from the barn, and is divided into four rooms; one for the engine and boiler and the sterilization of the milk ero' clothing, one for the cleansing and sterilization of bottles, one for the separation of cream, and a fourth is kept expressly for the reception of the milk as it comes from the herd. These compartments are provided with water-tight floors, are coated with enamel paint, and are kept in a thoroughly clean and wholesome condition. The farmhouse is 100 yards from the barn, and on a lower level. The well, supplying water for all of the various operations and for the cattle, is above the house, and is drilled to a depth of 45 feet, principally through rock, so that contamination of the water sup. ply is not possible. The manure from the stable is carried out and placed immediately upon a wagon, and when this is full it is hauled away to the fields, so that there is no accumula tion of manure in or near the stable. In brief, all of the conditions under which your cattle are kept are conducive to health, and the milk, from the time it is drawn from the cow until it is sealed in bottles, is guarded from contamination in a most thor ough and systematic manner. Yours truly, LEONARD PEARSON, B.S., V.M.D. The herd at Meramec Highlands, near St. Louis, is under the careful supervision of the well-known Deputy State Veterinary Surgeon, A. Rouif. The Public Library and the St. Louis Medical Society Once More. drop of blood. The following are the officers and com. mittees for the ensuing year: President, Jos. Grindon; Vice-President, L. C. Bois. liniere; Secretary, Horace W. Loper; Treasurer, W. C. Mardorf. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.-Jno. B. Shapleigh, Chairman; Ludwig Bremer, Frank A. Glasgow. PUBLICATION.-H. C. Crossen, Harry M. Pierce, Wm. S. Barker. PROGRAMME.-E. S. Smith, W. B. Dorsett, Wm. A. Brokaw. ENTERTAINMENT.-B. M. Hypes, Jacob Friedmann, F. G. Nifong. The Pasteur Monument Collection. The Pasteur Monument Committee of the United States has issued the following announcement: "It has been decided to erect in one of the squares of Paris a monument to the memory of M. Pasteur. Statues or busts will also be located at his birthplace and in other cities. This Paris Committee has, however, wisely determined that the statue obtained through international effort shall be located at Paris, where it will be seen by the greatest number of his admirers from other lands. "The Paris Committee has kindly extended the opportunity to the people of the United States to assist in this tribute of appreciation and love and have authorized the organization of the Pasteur Monument Committee of the United States. The members of this Committee gladly accept the privilege of organizing the subscription, and of receiving and transmitting the funds which are raised We believe it is unnecessary At the meeting of the St. Louis Medical Society of January 9, Dr. R. Funkhouser, Chairman of the Com mittee that was appointed by Bresident Langan to into urge any one to subscribe. The contributions of vestigate the relations of the St. Louis Medical Society Pasteur to science and to the the cause of humanity to the St. Louis Public Library, reported that no rela were so extraordinary, and are so well known and so tions existed between the Library and the Society since thoroughly appreciated in America, that our people only the management of the Library passed out of the hands need the opportunity in order to demonstrate their deep of the School Board into those of the Free Library interest. Beard, which occurred in March, 1894, but that the Librarian of the Public Library, Mr. Crunden, expressed the wish that the Society continue in keeping journals which would be placed on file, as heretofore, in the Library for the use of physicians and medical students. Drs. Funkhouser and Lutz suggested that the Society devise some plan for the acquisition of a library and meeting place for the Society and as a result a Commit tee is to be appointed to investigate the feasibility of ch an undertaking. "No one is expected to subscribe an amount so large that it will detract in the least from the pleasure of giv. ing. A large number of small subscriptions freely contributed and showing the popular appreciation of this eminent Frenchman is what we most desire. The amounts thus far subscribed by individuals vary from fifty (50) cents to ten (10) dollars. It is hoped that no one who is interested will hesitate to place his name upon the list because he cannot give the maxi mum amount." Annual Meeting of the City Hospital The annual meeting of the City Hospital Medical Society took place January 7. Dr. Bremer demonstrated his improved method of diagnosing diabetes from a Food Inspection Stations.-San Francisco has opened four food inspection stations. Every wagon bringing in food products of any kind is stopped and inspected, and stamped if passed. This does not apply to the markets. It is an excellent plan and costs that city $10,000. TRANSLATIONS. BY EDGAR THOMPSON, M.D. Acute Aortitis.