Texas generally, it is a malicious fabrication calculated and well adapted to make Texas and Texans appear loathsome and contemptible, which no representation, but one utterly false, can possibly do." This is strong language from a man apparently well qualified to judge concerning the condition of things in Texas. Let us have more testimony.

CLINICAL THERMOMETERS,

We are glad to call attention, editorially, to the Thermometric Bureau, established in connection with the Winchester Observatory of Yale College. It is now generally recognized that an accurate and reliable thermometer is one of the most important essentials of medical and surgical practice. From the testimony of others, and from our own observations we are convinced that most of the clinical thermometers in use are inaccurate. If accurate when first made, they become inaccurate with the lapse of time. On account of some molecular change, not well understood, the calliber of the glass tube becomes smaller with age and consequently the thermometer registers too high. It is quite possible that some of the cases of remarkably high temperatures noticed by the medical press are due to this cause. Hitherto there has been no place in this country where thermometers could be verified or corrected, and the Winchester Observatory is conferring a great favor upon the medical profession by providing the means for correction and verification. Send your thermometers, securely packed in two boxes, one inside the other, with cotton-wool between them, to the Winchester Observatory, Box 853, New Haven, Conn., and in a few days they will be returned to your address corrected. A fee of fifty cents should accompany the thermometer. This nominal charge is most insigificant compared with the satisfaction of being certain that one has a perfectly accurate instrument. H.

FOR SALE.

A good and lucrative practice for sale, including property. Practice worth $3,000 per year. Call or address

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LACTOPEPTINE.

This preparation which is composed of pepsin, pancreatine, diastase or vegetable ptyalin, hydrochloric and lactic acids, and sugar of milk, has acquired a substantial reputation, not only in America but in many portions of Europe, for the treatment of various forms of indigestion, and some wasting diseases of children. At this season of the year, it is especially valuable in the treatment of cholera infantum, diarrhoea, etc. The great object desired is thorough digestion of the food in those little patients, which prevents the formation of stomach gases and consequent irritation incident to slow and imperfect digestion. Lactopeptine and pure pepsin are prominent agents in my buggy-case during the summer months.

A NEW RESUSCITATIVE.

About eight years ago, I was called to attend a lady in confinement, who had previously given birth to several "stillborn" children, and she invariably had convulsions during parturition, which were quite frequent and quite severe during the third stage of labor. Such was the brief history ascertained at the time of my visit as above noted. When I arrived at the house, found my patient had fallen out of bed in spite of the nurse, and was lying upon the floor with a severe convulsion which lasted about fifteen minutes. My patient was placed in bed, and measures used to facilitate delivery, the spasms recurring at short intervals, and lasting from ten to twenty minutes. At the moment the child was born, the lady was seized with the severest convulsion that I have ever witnessed, and to prevent her from mutilating the newly born child, I had only time to grab it by the feet with one hand and hold it clear from danger of her moving limbs. The child was apparently dead, but as I was obliged to hold it in that position some twenty minutes, I noticed that the blood seemed to gravitate toward the trunk and head. The limbs became white, bloodless, so I continued to hold the child in that position for some time longer, and taking a long quill tooth-pick from my pocket, resorted to artificial respiration, and in ten

minutes more the child was resuscitated to the astonishment of all present. Since this occurrence, I have had but little trouble with still-born infants, although some cases not only require to be held in an inverted position, but the head should be pressed into a globular shape, and placed in warm water, which should also be poured over the limbs and body until the blood gravitates to the head and chest, then gently inflate the lungs a few times, and the good work will be complete. The most remarkable case of resuscitation of this character that ever came under my notice, was one where I was called to help a midwife with a "knotty case" as she termed it. A breach presentation—the body of the child was delivered, but the head remained in the pelvis. No pulsation in the cordbody quite cold. I delivered the head with instruments, and placed the child in water quite as warm as the hand would bear, when the body was thoroughly warmed, resorted to the inverted position, and poured warm water over the limbs and body until all the blood of the child appeared to be in the head and chest. Artificial respiration was then resorted to, and continued until all the old ladies about the house were begging at me "to quit fooling with the dead baby." After working for an hour and ten minutes, I saw the first sign of life; the respirations were five minutes apart at first, then three, two, one, but as soon as I placed the child in a horizontal position, breathing ceased altogether. So I directed that it be held head down for several hours. However, the child did not breath very strongly for three days, after which he could nurse, and is now doing finely. Many interesting cases might be given, but I trust the above will illustrate the method. Our students who have heard me refer to this subject during lectures, seem to remember what to do when required. From a list of letters I will append one from Dr. J. A. Henning: "REDKEY, Jay Co., Ind., July 14, 1880.

