from their action on pain and on amenorrhea (as previously noted by Dr. Maugin, of Marseilles), these currents possessed decided resolvent properties upon congestive enlargements of the uterus. Sometimes it needed only three or four applica tions of ten minutes each. The treatment was not only pain. less, but it was absolutely not felt by the patient; and it produced no post-operative reaction. The technique was simple. In a series of eight cases he had had six successes and two failures.

Action for Damages for X-Ray Burn in France.-Mme. Mochert, a young lady of Paris, recently brought a suit for five thousand francs damages on account of an alleged X-ray burn. The plaintiff had an affection of the thigh which the doctors advised should be skiagraphed. The thigh was exposed three times without protection, with a total duration of sixty minutes. Dr. Bardet, one of the witnesses, testified that burning would result in rare instances from the use of the Roentgen rays. Everything depended upon the patient's physical condition. He maintained that if the doctors were made responsible for such accidents they would be obliged to renounce the use of the X-rays. The medical man was acquitted.-N. Y. Med. Jour.

Electricity in Surgery.-In the course of his presidential address to the surgical section of the British Medical Association, Dr. John Duncan referred to the role of electricity in surgery as follows: "The other mark of progress to which I want to call your attention is the introduction of electrical treatments into our hospitals. For more than thirty years I have advocated the use of electricity in surgery; and I feel that, even now, electrolysis is not as highly appreciated as it ought to be. In cirsoid aneurism there is no treatment that is comparable to it; if in the treatment of nævus we wish to avoid all scars, there is no method that is so sure. Electricity, again, acts perfectly in other forms of angiomata and gives excellent results in goitre. It is of use for uterine fibromata, and it is an efficacious epilitory. Many of these troubles, that are very frequent, ought to be treated by the ordinary physician, and I hope that now that electricity has been introduced into our hospitals, it is going to become more and more in favor among physicians who will have no hesitation in using it."

Hospital Notes.

CALIFORNIA EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL.

By DR. REDMOND W. PAYNE,

Surgeon to the Hospital; Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology, Otology and Laryngology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, San Francisco; Consulting Oculist to the Southern Pacific Hospital; Consulting Oculist and Aurist to Agnews State Hospital for Insane.

The Corneal Suture as a Means of Obviating Certain Accidents Which May Follow the Extraction of Cataract. -The largest per cent of cataracts occurs in old people where the tissues are relaxed and the muscular tonicity of the lids very much impaired. Consequently it is not surprising that the corneal flap in a cataract extraction frequently gets out of position and the edges of the wound are separated. There is scarcely any bandage where the pressure upon the globe is sufficiently equal to prevent this accident. While attending the Paris clinics I followed Kalt's method of suturing the corneal flap, at the National Hospital. He made it a regular practice, made no iridectomies, and his results were uniformly good. A fine silk suture was used and adjusted to position before the flap was made. Although it is said to be a complicating factor in the technique of the operation, it need not be so if carefully done, and I am convinced from such experience as I have had with the method, that there are many cases where it is the only safe procedure. Personally, I have used the method in selected eases only, those that were exceedingly nervous, had but little self control, and were likely to behave badly for the first few days after the operation. In these cases I have used the corneal suture and have had nothing but good results follow its use, and I always feel an amount of security as to the outcome of the case, which is impossible without it. PAYNE.

Report of a Case Where Defective Speech Results in Some Interesting Derangements of Cerebral Functions.-Dr. G. Hudson Makuen, Philadelphia, reports in the Annals of Otology, the case of a boy 15 years of age, whose speech was so defective as to be scarcely understood. While he was apt in arithmetic, he had special trouble with everything in which the use of letters and words were required, being often unable to write the simplest words or to remember the names of letters and words that he had learned. His writing and spelling were very defective, but he was proficient in the use of figures. He was by no means feeble-minded, but there was some functional impairment in the action of the cortical visual word-center, result

ing in partial word-blindness. When for any reason the development of the faculty of speech is delayed, there is a corresponding lack of functional activity in both the visual and auditory word-centers, as well as in those related areas of the brain employed in the use of language and thought. So great is the dependence of the functional activity of these special centers and their related areas on the use of the faculty of speech that its lack of development, due entirely to mechanic obstructions in the peripheral organs, has in some cases led to a diagnosis of imbecility and even idiocy. The author advised systematic speech training to determine whether the defective cerebration was of functional or organic origin. The improvement of his patient under this treatment has been marvelous, and illustrated the importance of special training as a remedial agent in certain forms of feeble mentality characterized by defective speech and other motor disturbances. PAYNE,

Laryngeal Gargling.-At the last congress of the German Natural Science Association, Heryng described this novel thera peutic procedure. With a little practice he had himself learnt it from a colleague, who had permitted him to examine his throat during the act. It is possible only with a small quantity of fluid, which is made to flow over the epiglottis into the larynx, the head being inclined slightly to one side, whereupon the subject begins to gargle. M. Schmidt stated that Guivier had long before called attention to the possibility of laryngeal gargling, and that he (Schmidt) had attempted it but failed, probably because he had taken too much fluid at a time. He thought the method would be productive of good results, especially in the various forms of dry catarrh. It is to be doubted whether many patients will be eager to be taught this feat in laryngeal gymnastics. R. D. CонN.

