexes, affected with chlorosis; those weakened by too rapid growth and puberty; those fatigued by study; and, in short, all in whom a diminution of red blood corpuscles had ensued, due no matter to what causes.'

CONSERVATISM IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES OF THE

PELVIC ORGANS IN WOMEN.

In the March issue of the University Medical Magazine, Drs. S. Weir Mitchell, Wharton Sinkler, Charles K. Mills and others, in discussing the relation of nervous disorders in women to pelvic diseases, say: "We have never seen a case in which ablation of the ovaries and termination of menstruation cured an epilepsy and in all our life have met with only four reflex epilepsies, none of which were from uterine, ovarian or tubal diseases, and we are inclined to think that some, at least, of the cases classed as epilepsies of ovarian origin, are in reality excessively violent hysterical convulsions, and we conclude that insanity is aggravated by the menstrual epoch whether normal or not, but that it is very rarely caused by that alone. A great deal of uterine and ovarian disease should escape the knife by the use of patient medical treatment-no grave surgery of the pelvis should be allowed without medical consultation," and by the conservative administration of Dioviburnia, a uterine tonic and alterative, nervine and antispasmodic, in these opinions they voiced the sentiments of the great army specialist and general practitioners.

UTERINE DERANGEMENTS.

I have used Aletris Cordial in my practice for over a year, and to say that I am pleased with it does not nearly express the degree of my satisfaction. Aletris Cordial fills a long felt want with me. Symptoms attending uterine derangements have always been perplexing to physicians, but with this remedy the trouble vanishes as dew before the rising sun.

Georgiana, Ala.

L. M. MCLENDON, M.D.

MR.

CHRISTOPHER HEATH, F. R. C. S., IN SAN
FRANCISCO.

BY WALTER LINDLEY, M.D., LOS ANGELES, CAL.

Monday morning, Sept. 20, at 10 o'clock, I was present at the first of a course of lectures to be delivered by Christopher Heath of London. The place was the auditorium at the Cooper Medical College on Sacramento street. At the hour named Mr. Heath came upon the platform escorted by Dr. Levi C. Lane, by whose generosity these lectures are given. Dr. Lane, on introducing Mr. Heath, said that he had been President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Professor of Surgery in the University Medical College of London; that he was noted as author, teacher and operator.

Mr. Heath is very gentlemanly looking, apparently about 63 years of age, and about 5 feet 11 inches in height, with a vandyke beard, and wears the regulation Prince Albert coat. His voice, diction and enunciation are perfect. His first lecture was on

CONGENITAL MALFORMATION.

He spoke first of encephalocele and meningocele. He spoke against all surgical interference in these conditions. He next spoke of spina bifida and again urged strongly against surgical interference, saying that it simply and surely meant death. He also said that pressure was worse than useless, for while it appeared to cure spina bifida, it produced hydrocephalus. The treatment which Mr. Heath did recommend was the use of a fluid first proposed by Morton of Glasgow. This fluid was composed of 10 grains of iodine, 15 grains of iodide of potash in one ounce of glycerine. The method of administration was to draw off with an aspirating needle about a teaspoonful of the fluid from the tumor and then to inject about a teaspoonful of this solution, then to keep child in a recumbent position for a few hours; this injection of fluid to be repeated in a few days.

Mr. Heath said that talipes calcaneus was often the result of a reflex condition due to that form of spina bifida where the nerves are spread over the sac.

He then spoke of hairy moles and said the way to cure them was to raise up the flap of skin containing the mole and then from the underside of the flap take away the hair bulbs; then suture the flap to its place with a sufficient number of catgut sutures and the hairs would gradually die and drop out.

In speaking of "port wine stains" he said that he had decided that operation was useless; he simply advised a calamine lotion, about the color of the patient's skin. By applying this frequently the result was satisfactory, and the patient's deformity would not be noticed.

HARE-LIP.

He next spoke of hare-lip. He said the question was, why were children harelipped and that he thought one reason was that the mother was very sick and poorly nourished during the first few weeks of pregnancy, and that in all cases we should endeavor to improve the nutrition of the prospective mother. He spoke of a zoological garden where lions and tigers were frequently born with hare-lip, and that being in this condition, it was difficult to nourish them and they usually died in a few weeks. The man in charge increased the diet of the pregnant tigresses and lionesses, securing the best of results, and thereafter there were rarely any hare-lip animals. Mr. Heath said that while this was called hare-lip, yet the hare itself has the slit in the middle line, while a child never has its slit in the median line. He said that hare-lip was also undoubtedly frequently due to heredity, and spoke of one case in his own practice where a great-grandmother had one hare-lip child, and that one had a hare-lip child, and one of her children had a hare-lip. He said that hare-lip families should never intermarry. Told of two persons in his practice who intermarried who were neither hare-lipped, but in whose families there were several hare-lips. The result was they had a child with terrible hare-lip.

The period of operation on a hare-lip child was when it was six weeks old. By that time the child has become accustomed to its new surroundings and the mother is able to look after it. After the operation, either the mother or a first class nurse should attend all the time to the child for two weeks. He said that under no circumstances should the operation be postponed beyond the time when the child was three months old. While some surgeons use pins and clamps in the operation for hare-lip, Mr. Heath uses sutures, preferring dry chromocised catgut. Many English surgeons use horsehair sutures. It is important after the operation to feed the child well and keep it quiet. He uses opium for the first few days to help keep the child still. His method of feeding the child is to use an old fashioned bottle with a large nipple, and then pour the milk slowly into the child's mouth.

CLEFT PALATE.

Always operate first on hare-lip, then the cleft palate will be drawn together and the operation will not be so extensive. In fact, very often after the operation for hare-lip, where the cleft palate is not very extensive, the tissues are so drawn together that the operation for cleft palate will not be necessary. Do not operate for cleft palate until the child is almost two years old. Very often it is an unwise operation and a dental surgeon can fit in an artificial hard plate with a rubber soft palate so that the result will be eminently satisfactory.

Monday evening Mr. Heath appeared in a dress suit with a white tie, and as he came upon the platform received quite an ovation from the audience, which was composed entirely of physicians and medical students. His subject was a continuation of that in the morning on "congenital malformation," and he spoke par