'D. Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D.: Biographical Sketch.' By DeForest Willard, M.D., Philadelphia.

'Recherches Bactériologiques sur les Propriétés Antiseptiques de l'Ichthyol.' By M. le Dr. Latteux, Paris.

'Results in Cases of Hip-Joint Disease treated by the Portable Traction Splint.' By Lewis A. Sayre, M.D., New York.

'The Inaugural Address before the Medical Society of the State of New York.' By A. Walter Suter, M.D., Herkimer, N. Y.

'The Public Health and Some of the Relative Inconsistencies of the National Government.' By A. Walter Suter, M.D., Herkimer, N. Y. 'Gastrothoracopagus.' By F. D. Haldeman, M.D., Ord, Neb.

'Tuberculin and the Living Cell.' By Charles Denison, A.M., M.D., Denver, Col.

'Preliminary Announcement of First Pan-American Medical Congress.'

'A Plea for Early Diagnosis in the Pelvic Diseases of Women.' By B. F. Baer, M.D., Philadelphia.

'A Case of Acromegaly.' By Frederick A. Packard, M.D., Philadelphia.

'Report of a Case of Muscular Sarcomata in an Infant.' By Frederick A. Packard, M.D. 'Eine interessante und treffliche Wirkung des Ichthyols.' Von Dr. Günther in Mülhausen. 'Cases of Gall-Bladder Surgery.' By Robert Abbe, M.D., New York.

'Intestinal Anastomosing and Suturing.' By Robert Abbe, M.D., New York.

'The Relative Importance of Astigmatism in the Production of Asthenopia.' By S. D. Risley, M.D., Philadelphia.

'A Contribution to the Study of Cystic Kidney.' By Ludvig Hektoen, M.D., Chicago. 'Bethlehem and Maplewood: a Contribution to the Medical Climatology of the White Mountains.' By W. H. Geddings, M.D., Aiken, S. C.

'The Past, the Present, and the Future of our Association.' By Claudius H. Mastin, M.D., Mobile, President American Surgical Association. 'Pelvic Inflammation in Women: a Pathological Study.' By William Warren Potter, M.D., Buffalo, N. Y.

'Asepsis and Antisepsis as Applied in the Lying-in Chamber.' By William Warren Potter, M.D., Buffalo, N. Y.

'The Therapeutical Effect of Antikamnia.' Hugo Engel, M.D., Philadelphia.

'Two Cases of Conservative Surgery.' By F. Robert Zeit, M.D., Medford, Wis.

The Remarkable Results of Antiseptic Symphysiotomy.' By Robert P. Harris, A. M., M. D., Philadelphia.

'Codeine in the Treatment of the Morphine Disease.' By J. B. Mattison, M. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 'The Choice Between Extirpation and Colotomy in Cancer of the Rectum.' By Charles B. Kelsey, M. D., New York.

'The Significance of Ocular Symptoms in Intracranial Disease.' By Charles A. Oliver, A. M., M. D., Philadelphia.

'Modern Electrical Methods as a Substitute for Surgery in Certain Pelvic Affections.' By G. Betton Massey, M. D., Philadelphia.

'Notes of Some Fibroid Tumors Treated by Electricity.' By G. Betton Massey, M. D.

'St. Augustine; Report upon her Present Sanitary Condition.' By John S. Billings, M. D., Surgeon United States Army.

'Ueber die Anwendung des Ichthyols in der Frauenheilkunde.' Von Reinhold Herrmann, Gör

By

R. Menthol,

Salol,

Ol. olivæ,

'Recent Progress in Diseases of the Brain and Nervous System.' By F. Robert Zeit, M.D., Medford, Wis.

Lanolin,

Fiat unguentum.

SIG. Apply once or twice daily.

SIG.-A tablespoonful, or two tablespoonfuls, at bedtime.

If the inflammation is active, and sleeplessness is present, several leeches may be applied to each temple, or a subcutaneous injection of morphine hydrochlorate may be given.

-The following formula is suggested for the administration of GUAIACOL (Prag. Rundschau):

gr. iij

Morphiæ,

Atropin. sulphat., Acid. tannic.,

gr. ivss

gr. iij

gr. iijss

3 v.

