23 32 More than eighteen months' duration; History of syphilis many years before; Intemperance. first attack. Suicidal attempt, eccen- 24 38 Seven months' duration; first attack. 25 36 Six months' duration; first attack. (1) 26 33 Five months' duration of marked features, cicatrices of bubo and of rashes; sarco- History of syphilis whilst in the service. Tropical climate (effects of). Syphilitic ulcers on legs; keloid on body; Suppurative disposition to Ditto. General paresis. History of syphilis, date not ascertained; Hereditary pre- Syphilis. Chronicle of Medical Science. REPORT ON MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS. By ROBERT HUNTER SEMPLE, M.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Physician to the Bloomsbury Dispensary, London. On the Serum of Blood as a Therapeutic Agent. By FRANCIS VACHER, Medical Officer of Health, Birkenhead. 1876.—Mr. Vacher's attention appears to have been directed to the therapeutical use of the serum of blood by the beneficial effects said to be produced in France and America by the use of blood itself in the treatment of some diseases. It seems, in fact, that in Paris patients resort to the slaughter-house every morning to drink the still fuming blood of the oxen slaughtered for the table. Mr. Vacher observes that for various reasons this practice would be impossible in England, and he suggests that the serum of the blood possesses most of the nutritive and curative properties of the blood itself and therefore might be used as a therapeutic agent with advantage. From his position as Medical Officer of Health it came to his knowledge that the serum was held in high repute by the journeymen butchers employed in the slaughter-houses, being considered as a tonic in scrofula and almost a specific in intestinal worms. Mr. Vacher was able to obtain supplies of the serum from time to time from the slaughter-houses under his supervision, and he has supplied some bottles of it to his professional friends who have employed it with advantage, chiefly as a vermifuge and as a substitute for cod-liver oil. As an anthelmintic he is informed that the serum should be administered in the morning fasting, the dose being from one to two table-spoonfuls for a child, and a large wine-glassful for an adult. As a food-medicine, one ounce of the serum should be taken two or three times a day, the best time for taking it being probably about an hour before meals. Mr. Vacher gives a caution against the danger of using the remedy when it is not perfectly sound; but, as fortunately the commencement of the decomposition is at once manifest by the smell, it is not likely that such a mistake would occur. On the Therapeutical Uses of the Bromide of Camphor. By Dr. L. PATHAULT, of Paris.-Bromide of camphor was discovered and described in 1862 by Swartz, of Ghent, and M. Deneffe, of the same town, first introduced it into practice as a sedative to the nervous system, and it has since been employed with success in France and England and in America. As to its physiological characters, it appears, from the experiments which have been made, to have the power of reducing the number of cardiac pulsations, as well as the respirations, and of lowering the temperature; it also possesses hypnotic properties. As a therapeutical agent, the bromide of camphor has been employed with considerable success by Deneffe, Lawson, Hammond, Charcot, Bourneville, Desnos, Potain, Siredey, Tommasi, Lorain, Vulpian, Raymond, and others. The patients who derived the greatest benefit from its use were those who suffered from the diseases generally classed as nervous (les névroses), including very different affections, as dyspnoea, heart-affections, nervous disturbances of the genito-urinary organs, &c., and the beneficial results corresponded with the physiological properties of the drug. Dr. Pathault states that fresh researches are necessary to determine its therapeutic value with precision. In the pamphlet in which he treats of the bromide and its different properties he records a series of observations on its therapeutical applications. The first in the series of affections in which it has been given is delirium tremens, the dose being about seven grains and upwards frequently repeated; and in succession its effects are recorded in insomnia, in which it has been partially beneficial; in chorea, in which it was more successful; in hysteria, in which the results were encouraging; in epilepsy, in which the fits were reduced in number and vertigo was relieved; in dyspnoea, in which it was partially successful; in neuralgia, in which its effects were doubtful; and in a few other maladies. On the Absorption of Iodine by the Cutaneous Surface in Children. By Dr. JULES SIMON, and M. PAUL REGNARD, of Paris.-Some little girls affected with ringworm of the scalp were treated in a very simple manner by swabbing the whole of the head with a mixture composed of equal parts of iodine and glycerine, and the cases were improving, when, in about a month, one of the children was taken ill with symptoms of iodine poisoning. The urine, being examined, was found to contain iodine, and a similar examination being made in the case of the other children, the results were the same. All the children therefore had absorbed iodine, but only the first mentioned had presented any general symptoms of iodism. In half the cases, too, the urine contained albumen. Experiments were now made in a methodical manner, and the results are given in the paper now under notice. Care was, of course, taken to employ appropriate tests for the iodine, and care was also taken to eliminate albumen as far as possible from the food consumed. The general results were that in fourteen children treated by the external use of iodine, all presented this substance in their urine, and the quantity found varied according as the applications to the scalp were diminished or suspended. When the surface covered with the application did not exceed the diameter of a five franc piece, the iodine entered but little or not at all into the urine, and albumen was never found. The absorption by the skin therefore requires, in order to be appreciated in a short time by the examination of the urine, rather large surfaces of application; but it is suggested that smaller quantities might perhaps be detected in the saliva than they would be in the urine. The conclusions drawn are that iodine applied to the skin passes readily into the blood in children, these being the subjects on which the experiments were made; the absorption in one of the cases was twice followed by symptoms of iodisim; and in half the cases there was albuminuria, sometimes of a marked character.