methods of resuscitation been alone resorted to. The asphyxia was in all the cases, but one, due to opium or morphia, and in none was an anæsthetic the responsible cause. Nor do we know that this method would be as successful after an anesthetic as in the instances referred to; but our experience in the resuscitation of dogs, whose breathing has ceased after the administration of ether and chloroform, leads us to believe that it would be well worth the trial. Indeed, it was this observation of Dr. Fell in his physiological experimentations which first led him to the use of forced respiration in asphyxia.

The question may well be asked whether, in light of the success of Dr. Fell, our whole duty is done until the forced-respiration method has been tried in all forms of asphyxia.. We commend to our readers the papers of Dr. Fell, which are published in the "Transactions of the New York State Medical Association" (1888, 1889), and in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, of March, 1888. His longcontinued efforts to save human life-in one instance extended over twenty-four hours, and with a successful result-certainly deserve the warmest commendation. And no surgeon can afford to ignore his method without having first given it the fullest trial.

THE EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA.

This

One of the most striking papers we remember to have read was prepared, some years ago, by Dr. Benjamin Lee, of Philadelphia, on the cost of an epidemic of small-pox to the people of that city. paper gave not only the actual loss which was incurred by the sickness and death of so many active individuals in the community, but the prospective loss as well of their services and of those of the children who succumbed.

Such a paper, dealing with the epidemic of influenza of 1889-'90 for all the countries visited, would contain statistics which would be inconceivable in their proportion. The cost to England alone is estimated at $10,000,000: one-half of this amount having been paid to insurance companies of various kinds, the other half representing loss of wages, etc. All of this was not a loss to the community, for presumably the money paid for insurance remained to a great extent in the country; but even leaving this out of the account, the actual cost was enormous, doubtless far surpassing the figures quoted.

It is to be hoped, as well for economic as for other reasons, that the fears of some, that the epidemic is to reappear this year, will not be realized.

KOCH'S CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

The sensation of the past month has been the announcement that Koch has discovered a cure for consumption. This has come to us principally through the lay press, although within a few days Koch himself has made a contribution on the subject to the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift. If we understand the matter aright, Koch regards it as still sub judice, and has appeared in print only because his researches have been publicly communicated through the press in such form as to demand that he should put himself right before the profession. It is too early to pronounce the treatment a success and the greatest boon to humanity of the nineteenth century, etc., etc. It is a subject of such vast importance that we can well afford to wait until Koch has himself declared it a success and has submitted to the world his methods, which are as yet unknown except to a favored few.

COUNTER-PRESCRIBING.

The evils of counter-prescribing have become so great in St. Joseph, Neb., that some of the physicians of that city have determined to test in the courts the rights of druggists to prescribe for the sick. It is said. that a syphilitic was being treated by a drug-clerk of the town under a contract to cure him in four months at the rate of $6 per month.

That this practice is largely indulged in in Brooklyn, no one at all familiar with the facts doubts; and any effort to mitigate the evil here would be to the advantage of both the purse and the welfare of many a poor sufferer.

OBITUARY.

GEORGE F. LLOYD, M.D., AND J. E. GREGORY, M. D.

The death of Dr. George F. Lloyd, at the Kings County Hospital, by the hand of an assassin, and that of Dr. J. E. Gregory, of 414 Clinton Street, by the self-administration of chloroform, for the relief of facial neuralgia, have been announced. As both physicians were. members of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, we shall defer the publication of obituary notices until the committees appointed for that purpose shall present their report.

MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COUNTY OF KINGS.

A regular monthly meeting of the Medical Society of the County of Kings was held at the Society rooms, 356 Bridge Street, Tuesday evening, October 21st, at 8 o'clock.

Dr. Walter B. Chase in the chair; Dr. Myerle, Secretary.

There were about 100 members present.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. The Council reported favorably upon the following applicants for membership, and recommended that they be duly elected :

Drs. Clarence W. Sheldon, William C. Braislin, Martin Amador, H. Messenger Ayres, Wilbur L. Rickard, Arthur E. Smyle, Sidney Herbert Gardner, F. E. Boyden, and M. J. Leland..

The following applications for membership were presented:

Dr. John O. F. Hill, Coney Island, L. I. C. H., 1886; proposed by Dr. Thos. Wilde, seconded by Dr. W. M. Hutchinson.

Dr. J. Barney Low, 221 53d Street, Georgetown Med. Coll., 1881 (Washington, D. C.); proposed by Dr. Geo. H. Parshall, seconded by Dr. W. M. Hutchinson.

Dr. Wm. Newman, 574 Lafayette Avenue; proposed by Dr. M. E. Parrott, seconded by Dr..W. B. Chase.

Dr. James M. Griffin was declared elected to membership.

SCIENTIFIC BUSINESS.

The first paper of the evening, entitled "The Dangers of Suturing Recent Fractures of the Patella," by Dr. Geo. R. Fowler, was read, and discussed by Dr. Pilcher.

Dr. E. S. Bunker read the second paper of the evening, entitled "The Surgery of Pelvic Abscess, with a case of Laparotomy," which was discussed by Drs. Jewett and Fowler.