Vaselin,

SIG.- Apply after

bowels.

M.

each evacuation of the

-In ULCERATED CHILBLAINS (Brocq, Jour. de Malad. Cutan. et Syphilit.):—

R. Acid. carbolic.,
Unguent. plumbi,
Lanolin,

Ol. amygdal. dulc.,
Spirit. lavandul.,
Fiat unguentum.

gr. xv.

3v fzij

gtt. xx.

M.

SIG.-Apply two or three times daily.

-For BALANITIS (L'Union Méd.):—

R. Atropinæ sulphat.neutral., gr. j.

Zinci sulph.,
Acid. boric.,

Aquæ destillat.,

gr. ij

SIG.-Apply locally two or three times daily with a brush. If phimosis is also present, inject a small quantity of this solution between the glans and the prepuce.

-Colasauti, as a result of extensive investigations, has determined that dermatol is a valuable agent in the treatment of DIARRHOEAS of different origin, especially that due to tuberculosis (Medical Press, quoted in Boston Med. and Surg. Jour.). It is administered in capsules or suspended in mucilage in doses of from two to seven grains. From one-half to one and one-half drachms may be given in twenty-four hours. If colicky pains are present, opium may be combined with it. In rebellious cases it sometimes takes three to four days before results are noted. The author has observed no bad results.

-Prof. Edwin E. Graham, in an elaborate paper on THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS BY CREOSOTE (Therapeutic Gazette), states that the position which creosote occupies to-day in the Eastern United States in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis certainly does not support the results claimed for it by Sömmerbrodt. It is unquestionably a valuable drug in tubercular phthisis; nothing more. Success is more often reported and talked of than failure, and while the creosote treatment will probably, and deservedly, always have warm advocates, it must be looked upon as simply one of many-perhaps the best of all-means of combating this dreaded disease. If not combined with hygi enic, dietetic, and symptomatic treatment, it will usually be found useless. If used in conjunction with the above, it will in a moderate per cent. of first-stage cases be followed by a

cure.

News and Miscellany.

'McCaskey's Clinical Studies" is the title of a new quarterly medical publication by G. W. McCaskey, A. M., M. D., Fort Wagner, Indiana.

-At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Jefferson Medical College, held on Wednesday, November 30, 1892, Dr. G. E. de Schweinitz was, on the unanimous recommendation of the Faculty, elected Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology in the Jefferson Medical College.

At the time of election Dr. de Schweinitz was Professor of Ophthalmology in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, and Lecturer on Medical Ophthalmology in the University of Pennsylvania.

-A reception was tendered on December 14th by Dr. H. A. Hare, Professor of Materia Medica and

Therapeutics at the Jefferson Medical College, to the Faculty and their assistants, at which Prof. E. E. Montgomery and Prof. G. E. de Schweinitz were introduced to their colleagues.

-The Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania will meet in Williamsport May 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th. All who desire to read papers at the session must submit them by title, and state probable time needed to Dr. H. G. McCormick, Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, Williamsport, not later than March 1st. Wm. B. Atkinson, M. D., Permanent Secretary.

-The Executive Committee of the Alumni Association of Jefferson Medical College called a meeting of the Alumni living in Philadelphia and suburbs within thirty miles of the city, for the evening of December 9th in the College building, with the view of forming a better acquaintance among the Alumni and to take steps to secure a more concerted action for the benefit of the Alumni and the College. The hall being engaged until January. for other purposes, the meeting was postponed

-In making a post-mortem examination of the remains of a female lunatic who died lately in the perience. They found in the woman's internal Kew Asylum, the doctors had an extraordinary exorgans three German silver teaspoons, which had been missing for a month prior to her death, as well as a piece of iron used to connect the handles of a door lock, and two triangular pieces of glass. It also transpired that three days previously another surgeon had abstracted a flat piece of steel five inches long and nearly an inch wide from the throat of the deceased. Yet none of these strange articles of diet had anything to do with her death, which was caused by disease of the brain.

