walking he unexpectedly threw a basin of freezing cold water over my breast. As this caused me to draw my breath with great vehemence, and as my chest had been injured by the fall, it may easily be imagined what were my sufferings under this affliction, but I was consoled by the information that if any rib had been dislocated this sudden and hard breathing would restore it to its natural position.

"The next proceeding was not less painful and extravagant. The operator made me sit on the ground and, assisted by two men held a cloth upon my mouth and nose until I was almost suffocated. "This,' said the Chinese Esculapius, 'by causing a violent heaving of the chest, will force back any rib that may have been dislocated.' The wound in my head not being deep, he healed it by stuffing it with burnt cotton. He then ordered that I should continue to walk much, supported by two persons; that I should not sit long, nor be allowed to sleep till 10 o'clock at night, at which time I should eat a little thin rice soup. He assured me that these walks in the open air while fasting would prevent the blood from settling upon the chest where it might corrupt. These remedies, though barbarous and excruciating, cured me so completely that in seven days I was able to resume my journey."

THE HUMAN BRAIN.

What is the brain but a scrap-book? asks the Family Doctor. If, when we are asleep, someone could peep in there, what would he find? Lines from favor

ite poets, scrap songs, melodies from operas, sentences from books, meaningless dates, recollections of childhood; vague, gradually growing faint, moments of perfect happiness, hours of despair and misery. The first kiss of childhood, the first parting of bosom friends, the word of praise or the word of blame of a fond mother, pictures of men and women, of homeland beauties

or scenes of travel, hopes and dreams that come to nothing. Unrequited kindnesses, gratitude for favors, lifted thankfulness for life or the reverse, quarrels and reconciliations, old jokes, delightful nonsenses, wit that savored talk, or the dull flow of speech that had in it no life; and, through them all, the thread of one deep and enduring passion for some one man or woman, which may have been a misery or a delight.

SPINE PERCUSSION IN WHOOPING

COUGH. Percussion on the Seventh Cervical Vertebra Arrests the Paroxysms.

Albert Abrams asserts that the following simple method has arrested the paroxysms of whooping-cough in a number of patients in from three to seven days: Place a pleximeter upon the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebra, and strike the pleximeter a series of moderate blows with a percussion-hammer. The number of blows is of little moment, but the blows must be as strong as the child can tolerate without flinching. Some of the mothers accompany the blows with a nursery rhyme or song to interest the child. In the absence of a pleximeter and percussion-hammer, a strip of linoleum and a tack-hammer will suffice. To avoid cutaneous irritation, cotton may be interposed between the pleximeter or the linoleum and the spine. Each seance during the interparoxysmal period should last five minutes thrice daily, and the harmless method may be executed by the mother or nurse.

The author is desirous of collecting reports on this method of treatment from his colleagues, and to test the efficiency. of the treatment it would be well to note the number and severity of the paroxysms before and after treatment in each patient. He promises to explain the rationale of the method in a contemplated contribution, and will appreciate any reports sent to him. This method has also succeeded in some cases of laryngismus stridulus.

THE PHYSICIAN OF THE XVII
CENTURY.

We have no difficulty in understanding how great must have been the ignorance of medicine and the healing art which prevailed in those days. And it was but little better in the following century. There were men whose names have become stars in the firmament of science and literature-such as Harvey, Sir Thomas Browne, Sydenham, and Radcliffe; but for the most part empiricism. of the most pronounced kind held sway. There is no reason to think that Dr. Earle's "A Meer Dull Physician," written in 1628, is merely a caricature. Earle became Dean of Westminster and successively Bishop of Worcester and Salisbury, and it was said of him that "none since have lived whom God hath blessed with more innocent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious primitive peaceable temper." Yet we venture to think that he had as keen a sense of humor and as acute a nose for the stink of cant, even when mixed with the odor of sanctity, as any who have ever worn lawn. You will forgive my quoting Earle's essay, as it gives an excellent notion of the manners of the medicos and their patients:

