hard blows," but truth compels me to say that calomel, administered judiciously, more promptly and thoroughly corrects the biliary function, when it needs arousing, than any thing else. I am familiar with those remedies which are claimed to possess the same therapeutic effects on the secretions, and in the great majority of cases where such treatment is essential the writer succeeds with them, but not uniformly so. As one who is ready to accept the truth from whatsoever channel, I can not consistently draw the exclusion line and leave venesection and calomel on the outside. With the same kindly teelings for all I close. W. J. MCDONALD, M. D.

Lexington, Mo.

The Quinine Habit.

Can such a habit as the quinine habit be produced? Does it exist?

In answer to the first query, I say yes. And to the second, I believe that it does exist, just as much so as the opium, chloral or whisky habits do. I believe it is becoming quite common to indulge to excess in the use of quinine.

It was considered of great benefit to the people when the tariff was removed from quinine. It was a drug that was necessarily used a great deal in medicine, and the high price made it a burden for the people to procure it in sufficient quantities, and when the tax was removed, one essential expense was greatly reduced.

When quinine was high in price, it was not used, as a rule, unless prescribed by a physician; but now it is so cheap that it is brought within the reach of all, and now a bottle of quinine is found in every house you visit, and is being used as a family medicine, and is given indiscriminately for all ailments. We are just as sure to find quinine in the houses of our patients as we are to find camphor and smelling-salts.

It is just as common to-day as sulphur for the blood, or pink and senna for worms was in my childhood days. They did no great amount of harm, but the quinine is doing harm. It is a medicine we could not well do without, it is good in its place, but it should be the educated and intelligent physician that should decide what its proper place is.

I have seen a number of instances where it has become a habit. A craving is created for it, of an almost irresistible nature. It is carried in the pocket, and resorted to as often as necessary to keep the system stimulated by it. I know one case, in particular, that I have watched very carefully, being a relative, who is an absolute slave to quinine. When this gentleman becomes weary (and this weariness occurs when the effect of the preceding dose has subsided) he takes the quinine, and is honestly of the opinion that he can not do without it.

To illustrate: Some time ago, he started from his home, Bloomington, Ill., to visit Englewood, a suburb of Chicago. When he arrived at the union depot, Chicago, he was so prostrated that he could hardly get to the waiting-room. He took his quinine, and had to wait for its stimu lating effect before he could proceed with his journey. In this case, there was no disease, excepting the disease that the quinine had produced. I have told him, and other physicians have told him, that he does not require any quinine. I believe he knows, himself, that he does not need it, but yet he can not resist its use. It has produced physical weakness, and, to some extent, nervous prostration, and evidently will, if continued, affect the mind.

That it is a dangerous domestic remedy, I most firmly believe, and is capable of doing a vast amount of injury. A duty devolves upon the medical profession to put the people upon their guard in regard to its use. Impress upon them the danger that the excessive use of it will produce.

It had better not be taken at all, unless prescribed by a competent physician. GEO J. MONROE, M. D.

Louisville, Ky.

Wild Hairs.

Destroy the hair-bulb by electricity. This is done in the following manner: Pass a tiny needle down along the shaft of the hair into the bulb, and apply the galvanic current, as strong as required. Small bubbles will immediately appear at the entrance of the needle. These show that the electricity is acting.Keyser.

Doctors are Fallible.

The BRIEF continues to be a welcome visitor. Among much that is valuable and worthy of high commendation, we occasionally find an item that is amusing. Notably, the reports of one thousand, and even two thousand, accouchements with but one or two lacerations of the perineum. This is a little amusing.

I would not call in question the veracity of the reporters. They are, doubtless, as sincere in their statements as I am, when I say, I know they are mistaken. Doctors are made of men (with a few exceptions—some are made of women) and men are liable to be mistaken.

In a practice of more than twenty years, and attendance at over two thousand deliveries, I have met with about the usual number of such accidents, reported by our authors, text-books and hospital reports.

The truth is, that lacerations of the perineum in primiparæ is the rule, rather than the exception, and the accident is by no means infrequent with multiparæ, even under the most careful management.

These rents may be very slight, or they may be extensive-involving the sphincter and bowel, and requiring a surgical operation of no little importance. Yet, not more than one case in a hundred demands any surgical interference what

ever.

