and other anodynes, with a view to mitigating his intense suffering, until he became a confirmed victim of the morphine habit. His nervous system was shattered, and he was indeed a mere wreck. In this condition, by Dr. Goodwin's advice, he visited the Buffalo Lithia Springs, Virginia. For several months previous there had been a continuous pain in the right kidney, caused, as Dr. Goodwin thought, by retained calculi or incrustations in the pelvis of the kidney.

After a few weeks' use of the water of spring No. 2 the beneficial results were very marked, the paroxysms became less frequent and of less severity, and there commenced a free discharge of calculi and sand, which continued for some three weeks, gradually diminishing and finally ceasing altogether. This was followed by rapid improvement in his general condition, and some weeks afterward he returned home in full and vigorous health, having gained while at the springs forty pounds in weight. By the continued use of the water after returning to his home he was enabled to overcome the morphine habit entirely and lived for some years, having no return of his old disease.

This water proved not less efficacious in a similar case in Dr. Goodwin's own person. In October, 1890, he was attacked with nephritic colic of the severest type. Within a period of seven or eight weeks he had from fifteen to twenty paroxysms, none of them lasting less than two hours, and most of them from six to fourteen. The free and continued use of Buffalo lithia water resulted in a total cessation of the attacks and the restoration of his general health, which had been much impaired. There has been no return of the attacks up to this dateAugust 15, 1892. He has prescribed this water in other similar cases with decidedly beneficial results, and has no hesitation in saying that as a remedy in such cases it has no equal among the medicines or mineral waters of which he has any knowledge. It is especially adapted, he says, to cases in men who are broken down by the long and continued use of alcohol and opium in their various forms.- N. Y. Med. Jour.

Progress in Surgery.

Europhen so well supplies the need of the surgeon for a complete substitute for iodoform that therapeutists are already classifying it among the indispensable topical agents. According to Gilbert and Siebel, Europhen constitutes the best application we have yet had for burns and scalds, and is especially useful in combustion caused by corrosive substances. Gilbert found it of special value in scrofuloderma and ulcerative conditions. Chappell obtained excellent results from Europhen in rhinitis, and Giles, after an extended trial of it in suppurative otitis, states that he is well pleased with the results obtained. He believes that "it is destined to replace iodoform and its congeners, not only in the treatment of non-specific pathological conditions of the mucous surfaces, but as a topical application in all visible lesions of a specific character." (N. E. Med. Mon., Aug., 1892). Shoemaker, in an able article in the Medical Bulletin of Sept., 1892, presents a series of cases covering the conditions for which iodoform has usually been employed, and, in all of these, the action of Europhen was most gratifying. Becker employed it in cervical abscess with uninterrupted success, as also in several severe traumatic injuries (N. Y. Med. Jour., June 4, 1892). Dr. Allen found it of special value in chancre (Med. Rec., July 25, 1892), and Eichler, Med. and Surg. Reporter, gives like testimony of the value of Europhen in chancroid, as also in specific eruptions. Fernandez employed Europhen in keratitis, conjunctivitis, accidental traumatisms and operative wounds, with results which decided him to call the attention of ophthalmologists to the remedy in an article in the Cronica Med.- Qui. de la Habana, V. 17, No. 34. Siebel confirms the researches on Europhen as a dry antiseptic dressing, and presents (Therap. Monats), an interesting report upon its position toward the various bacteria. Waugh (Times and Register, Aug. 10, 1892) states that: "In true chancre, and all specific ulcers, Europhen is superior to iodoform, and probably, the mercurials."

Henry's Tri-iodides is approved by the most eminent clinicians as a most reliable formula in gouty, rheumatic and lithemic conditions.

Memphis Medical Monthly

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MARITIME INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTATE QUARANTINE.— The recent cholera scare has again brought forward the question of maritime quarantine-whether best managed by Federal, or State and municipal authority. This is not a new or undebated question.

Since the great yellow fever epidemic of 1878, which was the direct cause of the organization of the National Board of Health, the question of what is the best method of guarding against the introduction of foreign pestilence with least inconvenience to commerce, has been a debatable point with sanitarians and legislators, both State and Federal.

