Diabetes.-Dr. Alfred Robin has made an important report to the Paris Academy of Medicine on the treatment of diabetes by antipyrine. Of itself antipyrine is not a cure for diabetes, but judiciously administered it exercises upon the patient a suspensive effect. Three grammes should be administered at the start, in three doses, given at intervals of four hours, and as far as possible from meal times. The medicament must be associated with bi-carbonate of soda, in the proportion of half a gramme of the latter to one gramme of the former. After eight days of this treatment the diabetic symptoms are considerably ameliorated, when the use of antipyrine should be dropped, and the usual treatment of diabetes followed, -London Herald.

Quinine and Tannic Acid.-It is said that one and a-half grains of tannin will neutralize the bitterness, without changing the action, of ten grains of quinine. The intense bitterness of the drug renders it almost impossible to administer it to children in its natural state.

The undilated bladder should never be explored for stone, foreign bodies, or abnormal growths. Inject several ounces of salt water. If the urine contains septic products, vesical irrigation should precede exploration.

Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic.-Dr. W. C. Cavenagh, Memphis, Tenn., says: For weak digestion, general debility, and want of appetite, I cheerfully recommend "Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic."

Cutting Pains in Urinating.-Lambert's Lithiated Hydrangea, a teaspoonful often repeated, will quickly stop the sharp cutting pain in the passing of water, which often follows labor.

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McArthur's Hypophosphites.-Gertrude G. Bishop, M. D., 310 Throop Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y., says: "I have used Syrup Hypophos: Comp: McArthur for four years with most excellent results. It is very valuable in phthisis pulmonalis, bronchitis, and many forms of infantile diseases, especially when the osseous system is defective."

How to Give Ether.-Pancoast holds that as men are made drunk sooner when standing or sitting, while taking alcohol, than when in a recumbent posture, in like manner it takes less ether to produce anæsthesia if the patient sits up.

Gout, Rheumatism, Uric Acid Calculi, Gouty Dyspepsia, Uræmic Conditions in Women.-T. Griswold Comstock, A. M., M. D., St. Louis, Mo., says: "I have often prescribed the Buffalo Lithia Water in gouty and rheumatic conditions and in renal calculi, accompanied with renal colic, and always with the most satisfactory results. In renal calculi, where there is an excess of uric acid, it is especially efficacious. In gouty dyspepsia I have known its action very happy. I have made use of it in gynæcological practice in women suffering from acute uræmic conditions with results, to say the least, very favorable."

Painful Urination.-In the frequent and very painful urination common to very old ladies, accompanied sometimes with swelling of the labia, one drop of the tincture of apis mellifica, every two hours, will quickly relieve and cure.

Graves' Disease.—A grain of cannabis indica, four times daily, was employed by Dr. Valeri in three cases of Graves' disease with success.

Tasteless Quinine.-Write to Paris Medicine Co., Paris, Tenn., for samples of their Tasteless Quinine. See ad. page 38.

Violent Vomiting.-A Seidlitz powder, divided in four parts, one every fif teen minutes, gives good results in violent vomiting.

Business Chances.

PROPERTY, PRACTICES, ETC., FOR SALE.

Notices will be placed under this head on receipt of 30 cents a line each insertion. About seven words to the line. Money must accompany the notice.

For Sale.-A two-story hotel, twelve rooms, with a good run of custom. Worth $2,000. A drugstore in one room worth $800, and a $1.500 practice. All for $2,000. Would exchange part. Address, Dr. J. A. HODGE, Gayoso, Mo.

For Sale.-A practice worth $4,500 yearly, and property worth $3,500, in town of 1,500 inhabitants, on railroad. Mine practice alone worth $100 per month, which is guaranteed by Coal Co. Can be had very cheap if sold soon. For particulars address J. J. BROWN, M. D., Troy, Ill.

Book Notices.

AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON HUMAN ANATOMY. By Joseph Leidy, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Human and Comparative Anatomy and Zoology in the University of Pennsylvania, President of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and of the Faculty of the Wagner Free Institute of Sciences, Philadelphia. Second Edition, Rewritten. With 495 illustrations. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. Price, in cloth, $6.00.

