liquids containing a small proportion of water afford a small drop, and vice versa. Gmelin's statement "that the cohesion of liquids is pretty nearly in proportion to their specific gravity" is called in question, and the fact that alcohol and mercury afford nearly the same number of drops to the drachm certainly throws considerable doubt on the matter. The size of drops is affected principally by the cohesion of the liquid, and the form of lip over which the drop falls. Bottles with ground necks and wide, thin, even lips give fair results, but are not so accurate as "droppers." The best of these will not, however, average at all well. The administration of powerful medicines should not be attempted by drops, and this mode of measurement is, in any case, inadmissible if the quantity exceeds half a drachm. The largest drop is formed by sirup of gum arabic, forty-four to the drachm, and the smallest by chloroform 250 to the drachm. As a general rule, tinctures, fluid-extracts, and essential oils yield a drop less than one-half the size of water; and sirups, dilute acids, and solutions give a drop but slightly smaller than water. FARADIZATION OF ABDOMINAL MUSCLES FOR ASCITES. Dr. Sigrist reports a second case of ascites successfully treated in this manner. Ascites was due to hypertrophic cirrhosis of liver. Every muscle was made to contract from fifteen to twenty-five times; two seances per day. Under this treatment patient began to lose in weight about 200 grams per diem; amount of urine became double, the abdominal circumference was diminishing from one-half to one centimeter per day. On the tenth day abdominal bandage was applied. In three weeks ascites entirely disappeared, and had not recurred when seen three months later. A similar case, complicated with nephritic congestion, diminished urinary secretion, and trace of albumen in the urine, was treated by faradization alone, by Dr. Popoff (Vratch, 1880, No. 22), with the like result. Amount of urine was increased from 800 to 1,000 c. c. to more than double the quantity. Albumen disappeared from the urine on the eighth day, and did not return. Abdominal circumference fell from ninety-five centimeters to eighty centimeters; ascites was cured; spleen became much smaller. The days when faradization was omitted, amount of urine was always smaller. Beneficial effects of this treatment was also ascertained in the clinique of Dr. Lesch.-Vratch, No. 9, 1880. SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF MEDICAL LEGISLATION. The Pharmacist reprints from the Medical and Surgical Reporter, some facts derived from the Medical Register of the Illinois State Board of Health for 1880. It appears that the total number of practitioners in the State when the law regulating the practice of medicine went into effect, July 1, 1877, was about 7,400. Of these only 3,600, or less than one-half, were graduates or licentiates, the remaining 3,800 being unqualified practitioners. The graduates and licentiates at the present time number 4,825, and the nongraduates 1,500; or, in other words, the number of qualified practitioners has increased by about 1,225, while the number of unqualified practitioners has decreased by 2,300, which gives a diminution in the total number of practitioners equal to 1,075. The number of itinerants in the State in 1877 was 73; in 1880, only 9. The number of cancer doctors in 1877 was 23; in 1880, only 4. Do we need any more eloquent plea for sound medical legislation? Are there no other States that require a similar purgation? TREATMENT OF TETANUS BY SMOKING INDIAN HEMP. Dr. John C. Lucas, in the Medical Times and Gazette, strongly advocates the treatment of tetanus by smoking Indian hemp. The leaves of the cannabis indica are mixed with three or four times their quantity of ordinary tobacco. Directly there are indications of a spasm coming on, the fumes are inhaled until the attack ceases. The patient is then left quiet, but carefully watched, so that the pipe may be instantly handed to him on any appearance of the spasm returning. In this way the patient is kept continuously under the influence of hemp day and night, nourishment being carefully administered at the same time. The advantages claimed for this mode of treatment are these: 1. The spasms are cut short. 2. They re-appear gradually, at longer and longer intervals. 3. They gradually become not only less frequent, but less severe. 