says Dr. J., "in the number and value of the papers presented, in the interest shown in the discussions, in the extent and value of the exhibits of apparatus, in the number of new members added, in the social features and entertainments, the meeting just brought to a close was all that the most sanguine friends of the Society could have hoped for."

Dr. James then proceeds to give particulars, which we copy in full, as follows:

The attendance as remarked was large. It was especially so in old working members who, from various reasons, have remained away for several years. Several who could not come sent friendly greetings by letter or telegraph, showing that their hearts were there. There were some, alas, whose faces were missed, and who will never again be seen among us. One of these was Henry Mills, himself a life-long resident of Buffalo, and whose death we announced a few months ago. Perhaps no man in the Association was more sadly missed, for in spite of his weight of years, (seventy-six when he died) there was no one more youthful in spirit than he. Allen Y. Moore, of Cleveland, was another who had gone over to the great majority. The death of Charles Fasoldt, Sr., of Albany, is too recent to need to be recalled. Perhaps the saddest loss to the Society was that of a young man, just commencing a career of scientific usefulness-Boardman L. Oviatt, who was killed in a recent railway accident somewhere in Michigan. All of these were duly remembered by the Society by appropriate resolutions.

THE MEETINGS.

When it was determined to hold the annual meeting at Buffalc, the local society of that place, assisted by the Buffalo Society of the Natural Sciences, appointed a joint committee of arrangements of which Dr. Lee H. Smith was chairman and Dr. Lewis Bull secretary, and these, supported by the hands and purses of the members of both societies, made the most complete and excellent arrangements for our entertainment both during work and play hours. The place of meeting was the rooms of the Society of Natural Sciences in the grand Buffalo Library Building—an edifice of sandstone and granite which gives shelter to the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts, the Buffalo Library Association, with its library of sixty thousand volumes; the Buffalo

Historical Society, also the possessor of a large library of books, pamphlets and manuscripts relating to local and American history, a large ethnological collection and museum of aboriginal archæology; and to some other learned and scientific clubs and societies. Our host, the Society of Natural Sciences, is an institution of which many a larger and richer city might justly be proud. It occupies the entire ground or basement floor of the building, and its large and exceedingly valuable collection of slabs, casts, mounted skeletons and papier-maché copies of fossil fauna, is one of the first things that attracts attention on entering the apartments. The amphitheatre or lecture hall, capable of seating perhaps five hundred persons, and a handsome welllighted room, is in the center of the suite. From it lead hallways or ante-rooms conducting one to the library of the society (independent of the public library above referred to) and the natural history museum. This latter has one of the most complete collections of the birds and reptiles of America to be found anywhere in this country. The Society met in the amphitheatre and, after the first session, about half filled it.

THE PROCEEDINGS, ETC.

Owing to the lack of space we must defer anything like even a resume of the papers until our next issue. Among them were several of deep interest to medicine, and others of great value to the working microscopist. Scarcely a paper was presented which did not elicit lively and valuable discussion. The working session was also full of points of interest and value, the tables being surrounded during the entire afternoon by crowds of earnest workers. The soirée was an immense success, bringing into the Library building a throng estimated at upward of twenty-five hundred people during the course of the evening.

The election for officers resulted as follows:
President, Geo. E. Fell, Buffalo.

Vice-Presidents, Dr. W. N. Seaman, of Washington, and Mr. F. W. Kühne, of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Treasurer (to fill the unexpired term of Dr. Mosgrove, resigned), C. C. Mellor, of Pittsburg, Pa.

Executive Committee: Dr. F. L. James, St. Louis, Mo., W. P. Manton, Detroit, Mich., and W. H. Walmsley, Philadelphia.

The time and place of next meeting was not definitely determined.

Gleanings.

THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC HEADACHES.-"Doctor, what is good for headaches?" is a question which pursues the physician from youth to old age, and which he is sometimes sorely puzzled to answer. In the Transactions of the Medical Society of New York, 1889," Dr. Dana discusses briefly the nature and cure of chronic headaches. The headaches of young children are best treated with small doses of the iodide of iron or the citrate of iron and quinine. In school children advantage is obtained by removal from school, the use of tonics and change of diet. If there is marked visual trouble, glasses should be tried. In some children arsenic is beneficial.

