The Fitch Chlorine Battery.

BY I. N. GOFF, M. D., CAZENOVIA, N. Y.

At the recent meeting of the New York State Medical Society, at Albany, I promised a number of physicians to furnish a short account of a battery cell made in this place, by D. H. Fitch, and known as the Chlorine Bat

durability, while it will not freeze in the lowest temperature known in this climate.

The Chlorine Battery is intended to be used more as a stationary than a portable one. Thus it is adapted for office use.

tery. I have no interest in the matter, except to give to all interested just the information they require. The especial merits claimed for this battery, and which have been proved most fully, by practical use here, as well as in other places for the past five years, are its cheapness, the chemicals used being inexpensive and easily obtained of any druggist; its easy maintenance, as it requires no cleaning and very little care, not being taken apart or changed when not in use, or at all moved when needing to be replenished, which does not often occur, and, when necessary, costs very little; its freedom from fume or odor, which is caused by the absence of acids in its use; its durability and readiness for use; being free from corrosion and evaporation insures its

Incontinence of Urine.

Prof. Bartholow points to four factors in incontinence of urine; acidity of the urine, and relaxation of the. vesical sphincter being the most prominent; spasmodic contractility of the muscular coat during sleep as the third factor, and the fourth, which is comparatively rare, is dreaming of a desire to urinate, when the bladder is full (the brain being here at fault). For acidity of the urine, the persistent administration of bi-carbonate of potash, or 'some other alkaline salt of potash, in an effervescing draught, is advised. The incompetency of the sphincter is to be treated by halfgrain doses of aqueous extract of ergot, and a quarter of a grain of extract of nux vomica. Bromides should be given at night to diminish the contractility of the muscular coat of the bladder. Many of these patients are anæmic, and the administration of iodide of iron is indicated.

DR. VETROFF, painted with iodine the lumbar region of a patient in the prodromal stage of small-pox. The next day the part painted was found covered all over with variolous rash, while the rest of the body presented only two vesicles. Dr. Bojinski-Bojko also tried iodine painting in several cases in the prodromal stage, applying the iodine to the anterior surface of the thighs. In all the cases so treated the rash was limited to the regions painted, and the course of the disease was extremely favorable.

[For the Brief.]

Medical Legislation.

BY J. A. DE ARMOND, M. D.

EDITOR MEDICAL BRIEF: The editor of the Iowa State Medical Reporter recently wrote to five hundred physicians in the State, with the object of securing their views on the subject of a medical law. A very large percentage of the replies showed that the writers were very anxious for the enactment of a law. A few opposed, while a few equivocated or dodged. One answered that he favored the law "if the people want it." That man 'hit the nail squarely and fairly on the head. Do the people want a law? Is there a grand uprising of the people, demanding that a law, which shall have for its object the guillotining of a lot of men who practice upon the ignorance or superstition of the people, shall be enacted? It may be that there is, but I have failed to hear of it. It is not to the credit of the profession that all this talk of a law and all the buttonholing is done by doctors, when a law is enacted. Why the necessity for a law? Let us look at this matter.

Medical schools are getting so numerous that the graduates must of necessity, in many instances, be, to put it mildly, not up to a fair standard. From this rivalry for students, it so happens that almost anybody can graduate without any special reference. to his previous education or his present impoverished mental condition. Intellectual dwarfs and mental ciphers get diplomas. After this sort of thing has been going on for some time, is it any wonder that to the civilian there is a mixing up of the sheep and the goats? No man can possibly tell where the doctor stops and the quack begins. And the people see all this. They know that a little bit of a third-rate

college, with very average professors, in a city of a few thousand people, where clinics must be few, can not make skilled surgeons and safe practitioners out of illiterate boys who quit the plow but a few months previously. There is a great deal of mystery about medicine, to the people at large, but rest assured that there is not much mystery about medical schools to them.

Whenever any body of men want protection from outside sources, it should be investigated whether they are capable of keeping themselves protected from within. It is a decidedly cheeky thing for the medical or any other profession to ask the people to protect them when they in turn are not willing to protect the people. There can be no protection for the people, so long as these medical grist mills pass out such chaff as they do, and label all good flour. Whenever the medical profession will label only such sacks as contain full weight and good material, then and not until then is it in the least deserving of protection or even sympathy.

What kind of a law is wanted, if any? In the above noted correspondence it is frequently suggested that a clause should be admitted excusing from examination, by the proposed medical board, all who have practiced ten years or more. That is a loop-hole which ought to be closed early in the contest. Who ought to pass a creditable examination in practice, in diseases of women, and children, in surgery, etc., etc., better than those who have learned these things not only out of books, but have learned them by the bedside? "Oh, yes;" they say, "examine all the young ones, but let us old fellows go." That is wrong and the practice of it can not fail to produce mischief. If we start at all let us start on an equal footing. If a man is not fit to practice medicine, don't

let him slip in simply because he is too old to go back to sawing cord wood. Some of the most villainous quacks and charlatans it has been my lot to meet have been long, white-haired, sleek counterfeits. By what authority or what good end will be subserved by letting in the ten year men? The only one that exists honestly is that if all are to be examined or show good diplomas such opposition to the enactment of a law will be found in the ranks of the profession that no law will ever be made in the State. And that fact alone shows just how the matter stands. The "ins propose to make it warm for the " outs." Medical schools are in favor of laws regulating the practice of medicine. Before we have any laws regulating the practice of the profession, we had better have some stringent laws regulating these mushroom colleges. The best way in the world to stop the circulating of counterfeit money is to stop, its manufacture. To destroy what is already in circulation while the manufacture is going on is not the way to correct the evil. Just so it is with the doctors. They howl for protection from quacks, but at the same time they let a lot of their own number run a quack factory without even so much as a protest.