-"Gentlemen, you do not use your faculties of observation," said an old professor, addressing his class (Brit. and Col. Drug). Here he pushed forward a gallipot containing a chemical of exceedcontinued, "I used my sense of taste," and with ingly offensive smell. "When I was a student," he that he dipped his finger in the gallipot and then put his finger in his mouth. "Taste it, gentlemen, taste it," said the professor, "and exercise your perceptive faculties." The gallipot was pushed toward the reluctant class one by one. The students resolutely dipped their fingers into the concoction, and with many a wry face sucked the abomination from their fingers. "Gentlemen, gentlemen," said the professor, "I must repeat that you do not use your faculties of observation,

for had you looked more closely at what I was doing you would have seen that the finger which I put in my mouth was not the finger I dipped into the gallipot."

-According to our excellent contemporary, the Medical Record, the charge has been made in one of the leading dailies of New York that surgery is becoming too invasive. It states that if any one believes that such is possible he has merely to read the conservative interviews and be at once disabused. With the incoming year each and all of us will hail this radical change in opinion with becoming joy. What glad news this will be for the little ovary, which can now uninterruptedly carry on its particular home industry instead of becoming domesticated into the pickling-jar of the progressive gynecological pathologist. Its commoner and multiplied diseases will vanish, the innocent cysts will no longer be apologetically demonstrated, and operative statistics will dwindle. The peritoneum will no longer be a thoroughfare, and the surprised gut will less seldom twist its bashful coil from the light of day, or join in the unnatural alliances of advanced intestinal anastomosis. The vermiform will gladly retire to private life; the wandering kidney will be more likely to stay at home, and even the gall-stones will elbow their faceted sides through the dark tunnel of the common duct in the good old-fashioned style, only to be lost in the harmless embarrassment of a delayed stool. Let us hope, then, that the surgical millennium is coming, that the knife shall be turned into a spoon, that the pill shall once more have its right of way, that the ovary shall hereafter peacefully wrap the drapery of the broad ligament about her and lie down to pleasant dreams of families yet to be.

PERSONALS. Dr. B. Knickerbocker (J. M. C. 1860) has removed to Toledo, Ohio.-Dr. F. J. Butterworth (J. M. C. 1892) has removed from Lenni, Pa., to 5170 Thompson street, Philadelphia. Dr. S. B. Lawson (J. M. C. 1892) has removed to Williamson, W. Va.-Dr. Justin D. Lisle (J. M. C. 1882) is at Springfield, Ohio.-Dr. H. C. Boenning (J. M. C. 1879) has been appointed Port Physician of Philadelphia in place of Dr. E. O. Shakespeare, resigned.-Dr. Julius L. Salinger (J. M. C. 1886), Lecturer on Renal Diseases at the Jefferson Medical College, has been elected Visiting Physician to the Philadelphia Hospital.-Dr. William M. Late Coplin (J. M. C. 1886), Demonstrator of Pathological Anatomy at the Jefferson Medical College, has been elected Pathologist at

the Philadelphia Hospital.-Dr. William Thomson, Hon. Professor of Ophthalmology at the Jefferson Medical College, has been made Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology.-Dr. Howard F. Hansell (J. M. C. 1879), Chief Clinical Assistant of Ophthalmology, and Dr. James H. Bell (J. M. C. 1884), Clinical Assistant, have resigned their respective positions.-Hon. Joseph Allison, President of the Board of Trustees of Jefferson Medical College, has resigned the presidency on account of failing health. The, Hon. Edwin H. Fitler, exMayor of Philadelphia, was elected to fill the vacancy. Dr. Clarance A. Weaver (J. M. C. 1892) has been appointed Instructor in Bandaging at the Jefferson Medical College. His class consists of the first-year students.-The new ambulance of the Jefferson Medical College Hospital has been placed in service. Dr. J. Harry Arnold, B. S. (J. M. C. 1892) has resigned his position as Resident Physician at the Jefferson Medical College Hospital, having been appointed surgeon of one of the Pacific mail line steamers. Dr. Clarance A. Weaver (J. M. C. 1892) succeeds him.-Prof. T. Parvin has resigned his position as Obstetrician to the Philadelphia Hospital. Dr. J. W. West (J. M. C. 1886), Assistant Demonstrator of Obstetrics, etc., at Jefferson Medical College, has been appointed by the Board of Corrections and Charity of Philadelphia to fill the vacancy.-Prof. Brinton closed his term of surgical clinics on November 30th. During his term he presented to the class about one hundred and fifty cases, and performed almost one hundred operations without a single fatal result. During this time over five thousand visits were made by patients to the Out-door Surgical Dispensary, under charge of Dr. O. Horwitz.-Dr. E. Winfield Egan (J. M. C. 1891), who died recently from appendicitis, served as Resident Physician of the Jefferson Medical College Hospital, and afterward received an appointment of surgeon on one of the ships plying between Boston and Panama. Dr. Wyeth, of New York, operated upon him, but without success.

