303 མ་ Has a wholesome effect on bile secretion What mother's milk is to a babe. Sold by druggists generally. Be sure your patient gets the genuine Medical contributions respectfully solicited from Regular Physicians. The editor or publishers will not be responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents. No attention paid to annoymous communications. Reprints furnished only at actual cost. Entered in the Post Office at Minneapolis, Minnesota, as Second Class Matter. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE United States, Canada and Mexico, per annum, in advance, $1.00 1.50 N. B. Matter for the reading pages should reach office of publication on the 20th of the preceding month and display advertising on the 25th, to insure attention. Vol. 5. MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., APRIL 1903. SERUM THERAPY IN TYPHOID FEVER. At the Egyptian Medical Congress. held in December, Chantemesse, the French physician who a little over a year ago made such a favorable report regarding the value of anti-typhoid serum in the treatment of typhoid fever, gave further details regarding his work along this line in the hospitals in Paris. This latter report involved the observations and the experiences of this physician from April, 1901, to December, 1902. Statistics showed at this time that the average mortality from typhoid fever in the hospitals of Paris, omitting those under the direction of Chantemesse, was 19.3 per cent. There were of course variations, but in none of these hospitals was the percentage below twelve per cent. No 4. The low mortality rate of 3.7 per cent was secured in the hospital in charge of Chantemesse, where 186 patients were treated with anti-typhoid serum. Of these 7 deaths (3.7 per cent) in this series three were due to perforation, one to peritonitis, and one to intestinal hemorrhage. These cases were said to have been admitted to the hospital late in the disease. Chantemesse believes in the early introduction of the serum, even when the diagnosis is not clear. So far 336 patients have received this treatment in Paris, with but 17 deaths. It is claimed for the serum that it is both anti-infectious and anti-toxic. Its most value, believes Chantemesse, is to excite phagocytosis. As a means of prophylaxis it is advised that typhoid fever patients be isolated for the protection of other patients. By a recent law in France parents are compelled to have their children. vaccinated during the first year of life and revaccinated at the age of twentyone. This is not sufficient to insure the patient against an attack of smallpox, at least in a mild form. For safety, vaccination should be repeated frequently, and so long as there is any disturbance from the operation. This, we think, is the experience of most physicians who have had much to do with the disease, and in their efforts for prevention. If the present proposed law before the Minnesota legislature to repeal the compulsory act of vaccination is passed, and the boards of health and school boards have no power to prevent children from attending school that have not been protected by vaccination, the way will be opened for an epidemic of smallpox that will prove a calamity of the first magnitude. If Germany can stamp the disease out of the army and the country by compulsory vaccination, there is no good reason why other countries should not profit by that example; and it has never been reported that the Germans have suffered in general health by a rigid enforcement of the act; in fact, there is not on the face of the earth, probably, a better average of general health among the people than prevails in Germany. Corrections. For March number of Medical Dial. On the cover "Howard University" should read "Harvard University," and the paper on "Phlegmonous Erysipelas" should be credited to Dr. F. E. Walker, of Worthington, Minn. Results of X-Ray treatment should be credited to Medical Record, New York, and the signature to "Clinical Notes" should be C. Friberg, instead of L. Lime. Air Treatment. Open air treatment of syphilis is a subject which receives exhaustive attention from Dr. E. H. Douty, Switzerland, in the Medical Record for Jan. 31, 1903. The author advocates the employment of this method in the early stages of syphilis, especially in the first six months. The author claims that his observations lead him to believe that a very large proportion of phthsical patients (30 per cent.) are syphilitic. The author thinks that the open air treatment greatly lessens the severity of the attack and advises that patients suffering from this disease should seek such environments. A New Treatment for Septicemia. Whether the injection of Formalin into the system will prove a specific for the treatment of severe cases of septicemia is a question which will probably be decided in the near future. That it is a cure is the belief of Dr. C. C. Barrows, of New York. In reporting a case to the New York Medical Society, Jan. 19, Dr. Barrows said he had used 500c.c. of a (1 to 5000) solution with remarkable success. The case in question was that of a negro woman suffering from blood poisoning following parturition. In spite of local surgical procedures the temperature rose to 107 degrees F. Dr. Barrows made a culture of the blood and found abundant virulent streptococci. After resorting to the injection of the formalin solution the temperature was reduced to 101 degrees F. the next day. At this time a second injection was given and another culture made from the blood with the result of finding the culture free from the virulent organisms. It This report of Dr. Barrows was received with hesitation on the part of the society and provoked considerable discussion. was the general opinion that further cases corroborating this experience of Dr. Barrows would be necessary before reliance could be placed upon this method. The New Harvard Medical School Buildings. Work will be commenced on the new buildings for Harvard Medical School soon. They will occupy a 26-acre lot in the Back Bay Fens. Seven buildings will be erected: five for the Medical School, one for the Dental School, and one for the power house. For these buildings J. P. Morgan pledged $1,135.000; John D. Rockefeller $1,000,000. and Mrs. C. P. Huntington $250,000. Others have contributed liberally and the whole cost is estimated at $4.950,000, which amount is practically raised and in sight. The new buildings are expected to be ready for occupancy in 1904. Original Articles A CASE OF TRAUMATIC EPILEPSY. In Which Operation Was Considered Unjustifiable. P. G. 24. Single. Healthy looking tic seizures. The attacks begin with a young man, without a neuropathic family history, from whom the following family history is elicited. He had been healthy up to about 8 years of age, when he became subject to attacks of a peculiar sensation in head, a feeling of pressure and a momentary feeling of being bewildered; he does not think he lost conscious ness; if he was carrying anything he did not drop it; strangers did not suspect that anything was amiss. A couple of months would elapse between each attack, and they had at first no effect upon his general health. In the course of time they became more severe, so that when he was about 12 years of age he fell down in fits and lost consciousness; but they came on so slowly that he had time to cross a road or get off a load when he felt their approach. There was at that time no convulsive movements. A few years later, about the time of puberty, there were fully developed epileptic attacks, starting in with a cry; he fell down in convulsions, made chewing movements, in which he frequently bit his tongue. Their frequency was six to eight in every year. At about 20 years of age he had some fits that consisted in partial loss of consciousness and an impulse to run, which he sometimes did in a straight line; at other times in a circle. These attacks alternated with typical epilep peculiar sensation in abdomen that spreads to the head, and occupies so much time that he can reach a place of comparative safety. The spasms do not begin in any particular group of muscles, but are said to be general from the start. They are followed by a numbness in extremities that lasts for several days, and which he thinks are slightly more marked on left side; accompanying the numbness is a feeling of formication and bluntness of tactual sense; as the numbness and paresthesia wear away he gets very exhausted and remains so for several days. He thinks that he has lost memory to some extent, especially local memory and power of orientation; that he can not learn names as well as formerly; but he has not observed that he has lost self control or become emotional. Nor has he lost the acuteness of the special senses. The zymotic system is in normal condition; his sleep is good; he has no headache (except immediately after an attack), nor rachialgianor dedolations; nor has he lost flesh or muscular strength. Upon examination of the body no other anomaly is found than that the right testicle hangs lower than the left. He states in this connection that his mother was left handed. On inspecting the shaved scalp a large depression is found on the left side of its lateral aspect. This is about 41⁄2 centimeters in length and 2 centi |