Dr. J. B. Mattison presented a "Note on Hypnol, the new Nervine," which was discussed by Drs. Eccles and Burge.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS.

The chair stated that in the absence of the Secretary and Treasurer the matter of the membership of the late Dr. Lloyd was somewhat in doubt, but that the question would be taken up later to determine whether he had completed his membership before his death, looking toward the appointment of an Obituary Committee to take proper action relative to the same.

There being no further business, on motion the Society adjourned. DAVID MYERLE,

Assistant Secretary.

SURGERY.

BY GEO. RYERSON FOWLER, M. D.,

Surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital, and to the Methodist Episcopal Hospital, Brooklyn.

A MODIFICATION OF THE INTESTINAL SUTURE FOR THE FORMATION OF AN ANASTOMOSIS BETWEEN TWO PORTIONS OF INTESTINE.

Dr. Willy Sachs, Berne (Centralblatt f. Chirurgie, No. 40, 189c). The author offers a simplification of Senn's method, by means of decalcified bone plates, as follows: The bowel-loops are fixed side by side and a longitudinal incision made in each in the usual manner. A "cuff-button" made of decalcified bone, and through the centre of which a canal is bored, is then placed in position and sutures passed through the peritoneal surfaces only, with the view of attaching serous surface to serous surface, without invading the mucosa with the needle and thereby forming a centre of infection between the interior of the intestinal canal and the peritoneal cavity, as it is claimed occurs in Senn's method. A greater simplicity of technique is likewise claimed for this modification. Experiments upon rabbits form the basis of this proposal; the method has never been employed upon man.

STERILIZATION OF CATGUT AND SPONGES BY DRY HEAT.

Benckiser (3d Congress of the German Gynecological Society, 1889, Centralblatt f. Chirurgie, No. 37, 1890).

B. proposes to sterilize catgut by means of dry heat, exposing it in Rohrbeck's sterilizer to a temperature of from 130° to 140° C. for two hours. The gut is rendered hard and brittle, but by immersing it for a short time previous to the operation in either sterilized water or carbolic acid solution, it becomes soft and pliable. Catgut, infected by means of staphylococcis, and then exposed to the above temperature, showed sterilization to be complete. Such catgut, employed in puerperal perineal suture, and in perineorraphies after Lawson Tait's method, gave uniformly good results.

Sponges are sterilized in the same manner.

HEMATURIA IN NEOPLASMS OF THE BLADDER, AND ITS OPERATIVE
TREATMENT.

Guyon (Gaz. des Hôpitaux, 1890, No. 66).

The author, in reporting a case of tumor of the bladder, in a thirtyyear-old male, offers some original observations upon the subject of vesical neoplasms, and their diagnosis and treatment. A positive diagnosis by means of the endoscope is considered of the greatest import

ance. The extent of the hæmorrhage is no criterion of either the size or character of the growth; a comparatively insignificant papilloma is frequently the occasion of a very serious hæmorrhage.

The supra-pubic route is chosen in reaching the interior of the bladder; after opening the latter, the growth is seized by means of two hook-shaped forceps and brought as nearly as possible into the middle of the field of view. The pedicle is then excised, together with a portion of the surrounding bladder wall.

The author does not favor the complete suturing of the bladder wall at the site of the supra-pubic incision, but prefers to introduce a drain at each end of the incision, suturing the intervening space, which latter are removed at the end of ten days, as a rule. The solidity of the cicatricial tissue, which finally marks the site of the operation, according to G., is in no way interfered with.

A HERETOFORE UNKNOWN DANGER DURING OPERATIONS UPON LARGE AND OLD INGUINAL HERNIA.

Prof. Kuester (Berlin).

The author calls attention to a new complication which may be met with in the course of operations for the reduction of old large inguinal hernia. In a case cited in which the protrusion, the size of a child's head, and which had remained unreduced for upwards of a year, the operation for radical cure was resorted to. Without the slightest evidences of either nausea or vomiting, the patient gradually became cyanosed, with shallow breathing. This occurred synonymously with the attempt to reduce the contents of the sac; during this effort it became plainly evident that the abdominal space was too small to permit of reposition, and K. determined to resect a portion of the cæcum, together with the vermiform appendix, which was distended with enteroliths, which still remained unreduced. When the above mentioned untoward symptoms manifested themselves, artificial respiration. was resorted to, but no improvement followed. Rapid tracheotomy gave ingress to air, but the patient had passed beyond restoration. mass of partially digested food escaped from the trachea after being opened. This had been forced out of the stomach along the œsophagus into the pharynx, and thence by the respiratory act into the larynx by the mechanical pressure incident to the attempt at reposition of the hernial mass.

K. suggests that in all such hernia cases, the stomach be washed out preliminarily to the operation.

STRICTURE OF ESOPHAGUS.

Terillon (Progrès Méd., 1890, No. 13).

The author reports a case of impassable stricture of the oesophagus, in which, after pulmonary gastrotomy, through which the patient was