I had lately read in some medical journal that the flow of milk had been arrested by the use of half-dram doses of ergot, administered every four hours. Knowing the specific action of ergot on the muscular coats of the blood-vessels, I could easily conceive that in massive doses it could so shut off the circulation in the breasts that milk could not only be arrested, but absolutely prevented. Placing the patient on a low diet, as dry as possible, I prescribed Squibbs' fluid Extract of Ergot, gtt. 15, every four hours, but she could not take it, owing to her repugnance to the taste. As a substitute, gelatine-coated pills of ergotine were prescribed, each pill containing two and one half grains, one every four hours.

Their administration was begun on the morning of the second day after her labor. There did not occur the slightest secretion of milk, the breasts remaining soft and natural, and there was not the least fever or local tenderness or swelling. This brilliant result was attained without the appearance of a single disagreeable symptom of the drug. This case is typical of several others which have since occurred in my practice, and I have no hesitation in recommending the use of ergot in such cases as a perfectly safe and humane expedient for the prevention of a most painful and distressing accident.

FLORIDA AS A HEALTH RESORT.

BY H. R. STOUT, M. D., JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

Now that the season has closed, and our Northern visitors have turned their faces homeward, it would perhaps be well to take a retrospective view, and see what has been accomplished towards prolonging the lives of the many invalids who have visited us, hoping (some, alas ! disappointed) that the balmy atmosphere and warm sunshine of this favored land would restore to them the blessed boon of health.

The tide of travel this winter has been larger than for several years, and a noticeable feature has been the absence of many cases of consumption in the last stage. Those who have been here this winter have been those generally who had a right to expect some benefit. It is distressing to have these hopeless cases visit us, they always expect so much; and their disappointment is great,

when they find that their lives may be perhaps prolonged but a few weeks by the change. There are, of course, some apparently desperate cases in which a fair degree of health is recovered, but these examples occur among those who make a permanent residence here. This State (and also this city) contains numerous cases of that character. I have found, after several years' observation, that when a patient improves during the winter, there will be greater results attained if he remain through the summer and the following winter at least, than to go North in the spring, and return the following winter. The warm, balmy atmosphere and even temperature of summer exert a healing influence on the diseased tissues, the foundation of which improvement can be only laid during the winter. It will perhaps be objected, in this place, that the person will suffer from extreme heat and from debility. To this I will say, that it is the general experience, that Northern people suffer less here from debility than in the North, and having myself lived in the North until the last four years, I can speak from personal experience. Florida being a peninsula, situated between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, the whole State is swept by the refreshing breezes from salt water, which furnish a balmy freshness to the atmosphere during the entire twenty-four hours. Only twice during the past three summers, according to the records of the signal office, has the temperature in this city attained 100°.

Northern physicians generally do not know exactly where to send their patients in this State. When the disease is pulmonary, and especially if there is tuberculous deposit, they are safe in recommending any point except Fernandina and St. Augustine, on account of the irritating effects of the sea air during the winter, or Green Cove Springs, on account of the generally disastrous effect of the large sulphur spring at that point. When I advise invalids not to visit these points, they, supposing that with a view to personal profit I desire them to remain in Jacksonville, or that I have some other design on their happiness, generally leave on the next boat for one or the other of these places. The result is that they become rapidly worse, and go home cursing the climate.

As a rule, invalids travel around too much. They remain a few days in a place, and if they do not immediately improve, they

are off to some other point, and thus changing from one resort to another, they get no benefit. Some cases will lose ground for the first week or two wherever they are, and if they then begin to gain, there they should remain for the season. Let them choose a place where the surroundings are pleasant, the company agreeable, and the table good, and there locate.

Malaria is a ghost which haunts the majority of visitors, but during the winter the chances of catching it are infinitesimal. In fact, I may say that I never have a case of malarial fever to treat at this season, except it may be in a person who already has the seeds of disease in the system, but even these cases are rare. It is fashionable to ascribe to malaria, all the ill effects of an injudicious diet, late hours, and all kinds of exposures.

While the climate of Florida may not be adapted to the cure of all diseases, yet in the majority of cases, an invalid may reasonably expect benefit. The science of climatology is yet imperfectly understood, but no doubt the time will come when the physician will prescribe the climate suitable for a given case with the same accuracy that he does his remedy.

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THE PAST WINTER IN FLORIDA.

BOSTON JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY.

