Selected Articles.

THE SPECIALISTS.-An amusing satire read at the Annual Dinner of the Faculty of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, opens as follows:

'Mid sulphurous fumes, in antiseptics rich
Enough to please our Peters-cure the itch,
Great Satan sat, dark frowns upon his face,
As when one finds another's got his case.
Fiercely he muttered: "Twenty doctors more
Within two days have come within my door,
And now at last-the news quite strikes me dumb-
The porter says some Specialists have come.
Should old ambitions once these fellows seize,
If they put out their signs, take in their fees,
Sure all my toils of little use would be;
Then I must go, this is no place for me."
The Demon rose, and shook from off his coat
The yellow films of U. S. Sulphur lot,

Uttered a cough which all Hell's regions racked,
And ordered out his baggage, to be packed.
"I'll up to Earth," he said, " for I must know
Why doctors are now rattled on me so."
Out into space he shot-a curious sight:
The Devil went on setting things aright.

After visiting Boston and Philadelphia, he finally arrives in New York. Having described his Satanic Majesty's experience with the various specialists of Gotham, the poet thus brings his rhymes to an end:

Some pleasures still in Satan's lot prevail,
For he at least unquestionably is male.
For him no gynæcologist could seek
Within persuasive specula to peek,

Or, with some learned name his troubles labeled,
Like Parliamentary motions, have him tabled.
I'm sure that once the Devil stopped and prayed,
'Twas when he found that he could not be spayed.
(0 gentle Art, I'm sure I am not blind

To all the good you've done for womankind;
But once 'twas woman's part to cut and sew,
While now to cut and sew her parts you go
Too oft, perhaps. Might it not be a gain
If you made less of womb and more of brain?)

My story's done. Satan, not now forlorn,
Went to his home. (He took iodoform,
"For not," he said, "in all my realms below
Does any perfume please my senses so.")
His fright o'er specialists had left him, too,

He'd seen how well Post-Graduate Schools can do.
"Since this succeeds," he said, "I need not fear.
I'll never have too many doctors here "

AN ANODYNE FOR USE IN VESICAL IRRITATION.-Dr. W. P. Copeland of Eufaula, Ala., writes (Med. Record): "In almost every community there are old men who suffer from enlarged prostates, accompanied with a chronic inflammation of the neck of the bladder, rendering them miserable sufferers and a care and anxiety to their friends and families. Having had the professional care of several of this class of cases, and dreading the tendency they so frequently incur by the administration of opium for the relief of pain, I resorted to various washes for injecting the bladder, resulting in my adopting a solution of benzoate of soda, ten grains to one ounce of water, with twenty to thirty drops of the green tincture of gelseminum; this is warmed and injected by the patient through a soft rubber catheter, whenever the pain is severe, and the catheter withdrawn, leaving the medicine to be voided in twenty or thirty minutes; or where they are not able to pass anything from the bladder, the catheter is reintroduced and the medicine allowed to escape. My experience with this treatment has been so satisfactory that I cannot refrain from giving it publicity to the profession."

THE USEFULNESS OF SPAYING.-The attempt of the New York Academy of Medicine (Ibid), to check the practice of spaying is evidently an ill-considered one, and is entirely antagonistic to the progressive instincts of the day. The history of the world shows that the practice in question has always been one of the crowning ornaments of the best types of civilization, from the Chaldean to the Roman age. Now that, after many centuries of gloom, it is again brought into beneficent existence, its critics should beware of thoughtless and shallow opposition. The trouble probably lies in the fact that there still lingers an impression among crudely educated minds that the ovaries are organs of social necessity and economic importance. This, however, is a serious mistake. These organs are, it is true, useful for a short period in the existence of a portion of womankind for the perfunetory propagation of the race. Aside from this, however, they

are not only of no service, but are a source of social, domestic, and individual distress of the greatest magnitude. Philosophers of the present day have ascertained several facts which place this view upon a solid and impregnable basis. No woman wants more than two children, many only one, and a large per cent., including the unmarried, not any at all. But in fact the population is increasing at a seriously rapid rate, and the modern economist has had to revive and readopt the views of Malthus. In this exigency, when society's needs are antagonized by infant multiplicity, the laparotomist steps in, as a kind of modern savior from the threatened polypædic catastrophe. The woman has her child, the ovary swells, the learned touch of the gynecologist detects a pyosalpinx, and in a twinkling out comes all the source of woman's labors and man's unsought paternities. The laparotomist is plainly society's best friend. Like all benefactors of the race, he must endure opposition and calumny for a time; but his noble work of radically removing the sources of over-population will go on, and we calculate that, at the present rate of increase, in fifty years some thirty-five per cent. of women will be permanently relieved of all the worry of maternal anticipation.

NITRO-GLYCERINE IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC NEPHRITIS. Dr. Francis Kinnicutt (Ibid), has conducted a series of clinical investigations, with a view of determining the value of nitro-glycerine as a remedy in certain kidney affections. From these studies he feels justified in drawing the following conclusions:

1. That in nitro-glycerine, given in small doses and frequently repeated, we possess a powerful agent for lowering the increased blood-pressure, which is very constantly associated with the development of uræmic symptoms.

