will be delivered next October by Dr. Hans Meyer, professor of pharmacology in the University of Vienna. The Physicians Defense Co. of Indiana, has been refused permission to operate in the State of Ohio, owing to failure to comply with the laws regulating such corporations in that state. The New Hospital for contagious diseases in Montreal will be called the Alexandra Hospital. It will have nine separate buildings, each entirely isolated and with its own nursing staff. President Roosevelt delivered the address at the graduating exercises of the Naval Medical School in Washington, on March 25th, and presented the twentythree graduates with their diplomas. Dr. C. G. Darling has been made Clinical Professor of Surgery in the medical department of the University of Michigan, and Dr. C. B. Nancrede has had added to his title, Director of Surgical Clinics. The Michigan members of the committee tendering a dinner to Dr. Osler at the Waldorf, New York, on May 2nd, are Dr. V. C. Vaughn and Dr. George Dock, of Ann Arbor, and Dr. Chas. G. Jennings, of Detroit. The State of Indiana has recently appropriated $130,000 for the establishment of an institution for the care of epileptics. It will be conducted on the cottage plan similar to the New York institution at Sonyea. Governor Pennypacker of Pennsylvania has vetoed a bill for the prevention of idiocy by a surgical operation on the ground that it is not humane. The bill provided that under certain conditions, congenital idiots should be castrated. An edict by the czar has been enacted since the birth of his son, to the effect that the families of physicians are entitled to a pension when the physician succumbed to infection acquired while in the public service fighting the epidemic. Dr. F. T. Wilson, who has just completed three years' service as surgeon with the United States army in the Philippine Islands, has returned with his family to Owosso, Mich., after a short visit with his father, David Wilson, and family, West London. A Chinese Hospital has been established in Vancouver. It was built and is financed and managed entirely by Chinese citizens. It is said to be well fitted with modern appliances, but decorated and partly finished in Oriental fashion. The physicians will be regularly qualified practitioners. The Republicans and Democrats of Pontiac line up in the annual spring contest with a doctor at the head of each ticket. In the absence of any more exciting issue the contest will be one between the "strenuous life" and the "simple life." Dr. H. C. Guillot, Republican, held the office for three strenuous terms, but was defeated last election by Dr. J. D. Riker, who is now completing an uneventful term and has been nominated again. The trustees of the Johns Hopkins university on April 3rd elected Dr. Llewellyn Franklin Barker, now head of the department of anatomy in the University of Chicago, and in Rush Medical college, to the professorship of medicine made vacant by the resignation of Dr. William Osler. At the same time Dr. Willis Sydney Thayer, associate professor of medicine in Johns Hopkins, was elected professor of clinical medicine. The latter professorship is one of new creation. Dr. Barker is a native of Canada and was born in 1887. He has held the positions successively of Assistant Physician, Fellow in Pathology, and Associate Professor of Anatomy in the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Since 1900 he has been Professor of Anatomy in Chicago University and was recently made Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine there. Dr. Frank W. Shumway of Williamston has been appointed secretary of the Michigan State Board of Health, to succeed Dr. H. B. Baker. He began his new duties on March 29. Dr. Shumway is 47 years old. He was born on Christmas day, 1857, in Lowell, Kent county. His father, Dr. Charles Shumway, was for years a practitioner in Kent, whither he came from New York. Dr. Charles Shumway died when his son was five years old. The family moved to Lansing, where the boy was educated in the common and high schools, and then followed his native appetite for medicine by commencing study in the office of the late Dr. Charles Hayden. He stayed there two years, after which he went to the Cleveland Medical college, because it was his father's Alma Mater. In 1881 he graduated, and came to Williamston, Ingham county, where he was a successful practitioner. He was local health officer for 10 years, experiencing many epidemics. He lived the life of the doctor in the country districts, out at all hours, in all weathers, horseback, in carriage, or afoot. His fellow townsmen all regard him as a fine physician. He is an excellent nurse and his close attention to each patient gave him the only attacks of illness he has ever had. He nearly died of diphtheria in 1882, and was in danger of death from pneumonia in 1904. He was appointed to the pardon board by Governor Pingree in 1899. He was reappointed by Governor Bliss, and on the reduction of the board to three members was given the presidency and the long term. He has shown administrative ability, and is personally urbane, approachable and likeable. False Sympathy. Countryman (to dentist)-"The tooth next to that 'un aches, too, Doc." Countryman-"Yank it out. Durn such sympathy." John W. Kirtland, M. D., University of Illinois, 1886, died at his home in Lakeview, Mich., March 13th, aged 66. Casper L. Nauman, M. D., Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, 