-Despite its relative frequency, and notwithstanding its clinical importance, acute aortitis says A. F. Plicque (La France Medicale), is frequently overlooked and not properly diagnosed. In the first place the inflammation of the aorta is confused with the other accidents of infection which are generally associated together. Also the acute attack may be an exacerbation of a chronic inflammation and the transition may not be readily perceived. Secondary acute aortitis is observed in the course of typhoid fever and variola. In typhoid fever, it is at the end of the third week or sometimes when convalescence is established, that the infection will localize in the aorta. The establishment of the inflammation is latent and insidious. Perfect recovery does not usually take place. Certain lesions remain. That there was an inflammation of the aorta may only be surmized from the attack of angina pectoris which occur for months and years afterward. In severe variola myocarditis is more often observed than aortitis, but in mild cases, at the time of the erup. tion, symptoms of endocarditis and endoartitis of the aorta arise. These signs generally disappear when recovery from the variola begins. Acute aortitis can also occur in the course of other infection: scarlatina, measles, tuberculosis, surgical infections. According to Rendu the vulnerability of the aorta is prepared by some antecedent disease: typhoid fever, diphtheria and anterior alcoholism. Rheumatism fre. quently is accompanied with aortitis. Less frequently the acute attack of aortitis is an ex. acerbation of a chronic state. In all these cases the chronic changes in the aorta are only a part of the general anatomical lesions. In gout, chronic rheumatism, arthritis, saturnism the aorta is in a mild state of congestion which becomes acute at times. nerves causes reflexes. On the stomach it produces, by the distension, epigastric fullness. Persistent vomiting of mucous is a frequent complication. The liver often becomes irregular in its function and increases in size. Dysphagia, intestinal meteorism are not rare. A peculiar dyspnea is an especially characteristic symptom of acute aortitis. The number of respiratious do not pass thirty or forty. But inspiration' and expiration are unequally long, and both are laborious. The stethoscopic signs are nil and this contrasts with the urgent symptoms. There is a dry, fugitive cough with sudden paroxysm. The sputum may be streaked with blood or small clots may be expectorated showing that small infarctions had occurred. The cough and small clots of blood resemble the same of pulmonary edema, but the stethoscopic signs of the latter are very plain. All the symptoms appear spasmodically. The angina suddenly reappears long after an apparent amelioration of the most severe symptom. After a duration of three or four months acute aortitis usually terminates in death. Sometimes there are a series of prolonged remissions. Acute aortitis can easily be confounded with angina pectoris: by reason of the respiratory troubles, with uremia, asthma, tuberculosis. At the moment of the attack local irritation and depletion, blistering and scarification of the precordial region generally suffices. Against the dyspnea oxygen inhalations, blisters, etc., are good, but they are only palliative. If the state of the kidneys permit it morphine gives the greatest relief. When one hesitates to use morphine, inhalations of amyl nitrite render the symptoms less acute. eight drops can be inhaled. While the effect of the nitrite is rapidly attained it is equally, evenescent and fugitive. In threatened heart failure, alcoholic friction of the extremities, injections of ether, caffeine, and camphor are demanded. Besides these, absolute repose must be enforced. The dyspnea will be so excessive that the patient will have to be sustained in a semi recumbent The role of tobacco as a cause is more important than position. alcoholism, according to Huchard.. Sometimes the chronic inflammation is absolutely limited to the aorta. This is especially so in syphilis. Malarial intoxication causes disseminate aortitis with destruction of the tunica media which then gives way causing dilatation and aneurisms. There are functional disturbances, depending on a general sensitiveness of the cardiac nerve plexi. Retro sternal pain is a common symptom. This pain can have radiations similar te angina pectoris. True angina can ensue when the inflammation and thickening of the aorta causes an obstruction of the coronary arteries. In the periods between the acute symptoms iodides must be given. Small doses suffice if the case is not syphilitic. The association of arsenic with the iodides favor their tolerance. When there is much cardiac irritability, and when there is a resultant general nervousness it is advised to add valerianate of ammonium. Consolidation of the General Practitioner With the Tri-State Medical Journal. - Dr. James Moores Ball, editor of the Tri-State Medical Journal, has bought the General Practitioner. The two journals will be consolidated under the name Tri State The irritation of the pneumogastric and sympathetic Medical Journal and General Practitioner. In all cases, no matter how severe the symptoms, three is no fever. MEDICAL SOCIETIES PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. LOUIS W. H. FUCHS, M.D., EDITOR. Stated Meeting of Saturday Evening, December 5, 1896; the President, W. G. MOORE, M.D., in the chair. agreeable, but which