demonstrate whether or not the perineum be torn, is, it seems to me, entirely unnecessary; yet, if we have good reason to believe that the perineum is badly torn, and we can not get a good "view" with the finger, we might "risk one eye," anyway.

Dr. Bishop, your case spoken of in July BRIEF, p. 320, was probably cerebrospinal meningitis, and you had no time to accomplish anything by way of treatment.

I use ergot frequently to strengthen labor pains, where there is dilatation and not a rigid os, and very seldom use the forceps. J. C. FEAR, M. D.

Waverly, Kan.

Acute Dysentery.

Having seen inquiries in several numbers of the BRIEF for the treatment of this disease, I wish to state that the treatment which has given me better results than any other is epsom salts, every three hours, till mucus and blood disappear from the stools. Then any preparation of opium every two or three hours to check the bowels; suspending the opiate if mucus or blood again appear, and giving the epsom salts as before, thus alternating them, when necessary to do so, according to the appearance of the dejections.

These are the main points in the treatment, which, simple and old as it is, many have not tried. It has, in the greater number of cases, proven more satisfactory to me than any other.

I do not mention any of the other remedies that might be required by the varying condition of dysentery, but give the above treatment for the benefit of those who have not tried it.

What is Calomel?

Dr. P. C. Smith should consult his chemistry, not to aid him in answering the question, "what is calomel?" but to refresh his memory on the subject of chlorine. He says, "chlorine is a combination of muriatic acid and black oxide of manganese." Neither of these substances enter into the composition, the latter being an elemental substance and not a combination at all. Chlorine is liberated from hydrochloric acid by combining the latter with black oxide of manganese. The doctor may have meant to be so understood.

Corrosive sublimate is poisonous in toxic doses, but no more so than many other remedies that he doubtless uses. The same is true, though to a less extent of calomel. Both the amount and the circumstances affect the question of their poisonous or deleterious effects. I know of remedies which are favorites of the physicians of the class to which the doctor evidently belongs, which are more harmful and dangerous than calomel when given improperly-aconite, veratrum, gelsemium, belladonna, etc.-are more likely to be abused than calomel, and an overdose is more harmful and more likely to be fatal.

What Bartholow says of calomel refers entirely to its improper use, and if the doctor will read what that writer says of other drugs of which he and his school use freely, he will see that from their improper use even worse results ensue.

The doctor bases his argument against calomel, partly at least, on its poisonous constituents, viz.: mercury and chlorine. I learned, when I first took up the study of chemistry, that the elements which enter into a chemical compound are entirely unlike, in physical properties, the compound itself. Sodium chloride is a familiar example. Either of its constituents alone is a deadly poison, but when united chemically they form not only a harmless compound but a necessary article of consumption. Calomel is no more like mercury or chlorine than common salt is like sodium or chlorine.

We are told, too, that calomel should not be used because it is unnecessary. Nowhere have I found the substitute mentioned. A physician (not of the old

school) told me he never used mercury or iodide of potassium in syphilis. “What do you use?" I asked. "Oh, it's a secret formula," he replied. "It cost me $400." To say that I was chagrined expresses it very feebly, never hearing such a reply before from one physician to another. But as I have seen many cures of syphilis from these remedies, and no bad effects, I shall not pay $400 for a recipe at present, and unless our friends of the BRIEF who profess to have something better shall enlighten me I shall have to wait for further progress in medicine. Ontario, Cal. O. S. ENSIGN, M. D.

Diagnosis and Treatment Wanted. Help wanted in the treatment of Eva N., aged seventeen months; fair skin, light hair, blue eyes. Parents healthy, family history good. The child is tolerably well grown, has an intelligent face. Constipated bowels which seldom move unless an enema or cathartic is used.

We have given it some of the prepared foods and beer, and rubbed it with brandy. The main trouble is partial paralysis of right arm and leg, which she can use very little, while they are one-third smaller than the left members. She seems to be weak in cervical region as she can not hold up her head, nor sit alone. Has not cut any teeth, but has a good appetite.

We hope the profession will give us diagnosis and treatment in next issue of BRIEF, and we will follow directions and reports results of case through the BRIEF.

Is this a case where electricity is indicated? If so, give best mode of applying. Or, is child too young?

To assist in strengthening and holding child in position, how would Dr. Meigs' spinal apparatus do?

DRS. WEBB & NUNNERY.

Liberty, Miss.

Advice Wanted-Hydrocele. Will some of the contributors to the BRIEF give treatment for women during the menopause?

