Treatment of Puerperal Mastitis by Iodide of Lead Ointment. In the American Journal of Obstetrics, Dr. T. T. Gaunt expresses his disappointment at the ill success of belladonna in checking the secretion of milk, but reports good effects from the use of iodide of lead. He says"The breast being thoroughly dried and perfectly cleansed, we smear its surface with the officinal ointment of the iodide of lead, and then rub it in until a considerable quantity is absorbed. Soak a piece of lint, of a size sufficient to cover the breast, in the following solution-acetate of lead, from zij toss to the pint of a 1-4 solution of alcohol or eau-deCologne. If there be much pain, it is often well to apply an ice bag over the lint covering the breast. The lint should be frequently dipped in the lead lotion. It is common for the patient, who has been exhausted by pain and loss of sleep, to fall into a refreshing slumber soon after the application. In the course of three or four hours the breast may be completely emptied by an experienced hand, the ointment being used as a lubricant during the manipulation. By applying the iodide freely twice or thrice daily, the secretion will be gone in less than one week, as a rule. A point of considerable moment is the partial anesthesia it is capable of inducing, which enables us to empty the glands, where before some slight pressure was badly borne.-Boston Med. and Surg. Journ. 18th January, 1883.—D. M‘P. The Use of Iodine as a Stomachic Sedative.-The employment of iodine for the relief of the vomiting of pregnancy has been somewhat in vogue for a number of years. And while the success attending its use has been pointed out with more or less enthusiasm its exact value has never been established. Dr. T. T. Gaunt (American Journal of the Medical Sciences for April, 1883), has for a number of years been employing the tincture of iodine in drop doses in nearly all forms of emesis, and reports thirteen cases of the most varied character in all of which vomiting was promptly arrested by the use of this drug. The Contagiousness of Phthisis.-Dr. Lendet, of Rouen, at the International Congress of Hygiene, at Geneva, gave an account of fifty-six families all belonging to the better classes, of which, in fifteen, the husband was tubercular at marriage and the wife then healthy, and in forty-one the wife was alone affected. Of the first fifteen, in five the wife became affected, two having had relatives dying of consumption, and a third not becoming affected till ten years after her husband's death. Of the other series only three husbands became affected, and of these one had lost a sister of tuberculosis. Of five wives who became tuberculous after marriage, four had children; but only one lost any from tuberculosis. Of the ten wives who escaped, nine had children, and five lost one or more from this disease. He concludes as follows:-(1.) Wives contract tuberculosis more readily from their husbands than husbands from their wives. (2.) Wives who are not themselves affected may give birth to children who die of phthisis. (3.) Marriage hastens the fatal termination of the disease. (4.) Tuberculosis may often develop among different members of the same family, at short intervals, without hereditary predisposition.Birmingham Med. Rev. March, 1883.-J. A. A. The Action of Sodium Salicylate on the Heart.Prof. Maragliano, of Genoa, has investigated this subject afresh, the results of previous observers being in many points contradictory. Some make out that the heart is weakened, others that it is strengthened by the salicylate. Liebermeister, for instance, in Zeimssen's Cyclopædia (vol. i), says he never gives the salt to a patient whose heart is weak, and he advises that it should never be prescribed in such cases. Maragliano made a triple series of observations to determine the question. In the first, patients who were taking the salicylate regularly were examined sphygmographically before, during, and after the exhibition of the dose, morning and evening. In the second, the pulse-curve of other persons was taken, before and after the exhibition of a single five-gramme dose. In the third, the arterial pressure was measured by Basch's method before and after the exhibition of a single five-gramme dose. The results showed that—(1) As the dose was gradually increased in patients of the first class, the pulse became progressively stronger, and the systolic line of the sphygmographic trace became higher. (2) After the single dose the pulse was stronger and the systolic line higher; the increase appeared an hour after the dose, reached its maximum in two to three hours, and disappeared after three to five hours; the normal dicrotism was accentuated, and often passed into tricrotism. (3) The arterial pressure rose about an hour after the exhibition of a single dose, and returned to the normal about three hours afterwards. The rise in pressure varied between ten and twenty millimetres of mercury. These results indicate unmistakably that no depressing influence is exerted on the heart by the salicylate. (Centralb. f. d. Med. Wiss., 2nd Dec., 1882.) The Practitioner. January, 1883. Anæsthetic Mixtures for Small Operations." It is often desirable to apply locally some anesthetic material to deaden the sensibility sufficiently for small operations. There are various expedients proposed for this purpose. We do not now refer to the use of ether spray, but to various liquids which may be applied, and the sense of pain so far obtunded as to permit incisions without experiencing any other sensation than the mere touch. The mixture of chloral and camphor is often useful. When equal parts of chloral and camphor are triturated together, a clear, somewhat viscid, transparent solution results. This solution has considerable solvent power, and will take up a comparatively large proportion of morphia. Chloroform may also be added to it without precipitation of any portion of the dissolved constituents. Thus:-B. Chloral., Camphor., aa 3ij; Morphiæ sulph., 3ss; Chloroformi, 3j.