The Etiology of Phthisis; a Summary of Scientific Points Involved in Churchill's Theory.-The administration of an oxidizable and assimilable compound of phosphorus under certain determinate, pathologic and therapeutic conditions has the constant effect of preventing any fresh deposit of tubercular matter. To obtain this effect, however, the patient should be carefully watched; the doses of the particular indicated hypophosphite should be carefully graded to meet the immediate condition of the patient. Anodynes, narcotics, stimulants, cod liver oil and other remedies designed to ameliorate certain prominent symptoms, such as coughs, night-sweats, etc., should be abandoned, as they operate against the object sought to be attained by the hypophosphite treatment. Hypophosphites of soda, lime, and occasionally quinine, are alone to be employed. L. C. DEANE.

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WINSLOW ANDERSON, A. M., M. D., M. R. O. P. LOND., etc.
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

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GEO C. MACDONALD, M.D., F.R.C.S.Ed.
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J. BURRIS WOOD, B.S, M.D.
E. S. PILLSBURY, M.D.

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FRED W. LUX, M.D.

WM. J. JACKSON, Ph.G., M.D.
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F. F. KNORP, M.D.

SOPHIE B. KOBICKE, M.D.

WILLIAM EDWARDS, Ph.G., M.D.

J. J. KEEFE, Ph.G., M.D.

C. L. WEITMAN, Ph.G., M.D.
A. F. WERNER, A.B., M.D.

J. L. ASAY, M. D.

THOS. MORFFEW, D.D.S.
CHARLES BOXTON, D.D.S.
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CORYDON B. ROOT, M.D., D.D S.

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WILLIAM A. BRYANT, M.D., D.D.S.
JOHN MCHAFFIE, B.P., Ph.G.

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J. F. DILLON, A. M., M.D.

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SAN FRANCISCO, FEBRUARY, 1900.

Editorial.

SHALL WE NOT GROW OLD?

Serum therapy and glandular extracts are promising much for enfeebled minds and worn out organs and indeed for old age itself. We have, for instance, mammary substance extract to develop the breast and increase its physiological secretion; suprarenal extract to combat Addison's disease and restore the organs to health; thymus and thyroid extracts to counteract the diseases (exophthalmos, goitre, cretinism, myxedema, etc. incident to pathological changes in those glands.

Opobypophysini (pituitary body extract) is used with success in acromegaly. Heparis siccati (extract of liver) in drachm

doses is highly recommended in diabetes mellitus. Filis boris (ox-gall) in 1 to 2 grain doses is also useful in the same disease. Ovarian (opcövariini gr. ijas at a dose) and testicular substances (same dose) to reinvigorate these organs when dormant. The latest, however, comes to us from Paris-the Pasteur Institute, where Professor Metchnikoff has prepared a series of lymphs to rejuvenate any particular organ or set of organs whereby he proposes to prevent senile decay, or "growing old." The press dispatches say: "Professor Metchnikoff's experiments show that the explanation of senile atrophy has hitherto been erroneous. The theory was that certain blood cells devoured others and the vital functions began to weaken. The organic poisons thrown off readily in youth were believed to remain in the system in old age, or, at least, be less energetically ejected. These poisoned the finer cells, while without action on those of conjunctive tissues. The noble cells died, became the prey of other or plebian cells, thus bringing atrophy to the organ where the metamorphosis occurred. Professor Metchnikoff has proved conclusively that the noble cells are not dead in organs atrophied by senility.

"Moreover, they may be multiplied. If assisted in their struggle with plebeian cells they continue to live actively as in youth, and, theoretically, the organism will cease to grow old and life be prolonged. Professor Metchnikoff has found means of affording this resistance, and the results already obtained are extraordinary.

"The discovery was made in the following manner: M. Bor det, one of the professor's pupils, published the results of a curious experiment, which consisted of injecting the blood of a rabbit into a guinea pig. Later he injected the blood of this guinea pig into the rabbit, and the latter died. Professor Metchnikoff sought the causes of the phenomenon, and soon was convinced that the blood of a guinea pig injected into a rabbit or other vertebrate animal elaborates the poison that weakens the red globules of the blood and makes them the prey of phagocytes.

"Starting from the fact that poison elaborated in a guinea pig is fatal in large doses, he argued that action in small doses must be stimulating. On this is based the action of all such medicines as strychnine and arsenic."