presented evidences of an ancient cicatrix at its apex, but both were otherwise healthy.

He says his father married his cousin, who died of chronic phthisis two years before his father.

Of eight children, one died others arrived at adult age, Of the ninety-three direct

at birth, and one at eleven. All the and married, several being still living. descendants of his father, not one was phthisical. This result is attributed to the journey, supplemented by the following out-door exercise, and careful regulation of the health of his children.

Dr. Bowditch thinks that many patients die from want of openair treatmemt. He directs each of his phthisical patients to walk daily from three to six miles; never to stay at home all day unless a violent storm be raging. If the weather be very cold, he directs them to wear respirators. He forbids standing still on the street to talk with friends. He thinks that by following this plan, patients may be cured at home, and while still conducting their business. This seems sound sense. Better use the air at our doors and near our homes, before we fly to other air hundreds or thousands of miles away.

To those unable to walk sufficiently far to reach the best air near home, without excessive fatigue, it is advisable to use a horse and buggy, or a team driven by the patient, which is far better. The therapeutic value of a spirited span of thoroughbreds, to one able to manage them, is very great, and these, too, can be added to the effects of the open air proper. Consumptives are only one of many classes of people who would be thus benefited.-Amer. Lancet.

NOTE ON THE USE OF TURPENTINE IN TYPHOID FEVER.-The most useful articles in a medical journal åre not those which are the most original, and certainly if lack of originality be a spice of value, the present note in regard to the oil of turpentine in typhoid fever will be well flavored. The employment of the remedy, I believe, originated with Dr. George B. Wood, and was certainly very strongly inculcated by him, so that it has been amusing and instructive when from time to time, especially in some of the English journals, it has been brought forward as a new discovery by medical writers. Dr. George B. Wood taught that the oil of turpentine acts as a local remedy in typhoid fever, and that there are two stages of the disease in which it is especially useful. The first is at the end of the second

week, when the tongue becomes especially dry and glazed, and the abdomen very distinctly tympanitic, with or without the co-existence of diarrhea. The second period, in which the remedy was especially used by the former Professor of Therapeutics in the University, was during convalescence, when the perpetually recurring diarrhea, with lack of digestive power, indicated failure of some of the intestinal ulcers to heal. For nearly twenty-five years I have been following the practice of my predecessor, and I am very thoroughly convinced by experience in hospital and in private practice, that many lives would be saved if the oil of turpentine was more freely used in this disease. I do not believe that it is possible to reach the ulcerations in the small intestine with nitrate of silver, or other similar readily decomposable or readily absorbable remedy. The volatile oils are absorbed slowly and are rapidly vaporized at the temperature of the human abdomen, so that there can be no reasonable doubt that, either in the form of liquid, or more probably in the form of vapor, when given freely by the mouth, that they get into contact with the mucous membrane of the upper intestine. It has become my routine habit to give the turpentine in case of typhoid fever, beginning about the twelfth or fifteenth day, and I believe if its use were habitual in the profession there would be much fewer cases of intestinal hemorrhage or other severe symptoms due to a local lesion.

In my own case, convalescence from typhoid fever was exceedingly slow, on account of the perpetually recurring diarrhea, and when at the instance of Dr. George B. Wood himself, then an old man nearly eighty years of age, the turpentine was exhibited, the local symptoms were relieved immediately. Four or five times I experimented by stopping the turpentine, and when local symptoms had returned, on giving the turpentine again, would see them abate within twenty-four hours. The effect of the drug was scarcely mistakable. The turpentine may be disguised by means of glycerin and a volatile oil made into an emulsion, which is rarely objected to by patients. Ten or fifteen drops should be given every two hours during the day, the patient being allowed to rest at night. The following formula will be found satisfactory:

Sig.-Desertspoonful as directed.

Prof. H C. Wood, M. D., LL. D., in Med. News.

Merk's Bulletin gives three excellent and seasonable formulæ, published originally in The Practitioner, the strength of the ingredients being adapted to the U. S. Phar.:

'In INFANTS' "SUMMER-COMPLAINT: "-Tincture Indian cannabis, twenty-four drops; spirit chloroform, five drops; tincture kino, 1 fl. dr.; peppermint-water, to make 7 fl. dr.; add, distilled water, I fl. dr. Shake well. Teaspoonful every one or two or three hours.

In ADULTS' INTENSIVE, LONG-STANDING DIARRHEA :---Tincture Indian cannabis, twenty-four drops; solution morphine bi-meconate (1:80), five to ten drops; spirit ammonia aromatic, twenty drops; spirit chloroform, ten drops; distilled water, to make 1 fl. oz. Two tablespoonfuls every one or two or three hours-strict fast during the next few hours-only a little rum-and-water.

