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doses of the specific medicine which is stronger than a saturated tincture. We use the soda bicarbonate only in cases in which an alkali is indicated.

Another point is that lobelia acts satisfactorily only in combination with an alkali. This is not in accord with our experience. Were it a fact, lobelia as a part of the old "acetous emetic" would be robbed of half of its glory.

DOCTOR, we advise you to exercise some care in the administration of antipyretics. The modern ones-antipyrine, antifebrine, phenacetine, acetanilid, and their compounds are all more or less dangerous. Even our own aconite, veratrum, gelsemium; etc., are, we believe, sometimes given when they produce dire, instead of beneficial results. Any one of them given to a patient sick with typhoid fdver, septicemia, or any disease of a like nature, will only not reduce the temperature, but will depress the heart to some extent and thereby hasten "heart-failure." We believe that this is done frequently. If the patient is "burning up" an occasional dose might be given for its temporary effect; but the continuous use of any of them is positively dangerous.

THE season of the year for "common" and uncommon colds is upon us. Many causes bring them on. To get rid of them quickly and easily is a desideratum. Proceed as follows: Put the patient to bed; place three or four hot water bottles in bed with him; have him drink two or three cups of hot tea,-chamomile, pennyroyal, boneset, black cohosh, ginger, or common, every-day store tea will do, as the heat and moisture has much to do with the beneficial results that follow: internally give him specific jaborandi, gelsemium, bryonia, rhus, in ordinary sized doses repeated every third to half hour. Soon he'll begin to perspire, when he has been thoroughly relaxed, rub him vigorously with dry crash towels; keep him in bed if possible, over night and next morning the cold will have disappeared. Other remedies than these may be indicated. If so, give them.

A spirit vapor bath is easily and quickly given if you want immediate results. Do this: Seat the patient wholly naked uppn a strong seated chair: drop a blanket or comfort between the calves of his legs and the chair to protect him from the heat. Draw a blanket or a comfort closely about his neck, covering him in closely to the floor. Then place a saucer or pan containing three or four tablespoons of alcohol under the chair; to this touch a match, and in two minutes he'll be perspiring. When he has had enough, rub him down and put him to bed. Doctors, from exposure, take colds; get rid of them quickly in this way.

COMPOUND FRACTURES.

By A. P. HAUSS, M. D., New Albany, Ind.

Compound fractures are of common occurrence in the practice of both the railroad surgeon and the general practitioner, and no class of cases causes more anxiety to the physician or to the patient. Their successful management depends upon perfect adjustment of the fractured bone, perfect asepsis, and free drainage without wounding sound tissues, and a dressing that will hold the bones in position, and that can be readily removed for inspection of the limb.

As soon after the injury as possible the patient should be removed to his home or to the hospital. He must be made comfortable, even if morphia hypodermically be resorted to, and the effect of shock overcome as much as possible. He should be placed under an anesthetic, and the limb thoroughly scrubbed with soap and hot water, and shaved if necessary. It should then be bathed with a I to 1,000 bichloride solution; this is to be followed by an alcohol bath. When anesthetized, the surgeon, with hands thoroughly cleansed with green soap, hot water, and alcohol, should, with the finger, explore the wound, searching carefully for foreign particles, and for loose spicula of bone.

After this, careful reduction of the deformity should follow. Then that free drainage may be had the external wound should be enlarged or a drainage tube inserted; then thoroughly pack with iodoform gauze, and cover thickly with absorbent cotton. Four or five well padded splints are now to be applied in such a manner that the wound is not covered by them. They are to be secured to the limb by the application of numerous tapes, encircling them and the limb, and tied in such a way that the several knots will rest upon a splint. If you please, a wide bandage may encircle all.

Extension and counter-extension must be made in fracture of the limb, by elevating the foot of the bed, and the application of adhesive straps, weight, etc., in the usual manner. A lace anklet, provided with a loop for the weight-cord is preferable sometimes. The weight applied must be governed by the amount of muscular contraction. Sand bags must be placed under the knee and about the femur and leg, so that no movement takes place. These dressings can be removed at will. At the end of the third or fourth week when all discharge has ceased a plaster paris bandage can be applied, the weight removed and the limb, in a manner, set free. However, great care should be taken that the patient bear no weight on his broken limb for ten or twelve weeks, as angular deformity frequently follows a too early use of the limb. This treatment is applicable to fracture of the femur, especially, and to the

tibia and fibula; here fewer splints should be used; but if both bones be broken, the extension is a necessity. Look after your patient's digestion, assimilation, and blood making and the results will be entirely satisfactory.

CLINICAL REPORT OF PATIENTS AT THE WILLIE HIPP HOSPITAL, Chicago, Ill.-[By M. E. Eastman, M. D., House Surgeon.]

Case No. 55.-Miss A. M- , 13 years old; was admitted into the hospital June 12, 1895. One year before she had the right fore arm broken at the upper third, and a dislocation of the ulna and radius upward and backward. The doctor in attendance reduced the dislocation, and set the fracture. The arm was then placed in a plaster of paris cast, in the extended position, and half way between pronation and supination. The cast was removed in about ten days, as near as the patient remembered. The arm was not moved at all, but again enveloped in a cast. This was left on another ten days, when it was removed. An attempt to flex the arm caused intense pain, and mobility was very slight. The movement set up an inflammation, and as a result, the joint became ankylosed, and supination and pronation were lost. This was the condition of the arm when she was admitted into the hospital. An examination revealed the ankylosis existing to be fibrous. While under the influence of chloroform flexion was made Pronation and supination could be made to a slight extent after flexion. was made. She was then put in bed, the arm held loosely by a wide bandage over the shoulder. Cloths, wrung out of a hot solution of boracic acid, were applied to the arm every hour until the inflammation subsided. The arm was now flexed, and the hand placed as near the opposite shoulder as possible, and held in this position by means of a roller bandage. Two days after the patient was again anesthetized and passive motion again made in all directions.