1876, died at his home at West Branch, Mich., on March 3rd, from cirrhosis of the liver. Dr. G. A. Doren, who has been superintendent of the Ohio asylum for the feeble-minded at Columbus for 46 years, died last month. He was a Democrat, but held his place through all administrations because of his unusual fitness for the position. Dr. E. A. Chaffers, well known west side physician, died at his home, 530 Twenty-third street, on March 21st., after a short attack of pneumonia. Dr. Chaffers, who was 42 years old when he died, came to Detroit from Montreal about ten years ago and shortly afterwards married Miss Kittie Berghoefer, of this city. He is survived by the widow and three daughters-Patrica, aged 8; O'Leary, age 4, and Yonne, aged 3 years. Dr. Chaffers was a graduate of McGill university. Dr. Theodore C. Dolan died at St. Mary's hospital March 22nd. He was 25 years of age and graduated from the Detroit College of Medicine in 1904. After receiving his diploma he went to Lima, O., where he started in practice, but in six weeks his health broke down and he was obliged to return to Detroit. Some weeks ago he entered St. Mary's hospital, suffering from tuberculosis of the kidneys. He was an enthusiastic student and made an excellent record in college. His home was in Windsor, where his parents and brothers and sisters survive him. The body was taken to Windsor for burial. ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS SOCIETY. On Tuesday, March 14th, Dr. S. A. Knopf, of New York, addressed a public meeting in the Y. W. C. A. building, on Tuberculosis. The meeting was under the auspices of the committee of the State Medical Society to Petition the Legislature for the Establishment of a Tuberculosis Sanitorium. Dr. H. J. Hartz presented Mr. Samuel T. Douglas, as presiding officer, and Dr. G. L. Kiefer, City Health Officer, made a short preliminary address, setting forth the purpose of the meeting and stating very forcibly the need of public interest in the tuberculosis problem. Dr. Knopf's address was of a popular nature, reiterating in an interesting manner the well-known facts about tuberculosis and urging his audience to assist in the work of ridding the state of Michigan of this pest. At the close of the meeting many cards were signed for membership in an Anti-Tuberculosis League, and a meeting for permanent organization will soon be held. This is a definite move for a campaign in which every physician should be enlisted. It was organized and is being carried on by physicians and is doing work in which we may all be proud to have a share. Dr. Knopf, after leaving here, made three addresses in Battle Creek, spoke before the legislature in Lansing, and lectured also in Saginaw, before leaving the state. CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor: In the March Detroit Medical Journal we note Dr. Spohn's paper on Erysipelas. I have found his treatments unsatisfactory. on pure over and one inch beyond red margin. 12 hours. His calomel will sweep out, but not The ichthyol should be painted Washed off and reapplied every scour out. His guiacol is too expensive. Emptying bowels with calomel and sodium phosphate, we render the canal quite clean by 10 grains of mixed sulpho-carbolates every two hours. Sodium salycilate, 10 grains, two hourly, may be added. Pilocarpine hydrychlorate,11-20 grain. Strychnine arsenate, 11-50 grain. Every two hours until pronounced effects, is almost specific, but applicable only toasthenic cases. Nuclein will help, pure icthyol internally will assist, cure will be prompt. In Merck's Archives Dr. Storck states that "If drugs continue to disturb the stomach they are worse than useless." This is an assertion too sweeping. It would compel us to exclude all emetics from practice. It would cater to that anti-medicine idiosyncrasy of some nervous people until a dose of bromides, iodides, salines or a drink of hot water would be considered bad. Reckless statements like these throw physicians and regular practice into disrepute. Perhaps they are sometimes made to advertise a palatable proprietary product. They should not pass unquestioned for they are not true. There are limits at which we should stop the use of stomach irritating medicine. As well might it be said that a mode of ' treatment causing pain is more harmful than helpful at all times.. It is my practice to give sodium phosphate 2 to 1 drachm per hour for about 24 hours after being called to a case of typhoid fever for the first time. This treatment causes vomiting quickly in some cases, slowly or not at all in others, but I observe that the patients that are quick to vomit when drinking sodium phosphate make the easiest recovery from this fever. If the patient has courage I force the use of the sodium phosphate until vomiting and purging are almost constant and the duration of such a case is always brief. No matter what non-emetic medicine it may be, if chemically pure it is, if properly diluted, less nauseating than if it is a commercial article. The sulphocarbolates will illustrate this thought. -C. E. BOYNTON, M. D. Los Banos, Calif. PROGRESS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE Triplets in Uterus Bicornus. Frank (Muenchener Med. Woch., Feb. 21, 1905), reports a case of triplets in a uterus bicornus unicollis. The child in the right side of the uterus was the largest, born last, and born dead. Of the two on the left side, one lived a half hour, and