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says:

"Its action as an analgesic appears from the best evidence to be central, and I do not doubt that its antipyretic action is of a central character, thereby depressing heat production. I ordered 8-grain doses in a case of cephalalgia, to be repeated at the end of three hours until four had been taken, with gratifying results. It causes no excitation and no depression of the vital forces, and is best administered in liquid form. It is without disagreeable taste."

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CHRONIC CORPOREAL ENDOMETRITIS.-When the body of the uterus becomes involved in a chronic inflammation the condition is best determined by the character of the menstrual period, the nature of the uterine discharge, and the use of the uterine sound. Menstruation will become profuse and prolonged; the uterine discharge profuse and watery; while the sound will show an increased depth of the uterine cavity, and, upon its withdrawal, will be tinged with blood. If the inflammation has extended to the muscular structure of the uterus, the sound will cause positive pain if pushed against the fundus of the uterus.-Godfrey.

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ENGORGEMENT OF THE UTERUS-GONORRHEA.-W. C. Wood, M.D., of Woodward, Ala., writes: I have tried Sanmetto in engorgement of the uterus and found it better than anything I ever used. Also in a case of long standing gonorrhea which gave permanent relief.

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Doctor: "What you really need—what you ought to have— is a little sun and air. It's the confinement"

Young Woman (interrupting): Why, doctor, I've only been married two months. Son and heir and confinement, indeed! What do you take me for?"

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CHLORALAMID IN LABOR.-Dr. J. Adolphus of Atlanta, Ga., reports a case of labor in the Med. Tribune, in which the os and perineum were rigid, the pains of a nagging character. The labor had existed for twenty-four hours and had almost exhausted the patient from the sharp, wearisome and ineffectual pains, and consequent loss of sleep. The doctor administered thirty-five grains of chloralamid, which was followed

by sleep (in forty minutes) which lasted three hours. On awaking the patient was refreshed, her courage and fortitude had returned, the pains were now strong and regular, and delivery soon followed.

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Thomas H. Manley, A.M., M.D., Visiting Surgeon to Harlem Hospital, New York, writes to the Clemiana Chemical Co., Atlanta, Ga. Having given the preparation known as Verrhus Clemiana a thorough and extended trial, on hospital and private patients, I can most cheerfully recommend it as serving an excellent purpose in those conditions resulting from specific and scrofulous diseases. I have found it to act with almost specific energy in strumous joint diseases of childhood and in many cases of chronic malarial poisoning which have resisted quinine and arsenic.

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Quinine pills and capsules are very insoluble, often being discharged undissolved. Febriline, or Tasteless Syrup of Quinine, has been found to be just as reliable in all cases as the bitter sulphate of quinine, and physicians will find it to their advantage to use it for adults, as well as children, in place of pills and capsules. It is as pleasant as lemon syrup and will be retained by the most delicate stomach, having also the advantage of not producing the unpleasant head symptoms of which so many patients complain after taking the quinine sulphate. Possessing these advantages, physicians will find it superior to the quinine sulphate for all cases requiring quinine, particularly typhoid fever patients.

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KS

Samples of Sander & Sons' Eucalypti Extract (Eucalyptol) gratis, through Dr. Sander, Dillon, Iowa. Eucalyptol stands foremost as a disinfectant and antiseptic. Meyer Bros. Drug Co., St. Louis, Mo., sole agents. Look for the genuine product.

MEMPHIS

MEDICAL MONTHLY.

VOL. XII. MEMPHIS, AUGUST, 1892.

No. 8

Original Communications,

PLEA FOR MEDICINE.

Address before Gibson County Medical Society,

BY A. E. TURNER, M.D., PRESIDENT.

Veritable progression is the surest test of the truth of any science, and certainly the history of the various departments of medicine furnishes the grandest and most conspicuous illustration of this principle. I should be constrained, in justice to the subject, to chronicle in detail the multitudinous facts by which its respective provinces have been beautified and enlarged through the labors of its devoted disciples. This, though a glorious task for one imbued with the true spirit of his noble profession, would be a Herculean labor in itself, a work requiring the most faithful and protracted research, and demanding for its proper execution the exclusive dedication of an entire volume. But though prevented by such a consideration as this from the performance of the task assumed, I beg leave to direct attention to the following arguments, believing that they show, in one point at least, the truth of medicine receives the fullest and most satisfactory confirmation.

