isolating other ptomaines. After the injection of typhotoxine into mice and guinea-pigs, the following symptoms were observed: "First, slight salivation, with increased respiration; the animals lose control over the muscles of the trunk and extremities, and fall down helpless upon their sides. The pupils become strongly dilated, and cease to react to light; the salivation becomes more profuse; the rate of heart-beat and of respiration gradually decreases, and death follows in from one to two days. Throughout the course of these symptoms the animals have frequent diarrhoeic evacuations, but at no time are convulsions present. On post mortem the heart is found to be contracted in systole, the lungs are strongly hyperemic, the other internal organs pale, the intestines firmly contracted, and their walls pale."

Bourget draws the following conclusions from his investigations of puerperal fever:

"1. In puerperal fever the urine contains highly poisonous bases. 2. The toxicity of the urine is most marked when the symptoms of the disease are most grave, and diminishes as the symptoms abate. 3. The ptomaines obtained from the urine. prove fatal when injected into frogs and guinea-pigs. 4. Toxic bases, resembling those obtained from the urine, were extracted from the viscera of a woman who had died of puerperal fever."

The last ptomaine or toxic principle which I desirel to call your attention to, is the one isolated by Prof. Vaughan, of the Michigan University, from milk and cheese, and to which he has given the name-tyrotoxicon. From the investigations of Vaughan and the application of the knowledge thus obtained to his medical practice, Dr. Vaughan is of the belief that tyrotoxicon is the cause of many cases of cholera infantum. "As this poison appears very rapidly and abundantly in milk under favorable conditions, and furthermore as the symptoms produced by tyrotoxicon and the pathological changes observed on post mortem are identical with those occasioned by this disease," this conclusion appears to be very well grounded.

By stopping the use of cow's milk during the illness of patients afflicted with this disease, Vaughan has obtained excellent results.

Much work still remains to be done in this field of the ptomaines; they must be isolated and identified; their physiological action more carefully studied; and, finally, efforts must be made to ascertain what drugs act as prophylactics and antidotes. CHEMICAL LABORATORY, NIAGARA UNIVERSITY.

Correspondence.

RANNEY ON NERVOUS DISEASES.

To the Editor of the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal:

SIR-My attention has been drawn to a very courteous and complimentary review of my recent work on Nervous Diseases, in the June number of your journal.

I find in it, however, a statement that is liable to mislead your readers and which certainly misstates my views. I refer to the following sentence :

"Especially does he (i. e., myself,) pin his faith to the influence of refractive errors in chorea and epilepsy." 1

I take the liberty, in answer to this unintentional error on the part of the reviewer, of quoting some conclusions that I embodied in a late article on "Eye-strain." These conclusions are as follows:

the

Ist. "Eye-strain" arises chiefly from defects in the refraction of eye and an imperfect equilibrium in the muscles which move the eyes. 2d. These conditions, when present, tend to cause an excessive expenditure of nerve-force by the individual in direct proportion to the amount of defect to be overcome.

3d. Excessive expenditure of nerve-force upon any one organ is commonly made at the expense of some other organ; or, if not, is paid out of the "reserve" of nerve capital possessed by the individual.

4th. The extent of the drafts thus made upon the "reserve" capital and the amount of "reserve capital" are the two factors which can alone determine, in any individual case, how long this state of things. can last without causing a "nervous bankruptcy."

5th. The conditions mentioned as those which chiefly tend to

cause "eye-strain" are transmitted from parent to child; hence they become operative at birth, and last until death, unless mechanically or otherwise relieved.

6th. They are capable of detection and accurate measurement during life by scientific procedures. Some of the methods employed by oculists in testing the eye muscles are not worthy of perpetuation.

7th. A condition of exhausted nervous vitality is sure to impair the general health in many ways, and to render the individual man more liable to disease than when in full vigor.

8th. Many of the constitutional diseases which ultimately imperil the lives of their victims, are indirectly the result of a state of low nervous vitality (a state which is frequently the result of "eyestrain," from well-understood causes that might have been easily recognized and relieved).

9th. The so-called "inherited predisposition " to certain diseases is unquestionably based, in many cases, upon some anomaly of the visual apparatus. I am so well convinced of this fact that I assert it without fear of contradiction, from carefully gathered statistics.

10th. The examination of the eye for errors of refraction and accommodation, and a thorough familiarity with the tests lately advocated for the detection of anomalies of the ocular muscles, ought not to be confined exclusively to the practice of the oculist.

They are as valuable to the general practitioner as are the physical signs of the chest.

By giving these facts due prominence in your next issue, you will greatly oblige, Yours most respectfully,

AMBROSE L. RANNEY, M. D.

156 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY, June 12, 1889.

PREFERRED CREDITORS.-Medical men in general are probably not aware that in France the doctors' claim on the estate of a deceased patient has precedence of all others. Even the landlords' claims for arrears of rent must yield to the doctors' fee. The courts have decided that as it is an imperative right of humanity that the dying should have the necessary care and treatment, such attendance should be paid for before all the other debts. Such a law in this country would be hailed with satisfaction by the doctors, and a similar provision for the undertakers would delight that profession.-Scientific American, May 4th.

BUFFALO MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL

MONTHLY REVIEW OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

EDITORS:

THOS. LOTHROP, M. D.,

W. W. POTTER, M. D.

Ail communications, whether of a literary or business character, should be addressed to the editors: 284 FRANKLIN STREET, BUFFALO, N. Y.

Editorial.

THE CLOSE OF VOLUME XXVIII.

COMBINATION WITH THE MEDICAL PRESS OF WESTERN NEW YORK.

THIS July number brings the twenty-eighth volume of the new series of this magazine to its end. There are many reasons for congratulation at this time, and we may be pardoned, we trust, for briefly alluding to some of them.

First. Our subscribers, many of whom have received the JOURNAL since it was originally established in 1845, are already cognizant of the fact that it has been very much increased in size under the present management. We have furnished in this volume more pages than were ever published in a medical periodical in Buffalo before. It is true we made no formal announcement of our intentions in this regard, preferring to give our friends the benefit of whatever increase their support would war

Their generosity has been duly appreciated, and the result is before them for critical examination. The comprehensive index that accompanies this number speaks in no uncertain manner upon this point.

Second. We congratulate ourselves on the gradual and steady increase of our subscription list, which has enabled us to

accomplish so much; we hope the future will even yield a more abundant harvest. The interest is mutual; no medical publication can succeed without a liberal patronage; no such magazine can deserve success without a generous outlay of time and

money.

It is already known to some of our readers that the Medical Press of Western New York has become consolidated with the JOURNAL. The editorial announcement in the Press for June sufficiently stated the reasons for this action, and we need not repeat them here. This number will be posted to each subscriber to the Press, and we will thank any such who may fail to get it promptly if they will notify us to that effect.

To the many friends of the Press we will say, that it shall be our aim to deserve, as we expect to receive, their cordial friendship and esteem.

THE NEWPORT MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

SELDOM has it fallen to the lot of this time-honored medical body to cast its lines in a more pleasant place than it did at its fortieth annual meeting that has just been held. True, it has haď a larger attendance in times gone by, and it has met in many larger cities; but it never found warmer hearts to greet it, and it has seldom done better work, or had greater harmony in its deliberations. In the election of Dr. E. M. Moore, of Rochester, to the presidency, it has performed a graceful act to a man who is the peer of any American physician.

In the selection of Nashville as its next place of meeting, we feel sure it has acted wisely. Other cities made strong claims to be its host in 1890, but none can treat it more generously, according to its ability, than this lovely city of the midSouth. There need be no fear as to accommodations for all who will attend-we are assured they will be ample.