MEDICAL NOTES. The heredity record on 132 cases of cancer under treatment at the Middlesex Hospital during the year 1882 was as follows: In thirty-four cases of uterine cancer there was a history of previous malignant disease in eight families, or in 23.7 per cent.; in fortyone cases of breast-cancer, in ten families, or in 24.3 per cent.; in twenty-eight cases of cancer of the tongue, mouth, and lip, in one family, or in 3.5 per cent.; whilst in eighteen miscellaneous cancers, including ten of the rectum, no history of any previous malignant disease could be obtained. Thus, of the whole 121 cases, there was a history of previous malignant disease in nineteen families, or in 15.7 per cent. that it tapers gradually to a small blunt point. It closely resembles a pig's tail in shape, but shows no signs of bone or cartilage. There seems to be a slight mole-like protuberance at the point of attachment. The appendage has grown in length about a quarter of an inch since the birth of the child. "The mother, Lucy Clark, is a quadroon, seventeen years old, and the father a negro of twenty, both normally formed. "In Darwin's Descent of Man, vol. i., p. 28, he speaks of a similar case, and refers to an article in Revue des Cours Scientifiques, 1867-68, p. 625. A more complete article is that by Dr. Max Bartels, in Archiv für Anthropologie for 1880. He describes twenty-one cases of persons born with tails, most of them being fleshy protuberances like the one just described.” In an article by Dr. Reichel, of Breslau, copied into the St. Louis Courier of Medicine from the Berlin. klin. Woch., he describes a case of general erythe- We learn from the London Medical Times that ma caused by sublimate dressing. A man had been in a paper lately read before the Académie de Médoperated on for relief of genu valgum; the leg from foot icine Dr. Marc Sée stated that he has deduced the folto pubes was enveloped in sublimate gauze. On the lowing conclusions from his anatomical measurements: ninth day burning and itching of the limb necessitated" (1.) In the normal state the united calibres of the the removal of the gauze. The leg was oedematous, two bronchi are equal to the calibre of the trachea, and covered with a papulo-vesicular eczema. A general erythema was now developed; the whole body, except the face and neck, was thickly covered with small red spots. The general health was good; no salivation; temperature raised. Salicylic dressing was substituted, and on same day temperature became normal; and in four days after the whole rash was gone. - Dr. Lawson Tait, of Birmingham, England, is about to visit this continent for the purpose of giving an address on abdominal surgery before the Canada Medical Association at Montreal, August 25th. -The correspondents of the Medical Press and Circular are very generally by the ears over the question "What is medical advertising?" which was raised by one signing himself "Anti-humbug" some weeks ago. Several contributions upon the subject have appeared, and a good deal of covert sarcasm has been aimed at various leaders of the profession. The issuing of bulletins by the attending physician whenever any noble peer has sneezed unduly or a member of the royal family has the stomach ache is justly made an especial object of ridicule. The attempts of some writers to establish a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate advertising are rather laughable. But meantime it certainly does remain a difficult point to determine exactly where the dividing line lies between self-respect and self-exaltation. - A correspondent of Science (June 6th) describes a tailed child which was recently born in Louisville, Ky. A visit was made by a party of four, which included a prominent physician. The writer says: "We found a female negro child, eight weeks old, normally formed in all respects, except that slightly to the left of the median line, and about an inch above the lower end of the spinal column, is a fleshy, pedunculated protuberance about two and one half inches long. At the base it measures one and one quarter inches in circumference. A quarter of an nch from the base it is somewhat larger, and from (2.) and I may add that, according to a few measurements. The Annales des Maladies de l'Oreille, du Larynx et des Organes Connexes, founded in 1874 by Isambert and Krishaber, deceased, and Ladreit de Lacharrière, is to be made, under the direction of the surviving editor, an international journal, and is to be published in both French and English. The direction and publication will remain in Paris, and the editors selected for the laryngological and otological departments respectively are, in England, Morell Mackenzie and Woakes, in Belgium, Capart and Ch. Delstauche, and in America, J. Solis Cohen and Clarence J. Blake. Dr. William Goodell, of Philadelphia, recommends the following prescription in pruritus vulvæ: Carbolic