-L'Union Médicale, July 6th, 1876. On the Employment of the Nitrite of Amyl in Epilepsy. By Dr. BOURNEVILLE, of Paris.-At the conclusion of an article on the use of the nitrite of amyl, Dr. Bourneville observes that this substance not only produces important modifications in the circulation, but also probably in the composition of the blood. The lowering of the temperature is produced in the lower animals as well as in man by the nitrite. The end of the epileptic attack is announced, in cases where the nitrite has been inhaled, by movements of deglutition and by nausea and vomiting, and it is stated that an attack cannot be considered as having really passed away unless efforts at vomiting or vomiting itself have been caused by the inhalation. Generally speaking, when the inhalation has been properly performed, the patients, when once restored, did not suffer from a return of their attacks on the same day. Some of the observations showed that tolerance was easily established, so that the dose required to be increased at each inhalation. Dr. Bourneville has no doubt that the nitrite produces a well marked effect in attacks of epilepsy, but he is not sure that it exercises any influence on the progress of the convulsive symptoms, that being a question for the solution of which new facts are required. One of the cases described, however, remained eight weeks without any attacks, and another presented no fresh attacks for four months after the inhalations had been prescribed.-Gazette Médicale de Paris, Aug. 12th, 1876. On the Properties of the Xanthium Spinosum and its Employment in Rabies.-In the Journal de Thérapeutique, the Editor (Professor Gubler) inserts a letter received from Dr. Grzymala, of Podolia, pointing out the therapeutical properties of a hitherto neglected plant, the Xanthium Spinosum, which the writer describes as a cure for rabies. Dr. Grzymala states that he has employed the xanthium for a number of years with the greatest success, and indeed he has never observed a single case where it has failed, although he has employed it at least a hundred times both for the lower animals and for human beings who had been bitten by mad dogs and wolves. In the country where he lives, rabies is very frequent, and for more than twenty years since he has been in practice there, he has seen, on the average, ten cases a year. The physiological effects of the plant appear to resemble those of the jaborandi, being sudorific, sialogogue, and slightly diuretic; but the action is less marked than that of jaborandi and the symptoms do not all appear at the same time. Some patients perspire, others are salivated, and there are some who pass more than the natural quantity of urine. The temperature is slightly raised, and the circulation is generally accelerated a little under the influence of the plant. Some complain of headache, others of nausea, and some even vomit the first dose. The dose for an adult is 60 centigrammes (ths of about 15 grains) of the dried powder of the leaves of the xanthium, repeated three times a day and continued for three weeks. About twelve years ago one of Dr. Grzymala's dogs, being seized with rabies, bit a cow, a pig, a dog, a cat, and a tame crane. The cow, the pig, and the dog were subjected to the treatment for three weeks, and they all escaped the disease, while the crane and the cat both died of hydrophobia. During the Crimean war, a family, composed of twelve persons, had been bitten by a mad wolf, and six of these being admitted into the hospital under Dr. Grzymala's care were all cured, while the six others, treated in other ways, all died hydrophobic in from twelve to sixty days. The writer adduces many other cases where the drug was administered with apparently equal success, and he goes so far as to state that since he has ascertained the properties of the xanthium, he never cauterises the bitten part and has no longer any fear of the consequences. Some Critical Remarks on the Employment of Iron in the Treatment of Chlorosis. By Dr. DUJARDIN-BEAUMETZ.-Dr. DujardinBeaumetz entertains some doubts as to the utility of ferruginous preparations in the treatment of chlorosis, and he gives reasons for his scepticism. Before admitting, he says, that in the work of organic reconstruction iron is superior to other medicines, we ought to see the quantity of iron which disappears from the economy as a conse quence of anæmia. Take for example a young girl of the weight of 60 kilogrammes (a kilogramme is rather more than 2 lbs.). According to the researches of Boussingault the proportion of iron would be, in relation to the weight of the whole body, represented as 00011, which would give, in the case of the girl, 5.454 of iron. But the iron is distributed in various parts, and the blood contains only 5063 of iron in 1000 parts so that the quantity of iron contained in the girl's blood would be about 2 to 2 grammes (a gramme is about 15 grains.) But this quantity does not belong exclusively to the globules, a certain part being distributed to the albumen and the fibrine, and thus the quantity reserved for the globules is diminished. These last alone undergo a more or less marked diminution in chlorosis, but the deficiency never reaches more than from a quarter to a third of the total amount of the globules, so that in admitting the numbers in the given case it is found that the diminution of iron in this disease is very small and is represented by figures varying between 10 and 50 centigrammes at the utmost. This small loss of iron is restored every day by the food. The arguments thus adduced shew that the ferruginous preparations may act in chlorosis, not by replacing the iron which has disappeared, but in stimulating the digestive functions and promoting nutrition and assimilation. Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz does not deny the beneficial effects of iron in chlorosis, but he thinks that the results have 116-LVIII. 30 |