cigarette to the end, but usually throws it away when little more than half is finished. If these precautions were more generally observed, we should hear much less of the evil effects of smoking on the nerves and heart, and on the tongue itself. Persons whose salivary glands are abnormally excitable should smoke only the mildest tobacco. Spitting, however, is largely a matter of habit, and a good deal may be done by most smokers to control it. Persons who can not smoke without constant spitting should for the comfort of those about them forswear tobacco altogether.

ASAFETIDA IN OBSTETRICAL AND GYNECOLOGICAL PRACTICE.-Warman (Therap. Monats.) lays stress on the insufficiency of the remedies hitherto recommended in cases of abortion, pointing out that small doses of opium frequently disappoint, whereas large and repeated doses may prove injurious, both being of little value with patients subject to the habit of aborting. The author was therefore readily disposed to employ asafetida, as first recommended by Italian obstetricians. It was usually administered in pills containing one and a half grain, though an enema containing the tincture was soon preferred in cases of threatening abortion. The author found the drug most efficacious in reducing the hemorrhage which is prone to appear subsequently. Even with a very severe and alarming onset the first dose appeared to exert a most tranquilizing effect, and led to a gradual separation of the ovum unattended by contractions. Several instances are described at length to illustrate this, but the material at the author's command is insufficient to warrant him in ascribing to asafetida prophylactic properties. It is otherwise where habitual abortion has existed, and a successful issue in a most obstinate case is described, five in all having been observed by the author. To these patients the pills are administered, commencing with two per diem and increasing to ten, the number subsequently being again reduced. No unpleasant symptoms were produced, but, on the other hand, the action of the bowels was very much assisted, to which the author ascribes much of the success in those cases of what he terms "abortia habitualis."—British Medical Journal.

AGAINST THE "CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS."-Following is the full text of the measure now before the New Hampshire Legislature to govern and regulate fraudulent medical practice and the so-called Christian science or faith cures:

SEC. 1. No person within the limits of this State shall treat, attempt to heal or cure any other person or persons by the so-called Christian science or faith cures.

SEC. 2. If any person shall treat, attempt to heal or cure, or claim or pretend to heal or cure any other person or persons by either of said methods, and shall directly or indirectly accept or receive any money or other thing in payment for or on account of such services, or directly or indirectly accept or receive any gift or reward therefor in any form, such person so

offending against the provisions of this act by so accepting or receiving such money, gift, reward, or other thing, shall be fined a sum not exceeding three hundred dollars for each and every offense, and half of such amount to be given to the complainant, the other half to the State.

SEC. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

TREATMENT OF PULMONARY PHTHISIS BY INJECTIONS OF GUAIACOL.M. Le Tannuer has employed subcutaneous injections of guaiacol in sterilized oil for about three years. His method differs from that of Prof. Burlereaux only therein that he employs guaiacol instead of creosote, the former being the really active principle of the latter. His formula has been 5 centigrams of guaiacol and I centigram of iodoform to I cubic centimeter of sterilized oil. He begins by injecting 1 c. c. m. every two days, gradually increasing up to three or more every two days, according to the sensibility of the patient. He reports excellent results, the incipient cases all being cured and the more advanced partly cured and partly very much benefited and relieved of the annoying symptoms, as expectoration, cough, and night sweats. Journal de Médecine de Paris.

Average DURATION OF LIFE AMONG PHYSICIANS.-A curious statistical record has been compiled by Dr. Salzmann, of Essling, Wurtemberg, on the average duration of life among physicians. He found, in going over the ancient records of the kingdom, that, in the sixteenth century the average duration of life among this class was but 36.5 years; in the seventeenth century, 45.8; in the eighteenth, 49.8; and at the present time they reach the favorable average of 56.7. It appears from the foot-notes to the above that this very great increase in longevity is due to the disappearance of the "Black Pest," the introduction of vaccination, and the great diminution in the number of typhus epidemics, three classes of diseases formerly the especial scourges of medical practitioners.

