Treatment of Uterovaginal Catarrh. By C. E. Brandenburg, M.D., New York City, Fifteen months ago Mrs. X. came to me for treatment, giving the following history: Six months pervious she had a miscarriage, since which she had been troubled with a profuse leucorrhea of a very foul odor. At her menstrual period she suffered greatly and flowed excessively. On examination the cervix was found to be nearly four times its normal size and so badly eroded as to have every appearance of a cancer, and had been mistaken for such by one physician. The uterus was soft and boggy and very much enlarged. She had been to the hospital on two occasions, and each time had been curetted, but this seemed only to aggravate the general condition. For over a year I treated her with every means at hand, but to no purpose. I was making preparation for an operation, which would have meant the removal of the uterus, when my attention was drawn to Glyco-Thymoline, and I determined to give it a thorough trial before operative measures were to be further introduced. An intrauterine douche of GlycoThymoline in 25 per cent. hot solution was administered and lamb's wool tampons saturated with Glyco-Thymoline pure were used. She began to improve from the first application. The leucorrhea became less and the odor disappeared entirely. The cervix took on a healthy look. The uterus decreased in size and became firm. In fact, she is now nearly well after nine weeks' treatment with Glyco-Thymoline. Amyl Nitrite in Hemoptysis. In the Therapeutic Gazette of August, 1907, appears a digest of an article by Grace-Calvert dealing with the use of amyl nitrite in pulmonary hemorrhage. Some of the advantages claimed for this drug are the ease and rapidity of administration, the fall in general blood pressure (which more than counterbalances the rise in pulmonary pressure due to vasoconstrictor action, described in British Journal of Tuberculosis), the fact that there is apparently no reactional pulmonary hyperemic (thus the drug differs from adrenalin), and finally, its use does not interfere with cough and the expectoration of clots, thus lessening the risk of subsequent trouble. It is suggested by the writer that the drug be administered from three minim glass capsules by inhalation; if the patient shows signs of alarm or excitement or the lungs of irritability a hypodermic of morphine may be given on cessation of the bleeding with advantage. The article is based solely on the writer's personal experience, and merits attention and a trial of the suggested remedy. IN GENERAL DEBILITY following acute diseases, where the functions Pepto-Mangan (Gude) 41 is pleasant to take, and is free from all cor- Physicians are earnestly requested to To assure the proper filling of prescriptions, M. J. BREITENBACH COMPANY, New York, U. S. A. BACTERIOLOGICAL WALL CHART FOR PHYSICIAN'S OFFICE. One of our scientific, and artistically produced, bacteriological charts in colors, exhibiting 60 different pathogenic micro-organisms, will be mailed free to any regular medical practitioner, upon request mentioning this journal. This chart has received the highest praise from leading bacteriologists and pathologists, in this and other countries, not only for its scientific accuracy, but for the artistic and skillful manner in which it has been executed. It exhibits more illustrations of the different micro-organisms than can be found in any one text-book published. M. J. BREITENBACH CO., New York. Various Uses of Ichthyol. W. M. Gregory, of Berea, Ohio, writes that he has been using ichthyol for about ten years in his practice, but first discovered its usefulness some time before that, while in charge of the College dispensary. Here there was a large jar of ointment which was being used with most excellent results in the treatment of burns. It produced results so much better than anything the writer had ever seen used for this purpose that he took pains to get the formula, which was ichthyol, alum, and boric acid, with a petrolatum base. Ichthyol comes as near being a specific for erysipelas as any drug can; in fact, Gregory has never yet seen a case that it would not cure. It is most conveniently applied in the form of an ointment, containing 1 or 2 drams to the ounce of vaselin. It should be applied thickly over the affected area, and well beyond it on the parts not yet affected. In acute rheumatism it is very helpful in the form of an ointment containing 1 dram of ichthyol and 1 dram of salicylic acid to the ounce of lanolin, thickly applied to the painful joints and covered with absorbent cotton. He has found the ichthyol ointment curative in all that class of sores and skin lesions that old-time practitioners used to class as "scrofulous sores," also in many cases of eczema with a red and angrylooking eruption indicating a considerable degree of inflammation. In many cases of swollen and indurated cervical lymphatics the ichthyol ointment will promptly reduce them to their normal dimensions. For many inflammatory conditions in the female pelvis, with a great amount of pain and congestion, Gregory has found a 10 per cent. solution of ichthyol in glycerin applied to the cervix on tampons to be exceedingly helpful. In cases of sore and cracked nipples, which cause many women so much suffering just after the beginning of lactation, the ichthyol ointment has proved the most healing application as yet discovered. Of course it must be carefully removed before each nursing, and applied again afterwards. The author concludes that ichthyol is a true alterative, and that much of its success is due to its extraordinary ability to penetrate the skin.