I sometimes operate immediately, but more frequently wait one to six months; because, as a rule, we find our patient exhausted and in a poor condition to undergo the operation, performed as it should be. Besides, the lochia interferes with the healing process, and we may not have perfect union.

One writer says: "Had nature intended the perineum to be lacerated, it would have so formed it." Well, it appears that nature has so formed it, and it is very frequently torn, whether nature so intended or not.

Possibly, among the patriarchal mothers, the accident did not so frequently

occur.

It appears to me that we could, with as much propriety, say that nature did not intend the hymen to be ruptured; yet it is done, and, too often, prematurely.

Again, attributing all the ills that woman is heir to to a lacerated perineum, is as widely wrong as the idea that it should seldom occur. Some writers would lead us to think that the opening of Pandora's box was simply rending the perineum. And, that so many accoucheurs have often overlooked these ruptures, is not strange at all. Any one of the senses may deceive us, and is not reliable, taken alone. In some cases, the sense of touch is more valuable than that of sight. In others, the sense of sight is far more reliable.

In the earlier years of my practice, the usual timidity of a young practitioner deterred me from taking an ocular view of the perineum, and I relied upon the sense of touch; and I am now convinced that I was often misled. This is not a humiliating confession, when we remember that our most eminent obstetricians and gynecologists have made greater mistakes, when relying upon a digital examination.

After a hard labor, and you have reason to suspect a torn perineum, look, and see what the conditions are, and if you conduct yourself like a gentleman, and the woman has the confidence in you she should have in her attendant, you will not be charged with any lack of modesty.

The woman wants to be made to feel that her welfare is, just then, your sole thought and your greatest interest; and she will feel grateful for the manifestation of that interest. If you find a rent that will need operation, tell her so, and that you will attend to it at the proper time. If it is a small rent, let it alone; nature will attend to that.

I like the BRIEF and its contributors, and that is why I write.

Blakesburg, Ia.

C. N. UDELL, M. D.

Ulcerated Sore Leg.

In answer to the request of Drs. Hodge and Tate in the June BRIEF, for a remedy for ulcerated sore leg. Allow me to suggest that the first thing that should be done is to find out the cause of the ulcer, and, if possible, remove the cause.

Treat the patient on general principles. Give Iodia or iodide of potassium as an alterative; ammoniated citrate of iron as

Brethren of the MEDICAL BRIEF family, I will relate to you my experience with ergot, and in return approve or disapprove, and by this means we can be benefited.

Case I.-I was called in consultation with a brother doctor to see a negress, who had been in labor about forty-eight hours, with only slight pains. The first forty hours she was attended by a midwife. It was a case of primipara. The doctor told them, before sending for me, that the forceps would have to be used. On my arrival, I told the doctor I thought it was useless to use them, but if he insisted, and as he had told them it was necessary, I would consent, but I thought a dose of ergot would do better. I administered chloroform, and the doctor used the forceps to no avail. Then we gave the ergot, and the child was born in one hour, all "O. K.," except the wound the forceps made on its head. The mother made a good recovery.

Case II.-Was called to see a primipara at six o'clock A. M. Found her having slight pain, and had been since midnight. I gave a dose of ergot, the pains increased, and when the effect wore off, the pains decreased. I then repeated the ergot, with like results, all through the day until four o'clock P. M., when the child was born, and the mother and child both did well.

I never give ergot when the pains are good, and I use it very cautiously. My idea is to give it only when the labor is prolonged by insufficient pains, and then in the first stage.

Please diagnose this case for me: I was called to see Miss Rosa J., aged seventeen, medium size, black hair, healthy, menstruated regularly. When I arrived, found her complaining of itching, so

much so that she awoke her mother by scratching and choking up. She would cry awhile, then talk foolishly about cooking and other things which were out of place at that hour of the night (11 o'clock). I got her quieted, and visited her the next morning and evening. At the last visit, she was so much better I dismissed the case. She recovered, and was going around as usual in a day or two. Just one week from the first attack, I was called at 11:30 o'clock A. M. to see her, the messenger stating that she was dying. When I arrived, found her unconscious, unable to swallow, with a strong pulse, having convulsions; her legs and feet were rather extended, eyes closed, features remaining perfectly natural. She died about ten minutes of twelve. When her mother first went to her, she put her arms around her neck and said "Mother, I love you," and these were the last words she spoke, only when touched on the back, when she would complain as if it gave her severe pain.

