MEMBERSHIP IN THE AMERICAN PHAMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION is obtained only by election at the annual meeting. “Every pharmacist and druggist of good moral and professional standing, whether in business on his own account, retired from business or employed by another, and those teachers of pharmacy, chemistry and botany who may be especially interested in pharmacy, and materia medica," are eligible for membership. For blank application and further information, address Dr. H. M. Whelpley, 2929 Washington avenue, St. Louis, Mo., Chairman of the Committee on Membership.

GONORRHOEAL RASH.-DR. VOITURING describes a gonorrheal rash which he has observed in several cases. The rash was not due to the ingestion of any drug; it very much resembled that of measles, and lasted for several days. While we have never recognized a genuine gonorrhœal rash, yet we are free to admit that one who knowingly contracts gonorrhœa is rash indeed.

UNIQUE MEASURES FOR LIMITING THE SPREAD OF GRIPPE have_been in vogue lately in England. Anyone found walking the streets of Dover while laboring under an attack of the ubiquitous malady is immediately fined $25 by the town authorities. We imagine that the streets give a banquethall-deserted appearance under this very hygienic and treasury-replenishing

scheme.

DR. W. E. B. DAVIS, of Birmingham, Ala., has removed from that city to Rome, Georgia, where, in conjunction with Dr. Holmes, he will confine his practice to a sanitarium for diseases of women, and to consultations. Dr. Davis is thoroughly competent in his chosen field, and he will doubtless meet with the abundant success which he deserves

A SAFE HYPNOTIC.-Paralehyd, given in doses of one-half to two drachms, is a safe and thoroughly reliable hypnotic in cases of mania a potu, as well as in mild cases of insomnia. It can be exhibited in a glass of cold milk, and is not particularly objectionable when given in this way.

THE DOCTOR'S WEEKLY, in newspaper form, is the latest acquisition to the journalistic field, by Dr. Ferdinand King, who has resigned the editorship of the International Journal of Surgery. We welcome, with pleasure, this new product of Dr. King's journalistic proclivities.

THE GRIPPE MICROBE. It is reported by the lay press that Dr. Pfeffer, son-in-law of Prof. Koch, and another Berlin physician, whose name is not mentioned, have, independently of one another, discovered the bacillus of influenza, which, it is claimed is the smallest known. It may be little, but oh, my!

DR. B. VON STEINMETZ, who has served in the Health Department as Assistant Dispensary Physician for five years, has resigned to give his entire time to private practice.

DR. FLAVIUS M. WILDER, of Chicago, on Jan. 13th, was shot and killed by an insane man, who had been confined in an asylum on the testimony of Dr. Wilder, in 1889.

The Reviewers' Table.

A MANUAL OF VENEREAL DISEASES, by Everett M. Gulver, A. M., M. D., Pathologist and Assistant Surgeon to Manhattan Hospital of New York; and James R. Hayden, M. D., Chief of Clinic for Venereal Department of Vanderbilt Clinics, New York. 1891. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co.

THE authors present in this little book of 300 pages, in a very condensed form, much practical, reliable and aseful information on the three veneral diseases, gonorrhœa, chancroid and syphilis. Being well up to date, it shows the evidences of familiarity with the newer literature on these subjects. The portion relating to stricture is especially commendable, following, as it does, the very rational views of Dr. Stewart, of Pittsburg.

ARTIFICIAL ANESTHESIA AND ANESTHETICS, by DeForest Willard, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery in University of Pensylvania, and Lewis J. Adler, Jr., M. D., Instructor in Rectal Diseases, Philadelphia Polyclinic. 1891. Physicians' Leisure Library Series. Issued monthly; subscription price, $2.50 a year, 25 cents single copies. Detroit, Mich.: Geo. S. Davis.

THIS manual is a worthy review of the uses, abuses and dangers of the several anæsthetic agents. It is based not only on the experience of the authors, but also on a careful consideration of the great mass of testimony, clinical and experimental, adduced by investigators both in this and other countries. Both general and local anæsthetics are considered, and many instructive hints are embraced in its pages. The part relating to the medicolegal aspects of anesthesia is especially interesting. The possibility of anæsthetizing a sleeping person without his knowledge or consent, is asserted.

