firmly closed by the action of the screw at the end of the handles. The portion of the pile which protrudes inside the lips of the clamp is then to be removed with curved scissors. The clamp should be kept applied to the stump of the pile for about a minute longer, or for a still longer period if the pile be large and thick. The process is of course to be repeated according to the number of masses to be got rid of.-The Lancet, July 3, 1880.

ON A NEW METHOD OF ARRESTING GONORRHEA.

Dr. Watson Cheyne, in the British Medical Journal of July 24, 1880, has an article on this subject. His treatment is based on the hypothesis that gonorrhea is due to micrococci. He says:

"I have tried the two antiseptics separately and also combined, and I find that they are the most effectual when used in combination (possibly because iodoform is soluble to a considerable extent in oil of eucalyptus, and is thus brought into more perfect contact with the mucous membrane). The formula which seems best is five grains of iodoform and ten minims of oil of eucalyptus in a bougie of forty grains. These bougies have been made for me by Mr. Martindale.

"The specific cause of the disease being eradicated by this means, the question of further treatment arises. It seems to me that, although the development of the gonorrhea is arrested, yet if the discharge be allowed to become septic and irritating, urethritis might be kept up for some time. I therefore order an injection of boracic lotion (saturated aqueous solution of boracic acid) or an emulsion of eucalyptus oil (one ounce of eucalyptus oil, one ounce of gum acacia, water to forty or twenty ounces) to be used for two or three days. At the end of that time, injections of sulphate of zinc, two grains to the ounce, may be begun. At the same time the great tendency of the urethral mucous membrane when once inflamed to remain in a state of inflammation must be kept in mind, and everything which might tend to keep up the inflamed state must be removed. Notably the patient must be cautioned against drinking, and it is well to order diluents and alkalies.

"The method may be summed up as follows: The patient is first told to empty his bladder, partly to clear out his urethra and partly to prevent the necessity of expelling the antiseptic from the canal for several hours. He then lies down on his back, and a bougie from four to six inches long is introduced, and the orifice of the urethra closed by strapping. The bougie ought to be dipped in eucalyptus oil, or in carbolic oil (1 to 20) before insertion. The patient is instructed to refrain from passing water, if possible, for the next four or five hours. If the case be severe and advanced, he takes another bougie home, and is instructed to introduce it in the same manner after he next passes urine. On that evening, or on the following day, he commences the antiseptic injection, which he uses four or five times daily. On the third or fourth day, when

the symptoms have entirely subsided, an injection of sulphate of zinc, two grains to the ounce, is begun. At the same time, the other points mentioned are attended to.

"I have now used this method in about forty cases, and in all the result has been the arrest of the progress of the gonorrhea. For a day or two, the purulent discharge continues; but afterward it steadily diminishes in amount, becoming in four or five days mucous, and ceasing altogether in a week or ten days. At the same time the scalding and pain and the symptoms of inflammation rapidly diminish, and disappear completely in about thirty-six to forty-eight hours. In fact, the case becomes no longer one of virulent gonorrhea, but one of simple urethritis, rapidly progressing toward recovery if properly treated.

"I have used this treatment only in the early stages of the disease, from the first to the seventh day after the commencement of the symptoms; but it has answered equally well in all."— London Medical News.

TREATMENT OF ULCERS.

According to Dr. Mandelbaum, of Odessa (Berl. Klin. Woch.), all ulcers of the leg and elsewhere, whatever their character, age and extent, can be cured by the following method: If they are very deep, with much loss of tissue and

with undermined, uneven, callous edges, they are first to be scraped away until healthy tissue is reached, with the modification of Volkmann's spoon as suggested by Hebra; they are then to be covered for several days with a thick layer of iodoform until fresh granulations spring up (as they are certain to do), and until the base of the ulcer has reached the level of the surrounding skin. When this point in the healing process is reached, the ulcer is to be strapped daily with equal parts of mercurial and soap plaster of rather soft consistence, and carefully aud evenly applied. Shallow ulcers which are only covered with a thick layer of pus require no preliminary scraping, and can be at once treated with iodoform, and later on strapped as above described.-Med. Times and Gaz.; Med. News.

SPENCER WELLS.