were due probably as much to fright as to the electric current. Facts are being gradually accumulated on this subject as they have been accumulated in relation to railroad injuries. DR. H. JACOBSON attributed the numerous injuries occurring to electaicians to a general carelessness, which persons engaged in dangerous pursuits are guilty of. It is bred of overconfidence. After working a few months at the business linemen will neglect to wear their rubber gloves until they are injured. The speaker asked Dr. Sharpe why horses are so much more easily killed than human beings, subjected to the same voltoge. Is it due to fright-the influence on the DR. L. T. RIESMEYER read a paper (see page 37) en- pneumogastric-or is it due to man's higher nervous titled organization? * The Newer Methods for Operating for ** DR. N. W. SHARPE read a paper on The Peculiarities and Treatment of DR. H. C. FAIRBROTHER believes that the immediate effects of fright or shock from an electric current differs from that producod by ordinary causes, such as the sudden reception of bad news or the cyclone disaster. But the after effects of these shocks seem to be the same. The influence upon the general nervous system of slight shock-as, for instance, those produced by step coming of greater medico legal importance, as is evi denced by a number of civil suits pending in the courts. In one case speaker was called upon to treat a received by stepping into an electric car 34 hours before woman for miscarriage which she attributed to a shock the symptoms intervened. The current Dr. ROBERT L. FUNKHOUSER said a great deal depends npon whether the current inflicting the injury is an alping upon the wet floor of an electric car-are daily beternating or a continuous one. An alternating current of a certain voltage will produce greater havoc than a continuous current of the same voltage. Thus, it is estimated, that an alternating current of from 250 to 600 volts, is equal to a continuous current of from 1,000 to 1,600 volts. Of course, the damage done depends upon other factors, such as the pressure of the metal fastenDR. GIVEN CAMPBELL asked Dr. Sharpe whether he ing, the state of moisture or dryness of the surface of regarded the burn that occurs in the arcing of a switch contact of the body, and the individual affected. That board as an electric or an ordinary burn. the effects of electricity vary in different individuals we does not not pass through the person, but in some way all know, and this is of especial interest in connection heats the air, and that heated air, the heated metalic with its use as a penal measure. In the case of Taylor particles that constitute the arcing, is what causes the 1,260 volts were applied for 52 seconds, and 20 seconds burn. These injuries occur comparatively frequently after the cessation of the current he began to breathe at in power houses, and only recently a case occurred in the rate of 6 respirations per minute, and after a short speaker's practice that illustrated the point. The pa while he was able to indicate that he felt pain. Mor- tient was working near a large switch board, and had phine and chloroform were immediately given; he was on a light cotton shirt. open in front so that the chest again placed in the chair, subjected to a voltoge of 1,220 for 40 seconds when he died. We must also take into account the possibility of socalled secondary currents. These may arise from the interposition of a coil of wire between the main cur. rent, and the resultant (secondary current may be equal to, or even exceed the main current in strength. One individual may receive this current while the other es. capes it. The cause of death from electricity is inter esting; one author, for instance, claims that it results from asphyxiation. Aside from its features of interest to surgeons the subject of electric traumata is of importance from a neurological or medico legal aspect. Dana has written an interesting article showing the different degrees of injury to the nervous system. A number of cases of hysteria are reported, which were lasting and very dis was exposed. An arcing occurred, and burnt his face and chest, also setting fire to the shirt, which caused burns of the rest of the upper portion of the body. There seemed to be a decided difference between the burns caused by the arcing and those resulting from the burning shirt. The apparently increased susceptibility of horses over human beings to electric shocks may be the result of the shoeing. The iron shoes with nails running up into the hoof forms a very good electrical contact with the ground. DR. N. W. SHARPE said the explanation regarding the increased susceptibility of horses are largely speculative at present; we have no authoritative data on the subject. Dr. Campbell's suggestion, that horses with iron shoes are "well grounded" as they say, is proba bly the real explanation. It will be found also that horses that are killed in this manner are usually at work, organism into hydroquinone and pyrocatechin, is not to and therefore sweating and wet. be feared. With regard to arc burns, they are probably mixed in character. The burn from the arc, or short current, is an electrical burn, and presents the typical signs at the time and afterwards; whilst