TREATMENT OF TRICHIASIS AND DISTICHIASIS BY ADVANCEMENT OF THE UPPER LID.-Fernandez (Arch. d'ophthal., February, 1894,) advises the following operation: He incises the external commissure, detaches the upper lid for the height of a centimeter, and places beneath it a short flap detached from the temple. The commissure is then reunited. This method is based on the anatomy of the orbicular muscle, the fibers of which are inserted internally on the bone and externally in the skin. This arrangement renders possible the detaching and elevating the external extremity of the orbicular muscle without lessening its properties as a sphincter.New York Medical Journal.

NEW EDITOR OF THE ARCHIVS F. KLINISCHE CHIRURGIE.-Professor Gussenbauer, of Vienna, has been chosen to take the place of the late Professsor Billroth on the editorial staff of this journal.-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

Special Notices.

THE STATUS OF ARISTOL IN SURGERY.—In the Times and Register there appeared an editorial giving a brief retrospect of the various stages which the antiseptic treatment of wounds has passed since the commencement of the Listerian era. The writer comments as follows on the use of antiseptic powders: "Next came powders, insufflators, etc. Iodoform, that toxic compound of iodine and sulphur, which, though employed as an antiseptic, may at any time poison our patient; and any one who knows any thing about bacteriology is aware that it possesses no antiseptic power whatever, though all must admit that in tuberculous or syphilitic sores it exerts a most marvelous stimulating power in the process of repair. After iodoform comes aristol, a drug which is more efficacious than the former, and without its dangerous lethal properties. Under all circumstances it is to be preferred to iodoform when a deodorizer and antiseptic is called for. Aristol is devoid of any of the offensive odors of iodoform, and in light applications over wounded surfaces forms an impervious scab or shield under which healing rapidly advances. It certainly is the most valuable dry powder we have in our possession at present for many lesions of the periphery. Aristol is of an immense value in the treatment of burns, having a remarkable influence for the relief of pain. It occupies a high place as a cicatrisant and antiseptic. It may be used dry, as an ointment, or combined with benzoinol. Aristol is of great value in malignant tumors, especially during the stage of ulceration, and may even be used internally for cancer of the stomach. In prescribing Aristol in ointment a little ether should be rubbed with the drug before mixing with the base. This gives a much finer division than is usually found."

REPORT from George J. Monroe, M. D., Louisville, Ky.: "I have used Stearns' Wine of Cod-Liver Oil for some time, and find it an excellent preparation. It seems to take the place of all other Cod-Liver Oil preparations that I have ever used, and is so much more palatable than others, that I have decided to make use of it in future in preference to all Cod-Liver Oil preparations. So far patients do not complain of the regurgitation and fishy taste usual to Cod-Liver Oil administration. I was doubtful in regard to the claims made for this preparation, but extensive use has convinced me that every claim can be verified, and I hope that others may find the same favorable results from its use that I have found."

AFTER an attack of the grip the patient finds himself in a state of extreme weakness and prostration, from which condition he is tediously brought to his former good health. Remedies which stimulate his exhausted nerves too vigorously, do so at the expense of his general condition. Then comes the relapse. Syr. Hypophos. Comp. McArthur conveys to the tissues the revivifying and vitalizing agent phosphorus in its most oxidizable and assimilable form. Thus the true vitality of the nerve structure is restored by renewing the nutrition of the tissues themselves.

WALTER W. S. CORRY, M. D., L. R. C. S., I. & C., Rosedale Abbey, Pickering, Yorkshire, England, writes: "I have used Iodia, and am satisfied that it is a very powerful alterative and a great improvement on the old combination of iodide of potassium and sarsaparilla, the latter drug itself being most doubtful in its effects, while the preparation is valuable also as a diuretic, a thing of no small consideration in most of the diseases in which it is indicated."

