Of great interest is the report of its use, locally applied, in the treatment of variola. Ridge employed it in the proportion of one part of guaiacol in eighty parts of olive oil, applied at intervals of four hours to the affected skin. Merck, in summing up the report of Ridge, writes that as a result of this application the disagreeable pruritus disappeared rapidly and even in such a grave form of the disease as that presented by variola confluens, the pustules dried comparatively rapidly, generally before they had matured; those that matured, suppurated but slightly or healed without forming conspicuous marks. The application also had a beneficial effect upon the fever, caused a marked diminution of the fetid discharges, and mitigated the intensity of the odor. Hexamethylenamine.—Hexamethylenamine is the title under which the new pharmacopeia recognizes a condensation product obtained by the action of ammonia upon formaldehyde. This product is better known under the various trade names, urotropine, uritone, formin, aminoform, cystogen, etc. It is unfortunate that the pharmacopoeial title is so unwieldy, but usage will make it familiar, and moreover, the title is correct representing as it does the true chemical nature of the product. Hexamethylenamine occurs in odorless, colorless, lustrous crystals, having a sweetish, afterwards bitter taste, and soluble in about 1.5 parts of water. Its chief value as a medicinal agent depends upon the fact that when administered internally it is excreted in the urine, and is there partially decomposed into formaldehyde, which exercises an antiseptic action in the bladder and urethra. It is partly excreted unchanged. The drug is successfully employed as an antiseptic to the genito-urinary tract; its most frequent use being in the treatment of gonorrhoea and is especially valuable when involvement of the posterior urethra occurs. Administered prior to the introduction of sounds or operations upon the urinary tract, the drug is of great value in that it renders the urine aseptic. It is recommended as a solvent for uric acid, and is valuable in the treatment of pyelitis, cystitis, urethritis and phosphaturia. Urine loaded with pus, urates and phosphates, is rendered clear and acid in reaction through its use. It is also highly recommended as a urinary disinfectant in typhoid fever and various writers have found that the drug is a suitable prophylactic for nephritis arising from scarlet fever. Small doses administered at the beginning and continued throughout the course of scarlet fever, have been successfully employed in warding off the occurrence of nephritis. Hexamethylenamine should be given in solution, in water or carbonated water; when given in capsules it should be washed down with a liberal drink of water. The average adult dose is from 3 to 10 grains; in fact, larger doses than ten grains should not be administered, as excessive doses occasionally give rise to hematuria, attended with pains in the neck of the bladder and in the urethra. BOOK REVIEWS. A Syllabus of Materia Medica.-Compiled by Warren Coleman, M. D. Published by Wm. Wood & Co., 1905 edition, is a handy little volume of about 200 pages, convenient pocket size and well bound. The author states that the book is an attempt to assist the memory as much as possible by condensing the facts, repeating the doses and by grouping the drugs in various ways. In this the book will certainly prove successful. The chapter on toxicology is brief but very instructive, as is also the chapter on minor toxic actions, including contra-indications and indications for stopping or diminishing dose of drug. The arrangement of the subject-matter is admirable and reference to the facts embodied in the book is easily and quickly made. O. C. D. A Text-Book of Chemistry.-By Dr. William Russell Jones. Published by P. Blakiston's Son Co., 1905. The author has developed nothing new in either treatment or subject matter and while the work will answer for a beginner in chemistry, it is too meagre in detail for a more advanced student. Important processes like "Crysolite Sodium Carb. process" and the more recent "Contact Method for Sulphuric Acid" are omitted. The text is based upon a system of teaching which the author has successfully followed for nine years and he has endeavored to include all that is needed in chemistry for students of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. Students of medicine and dentistry will find the work valuable, but the student of pharmacy requires a more complete text book. The author's selection of illustrations, while good as a whole, is marred by those figuring the various kinds of casts at the closing of the book. O. C. D. How to Study Literature. A guide to the intensive study of literary masterpieces by Benj. A. Heydrick, A. B. (Harvard), Professor of English Literature, State Normal School, Millersville, Pa. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, 31 West 15th Street, New York. The above is a most valuable contribution. It takes a prominent classic and treats it as a type, a representative of a class, so that the study of a few books may open the way to the appreciation of many. Figures of speech, the object in writing a book, classifications of books, and all phases are treated. With this inexpensive book one can cover much ground in standard literature without as much expenditure of time as is generally made. Its value then is great for time must be considered by many, as well as systematic reading leads to better appreciation of literature. Lea's Series of Medical Epitomes.--Edited by Victor C. Pedersen, M. D. Hollis' Epitome of Medical Diagnosis.—A Manual for Students and Physicians. By Austin W. Hollis, M. D., Attending Physician to St. Luke's Hospital; to the New York Dispensary, etc. In one 12mo volume of 319 pages, with 13 illustrations. Cloth, $1.00, net. Lea Brothers & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1905. Dr. Hollis volume on Medical Diagnosis, is the fifteenth of this series. It naturally does not claim originality, but it embodies an earnest effort to give a clear, accurate, compendious covering of the essentials of its subject, presented with a due sense of the relative importance of its various branches. Diseases and abnormal conditions are taken up in regular sequence, and physical and clinical signs and symptoms are clearly pointed out with full explanations of their significance. In addition to physical methods, the author gives directions for laboratory investigations. blood tests, bacteriological and chemical examinations, etc., and as one goes carefully through the book the wonder grows at the enormous amount of clear-cut, modern, well-arranged information which has been compressed between its covers. Its worth is far in excess of its price, $1.00. A System of Physiologic Therapeutics.