"A meer dull Physician-His practice is some business at bedsides, and his Speculation an urinal. He is distinguished from an Empriric by a round velvet cap and Doctor's gown, yet no man takes degrees more superfluously, for he is a Doctor, however. He is sworn to Galen and Hippocrates, as University men to their statutes, though they never saw them; and his discourse is all Aphorisms, though his reading be only Alexis of Piedmont, or the Regiment of Health. The best cure he has done is upon his own purse, from which a lean sickness he hath made lusty and in flesh. His learning consists much in reckoning up the hard names of diseases, and the superscriptions of galleypots in his Apothecary's Shop, which are ranked in his shelves, and the Doctor's memory. He

is indeed only languaged in diseases, and speaks Greek many times when he knows not. If he have been but a by-stander at some desperate recovery, he is slandered with it, though he be guiltless; and this breeds his reputation, and that his practice, for his skill is merely opinion. Of all odors he likes best the smell of urine, and holds Vespasian's rule, that no gain is unsavory. If you said this once to him, you must resolve to be sick howsoever, for he will never leave examining your water, till he has shaked it into a disease. Then follows a writ to his drugger in a strange tongue, which he understands though he can not conster (construe). If he sees you himself, his visit is the worst visitation; for if he can not heal your sickness, he will be sure to help it. He translates his Apothecary's Shop into your chamber, and the very windows and benches must take physic. He tells you your malady in Greek, though it be but a cold or headache; which by good endeavor and diligence he inay bring to some moment indeed. His most unfaithful act is, that he leaves a man gaping, and his pretence is, death and he have a quarrel and must not meet; but his fear is, lest the carkass should bleed. Anatomies and other spectacles of mortality have hardened him, and he is no more struck with a funeral than a gravemaker. Noblemen use him for a director of their stomach, and ladies for wantonness, especially if he be a proper man. If he be single, he is in league with his she-apothecary; and because it is the physician, the husband is patient. If he have leisure to be idle (that is to study) he has a snatch at Alcumy, and is sick of the philosopher's stone; a disease uncurable but by an abundant phlebotomy of the purse. His two main opposites are a mountebank and a good woman, and he never shows his learning so much as in an invective against them and their boxes. In conclusion, he is a sucking consumption himself and a very brother to the worms, for they are both engendered out of man's corruption."-Pharmaceutical Journal and Pharmacist.

SPIRIT OF NITROUS ETHER IN
MIXTURES.

Sweet spirit of nitre is a frequent source of trouble in dispensing, and when anything goes wrong with an apparently simple mixture containing it, it is quite usual, and often quite proper, to put the blame on this ingredient. A correspondent of the British Medical Journal recently asked why it is that an emulsion containing almond mixture, tincture of squill, ipecacuanha wine, and sweet spirit of nitre "sometimes blows up," and almost from force of habit we look for the explanation to the spirit of nitrous ether. The emulsion contains only 1 drachm of the last-named ingredient in 10 ounces, so that under ordinary conditions an explosion would not be expected. It is not improbable, however, that there is something wrong with the almond mixture. This is made from compound powder of almonds, which contains about 8% of gum acacia; some Australian gums contain tannin, and if the gum used in the preparation of the compound powder of almonds is Australian gum, the explanation of the explosion is not difficult. Tannin is incompatible with sweet spirit of nitre, the effect of mixing the two being to decompose the ethyl nitrite, while oxides of nitrogen are evolved. The reaction in the present case would be slow, as the amount of tannin present would be small, and sufficient gas to burst the bottle would not be given off before the bottle had been corked for some little time. Gum acacia containing tannin should not be used in medicine, but since there appears to be no other explanation of the explosion, our correspondent should examine the gum with which the almond mixture is made. Sweet spirit of nitre is so commonly prescribed as a diuretic and

diaphoretic that a few notes about its incompatibilities may be useful. Its keeping properties are notoriously bad, and unless great precautions are observed in storing it decomposition takes place rapidly; to avoid loss of strength as much as possible it should be kept in a cool, dark place in small, stoppered, amber-colored bottles. For reasons already stated, sweet spirit of nitre should not be prescribed with any drug containing tannin, but its unsatisfactory behavior with several other drugs is due to the fact that it is extremely difficult, if not altogether impracticable, to prevent it from becoming acid. It should not be prescribed in a mixture with iodides, otherwise iodine will be liberated; if, however, the spirit is neutralized with bicarbonate of soda before being mixed with the iodide solution the reaction is retarded, but nevertheless it is advisable to avoid such combinations. Nor should sweet spirit of nitre be prescribed with antipyrin, a solution of which it turns green. When sweet nitre is added to a solution of sodium salicylate the mixture soon becomes red, even if the spirit is rendered neutral before adding it to the solution. It is a safe rule not to prescribe sweet spirit of nitre in combination with iodides, bromides, antipyrin, or sodium salicylate, or with drugs or preparations of drugs containing tannin.

