The Committee on Entertainment for the Southwestern Kentucky Medical Society, who will entertain the State Society, are making elaborate arrangements for your entertainment while here, and we can assure you that you will enjoy true Kentucky hospitality every day and hour while with us. Every member of the profession here is enthusiastic, and will make it a point to see that our guests lack for nothing that it is in our power to extend.

We especially desire to call your attention to the one and one-third fare round-trip rate secured on all railroads in Kentucky. In purchasing your ticket, ask the agent of the railroad company to give you a certificate of having purchased one first-class fare to Paducah, and the Secretary here will see that you get a return fare at one third the regular rate.

SMALLPOX IN INDIANA.

The prevalence of smallpox in our neighboring State, Indiana, has become alarming to a degree that makes it a very serious matter. It does seem that there ought to be a law of compulsory vaccination. In all the whole history of medicine there is nothing more thoroughly settled than the fact that vaccination prevents smallpox, and yet every now and then, and much to the discredit of the doctor who doubts its efficacy, we find a practitioner who refuses to believe in its efficiency. Again, many doctors say they do not believe that the present disease as it now prevails is genuine smallpox. Let that be as it may, it kills every now and then, and because the epidemic which is now prevailing is not so fatal as those that have preceded it is no ground whatever for doubting the true nature of the disease. We regret very much to note the fact that the present condition of affairs concerning smallpox is due to the uncalled-for action of many members of the profession throughout the country. Our advice is to view the matter from the serious standpoint which it demands; if you do not, necessity will force you to do so, hence the sooner you recognize the fact as seen by the majority of the profession the better it will be for you. The infected districts are sure to be quarantined, and when that is done. then you will recognize the importance of eradicating this horrible disease.

DR. H. M. SKILLMAN, of Lexington, Kentucky, died in the latter part of March in his native city, while ministering to a patient. He graduated from Transylvania University in 1847, and has been constantly engaged in practice since that time. He was the last member of the faculty of his alma mater. He was Professor of Pathology and Demonstrator of Anatomy in that institution. His was a busy life, and

his career an honorable one in every particular. The profession of the State idolized him as one of its models, and elected him President of the State Society many years ago. He was loved by his brothers in the profession as a father, and the news of his death brought sadness to many hearts.

THE SALE OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT AT BRISTOL.-During 1901 there were submitted to the analyst of the city of Bristol 732 samples of food, etc., a proportion of one sample to 449 persons in the city. Of the 259 samples of milk taken eighteen were condemned, and eighteen of the 377 samples of butter examined were found to be impure. Convictions ensued in all these instances except one, where a warranty was produced. There was no adulteration found in any articles examined except milk and butter. For the Departmental Committee on Food Preservatives sixty-one samples of food were taken in Bristol, and twenty-six, or 42.6 per cent, were found to contain preservatives.-London Lancet.

Current Surgical and Medical Selections.

ASPHYXIA IN NIGHTMEN.-M. Hanriot has recently been giving the Society of Biology some information upon this subject. It is well known that nightmen who have to go down into cesspools are exposed to the danger of intoxication by the gases which collect in these receptacles. Chevreuil considered that the toxic agent was sulphuretted hydrogen, but from experiments made by various observers it appears that this gas is only toxic when the proportion existing in the respired atmosphere is at least 5 per cent. M. Hanriot has analyzed the air in unventilated cesspools, and has found that sulphuretted hydrogen exists only in the proportion of three parts per 10,000. On the other hand, the proportion of carbonic acid was 10 per cent, of oxygen o to 3 per cent, of nitrogen 45 per cent, of marsh gas 28 per cent, and of free hydrogen 9 per cent. The asphyxia to which nightmen are liable can not therefore be due to sulphuretted hydrogen. M. Brouardel and M. Loye, who conducted as experts an inquiry into the deaths of nightmen who had perished from asphyxia, were surprised not to find at the post-mortem examination any of the usual appearances of poisoning by sulphuretted hydrogen. It appears, then, that death is due to want of oxygen, to the high proportion of carbonic acid, and possibly to the action of toxic volatile bases. It is possible for the contents of cesspools to give off sulphuretted hydrogen, and if fecal matter is treated with acids it gives off a large quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen and of carbonic acid. But as a rule the contents of a cesspool are alkaline, and contain some 2 or 3 per cent of ammonia. Chemical disinfection is of no use; the only means of preventing such accidents is by the use of thorough ventilation.-London Lancet.

LACTATE OF MERCURY IN PHARMACY.-At the meeting of the Hospitals Medical Society held on February 28th M. Gaucher said that he had long been on the look-out for a mercurial preparation which should unite the four following advantages: (1) that of being an organic body; (2) easy to prepare and of definite composition; (3) of being unirritating, and so capable of administration either by the mouth or by hypodermic injection; and (4) of containing such a proportion of mercury that a dose of one centigram per diem should be enough. M. Gaucher, together with M. Lextrait, the pharmacist at the St. Antoine Hospital, and M. Caudillon, the interne in pharmacy at the same hospital, think that they have found a substance possessed of these desiderata in the neutral lactate of mercury. This salt contains less mercury than the perchloride does but more than the benzoate. It is easily prepared by dissolving red oxide of mercury in a 10 per cent solution of lactic acid. The acid must be pure. The dose is four coffee-spoonfuls (from 40 to 50 minims) per diem, of a 1 in rooo solution if given in water or milk by the mouth, or one centigram of a 1 per cent solution given by the hypodermic method.-Ibid.

