author drew a suggestion for a new line of research in diagnosis, viz., the detection of organic sulphur compounds derived from the blood in the air expired from the lungs by diseased persons. Sulphur compounds liberated in the alimentary canal seemed harmless-i. e., were not absorbed-but it was now quite certain that when some of them are actually introduced into the circulation, even in minute quantities, and are diminishable by exhalation from the lungs, they produce muscular debility, feebleness of the heart, and mental depression. We may, therefore, infer that the formation of sulphur compounds within the circulation from disease might account for some examples of excessive temporary prostration, for the cause of which we have as yet no satisfactory explanation.—Medical Times and Gazette, April 8, 1871.

of morphia; and in the syrup of the bro- | cially on the mental depression it promide of strychnia, one thirty-secondth duces even when taken in very minute of a grain of bromide of strychnia. quantities. The alcohol is exhaled by Compounds of the syrups of the bromides the breath as it passes from the bodies of of quinia and morphia, and of quinia, animals, and communicates to the breath morphia, and strychnia, were also useful. peculiar odours like the odour met with In each drachm of these the same pro-in wasting diseases. From this fact the portion of dose, viz., one grain of quinia, one-eighth of a grain of morphia, one thirty-secondth of a grain of strychnia, was maintained. Dr. Richardson had found the bromide of quinia of great service in syphilitic ulceration. He had obtained most valuable results from frequently repeated doses of syrup of bromide of quinia and morphia in cases of neuralgia; and in a case of diabetes the syrup of quinia, morphia, and strychnia had been signally successful. The bromide of quinia he believed the best preparation in cases of remittent or intermittent fever. Dr. Richardson next brought forward bromal hydrate; it was less soluble than chloral hydrate, and produced more convulsive action, and, on the whole, he did not think it could at all replace the last-named substance. He then passed on to anhydrous chloral, placing before the society a specimen of pure anhydrous chloral, and, by the addition of pure water, it produced chloral hy--Dr. BUZZARD and Dr. ANSTIE reported drate. Chloral itself is a fluid caustic; it abstracts water rapidly, and might, he thought, be usefully employed as a caustic in some cases where soft fungous growths required to be removed. Chloral hydrate absorbed would be found to exert an after sedative influence. A specimen of meta-attacked her several times every hour chloral was then shown, an insoluble white night and day, deprived her of rest, and substance made by exposing chloral hy- rendered her arm useless. The neuralgia drate to sulphuric acid. This substance had followed seizures which sufficiently is isomeric with chloral, and, when treated indicated its central origin, and this, with alkali, is resolved into chloroform coupled with the age of the patient and and chlorate of the alkali employed. the degeneration of the tissues, rendered Administered to inferior animals, it seemed its cure in the highest degree improbable. to act as a gentle narcotic; being proba- Applications of a sedative character had bly slowly decomposed in the body, it may been useless in relieving her suffering. yet prove of service in practical medi- A constant current derived from ten cells cine; lastly, Dr. Richardson exhibited a (increased afterwards to fifteen cells) of a specimen of mercaptan, sulphur alcohol Weiss' battery was applied from time to (CHS), in which sulphur replaces the time, between the cervical vertebræ and oxygen of ordinary alcohol. He detailed the hand, with the effect of producing a number of interesting facts bearing on remarkable relief to her pain, insomuch the action of this agent, dwelling espe- that at one time she thought herself cured.

Neuralgia treated by the Constant Current.

cases to the Clinical Society (Lancet, May 20, 1871) in which this mode of treatment proved very effective. In Dr. Buzzard's case, a woman, aged 65, had suffered for three months from paroxysms of agonizing pain in the neck and right arm, which

these rules a main one is the preservation | author concludes that "The disease of of mental and emotional calm.

2. I have seen the effect of pregnancy and labour upon many consumptive women. I have no hesitation in saying that there never was a greater fallacy than that which affirms that pregnancy is antagonistic to phthisis. In my experience, labour commonly precipitates the fatal issue of the disease. Some perish during pregnancy; a large number sink rapidly after labour. This last trial breaks down the remaining forces of the system.

3. Consumptive people seem at least as apt in procreation as others. The children whom they bring into the world undoubtedly inherit the tubercular diathesis. How many of these perish quickly of convulsions, or, a little later, of abdominal or pulmonary disease! How few And how grow up to robust adolescence! large a proportion of those who survive to maturity repeat the sad history of their parents, scattering mental and physical distress around them!-Brit. Med. Journ., Feb. 25, 1871.

Pathology of Phthisis.-Dr. E. AUFRECHT (Berlin Klin. Wochenschrift) summarizes 100 cases of tuberculosis (in Laennec's sense of the word) with the post-mortem appearances. The lungs were affected in ninety-two of the cases, and alone affected in forty-eight. In none of these fortyeight cases was any trace of true tubercle found. For these cases, therefore, Aufrecht recommends the designation cheesy broncho-pneumonia, except in those instances where a whole lobe is affected at

once.

Besides these forty-eight, in two others there was ulceration of the larynx, and in fourteen ulceration of the bowel, but in none of the sixteen was tubercle

the apices or upper lobes of the lungs, whether for a longer or shorter time confined to these, and known under the name of phthisis, never begins with the formation of tubercles, but always in the form of broncho-pneumonic accumulations. In this form the affection can run its course from beginning to end, the cheesy bronchopneumonia being only in the minority of cases complicated by tuberculosis.”—Med. Press and Circ., May 31, 1871.