"THIS climate is a fraud," remarked a pale gentleman to us in February last, as we were seated together, wrapped in heavy overcoats, on the piazza of one of the hotels up the St. John's River, in Florida. "During the past ten years," he continued, "I have visited nearly all the noted health resorts in this country and abroad, and none of them seemed to me so changeable and vicious as this." The morning was indeed a cold one, and the white frost, formed during the night, still remained on the shaded roofs of the buildings in view, while within the hotel as many as six great stoves, in the office, parlor, and corridors, were filled with glowing anthracite, and around them huddled a crowd of shivering inmates of the house.

The past winter was remarkably severe in Florida, and in its changeableness, dampness, and cold was hard to bear. It proved disastrous to invalids, and very many faltered or died during the

winter. Those in robust health were troubled with constant colds, and some returned home, with the feeling that it was safer to brave the rigors of a Northern winter in comfortable homes with good food, than to wait for sunshine and warmth in the woods of Florida.

The winter was declared to be an "exceptional" one by those interested in sustaining the good name of Florida as a health resort. The only exception to this unanimity of statement was found in the person of the outspoken landlord of the Putnam House, at Palatka. He declared to his guests on the piazza of his own hotel, as they were shivering in the cold blasts from the north, that there was nothing "exceptional" about the winter ; it was in his view a fair sample of the seasons as they had come under his notice in the past nine winters, or during his residence in Florida.

Such unreserved statements, so contrary to the interests of the party making them, deserve consideration. If it is true that last winter was a typical season, a fair representative of Florida weather in December, January, and February, then we say, Let all invalids keep away from that so-called land of flowers and sunshine.

We think, however, there must be at least a slight degree of exaggeration in the landlord's statements; we think that some of the Florida winters are more genial and pleasant than the last; certainly we found the latter part of the winter of 1878 far warmer and more comfortable. The truth probably is that Florida, like most other so-called health resorts, has its vicissitudes of seasons and weather, and one going there expecting constant sunshine and warmth will be disappointed. All health resorts, so far as our observation extends, are in many respects "frauds "; that is, they do not meet the expectations of those who travel far to enjoy their vaunted climatic comforts, and recuperate their wasted energies.

The number of invalids who resort to Florida in winter is unquestionably diminishing from year to year, and the time is not far distant when cases of advanced consumption will be rare upon the peninsula. As a rule, such invalids had better remain at home, and this truth is becoming well understood by physicians at the North. Of semi-invalids, those suffering from

insomnia, nervous debility, and prostration, resulting from the pressure of business and other causes, the number in Florida the past winter was greater than ever before, and by reason of the cold and other unfavorable influences, but very few were benefited.

The hotels are not conducted with any view of affording rest and comfort to invalids. They are "run" to a large degree in the interests of a few idlers or pleasure-seekers, who, having plenty of means at command, go South in winter, as snow and ice interfere with their boating, shooting, roystering, etc., at home. The proprietors are for the most part owners of seashore or mountain hotels at the North, and the same course of dancing, waltzing, etc., is kept up in Florida as at those hotels in summer. It is strange that the hotel-keepers fail to see that the wishes and intentions of their guests, with few exceptions, are widely at variance with those of the summer pleasure-seekers who fill their houses at the North.

It is certain that hotel proprietors in Florida who insist upon retaining in their employ bands, "buglers," and "trumpeters," against the protests of three fourths of their guests, will find their music resounding through empty halls after a few more winters. Those who need rest and recuperation- and this is the most numerous class who desire to go South in winter- - will not submit to unnecessary and annoying clamor and noise in hotels; they will prefer to stay amid ice and snow, and enjoy home quiet and comforts.

Magnolia is a very delightful, quiet place of resort. It consists of a collection of pleasant cottages, with a small hotel designed for table board especially. Quiet people will find here rest and most excellent society, -considerations of the highest importance to invalids.

PICTURE FROM A PARISIAN HOSPITAL. Professor (who has his class in the wards) to patient, "What is your occupation?" Patient (who has pulmonary disease), "Musician, sir." Professor to class: "There, gentlemen, at last I have the opportunity of demonstrating what I have often told you in the lecture-room, that the wear and tear on the respiratory tract caused by the blowing of musical instru ments, is a fertile source of just such difficulty as our patient here labors under. (To patient). What instrument do you play, sir?" Patient, "The bass drum!"The Cincinnati Lancet and Clinic.