the burns resulting from the heated air or metalic particles is an ordinary burn. Thus, we may have two burns of different character in tha some individual. ABSTRACTS MEDICINE. In pronounced inflammatory angina, especially when there is danger of abscess, M. de la Carriere pushes the doses until the organism is well under the influence of the drug and saturation is evident. Moreover, elimination occurs rapidly, and when the normal color of the urine returns it is rarely necessary to have to renew the dose, and recovery is assured It is preferable to give salol in a potion rather than in capsules, for the saliva rapidly decomposes it. Each time the patient takes the potion there are formed instantane ously in the mouth carbolic acid and salicylic acid, which have a direct topical effect on the diseased parts. This local antiseptic bath is all the more pronounced and, consequently, efficacious, the more intense the disease, for, when deglutition is very painful, the potion remains for a longer time in the mouth, and contact with the drug is more prolonged. A good way also, says the author, is to incorporate the salol in chocolate pastilles. For persons predisposed to angina of any kind the use of these pastilles is especially recommended as a preventive. During the cold and damp season these pastilles seem to diminish the sensitiveness of the throat by combatting, the author thinks, the latent microbism of the tonsils which are in a more or less chronic state of inflammation. Salol in the Treatment of Acute Angina in Children.-In the Journal des praticiens, M. de la Carriere remarks that the internal employment of salol in angina has given excellent results, and that he has prescribed it in cases of amygdalitis, acute angina, and non-diphtheritic cases, whatever might be their cause (Jour. of the Amr. Med. Ass'n) It is a general antiseptic and analgetic with an elective action on the pharynx. It quiets the pain and dysphagia almost im mediately, it brings about a rapid relaxation in the phy. sical symptoms, it prevents the formation of abscesses, The External Application of Pilocarpine and it always shortens the duration of the disease, in the Treatment of Nephritis and its Diuespecially if it is administered in the beginning. retic Effect.-The Lyon medical contains a review The daily amount for an adult is sixty grains. For of a work on this subject by M. Emile Julia, in which children the adjustment of the dose is easy, as salol is the writer says that this method of applying pilocarpine always well borne, for trouble with the kidneys, which has been known for two or three years (Jour. of the is the only contraindication, is exceptional in them. The amounts to be taken daily are as follows: For children a year old, eight grains; for children two years old, fifteen grains; for children three years old, twenty-three grains; for children four years old, thirty grains: and for children eight years old, forty-five grains. This amount is sufficient until the age of fifteen, when it be increased to sixty grains without inconvenience, if necessary. may With regard to the mode of administration, M. de la Carriere recommends the following formula: Amr. Med. Ass'n.) In 1894, M. Molliere, who was the first to discover it, recommended it after having experimented with the treatment in his service at the Hotel-Dieu. This treatment consists in friction of the entire dorso lumbar region with an ointment composed of three ounces of white vaseline and from three quarters of a grain to a grain and a half of nitrate of pilocarpine. The region is afterwards covered with a layer of cotton or waxed linen, which is held in place with bands of tar latan. The frictions are made every morning and the covering remains on during the day unless it inconveniences the patient too much. This, however, is very rare. More than eighty patients with acute nephritis from the effect of cold, or infectious nephritis, or chronic nephritis were subjected to this treatment. Complete recovery occurred in the first set, and a rapid and lasting disappearance of the acute symptoms in the second was invariably observed. A remarkable symptom observed in the majority of the cases was an energetic diphoresis, which remained excessive in a large number of cases while the treatment lasted. The albumin often disappeared from the urine and always diminished in these patients. At the same time elimination was effected with remarkable intensity and the symptoms yielded with the greatest rapidity, the edema disappeared, the dyspnea gave place to the nor mal respiration, and the minor symptoms very soon passed away. