WASHINGTON NOTES.

The Clinico-Pathological Society held its regular meeting on Tuesday night, February 19, the President, Dr. William M. Sprigg, in the chair.

Dr. Larkin W. Glazebrook, deputy coroner of the District of Columbia, presented several specimens, one a stomach with an ulceration through its wall about the size of grape seed; the patient died of general peritonitis and there was a grape seed found in the abdominal cavity. Another specimen was the heart of a man who had been stabbed in the heart.

The essayist of the evening was Dr. Taliaferro Clark and the title of his paper was, "Some Remarks on the Pathology of Functional Neuroses." The paper showed careful preparation and was both very interesting and instructive. It was discussed by Drs. E. L. Tompkins and D. G. Lewis, an invited guest of the Society. The Society then adjourned. The regular meeting of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia was held on Wednesday night, February 20. Dr. James Kerr read a paper, entitled "Suture of the Liver for Gun-shot Wound." The patient, a boy, was presented. Dr. Kleinschmidt discussed the paper, touching on transfusion of the saline solution from a physiological standpoint, showing equal advantages of the salt solution with defibrinated blood. Dr. Kinyoun also discussed suturing of the liver and detailed some experiments he had performed on animals, using bone pins in the same way that hare-lip pins would be used.

Dr. Lamb presented cases and specimens, as follows: 1. Uterus, showing perforation; Abortion. 2. Uterus, Tuberculosis. 3. Fallopian Tubes, Tuberculosis.

PUBLIC SERVICE.

OFFICIAL LIST OF CHANGES IN THE STATIONS AND DUTIES OF Medical officers.

UNITED STATES ARMY.

Week ending February 25, 1895. Captain Henry P. Birmingham, Assistant Surgeon, is relieved from duty at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, and ordered to Fort Trumbull, Connecticut, for duty, relieving Captain Freeman V. Walker, Assistant Surgeon.

Captain Walker on being thus relieved will proceed to Fort Grant, Arizona, and report for duty at that post.

The extension of leave of absence granted First Lieutenant Henry C. Fisher, Assistant Surgeon, is further extended one month.

Leave of absence for six months on account of sickness is granted First Lieutenant Frank T. Meriwether, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army.

UNITED STATES NAVY.

Week Ending February 23, 1895. Passed Assistant Surgeon Clement Biddle ordered to Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Mass. Passed Assistant Surgeon L. W. Atlee ordered to Naval Hospital, New York, N. Y. Passed Assistant Surgeon F. A. Hesler ordered before Retiring Board.

BOOK REVIEWS.

PRACTICAL URANALYSIS AND URINARY DIAGNOSIS: A Manual for the Use of Physicians, Surgeons and Students. By Charles W. Purdy, M. D., Professor of Urology and Urinary Diagnosis at the Chicago PostGraduate Medical School. With numerous Illustrations. Philadelphia : The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers. 1894. Price $2.50 net. Pp. 360.

This excellent book is probably the outgrowth of the author's very practical little work on Diabetes which was issued by the same publishers not many years ago. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about this book except its great thoroughness and exhaustiveness. He advises to collect the urine for examination about three hours after a meal and not on rising, as the latter specimen may be free from pathological substances. He says that diabetic urine has the odor of acetone, but it is doubtful if many persons know the odor of that substance. The author introduces his own modification of the sugar test. The book is just such a one as the physician can use with profit, but it might have more illustrations of the sediment. The word "uranalysis" has no philological basis and might with equally good reason be written "uralysis."

SYLLABUS OF GYNECOLOGY. By J. W. Long, M. D., Professor of Gynecology and Pediatrics in the Medical College of Virginia, etc. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1895. Pp. 4 to 133. Price, $1.00.

This is in the form of lecture notes and is intended as a reference work to larger books and is based on the American Text-Book of Gynecology, to which the figures of the illustrations refers. It is interleaved and very convenient to handle.

LEGITIMATE LIQUOR SALES.

American Druggist.

REPRINTS, ETC., RECEIVED.

Intestinal Anastomosis. By F. H. Wiggin, M. D., New York. Reprint from The New York Medical Journal.

Fifty Cases of Rectal Surgery. By B. Merrill Ricketts, M. D., of Cincinnati. Reprint from Mathews' Medical Quarterly.

Benefits of Bacteriological Investigation. A lecture delivered before the Quarante Club. By Joseph Holt, M. D., New Orleans.

Note on Lithium. By Enno Sander, Ph. D., Ph. G., St. Louis. Reprint from The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Operative Treatment of Myofibroma Uteri. By N. Senn, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., Chicago. Reprint from The Chicago Medical Recorder. Astigmatism as a Factor in the Causation of Myopia. By Leartus Connor, A. M., M. D., Detroit. Reprint from The American Lancet.