QUESTIONS OF INCOMPATIBILITY. The Physician's Drug News receives answers the following questions relating to compatibility:

First. Would it be proper to give calomel and calcium sulphide at the same time or during the same day that you are giving calcium sulphide in 4 to 2 grains every two hours?

First. Alkali sulphides convert calomel into the black mercurous sulphide, but they are not therapeutically incompatible. If, however, the doses were alternated, giving one tablet one hour and the other the next hour, there would probably be no chemical change.

Second. While it is true that bismuth subnitrate and calomel are incompatible in solution, the tablets usually supplied by manufacturers contain only a very small amount of calomel; therefore, if the calomel was oxidized and converted into corrosive sublimate, no harm would result.

Third. The potassium nitrate being alkaline and the fluidextracts acid, when the two are put together a reaction takes place. If a 4-ounce mixture is required, put into an 8-ounce bottle and allow to stand about one or two hours, when effervescence will have ceased.

PRESCRIPTION READING EXTRAORDINARY.

The Chemist and Druggist, of London, England, is conducting a prize competition for the correct reading of badly written prescriptions. The sample which we reproduce here is the subject of the current week's competition, which comes nearer to being a guessing contest than any real trial of deciphering skill. The matter has a rather shamefaced interest for the physician, and we make mention

Finley Ellingwood calls attention the use of the juice expressed from the green leaves of the poke (phytolacca decandra) in the treatment of epitheli

oma.

A number of writers have used this remedy for this purpose. One claims that it seems to have a special selective action for the morbid tissue which develops in this disease. By applying the juice freely, it seems to penetrate to and follow out all the irregularities of the diseased tissue, causing its liquefaction, as it were, and removal, and then it causes a natural cicatrization. This writer claims to have seen large masses of this tissue destroyed in a few weeks, and but a small scar remaining. He says that the application of the juice. produces a great deal of pain, but, being non-toxic, is harmless. It would seem that the simple application of a local anaesthetic would do away with the pain, without interfering with the action of the remedy.

THE VALUE OF THE FARADIC BATTERY.

Ellingwood, in his Therapeutist, says: "The introduction of complicated scientific electrical apparatus has attracted the attention of the profession entirely away from the utility of a mild faradic current generated from a simple little machine, costing from five dollars to fifteen dollars.

"During the years I was in country practice, in the early eighties, I constantly carried one of these small faradic batteries in my buggy. The benefit obtained from its use was, in some cases, nothing short of miraculous. A patient had an over-dose of phenacetine, and was at the point of death when I arrived. She was promptly saved by this current alone. Another patient suffering from a severe attack of acute inflammatory rheumatism, developed the most violent heart symptoms early one morning. I rushed to the home after quite a long drive, and with my battery, placing the feet in a bowl of hot water which contained one electrode, I passed the other over the chest, with but little attention to the strength of the current. Relief began from almost the first. I left the battery to be applied in the evening and used it myself the next morning and on consecutive mornings, with result that I am confident could not have been obtained by other means.

"A woman after a confinement had a miserable getting-up, suffering from subinvolution, with pelvic engorgement, and a long train of disagreeable symptoms. This was the first time that I had

ever known of electricity being used for its immediate effects in producing uterine contractions. The first application relieved her entirely from all unpleasant. symptoms, and a most satisfactory restoration was accomplished in a short time. I reported this case as one of subinvolution, cured by the faradic current, in the Medical Record, in 1881. I am confident that many physicians are missing a great deal by not using the simple faradic current. I have continued its use, having patients to-day that are depending upon a little battery that costs less than seven dollars, with excellent results."

[I was at one time a student in the classes of Dr. Ellingwood, and I remember that he always had some good, practical points to impress upon the embryo doctor. I am delighted, therefore, to have him come to the front and champion the faradic battery. It has served us well on many occasions and should not be thrown into the discard; although it must necessarily give way to the sinusoidal and high-frequency currents in the treatment of many conditions in which they are more suitable.-EDITOR.]

ELECTRIC ANESTHESIA.

In the Medical Record, April 23, 1910, is a report of an operation performed by Doctors Johnson and Herr, Hartford, Conn., on a patient who was anesthetized by Dr. Louise G. Robinovitch, of New York, by means of the electric current.

The patient had entered the hospital as a result of frozen feet. "Subsequently