AN ABSTRACT OF SYMPTOMS, with the Latest Dietetic and Medical Treatment of Various Diseased Conditions; The Food Products, Digestion and Asssimilation. 1891. New York: Reed & Carnrick, 447 Greenwich street.

THIS is a small treatise, neatly gotten up, on the new and valuable preparations manufactured by the well-known house of Reed & Carnrick. It gives in succinct and attractive style, the physiology of digestion and assimilation; the principles upon which derangements of these functions should be treated, according to modern views, and the mode and indications for the application of the admirable remedies submitted to the profession for their treatment. Affections of the stomach, liver, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, etc., all receive consideration. The book will be furnished free, on application to the publishers.

MADEMOISELLE GIRAUD, MY WIFE, by Adolphe Belot. Chicago: Laird & Lee. 1891. Price, $1.00.

THIS rather paradoxical title intimates to the initiated the context of this rather remarkable, essentially Frenchy, tale of Lesbian love. It is told with all the directness that characterizes the French novelist; and where the text fails to inform, illustrations fill the gap. Boarding schools for young ladies receive the condemnation of the author, as being the source of cultivation of the perverted sexual instinct alluded to in the book.

Society Proceedings.

Secretaries of Societies are requested to keep us posted concerning meetings, elections, transactions, etc.

ST. LOUIS MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Stated meeting, Saturday, December 19, 1891; the President, L. Bremer, M. D., in the chair.

Dr. W. Fischel presented a patient illustrative of permanent œsophageal intubation. The patient was 72 years of age. In September of this year he had had difficulty in swallowing, and afterwards he had experienced a persistent feeling of heaviness about the pit of the stomach. He prescribed some indifferent remedy, in the hope that the difficulty was, simply a passing ailment, caused, perhaps, by some disturbance of the digestive function. Nothing more was heard of the case until December 1, when the speaker was sent for, and, on visiting the patient, found that the latter had not swallowed food for three days. A little inclined to think that the patient exaggerated the trouble, he offered him a glass of water, and in rather peremptory tones, directed him to drink it. He took two or three swallows, and then stopped, and said he could drink no more. Within three or four minutes the fluid was regurgitated. The chemical examination of this regurgitated mass revealed no trace of stomach contents; the reporter, therefore, concluded that it had not reached the stomach, but remained in the œsophagus. An attempt to introduce a very small elastic stomach tube, failed absolutely: he then tried another not quite so soft and pliant, and afterwards the œsophageal sound; with this, by using a little force, he finally succeeded. He then introduced a canula through the stenosis into the stomach, and the patient swallowed a glass of milk, and then some bread, softened in the milk. The stricture was about six centimeters from the cardia. After the canula was introduced, the thread attached to it was fastened back of the ear with adhesive plaster; but the patient becoming nervous lest the thread might become loosened, and he might swallow the whole, he fastened it to a silk handkerchief tied around his neck.

The patient has since gained perceptibly in strength and weight. The tube in situ gives no inconvenience whatever; indeed, he is not conscious of its presence. He now takes broth and an abundance of milk, milk-punch, bread and toast thoroughly soaked in milk; he has even taken a little liver sausage dissolved in his soup.

ST. LOUIS MEDICAL SOCIETY. -The following standing committees were appointed for the coming year by the President, Dr. Walter Coles: Executive Committee: A. V. L. Brokaw, H. C. Dalton, E. C. Burnett. Committee on Ethics: J. M. Scott, F. J. Lutz, T. A. Martin.

clay.

Committee on Elections: F. D. Mooney, F. A. Glasgow, Robert Bar

Committee on Publication and Debate: W. L. Blickhahn, H. W. Hermann, G. E. Alvord. Library Committee: H. Hickman, Y. H. Bond, R. J. Stoffel.

Reports on Progress.

GENERAL

SURGERY.

BY L. T. RIESMEYER, M. D.,

Prof. of Physiology, Beaumont Hospital Medical College, St. Louis.

Koch's Tuberculin in Surgery.

Schede of Hamburg has reported a series of cases of surgical tuberculosis which were treated with Koch's tuberculin. He begins with very minute doses, gradually increased. The doses must be so small that no intense reaction takes place. Administered in this way, the remedy may be injected daily, and the organism will gradually tolerate much larger doses without any local or constitutional disturbance. Failures in the treatment of surgical tuberculosis, Schede attributes to too large doses administered in the beginning. The doses should never be so large as to cause an intense reaction.