Both methods have their advantages and both their objections. The advantages of the local- that is, the State or municipal-over a purely Federal administration, it is claimed, is the prevention of antagonism or friction between Federal and local authorities in what is apparently a local affair that should be managed by local police regulations. Local officers being responsible to local authority, are supposed to be more in sympathy with the commercial and other business and local interests of the community primarily affected, and less apt to do things calculated to prejudice those interests.

Theoretically, this may be true, but practically this method does not afford the confidence which other localities and the commercial community demand. Many objections may be urged to an exclusive control of a maritime quarantine which no one State or city is alone affected by. When cholera or yellow fever the two most dreaded of all epidemic diseases

appears in one of the maritime cities, the whole country is at once aroused by the mere mention of its presence. Hence, no one State or city has a moral right to act in its individual capacity regardless of the feelings of other communities-having direct and daily intercourse with it through commercial and social relations.

This being admitted, the question arises, What is the best method for securing safety and the prevention of panic with the least inconvenience and loss to business? The purely co-operative plan between States and cities of the same and different States, is a slow and troublesome application of inspection rules, no two of which being uniform, and no one of which gives confidence to the people; that has been tried sufficiently to demonstrate its impracticability as a satisfactory method. That being admitted, the question arises, What is the best method, or what are the best plans of individual and co-operative action? for both must be considered in securing safety and the prevention of panic.

On the other hand, an exclusive control of maritime quarantine and interstate inspection by a Federal officer might be regarded as a usurpation of power, and bear unjustly heavy on one or more points. Every city, whether maritime or inland, is more or less jealous of its commercial importance, and sensitive to restrictions placed upon its trade. The infected locality or place immediately threatened with the introduction of foreign pestilence through its commercial intercourse with other countries, might be subjected to more rigid quarantine regulations than would be agreeable.

New York and New Orleans furnish good examples of how sensitive the country is when threatened with cholera or yellow fever through them, and also how sensitive they are to any interference in the administration of their local quarantines from any outside power. These cities are not peculiar; they are merely mentioned to illustrate a feeling prevalent in other cities under similar conditions.

When circumstances arise for Federal assistance, there should be a perfect co-operation and concert of action between the two authorities, thereby facilitating the work and lightening the misfortune of the infected or threatened locality, and

affording immunity to other sections. This is the aim of sanitary precautions, whether administered by Federal or local authorities. It is very evident that no local authority acting in its individual capacity affords that confidence to the country at large, and especially the commercial community, which they have a right to demand. How far Congress, in its interpretation of the law regulating commerce, can go, in quarantine and sanitary measures in and between the States, is not definitely decided. The last act of Congress on this subject-the law of March 27, 1890-seems to fix no limit to this exercise of power; nor is it necessary for the Federal power to be invoked or invited by the locality affected. The President is authorized, whenever the necessity is made apparent to him, to cause the Secretary of the Treasury, through the Supervising Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service, to formulate and enforce such rules through inspectors appointed by him "as, in his judgment, may be necessary to prevent the spread of such disease from one State to another," etc. This is very plain, and would seem to be the very thing that is needed under the circumstances for which it is designed; in other words, it would serve to fill a long-felt want. Occasion has not yet arisen to test it practically.

In time of threatened danger, local and State boards of health can co-operate with such a corps of inspectors as is here contemplated with great satisfaction. Uniformity of rules and concert of action upon reliable information is an immense advantage in conducting sanitary precautions against threatened epidemic disease. To rehabilitate the National Board of Health, even with reforms and changes as to its personal and other make-up, with more explicit rules as to its functions, would elicit an interminable opposition, much of which would be merely captious without logical reasons for hostility, but nevertheless calculated to obstruct its action and impair its usefulness. This board, though short-lived and "full of trouble," while it was in commission, accomplished much good in many ways. It was instrumental in the formation of many State and local boards, and gave an impetus to the study of State hygiene and city sanitation which never existed in the country before. The beneficial influences of its work have not VOL. XII - 40