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the specific properties of pilocarpine employed in this way, and the results obtained should not be imputed to the cutunaeous excitation, produced by the frictions or to the heat caused by the layers of cotton. The importance of this treatment in clinics, says the writer, may be seen. It is applicable to an affection which very often: baffles the physician; it is, further more, carried out with a medicament which favors elimination without injuring the stomach. He concludes, therefore, that pilocarpine may give remarkable results and prove a valuable remedy in cases of nephritis. made in another case of psoriasis by Wallace Beatty with a similar result. Smith concludes that chrysophanic acio is not an efficient substitute for chrysarobin in the treatment of psoriasis. Phenols in the Urine and Digestive AutoIntoxications. Amann (Rev. Med. de la Suisse Rom.; Brit. Med. Jour.) points out the importance of testing the urine in the diagnosis of abnormal digestive processes and auto intoxications due to bacterial decom. position. It is a remarkable fact that the latter, caused by anaerobic bacilli, leads to the formation of powerful antiseptics. The toxalbumins and ptomaines can not as a rule be discovered as such, but other decomposition products, such as phenols, can. Albumin and albumi noids contain the benzol radicle; and tryosin (paroxyphenyl and amido-proprionic acid) is a constant decomposition product; but this rarely appears as such in the urine, first breaking up into simpler bodies. These are Action of Chrysarobin and Chrysophanic aromatic oxyacids of which paroxyphenyl-acetic acid Acid.-Walter G Smith (Brit. Jour. Derm; Brit. (C,H,O,) is the most important, and phenols and cresols, Med. Jour.) has made experiments to determine the dif- the latter being formed from the acids by loss of CO,. ference in action between chrysarobin and chrysophanic Thus C,H,O,=C,H,O (cresol) + CO,. As a rule urine acid. He first tried the effect of the substances on his containing a large quantity of oxyacids contains also a own skin, applying a little of the acid in powder to his large amount phenols; but the contrary sometimes is forearm and fixing it on with plaster. Two days later found. The phenols are almost always combined with there was no sign or irritation except a few trifling red sulphuric acid, especially as potassium phenolsulphate spots; the yellow flakes of the acid were plainly visible and cresol sulphate. In the prssence of mineral acids on the skin. A similar experiment with chrysarobin they are decomposed into phenol and cresol and KHSO.. produced a circumscribed dusky red patch, which cor by which means the sulphuric acid combined with responded exactly to the area of application of the phenols can be estimated, and the proportion of phenols powder, and was slightly tender. He next tested the themselves deduced. This method requires two titra action of the substances on psoriasis; the case was one tions of the sulphuric acid, one giving the total SO, in of symmetrical eruption of small discoid scaly patches urine, the other the SO, combined with sulphethereal on the arms, especially the flexor surfaces, the back, acids. The normal proportion of the latter to the fromer nates, legs, and upper part of chest in a young man. in urine is 10:100 ("coefficient of Baumann.") The sulThe right half of the body and the right limbs were phethereal acids, and therefore Baumann's coefficient, treated with chrysophanic acid ointment 20 grains to 1 are increased in abnormal intestinal digestion. If, how ounce; the left half with chrysarobin ointment or cor- ever, to SO, in urine is not sufficient to convert all the responding strength. Two days later the right side of phenols into sulphethereal acids, as is the case with per. the body was stained bright yellow, whereas no definite sons on a milk diet and infants, it is necessary to esti staining was observable upon the left side. After four mate the phenols themselves, as they can not in that days' treatment, chrysarobin erythema was well marked, case be deduced from Baumann's coefficient. They are and so much irritation ensued that the ointment was ap then present combined with other acids, for example, plied only once in twenty-four hours. As no erythema glycyronic from oxidation of glucose, and before estior irritation was noticed upon the right side, the mation must be separated from urine by distillation. strength of the chrysopbanic ointment was increased to Under certain conditions the urine contains other aro 40 grains to 1 ounce. This led to slight erythema on matic compounds, such as pyrocatechin, hydroquinone, the right arm after two days' use. On the ninth day of resorcin, etc., which are also eliminated as sulpheathers. treatment the scaly patches had nearly disappeared from Bodies such as indol and scatol, indoxyl and scatoxyl, the left side, leaving white marks. The hair follicles are also combined in the urine with sulphuric acid, form were stained dark brown, nearly black. The psoriasis indoxylsulphuric (indican) and scatoxylsulphuric acids. patches showed little or no change upon the right side, These also are decomposed by mineral acids in the same and the mouths of the hair follicles were not specially way as the sulpho ethers, so that the SO, they contain stained. After a few days, chrysarobin ointment was influences the coefficient of Baumann in the same way as substituted for the chrysophanic acid ointment upon the phenol and cresol sulphates. Pigment derivatives the right side, and within two days the scaly spots had of indol and scatol (indigo, etc.) can be estimated sepa. nearly vanished, their site being marked by white areas rately. As a rule indoxyl is increased by abnormal pro. upon a dark background. A similar experience was cesses in the small, scatoxyl in the large intestine, and |