4. This saves the patient's vital powers. Mr. Khasligir, of India, has also treated five cases of traumatic tetanus, all recovering, by this method. IPECAC IN DYSENTERY. Dr. J. H. Courtenay, of Jamaica, writes in The Lancet : And now it will be asked, does the ipecacuanha treatment never fail? and is it an absolute specific for dysenteric disease? I can unhesitatingly answer, so far as my experience enables me to do so, that in the great majority of cases it most certainly does not fail, and that its effects are often magical; but I have met a few cases where no precautions or varieties as to administering large or small doses of the drug seemed to be able to avert the absolute intolerance of it. Under these circumstances I administered a bismuth-and-soda mixture, containing five drops of sedative solution of opium in each dose. I also gave a powder containing mercury with chalk and compound ipecacuanha powder every four hours, and an opiate enema at night. I consider that when a patient suffering from dysentery is unable to take ipecacuanha his chances of recovery are seriously lessened by such inability. VACCINATING ECZEMATOUS CHILDREN. Dr. J. C. Murray writes to the British Medical Journal of September 18: It is, or ought to be, known to all obstetricians that vaccination is a cure for infantile eczema. I do not remember having seen this mentioned before, and if Dr. Drury is the first to put it on record he deserves credit for now doing so. But most medical men of middle age have found for themselves the value of vaccination in eczema. I remember that thirteen years ago a near relative of mine had a boy with eczema capitis, which defied ordinary means. Soon after the usual time for being vaccinated was past I told the mother that vaccination might cure it. I had no doubt observed good results from vaccination before, but the lasting impression was made then, which decided me to practice and recommend vaccination in eczema-the result, when observed, being cure. SULPHUROUS ACID. The Boston Journal of Chemistry quotes from the British Medical Journal an article by Prof. Gamgee, giving a new and convenient mode of using sulphurous acid, the disinfecting qualities of which are universally known. Cold alcohol, the Professor asserts, will dissolve three hundred times its own volume of the gas; and a fluid possessing such powers of concentration cannot but be as efficient as it is portable and convenient. A few drops of the sulphuretted alcohol in the bottom of a trunk will disinfect any clothing that may be put into it; and fungus germs, such as must in casks, etc., may be destroyed by the use of a very small quantity. CHLOROFORM COUGH MIXTURE. This is prepared as follows: R. Morphia acet...... Tinct. belladonnæ.... Spirits chloroformi................... Syr. senegæ..... Syr. pruni virg. ad................................ Dose, one teaspoonful three times per day. TREATMENT OF GOITER. .gr. iij. 3 ij. 3 vi. 3 i. 3 iv. Dr. Stevens, of Quebec, reports seven cases of goiter cured by the chloride of ammonium. Six were girls under twenty years of age, and one a married woman aged forty. The dose given was ten grains three times a day, the tumors entirely disappearing at the end of three months. 1 CAPSICUM FOR HEMORRHOIDS. Dr. Vidal, in Gaz. des Hop., recommends capsicum as the best agent in all cases of serious hemorrhoidal congestions. He prescribes pill of the extract, each pill containing twenty centigrams (three grains); four or five of these are to be taken daily, one-half with the noon-day meal, the other with supper. Under this plan of treatment he claims that the congestion and all accompanying symptoms will rapidly disappear.—Allegemeine Wiener Med. Zeitung, September 7, 1880. PALATABLE EPSOM SALTS. The Gaz. des Hop. says that the purgatif Yvon consists of sulphate of magnesia twenty grammes, water forty grammes, and essence of mint two or three drops. The essence of mint completely masks the disagreeable taste of the sulphate, providing that the quantity of the vehicle is inconsiderable. This preparation is easily taken by persons to whom the disagreeable taste of the Epsom salt is repugnant. THE PRE-NATAL BANDAGE IN LABOR. Dr. J. W. Singleton (St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal) advocates with enthusiasm the pre-natal abdominal bandage in delivery. He says: Much of the anxious delay and painful suffering in natural labor arises from the neglect of the accoucheur to help the patient in the proper way and at the right time. When the os is properly dilated, the lower part of the rectum sufficiently emptied, the bladder kept steadily evacuated, but the labor progressing too slowly, there is nothing, in my opinion, that gives more solid "aid and comfort" to the woman than a smoothly applied and equally adjusted pre-natal bandage, from the ensiform cartilage of the sternum to the symphisis pubis. Let this bandage be arranged by yourself, or by some competent nurse in your presence, and gently tightened, without giving pain, as the labor proceeds to its final accomplishment; so as to give support and confidence to the mother and no unnecessary suffering, and I am well satisfied, from long experience, that fully one-half of the occasional delay and agony incident to child-birth will be happily prevented, and the patient safely conducted past many of the possible accidents of parturition. The bandage before delivery acts not only as a benign and positive help in completing the labor, but as a means of assurance, it exerts a marked influence upon the patient by inducing her to help her |