phis in those days one of the pleasantest places in the world. What times they used to have when Dr. Arthur Taylor, Dr. Erwin, Ed. Yerger, John Sale, Sam. Walker, Birney Marshall, Charley McLean, Dr. Joe Lynch, Dr. Paul Otey and a few more happened to drop in at Madame Vincent's for a lunch! They have all gone-even the jolly, kind-hearted madam,—gone over to the great majority, and Memphis, no matter how prosperous she may become, can never again be the same to the men who knew her in those days." DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN TUBERCULAR AND FIBROID PHTHISIS. Sir Andrew Clark, speaking of the differentiation between tubercular phthisis and fibroid phthisis, says: "Tubercular phthisis is primarily of constitutional origin, and appears for the most part in the young. It is bilateral. Its course is accompanied by elevation of temperature and rapidity of circulation, by progressive loss of flesh, strength and color; sometimes by laryngeal ulceration, and sometimes by sensations of painful exhaustion and malaise. It is usually rapid in its progress; the majority die within three years, and the few who, in consequence of fibroid complications, live for a longer time, enlarge the average duration of the disease to four or five years. On the other hand, fibroid phthisis is usually of local origin, and appears for the most part in the middle-aged. It is, in the main, unilateral. It is unaccompanied by elevation of temperature or hurry of circulation; flesh, color and strength may remain but slightly affected for years. It is not incompatible with great bodily and mental energy. The urine always contains a little albumen. The progress of the malady is slow. Edema is never absent throughout, and death which seldom occurs within five years, is often delayed for thirty."-Med. Rec. CAPSICUM IN HEMORRHOIDS.-A case is mentioned by a correspondent of a Peruvian medical journal of a case of bleeding piles cured by capsicum. The patient was a man of twenty-eight years of age He was much distressed by passing variable quantities of blood after going to stool, and suffered a good deal from anal irritation and tenesmus. No tumor could be detected. He had formerly been in the constant and daily habit of using a violent purgative for ten months, and after he left it off, obstinate constipation followed, and it was under these circumstances that hemorrhage commenced. The writer tried all kinds of remedies, and regulated the diet, without producing any improvement, and at last was contemplating surgical measures, when he happened to mention the case to a hospital physician, who suggested a trial of capsicum, as he had himself been cured of a very obstinate form of chronic dysentery by its means, and he felt sure that it possessed the property of acting on the rectum. This was consequently prescribed with meals, and the doses gradually increased. A marked improvement soon was observed, and at the end of a couple of months a complete cure was effected.-London Med. Times. MOLLUSCUM CONTAGIOSUM.-In the Journal of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases, Dr. Chas. W. Allen reports an analysis of fifty cases of this disease observed in one of the infant asylums of New York. After reviewing the history of the disease, he concludes his paper by saying: In conclusion, my present reasons for believing this molluscum contagious, and that its name is a proper one, and should be retained, are: 1. The cases reported by Bateman, Mackenzie, F. Fox, Liveing, and others, and the first one mentioned in this paper, where the child first has the disease, and the mother afterward, upon the face, neck or breast, are difficult of explanation by any other theory. 2. The spread of the disease in families, schools and institutions. Liveing (Lancet, Oct. 5, 1878) reported nine cases occurring coincidently in a school. 3. The fact that the parts exposed to contact are those almost solely affected: The face in children, the breasts in mothers, and the genital region in adults, and especially in prostitutes and the men who visit them. 4 The reported successful inoculations. 5. That negative evidence has no weight. It is not always possible to inoculate other diseases which are well known to be contagious Finally, the disease should never be mistaken for any other, although Bazin considered it sufficiently like variola to name it acne varioliformis. It bears a slight resemblance to varicella, and when occurring upon the genitals has suggested syphilis to those unfamiliar with its appearance. From molluscum fibrosum the diagnosis is easily made. TERPINE.-Reber, in Der Fortschritt, June 5, 1885, gives the following directions for making terpine: Four parts of oil of turpentine, three parts of eighty per cent. alcohol, and one. part of nitric acid are mixed in a bottle and frequently shaken, as the mixture on standing continues to separate into two layers. After fifteen or twenty days the fluid assumes a reddish tint, and large crystals form in rosette- like groups. These, after having been pressed between filter paper, to free them from oil of turpentine, are again dissolved for recrystallization in ninety-fivé per cent. alcohol, to which a minute quantity of caustic potash has been added for the purpose of removing any trace of free nitric acid. This concentrated solution having finally been filtered and left undisturbed in a low temperature, the formation of white needle-shaped, silky crystals of terpine takes place.