Though ingratitude has been the reproach of humanity from creation, that exalted sentiment which is in direct opposition to it, that noble and admirable virtue which is its antipode, does sometimes find its way into the heart of man despite VOL. XII - 22 337

every opposing circumstance, biasing his judgment, modifying his prejudices, and elevating his entire character. But gratitude is engendered only by a sense of some favor conferred by a conviction that some benefit of a positive and appreciable nature has been received; and where this sentiment has been inspired by any particular system, it is fair to suppose that it (the system) has proved of practical advantage to those thus affected-has benefited them in some decided manner. But gratitude as thus employed is meant, not that idle and capricious fancy, those blind and evanescent impulses which invest every possible system to which the charm of novelty attaches itself with a wonderful, but most fictitious and transient popularity, but that substantial emanation, that abiding principle, that natural sentiment which, as the legitimate offspring of an enlightened, deliberate and candid judgment, affiliates with all that is best, truest and most endearing in the breast of man, and thus becomes an essential element of his nature. If then, mankind, after a protracted, deliberate and impartial scrutiny of the claims of medicine to its confidence and respect, really entertains toward it a genuine sentiment of gratitude, the inference is a necessary one that it has accomplished its noble purpose; that it has secured that "protection and preservation" which we all so much desire, and that it is adapted in all of its fullness and beauty to the wants of humanity. But whatever supplies a natural want, a necessity created by the Supreme Architect himself, must be a part of his great governmental policy of the machinery of the universe-of that mighty system whose every element is an embodiment and illustration of truth in all its majesty, beauty and immutability.

Let us, then, glance at the history of the world for the purpose of ascertaining whether men have given any practical proofs of their gratitude toward our noble science. In the early ages of the world medicine was regarded either as a mystery or an imposition. The calling was esteemed a servile one. Surgery was for centuries in the hands of the barbers; physic was the peculiar prerogative of slaves and mendicants; the collateral sciences were surrendered to alchemists, priests and jugglers, while the incantations of magic or the unmean

ing rites of a fanatical religion, were appealed to by prince and peasant, wherever disease overwhelmed him, and the grave opened for a victim. But what a different picture meets the eyes of the philanthropist of the present day! In every city of the civilized world, the benefits of medicine are made accessible to all classes of population by the creation of institutions wherein professional services are rendered gratuitously, and which by universal consent are esteemed the crowning glory of the nineteenth century. Multitudes of temples of unsurpassed beauty and magnificence have been dedicated to Æsculapius, whose courts are continually thronged with ardent votaries, and whose glowing altars drink the rich libations of the warmest hearts and the noblest intellects. Not an army marches on its career of bloodshed and conquest without a full complement of medical men, whose services are recognized by a generous acknowledgment of rank, and a liberal allowance of money. Not a ship over which floats a national flag or wherein passengers are transported, spreads her white wings to the breezes of the ocean whose decks do not echo to the tread of one who, though bearing only the insignia of our noble calling, is honored in the hour of pestilence or the fight as a hero or, it may be, a martyr. Not a monarch is inaugurated upon his throne but pays homage to our profession by selecting some special medical adviser, whose position is one of as much honor and consideration as that of the proudest noble. Not a pestilence stalks through the land, filling it with aching hearts and new-made graves, but skepticism immediately gives place to the most active faith, and the proudest as well as the humblest hang upon the slightest whisper of the "good" physician, as if his were the voice of destiny, trusting to his skill for "protection and preservation," and ready to offer the most tearful sympathy when the destroyer turns upon his pursuer and adds another recruit to the noble army of martyrs. In view of all these practical proofs of the progress which medicine has made both in the confidence and regard of men, it cannot be denied that it has engendered in their hearts a deep and abiding sense of gratitude; and hence, though the spirit of skepticism is still abroad in the landthough traitorous doubts have shaken the faith of humanity

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