the other ten days only. The mother recovered. The author has failed to find another similar case on record. The Museum in Medical Teaching. Maude E. Abbott, Montreal (Journal A. M. A., March 25), notices the great advance in laboratory methods in medical teaching, but considers that the adaptation of the medical museum to the didactic method of teaching is too little understood. When properly systematized the museum furnishes most valuable object lessons far more instructive than mere reading-a sort of observational study enabling the student more easily to fix the facts in his mind. She describes at length the methods employed in McGill University, the classification and general arrangement and the use of the specimens for direct teaching purposes in the way of examinations and quizzes on the specimens presented. Note on Use of Dionin. Hood (Am. Jour. of Ophth., Feb., '05), discussing the value of the new therapeutical agent Dionin, in eye diseases, says the drug does not produce local or superficial anæsthesia but is rather to be classed as a deep analgesic, of particular use in inflammation of the iris and ciliary regions where atropine fails, or as an aid to the action of atropine. He uses a 5 per cent solution, one instillation every twenty-four hours. He gives Roder's summary which coincides with his own observations. 1. It is an analgesic of no little power. 2. Enhances the action of atropine. 3. Powerful vaso dilator and lymphagogue action upon the eye. 4. Promotes absorption of exudations, deposits in the pupillary space, and of post operative debris after cataract extraction. 5. 6. Helps clear up corneal opacities in some cases of interstitial keratitis. Without effect in all other forms of corneal opacity. 7. Influence on the glaucoma process as yet unsettled. -DON M. CAMPBELL, M. D. Resection of Nasal Septum. Kilian (Archives fur Laryngologie-Band 16 F 3), reports his modifications of the Kreig-Bonninghausen-Freer and Mensel method of sub-mucous window resection of the nasal septum. His essential features in method are the single short incision through which both mucous layers can be elevated and separated, one from the other, by the use of his special long specula. Ease and accuracy in each case are claimed. Thorough aseptic technique is required. The local anesthesia is produced by sub-mucous injections of two centimeters of a half per cent cocaine solution and four drops of adrenalin, 1-1000. 20 per cent solution cocaine is applied externally to the mucous membrane prior to injection. The anterior wedge-like piece of the vomer is removed by Kilian's bayonet like chisel, the operator guiding it with one hand, keeps the nose open with the speculum in the other hand, while an assistant uses the mallet. The remaining deviated septa is resected with Hardman's forceps. Vioform is insufflated into the cavity between the layers of mucous membrane. Great stress is laid on perfect approximation of the flaps, and these are held in place by sutures, if necessary. They are also held by loosely applied tampons. These are usually two in number on a side and allowed to remain for two days. Kilian performs this operation on an average in twenty minutes.-B. R. SHURLY, M. D. The Prognosis of Epilepsy. William A. Turner (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Feb. 16, '05). Before the bromide treatment of epilepsy was practiced (1857) different writers gave percentages of cures varying from 5 to 10 per cent. Since then estimates have varied between 5 and 12 per cent. These divergences are explained by the fact that formerly men were not so precise in diagnosis, and were not agreed on the definition of a cure. The prospect of cure is to be considered in conjunction with the patient's sex, hereditary history, age of onset, duration of disease, frequency, character and time of seizures. It is observed that male subjects show a larger percentage of arrests, but are more liable to concomitant mental impairment. "A family tendency to either epilepsy or insanity, though offering no obstacle to the arrest of seizures in favorable cases, materially increases the likelihood of the disease becoming confirmed and the supervention of dementia." "Epilepsy commencing in infancy and childhood is the least favorable for the arrest of the fits, and the most favorable for the confirmed disease. The common type of epilepsy, or that commencing during puberty, is the most favorable form, both as regards the arrest of the seizures and the absence of mental infirmity. Adult epilepsy is unfavorable, but senile epilepsy is tractable." As for duration, early cases are decidedly the most responsive to treatment. Remarkable exceptions occur, but "on the whole there is a progressive tendency for epilepsy to become confirmed the longer the disease lasts without definite treatment," and a similar tendency toward enfeebled mind. The frequency of attacks has a marked effect both in producing obstinate resistance to arrest and pronounced mental impairment. Attacks occurring only a few times a year are often curable, but those occurring several times daily are hopeless. The cases of grand mal respond more readily to treatment than the petit mal, and psychic deterioration is less frequent, but when it does ensue it is usually more serious. Combined grand and petit mal cause the most profound dementia. Remissions in epilepsy are common and are of such long duration that a cure cannot be claimed unless there has been freedom from attacks for nine years. Long remissions are favorable to cure. The writer reports 10 per cent of cures in a series of 147 cases. Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis. In a symposium on this subject in the Alabany Med. Annals., March, '05, are discussed (a)—the pathology and bacteriology, by W. T. Councilman; (b)-the symptoms and diagnosis, by H. L. Elshner; (c)-the treatment, by C. G. Stockton. (a) All cases of meningitis are cerebro-spinal, and probably all involve the encephalon superficially; the avenues of infection are by the blood, the lymphatics, and by direct extension. The epidemic form of the disease is caused by the diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis of Weichselbaum, and is less fatal than the forms produced by the pneumococcus or streptococcus. The cases examined have shown purulent invasion from the meninges into the vicinity of the blood vessels in the brain substance, sometimes with the presence of bacteria, and an increase of cortical neuroglia. The three micro-organisms mentioned furnish the great majority of acute meningitic infections, and in about equal proportion as observed by the writer. Primary meningitis is, with rare exceptions, the result of the bacillus of Weichselbaum. Pneumococcus invasion is usually secondary,— as a sequel to acute otitis media, mastoiditis, sinusitis, pneumonia, or endocarditis. Streptoccic infection is secondary to the same conditions and also to severe traumata. In the meningitis due to the two latter organisms there is an acute proliferative inflammation of the veins and arteries, which is not found in the epidemic form. In most other respects the different infections resemble each other in their pathologic manifestations. (b) The symptoms of meningitis vary with the form it assumes and the severity of the individual case. Opisthotonos is a very constant phenomenon; headache is intense and persistent; general hyperæsthesia is usual, as is photophobia and insomnia; the facies and the position in bed are characteristic; the reflexes are often abnormal, but do not vary in any constant manner; the pulse is rapid, increasingly so toward death; temperature is elevated, with hyperpyrexia sometimes in fulminant cases; abdomen is retracted, constipation common, albuminuria usual; the skin often shows herpes, erythema, roseola, or hemorrhage; convulsions may occur in children, but rarely in adults; vomiting accompanies those cases with long prodromal periods; polynuclear leucocytosis is the rule; metastatic joint lesions occasionally supervene; Kernig's sign is almost always present, but one must guard against considering it pathognomomic. Lumbar puncture is a useful adjunct to diagnosis and should always be employed; one ought not, however, to rely on the macroscopic appearance of the fluid, but insist on microscopical and bacterial tests, which will usually determine definitely the variety of infection, and often be of importance in indicating proper prophylactic measures. The diagnosis of meningitis complicating pneumonia is practically impossible without lumbar puncture, and the differentiation from typhoid with cerebral symptoms is made by the same means, together with the usual tests for typhoid......It should also be remembered that the latest researches seem to prove the occasional occurence of a purulent meningitis due to the bacillus typhosus alone. (c) In treatment, it is important that every case should first be isolated. Anfrecht's method of giving hot baths (104 degrees F.) has given favorable results in many hands; lumbar puncture has numerous advocates, and it has been supplemented by sub-arachnoid instillations of lysol solution; subcutaneous injections of corrosive sublimate have been practiced with benefit; still honored is the treatment with opium, as also with bromides, antipyrine, ergot, and mercury. The writer concludes from personal experience that a judicious selection and combination of the hot baths, lumbar puncture, antipyrine, laxative mercurials, and other means to maintain the eliminative functions, will bring about the best results,not neglecting the very important regulation of hygienic surroundings. -CHAS. S. OAKMAN. NEW INSTRUMENTS AND DEVICES Mention of new instruments and devices in this department is entirely complimentary and articles illustrated are judged on their merits. We invite manufacturers and physicians to send us matter suitable for publication under this head. A description of the device and an electrotype or half-tone with a base not greater than two and five-eighths inches should be sent. Always mention the price of the article in question. The management cannot undertake to return cuts unless postage for same accompany the letter with which they are sent. To Our Readers-The Detroit Medical Journal publishes descriptions of such aids to the profession as it knows to be reliable and trustworthy. We shall be pleased to furnish information as to the articles mentioned, or the articles themselves, upon receipt of an inquiry. Oertel's Stethoscope. This instrument is a clever mechanical aid and instrument of precision in diagnosis which promises to be of great permanent value. It can be used as an ordinary stethoscope. In addition to this, the intensity of sounds may be accurately measured by it. This is obtained by changing the size of the aperture in the tube. Three movable concentric metallic tubes are used, provided with |