PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL. WINSLOW ANDERSON, A. M., M. D., M. R. O. P. LOND., etc. W. F. SOUTHARD, A. M., M. D., Managing Editor. JOSEPH LECONTE, A.M., M.D., LL.D COLLABORATORS. SAM'L O. L. POTTER, A.M., M.D., M.R.O.P Lond. W. L. ADAMS, M.D. CARL C. HANSEN, M.D. W. F. WIARD, M.D. 0. W. NUTTING, M.D. P. O. REMONDINO, M.D. W. E. TAYLOR, M.D. W. 8. THORNE, M.D. GEORGE H. POWERS, A.M., M.D. WILLIAM 8. WHITWELL, A.M., M. D. JOHN W. ROBERTSON, A.B., M.D O. A. RUGGLES, M.D. FBANK HOWARD PAYNE, M.D. GEO C. MACDONALD. M.D., F.R.OS EA H. D'ARCY POWER, L.S.A. Eng.,L.R C.P.Ire. F. BUCKLEY, B.A., M D., L.R.O.P. Edin. J. BURRIS WOOD, B.S, M.D. A. O. BOTHE, A.M., M. D. WM. J. JACKSON, Ph.G., M.D. F. F. KNORP, M.D. SOPHIE B. KOBICKE, M.D. WILLIAM EDWARDS, Ph.G., M.D. J. L. ASAY, M. D. THOS. MORFFEW. D.D.S. CORYDON B. ROOT, M.D., D.D S. A. C. HART, DDS, M.D. WILLIAM A. BRYANT, M.D., D.D.S. JOHN MCHAFFIE, B.P., Ph.G. J. HENRY FLINT, Ph G. JF. DILLON, A M., M D WALTER F. LEWIS, D.D.S, THOS, FLETCHER, D D.S. A. W. MORTON, M D. CHAS. W. MILLS, M.D.,D.D.S. The Editors are not responsible for the views of contributors. All matters relating to the editorial and business departments should be addressed to the PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, 901 Sutter St., San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO, APRIL, 1900. Editorial. FISH POISONING. Within the last year or two San Francisco has had quite an endemic of fish poisoning. Several such cases have come under the writer's observation. Last year one physician's wife died from ptomaine poisoning, the result of eating oysters. In the cases which have come under the writer's observation there was at first intense vomiting and purging, followed by great exhaustion; urticaria followed in some cases and large blebs on the skin in others. In each case the cause of this ptomaine poisoning was laid at the door of the oyster. On investigation it is found that most of the oysters consumed in San Francisco are grown in the oyster beds situated in and about San Francisco Bay, particularly that portion of it which lies south of Hunter's Point, and south of Baden Point, Point San Bruno, Coyote Point, and clear down to San Lorenzo and San Leandro Bay. The water in this portion of San Francisco Bay is never thoroughly changed. There is considerable tide, to be sure, but the stagnant water from the sewage of Baden, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Milbrae, Burlingame, San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood, Palo Alto, Mayfield, Mountain View, Santa Clara Valley including San Jose, Niles, Mount Eden, Haywards, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, Elmhurst, Semin ary Park, clear down to Alameda, to say nothing of the sewage of San Francisco emptying near Mission Creek, and Point Potrero empties into this portion of San Francisco Bay, whose waters are never thoroughly changed. The oyster as well as the lobster, the crab, and the shrimp are natural scavengers, the oyster quietly absorbing all the sewage it possibly can. It is but a few years ago since the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, met his death by eating oysters that were grown in a similar sewage-laden bay near Dublin. The oysters were afterwards analyzed and found to contain not only the micro-organisms of typhoid fever but also the germs of many other diseases. It is only a short time ago since Professor Bothe and his assistant, Carroll Southard, then chemists to the Board of Health of San Francisco, found poisonous ptomaines in all the shrimps that were on sale in San Francisco which had been grown in San Francisco Bay. This matter of transplanted oyster beds is of such serious moment that fuller and further investigations will be made, as the whole community of San Francisco is daily in danger of ptomaine poisoning under existing conditions of oyster raising. It is needless to say that oysters and shrimps are natural scavengers, and should be raised in waters having no sewage pollution and in waters having free access to the ocean. STERILIZATION OF ANIMAL LIGATURE, CATGUT, KANGAROO, ETC. Colonel W. H. Forwood, M. D., Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Army, and Chief Surgeon of the War Department of California, and the author of the Section on Military Surgery, in the Second Volume of the International Text-Book of Surgery, recommends the following method for the absolute and positive sterilization of catgut, which he used for many years at the Barnes Hospital, U. S. Soldiers' Home, District of Columbia: "Use large, long test-tubes, say 10x1 inch, with pure rubber plugs and glass spools. Thoroughly clean and boil spools, tubes and plugs. Wind catgut ligature on glass spools, make the kangaroo tendon into oval coils, and place them in the tubes according to size and kind. Immerse in ether fortier, U. S. P., forty-eight hours, and then wash in ether. Immerse in absolute alcohol with 1-1000 bichloride of mercury (C. P.), boil twenty minutes in a water or a sand bath with the plugs out, remove the tubes while boiling and plug immediately (so as to form a vacuum and remove air from the ligature), and then set aside twenty-four hours. Renew absolute alcohol with 1-1000 bi-chloride and add 1 per cent. trikresol, and store away ready for use. (If there be no sediment, this renewal of alcohol will be superfluous.) The ligature should be kept at least seven days, but it may remain any length of time in this solution before use. On using, flame the tube, draw out the spools or coils with sterile forceps and place them in a sterile (boiled) ligature dish, with the fluid from the tube, or in common alcohol with 1-1000 bichloride. Four years experience shows that this method increases the tensile strength of the ligature and renders it absolutely sterile." The sterilization of animal ligatures has been for many years one of the most difficult problems in surgery. We have tried many methods, and are indebted to Dr. Forwood for his researches in this line of work. We are now using Dr. Forwood's method, and we have never had the slightest indication of sepsis when the technique is carried out faithfully. We therefore take pleasure in recommending to our surgical friends this method, which, if done conscientiously, is sure to prove all that is claimed for it, absolute sterilization. EVOLUTION OF SMALL ARMS IN WARFARE. One of the most interesting chapters in the International Text-Book of Surgery, second volume, is that on Military Sur gery, written by Colonel W. H. Forwood, M. D. The character of weapons and missiles are carefully described, as well as the wounds made and the surgical methods pursued in their treatment. Of exceeding interest is the following table which has been prepared with great care and accuracy, showing the evolution of small arms. We "At the beginning of the century we used a spherical ball of soft lead with an effective range of from 500 to 1000 feet. now have a cylindro-ogival bullet (the modified Krag-Jorgensen) of hard lead in a copper nickel case with smokeless powder and an effective range of 9,000 to 12,000 feet. With the old smoothbore weapons such as used at Blenheim (1704) to Belle-alliance (1815)-31 great battles were fought with a total strength of combatants, 3,333,029. Of this number 646,454 were killed and wounded, giving us 19.39 per cent. The ratio of mortality at Blenheim (1704) to Waterloo (1815) where 13 great battles were fought, shows 91.732 killed, and 222,699 wounded, a ratio of 1 to 2.43. With the improved rifle and breech-loading weapons of recent date Alma (1854) to Lizaine (1871) there were 32 great battles fought with a total strength of combatants, 5,270,661. Of this number 542,193 were killed and wounded, |