The necessity, coupled by the urgent requests, for a new edition of this excellent work (the former edition was published some twenty-eight years ago) and the flattering manner in which the first edition was received by both the press and the physican encourages the well-known author to re-write this one with a view of

facilitating the study of anatomy and its commitment to memory. We know of no book that could take its place, as it is written by a most distinguished anatomist. No student or physician can afford to omit it from his library. It has traits that no other work on the subject can boast of. It will be furnished by the MEDICAL BRIEF, postpaid, at publishers' price.

PSYCHOLOGY AS A NATURAL SCIENCE, APPLIED TO THE SOLUTION OF OCCULT PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. By C. G. Raue, M. D. It embraces the consideration of the following important subjects: Mind Reading, Thought Transference, Hypnotism, Somnambulism, Statuvolism, Clairvoyance, Second Sight, Retrospection, Psychometery, Telepathy, Telergy, The Double, Apparitions, Phantasms of the Living and Dead, and Spiritualistic Phenomena, Etc. Discussed from an original standpoint. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, Publishers. Price $3.50.

Following Beneke, the great German investigator, Dr. Raue has endeavored to solve, on the basis of the New Psychology, the occult psychic phenomena claiming so much attention from modern thinkers. Dr. Raue proves that materialism is incompetent to explain these occult manifestations, and endeavors to give a rational psychological explanation of the The work is characterized by perfect fairness towards his opponents. The author displays rare logical powers and a singularly happy way of making his foes convict themselves "out of their own mouths."

same.

The author says that the object of this work will be fully attained if the reader can glean from its pages how to take care of the ears and avoid disease in them; or, if they are diseased, how to escape the evils of improper treatment and thus save the hearing. It is this very knowledge that will save many from the erroneous treatment, so much in vogue, that does more harm than good. Add this little work to your library and when you have a case of ear trouble consult it and it will soon repay the outlay.

ST. LOUIS OFFICE:-9th and Olive Sts.

Terms-81.00 a year, in advance.

Single Copies, 10 Cents.

VOL. XVII.

Phosphorus in Medicine.

Since the discovery of phosphorus, by Brandt, it has been an interesting substance in both arts and in medicine; it is in relation to the latter that I especially wish to consider it.

It has been employed in its pure metalloid form; in combination with metals, as the phosphides of iron, zinc, copper, etc.; in union with one atom of oxygen, as in hypophosphorous acid, and its salts; with three atoms of oxygen, as in phosphorous acid, and with five atoms of oxygen, as in phosphoric acid; and all of these oxides have three hydrates, or combining numbers with water, alkalies, metals or other bases-mono-, bibasic and tribasic, with intermediate combinations.

The metalloid is a great favorite with too many physicians to admit of the question as to its therapeutical efficacy. It has proved useful in sexual exhaustion, brain and nerve debility, skin diseases, pneumonia, and other maladies. As to its good offices, there can be no question; but it is, like mercury, very much of a twoedged sword, capable of serious mischief as well as positive good.

That the oxides of phosphorus are ubiquitous in the animal organism, has long been known, but the difficulty in isolating these oxides in their normal ni

No. 7.

trogenous formula, and determining their exact character, as to the degree of oxidation in which they normally exist, has led to dispute-whether they are found as phosphates, or in a lower degree of oxidation. The Liebig school of chemists take the former ground, while the Müller school claim that the phosphatic nutrients of the human organism exist in an oxidizable form.

Hensing found oxidizable phosphorus in the brain of animals, as also in the human brain, in 1779; Jordan, in 1799; Vanquellin, in 1812; Courbe, in 1836; Polk, in 1857; Percy, in 1872; and Thudicum, in 1875.

Churchill, as every physician well knows, declared that consumption has its origin in deficiency of the hypophosphites in the blood, thereby causing a diminution of animal heat, derangement of nutrition, and tuberculosis. He promulgated this doctrine as early as June, 1855, reiterated in his paper to the Academy of Medicine of Paris in 1857, wrote and published a work of a thousand pages to substantiate this idea in 1864, and a smaller work in 1875.