Typhoid Fever with Constipation.-Dr. MURCHISON exhibited to the Pathological Society of London (Lancet, May 20, 1871) a specimen of typhoid ulceration of the intestine from the body of a man who had died suddenly from fatal hemorrhage into the intestine on the twenty-seventh day of the disease, and in whom there had been constipation. He brought forward the case-not a very unusual one-to disprove the common notion that continued fever with constipation is typhus, and with diarrhoea, typhoid fever. The case presented numerous other interesting clinical features.

Dislocation of the Hip.-Dr. EBEN WATSON reports (Glasgow Med. Journ., May, 1871) that four cases of this were treated by him at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. “In all cases," he says, "the head of the bone was on the dorsum ilii, and in all it was easily reduced by manipulation. I know of no operation which a surgeon performs with greater pleasure to himself or benefit to his patient than this new or revived method of reducing dislocations of the hip, for which we are indebted to our American brethren. In some of my cases the dislocation was of old standing, and yet neither ropes nor pulleys were required."

found. In other twenty-four cases the broncho-pneumonia was associated with actual tubercles, viz., four times on the New Fluid for the Preservation of Micropleura, and four times on the peritoneal scopic Preparations.-MAX SCHULTZE, in covering of the bowel, whilst in sixteen the last part of his Archiv für Mikro scop. they were found in various organs; only Anatomie, observes that of all fluids now seven times, however, in the lungs them-in use for the preservation of microscoselves. In the remaining four cases of pical specimens, glycerine, either pure or the ninety-two, the lungs were affected mixed with other reagents, is most widely with tubercle only; other organs, how-employed. This substance, though posever, being simultaneously involved. The sessing the peculiarity of rendering many

Alkaloid detected by Picric Acid.—Mr. HAGER has found that this acid precipitates various alkaloids from their solutions, such as brucine, strychnine, veratrine, quinine, cinchonine, and some alkaloids of opium. Morphine and atropine, however, are precipitated only from neutral and concentrated solutions; but the precipitate dissolves pretty easily in water. Glucosides, caseine, and pseudomorphine resist the action of the picric acid.-Lancet, June 10, 1871.

tissues transparent, yet unites with fats, [difficulties in the establishment of the and so modifies the differences of refrac- theory, supported by Inspector-General tion occasioned by the presence of fat. Lawson, of the advance of this disease by Since the introduction of perosmic acid a "pandemic waves" from south to north, new disadvantage attaches to glycerine- | along the belts inclosed by the isoclinal namely, that if the least trace of the acid lines of terrestrial magnetic influence.— remains, the glycerine becomes black, es- Med. Times and Gaz., June 10, 1871. pecially around the preparation, and there are no means of removing perosmic acid completely; washing, even when continued for days, being inefficient. Under these circumstances, M. Schultze has been engaged in seeking for a fluid which might replace glycerine, and has, he thinks, discovered one in a nearly concentrated watery solution of acetate of potash. According to Dippel, through whose work Schultze first became acquainted with it, it was originally employed by Sanio for the investigation of vegetable structures in place of chloride of calcium; and Dippel found it serviceable also for preserving animal tissues. Schultze applied the fluid in the same way as glycerine, a drop being allowed to flow over the specimen after it has been prepared in water or serum, without raising the cover. After the lapse of twenty-four hours the preparation is luted down. As the fluid neither dries up nor crystallizes out, the specimens may be long preserved in it. M. Schultze states that the solution has now been in use for two years in his laboratory, and no disadvantages have been found to attach to it, whilst it possesses all the advantages of glycerine.-Lancet, March 25, 1871.

Cholera in Madagascar and along the Southeast Coast of Africa.-It is stated that cholera prevails to a considerable extent along the east coast of Madagascar, in the islands Mayota and Johanna (members of the Comoro group), at the northern extremity of the Mozambique Channel, and along the east coast of Africa, to the south of Port Mozambique, between the eighteenth and nineteenth degrees of latitude, about the mouths of the Zambesi River. The gradual extension of cholera in a southerly direction from Zanzibar, along the coast-line, towards the Cape Colony, is a subject of extreme importance, and suggests great

Deaths from Chloroform.-The British Medical Journal for April 22 announces two cases of this, and the Lancet for May 20th, a third.

Von Graefe's Successor.-Prof. SCHWEIGGER, a pupil of the late eminent ophthalmologist, has just been appointed to succeed Graefe at the Charité Hospital of Berlin. Dr. Schweigger had hitherto occupied a chair in Zurich.-Lancet, May 20, 1871.

Oppolzer's Successor.-Dr. H. BAMBERGER, at present Professor at Würtzburg, has been chosen to fill the chair rendered vacant by the death of Professor Oppolzer.

Smallpox.-The number of deaths in London for the weeks ending May 6, 13, 20, and 27, were respectively as follows: 288, 232, 267, 257. The smallpox epidemic in London shows but little signs of decrease.

OBITUARY RECORD.-M. LONGET, the eminent physiologist, has just died at Bordeaux, aged sixty-eight. M. Longet was member of the French Institute, and of the French Academy of Medicine. His death, which was sudden, is ascribed by his friends to shock produced by the deplorable news from Paris.