"PROF. W. H. DAVIS, Sir. I cannot help writing about the result of your teachings in college. A few nights since, I was attending a lady in confinement, with feet presentation, and with my best efforts, the foetal head was retained some ten minutes before I succeeded in delivery. As expected the

child had no breath. In a moment I thought of your method to re-animate. I put it in a hot bath, and every few minutes would take it by the heels and hold it up. I worked thus onehalf hour by the clock, when it began to breathe, and directly it squealed more than is usual. The husband and the old midwife (who were very intelligent by the way), said it was foolishness to try to bring that child to life, as they thought it was impossible. I write this that you may keep on teaching this method (common sense) of running blood to the brain. "Yours, J. A. HENNING, M. D."

THE THERMOMETRIC BUREAU OF THE WINCHESTER OBSERVATORY OF YALE COLLEGE. Statistics show that several thousand thermometers of refined construction, and graduated on the stem to 0°. 2 F. or thereabouts, are annually procured by the medical practitioners of our country alone for physiological researches and daily practice. The majority of these thermometers are newly made (within six months), and their verification depends on inferior (from the scientific standpoint) thermometers in the hands of individual makers. It is needless to say that the readings of such thermometers have little value in indicating the true temperature of a patient, or affording data in cases which the physician wishes to describe in print.

The makers of thermometers in our country have been in general content to use for their standards thermometers which have been compared at some foreign observatory, or with some more easily accessible instrument in which they place confidence, in the hands of a friendly neighbor. Thus it happens that many thousand Amercan clinical thermometers have been sold, which do not depend upon a comparison with a recognized standard for their scale readings. The result has been that the American instruments have suffered in the estimation of scientific practitioners. This is not so much the fault of the American makers as their misfortune in not having the same facilities offered them by the properly equipped observa

tories this side of the water, which their favored competitors enjoy abroad.

The meteorological observers in this country have now no com- • mon standard of easy access; and it seems eminently proper that the observatory should undertake to be useful to the medical profession and the meteorologists in this country, and afford the means of comparison desired. With this end in view, the observatory has accepted the aid of the Board of Directors of the Bache Fund of National Academy in obtaining the standards of the foreign observatories, and has made provision for the constant determination of the errors of the standards themselves. The following is the official circular of the Thermometric Bureau :

CIRCULAR CONCERNING THE VERIFICATION OF THERMOMETERS.

This Bureau has been established by the Corporation of Yale College, at the recommendation of the Board of Managers of the Winchester Observatory, in order to afford desired facilities for the adequate verification of thermometers.

Thermometers will be received by the observatory for the purpose of comparison with the observatory standards and certificates of comparison signed by the Astronomer in charge will be issued with thermometers so compared. These certificates will contain a statement of the corrections to be applied at intervals of five or ten degrees of the thermometer scale to cause it to have the same reading as the observatory standards. In general, these corrections will be expressed in tenths of a degree Fahrenheit, or in twentieths of a degree Centigrade.

Thermometers sent for verification must have a name and number engraved upon them; and thermometers which are not graduated on the glass stem must be of sufficiently good workmanship to satisfy the observer in charge that the scale will not suddenly change with reference to the glass stem of the thermometer tube, with ordinary careful usage.

The Board of Managers have established the following scale of charges for this service, which includes the hall-mark and the certificate: