Every
Physician

in the Land

IS NOW TALKING
ABOUT THE

Therapeutic Notes.

Dr. E. P. Gates writes: "I treat all my cases of operative hemorrhoids with Unguentine, successfully. Unguentine is the fat man's friend. I speak from personal experience. It has no superior for chafes. It is worth its weight in gold for this alone to fat folks. The so-called "tetter" in the hands of our fishermen and watermen has no show for existence when Unguentine is applied freely twice a day.

Cascanata, a new vegetable alterative compound, is now being introduced to the profession by the proprietors of that very popular unguent Resinol, the Resinol Chemical Co., of Baltimore. Cascanata is a scientific combination of the active principles of cascara sagrada, gentian, rhubarb, trifolium and rumex, with phosphate of soda and magnesia. The term

alterative" has been greatly abused, but this is a vegetable alterative. It is manifest that cutaneous disorders are frequently indicative of disorder of the alimentary tract in some measure or other. The Elixir Cascanata corrects this disorder, promotes healthy secretions and restores the normal alkalinity of the blood. Disorders resulting from congestions of the pelvic viscera are also promptly remedied by this preparation. The attention of the medical profession is sure to be attracted to this interesting and valuable alterative compound.

Favorable reports continue to appear concerning the use of Gude's PeptoMangan. In a recent contribution to the

reports several cases of chlorosis; especially marked was this condition in young girls just reaching puberty. Beneficial results in these cases invariably followed regulation of the food, and organs of secretion and excretion, with regular administration, after meals, ot Gude's Pepto-Mangan in teaspoonful doses, continued over a period of three to four weeks.

Dr. W. A. Baker, of Clark's Mills, says: "I have had occasion to try Celerina, and am highly pleased with the results. I have used it with marked success in nervous prostration. A lady, 64 years of age, of nervous temperament, was stricken down with congestion of the right lung. After the congestion disappeared, her nervous system failed to recover, resulting in prostration. After trying several remedies I commenced using Celerina, and gave teaspoonful doses every six hours, with steady improvement until restored to normal condition.

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COFFEE AS A STIMULANT.

Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson regards coffee as a remedy quite unique in its usefulness in sustaining the nervous energy in certain cases. He states that in many cases where death may be close at hand, such an expedient as this may even be the means of restoration to health.

We discovered early in practic, years ago, that in our continued fever cases alcohol in any form was a stimulant that stimulated and then depressed; that after its effects had passed off the patient was weaker and in a worse condition than

No. 6.

he was before taking it; that it had to be continued so as not to allow of the depression coming on; that this whipping up of the fagging nervous system had not the good effect desired.

In a communication from one of our correspondents on this subject, he says:

"Judging frome the effect of whisky on myself, having been a hard drinker for 16 or 18 years and then quitting it entirely, I found that coffee as usually made was a good stimulant, and took the place of the whisky when the desire for it returned, as it did at intervals, and that it left no depression; that it acted as a food stimulant, supplying a nutriment that acted against the depression that usually follows stimulation. I had been in the habit of taking my 11 o'clock drink, and I suggested to my wife to have ready for me a small cup of coffee at that time. It was usually the first thing attended to in getting dinner ready, and at 11 o'clock she would call me to take my drink. I was surprised to note how much it relieved the sinking feeling felt by the habitual use of

alcoholic drinks at stated times. Following up the clue I commenced giving my fever patients coffee in place of wine and whisky toddy, and found it to do them better service." Coffee is not so quick in action, nor so short in time of doing its work. It is slower, more gradual and lasts longer, with no depression. Also it is an article that is to be had in every family and when properly made and used without milk we know of no better refreshing drink or one more relished by the sick. There are no disasterous after habits to wreck life and prospects.

OFFICE DISPENSING.

During the past few years the tendency has been growing with the rank and file of the profession to dispense their own medicines. While this plan undoubtedly proves to the best interest of both physician and patient in most instances, yet, more especially in certain sections of our large cities, there are located physicians whose interest, nor their patient's interest would not be advanced by office prescribing.

For the benefit of such the howl against substitution during the past two years has created a class of druggists, in certain localities of our larger cities at least, that can now be depended upon as furnishing pure, reliable, unadulterated drugs.

The following reasons why the general practitioner should dispense his own medicines have been suggested: 1st. Because advancement in pharmacy and in general chemical science are greater than ever before, making it very convenient to do so. 2nd. It saves time and money. 3d. It is a general hardship for many patients to pay for both advice and medicine. 4th. In emergency cases valuable time is saved and lives also, perhaps, by having the needed remedy at hand. 5th. The accidents of prescription writing and

prescription filling are avoided. The free hospital abuse, drug store doctoring and counter prescribing are done away with.

NERVOUS DISEASES.

The increasing tendency to nervous diseases observed of late years by every worker in every department of medicine is believed to be principally due to the errors of parents. There is a growing tendency to remove the barriers between childhood and age. This naturally results in the feeling that children should enjoy the same pleasures and indulge in the same pastimes as their elders. Such recreation is frequently of a character far too stimulating for the sensitive nervous organism of the child. The prevailing tendency of the times is to over-stimulation of children. This tendency pervades our whole educational system. It permeates juvenile literature, it is clearly manifest in childish recreations, and has invaded the home. invaded the home. Such over-straining and stimulation of the mental and nervous organism cannot fail to cause harmful effects during childhood, frequently produce a neurasthenic and nervous temperament in later life.

A combination of these elements produce defective nutrition, which is, no doubt, the fundamental cause of many nervous diseases.

NOTE.

Please remember that the SUMMARY is simply the organ of the rank and file of the medical profession; that it is uninfluenced by any clique, school or city; that its practical worth largely depends upon what you make it. We therefore invite you to take an active interest in this, your organ. If not already a subscriber or contributor we hope to hear from you now.

selves, as it were, against the others, or aids by its action all of the other organs, one has to stop and ask himself if there is a separate life in each organ of the body. When this routine of life is disturbed we call it a "functional disorder;" when it sets up inflammation from a continuance of the disturbance we call it "organic disease."

How far does this separate life extend? How much influence does this separate life exert on the entire body?

We notice that the uterus at full term commences to rid itself of its occupant, because it seems to realize that it has done all it can for it, and the foetus seems to know that the time has come for it to set up business on its own hook.

We all know that at full term medicine, however much it may act to allay nerve action, fails to stop the action of the uterine nerves, and it proceeds with its action in a business like manner. Small doses of morphine will lull expulsive action in the uterus prior to full term, but at full term it fails to act and the uterus goes on as if no such medicine had been administered.

Dr. J. Compton Burnett, a writer on the liver, says: "And now the physiologist firmly believes that the glands have a creative, formative, directive, controlling, nutritive, antitoxical internal secretion. That the organ (liver) in the organism does, indeed, possess not only autonomy but hegemony; i. e., the organ is an independent state in itself, and in and on the organism exists an important influence." (See "Diseases of Liver," 2d edition, 1895, pages 17, 18.)

The bladder holds its contents until the nerves say we have had enough, and it sets to work emptying itself, otherwise making things very uncomfortable. The circulation of the blood and heart action goes on when we sleep, controlled by a brain power of its own which is independent in this respect of will power or other influences.

One is tempted to ask from whence comes this independent, never-sleeping force? How is it kept up and how resuscitated? for it must have rest or be reinstated in some way the same as the brain is by sleep. The nerve ganglia have been supposed to be separate brain centers controlling the life of the organs which they supply. The primary ganglion, the solar plexus, has been shown to be really the first brain formed and secondly the cranial brain; that this ganglion controlls the first months of action in the formation of the fœtus.

Is the spermatozoa a bacillus, a microbe? Would it remain such in the testicle were it not to be ejected? If not, then its ejection and finding of the ova is the ultimate end of its wishes as a microbe; there, finding a new medium, it sets up a new existence and gradually commences to pass through the primary changes to perfect itself. But is this only the growth of a seed in the ground? or is it a mutual giving and receiving of a life force from and to the ova? Would not all of the spermatozoa, when developed into the foetus and child, bear resemblance to the father? In families you see children with strict resemblance in features of the mother, yet mentally they take after the father, and vice versa. You will also find children who resemble neither of their parents, but some one else, perhaps remote ancestors or those not of kin to them. An instance is known to me where a brunette was engaged to be married to a blonde. He died, and a year or two afterward she married a black-haired, black-eyed, dark-skinned man, yet her two first children, a boy and a girl, were of the purest blonde type. One would be tempted to say "maternal recollections," yet if the ova is only a matrix in which the entozoa propogates, why should not all of the children be