2. That it has the power to control or relieve many of the paroxysmal disturbances of the nervous system, which are included under the general term of uræmia; of these headache and asthma are especially benefited by its use, the relief being more marked and continuous than that obtainable either by opium or chloral.

3. That its influence on the daily excretion of urine and serum albumen in parenchymatous and interstitial nephritis is apparently to decrease the former and diminish the latter. 4. That in the systematic and prolonged use of nitroglycerine in appropriate doses in chronic nephritis, we possess a means of maintaining, more or less continuously, a lowered blood-pressure, of often averting or relieving critical conditions, and thereby prolonging life.

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BORIC ACID POWDER IN THE TREATMENT OF GRANULAR LIDS. Dr. Jas. L. Minor (N. Y. Med. Journal) details his method of using the powder, the effects produced thereby, the cases suitable for, and facts governing its use, as follows:

1. The lids being thoroughly everted, the pulverized acid is freely dusted over the exposed conjunctiva with a camel'shair brush. The amount will, of course, vary, but in most cases of granular lids a quantity should be introduced sufficient to cover completely the parts to which it is applied. The frequency of application will vary from three times a day to three times a week-this difference depending upon the individual and the disease. It will be safe to repeat the application as soon as the disagreeable symptoms which have been relieved by the remedy begin to appear again.

2. Its immediate effect is to produce a burning, gritty sensation, with some pain, lasting for five or thirty minutes, and a free serous discharge, after which relief is experienced, and the lids feel freer, lighter, and smoother than before its use. This beneficial effect lasts for a period varying from a few hours to several days. The conjunctiva at times shows reduction in swelling and thickening as soon as the irritation following its use has passed off. This is, however, more noticeable after the remedy has been used for a week or more, when perceptible thinning of the conjunctiva is observed, and clearing up of the cornea if pannus be present. When boric acid powder is applied to succulent tissue or a swollen mucous membrane, a free serous discharge quickly appears, which lasts for ten or twenty minutes. This discharge occurs largely at the expense of the volume of the tissue to which it is applied, and is followed by a shrinkage of the same. This is best illustrated in the nasal cavities, when they are closed, or nearly so, from swelling of the mucous membrane. A short time after the use of the acid the passages become clearer and freer, and this is noticeable to the examiner as well as to the patient. This serous flux is probaby of an osmotic character. Its escape relieves succulent tissue of its superabundance of serum, thereby causing contraction, which facilitates a healthier circulation and better nutrition. Its action as an irritant is in the same direction, and is especially instrumental in the cure of corneal affections. The power possessed by boric acid of restraining micrococcal development, of diminishing diapedesis, of lessening the amoeboid movement of leucocytes, and other tissue and chemical changes which it produces, are factors which enter into the theory of its action. When the powder is applied to a granular conjunctiva, it not only covers the VOL.VI-26

entire membrane, but enters the cracks and crevices between the granulations, and brings about the change indicated upon the conjunctiva as a whole and upon the granulations individually.

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3. I have used boric acid powder in all forms of granular lids, and in most varieties of conjunctivitis, with benefit. think, however, that the papillary form of granular lids is most amenable to its influence. Pannus in every instance has been markedly improved, and in many cases cures have been effected. In ophthalmia neonatorum some cases have received benefit, but I rely but little upon the powder in purulent cases. On the contrary, it acts best when the secretion is scanty and serous. I have often noticed that the' conjunctiva became less tolerant of its action after the powder had been used for three or four weeks, and in such cases the treatment has been changed with success. Boric acid in this particular is similar to other agents in general use for the treatment of granular lids, for it is often noticed that a remedy will wear itself out, as it were, and it becomes necessary to substitute another agent for the one which has been used. Boric acid is only one of these remedies, and is no more of a specific than others, yet it is an important addition to our list of efficient remedies for a disease which is often rebell ous and always obstinate and protracted. It is less painful than other remedies, its effects in this particular being often recognized by the patient, who will ask to have the powder repeated, because it is less painful and more efficient in affording relief than other agents which have been employed. Jequirity has done much toward simplifying and hastening the treatment of granular lids, but there will always remain a large contingent in which the special condition or the general surroundings of the patient will debar its use, and in such cases as these we must resort to those remedies that are known to be of value-possibly less brilliant, but entirely free from danger.

WHEN TO TIE THE UMBILICAL CORD-(Engel, Centlbl. fur Gynak., No. 46, 1885).—The writer strongly recommends that the cord should not be tied till all pulsation in it has ceased, and in the course of his paper mentions the following facts as evidence of the importance to the child of the small quantity of blood thus saved to it. He contrasts the mortality of all the premature children born in the Klausenburg Hospital during the last eight years, during the first four of which it was the custom to ligature the cord immediately on the birth of the child, while during the latter four the plan of treat