In DYSPEPTIC DIARRHEA :-Tincture Indian cannabis, twentyfour to forty-eight drops; bismuth sub-nitrate 9 grains; mucilage acacia, 4 1⁄2 fl. dr., spirit chloroform, ten drops; peppermint-water, 7 fl. dr. Shake well-tablespoonful (or more), before or after mealslarge doses are best taken after meals.

EUCALYPTUS IN CATARRH OF THE RESPIRATORY TRACT AND OBSTINATE COUGH IN CHILDREN.-(Solomon Solis-Cohen, M. D., in Med. News.)-For several years I have been in the habit of using preparations of eucalyptus, both internally and by inhalation, in the treatment of certain cases of acute and subacute bronchial and laryngo-tracheal catarrh, more especially in children. Some three years ago, in a case of peculiarly obstinate cough in a child, not the cough of pertussis, for which all physical basis, so far as examination could show, seemed to have been removed, I was advised by Professor J. M. Da Costa to use fluid extract of eucalyptus, which had not been employed in the acute bronchitis from which the cough ap

parently held over. Previous to this, also with Dr. Da Costa's advice, a reliable preparation of belladonna had been used and had failed. Recovery was so prompt as to be Striking. Since that time I have repeatedly resorted to the same expedient in similar cases, with equally satisfactory, though not always equally rapid, result. While the use of eucalyptus in the treatment of inflammatory conditions of the respiratory tract is familiar, I do not remember to have seen mention, in print, of this particular phase of usefulness. It has seemed to me worthy of report, and I have mentioned the circumstances under which I began its use, in order not to claim credit for originality not mine. The value of eucalyptus in relieving headaches and facial neuralgias not of malarial origin, its undoubted value as an inhalation in pertussis, and the property of relieving semi-spasmodic coughs here reported, seem to indicate a nervine quality in some of its constituents. For inhalation in diphtheria, croup, laryngitis, whooping-cough, and phthisis, I prefer eucalyptol; but for internal use in bronchial and laryngotracheal inflammations the fluid extract seems to serve a better purpose.

In acute cases my usual custom is to administer it in connection with ammonium salts; in subacute cases a little paregoric may be advantageously added. In the obstinate irritative coughs following inflammatory affections which have apparently subsided, the fluid extract of eucalyptus is best given without other drug, in syrups of tolu acacia or in an emulsion of oil (castor oil, olive oil, cod-liver oil, almond oil), as necessary, to disguise its taste or modify its action. The dose is about five drops for a child of two years. The following are specimen formulæ :

Water sufficient to make 2 fluid-ounces.

For a child two years of age, with acute bronchial or laryngotracheal catarrh, one fluid-drachm in milk or water every two, three, or four hours.

For a child with subacute bronchial catarrh, one fluid-drachm in water every two, three, or four hours.

THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC GONORRHEA IN MALES.—(G. A. Renz, M. D., in N. W. Lancet.) In the treatment of chronic gonorrhea, the first principle to be laid down is to study your cases and treat them rationally; do not be satisfied with a long list of injections or the passage of sounds, sending the patient away with the promise that he will in time get well; as long as a pus-laden urethral thread remains, he is still suffering from a chronic gonorrhea.

It is a well known fact that the small cell infiltration around the uretha as brought out by Otis, if localized produces a so-called stricture of large calibre, and always destroys more or less the elasticity of the canal though it may yet be soft; if scar tissue has formed we have a stricture of small calibre; therefore, to cure, the use of astringents alone is not sufficient; sounds must be passed to cause by pressure the resorption of the connective tissue; for this purpose the sounds should be gradually increased in size; sudden dilatation is not advisable, for if the scar tissue be rigid, the normal mucous membrane will be more likely to tear than the scar tissue.

Nor do I think favorably of internal urethrotomies; although by relieving pressure you may do good in this, you are adding to the old scar tissue a line of newly formed tissue and must pass sounds as before.

The practice of cutting strictures is much abused in this country, and not to be too strongly denounced, excepting for special indications. I have known an internal urethrotomy to be performed to relieve a neurasthenia sexualis where there was no previous history of gonorrhea or traumatism; I can see no anatomical or pathological reasoning which will justify such a procedure.

I am inclined to believe with Prof. Ultzmann, that there is no necessity for an urethrotomy unless it be an external one in certain cases.