In defense of the ten-year loop-hole they say in substance that a little rustiness in anatomy, physiology, or chemistry must not be allowed to revoke a career that has been free from blame. Laws, however, are for the general good. In their enforcement. they will draw down pretty closely on some. Nobody would think of enacting a law for the punishment of any class of penal offenders provided they were new beginners. If a law is to be enacted at all let us enact one which will fulfill the indications without any halts or side tracks.

It is very true that it is wrong, as is argued by the favorites of a law, that a man who has spent years of time and a small fortune in money to fit himself for the profession of his choice, to be classed with the mountebank whose capital is assurance without solid foundation, and whose knowledge of the healing art is too meagre for computation. To be made to stand on equal footing with such a man, is an indignity that needs and deserves. correction at the hands of intelligence. But while we may and can prevent the closing of the breach which separates the competent and the incompetent, let us watch well that in our zeal we do not err and overdo the work in hand. In a republic such as ours we can safely trust ourselves in the hands. of the people. Let us once show the people that we are deserving of a law, and we will get all the laws we need. Just now the fact of the matter is that a great many people are of the opinion that we do not deserve a law. They say "your foremost men are engaged in turning incompetent and unqualified doctors loose on an unprotected people." And they are right.

All this means that the medical standard should be raised. There is a surfeit of doctors in the land. When the profession show, by their actions, that they can keep the herd out it will be time enough to hunt out the goats. When that is done there will not be so much trouble in making a diagnosis. Now, it is not an easy matter always. LeClaire, Ia.

Cholera Infantum.

handsome office chair, having no

An Important Invention.

As every progressive physician is anxious to learn of any new discovery in his line, which will enable him to treat the sick with better satisfaction to himself as well as his patient, it has been thought not improper to briefly make mention of an important invention in the interest of the surgeon and gynecologist. It seems somewhat surprising that, while in most things the physician is able to supply himself with implements with implements which are well nigh perfect, until recently the want of a simply constructed, and at the same time practical chair or table for making examinations and for operative procedures,

have not been filled.

Heretofore the physician, in order to possess a chair, at all suitable to his wants, has been obliged to pay an exorbitant price, and then only get an unwieldy, unsightly, and often illadapted concern. We believe the readers of the BRIEF and all others in the profession will be gratified to learn that a chair has been invented which will meet this want.

The Eureka Chair Co. of this city, after much labor and expense has succeeded in producing an operating chair deserving the approbation of the entire profession. We present the following cuts illustrating the chair. Fig. 1 appears simply as a

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 shows it in one of its positions for the treatment of cases in either the Sims' position or in the dorsal position. The chair, as the cut now represents, stands thirty inches high, but, as can be seen, it can be readily lowered to twentyseven inches, or either end may be tilted, at the option of the operator. The very many movements of this chair would cause one not acquainted with it to think it complicated in its structure while the reverse is the fact.

Fig. 2.

Another advantage this chair has over all others is, it can be conveniently folded up, as shown in Fig. 3, to less than five inches in thickness, to be placed against the wall, or in a closet, or to be taken in the doctor's carriage to the patient's residence, if need be.

Fig. 3.

Altogether, it is the multum in parvo for the practitioner. Not all, how ever, has yet been told in favor of this chair; we believe it is the cheapest chair ever offered to the medical profession by nearly one-half.

A. J. MARSTON, M. D.

Worcester, Mass.

Iodine for Acute Diseases. Dr. J. J. Berry, of South Norwalk, Conn., contributes a paper on this subject to the New England Medical Monthly. During the preceding year he had used iodine extensively-perhaps over a hundred times-in acute non-syphilitic diseases, with very satisfactory results. In acute malarial diseases, he has used iodine twentysix times. His best results were obtained with the compound tincture of iodine, in doses of from ten to twenty drops every three or four hours. If given well diluted, and at the proper time, it seldom disturbs the stomach. In other respects it is more acceptable than quinine. In more chronic malarial poisoning, he uses larger doses, less frequently repeated, and, with it, arsenious acid in gradually increasing doses. These two drugs, used in conjunction with remedies which act specially upon the liver, seldom fail to

able. In the vomiting of pregnancy and of chronic diseases, it is as efficacious as other remedies. Its alterative properties render it valuable in typhoid fever, diphtheria and like septic diseases. Observations show that typhoid fever patients who are treated with iodine have usually no high exacerbation of temperature and no symptoms of intestinal ulceration.

Schwartz, several years ago, claimed that, given in the initial stages of pneumonia, it cut the disease short. Moderately large doses, frequently repeated, have given satisfactory results in acute bronchitis and intense pulmonary engorement. It is the most powerful anti-suppurative remedy which we possess. It is valuable in preventing the formation of pus in acute tonsillitis, and in controlling the congestion of these parts.

Treatment of Intestinal Hemorrhage of Typhoid Fever.

Dunlap's Diarrhea Mixture. R. Tinct. Opii.... Tinct. Camph.. Tinct. Menth. Pip. Tinct. Zinziber... Tinct. Capsicum

.3 ounces.

. ounce.

Hoffman's Anodyne.... ounce. M. Sig. A teaspoonful diluted with sweetened water, after each operation. This is especially good in cholera morbus.-N. E. Medical Monthly.