GONORRHEA And Marriage.-Zeissl (Wiener med. Presse; der Fraueuarzt, September 20, 1901) replies to the question, "When may a man with gonorrhea marry?" that this is allowable only when repeated clinical and bacteriological examinations give an absolutely negative result. The absence of gonococci in the secretions is not sufficient, but the patient must still be kept under observation until he is beyond suspicion. The presence of opalescent threads in the urine show that the discharge has probably ceased to be infectious. This opinion is strengthened if only a few round epithelial cells are seen under the microscope. If diplococci are found, even though these do not grow in cultures, the innocent character of the secretion can not yet be inferred. If no additional information can be obtained by the use of the endoscope, the writer recommends that the patient should use an irritating injection of nitrate of silver and drink beer frequently. If a free discharge from the urethra appears, and at once ceases spontaneously and no gonococci reappear, the patient may be regarded as cured.—The American Journal Medical Sciences.

THE RESULTS OF PARTIAL GASTRECTOMY.-In March, 1899, Mr. J. Rutherford Morison, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, showed at the Clinical Society of London five persons on whom he had performed partial gastrectomy for malignant disease of the stomach. In commenting on these cases we expressed the hope that Mr. Morison would later let the surgical world know the after-results, for obviously in several of them the interval after the operation was far too short to justify an opinion as to absence of liability to recurrence. We are indebted to Mr. Morison for furnishing us with further particulars of these cases. In the first case pylorectomy was performed in 1897, and for nearly three years the patient was perfectly well, but signs of recurrence then appeared; a great part of the lesser curvature of the stomach was involved, and she died three years and two months after the operation. The second patient continued well for eighteen months, but then he began to lose weight, and he died two years and two months after the operation. At the necropsy the neighboring lymphatic glands and the liver were found extensively affected by the growth. The third patient first had signs of recurrence eight months after the operation; a large swelling appeared in the epigastrium, and she died fifteen months after the pylorectomy. In the fourth case the patient had perfect health for nearly two years, but then he had a febrile attack, and as he recovered from that signs of recurrence of the growth appeared, and he died eleven months later with a large mass in the epigastrium, and an enlarged liver. In the fifth case gastric symptoms appeared about two months after the operation, and death occurred about six months after the pylorectomy. On a superficial consideration of these cases it might at first be thought that they were unsuccessful, for in every one of the five recurrence occurred either locally or in the liver. This is certainly true, but it must also be borne in mind that in all the cases there was a period of

absence of symptoms more or less lengthy, but extending in one case beyond two years. During this period the patients gained greatly in weight and were able to digest ordinary food. The lessons to be learned from these cases are: 1. That malignant disease of the stomach is frequently more extensive than appears to the naked eye, for in most of the cases local recurrence took place. Therefore, a very wide removal of the growth is indicated, and the experience of the last few years shows that large portions or the whole of the stomach may be removed without any serious disturbance of the digestive functions. 2. Since recurrence in the second case occurred in the lymphatic glands and in the liver, though the stomach itself remained free, it is obvious that these must have been affected before the operation. The only method of obviating such a result is to operate early, and for the opportunity to do so the surgeon must be indebted to the physician, who invariably sees these cases first. If an evident swelling in the epigastrium is awaited before a diagnosis of malignant disease of the pylorus is made a very large proportion of the cases will be too far advanced for complete removal of the growth, for the lymphatic glands and the liver will be already affected. So far as the surgery of Mr. Morison's cases goes nothing could have been better; from the operation itself recovery in all cases was speedy and complete, but the operations were undertaken at too late a date for the complete removal of the disease.-London Lancet.

COCAINIZATION OF THE SPINAL CORD.-This method of inducing analgesia during operations continues to find favor among French surgeons. M. Guinard, who was for long prejudiced against it, has now become convinced of its excellence. He has modified the technique so as to avoid the occasional undesirable accompaniments, namely, the intolerable headache, the pyrexia, and the syncopal attacks. Influenced by the researches of Ravout and Aubourg, he has given up water as the vehicle for the solution of cocaine and employs the cerebro-spinal fluid of the patient who is the subject of the operation. He recommends the following procedure: The patient is seated with the legs dependent and the head inclined forwards. The skin is disinfected in the lumbar region. A point is selected in the middle line a finger's breath below a horizontal line joining the iliac crests and the skin is anesthetized by chloride of ethyl. The left index is placed on the spinous process immediately above, and the needle, eight centimeters in length, is pushed in gently from below upward. At a depth of four or five centimeters there is no longer any feeling of resistance, and on withdrawing the silver wire from the needle sixty to eighty drops of cerebro-spinal fluid are allowed to flow into the sterilized receptacle. Six or seven drops of a concentrated solution of cocaine (one centigram to two drops of water) are mixed with the cerebro-spinal fluid, the mixture is drawn up into a syringe, and injected slowly through the needle. M. Guinard has carried out this method in more than fifty cases without an unpleasant symptom.-Rev. de chir., Paris, November 1901.