Marriage.

HAWES-MARY.-At Bordeaux, S. C., on November 23, 1892, Albert Sidney Hawes, M. D. (J. M. C. 1891), and Julia Mary.

Death.

KISSINGER. At Terre Hill, Pa., January 1, 1893, Abram H. Kissinger, M. D. (J. M. C. 1871), aged forty-five years.

February, 1893.

Original Articles.

GYNECOLOGICAL TECHNIQUE AS CARRIED OUT AT THE GYNECEAN HOSPITAL.*

BY J. M. BALDY, M. D.

It is no uncommon thing to have physicians from all over the country, who are making a temporary stay in Philadelphia, and who are visiting the hospital with the object of seeing operations, question minutely as to the different points in the preparation, and not infrequently express surprise at the simplicity of these. In fact, it has often occurred to me that many of our visitors are more interested in the preparation than in the operation itself. To one who has the success of this class of work at heart, this seems to be a step in the right direction, as it has long since been recognized by the successful operators of the world, that more good results are obtained by mediocre operators whose preparations have been most careful and systematic, than by their more brilliant colleagues who have been inclined to scoff at minutiae and to depend upon their mechanical skill.

From time to time articles on this subject have appeared in medical print giving the most elaborate description of the preparation and the apparatus used, most of which are undoubtedly excellent and well-fitted for the operating-room of a hospital, but which are unnecessarily cumbrous when one comes to apply them to private work. For this reason I have been encouraged to enter upon a detailed description of our work at the Gynecean Hospital, the application of which can readily be carried into private practice. The watchwords from the beginning to the end of an operation are thoroughness and simplicity.

The aim of all successful operators is the same, namely the prevention of any septic matter entering into the field of operation. Different operators adopt different methods of accomplishing this object, but for success, the object and result must be the same, whatever the method adopted may be.

* Read before the Philadelphia County Medical Society, Dec. 28,

1892.

Antisepsis or asepsis, as fancy may dictate, To be successful the principle is the same. one must be surgically clean. For the proper accomplishment of this one must consider and treat: 1. The patient. 2. The operating-room and its paraphernalia, including tables, basins, pitchers, buckets, instruments, ligatures, sponges, dressings. 3. The operator, assistants, and nurses.

I. THE PATIENT.

The preparation of the patient should begin, when possible, at least twenty-four hours before the operation. The first steps are to regulate the diet and empty the gastro-intestinal tract. Free purgation is begun at once, preferably by the use of some saline. This is usually administered in the dose of a drachm of sulphate of magnesia, dissolved in water, each hour until the bowels begin to move. Usually five or six doses are sufficient to accomplish the object. The purgatives should

be so administered that the action of the bowels ceases five or six hours before the time set for the operation. After beginning the administration of the purgative, the diet should be light and concentrated. If the operation is to be performed in the afternoon, the patient's supper on the day before consists of the ordinary house diet. From this time on nothing passes her lips, unless it be a glass of milk or a cup of bouillon at breakfast-time. Even water, except in small quantities, is withheld. These steps in the preparation can be carried out in the case of most patients, but in dealing with an unusually weak woman considerable judg ment must be used in their application. A hot bath is given, both the day before and the morning of the operation. If the patient is unable to be moved to the bath-tub, the baths are given in bed. Prior to the final bath an enema of soapsuds and water and a vaginal douche of bichloride of mercury (1 to 3000) are given. Immediately on coming from the bath a fresh night-gown is put upon the patient and she is placed in a bed which has been specially prepared for her reception. After returning to bed, the abdomen-the seat of the operation is especially prepared. A nail