-M. This may be applied with a camel's hair brush over the area to be incised, allowed to dry, and reapplied as freely as may be necessary to render the part insensible to pain. "Amongst the anaesthetic mixtures for surgical purposes proposed by Prof. Redier, are solutions of camphor in ether and in chloroform. According to Redier, one drachm of camphor may be dissolved in two drachms of ether, or the same quantity of camphor in two drachms of chloroform. A useful anesthetic mixture is prepared by the addition of crystallized acetic acid to chloroform, in the proportion of one part of the acid to twenty parts of chloroform. These anæsthetic solutions are applied by the brush freely over the part the seat of pain, or to be incised. In some instances it may be better to moisten a cloth or some cotton and allow it to remain for some time in contact with the part.”—Med. News. 10th February, 1883. The Use of Oxygenated Water.-MM. Paul Bert and Regnard have recorded in a pamphlet communicated to the Société de Biologie, all the surgical cases in which oxygenated water has been employed. M. Bert asks, in connection with this, if oxygenated water could not likewise be used internally as a medicine, in draught, for example, in cases of phthisis, and as an enema in certain chronic diarrhoeas, that of Cochin China in particular, which, as is well known, depends upon the presence of special microorganisms in the lower part of the large intestine.-Gazette des Hôpitaux. 6th March, 1883, p. 213.-J. L. S. On a Form of Loss of Memory occasionally following Cranial Injuries. By JOSEPH BELL, Surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Mr. Bell says:-In a certain number of head injuries, in addition to and after recovery from the early symptoms, it is found that the victim has, much to his own surprise, forgotten entirely not the accident itself and the succeeding circumstances only, but a certain length of time varying in different cases from minutes up to hours and even days, with all its actions, pains and pleasures, before the accident happened. In This point has been kept in view in all the cases of head injuries under Mr. Bell's care; and, after excluding all doubtful cases where intoxication or narcotism existed, a certain proportion remain who illustrate the above condition. order that memory may take place, two things are necessary. 1. The fact or word or thought must be recorded, i. e., some permanent change or impression must be made on brain cells by which it is stored up for future use. 2. When required it must be recalled, i. e., by an act of volition more or less rapid and easy in different people, aided mainly by what we call association, initiated often by other organs of sense, such as sight, smell, or hearing, we bring back, recollect what has been recovered and retained. The cranial injuries referred to have in some way destroyed the recording power for a time, or at least prevented a certain amount of phenomena being recorded at all. Does this not give us the hint that, for a safe record, a certain amount of time is needed, as a photograph needs a certain amount of exposure, and if this is interfered with, the picture is blurred or wiped out?-Edinburgh Medical Journal. February, 1883. -J. C. R. Macroglossia.-At the Société Médicale des Hôpitaux, on the 9th February, 1883, M. Constantin Paul showed a little girl of three and a-half years of age who, from her birth, has suffered from an enlargement of the tongue, which projects from her mouth. She sucked for one month, and then took the feeding bottle. Now she presents manifest traces of rickets. For the last two years the tongue has developed considerably, and it has now become enormous and oedematous. There are to be seen in it glands, secreting a serous or seropurulent liquid. Mons. Constantin Paul has never met with a similar case in scrofula.-Gazette des Hôpitaux. 13th February, 1883, p. 141.-J. L. S. Osseous Lesions in the Hemiplegic.-M. Debone, having remarked that in hemiplegics fractures almost always affect the paralysed side, examined the bones in some old cases. He found that the bones on the affected side were much lighter than those on the sound side, and a transverse section showed the medullary canal larger, and the compact tissue less thick. Under the microscope the Haversian canals were found increased in size, and the quantity of fat more considerable on the affected side. A true osteoporosis is therefore the cause of the frequency of fractures in the hemiplegic. In the fractures the callus is more abundant, but the consolidation is perhaps even a little more rapid than normal.-La France Médicale, 18th October, 1881.-G. S. M. Books, Pamphlets, &c., Received. Papers Relating to the Administration of the Dentists' Act. & Co. 1883. Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London. Vol. XXIV. Practical Lessons in Elementary Physiology and Physiological 1883. Lectures on Cataract its Causes, Varieties, and Treatment. By Geo. Cowell, F.R.C.S. With Illustrations. London: Macmillan & Co. 1883. Mechanical Exercise a Means of Cure, being a Description of the Zander Institute, London. Edited by the Medical Officer to the Institution. London: J. & A. Churchill. 1883. Die moderne Radikal-operation der Unterleibsbrüche. Eine Statistische Arbeit, von Dr. H. Leisrink, Hamburg. Hamburg & Leipzig: Leopold Voss. 1883. Die Missenverhältnisse des Menschlichen Herzens; von Wilhelm Müller, Jena. Hamburg & Leipzig: Leopold Voss. 1883. |