acid, one drachm; morphine sulphate, ten grains; boracic acid, two drachms; vaseline, two ounces. Also pat the parts with a sponge soaked in boiling-hot water. sented to the Society by Mr. D. Willis James. There will be a resident physician, and in addition to the large numbers going to the place for the day, parties of sick and convalescent children, with their mothers, will be kept for a week or more at a time. R. Liquoris strychniæ 3i. ; spiritûs chloroformi 3iij.; aquæ ad iss. M. A teaspoonful to be taken three times a day in water. "Upon taking the final dose, which tasted unusually hot," adds the writer," my patient was seized with spasmodic contraction of the extensors of the feet and legs, the limbs being forcibly projected under the table at which she sat. These symptoms soon passed off, but were alarming for the time. On my being shown the bottle which had conTHE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN THERAPEUSIS. tained the medicine a drop or two of water was seen remaining in it, and beneath this a globule of chloro- FROM an introductory lecture by Prof. H. C. Wood, form, which proved to be highly charged with strych-published in the Philadelphia Medical Times (May 31st), we make the following extracts: nia. "The prescription was faulty. Chloroform is a powerful solvent of sulphate of strychnia, and itself is not very soluble in water. More was ordered than the menstruum could take up; the surplus, therefore, appropriated to itself a large amount of the salt and fell with it to the bottom of the bottle." -At a meeting of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine, held at the Academy of Medicine June 11th, a paper by Prof. J. G. Kiernan, of Chicago (formerly of New York), entitled Some Suggestions Concerning the Dwight Insurance Case, was read by H. W. Sackett, Esq. In it the writer said "The decision in the Dwight case was fully warranted, even allowing that the deceased was a suicide. Supposing Colonel Dwight was insane, and with an insane idea of smartness had committed suicide with a vague notion of making money for his friends, would that act vitiate his policy? Under the laws of Iowa it would not, and legally the policy could not be declared void." The question was stated to be simply one of a contract with an insane person, and not of fraud. The paper was discussed by Drs. Spitzka and Harwood. Miscellany. starts with the understanding that there is at present "The modern physiological school of therapeutics no known law of therapeutics, - unless it is that of antagonisms by which is meant that it is possible, when a mass of living protoplasm is depressed by some agent, to overcome the depression by a second agent, which is stimulant to the protoplasm; or, in other words, that whilst some agencies increase the molecular movements of the protoplasm, others lessen them, and that it is at least theoretically possible to balance more or less perfectly one of these forces against the other. is the general abandonment of the statistical method of "The great therapeutic departure of the last decade therapeutic research, and the substitution therefor of the so-called physiological method. According to the latter plan, disease is to be first studied in its natural history, so as to determine whether it has a definite course which cannot be arrested, and, if so, what is the progress of such course; whether the natural tendency of the disease is towards recovery or towards death, and, if the former, why this tendency is sometimes not fulfilled, that is, how death is produced in the exceptional cases. If the tendency of a disease is fatal, then the study of the possibility of arresting the disease becomes a problem of great interest. "Having, by studies of the character just glanced at, determined what is possible and useful to be done, the therapeutist next studies the drugs and remedial agencies at command. By investigations upon man and the lower animals he endeavors to learn exactly how these drugs act upon the human system, first in health and afterwards in disease. When he has by these two classes of studies learned, in the first place, what he wishes to do, and, in the second place, what he has to work with, he adapts his means to his ends by reasoning not different from that which guides the chemist, the engineer, or any one dealing with difficult force-problems... "The modern scientific therapeutist, knowing what he desires to do, studies his instruments. To do this he experiments upon animals, because the modern conscience refuses to allow of human vivisection. It has been over and over again denied that we can reason from the action of drugs upon animals to their action upon man; but it is not worth while, at present and in this place, to attempt to show in detail the absurdity of such denial. The whole evidence of modern science - An informal opening of the "Health Home" at Coney Island, organized