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Editorial.

POST PUERPERAL ANURIA.

It is by no means uncommon for disturbances of the renal function to occur during gestation. These not infrequently develop, as is well known, dangerous phenomena, the commonest of which is eclampsia. It is either uncommon that serious disturbances occur after labor or they are not mentioned by writers. I have been inclined to think for several years that suppression of urine after labor was more common than we would conclude it is from literature, as there are but very few cases mentioned by writers. I have seen five cases myself and I know of several physicians who have ob

their private practice. Many of these cases occur in patients in whom no previous renal difficulty has been observed. Those in which it has been observed and treated are usually restored by the delivery.

It has been my own opinion that these uncomplicated cases are brought about by sudden septic absorption. All the cases that I have seen were comparatively young This excludes the possi

women.

bility of parenchymatous nephritis having been present before, as that disease does not usually appear until later in life. The interstitial form is entirely excluded. In my own cases the suppression was very abrupt; in two with no premonitory symptoms. Vomiting, depression, heart and brain symptoms appear very quickly.

In the treatment of these cases the most positive measures must be immediately resorted to. I place great importance upon the application of heat, intense heat, moist at first and dry afterwards, to the kidneys, which must be persisted in with no intermission until the urine is flowing freely, if it take days to accomplish this. The internal use of gelsemium in full doses and echinacea is rational treatment and the addition of cimicifuga is of great service in its influence upon the renal secretions. I avoid renal stimulants and attend closely to other indications that may appear; meeting those of

heart depression very promptly and watching for brain complications. I have been fortunate in the recovery of five of my cases.

NEURALGIA OF THE SYMPATHETIC.

Neuralgia of the great sympathetic is not frequently diagnosed. It is often misinterpreted. It may be mistaken for ovaralgia, gastralgia, dysmenorrhoea or enteroptosis. It presents two characters.

There is an indescribable sensation which resembles somewhat intestinal colic or uterine contractions, or even angina pectoris, but a discriminating factor is its radiating character; this should be borne in mind in diagnosis. It may extend widely to an organ or region far distant from its origin, or it may be produced at will by pressure upon the Sympathetic. Then there may be the absence of pain in that portion of the nerve which lies between the site of the neuralgia and the part to which it radiates, rendering the diagnosis very difficult. The methodical palpation of

pain in the abdominal wall, the effects of the trouble may be recognized by the exquisite pain the pressure produces.

There is no doubt that there are cases in which diffuse abdominal pain in the presence of spinal tenderness may be due to neuralgia of the sympathetic. In these cases treatment of the spinal irritation may be all that is necessary to overcome the neuralgia.

The lack of literature on this subject makes close observation in the diagnosis of obscure cases very essential.

HYPNOTICS.

The use of hypnotics in our own school is not very common in the treatment of diseases of infancy and early childhood. We have learned a better way. It is very common, however, in the profession at large to administer opiates, soothing syrups, anodyne mixtures and other preparations preparations of this character to infants.

There is no time that the general practitioner is not called upon to prescribe for crying babies and but few of them take pains to analyze the existing condition sufficiently close to determine the exact cause of the irritation. When called to treat these cases we often find that the mother or nurse has been giving some narcotic mixture for so long a time that conditions have entirely changed with the child, and in some cases it is literally a habitue of the drug. At

tention to digestion is the first essential in these cases. Indigestion and mal-assimilation are probably the commonest causes. Where the pain is distinctly colic-like in its character, a few drops of colocynth in a half glass of water may be prepared; or three drops of the tincture of lobelia in the same quantity of water; a teaspoonful given every few minutes until the pain is relieved.

The tincture of chamomilla, and the essence of anise are simple remedies which remove flatulence and correct simple existing conditions which are the cause of the trouble.

Earache is a common cause of pain in very small infants. This can be diagnosed by the rolling of the head and the inclination to keep the hand up to the ear.

Pain at the base of the brain is diagnosed by the child holding the head backward, and turning the head backward and forward in the pillow. This is a premonitory symptom of brain trouble and must not be overlooked.

In lung and chest troubles the child screams out if handled, especially if elevated with the hands under the child's arms. A constant moaning and fretting is usually due to nervous irritation. In all of these cases the cause being determined, it must be removed by the indicated remedy and opiates must be avoided.

The use of hyoscyamus as a sleep producer we have commend

ed many times. It is a remedy that does not produce any unpleasant results.

