and seems to have taken a new lease on life. The enlargement of the prostate has subsided and the perineal opening has closed. He was in my office a few days ago. I introduced a sound, No. 14 American measure, No. 26 French, without any difficulty. I consider him cured.

I regard this a case of particular interest, as it was one whose general condition was broken down with malaria, and blood poison from absorption of pus, when he came to me.

I was kindly assisted in this operation by Drs. Crofford and Knox of this city, and Dr. Howard of Mississippi.

Society Proceedings.

GIBSON COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

The Gibson County, Medical Society met in the Masonic Hall at Trenton, Tuesday, 15th of December. Society called to order 11 A.M., President S. W. Caldwell in the chair. Members present: Drs. T. J. Happel, G. S. Glenn, J. D. Butler, C. T. Love, J. W. and G. W. Penn, D. G. Tull, A. B. Buchanan, A. B. Clay, J. C. Moore, R. H. Hunt, W. II. Stilwell, T. D. Rodgers, J. N. Koffman, J. B. Sappington, W. G. Callis and F. A. Overall.

Applicant for membership, Dr. C. S. Parker, who was unanimously elected a member of the Society.

Dr. J. C. Moore read an essay upon "Puerperal Eclampsia," which was received, and discussed by Drs. J. W. Penn, Happel, Tull, Stilwell, Glenn, Hunt and Buchanan, all endorsing Dr. Moore's treatment except Dr. Stilwell, who objects to venesection. Paper referred to Committee on Publication. Drs. Happel and Butler reported a case of Eclampsia, with much comment by themselves and others.

Dr. C. T. Love also read a paper upon "Puerperal Eclampsia," which was received and referred to the Publication Committee.

Dr. J. W. Penn offered an excuse for not reading an essay upon "Insanity and Its Relation to Crime," which the charitable Society accepted.

A paper by Dr. G. W. Penn upon "Typhoid Fever" was

VOL. VI-3

read by Dr. Happel. Received, discussed, and referred to the Committee on Publication.

Dr. W. H. Stilwell read an interesting volunteer paper, "The Food Craze," which was discussed and referred to Committee on Publication.

Dr. W. G. Callis read a paper, "Keep the Beam Level," in which he reported a very unique case. Referred to Committee on Publication.

The Committee on Essayists reported as Essayists for next meeting:

Dr. T. J. Happel-Use of Trephine.

Dr. D. J. Tull-Puerperal Fever.

Dr. R. II. Hunt-Delirium Tremens.

Drs. S. W. Caldwell, T. J. Happel, J. W. Penn, D. G. Tull, A. B. Buchanan, were elected delegates to attend the State Medical Society, which meets in Memphis, April, 1886.

The Society then adjourned to meet in Trenton, third Tuesday in March, 1886. F. A. OVERALL, Secretary.

OZONIFEROUS ESSENCES AS ANTISEPTICS.-Listerine possesses essential properties analogous in their effects to the ozoniferous ethers so highly recommended by Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson and others as deodorizers and disinfectants for the sick room, and should be used in the same way-sprinkled over handkerchiefs, garments and the bed linen of fever cases. Mantegazza, "On the Action of Essences and Flowers in the Production of Atmospheric Ozone, and on their Hygienie Utility," (Rendiconti del Reale Instituto Lombardo, vol. iii, fasc. vi), as quoted by Fox on Ozone, reports that the disciples of Empedocles were not in error when they planted aromatic and balsamic herbs as preventives of pestilence. He contends that a large quantity of ozone is discharged by odoriferous flowers, and that flowers destitute of perfume do not produce it. Cherry-laurel, clove, lavender, mint, lemon, fennel, etc., are plants which develop ozone largely on exposure to the sun's rays. Among flowers, the narcissus, heliotrope, hyacinth and mignonette are conspicuous; and of perfumes similarly exposed, eau-de-cologne, oil of bergamot, extract of millefleurs, essence of lavender and some aromatic tinctures. He also points out that the oxidation of the essential oils, such as nutmeg, aniseed, thyme, peppermint, etc., are convenient sources of ozone, and concludes that the ozoniferous properties of flowers reside in their essences, the most ozoniferous yielding the largest amount of ozone. It is of such aromatic. essences that Listerine is composed, and hence its efficacy under the circumstances indicated.—Sanitarian, Nov., 1885.

Mississippi Valley Medical Monthly

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ERYSIPELATOUS PNEUMONIA.-In a recent issue of the MONTHLY we published an article upon the above subject written by Dr. J. W. Penn of Humboldt, Tenn., and read before the Gibson County Medical Society in September last.

