fortunate when Bartholow went East. The Southern Illinois: Medical Association could easily instruct him in many things, were he to attend its meetings, but it would require him to tell the truth and to be a gentleman.- Weekly Med. Review. FEw practitioners appreciate the exceedingly great value of agaricin as a remedy in night sweats, especially those of phthisis. The most profuse hyperidrosis is checked almost by magic, with a single dose of 1 centigram of the remedy given in pill form. According to Pribram (in the Med. Chem. Centralblatt) it operates by diminishing thirst and increasing the secretions of urine. The dose may be pushed to the extent of 1 grain in the course of twenty-four hours. The single dose for an adult is from to grain.-Nat. Druggist. URETHAN, the new product of alkaloidal synthesis, a notice of which has already appeared in this journal, is said by Professor Jaksch of Jena to be the coming pure hypnotic for infantile practice. Given in small doses to adults it is not reliable, but when administered in a dose of 15 grains, according to Merck, "it leaves nothing to be wished for." Professor Jaksch says that its use in his hands, in the treatment of childrens' diseases, has been particularly blessed (segensreich erwiensen) as the sleep produced by it is in all respects. physiological or normal. Nat. Druggist. BROMIDE OF ARSENIC IN DIABETES.-Moock (“France med.," Feb. 25, 1886; " Glasgow Med. Jour.," July, 1886) reports the case of a woman fifty-four years old, who had probably had diabetes about four years, and who also had phthisis in the stage of cavity. She was much troubled with itching of the vulva. Small doses of bromide of arsenic were given, together with iodoform, and in two weeks the pruritus had entirely disappeared and the chest symptoms were much ameliorated. At first she was given gluten bread, but afterward she was allowed ordinary bread toasted. The improvement continued steadily for two months, at the end of which time the amount of sugar passed in the urine had been reduced to not much more than one-twentieth of the original quantity, and the chest symptoms were quite checked, although a cavity, of course, remained. Dr. N. S. Davis ("Jour. Am. Med. Assoc.," May 8, 1886), has reported excellent results with bromide of arsenic in conjunction with a strict anti-diabetic diet.-N. Y. Med. Jour. TREATMENT OF IVY POISONING. INCONTINENCE OF URINE. Dr. H. Hahn writes to the Thera- Liq. ammon. caust..... ..iij M. Sig.-Compresses to be moistened and applied once in two hours to the affected parts. If the eruption be very acute and painful, cover the compresses with an ice-bag.-Pract. & News. RExt. ergotæ........... ...gr. I ..gr. % INAPPETENCE IN PREGNANCY.— R Pulv. colombo rad., Pulv. zingiber rad......aa 15. 3ss ..4. Oj Aquæ bullientis........... 475. Ft. infusio. Sig.-A wineglassful before each meal.-Forwood. Mississippi Valley Medical Monthly SUBSCRIPTION PER ANNUM, ONE DOLLAR, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. Each issue of the MONTHLY will be mailed on or about the tenth of the month. Subscribers failing to receive it promptly will please notify us at once. Original communications, etc., should be in the hands of the Editor on or before the tenth of the month preceding their publication. We cannot promise to furnish back numbers. Clinical experience-practical articles-society proceedings, etc., and medical news of gen eral interest to the profession, solicited. All communications, whether of a business or literary character, should be addressed to the Editor. F. L. SIM, M. D., Editor. E. A. NEELY, M. D., Associate Editor. THE LOUISIANA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH AND THE BILOXI FEVER. During the latter part of August, prompted by the hearsay of rumor, Dr. Joseph Holt of New Orleans, President of the Louisiana State Board of Health, telegraphed to Biloxi, Miss., a noted health resort situated on the Gulf of Mexico, to learn the facts regarding a suspicious fever in that locality. A reply being delayed he promptly visited the town in person, and in company with the Secretary of the Board, Dr. L. F. Salomon, he reached the place after nightfall Tuesday, Aug. 31. The following morning, in company with Dr. T. S. Scales, health officer of Mobile, who had arrived during the night, they made a searching and complete examination of the premises and heard the testimony of the attending physicians and other gentlemen of unimpeachable integrity. After coolly and dispassionately weighing the testimony and seeing the cases then on hands they sent the following dispatch to the Board of Health