MEDICAL PROGRESS.

FOR nervousness, sleeplessness and sexual excitement, characterized by erections or even chordee, various authorities vary in their recommendations. Ringer recommends the use of aconite and camphor. Bartholow and Phillips both advise the administration of lupulin. The value of Hyoscyamus has been appreciated by many medical men for a long time, and it is quite valuable. Bromidia is to be highly recommended, since it consists of chloral, bromide, hyoscyamus and cannabis indica, and acts as a somnifacient, spinal sedative and hypnotic. The dose is a drachm to two drachms an hour before bedtime.-American Journal Dermatology.

LACTO-SANTAL IN THE TREATMENT OF PROSTATITIS.

To supplement the routine treatment by intravesical irrigation of potassium permanganate (1/5000 rising to 1/2000), and later, silver nitrate solutions (1/1000), capsules of lacto-santal are very useful, and especially so in the catarrhal form of prostatitis.

Lacto-Santal or santalol lactate is best given in capsules of five minims each, every hour until frequency of micturition becomes normal, when it may gradually be discontinued.

THE BEST ALKALINE WASH.

BY

W. HARPER SLOAN, M. D., Chief Ear Department, Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, Pa.

There are many alkaline preparations on the market that are used daily with varied results in conditions where such a preparation is indicated. I have tried most of them in all conditions and after an impartial trial, I am compelled to say that the preparation known as "Glyco-Thymoline," made by Kress & Owen Co., stands at the head of the list; its formula is one that would commend its use, the ingredients being of an antiseptic and non-irritating

nature.

Having formed this opinion of “GlycoThymoline," I have concluded to report a few clinical cases where it has given me good results.

Case No. I-M. L., age 23 years, came under my care suffering with a distressing case of ozena. The turbinated bones on both sides of her nose presented a condition. of marked atrophy; there was a complete loss of smell and taste, and a formation of crusts in the nasal chamber; the stench of same was foul. She complained of continual headache, and other symptoms of a depleted and run down system. I placed internally; locally I ordered the use of her on a tonic of iron, arsenic and strychnia, "Glyco-Thymoline" in a K. & O. Douche three times a day, diluted. After one month's treatment the crusts had ceased to form; there was a complete restoration of taste and a slight return of smell; the general health was improved, and the patient herself well satisfied with results.

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Case No. II-C. A., age 8 years, came to me suffering with a severe otorrhea following scarlet fever. There was purulent discharge from both ears that rendered the child completely deaf; the auditory canal was excoriated and sore, and the general health below par. I used cod liver oil internally, and syringed the ears three times a day with "Glyco-Thymoline." At the end of one month the discharge of pus had stopped; the hearing much improved. and the child's general health very much better.

IN PNEUMONIA AND TYPHOID FEVER the whole question of treatment is one of expectancy. There are no specifics and therefore the physician has to exercise his skill in keeping the heart of his patient going until the disease runs its natural course and ends by crisis or lysis as the case may be.

"From the incipiency of this disease, to and through the convalescence, the condition of the heart is a haunting concern." (Dr. Frank S. Mears, N. Y. Medical Jour., Jan. 8, 1910).

"All treatment is of no avail if the heart is not watched closely; here lies our success or failure." (Dr. W. H. Kahrs, American Medicine, June, 1910).

In Digalen the physician has a valuable aid in the natural cure of these two ailments,

for by its deep intramuscular injection, or its administration by mouth or rectum, the enfeebled heart can be toned up and cardiac syncope avoided. Furthermore, the marked hyperleucocytosis which is said by Mirano ("Riforma Medica," No. 23, 1907), to be produced within 7 or 8 hours after the injection of Digalen, and which becomes nearly doubled in the next 24 hours, is an important factor that ought not to be forgotten in the treatment of pneumonia, typhoid fever and the infectious diseases.

Dr. M. Hartwig, Buffalo, N. Y., Consulting Surgeon Erie and other hospitals, makes this statement:-"Digalen has given me, in a few positively desperate cases, such unmitigated satisfaction that I am perfectly willing for the profession to know of my indorsement. I am convinced that in any case of defective heart compensation where Digalen fails, no remedy known today will accomplish anything."

(Digalen is a sterile solution of Cloetta's soluble digitoxin and is marketed by The Hoffmann-La Roche Chemical Works, New York. Samples are furnished to physicians on request).

THE MANUFACTURE OF ANTITOXIN.

In the treatment of diphtheria the physician of today uses antitoxin as a matter of course. It is his first expedient and his last resort. He believes implicitly in its efficacy. But does he understand and appreciate all that is involved in the production of that antitoxin-the scientific knowledge, the skill, the caution, the minutiae of detail? This thought is forced upon the writer through the perusal of a recent publication of Parke, Davis & Co., which deals in part with the subject of antitoxin manufacture. Here is a specimen chapter:

"In the selection of the horses which are to act as the living laboratories for the production of the antitoxin, we apply not commercial or academic knowledge merely, but, what is more to the point, veterinary skill. The animals must be vigorous and healthy. They are carefully examined, their temperature noted for several days, and the presence of glanders excluded by the delicate mallein test. It is the blood-serum of these animals that is to be injected into the pa

tient later on, and no precaution can be regarded as extreme which contributes the slightest positive assurance of its purity.

"Not only must the horses be in good general condition when inoculated; they must be kept so. They are fed, stalled, groomed and exercised for no other purpose than to maintain to the full their self-protective, antitoxin-producing powers. Thirty miles removed from the noise, smoke and dust of the city is our stock farm, equipped with model stables and supervised by expert veterinarians. Here, at Parkedale, on more than three hundred acres of sunny slopes, at an altitude of six hundred feet above the level of the Great Lakes, live the horses which which we employ in serum-production. Amid these favorable surroundings they maintain the physical condition so essential to satisfactory service as serum producers.

"These are preliminary considerations. Young, healthy, well-kept horses, indispensable as they are, would be of little use in the elaboration of a reliable antitoxin unless the work of injecting them with toxin were conducted accurately, aseptically, systematically, and throughout a period long enough to allow physiological reaction up to the limit of attainable immunization. We have horses enough, so that there is no occasion to be in a hurry with any of them; the exact length of time required for complete reaction is determined in each individual instance by carefully scheduled observations.

"It goes without saying that in the preparation of the toxin and its injection into the horses, as well as in obtaining the blood serum, the most rigid bacteriological technique is maintained. The methods we employ agree substantially with those of Roux, Aronson, and Behring, and are from first to last in charge of experts. The varying susceptibility of different animals, whether guinea-pigs or horses, to the diphtheria poison; the more or less rapid physiological reaction; the variation in strength of the antitoxic serum from different horses: the absolute purity of the finished productthese are all important and delicate questions demanding for their determination a high degree of skill and scientific accuracy of observation. These qualifications, in our judgment, outrank all other considerations in the work of producing a reliable antidiphtheric serum."