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and the patient describes the limb as being quite free from pain-a thing quite new to her. A year ago, I had an old soldier under my care with an ulcer of the size of half-a-crown, upon the outer aspect of the right leg, four or five inches above the ankle-joint. It first formed in the Crimea, during the first bombardment of Sebastopol, and followed a blow from a splinter. For some years he took little notice of it, merely keeping it clean. Latterly, he had dressed it with all the patent ointments he saw advertised. It was an ugly, unhealthy-looking ulcer, discharging freely, and was very painful both during the night and when walking. Its depth varied; in the center, it was quite an inch and a half. Its edges were irregular. The leg was free from varicose veins, and the man was temperate. His occupation entailed much climbing, and he had the ulcer often struck by pieces of timber. I first dusted it with iodoform daily; in a week, every other day and then twice a week. The effect was marvelous; for in six weeks the ulcer healed, and to this day continues well; the cicatrix is firm, and the man can follow his occupation and take long walks without any pain or inconvenience. I am certain that no other treatment would have healed this ulcer. I have found boracic acid ointment alone to do wonders with ulcers; but, with the addition of iodoform sprinkled on the sore, much more can be done.-W. Easby, M. D., in British Medical Journal.

TREATMENT OF CHLOROFORM NARCOSIS.

The following are the different means to which we have resorted to restore consciousness and recovery, and we have succeeded in every instance, except in five fatal cases three of which were from other causes than Chloroform. The first step we have adopted is to raise the end of the table or bed upon which the patient is lying, removing the pillow, inclining the patient's face upward, and the head downward; seizing the tongue with a tenaculum underneath its tips and center, drawing it forward, applying at the same time Aqua ammonia or Nitrite of amyl judiciously to the nostrils and mouth. We will take occasion to state here that

it is not an unusual circumstance for the patient, while undergoing the process, and especially when the precaution of thoroughly unloading and refilling the air passages with fresh air has been omitted, to exhibit some slight untoward symptoms, such as a sighing respiration, a sudden but temporary cessation of breathing, accompanied with choking sensation, etc. These can always be promptly relieved by any one of the three methods just mentioned. Should the symptoms assume a grave aspect, resort should be had to artificial respiration and application to the nostrils and open mouth of the Nitrite of amyl; but should these means fail, then apply a current of electricity; the positive pole at the back of the neck at the base of the skull, changing its position occasionally to either side of the neck below the mastoid processes. Negative electrodes should be placed at both soles of the feet and over the epigastrium, and thus a current of electricity is passed through the entire body, including the respiratory organs. An efficient method, and one that we used in the two of the seven cases that were only incidentally referred to in the early portion of our remarks, is the hypodermic injection of Aqua ammonia with equal parts of lukewarm water at blood-heat, inserted into the common basilic vein. Both these cases responded promptly to this treatment after all the other means which we have herein narrated, excepting the Nitrite of amyl and electricity, had failed. The latter was not available, and the former was not known as an antidotal agent to anesthesia at that time.-C. H. Von Tagen, M. D., Hom. Times.

SPINA BIFIDA TREATED WITH PLASTER OF PARIS.

Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, in a clinical lecture, says that the object. of mechanical treatment is simply to protect the parts from all pressure and all possible injury until the process of ossification is completed throughout the entire length of the spinal column. This he accomplishes by first slipping over the trunk a tightlyfitting knit-shirt, similar to that used in applying the plaster jacket in Pott's disease or lateral curvature. Then, having the patient held in a firm position, but without being suspended, he passes a few turns of a plaster bandage around the trunk

and pelvis in such a manner as to cover the spina bifida completely. After this, he cuts off a piece from both the top and bottom of the shirt, and turns the remaining portions over the part covered with plaster. He then makes a few more turns of the plaster bandage outside of all, and finally, before the plaster has had time to set, presses in the plaster with his hands on both sides of the tumor, so as to make the covering more cup-shaped, and thus protect it the more completely from all pressure. He then makes a hard, artificial roof for the spinal cord and nerves, which takes the place of the normal bony one until nature supplies the deficiency. If, on account of the child's growth, other similar plaster casings are required, they can be applied in the same manner. He puts the child on a course of phosphate of lime, with a view of increasing the earthy phosphates in its system, and thus facilitating the further ossification of the spinal column.-Boston Med. & Surg. Jour.

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PLUGGING THE POSTERIOR NARES.