The inflammation was combatted by the same means as before, and the arm then bandaged. This treatment was kept up for two weeks, when the patient was able to raise the hand to the face and to the opposite shoulder. At the end of this time she was discharged. The arm was moved every day until she had free use of it, and at the present time, it is nearly as serviceable as the opposite one.

Doctor Longbill-"Is the boy costive?"

Father of Sick Boy- "Costive? Vell, I should say so! Dat by has cost me over ten hundred tollars yet!"-Hom. News.

What is the difference between opium and Abraham?

Opium is the juice of the poppy, and Abraham is the papa of the Jews.-Doctors' Factotum.

LOBELIA A PLEA FOR AN OLD REMEDY.

BY F. P. SINCLAIR, M. D., Lysander, N. Y.

In our search for new remedies there is danger of forgetting- or at least overlooking--the tried and positive values of old ones. At the risk of being considered conservatively stale, I venture to restate and affirm the virtues of an old and somewhat neglected remedy.

Lobelia.-Use a saturated alcoholic tincture; make it yourself, and never be without it. Remember that it is not readily absorbed (if absorbed at all) in an acid menstrum, and that it produces its specific effect best when given in combination with an alkali. Think of it generally as a relaxant and sedative; and as a specific relaxant when the function of any organ is suspended by reason of irritable contraction of glandular orifices.

In severe fevers, especially those of a malignant type, I am satisfied that it possesses valuable antiseptic and sterilizing properties; and as a febrifuge I believe it to superior to aconite. I have frequently gone safely through severe typhoid fevers with but little medicine other than that contained in this simple prescription: R. Sat. Tinct. Lob. gtt. v., Soda Bicarb. zi., Water 3iv. M. Teaspoonful every fifteen minutes when awake.

Under its influence the tongue and skin retained moisture, the kidneys acted promptly, the stomach received food kindly, the nervous tension was relaxed, and the stools exhibited but little of their pathogonomic odor; and I ascribe the latter fact wholly to its antiseptic and sterilizing power.

It has no equal as an expectorant, anti-spasmodic and sedative in acute bronchitis; when the tongue, mouth and throat are dry, a sensation of tightness exists in the chest, constriction of the bronchioles, and suppression of bronchial secretion. Try this: R. Sat. Tinct. Lob. gtt. x., Soda Bicarb. 3jss., Water 3iv. M. Teaspoonful every five to fifteen minutes.

In the first stages of pneumonia, where analagous symptoms are present, it is equally indicated and effective.

In spasmodic croup I do not know that the materia medica presents its equal. With auxiliary external treatment of hot lobelia fomentations, and one drop doses of the saturated tincture every two or three minutes, I have in fifteen minutes turned the scale in an apparently fatal case.

In angina pectoris it is invaluable. If the excretions be rightly stimulated, and due regard paid to diet, rest and sleep, I believe it may safely be reckoned as curative, provided the time of its influence be sufficiently extended. For continuous use I wet sugar pellets with the

saturated solution, and prescribe them in such number and frequency as the case requires.

In the delayed eruptions of scarlatina and measles, in the small, frequently given doses indicated above, it is the most certain remedy I have ever found. The hot, dry, contracted skin, with fever, restlessness and irritability of the nerve centers, are the straight and certain indications.

It may be relied upon as a tonic and corrective in functional cardiac derangements, and frequently in organic disorders. It probably accomplishes this through stimulation of the sympathetic, and the indications are a weak, often irregular pulse, flatulence, dyspnoea, faintness and epigastric uneasiness.

In abdominal and uterine colic, lobelia is nearly a specific. The pinching, grinding paius, which indicate spasm of the intestine or uterus, often subside with astonishing rapidity. It may not relieve as quickly, or as positively as morphia, but the patient will be left in a much more satisfactory condition. Try this: R. Sat. Tinct. Lob. gtt. xv., Soda Bicarb. 3ii., Water 3iv. M. Teaspoonful every three to ten minutes.

In the muscular spasm of epilepsy, convulsions and tetanus, in five drop doses every five minutes, relaxation may be expected to speedily take place. Rarely is any other remedy indicated. I have quickly relieved inflammatory rheumatism of the intense type when fever ran high and muscular contraction was painfully distorting the extremities, by applying hot fomentations of the herb and giving the remedy in one drop doses every five minutes.

But its specific action as a relaxant is best exhibited in hysteria. Give the saturated tincture in two drop doses, well diluted, and repeat every three minutes. Not many doses will be received until a change will come o'er the spirit of the patient's dream. "Go away with your vile stuff," furiously exclaimed a patient when a fourth dose was proffered, who for an hour before my coming had been apparently choking and unable to articulate. But her untoward symptoms subsided immediately.

I have not referred to it as an emetic. None contest its specific action on that point, and all are surely familiar with the best method of its administration. Sometimes-rarely, I admit-an emetic is indicated in disease, and will produce beneficent results more quickly and surely than any other remedy. When such conditions exist, and exigencies do not demand rapid action, there is no remedy which approaches lobelia in efficacy.

Neither have I spoken of it as a specific relaxant in rigidity of the os and perineum. No physician of experience lacks knowledge thereon,

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