under the auspices of the Children's Aid Society, took place on the 11th of June. The party of ladies and gentlemen who attended it first visited the "Summer Home" at Bath, L. I., which was the gift of Mr. A. B. Stone, and which receives some four thousand poor children dur-indicates that, at least in his animal organism, man is ing the season. They then went to the new sanitarium on the western part of Coney Island. It is in an excellent situation, with a superb ocean view, and the building, which is picturesque and convenient, with piazzas a hundred feet in length, has been pre not a mysterious creature apart from the rest of creation, but is an animal having structural and chemical relations, within and without, similar to those of other animals. 66 Summing up into a sentence, it may be said that the general principles which underlie rational therapeutics are to know what can be done and what it is desirable shall be done; then to know the means at command; and, finally, to adapt the means to the end. "At present, the therapeutist is forced to supplement this principle by a pure empiricism, on account of the imperfection of our knowledge, not so much of the action of therapeutic remedies as of the nature of disease. We have no idea as to the nature of malaria, or of its immediate action upon the human organism; how, then, can we tell in what way quinine acts as a specific against it, a fact which we abundantly know, empirically? The best therapeutic practice of to-day is therefore a mixture of science and empiricism; but the science has enormously increased in the last twenty years, and is advancing with arithmetical progression." MRS. HOPKINS OF HARTFORD UPON CONNECTICUT. MR. HOPKINS, the governour of Hartford upon Connecticut, came to Boston, and brought his wife with him (a godly young woman and of special parts), who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of her, was loth to grieve her; but he saw his error when it was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are stronger, &c., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her. He brought her to Boston and left her with her brother, one Mr. Yale, a merchant, to try what means might be had here for her. But no help could be had. -John Winthrop's History of New England, vol. ii., p. 265. EXCISION OF THE RECTUM FOR CANCER. MR. HARRISON CRIPPS recently read before the Clinical Society of London' the notes of three cases of cancer of the rectum in which he had excised the lower part of the bowel, the operations having been performed respectively seventeen months, eighteen months, and four years ago. In the first case, that of a man aged sixty-eight, the symptoms had existed for two years. The disease consisted of a hard, irregular mass on the posterior and right wall of the rectum, about two thirds of the circumference of the bowel involved, the disease not extending more than two and three quarters of an inch from the anus. The lower three inches of the bowel were removed with the exception of about one fourth of its circumference on the anterior wall. The patient was much troubled during his convalescence from symptoms arising from enlarged prostate, but was discharged in a satisfactory condition so far as the bowel was concerned. At the end of a twelvemonth his medical attendant wrote that he was alive and comparatively comfortable; no return of the disease could be detected, but he was unable completely 1 Medical Times and Gazette, April 26th. to retain his fæces. Mr. Cripps had examined this patient since sending in the paper, and found that he was suffering considerably from prostatic troubles. There was some hardness in this neighborhood, but no certain symptoms of recurrence. The second case was that of a lady aged sixty. The disease extended all round the bowel on the anterior wall, nearly as high as four inches. Mr. Cripps did not regard the case, from its extent, as a very favorable one for operation, but at the wish of the patient undertook its removal. The bowel had to be dissected for two inches from the peritonæum. The patient made a very satisfactory recovery. She suffered much from contraction, but there was no recurrence for more than a year; the disease then recommenced. The last case was that of a lady, aged forty, who was recommended to the author by Dr. Matthews Duncan. The disease consisted of a hard, ulcerated mass, involving one half the circumference of the bowel to a height of two inches, and filling the ischio-rectal fossa. The disease was removed in July, 1880, and proved, under the microscope, to be a typical example of adenoid cancer. The patient has been frequently examined since. She has completely regained her old strength and health, has no pain or discomfort whatever, and remains, after nearly four years, perfectly free from any symptom of recurrence. The remarkably favorable results secured by Mr. Cripps were not