Typhoid Fever by Ærial Infection. Dr. Mortimer Granville enters a protest against disturbing the soil of public thoroughfares for the purpose of repairing sewers, without any precautions for the prevention of atmospheric contamination by the disinfection of the filth-laden and putrid earth. This is doubtless a matter to which the attention of the parochial authorities might advantageously be drawn, though the effectual deodorization of such large quantities of offensive material presents serious difficulties. He goes on, however, to state that "a number of cases of typhoid fever have recently occurred in the metropolis and the suburbs in which the victims have distinctly contracted the malady when passing through public thoroughfares in process of disturbance." This may or may not have been the source of the infection, but it is certainly rash, to say the least of it, to state it thus affirmatively. In a disease with such a long and uncertain period of incubation as typhoid fever, it is manifestly impossible to be sure of the manner in which the malady was contracted.-Medical Press. Transverse Presentation with a New Method of Treatment. Attempts to perform version were futile, as the uterus was in a state of tonic contraction, shoulder and side of the head being firmly wedged within the pelvic brim when medical aid reached the case, about twenty-four hours after the beginning of labor. The patient was placed on her knees at the edge of the bed, her head gradually lowered until it nearly touched the floor. She was instructed to breathe rapidly. Soon the fetus began to withdraw from the superior strait; and in about five minutes the arm was replaced. With the next pain the head presented, the descent of the arm prevented by a finger in the vagina, and in fifteen or twenty minutes the child was born alive.-Buff. Med. and Surg. Jour. Contagiousness of Acute Tonsillitis. Acute tonsillitis is now considered a general disorder from the beginning infectious, and probably of microbic origin. In certain cases infection is manifested by visceral complications (purulent pleurisy, albuminuria, etc.) The pus of tonVOL. XII 36 sillar abscesses contains staphylococci and streptococci. In acute superficial tonsillitis the intensity of the fever, prostration and tedious convalescence, militate in favor of infection. The author has noted several cases of acute sore throat following in about eight days, the appearance in the waiting-room of the "throat" department of the hospital, of a case of tonsillitis. There had been no previous cases for a long time. These facts seem to prove its contagiousness, although this is not the sole means of the spreading of the disease. He considers that antiseptic treatment should be instituted and the predisposed persons should be removed from the locality.Richardiere, Rev. de Laryngol d'-Otolog., etc. Some Internal Uses of Chloroform. In gastralgia with dilatation of the stomach, in the treatment of nervous vomiting, and of the vomiting of pregnancy, chloroform water in the dose of a small teaspoonful every half hour or hour, is a very useful remedy. In false croup, employed in the proportion of one to ten drops in an ounce of water, to which is added a little glycerin; dose one teaspoonful every half hour; the effect is a very happy one. In ulcer of the stomach, small doses of chloroform given internally will often remove the pain and stop vomiting. In the treatment of whooping cough, three to six drop doses of chloroform in syrup will bring about very good results. In the albuminuria and anasarca of pregnancy, chloroform in twelve to twenty drop doses in sweetened water causes a rapid diminution in the albumin and the disappearance of the anasarca. Glycerin in Hepatic Colic. At a meeting of the Paris Academy of Medicine on March 8th (Sem. Med.), Ferrand read a paper on the treatment of hepatic colic by glycerin. The following are his conclusions: (1) Glycerin given by the stomach is absorbed unchanged by means of the lymphatics, especially by those passing between the stomach and the hilum of the liver and the gall-bladder; (2) it is a powerful cholagogue and a valuable remedy in hepatic colic; (3) in relatively large doses-20 to 30 grams— it brings an attack to an end; (4) in small doses-5 to 15 grams-glycerin taken every day in a little alkaline water prevents fresh attacks; (5) without being a lithontripic, glycerin is the remedy par excellence for biliary lithiasis. A Medicina Contemporanea, August 21, 1892, summarizes Moussu's complete thyroidectomies, which yielded far less of a mortality than Gley's. One adult rabbit out of twelve died; two of another series of seven succumbed. The author holds that when proper precautions are observed the operation proves less fatal than was hitherto believed. Similar favorable results obtained in adult solipeds, ruminants and swine. He succeeded in maintaining them without morbid symptoms for several months after thyroidectomy. In young animals extirpation of the thyroid was followed by distinct arrest of development, with evidences of myxodematous cachexia. Ascarides as a Cause of Typhus Fever. Peracchia (Gazett deglia Ospedali) on making a post mortem examination of a case of typhus fever, which had died with symptoms of acute intestinal perforation and severe intestinal hemorrhage, found the wound in the gut occupied by a large ascaris. Two more ascarides were discovered in the ileum. He attributes the perforation to the ascaris. He previously observed several cases of typhus extending over five or six weeks, which began to recover when worms were spontaneously passed or were removed by drugs. He, therefore, advises anthelmintics, as santonin, at the very beginning of typhus.