There will be a deduction of one-fifth of the above charges where more than eight thermometers of one kind are received at the same time. In the case of clinical thermometers, the charge will be $4 per dozen, when not less than two dozen are sent at the same time.

For other thermometers than the above, the charges for verification will be furnished on application.

The letter of advice accompanying thermometers sent for verification should contain the maker's name, the number of each thermometer, and full directions for reshipment.

All proper precautions are taken by the Board of Managers to guard against loss or injury; but, as it is manifestly inexpedient that a University Corporation should be responsible for property in its care for such a purpose, it is to be understood that all risks are assumed by the person sending the thermometers. LEONARD WALDO,

Astronomer in Charge.

Approved and ordered to be published by the Board of Managers of the Winchester Observatory.

C. S. LYMAN,
President.

NEW HAVEN, CONN., June 1, 1880.

H. A. NEWTON,

Secretary.

The observatory desires to encourage the general verification of thermometers on the part of the members of the medical profession, meteorological observers, and all those persons who have occasion to note temperatures to less than one degree Fahrenheit. The inaccuracies of the thermometers in use by the majority of such persons are considerably greater than is commonly supposed.

It will be seen that the observatory places every facility at the disposition of observers and thermometer makers for the ready verification of thermometers; and there is no good rea

son why a purchaser should not have an accurate knowledge of the errors of his instrument should he so desire.

The observatory will make arrangements with hospitals and other institutions using a number of thermometers, for the systematic examination at stated intervals of all thermometers. in their use. Such an arrangement precludes errors arising from the use of [newly made instruments which have been verified, but whose scales have not yet attained an approximately permanent position.

For the present, the comparisons of clinical and meteorological-thermometers will be made with a water bath, in which the water is brought to a given temperature and mechanically agitated before the comparison is made. The standard to which the primary and secondary mercurial standards will be referred is the air thermometer.

Ordinary thermometers are returned within three days from the time of their reception, if the observatory charges for verification are remitted with the thermometers.

In case they are not so remitted, they are payable upon notification by the observatory that the thermometers are ready to be returned.

Dealers and manufacturers furnishing satisfactory references to the observatory may open an account, to be settled quarterly, beginning with January 1 of each year.-Extract from the Circular of the Horological and Thermometrical Bureau.

OBITUARY NOTICE.

At bis residence in Washington Township, Indiana, on Monday, July 19, 1880, after a brief illness of typhoid fever, Dr. Frank P. Brown, closed his earthly career in the twenty-. ninth of his age. year It is with feelings of unusual sorrow that we chronicle this sad event. Dr. Brown was one of the most promising of the younger graduates of Bennett College. He was a student of more than average ability and industry, and possessed of a very retentive memory. His record while in college was very high in all departments, yet he had that crowning grace of the true scholar-genuine modesty. His

genial diposition, his quiet, unassuming ways, and his steadfast integrity, made him universally beloved. During the few months of his medical practice, he was eminently successful and was most highly esteemed in the community where he was located. The news of his sudden death will be a sad blow to the Class of 1879, of which he was an honored member.

HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE.

I am not an "old editor," and consequently do not keep a lot of old axes on hand to be frequently ground, neither am I owner of "patented labels" or any other proprietary drugstamp, hence THE MEDICAL TIMES is unlike the organ of "the old parent school," whose editor, being "old," can only comprehend truth and virtue, as they emanate from himself, and delights in periodical effusions, denouncing "Fluid Extracts in general, and new remedies in particular. Now THE TIMES admires pluck, energy and fairness, so much, that duty to the profession impels us to enter a loud protest against such petty journalism, which is so unjust and derogatory to some of our leading manufacturing drug houses. The intelligence of medical men generally precludes the thought even that these enunciations of wild delirium from the brain of even the old editor" (of Porkville) will shake the confidence of medical men in the general purity of Fluid Extracts, or the real medicinal properties claimed for the vast majority of new remedies. Our profession of Eclectic brethren are keen-witted, independent thinking men, and can appreciate a good thing when it is placed before them. Doctors appreciate all "new remedies" of merit, which are being handled by scientific pharmacists who make the very best preparations of remedies known to science some from the "green substance," others from the recently dried, etc., etc, whichever way is best suited to obtain the desired properties of the remedy. Neither our leading manufacturers of modern fluid extracts, nor their products, require any defensce, save such attacks as can emanate only from rival sources, and through the medium of an "aged editor" who assumes to do the thinking for and dictate the law and gospel to "a liberal profession."