in accord with those attained by a number of the speakers who took part in the discussion. The president, Sir Andrew Clark, in summing up, said that the discussion had shown that whilst excision of the rectum served to give relief for a time it did not tend to prolong life. He mentioned one case in which he had diagnosticated cancer six years before He considered that the limit of the patient's death. eighteen months, so frequently laid down in books, was not in accordance with general experience. QUICK TIME ON SNOW-SHOES. SOME question having been raised, says Science, in relation to the distance traveled by the Lapps of Baron Nordenskiöld's party in their excursion into central Greenland Mr. Oscar Dickson arranged for a series of races on skidor ("snow-shoes") at Quickjock in Lapland. The distance which they claimed to have traveled over the Greenland ice was two hundred and thirty kilometres, going and returning in fifty-seven hours. For this reason the courses were arranged so as to have a total length of two hundred and twentyseven kilometres. The races took place on the 3d of April last, and were spread over six days. The following results were obtained: The first prize, three hundred and fifty francs, was gained by Pavo Lars Tuorda, one of those who had visited Greenland with Nordenskiöld, and who traveled over the above-mentioned distance, equivalent to one hundred and forty-one miles, in twenty-one hours twenty-two minutes, including all stoppages. The second prize was gained by Pehr Olof Ländta, who came in half a minute later. The third and fourth prizes were awarded for the times of twenty-one hours thirtythree and a half minutes and twenty-one hours and fifty-six minutes, respectively. Four others received a gratuity of thirty-five francs for having covered the dis tance in less than twenty-six hours. All arrived in | before the race to get to the point where the course good condition, unexhausted, and took part in the fes- began. It will be observed that the result completely tivities which followed the races. Many of them had confirms the claims of the Lapps on their journey in also traveled from seventy to a hundred kilometres Greenland as far as a parallel performance can do so. Deaths reported 2389 (no reports from St. Louis, New Orleans, Buffalo, and Providence): under five years of age, 906; principal infectious diseases (small-pox, measles, diphtheria and croup, whooping cough, erysipelas, fevers, and diarrhoeal diseases) 394, consumption 377, lung diseases 225, diphtheria and croup 108, diarrhoeal diseases 75, scarlet fever 53, measles 53, whooping-cough 29, typhoid fever 29, malarial fevers 13, puerperal fever 11, cerebro-spinal meningitis 10, erysipelas nine, small-pox four. From measles, New York 28, Chicago 14, Pittsburg four, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Boston, Baltimore, District of Columbia, Fall River, and Taunton one each. From whooping-cough, Brooklyn eight, New York six, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston three each, Pittsburg two, Baltimore, District of Columbia, New Bedford, and Peabody one each. From typhoid fever, Philadelphia eight, Chicago five, Cincinnati three, Brooklyn, Boston, and Baltimore two each, New York, Milwaukee, New Haven, Charleston, Cambridge, Holyoke, and Wakefield one each. From malarial fevers, New York six, Balmore three, Brooklyn two, Philadelphia and Chicago one each. From puerperal fever, Brooklyn four, Chicago three, Boston two, New York and Cincinnati one each. From cerebro-spinal meningitis, New York four, Philadelphia two, Milwaukee, New Haven, Fall River, and Salem one each. From erysipelas, Philadelphia four, New York and Boston two each, Brooklyn one. From small-por, Pittsburg two, Philadelphia one. In 100 cities and towns of Massachusetts, with an estimated population of 1,351,385 (estimated population of the State 1,955,104), the total death-rate for the week was 16.31 agalnst 16.50 and 14.86 for the previous two weeks. Cases reported in Boston: scarlet fever 51, diphtheria 32, typhoid fever six, and measles three; in Milwaukee, scarlet fever 15 and diphtheria seven. In the 28 greater towns of England and Wales, with an estimated population of 8,762,354, for the week ending May 24th, the death-rate was 19.9. Deaths reported 3343: acute diseases of the respiratory organs (London) 261, measles 156, whooping-cough 138, scarlet fever 68, diarrhoea 46, fever 37, diphtheria 28, small-pox (London 17, Sheffield three, Liverpool two, Derby and Sunderland one each) 24. The death-rates ranged from 10.9 in Birkenhead to 28.1 in Oldham ; Leicester 16.9; London 18.5; Bradford 18.9; Sheffield 19.3; Birmingham 20.6; Liverpool 21.2; Leeds 22; Nottingham 22.4; Manchester 25.1; Newcastle-on-Tyne 25.2; Blackburn 25.5. In Edinburgh 18.8; Glasgow 25.8; Dublin 23.8. For the week ending May 24th, in the Swiss towns, there were 35 deaths from