I humbly ask, what was this attack? The BRIEF is such a valuable journal and so cheap. A. B. BISHOP, M. D. Mineral Springs, Ark.

"Lacerated Perineum Query."

Dr. J. D. Campbell, on page 279, inquires "Why is it, if they have such remarkable success, they do not go to the cities, to the large lying-in hospitals, and instruct those who are in charge of them their art of success?" Because we are not invited. "Or, rather, start institutions of their own?" etc. Because I prefer to practice in the country, like Dr. C., minus the letting of perineums tear, etc.

The doctor says: "All the best authorities on the subject say at least twenty to thirty per cent of primipara and five to ten per cent of multipara are torn more or less (hospital statistics). Now, if our friends can strike out that high per cent of lacerations, why don't they do so?" Because the only way we could strike out that high per cent of lacerations would be by striking out thousands of physicians who let the perineum rupture.

The doctor further says: "If they could, they would not be long in pro

claiming it in our text-books, and our leading professors, such as Parvin, Leishman, Playfair, Meadows, and other authors, would give us better statistics than now on this class of cases." We have proclaimed it in the medical journals, which are as good as the text-books. The authors the doctor names never had such horrid success in their practice as he describes. They ingeniously give statistics to shield many of their students and patrons who send to them lacerated perineums to be repaired.

Hudson, Ill.

SILAS HUBBARD, M. D.

A Review-Medical Errors Corrected. We put our best foot forward, and, with a profound medical bow, salute Dr. Samuel R. Percy, New York. We are here, even I, O doctor! to correct a few little errors. My preceptor (Mama)" impressed upon us that it was infinitely of more importance to correct an error than start a new theory." Selah! But great snakes, doctor, how can we correct so many? What we fail to reveal in the error line, you can discover (as the procession advances). As you are the great modern discoverer, and, as you say, "I have hoped that I may do good and correct errors." In the language of friend Elton R. Smilie, M. D., we exclaim, "If things are thusly, how came they so?" Good doctor, you have posed as the discoverer of the innocuous property of hypophosphorus-acid and its salts. Dr. Percy, in his essay, 1876, claims to be the discoverer, and ignores the fact and claim of Sawitsch, Bucheim and Schuchdart as the original discoverers. This, O doctor! is a phosphoretic error (fox-fire).

Again, in the same essay, 1876, he tries to claim as his own the discovery of pathological changes ensuing from phosphorus poisoning. Wagner, in his General Pathology, page 365, treating of fatty metamorphoses, says: "A number of these cases belong probably to phosphorus poisoning." After Hauff (Wurtt, Corr-ol., 1861, No. 34) had first pointed out the frequent coincidence of fatty liver with acute phosphorus poisoning, the same coincidence was experimentally demonstrated by Ehrle, Kohler and Renz (Tuba, Dess., 1861, by Lewin), (Vir

chow's Archives, XXI., page 506, by Murk and Leyden), (Dec. act Phosphorvergrfting, 1865).

The author, Dr. Wagner, (Archives de Heilk, 1862, III., page 309) found fatty metamorphosis of nearly all the organs of the body. One of Germany's greatest physicians, Dr. George Wegner, in 1870, made a series of experiments to ascertain precisely what the lesions are which phosphorus produces, and the amount of phosphorus required to produce them. He found that quantities as small as onesixty-sixth of a grain per day killed a cat, and one-twenty-second killed a dog; that fatty degeneration of the liver, heart and kidneys was the invariable result. It is a very remarkable coincidence that the discoveries of Hensing, Jordan, Vanquellin, Couerbe and Owen Rees should have been discovered by Dr. Percy and have secured him a prize for an essay in 1872, and the discoveries of Sawitsch, Bucheim and Wegner should have been equally beneficent in 1876.

Dr. P. also tries to pose-masquerade— as the discoverer of the fact that animal brain contains phosphorus in an oxidizable form, ignoring the fact that Hensing declared this in 1779. (See Churchill on Consumption, page 185, par. 268.) This view of human phosphorus is the basis of Churchill's theory and practice, and is declared in all his writings from 1855 down to the present day. My friend, C. G. Polk, M. D., Philadelphia, extracted, as early as 1857, oxidizable phosphorus principles-found by Vanquellin in 1812 -but did not dare to claim it as a discovery of his own.