-Cond. Ext. A Russian physician declares that strychnine is an infallible cure for drunkenness, administered in subcutaneous injections. He asserts that the experience of physicians has shown the cure to be as rapid as it is certain. The effect of the strychnine solution is to change the craving for drink into positive aversion, and this change is effected in a day. After a treatment of eight or ten days, a patient may be discharged. The strychnine is administered by dissolving one grain in 200 drops of water, and injecting five drops of the solution every twenty-four hours. Memphis Medical Monthly [FORMERLY MISSISSIPPI VALLEY MEDICAL MONTHLY.] SUBSCRIPTION PER ANNUM, ONE DOLLAR IN ADVANCE. The MONTHLY will be mailed on or about the fifteenth of the month. Subscribers failing to receive it promptly will please notify us at once. Original communications, etc., should be in the hands of the Editor on or before the first of the month of publication. We cannot promise to furnish back numbers. Clinical experience-practical articles-favorite prescriptions, etc., and medical news of general interest to the profession, solicited. All communications, whether of a business or literary character, should be addressed to F. L. SIM, M.D., Editor, MEDICAL EDUCATION.-A Southern Association of Medical Colleges is now proposed. The Faculty of the Vanderbilt suggest Louisville, Ky., as the place of meeting, and November 16-the assembling date of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association-as the time. All Southern medical colleges have been requested to send two delegates; and advices from Professors Briggs and Savage inform us that all have replied, either that delegates will be there or endorsing the move. The MONTHLY has long advocated the necessity that is now the urging factor in the contemplated movement. The MONTHLY now hopes for good results; but it is reminded that on the 21st day of May, 1890,at 3 o'clock P.M.,in the Senate Chamber of our own State Capitol, there was one grand effort on the line of elevating the plane of medical education. Let us ask, What results have followed? Has organized effort succeeded to such an extent as to justify hope of success? North of Mason and Dixon's line the compact appears to maintain its integrity to some extent, and yet even there the efforts of individual schools have accomplished more than the organized effort can possibly claim to have done, or hope to do. The introduction of such rules of action as prevailed at the initial meeting above referred to may account, in part at least, for the apathy manifested by many colleges in uniting fully their destinies with the destiny of the association. One rule to which we refer is as follows: "It is furthermore provided, that it shall be the duty of the secretaries of the various col leges composing the Association to transmit, on request, to the secretary of the Association a list of all the matriculates, together with a copy of all questions propounded at the matriculation examinations. It is also provided that all the matriculation examinations be in writing, and, when requested, the original papers shall be forwarded to the secretary of the Association." As a journalist-and we speak only as such-we are far too democratic in education and principles to yield to such dogmatic centralization. Such teaching, such exactions, may do for New England and the East, but we cannot refrain from expressing surprise that the Western States did not kick vigorously, while we recognize the action of the South in quietly relying upon her own resources for upbuilding the profession and its educational advantage as but just and honorable. That rule centralizes autocratic power and enforces a surveillance both insulting and humiliating. The South must look to the advancement of general education before such broad strides can be taken as those indulged by the East in medical educational matters. True, nearly thirty years have rolled into the past since the war, nevertheless the train of desolation is yet observable, not alone in the material welfare of our citizens, but in the mental advancement of the rising generation as well. The war left us without schools, and the delay in re-establishing them has been great. The average applicant for medical education from the South, at present, has not had the educational advantages desired, and yet he must be our future doctor or the profession will be composed of imported bipeds. In the East matters educational have been different. The North grew wealthy, and every interest, including all classes of schools, prospered. Their medical colleges were ripe for an advancement at the time indicated, and their medical students have the means for protracted study, both at home and abroad. We favor preliminary qualifications and three courses of lectures; but we believe that each medical college is the architect of its own fortunes. We believe that each college will advance pari passu with the advancement and demands of the profession and people of its locality. We believe that a South |