If Dr. J. A. Matthews will use injections of alcohol in his treatment of hydrocele, I think he will be pleased with the results. J. M. MILLER, M. D.

Delray, W. Va.

Signs of Death.

In reply to the request of L. G. Doane, M. D., of N. Y. City, for signs of death, will give the following, some of which I can confidently recommend.

First. A peculiar odor sometimes noticeable before death.

Second. Hold the hand between your eyes and a strong light; if life is not extinct, a scarlet hue will be seen where fingers touch.

Third. Apply a rubber band around finger; if person is not dead, finger will turn bluish-red.

Fourth. Stick a needle in the skin; if dead, the puncture will remain open; if alive, it will close. Examine puncture through microscope, if possible.

Fifth. A strong solution of ammonia applied to the skin under a thimble; if life is present, a blister will be raised.

Sixth. Apply a solution of atropia to the eye; if death is present, amydriasis is absent.

LYNN W. HENDERSHOTT, B.A., M.D. Mill Shoals, Ill.

Displacement of Uterus.

In answer to Dr. B. M. Rowland, of Ruskin, Neb., I would first show your patient how to lift the upper viscera off the uterus, by expelling all the air out of the lungs with diaphragm and abdominal muscles. When you see that she has acquired the art while sitting and seeing you illustrate it in your own person, then have her take the knee-and-breast position, and, in that attitude, repeat as often as a half-dozen times the deep expirations that lift the bowels off the womb. Then, with index and middle fingers, replace the womb as much as may be easily practicable. Then, while yet in that attitude, introduce a cotton tampon, thoroughly saturated with equal parts of Kennedy's Pinus Canadensis and fluid ext. eucalyptus and boiled water, with a sufficient amount of subnitrate of bismuth. The tampon will be the best pessary, and the above process, repeated every night for a few weeks, by patient herself, will soon correct displacement by relieving the conditions upon which it depends. THOS. H. STEWART, M. D. Dixie, Ga.

Chronic Sore Leg.

Having seen several requests in the BRIEF lately for treatment of chronic sore legs, I propose to give my treatment which I have been intending to do for years. It has always given me success. I have been using it for thirty years, have cured some very obstinate cases. I remember a case treated not many years ago, that had been treated by two physicians and a druggist without a cure; he came direct from their treatment to me. Under my treatment, the ulcer healed in a few months. I have never been much in favor of the bandage, though it will heal faster under its use, but it weakens the capillary circulation and when removed congestion returns, or a stasis of the circulation will take place and the ulcer is more liable to return.

M. Ointment, apply on soft cloth morning and night, wash sore, every time it is dressed, with carbolic soap.

If the sore is very irritable add ten grains pulv. opii.

My theory of the action of the combination is that the mercury changes the granulations, it may be that the bichloride in the mercury destroys the microbe and causes healthy granulations. The rhubarb acts as a detergent for it will take on a more cleanly appearance after the first application. Ennis, Tex.

J. R. JOHNSON, M. D.

Pyrogallic Acid.

Dr. Donney, of Brewerton, S. C. forwards me a communication, asking some questions anent pyrogallic acid, and requests a reply.

The acid is made by means of fire hence the name (pyro) gallic. It is really gallic acid. It acts as an astringent, and as an escharotic. It answers the same purpose as gallic acid, but is much purer.

Pyrogallic acid is used by photographers (one drachm to one and one-half ounces water) to develop negatives, either on glass or paper. It can be used as an ointment (one drachm to one and one half ounces rose ointment) in eczema and more than one case of lupus and epithelioma have been benefited by its use.

Neuralgic Headache.

I have a patient, lady thirty-eight years old, mother of eight children, who is a sufferer from periodical attacks of neuralgic headache. The attacks come on about three to five times a month and last from one to three days. During the time she has to take her bed and has fever.

She is a stout, healthy looking woman, menstruation and digestion generally good. Morphine, quinine, calomel or bromide will give relief, but I want a cure, if possible.

If any of the many readers of the BRIEF can or will assist me in this case, by private letter or through the BRIEF, it will be cheerfully received by a young physician. COLEMAN CARTER, M. D.

Macy, Tex.

Queries-Impertinent, Perhaps.

I would like to inquire of Dr. Murray (see BRIEF for July, p. 342) if the “redheaded buttermaker" was a male? Did Mrs. X. Y. Z. discover red hairs in the butter she ate? Possibly, there might be a more natural and reasonable way of accounting for the phenomenon than an occasional red hair in the butter. I know a case a mother of five black-haired children. Her sixth had a red head, caused, no doubt, by being impressed with the eloquence of a young red-headed preacher she was much pleased with. Such cases are not rare. I know of a fold of four blondes, into which crept, all unexpectedly, a "black sheep.” The family physician, a dark-complexioned, black-haired man, very popular, when asked the probable cause of this deviation, looks into vacancy and says, dreamily, "I don't know." Dwamish, Wash.