consumption, typhoid fever 19, lung diseases 18, diarrhoeal diseases 18, diphtheria and croup seven, scarlet fever three, erysipelas two, whooping-cough one. The death-rates were, at Geneva 18.3; Zurich 15.8; Basle 22.6; Berne 14.4. The meteorological record for the week ending June 7th, in Boston, was as follows, according to observations fur nished by Sergeant O. B. Cole, of the U. S. Signal Corps: 1 O., cloudy; C., clear; F., fair; G., fog; H., hazy; S., smoky; R., rain; T., threatening. OFFICIAL LIST OF CHANGES IN THE STATIONS AND DUTIES OF OFFICERS SERVING IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT UNITED STATES ARMY FROM JUNE 7, 1884, TO JUNE 13, 1884. THE Army Medical Examining Board, New York City, is dissolved, to take effect June 14, 1884. BROWN, JOS. B., lieutenant-colonel and surgeon. Upon completion of the business of the A. M. B., directed to comply with S. O. 44, current series, A. G. O., and return to New York City. CLEMENTS, BENNETT A., major and surgeon. Directed to await orders in New York City. KIMBALL, JAMES P., captain and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for two months and fourteen days, to take effect June 14, 1884, and ordered to relieve, August 28, 1884, Captain Robert H. White, assistant surgeon, from duty at U. S. Military Academy, West Point, N. Y. CAPTAIN WHITE, on being relieved, ordered to report in person to the commanding general, Department of California, for assignment to duty. STERNBERG, GEORGE M., major and surgeon. Relieved from temporary duty in S. G. O., and ordered to assume the duties of attending surgeon and examiner of recruits at Baltimore, Md. S. O. 131, A. G. O., June 6, 1884. FINLEY, J. A., captain and assistant surgeon. Relieved from duty at Fort Stockton, Texas, and assigned to duty as post surgeon at Fort Concho, Texas. Paragraph 4, S. O. 69, headquarters Department of Texas, June 2, 1884. MIDDLETON, PASSMORE, captain and assistant surgeon. Leave of absence extended three months on surgeon's certificate of disability. Paragraph 3, S. O. 134, A. G. O., June 10, 1884. 0.45 0.03 BARNETT, RICHARDS, captain and assistant surgeon. Assigned to duty as post surgeon, Mount Vernon Barracks, Ala. Paragraph 2, S. O. 113, headquarters Department of the East, June 9, 1884. j GARDNER, EDWIN F., captain and assistant surgeon. Relieved from duty at Fort Walla Walla, Wash. Ter., and assigned to duty as post surgeon, Fort Canby, Wash. Ter. Paragraph 1, S. O. 75, headquarters Department of Columbia, June 3, 1884. CUNINGHAM, T. A., captain and assistant surgeon. Ordered to relieve Assistant Surgeon C. B. Byrne, U. S. A., from duty ordered to proceed to Fort Gibson, I. T., and report to the at Fort Lewis, Col. Assistant Surgeon Byrne, when so relieved, post commander for duty. Paragraph 2, S. O. 112, headqarters Department of Missouri, June 4, 1884. BANISTER, J. M., first lieutenant and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for one month and seven days, to commence June 13th. S. O. 22, headquarters Division of the Atlantic, June 5, 1884. MCCREERY, GEORGE, first lieutenant and assistant surgeon. Granted leave of absence for two months, with permission to apply to the Adjutant General of the Army for two months' extension. Paragraph 3, S. O. 56, headquarters Division of Missouri, June 5, 1884. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED.. The General Practitioner's Guide to Diseases and Injuries of the Eye and Eyelids. By Louis H. Tosswill, B. A., M. B., etc., etc. London. J. & A. Churchill. 1884. A Glioma of the Right Eye spreading by Metastasis through many Periosteal Centres. By Julian J. Chisholm, M. D. Bal timore, Md. (Reprint.) 1884. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Education. Preliminary Circular respecting the Exhibition of Education at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. Washington. 1884. Report on the Epidemic of Enteric Fever in Port Jervis. State Board of Health of New York. Twenty-Third Annual Report of the Cincinnati Hospital to the Mayor of Cincinnati for the Fiscal Year ending December 31, 1883. Proceedings of an Informal Conference of the U. S. Commissioners of the World's Industrial and Cotton and Centennial Exposition, etc. Washington. 1884. Dartmouth Medical College. Eighty-eighth Annual Course of Lectures, New Hampshire Medical Institution. Hanover, N. H. 1884. Notes on a Copy of Dr. William Douglass' Almanack for 1743, touching on the Subject of Medicine in Massachusetts before his Time. By Samuel Abbott Green, M. D. A Treatise on Õphthalmology for the General Practitioner. Illustrated by Adolf Alt, M. D. Chicago, Ill.: J. H. Chambers & Co. 1884. Health Hints for Travelers. By John C. Sundberg, M. D Philadelphia: D. G. Brinton. 1884. Die Nanheimer Sprudel und Sprudelstrombäder von Dr. August Schott und Dr. Theodor Schott in Bad Nanheim. Separat-Abdruck aus der Berl. klin. Wochens. 1884. No. 19. |