-Edited by Solomon Solis Cohen, A. M., M. D., Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, etc. Vol. VI. Dietotherapy and Food in Health.-By Nathan S. Davis, Jr., A. M., M. D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine in the Northwestern University Medical School, etc. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1012 Walnut St. The first part of this useful volume is devoted to principles of diet. The composition and characteristics of each food stuff is carefully and practically presented. It is by far the easiest book to read upon dietetics that the writer has seen. The second part is devoted to diet in disease.. It is full of the essential practical points. The author accomplished his object in making a practical book upon dietetics. The Urine and Faeces in Disease.-By Hensel-Weil and Jelliffe. Lea Bros., Philadelphia, Publishers. This is a valuable, concise and admirably arranged book treating the subjects in a very practical way. The addition of tables of comparison between the Metric System of weights and measures and the English System is a reminder that rare study and reform books should include tables showing the exact relation between these two systems, and this habit should be persisted in until the English System becomes a relic of the past. T The book deals freely with the urine in health and disease. It is to be noted that the quantitative elimination of urea is regarded as of very uncertain value, yet it states in one place that the amount normally excreted per twenty-four hours is thirty grammes, while on the next page the excretion in health per one litre is stated to be from ten to twenty grammes. Twenty grammes is generally considered the minimum amount in health, so that an excretion of only ten grammes would certainly be cause for the deepest concern. Cryoscopy is rated highly and is considered by the writers as far superior to urea determination as indi ? cating renal efficiency. The portion of the book dealing with faeces is especially interesting and the bacterial flora is extensively depicted. The illustrations are, for the most part, such as we are familiar withbut they are very appropriate and clearly show the points intended. VERNON ROBINS. Beauty Through Hygiene-Common-sense Ways to Health for Girls By Emma E. Walker, M. D., member of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc. First edition. New York. A. S. Barnes & Co. 1904 The author has given us a most entertaining and instructive volume regarding the physical life of the young woman. It should have a place in every home library and be read and digested by every woman member of the household. NEW WINTER SEASON, 1905-1906. The Beautiful Sapphire Country. To the man whose imagination is fed with facts and fortified with observation, the southern portion of the United States will always seem the favorite child of Omnipotence and its hand maiden-Nature. Practically every resource that ministers to the wealth and greatness of a people has been lavishly placed within its borders. Though the Creator of this fullbosomed magnificence dwells neither here nor there-but everywhere --we like, in all reverence, to call these Southern States indeed "God's country." One who knows the South realizes how, after material gifts had been so generously be stowed, the designing power completed its work by dotting it liberally with those imperative auxilliaries of modern civilization-resorts, summer and winter. In the case of the South these resorts have proven not only protectors of our people's health; they are adding now and they will add substantially in the future to our actual wealth. The Florida resorts need no detailed eulogy at this date. They have won already thousands of wealthy Northerners and Southerners from the lure of the European spa or the call of the Riviera. more wonderful conquest, and one which should interest the South, is that of the radiant Sapphire country, that Eden of the North Carolina mountains, with which the word "Toxaway" has become inseparably identified. Its beauties and its health-compelling qualities have been open to civilization for only a few years, relatively; yet "Toxaway" means to a host of Southern and Northern people today recreation and recuperation under conditions as ideal as can be arranged by the co-partnership of man and Nature. The six hotels under the management of the Toxaway Hotel Company, with Mr. J. C. Burrowes at its head, have been instrumental in this rapid achievement. The Sapphire country itself has done the rest. The hostelries have been artfully located, getting the wide benefits which come from altitudes "Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downwright facts at present more than anything else." -RUSKIN. Original Communications. L MENINGITIS.* BY PHILIP F. BARBOUR, A. M., M. D., Professor of Diseases of Children, etc., Hospital College af Medicine. UMBAR puncture, as devised by Quincke, has enabled the microscopist to determine very exactly the intrinsic nature of the causes of meningitis. It has also widened our conception of meningitis so that we now look upon inflammations of the meninges as determined by the character of the organism which is present. The classic division into acute leptomeningitis, tubercular, and cerebro-spinal meningitis must be recast and broadened to embrace our present knowledge of the pathology. We recognize the type known as cerebro-spinal meningitis as due to the Weichselbaum diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis. The tubercular variety is also fairly clear-cut. But the old name leptomeningitis embraces the distinct forms depending upon the infection by the pneumococcus on the one hand and the various streptococci, staphylococci, etc., on the other. At present it is difficult to differentiate clinically between the infections by the pneumococcus, the streptococcus, and staphylococcus, except by bacteriological examination of the spinal fluid. Practically, such close differentiation at present is of little value, because the treatment has not advanced so rapidly as our pathologic and bacteriologic knowledge. Though the promises of the serum treatment are very roseate, they have not yet been realized, and we have no therapeutic agent which is of any help, but it is no less our duty to post ourselves on the diagnosis, for the recognition of meningitis is often difficult by reason of the vague symptoms presented, and therefore mistakes in diagnosis may be made. There are * Read before the Louisville Clinical Society, October 17, 1905. |