Dr. Polk, of Philadelphia, in his thesis to the University of New York, in 1858, gave the results of his investigations as to causation of tuberculosis, in chemical analysis of the brain, blood and tissues

of twenty victims of phthisis. He attributed the causation of the disease to deficiency of oxidizable phosphorus in the nerve centres which preside over digestion, assimilation and respiration. (See Med. and Surg. Report., Aug. 2, 1872, Cincinnati Lancet, Aug., 1877, New Orleans Med. and Surg. Jour., Sept., 1877, and his large work on "Tuberculosis, Scrofulosis and Allied Diseases.")

This deficiency, Polk proposed to remedy by isolating oxidizable phosphorus from animal brain, dissolving it in glycerin, and administering it. He gave me some of this preparation in May, 1869.

Routh, of London, Tilbury Fox, and Andre Sanson had all, before 1870, advocated the use of organismal phosphates as very superior to the ordinary kind. The introduction of the hypophosphites belongs solely to Churchill. Until he used them, they were unknown as therapeutical agents. To-day they are very extensively used. Personne, Devergie, Thompson and Solon thought that phosphorus acquires poisonous properties by change into hypophosphorous acid. Sawitsch, Bucheim, and Shuchdart, of the University of Dorpat, in May, 1854, however, proved by a carefully conducted series of experiments that the reverse is true, that oxidation robs phosphorus of its toxic properties, that hypophosphorous acid is comparatively harm

less.

Percy, in his Prize Essay, 1876, quotes Tardieu's experiments, as also his own, but neither Tardieu nor Percy do more than corroborate the experiments of the Professors of Dorpat, made twenty-two years before, that hypophosphorous acid is not poisonous.

In 1889, it may, however, seem to be but folly to argue this point. Every tyro in medicine, every drug clerk, and a very large portion of the laity, know that the hypophosphites can be given in large doses, without danger; that in general vital deterioration, in brain and nerve exhaustion, in consumption, bronchitis, sexual debility, anæmia and debility, the hypophosphites do much good, while they can be used with safety. The metalloid phosphorus, on the other hand, while valuable as a remedy, requires care and vigilance in its administration. Unlike the hypophosphites, it is not a real nutri

ent, but is simply a stimulant to the brain, nerves, skin, and secretions in general.

In impotency, in pneumonia, in neuralgia, in skin diseases, it is superior to the hypophosphites. It is best given in pill form, as it is more slowly resolved into phosphureted hydrogen. The dose should never exceed one-fiftieth of a grain, and then not repeated more than thrice daily. The urine should be carefully tested, and the remedy withheld if albumen appears. The fact has been known for the past twenty-eight years that continued use of phosphorus produces fatty degeneration of the liver, kidneys, and, in fact, of all the organs.

In those days of numerous original discoveries, the fact may be stated that Hauff (Württ Corr-Bl, 1861) first declared the coincidence between phosphorus poisoning and fatty degeneration of the organs.

After Hauff, Ehrle, Kohler and Renz experimentally demonstrated the accuracy of his observations (Tub. Diss., 1861). Lewin subsequently corroborated the conclusions of his predecessors (Virchow's Arch., Vol. XXI., p. 506). Murk and Leyden experimented on animals, and invariably produced fatty degeneration of all the organs by phosphorus poisoning. Wagner found that phosphorus poisoning produced fatty metamorphosis of nearly all the organs of the body (General Pathology, p. 305). Percy also found fatty degeneration of the organs follow phosphorus poisoning (Prize Essay, 1876). Polk says phosphorus poisoning does not produce a true fatty metamorphosis, but a fatty and oily infiltration of all the organs (Michigan Medical News, 1879).

be

The ordinary hypophosphites are monobasic. This, all chemists, but Dr. Percy, acknowledge (he says they are tribasic). If, however, the alkali and phosphorus be placed in water, and the phosphorus be slowly oxidized by binoxide of hydrogen, tribasic hypophosphites can formed. As all the phosphorous compounds of the animal organism are tribasic, it seems to me that the tribasic hypophosphites would be more assimilable, and would give better results. As yet, they are only laboratory curiosities, and would be expensive to make.

HORACE E. ASHMEAD, M. D. Philadelphia, Pa.