WALKER PHARMACAL CO., St. Louis, Mo. Gentlemen: I received your sample of Pineoline some time ago, and I must say it is an elegant preparation, and that it cured my case of intractable Eczema, as nothing else did of the many medicaments which I have tried. GEO. H. GOODGER, M. D., Davisburg, Mich.

Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than any thing else.-RUSKIN.

Original Articles.

STUDIES IN THE PERITONEUM AND VISCERA.

BY BYRON ROBINSON, M. D.

Fetus No. 7 preserved in alcohol; nine and a half inches long; extremities perfectly formed; eyebrows present; an inch of umbilical cord is present; male genitals well formed; abdomen moderately large; the liver reaches below the iliac crest; its lobes extend below the navel for one half an inch; there is a very large pons hepatis. As the liver shrinks no doubt this bridge lessens and often disappears. The angle of the liver comes exactly on a level with the umbilicus. The right lobe is almost twice as large as the left. On lifting up the liver a gallbladder one half an inch long is seen lying in a groove of the liver. It is very plain to see that the liver has shoved the intestine downward, especially on the right side where the intestines are drawn much lower than on the left. No doubt this is one of the factors which induce the small intestines to occupy the left iliac region. The two hypogastric arteries are large and plain, while the urachus gradually tapers from the top of the bladder to the umbilicus. The two testicles lie in the iliac fossæ. In this case the lower ends of the testicles are entering the inguinal canals which are close to the hypogastric arteries, that is, the inguinal canals have not spread very wide apart. The whole intestines lie in a large, round pocket, resting in the false pelvis-small intestines lie in the true pelvis. The rectum and bladder fill the true pelvis. The sigmoid flexure is distinctly S-shaped, one inch and a half long,

with a mesentery of one third to one half inch long, according to the amount of dragging placed on it. The intersigmoid fossa is present and shows distinctly that it is due to the spermatic vessels. The sigmoid mesentery inserts itself into the mid-dorsal line until it arrives at a level with the lower poles of the left kidney, whence it deflects to the left until the descending colon in this nine-and-a-half-inch fetus lies. entirely to the outer border of the left kidney. Over the kidney the descending colon has no mesentery, for the rapidly growing kidney has stolen away the mesentery to cover itself.

The descending colon is one inch long. The splenic flexure is not so sharp as in adults, and the spleen lies against it. So far no ligamentum phrenico-colicum exists, that is, it does not show its attachments to the costal wall and colon. The transverse colon and ascending colon pass in a straight line from the splenic flexure to the lower pole of the right kidney. Both are one inch and a half long. One can not distinguish the difference between transverse colon and the ascending colon, as there is not a visible angle between them. It appears as if, when the cecum crossed the duodenum, that it glided along under the right liver lobe gradually descending on the incline of the liver. In short, it appears that the right liver lobe is the real director of the descending cecum. The cecum simply grows in the direction of least resistance, and that is gliding down under the lobe of the liver and on the inner border of the right kidney.

As the chief changes in any fetus over six inches long as regards its viscera concern the transverse and ascending colon, we will note some points on this subject here. In the first place, the cecum is just below the lower pole of the right kidney, and it is entirely free to point above the entering ileum. The whole distance, where the ascending colon passes over the internal border of the right kidney, the colon has no mesentery. The bowel is solidly fixed to the kidney; the cecum is of the fetal type, one fifth of an inch long; the appendix is three fourths of an inch long, and is curled up like a pig's tail behind the entering ileum; it points toward the kidney. The appendix has a full mesentery, but it is so short that it puts the appendix in a spiral form. The plica and fossa ileo-cecalis superior is distinct under a strong lens. A very thin, delicate membrane stretches from the ileum at the distal side from its mesentery to the appendix. This membrane runs along the ileum for half an inch. Under a strong lens it appears almost vascularless, bloodless.

It is the fold that Treves calls the bloodless fold.