IODIDE OF POTASH.

Few remedies equal this medicine in variety of usefulness. It is, in tertiary syphilis, in whatever location, a constructive; in polysarca, a reliable destructive-an "anti-fat;' in chronic splenic enlargement nearly a certain cure; in chronic and subacute congestion of the uterus, ovaries, and male genital organs, of unequaled power; in asthma, only second to the bromides, and in some cases even more efficacious; valuable in aneurism; a diaphoretic and diuretic; and Dr. John Guiteras, in the Philadelphia Medical Times, of June 5, declares it a most useful remedy in certain hepatic troubles, and also in atheroma and rheumatism. He has found it especially of service in chronic interstitial hepatitis with enlargement, also in gallstones, incipient cirrhosis of the liver, and in subacute hepatic catarrh. He greatly prefers to give the iodide largely diluted, and upon an empty stomach, before breakfast. He usually gives a daily dose of fifteen grains in a pint or half a pint of water. Dr. Guiteras also gives ipecac, bicarbonate of soda, and calomel when indicated.

Dr. Guiteras says: "In the first place, the vascular exciteof the liver is at such times at its lowest ebb, and it is probable that the drug remains for a longer time and in larger quantity in the organ; and, secondly, it does not come to the liver diluted in the large quantity of albuminous fluid of an active and loaded portal circulation.

"If iodide of potash has any absorbing power over young inflammatory connective tissue, it may be said that, if taken fasting, it will have the changes for good that alcohol has for evil when taken under the same circumstances. Further than this, it is probable that water, by promoting secretion, assists greatly the alterative action of the drug. It has been suggested by Frerichs and others that water is perhaps the most important element in the mineral waters. There are two classes of cases in which the last-mentioned action of the drug is of special value, viz., atheroma and rheumatism. It has been proved that deficient elimination, and the consequent

charging of the blood with imperfectly oxidized nitrogenous products, is the principal cause of atheroma. It is probable that one of the most important functions of the liver is to contribute greatly to the destruction and elimination of these albuminous matters. In cases of incipient atheroma, therefore, with a high-blood pressure, flat-topped pulse-wave, and accentuated second sound, we give the iodide in five to ten grain doses, in half a pint or a pint of water, during fasting. We believe that this method of exhibiting the drug will be found more advantageous than the diuretic mixtures containing iodide of potassium recommended by Fothergill. We think that these are more apt to disturb digestion."

As to the efficacy of this remedy in chronic and subacute hepatic affections, our experience coincides with that of Dr. Guiteras, except that small doses, given after meals, have seemed to us the best. Given on an empty stomach, it passes too suddenly into the circulation, and is more apt to produce iodism. Dr. Guiteras, however, claims that by his method of administration he gets better results from fifteen grains a day than are produced by double that quantity given after meals.-Louisville Medical News.

ANTISEPTIC SURGERY.

T. S. Floyd, M. D., in the Therapeutic Gazette, calls attention to the use of Eucalyptus Globulus as a surgical dressing. We quote a portion of the article.

66

Something over two years ago, my attention was drawn to the probable value of this agent as a surgical dressing, and my first application was of the fluid extract in the following case: A boy about 12 years of age came into my office with his hand covered with blood, and told me his fingers had been caught between a rope carrying a heavy weight and the edge of an iron pulley over which it ran; an examination showed the terminal phalanges of the first and second fingers to be severely crushed, and the joint of the second finger laid open. Believing that amputation would be necessary, and, as his parents were not present, I straightened the crushed fingers on a slip of pasteboard and confined them with a few turns of a roller open