-Cleveland Med. Jour., July, 1907. The older masters of venereology were very particular to keep their gonorrheal patients on demulcent drinks and a low diet, and accomplished much good by this course. The soothing demulcent effect of Sanmetto renders it an ideal remedy in gonorrhea. and Review. Vol. XXXII. TORONTO, DECEMBER, 1907. No. 12 Original Communications. TREATMENT OF VASCULAR BIRTH-SPOTS BY DR. LOUIS WICKHAM, Doctor at Saint-Lazare, ex-Chief of the Clinic of the Faculty at the St. Louis Hospital, AND DR. DEGRAIS, Chief of the Laboratory at the St. Louis Hospital. (Work done in the Biological Laboratory for the study of Radium together with fourteen photographs painted in water-color.) The studies which we undertook several years ago on the subject of radium have permitted us to regard this radio-active body as endowed with very important therapeutic properties. At the contact of the invisible rays which it gives forth the tissues change; certain budding productions seem really to burst; certain ulcerations become healed; and certain chronic inflammations give way and disappear. So we have been able to establish in preceding communications to the French Society of Dermatology, and to the Congress at Rheims2, and to that at New York, favorable conclusions on the use of radium in the treatment of cutaneous epithelioma and of certain obstinate forms of eczema and prurigo, nervodermites and psoriasis. But, nevertheless, since it is recognized that the action of radium on the capillary veins obliterates them, it seemed plainly indicated that this action might be used for the * Communication to the Academy of Medicine at Paris-Session of October 8th, 1907. 1. Vide the Bulletins of the French Society of Dermatology, March and July, November and December, 1906 and 1907. 2. Vide the Bulletins of the French Society of Dermatology, August 6th, 1907. 3. Vide the Bulletins of the French Society of Dermatology, September 7th, 1907, International Congress on Dermatology. treatment of the vascular birth-spots commonly called "wine stains." Here are given as accurately as possible the conclusions on our study of this subject, which we have the honor of submitting to-day to the Academy. The photographs painted in water-color which you have in your hands, and which I give here, represent different hospital types brought up in the series which we have studied. They show types varying from the flat surface wine stain on a level with the skin, to the stain extending in length even to covering a whole cheek, or projecting to the point of forming a genuine angiomatous erectile tumor. The therapeutic results which you see in the corresponding photographs have been obtained by a very simple manner of operating, that is by the direct application of the appliances to the stain. These appliances are flat, and the radium salt is fixed to their surface by a varnish. The rays which filter through the varnish vary in power according to the quantity and the activity of the salt incorporated, and according to the thickness of the varnish. This filtered, so-called exterior radiation, being known and analysed by special electroscopes, the only thing that remains for the profession to know is how much time is necessary for such and such power of exterior radiation to be applied to such and such variety of stain to determine the necessary and sufficient therapeutic reaction. Here is an example of a very powerful apparatus containing twenty centigrams of salt with 500,000 activity. Its exterior radiation is 300,000, and consists of five per cent. of Alpha rays, and 85 per cent. of Bêta rays, and 10 per cent. of Gamma rays. Applied for one or two minutes every two or three days, it acts without exciting visible reaction. Half-an-hour's application at a time produces exulceration. And thus you may class and catalogue the power of all the appliances that you use. For the flat, shallow birth-spots it is sufficient to produce a slightly exulcerative reaction, but for those which are deeper it is necessary to use stronger measures. On the contrary, for those which protrude you may use applications of radium in small quantities (repeating them often), which do their work without exciting visible reaction. Thus was treated the large tumor erectile in the middle forehead of the baby whose photograph is in your hands. This lesion, whose projection was two centimeters on two centimeters of base, was directed to us by Dr. Gastou about the month of March. Now it is quite obliterated and is quite colorless, and we never urged it to exulceration. |