The Medical Treatment of Peritonitis. By James T. Jelks, M. D., Hot Springs, Arkansas. Reprint from The Hot Springs Medical Journal.

Notes on a Few Clinical Experiences of Inherited Syphilis. Seborrhea. By Burnside Foster, M. D., St. Paul. Reprint from The Northwestern Lancet.

An Introductory Address to the Students of the Medico-Chirurgical College. By L. Webster Fox, M. D., Philadelphia. Reprint from The Medical Bulletin.

Report of Two Cases of Second Infection with Syphilis. By James T. Jelks, M. D., Hot Springs, Arkansas. Reprint from The Hot Springs Medical Journal.

The Removal by Trephine of Fluid as the Result of Acute Cerebral Meningitis, with Report of a Case. By B. Merrill Ricketts, M. D., Cincinnati. Reprint from The Times and Register.

THERE can be no question but that there are certain connections in which there is a perfectly legitimate field for the sale of liquor by pharmacists. To define this by statute is extremely difficult, the real test being whether or not the liquor purchased is to be used for strictly medicinal purposes.

A SPECIOUS PLEA. Texas Medical Journal.

IT was the immortal "Josh Billings," we believe, who said, "the worst thing for a man to know is something that 'aint' so." A superstructure, however grand and imposing, will tumble down if built on an insecure foundation; so the most glittering deductions, drawn from incorrect premises, will fade, vanish into thin air, when it can be shown that there is no foundation in fact for the predicate; when it can be demonstrated that it is an assumption, something taken for granted, without proof, and not a fact, the props are knocked from under the argument, and the superstructure tumbles down. PROMPT AID TO THE INJURED.

New York Medical Journal, THE discoveries which have revolutionized modery surgery are, at the present time, according to operators, three in number, and they may be classified as follows: I. Anesthesia. 2. Temporary hemostasis. 3. Antisepsis. Two of these discoveries are of unquestionable importance, and it may be said that without them the majority of large operations would never have taken place. But it must be added also that the latter, antisepsis, which by far holds the first place, would not have been able to have free scope if the Americans had not suspected close on to fifty years ago all that can be attributed to nitrogen protoxide and to ether as general anesthetics. To these three discoveries, M. Baudouin ventures to add another, the hospital ambulance service of New York, which he characterizes as an extension of Baron Larrey's flying ambulance service to meet the wants of the ordinary citizen. He thinks that immediate surgical aid to the injured is one of the principal factors of success in operative surgery, other things being equal, and it should at once be put on a par with the three discoveries mentioned at the outset.

PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT.

All letters containing business communications, or referring to the publication, subscription, or advertising department of this Journal, should be addressed as undersigned.

The safest mode of remittance is by bank check or postal money order, drawn to the order of the Maryland Medical Journal; or by Registered letter. The receipt of all money is immediately acknowledged.

Advertisements from reputable firms are respectfully solicited. Advertisements also received from all the leading advertising agents. Copy, to ensure insertion the same week, should be received at this office not later than Monday.

Physicians when communicating with advertisers concerning their articles will confer a favor by mentioning this Journal.

Address:

PHARMACEUTICAL.

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.

WE used Hayden's Viburnum Compound in a case of threatened premature labor, twin conception, with most gratifying results. Examined the case six weeks before term and found the os dilated to three inches in diameter, pains regular and an occiput protruding. Put the patient to bed and gave teaspoonful doses of Hayden's Viburnum Compound every six hours. Pains ceased, the os closed and the patient went to full term. She was then safely and easily delivered of healthy twins. We could not do without it.—West Virginia Journal of Medicine and Surgery, January, 1895.

DR. E. P. HERSHEY, who is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Gross Medical College of Denver and also one of the physicians at St. Anthony's, the largest hospital there, in his lecture to his class at the college on Scarlet Fever, said that the most important thing in the treatment of Scarlet Fever was keeping clean, and in an antiseptic condition the mouth, nose and upper air passages, and that for this purpose he knew nothing better than Pasteurine.

DR. J. M. KEY, Coryell, Tex., says: In a thirty years' practice of medicine, I have never used any therapeutic agent in the general lesions of the uterine system that has gratified me as much as Iodia. The gynecologist may well be proud that he has such an agent at his command. Its curative action is made manifest also by the improved condition of the general organism, thereby showing its potency as a general alterative and restorative.