DR. LEAHEM.

Cure for Urethral Strictures.

After using the new stricture remedy prepared by Century Chemical Co., St. Louis, with entire success in a number of cases, I have made a microscopic study of the shreds and floculi, as brought away by the medicine, and find that they are the legitimate products of the substance of urethral stricture, after having been subjected to the solvent action or curative influence of the remedy, and their nature would indicate that it has some peculiar and specific affinity for, and influence on, the substance of the stricture, by and through the agency of which it is transformed into the characteristic physiological elements of waste or disintegration of such tissue. In other words, in the process of waste and repair, normally taking place constantly in the animal body, the fibrous structures of such body are naturally transformed into mucine and fatty matter. And, hence, we are forced to conclude that it acts in harmony with the vis medicatrix naturæ, as is clearly indicated both by the revelations of the microscope and the clinical history of cases treated. That the mucine and fatty matter, resulting normally in the physiological process of waste in the economy of man, is in fact absorbed

and ultimately eliminated through the proper emunctories of the body, is a self-evident fact; and that these elements are in part eliminated in the form of mucine and fatty granules and globules, is a matter of common observation among all well-informed microscopists. That these elements result from the specific influence of this remedy in the cure of urethral stricture, and that they are in part absorbed into the general circulation and ultimately eliminated in other forms, can not be doubted, in view of the clinical history of some of the cases treated, since it is demonstrated that, exceptionally, cases do entirely recover in which there is no history of any discharge of flakes and shreds. In cases, however, where a floculent discharge does take place (and this is the rule), the microscope has clearly revealed the nature of the transformed elements as found in the urine.

JACOB REDDING, M. D.,
(Microscopist.)

Anderson, Ind.

Consultation Decorum.

I have never been much of a stickler for adherence to what is known as the "code," and yet there are many things in it to govern us in consultations which it would be profitable and comfortable to remember and observe. As many of us have probably not seen a literal copy of the "code" for a great while, I have thought it might be profitable to repeat a few of the rules which should govern consultations at the sick bedside.

As a general rule, the physician called in consultation is more or less a lion, at the time, as he is very naturally supposed to have new views and ideas which may help the patient out of extremity and difficulty. He can, therefore, afford to be modest and considerate towards the brother physician in charge of the case. And yet there is a strong disposition on the part of many consultants to engage in an overshadowing business. He intimates privately, and sometimes rather publicly, that if he had been called earlier, or if certain things had been done earlier, certain other consequences might not have happened. The ego is in active request, much to the disparagement and humiliation of the brother doctor who has called him into the case.

1st. No opinion as to prognosis, diagnosis or treatment should be given by the consultant, except in the presence of the physician and at his request.

2d. All prescriptions and advice pertaining to the management of the case, as agreed upon in the consultation-room, should be given to the family or to the nurse in charge by the physician in charge.

3d. The consultant should always leave the bedside, and, indeed, the front door, in advance of the other physician.

4th. Any habit of remaining behind to hob-nob with the patient or family, in a certain oracular, owlish way, is unmannerly and execrable in the extreme.

5th. The consultant should not repeat his visit, unless specially requested to do so; and only in a pressing emergency should he consent to call in the absence of the regular physician.

W. A. EDMONDS, A.M., M.D.

St. Louis.

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Medical Colleges.

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Apparatus for Sterilizing Milk.

BY T. M. CHEESMAN, M. D., Assistant in Bacteriology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.

The necessity for sterilizing infant food, more particularly during the hot seasons, is my reason for drawing your attention to a sterilizing apparatus, which is known as the "Arnold Steam Sterilizer." It was introduced into the laboratory of the Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and Surgeons by Dr. Prudden, for sterilizing culture media, and its recommendation comes from a thorough test of its merits.

To Professor Soxhlet is due the credit of first sterilizing milk for infant feeding, and to Dr. A. Caillé the credit of introducing the practice to the profession in this country; but the apparatus here shown presents certain advantages over that which is recommended by them.

The cooker consists of (1) a flat shallow boiler, holding but a small amount of water, and therefore requiring but a minimum amount of heat to produce steam; (2) a reservoir which constantly feeds the boiler and causes steam to be formed continuously; (3) the steam chest or receiving vessel; and (4) a hood, enclosing a space between itself and the