Our readers will feel much interest in learning that last week Mr. Spencer Wells completed his thousandth ovariotomy, and will be gratified to know that the patient is going on well. The results of Mr. Wells' operations, completed or uncompleted, successful or not, have from time to time been, with exemplary loyalty and faithfulness, placed before the profession, and the grand statistical outcome of all the thousand ovariotomies he has now performed will, in due course, be brought before the Medical and Chirurgical Society. The record will constitute a singularly great and lasting proof—monumentum ære perennius-of Mr. Wells' distinguished and peculiar position among the great surgeons of the nineteenth century. It must have rarely happened, we imagine, that a surgeon has performed any one great operation a thousand times, and certainly, when we remember the opinions held some twenty-five or thirty years ago, by the most eminent surgeons of the day, regarding ovariotomy, the fact that one surgeon has now performed that operation on a thousand patients is one of the most remarkable and striking events in the history of surgeons. The continually increasing success that has attended Mr. Wells' performance of ovariotomy is pretty well known, but the full record of his cases will be expected with great interest.-Boston Med. and Surg. Journal.

A NEW METHOD OF APPLYING PRESSURE IN TRAUMATIC

ANEURISM.

The apparatus is so simple that its utility in a wide range of lesions, where pressure upon one point is desired, without constriction of the surrounding tissues, is apparent at first glance, and, so far as I know, it is new. I will illustrate the method by the description of a case which came recently under my care, and in which the result has been all I conld wish.

Louis Wimmer, a young man about twenty-five years of age, a butcher, of large stature, robust and athletic, by accident plunged a long, slender, sharp-pointed butcher's knife into the thigh on the inner side, just above the middle, and directly down upon the femoral artery. When called in to see him, the external bleeding was not very profuse, but a tumor about the region of the wounded artery was being rapidly developed. I immediately applied a compress over and a little above the wound, to control the hemorrhage until I could procure men to apply digital compression. The aneurismal tumor was then from four to five inches in diameter, and projecting very distinctly. While engaged in this, the idea of using the plaster of Paris'shell occurred to me, and I immediately put it in practice. I cut a band of coarse, thick Mackinaw flannel, such as I use in applying plaster of Paris splints to fractures, about six inches wide, and long enough to envelop the thigh and lap over about two inches. Through the part of this band opposite the femoral artery, where I wished to apply pressure, I cut an aperture about an inch wide and two inches long. The cloth for the splint thus prepared, I worked in a mixture of plaster of Paris and water, of the consistence of thick cream, to which a few grains of potassium sulphate had been added to hasten the setting of the plaster, and applied it around the thigh so that the aperture came directly opposite that part of the femoral artery, just below the profunda, where I wished to apply the pressure. Within twenty minutes this band or broad ring had set, and become sufficiently hard to resist a very considerable degree of constriction. Through the aperture I applied a piece of cork, properly shaped, and covered with chamois-skin, pressing it down upon the artery, and letting it

project more than an inch outside the band. Then, adjusting the cork, as nearly as I could, upon the artery, I applied a roller bandage of stout elastic webbing around the thigh, outside the plaster band, and over the projecting portion of the cork compress, increasing the tension at every turn, until pulsation at the popliteal space could no longer be felt. Instead of an elastic roller, undoubtedly a tourniquet or common roller might be used. This was allowed to remain for about twentyfour hours, with very little inconvenience to the patient. loosening the apparatus, there was no return of pulsation, and coagulation of the contents of the tumor seemed to have taken place. There is very little more in the history of the case. The patient returned to his work much sooner than I advised, but no accident followed, and in a few weeks the tumor had become absorbed, and gave him no further trouble.

On

In addition to cases such as I have described, the application of this apparatus is of the greatest benefit and convenience in secondary hemorrhage from gun-shot wounds and in amputations, particularly those from frost bites, where secondary hemorrhage so frequently occurs, and where long-continued pressure is necessary. Plaster of Paris fills the indication most perfectly because it can be so accurately adjusted to the limb; but a band forming a ring, of sole leather, of tin, of very heavy pasteboard, or other resisting material, would do in an emergency, and would probably answer very well. During a long course of practice of more than thirty years, in civil and military service, I can remember occasions where a knowledge of this method would have relieved me of serious embarrassment, and in all probability would have saved more than one life.— B. R. Palmer, M. D., in Chicago Med. Rev.

THE USE OF IODOFORM IN ULCERS.

I have just dismissed from under my care, cured, a case of varicose ulcer that had defied the patent ointments that are so much advertised, and had also been under the care of several medical men. Iodoform dusted over the sore twice a week, and a daily dressing of boracic acid ointment, soon made a change in its appearance; and in about fourteen days it healed,