The British Medical Journal abstracts the directions for a new method published by Dr. J. M. Spear in the Medical and Surgical Reporter. Dr. Spear suggests that probably the best impromptu device for this operation consists of a piece of round, fine-linked gold chain, slightly flexible and smooth, about one-tenth of an inch in diameter and an inch or more long, attached by one end to a fine waxed silk cord, a foot or more long. If such a chain be not procurable, a short string of metallic, cylindrical beads or bird-shot, compressed on a cord, or small strips of sheet lead wrapped on a cord, might answer the purpose, the essential qualities of a nasal gravitator being smallness, smoothness, and slight flexibility. After providing an instrument, which can generally be done at any farm-house, the patient is then laid upon the back, the floor of the nose brought as nearly vertical as may be, and the loaded end of the gravitator lowered into the pharynx. Its arrival there will generally be announced by coughing, retching, or clearing up of the throat. The patient being then brought to an erect position, easily hawks up the weight and carries it forward on the tongue, when the operation may be proceeded

with as usual. The practicability of this procedure he has had occasion to demonstrate frequently, and he finds it much less annoying to the patient than Bellocq's sound or other unyielding instruments.-Chicago Review.

SIMPLE METHOD OF DRESSING STUMPS.

Suppose an amputation of the thigh. After the operation is completed and the drainage-tube inserted, the stump is laid upon a Gooch's splint, padded and covered with gutta-percha tissue, and fastened to the splint by a turn of carbolized gauze bandage; the end of the stump and the drainage-tube should project a little beyond the end of the splint. The patient is then laid on a mattress, about one-third of which has been cut away on the side corresponding to the amputated limb. The stump is then swung from a cradle with the point dependent, and under it a plate containing a strong solution of carbolic acid or chloride of zinc receives the blood or other discharges as they fall from the wound. The cradle is covered with a veil of gauze. Thus no textile fabric is in contact with the wound, and as the stump is slung, all discharges drain away at once into the plate, and are there acted on by the antiseptic fluid. As no manipulation beyond lightly touching the cicatrix with a moist camel-hair pencil occasionally is required, perfect rest is insured.-Prof. Spence, in British Medical Journal.

THE SURGICAL TREATMENT OF EPISTAXIS.

Dr. J. G. Brownlee, of Doniphan, Kan., writes: Reading Dr. Thurston's method of treating epistaxis, in your issue of 21st inst., calls to mind a case treated by myself some six months ago. I was called to see a woman (colored), æt. 28 years. Found her bleeding profusely from the nose; said she had lost three quarts of blood before my arrival; I tried different remedies without success. I then thought of using an ordinary condum, in the same manner as we use the rubber bag in uterine hemorrhage. I sent immediately to the drug store and procured a condum and a syringe; I then took a Jacques' soft rubber catheter, placed it inside the condum, and intro

duced it up the nose till it passed the posterior nares.

With

the syringe I then injected the condum with ice-water, removed catheter, and tied the end of the condum to prevent the escape of the water. The hemorrhage was immediately arrested, and the patient had no further trouble. By this simple method I claim that any physician can control any case of epistaxis without the use of Bellocq's canula, or any other device for plugging the posterior nares.

STRICTURE OF THE URETHRA.

Dr. Ambrose L. Ranney (New York Medical Journal, September, 1880), introduces the following rules as proper guides in the treatment of uncomplicated urethral stricture:

I. Seldom resort to the knife, except the stricture be of traumatic origin or resilient, or situated at the meatus. II. Never perform internal urethrotomy if the situation of the stricture be more than four inches from the meatus. Three inches would probably be a safer rule. III. In strictures of the deep urethra, in case dilatation is impossible, divulsion and perineal section are the two best methods of treatment. IV. Dilatation, if carefully and judiciously used, will be found to be practicable in the majority of cases, and in many cases will entirely relieve all symptoms. V. Internal urethrotomy, if performed for the relief of "strictures of large calibre," should be resorted to only when the symptoms presented by the patient have been treated by other methods without relief, and then only in the anterior four inches of the urethral canal.-Chicago Med. Rev.

RHUS POISONING.

Prof. Maisch, the well-known chemist of Philadelphia, discovered that the toxic property of poison-oak was due to the presence of an acid, which he called toxicodendric acid. The best solvent and antidote to this acid is found to be the hyposulphite of soda, which is now used extensively, and enjoys the reputation of being the best remedy yet discovered for this annoying eruption. The skin affected is kept moist with a saturated solution of the hyposulphite.-Toledo M. and S. Jour.

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