The tubercular focus can be removed in its entirety, by operation, with more certainty, since the diseased parts become very soft and pliable, and are easily removed. Schede has had decidedly better results in operating with, than without the remedy.-[Centralbl. fuer Chirurg.

A New Method of Treatment for Tuberculosis, Especially Surgical Tuberculosis, By Max Schueller

Schueller uses, in addition to injections of iodoform, or removal of diseased focus, guaiacol in doses of two to five drops four or five times daily, in sugar, water, milk, wine, etc., with unusually good results. All other internal remedies have been discontinued by the author. Hygienic treatment, baths, massage and electricity were used in connection with the remedy, if possible. A number of cases treated with Koch's tuberculin yielded unsatisfactory results. [Centralbl. fuer Chirurg.

Treatment of Myxedema by Means of Hypodermatic Injections of an Extract of the Thyroid Gland of a Sheep

Murray (British Medical Journal, Oct. Ioth, '91), reports a case of myxedema in a woman forty-six years old, in whom manifest improvement took place in the course of the subcutaneous administration of an extract prepared from the thyroid gland of a sheep.

The Restoration of Defects in Tendons

Kummel (Wiener medizin. Presse-Medical News) has reported the case of a coachman who, while managing a pair of balky horses, perceived a sense of pressure, followed by severe transitory pain, involving the whole of the left arm. Shortly thereafter a swelling appeared in the region of the left wrist-joint, the functional activity of the hand, however, remaining un

\

impaired. Several hours later severe pain in the left arm appeared. The thumb hung limp, and could be neither adducted nor extended; it felt numb and cold. The injury was considered a luxation, and treated by means of applications of lead-water. At the end of three weeks there remained no doubt that the extensor pollicis longus had been ruptured. Upon opening the sheath of the tendon it was found that the central extremity had retracted to the middle of the forearm. The distal extremity lay rolled up on the metacarpal bone of the thumb. Attempts to approximate the two segments proving unsuccessful, the diastasis of almost four inches was supplied by moderately strong twisted silk thread. The wound in the skin was closed and the extremity was dressed in hyperextension. The first change of dressings was made at the end of two weeks, the position of hyperextension being from time to time gradually relaxed. At the end of six weeks the splint was permanently removed, and movement was carefully instituted. In the course of four weeks more the patient was able to use the thumb with considerable force.

The case demonstrates the possibility of replacing defects of tendons by non-vital structure, with restoration of function. It is possible that the silk threads furnish a guide and support for the connective tissue that is to replace the defect.

Fever and Constipation after Operation

Perier, in the Gaz. des Hopitaux, 1891, draws attention to a cause of fever after operations, which possibly may explain some cases of so-called aseptic fever. According to Perier, nine-tenths of all cases of fever after operation are, in this aseptic era, due to constipation. He noticed, after operations, temperatures up to 104° Fahr., that became normal upon the administration of a mild laxative. The fever is explained by an intestinal autoinfection, produced by the absorption of ptomaines. It is therefore well in every operation, to see that the intestines are evacuated. In all serious operations, especially those in which the peritoneal cavity is opened the author recommended intestinal antisepsis by the administration of beta-naphthol and salicylate of bismuth. If fever occurs after operation, a laxative should at once be given, excepting in cases where the bowels need absolute rest (operations on the digestive tract).--[Centralbl fuer Chirurg. Amputation of the Sacrum for Posterior Abdominal Section-[Rose]

(Cœliectomia Posterior, Deutsche Zeitschr. fuer Chirurgie). After Kraske published his method of preliminary sacro-coccygeal resection, Hochenegg and Bardenheuer removed still more of the sacrum, the latter extending the resection up to the third sacral foramina. Rose goes one step further and amputates the sacrum at the level of the great sacro-sciatic notch, the section dividing the second sacral foramina, the nerves of the cauda equina being necessarily divided also. R. has operated six times and found that no particular harm was done by the amputation of the nerves. Very good access to the pelvis, and, if the peritoneum is to be opened, to the abdominal cavity, is obtained. For instance, in one case of carcinoma of the iliac flexure, the examining hand could readily palpate the spleen! The bleeding from cutting of the bone (which is done with the bone forceps), is