-London Med. Rec. ⚫ INDUCTION OF PREMATURE LABOR, a la T. GAILLARD THOMAS. The method of inducing premature labor which I now invariably adopt is a very simple, and is at the same time a perfectly efficient one. The patient is placed across the bed, with the buttocks resting near the edge, and under is arranged a large piece of ruber or oilcloth in such a way as to drain into a tub on the floor. In this tub we put one or two gallons of water at a temperature of ninety eight degrees Fahrenheit. The operator stands between the thighs of the patient, whose knees should be properly supported. and employing a syringe with a long nozzle, which is carried up as far into the cervical canal as it will go, he keeps a steady stream directly against the membranes. In the course of ten minutes the os will be the size of a silver half dollar, and when dilation to this extent has been accomplished, he is to insert a gum catheter between the membranes and the uterine walls. The patient is then put to bed, rhythmical uterine contractions soon follow, and the labor is completed in a few hours A NEW METHOD OF REDUCING DISLOCATIONS OF THE HIP, BY DR. S. J. ALLEN, M.D.-An anesthetic having been administered to the extent of producing complete muscular relaxation (Ann. of Surg.), the surgeon stands over the recumbent patient, whose leg he flexes upon the thigh, and the thigh raises to a right angle with the body, bringing the foot between the surgeon's legs so that its dorsum rests against his nates. If then the surgeon, passing his right arm beneath the flexed knee, lifts the hips of the patient well from the bed or floor, and holds them thus suspended for a very short time, the head of the femur will quickly be drawn back into its socket. The weight of the hips and opposite leg rotates the body outward, producing just sufficient abduction and extension to quickly draw the head of the femur through the slit in the capsular ligament, and direct it into the acetabulum. GOLD BEATER'S SKIN FOR BURNS-Noting M. Meurisse's recommendation of the application of gold beater's skin as a dressing for burns and blisters, I recall the fact that for a number of years I used a similar material as a covering for ulcers of the leg and superficial wounds of all descriptions. Hunting once in the Sunk Lands of the Saint Francis, in Arkansas, I saw a trapper dressing an open sore by applying to it a piece of animal membrane. Inquiry led to the information that the membrane was simply the intestines of deer, thoroughly cleansed and stripped and kept for this especial purpose. On parting from him he gave me a quantity of the prepared material, and as long as it lasted I used nothing else for the purpose mentioned I am satisfied that it is one of the best dressings ever devised. M. Meurisse directs that when applied to burns the skin should be kept moistened with carron oil or lime and linseed oil mixture. I should suggest carbolated oil as preferable.-Med. and Surg. Jour. SALICIN. The willow (Med. Herald) is now being largely cultivated in America for medicinal purposes. The switches at the end of two years are from four to seven feet long, and are cut and gathered in bunches like sheaves of wheat. In the stripping building they are steeped in water, and the bark at the larger end is loosened for a couple of inches by machinery. One by one the switches are placed in a mechanical stripper, and with a pair of pliers are pulled through with a sudden jerk. They are then wiped off with a woollen cloth, bundled, and laid away to dry. All the leaves and bark are dried and baled, when they command a price of twenty five cents a pound. On one farm in Georgia there are at present 400,000 willows growing, and 80,000 additional slips have recently been put in, it being intended eventually to devote sixty acres to this crop. The average yield is a ton to the acre. When dried, the willows command $200 per ton, and find a ready market. TREATMENT OF FRECKLES WITH CARBOLIC ACID.-Dr. Halkin's procedure is as follows: The skin, being washed and dried, is put on the stretch with two fingers of the left hand, and a drop of carbolic acid is applied exactly over the patch. When it dries the operation is completed. The skin becomes white, and the slight sensation of burning disappears in a few minutes. The thin crust which forms after the cauterization should not be disturbed; it detaches itself spontaneously in eight or ten days, leaving a rosy coloration, which is soon replaced by the normal color of the skin.-Am. Prac. & News. Translations from the German and French BY A. G. SINCLAIR, M.D., Professor of Diseases of the Eye, Ear and Throat, Memphis Hospital Medical College. Formerly Resident-Surgeon of the New York Eye, Ear and Throat Infirmary. REPORT ON OPHTHALMOLOGY. BY DR. M. LANDESBERG, NEW YORK. [New Yorker Medizinische Presse.] Cocaine without limit! The literature of ophthalmology is still flooded with articles upon this agent, communication after communication giving little not previously known. The subject of the present report shall be neither the phys iological nor the therapeutical action of the drug upon the eye, nor yet the toxic effects which sometimes follow its use, all of which are sufficiently known by the profession. It seems to me of more importance that the practicing physician should be made familiar with the fact, of which there is ample evidence, that the employment of cocaine in eye practice is by no means so free from danger to the organ as the literature of the subject has led the profession to believe. This note of warning merits attention. Dr. P. D. Keyser (Philadelphia) was the first to report panophthalmitis following cataract operations under cocaine, observed not only in his own practice but also in that of Dr. Strawbridge. He also observed panophthalmitis after iridectomy performed under cocaine. Hense (Elberfield) had the same experience after removal of a prolapsed portion of iris. From the clinics of Dombrowolski (Moscow) and Graefe (Halle) come reports of the occurrence of severe forms of kerititis after cataract extraction under cocaine. In the latter there was in three cases extensive loss of epithelium over the central portion of the cornea, in six parenchymatous, and in one pustular, kerititis. Of 150 cataract cases six were discharged, having a degree of haziness of the cornea which admitted the passage of but little more light than the cataractous lens had done. Prompted by the occurrence of dense fungoid conglomerations in new, yet unopened, vials of solutions of cocaine, which had been obtained but a few days |