at New Orleans: "We, the undersigned, have made a thorough examination of the seven convalescents, also of one patient now ill, and have obtained the clinical histories of the two persons who died last Sunday, Aug. 30. The sum of evidence indicates yellow fever as the cause of illness." Quarantine was at once established, cutting off communication between Biloxi and New Orleans. VOL.VI-32 No sooner had this been done than a great howl emanated from Biloxi. The mayor of New Orleans was telegraphed, by the mayor and a number of citizens and physicians of the unfortunate town, that quarantine had been placed upon them without any cause, that no contagious disease had existed there at any time, etc. With those who are familiar with the history of outbreaks of yellow fever this will be recognized as a repetition of the ordinary scenes characterizing each outbreak. There are those in every community who will not believe anything detrimental to their personal interest; none are so deaf as those who will not hear. In all of the outbreaks with which the writer has contended these doubting Thomases have not only existed at the commencement of the epidemic, but there have been many who knowingly and willfully persisted in their opposition to the generally admitted facts until late into, and perhaps the close of the epidemic; nor was this feeling confined to the laity, for we have known members of the profession in the active exercise of their calling mulishly persisting in their protestations. A little of the evidence collected by Dr. Holt regarding this fever will go far to convince those who are familiar with the disease that this was but the nucleus from which a great epidemic would likely have sprung to again devastate the Mississippi Valley. Bearing in mind that Biloxi is situated on a universal highway and at the time of the occurrence of the first case of fever was perfectly healthy, the situation will be rendered more appreciable : "A white lad, apparently in perfect health, went to bed as usual, and about 11 o'clock at night was seized with a chill, followed by fever of one paroxysm of three days' duration. Headache, pain in back and limbs, nausea; subsequent convalescence and no further trouble. "In the same house, within a period of seven days later, five other persons were stricken, all of them presenting a combination of symptoms identical with the first, differing only in duration, intensity and result. "During the same period and in another house, twenty-five yards distant, four persons were taken ill in quick succession, in precisely the same way. "Six days later, a lady in a house closely neighboring, who had nursed the sick and prepared the dead in the smitten families, was also taken in the same manner. "The evidence, therefore, embraced the history of eleven white persons who had never had yellow fever, living within a few yards of each other in the enjoyment of good health, suddenly and without apparent cause, taken with a fever of one paroxysm, lasting from thirty to seventy hours. "This fever, while in several cases mild, was in others reported as intense. It was ushered in generally with a slight chill, declaring itself in many of the cases between the hours of 6 in the evening and 6 in the morning, and was invariably associated with pains in the head, back and limbs, nausea, sometimes persistent vomiting. "In the severer cases the convalescence was characterized by great feebleness and a peculiar calmness and languor. The pulse of a convalescent adult was, at the time of our visit, sixty per minute. "A red-edged and pointed tongue, yellowish tinge of skin and conjunctiva was manifested to our eyes. A girl of fifteen had the fever three days. She would take no quinine, the doctors said. The fever passed off of itself. After passing two days in a calm stage, with no fever, she died. Parents state she lay in a drowsy condition, but could be aroused by the doctor. "In the neighboring house, at the same time, a lady was taken, at 11 o'clock at night, with violent headache, pains in back, in limbs, high fever. She had nausea, vomiting and delirium. Fever was said to have passed off after two days' duration, after which she had two convulsions; vomited one copious ejection of black matter and blood, which was expelled by a convulsive action of the stomach, without apparent effort of vomiting, immediately before her death, which occurred on the fourth day of illness. After death jaundiced and ecchymotic patches about face and neck." The symptoms and histories here so plainly marked out, will be recognized by all who are familiar with yellow fever, |