H. C. CROWELL, Kansas City, in Kansas Medical Journal, says: In chronic ovaritis, if the cervix is found puffy, enlarged, and highly sensitive, the entire infra-vaginal cervix may be penciled over with iodized phenol or the dark Pinus Canadensis (Kennedy's).

CELERINA and Aletris Cordial, equal parts, teaspoonful every four hours, will relieve ovarian neuralgia.

ONE of the most frequent forms of debility is that including a deficient secretion of digestive ferments, and more particularly of the starch-converting ferment. In these cases it is not sufficient to treat the patient for the primary cause of the debility alone, but the distressing symptoms must also be looked after at the same time, and the use of some preparation rich in diastase will frequently not only give temporay relief by supplying the missing ferment, but be of great systemic value by causing the assimilation of needed

THE AMERICAN MEDICAL
ASSOCIATION.

THE American Medical Association will hold its next annual meeting at Baltimore in May, 1895, and it is expected that an unusually large number of physicians will be in attendance. Delegates and members will be present from all the important cities in the east and south, but by far the greatest number will come from the western cities. To transand port so many, special trains will be run, those who do not use the special trains will have the choice of several roads. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will naturally attract a large contingent of those coming east, south and north, because of its excellent facilities, its extensive service and principally because all its trains from the west and south are run via Washington. This will be a great inducement to the visiting members and delegates accompanied by their wives and daughters. Besides this, those coming from points between New York and Washington will have the opportunity of using the Royal Blue express trains, which are composed of vestibuled Pullman cars running very rapidly and all with no extra charge. In addition to this, those who attend this convention and do not come via Washington can run over to that city on the forty-five minute trains, which are said to be the fastest trains in this country, if not in the world. Particulars as to rates and other information may be obtained from any of the following agents of the road; or will be mailed by addressing the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Baltimore, Md.

Agents: Boston, 211 Washington St. — A. J. Simmons, New Eng. Pass. Agent, Chicago, 193 S. Clark St.-W. W. Picking, City. Pass. Ag't; Cincinnati, Grand Cent. Depot - Geo. B. Warfel, A. G. P. A., Cleveland, Ohio, 143 Superior St.-W. M. McConnell, Pass. and Ticket Agent. New York, 415 BroadwayC. P. Craig, Gen. East'n Pass. Agent. Philadelphia, 833 Chestnut St.-Jas. Potter, Dist. Pass. Agent. Pittsburg, Pa., Cor. Fifth Ave. and Wood St.-E. D. Smith, Division Pass. Agent. San Francisco, Cal., No. 9 Mills Building - Peter Harvey, Pacific Coast Agent. St. Paul, Minn.-J. V. Cherry, Trav. Pass. Agent.

WHOLE NO. 728

Not in the whole domain of medicine do we find a class of affections more discussed, yet so little understood, from a pathological standpoint, as those we term the functional neuroses. Indeed, so much so is this the case, they may well be called the bête noire of the general practitioner.

I am sure many will agree with me, that the first responses to the span and spick sign flung so hopefully to the breezes, in the first flush of our professional career, were cases of this nature.

In their kaleidoscopic manifestations, in the absence of any sure foundation upon which to build, in stern resistance to treatment, they often become a puzzle and a despair. To unravel the labyrinthian maze leading to their source, they have defied the pathologist to check their protean changes, they exhaust the skill of renowned therapeutists, and well nigh cause the poor novice to lose faith in the potency of drugs. Remedies that, according to the best of authority, should work miracles for the relief of symptoms here most manifest, are as powerless for good as the distilled droplets of his neighbor of dilutionistic propensities.

In vain has the patient gone the rounds and as a dernier ressort resolved to cast his bread upon the waters, hoping

against hope, that the new comer, with new methods and new ideas, may come to his relief, may dispel the clouds that shut out the sweet sunshine of perfect health. Yet how often is it the case, no matter how deep he may have drunk from the Pierian spring, the new comer tries in vain to bear from its crystal source the soothing drop.

It is the purpose of this paper to take four of the most prominent of this class of affections, viz.: Epilepsy, Chorea, Hysteria and Neurasthenia; discuss briefly their etiology, pathology and symptoms; and finally to draw therefrom a few deductions applicable to them all.

Epilepsy easily stands chief of the functional neuroses, not only in the horror of its manifestations, but also in the obstinate resistance to most remedial measures. It may be defined as spasm, tonic or clonic, of a single group of muscles, a single limb, or involve the whole body, with or without loss of consciousness. We thus see that the affection we term epilepsy is manifested in a great variety of forms. Epilepsy directly traceable to obvious causes, such as an injury or blow, is beyond the scope of this paper, for here we deal with the idiopathic variety only, and not with those cases that are merely symp