The literature of erysipelas in connection with internal organs is extremely meager; even the great epidemics of "black tongue" that prevailed in the Western States with such fearful havoc, have been allotted but a limited space in the records of the profession. The position occupied by Dr. Penn is, so far as we are aware, entirely original, yet we feel confident that the experience of a majority of the practitioners in this climate will corroborate the author's conclusion.

While it is generally believed that erysipelas is the result of a specific subtle organic poison-idio miasma-emanating from retrograde metamorphosis of animal matter and excretions, perhaps following micro-infection, either in or out of the living body, infectious, sometimes contagious in character, we are fully convinced that in this climate at least, malaria is often no small factor in its etiology. There is an abundance of literature going to show that pneumonia is also frequently of malarial origin, and so commonly does this disease appear to be disseminated by contact with the sick from it, that the question of its contagiousness has of late been freely discussed by the medical press.

Dr. George Sutton, of Aurora, Ind., read an article before the Indiana State Medical Society (Fort Wayne Medical Journal for October, 1885), entitled "A Review of Epidemics that

have Occurred in

South-eastern Indiana During the Last Fifty Years, etc." Speaking of an epidemic of erysipelas that occurred in Aurora, Dearborn County, and the adjacent counties in the winter of 1842-3, he said: "We were taught in those days to regard erysipelas as a species of skin disease of the class pyrexia, and the order exanthemata of Cullen. But I soon discovered that this form of epidemic erysipelas was not confined to the skin-but pervaded almost every tissue of the body. It attacked the glands of the throat and spread along the mucous membranes, often appearing at the angle of the mouth or nose and then spreading over the face as well marked erysipelas. It attacked the lungs and we had an asthenic form of pneumonia. It also attacked the pleura, the peritoneum the cellular tissue-and occasionally spread to the brain or its membranes, producing either delirium or profound coma, and probably never in the history of this county has puerperal fever been so prevalent as during this epidemic. A few cases came under my care which I regarded as internal erysipelas."

EMBRYOTOMY.-The mutilation of the dead child in cases of labor, attended with such deformity of the pelvis as to preclude the possibility of its being born, is an operation which was evidently known and practiced by the medical profession during earliest history-B. C. Hippocrates alludes to the use of hooks in extracting the head. Celsus was acquainted with the manner of extracting the foetus in transverse presentations by decapitation. The Arabian school employed perforators for opening the foetal head and compressors for extracting it.

But it was not until about the end of the seventeenth century that the operation of embryotomy was thought to be justifiable in the case of living children. It is now pretty generally conceded by the profession that the safety of the child should be considered subservient to that of the mother, and whenever the extraction of a living fœtus, by any of the ordinary means, is impossible, its mutilation is perfectly justifiable. One not familiar with the necessities in such emergencies naturally shudders at the thought of the sacrifice,

without giving due weight to the results that must necessarily follow temporizing and vacillation. There are not wanting even among accoucheurs, those who, in their praiseworthy horror of the destruction of a living child, council delay until it is dead. This practice cannot be otherwise than thoroughly illogical, and only spares the operator's feelings at the cost of hourly increasing risk to the mother from a condition that must terminate fatally to the unborn, and possibly to both.

Bearing directly upon this subject, we quote from the American Israelite the following letter:

PAPAL AND TALMUDICAL OPINIONS ON CRANIOTOMY. - A few days ago the daily papers reported from New York that every Roman Catholic physician in that city was in receipt of a circular containing a declaration by the Pope that the killing of an unborn infant is never right, even when the life of a mother can be saved in no other way. This bears upon the surgical operation known as craniotomy, which is generally practiced by the profession in cases where a choice. is forced between losing two lives and saving one by hastening the death of the other. Inquiry of Bishop Carrigan, in New York, elicited the fact that the letter to the physicians was not official, but that the statement of the Pope's ruling was in itself correct. The question had been discussed carefully by the Inquisitors-General at Rome, who voted unanimously against the practice, on the ground that the taking of a human life could not possibly be justifiable, except as a legalized punishment for crime. This finding was formally referred to the Pope, who ratified and promulgated it a few weeks ago.

It may be of interest to learn the Rabbinical view on this. question. In Mishna Oholoth, vii, 6, the undisputed decision is laid down that "in case of a dangerous parturition it is justifiable to kill the unborn infant in order to save the mother, as her life precedes its life." Such operation is, however, not permitted after the infant having already been partially born, as in the latter case the maxim applies, one human life must not be set aside on account of another. In his commentary on Talm. Sanhedrin 726, where this Mishna is quoted, Rashi explains the reason of the distinction between these two cases that the unborn infant is not yet a distinct personality with an independent life, hence the duty of saving the mother's life is to prevail, while in the second case its individuality is established, hence the legal principle must apply that one life