Dr. Percy claims that the conception of using isolated organic phosphates is one of his origination, which is very far from the truth. Calvert, of London, suggested their superiority over the ordinary kind in 1856, in London Lancet. Routh advocated the same in 1857. C. G. Polk used the phosphorized principles of fish brain in 1859. Andre Sanson, of France, prior to 1860; and the great physician and dermatologist, Tilbury Fox, advocated their superiority in 1861. Percy, in his prize essay, 1872, supposes, on theoretical grounds only, that they would prove superior to the ordinary kind. Tilbury Fox says: "There is something special in the organized phosphates, those, in

fact, which have been formed by passing through a living organism, as compared with those artificially prepared. It is not the amount, but the kind, exhibited which produces the good results. In infants' food and in our bread and flour, the organized phosphates and ceraline (action somewhat similar to pepsin) have been deliberately rejected. These may be administered medicinally to children and infants when the assimilative function is at fault.

In eruptive diseases of the scalp, rickets, marasmus, chronic diarrhea, and impaired nutrition of all kinds, the wheat phosphates act marvelously.

M. Andre-Sanson, one of France's greatest physicians, says, in a paper read at the Academy of Medicine (Gazette Medicale, Aug. 14, 1860): "That to promote osseous growth, the administration of phosphate of lime, either in the shape of hypophosphites (laboratory kind), or in that of powdered bone, is unavailing. It is because their form does not allow of assimilation; on the contrary, organic phosphates, such as are elaborated in vegetables, are real aliments."

Dr. Percy, in his essay, "Phosphorus," speaking of the nitrogenous hypophosphite, says, on page 658, Transactions of the American Medical Association, 1872: "Although this nitrogenous-hypophosphite has been isolated from brain and nerves, it has, we believe, never yet been formed in the laboratory, nor has it been used as a therapeutical agent."

Dr.

(Cin

This, dear doctor, is an error. Williamson has "used isolated phosphorous compounds since 1873." cinnati Med. News, Dec., 1877.) Dr. H. E. Ashmead has used them since 1869. (Detroit Med. Journal, Oct., 1877.)

The Prof. (Dr. Percy) sent his essay, 1876, to me, with request to have it bound. We would suggest to thee, O noble and profound medical discoverer! to record these little mistakes, jokes-medical-of thine, in the Great Blue-Book of Errors. Even, dearest doctor, in thy next essay on medical discoveries. Farewell, dear brother. I am fraternally and faithfully thine to correct error. Selah!

E. CARMICHAEL ROTHROCK, M. D. Corsicana, Tex.

BOUND Volume 1881, 75 cents.

Answers to Inquiries.

Dr. J. J. Rone has calomel down as near right as I could conceive of. I bid him good speed. And may his purse never grow empty, his friends forsake him, nor his enemies triumph over him.

commend Dr. Pike's antiseptic treatment of typhoid fever, that is: Aconite to control the fever, and baptisia and chlorate of potass. for the sepsis. And I agree with him in his treatment of pneumonia ("assist nature"). And I cordially agree with him in regard to his comment on Dr. H.'s article. Light is bursting forth in living streams upon our noble and benign profession. Dr. Pike should use his pen more. Come again, doctor.

In reply to Dr. W. S. Holland, in regard to the use of cactus in heart diseases, I would say that it is a splendid remedy to relieve palpitation and a feeble circulation in hypertrophy, dilatation, and aidscollinsonia, convallaria,digitalis, strophanthus, and other remedies, to cure heart diseases (see my Practice), which remedies should be used as indicated.

In reply to Dr. C. F. Hatley, I would say, his case is endometritis, and calls for aletris or helonias. See the author's Mat. Med.

Dr. M. V. Reece asks help for his indigestion, and says his most distressing symptom is dyspnoea. Now, doctor, there is either organic or sympathetic heart trouble in your case. For indigestion, you should take one to five drops tinct. nux vomica and thirty drops chelone glabra, before meals, and use light diet, and if you have enlargement of the heart, collinsonia and cactus grandiflora are your remedies-fifteen drops of cactus and twenty to thirty drops of tinct. collinsonia, every meal-say one or two hours before meals. Try this course, and you will derive benefit from it.

Dr. S. C. Broadstreet asks for a more satisfactory treatment than he can find in the text-books. I can not give him a more successful treatment than I have given in my 3d edition of specific art of healing, which see. I meet the malarial element with cinchonidia, because it is less inclined to affect the brain than quinine. I meet the septic condition of the typhoid element with baptisia, sulphite