However prevalent the habit of prescribing hypnotics has been in the past, it is without doubt increasing, as new and more satisfactory drugs are being introduced for that purpose. It demands thought and some skill and tact to resist the requests of patients for such medicines, and advise a course which will be productive of the desired results to them. Insomnia is always dreaded, but is not best cured by hypnotics. Physicians and druggists are in the habit of taking a dose of chloral, or the bromides. only, perhaps, or morphia, because the agent is at hand and convenient, forgetting for the moment that if the remedy is not directly indicated by existing conditions which lie at the foundation of the sleeplessness, that it will produce a limited and temporary condition of of disease which, by persistent use of the agent, may become permanent and demand the constant use of a hypnotic.

This carelessness has caused many bright minds minds to become wrecks, the victims of the morphine habit, and nearly always of intemperance also.

Every physician should exercise careful thought always in the administration of this class of agents, and should insist that the dose be not repeated without his special order. He should thoughtfully advise habits of life and of diet which

will of themselves overcome this abnormal demand; he should search for the cause of the trouble and by judicious treatment overcome it as speedily as possible. This course will prevent the formation of bad habits, and will secure a condition of health to the patient much more speedily than by the use of nerve and brain poisons.

EQUALIZING THE CIRCULATION, Twenty-five years ago our professors of materia medica said a great deal more about equalizing

the circulation in acute fevers than

we hear now. Local congestion is one of the first pathological factors in acute inflammation. In all inflammatory diseases there is a tendency to blood stasis somewhere and deficient circulation elsewhere. The old process of blood-letting, the application of powerful derivatives and revulsives, local irritation, all have for their object overcoming of this blood stasis. If they influenced the general circulation at the same time and could cause the blood to be uniformly distributed in all parts of the system they would be typical in their influence.

Belladonna is our most important remedy in equalizing the circulation; it drives the blood into every capillary; it increases arterial tonus; overcomes local stasis and is a powerful antagonist to every possible form of local congestion. We do not bear this fact in mind often enough and neglect to give this remedy because symp

toms point to some other remedy.

We must study the indications of the underlying conditions as well as the symptomatology of the case. Congestion, anemia, cough, pain, coma, delirium, headache, difficult breathing and various reflex phenomena will all disappear sometimes under the action of belladonna because it has equalized the circulation.

AMALGAMATION AND OBLIVION. The amalgamation scheme of the Medical Association, American which we have written on frequently in the last year, is not fully appreciated in all its bearings.

The idea of benevolent assimilation is urged upon most of the doctors who have been invited to join the Regular Society.

The Medical Century, an allopathic journal, shows how our men will be received in many cases by the old school doctors. An article published in a recent issue says: "To make graduates from Bennett, Hahnemann and other "Irregular" schools as acceptable members of the American Medical Association as the most cultured and ethical graduates from our best Regular schools and universities, and to solicit "Irregulars to join us is an outrage upon the finer sensibilities of every Regular physician. It turns our society into a kind of a rescue mission or reform school for reclaiming 'Irregular' doctors."

If an Eclectic graduate has no more pride than to permit himself

to be swallowed up by a school which will look upon him afterwards in this light, we have no use for him in our school. We want men who are proud of the position they occupy; proud that they can practice medicine with a degree of success that keeps them constantly in the eye of the people; proud that they have enough character to look upon physicians of other schools as brother physicians, and not regard them as candidates for the penitentiary and reform school, because they are not Eclectics.

If an Eclectic physician desires to relegate himself to oblivion, to blot himself out for all time to come, he can do it better by joining an allopathic society than by any other method.

The E. M. journal, commenting on this, asks: How does it feel to be spoken about as irregulars who outrage the finer sensibilities of every Regular physician: How does it feel when one has sunk his school

name and left his parent society to be told that, like a heathen or a criminal, he has been taken into a rescue mission or reform school for reclaiming irregular doctors?

VENTRAL FIXATION.

A number of cases have come to our observation where pregnancy has followed ventral fixation with unpleasant results.

A case is recently reported where the uterus was ruptured in labor; the rent extending from the external os to the cornu and splitting

the broad ligament. The posterior wall of the womb was thin and relaxed, the anterior wall was very thick; death followed. Another case is reported where the symptoms were very unpleasant, and still another in which the patient died.

While there are some arguments in favor of ventral fixation of the prolapsed womb, there are many reasons why it does not seem to be a practical and feasible operation.

Therapeutics.

EPIGEA REPENS.

The trailing arbutus has a specific influence upon the mucous linings of the body, and upon the glandular organs of these mucous surfaces. It is a most satisfactory agent where there is irritation of the bladded from excess of uric acid in the urine causing the characteristic brick dust deposit. Where there is a small quantity of urine passed with a high specific gravity resulting in a nauseating backache suggesting that the crystalline constituents of the urine are so excessive that the deficient quantity of water does not wash them out of the renal tubules.

From fifteen to sixty drops of specific epigea in four ounces of hot water drunk before meals and before retiring will have a most happy effect, where the irritation from the above causes suggests threat