Among adults, brain-workers require different treatment from muscle-workers. Brain-workers are benefited by nervines like antipyrin, caffein and the bromides, and by attention to diet and exercise and to the eyes. Among muscle-workers, especially women, anæmia, malaria, syphilis and rheumatic influences require attention.

For the rapid relief of the headache itself, ammonium muriate 3 ss to 3 i, in wafers, is one of the best agents. The headache of neurasthenia is often cured by grains v of menthol in hot water, or by menthol grains v to x with antifebrin grains v to x. Phenacetin, also, is a good remedy. Antipyrin is often most valuable when given in small, frequent doses. The effervescent bromide or caffein mixtures contain too little of these drugs to be of much service.

Locally, aconitia in sprays or lotion; menthol, in twenty per cent. solution, on sheet lint, bound to the head; cyanide of potash applied in solution after Trusseau's method; and Rithet's tobacco and quinine snuff, are of value.

In persistent cases of headache of obscure origin, iodide of potassium may be used, or the strong galvanic current or static electricity may be tried. Such headaches may really be the result of diffuse neuritis, and will then call for treatment suitable to the underlying disease.-Maryland Medical Journal.

DIPHTHERITIC PARALYSIS.-The general impression about the prognosis of diphtheritic paralysis used to be that it was not very unfavorable. But the labors of some of the

medical staff of the Great Ormond Street Hospital go to show otherwise. In children the affection is by no means one on which the physician can look with a satisfied gaze. The paralysis brings in its train a fatal possibility, chiefly from three directions: heart, lungs, and larynx-the organs whose innervation is largely by the vagus and phrenic nerves, the motor fibres of which are derived from nerve cells in the anterior horns of the spinal cord or their equivalents in the floor of the fourth ventricle. Dr. Harry Swift's pamphlet will serve to extend the knowledge of the prognosis of diphtheritic palsy on the continent of Australia. The work is constructed in excellent form, and contains many observations made by the author, whilst one of the resident medical officers at the Great Ormond Street Hospital. The mode of disappearance of the knee-jerk, as described by Dr. Swift, differs from that observed by Dr. Angel Money, who made out an increased excitability of this phenomenon prior to its final extinction. Dr. Her ringham also discovered a similar excessive irritability of the deep reflexes during the period of restoration of the kneejerk. The long absence of the knee-jerk in cases of postdiphtheritic debility unattended by actual paralysis is a fact on which Bernhard first laid proper stress. The knee-jerk is one of the most delicate indicators of the state of the nervous system, and some small muscles come, perhaps, next to it in sensitiveness—e. g., the neuro-muscular apparatus of the ciliary muscle, the pupil, and the ocular muscles. Cases of complete ophthalmoplegia have been recorded as the outcome of diphtheria. - Lancet.

CLINICAL ASPECTS OF VOMITING.-After reviewing the act of vomiting, Dr. John H. Musser, of Philadelphia, divided it into direct and reflex. Changes in the organs of sense, etc., will also cause vomiting. The duration, time of day, and character of vomit should all be considered in looking for the cause. In naso-pharyngeal catarrh, and in chronic uterine diseases, morning vomiting is not infrequent. Sudden and painless vomiting in the aged is often one of the first symptoms of cerebral hemorrhage. There is no exhaustion in this kind of vomiting. If collapse occur, the vomiting may be uræmic. Prognosis is always grave in these conditions. In all conditions of vomiting the cause should be looked for.

Translations.

Translations from Our Foreign Exchanges.

Translated for MEDICAL NEWs, from the French, by Dr. Illowy,
Cincinnati, Ohio.

ASTHMA IN CHILDREN; ABSTRACT OF CLINICAL LECTURE BY PROF. GRANCHER.

THE following case, a rather rare one, relates to a case of asthma occurring in a child somewhat obese itself, and born of asthmatic parents. The paroxysms of dyspnoea came on in the evening at the period when the child went to bed, and lasted about a quarter of an hour. After this first period it is seized with cough and expectoration, and then goes to sleep quickly. These phenomena occur almost every even ing, interrupted, however, at times by an interval of calm of three or four days' duration. The disease first manifested itself about four years ago, and has continued since of this mild but persistent type.

Despite this abnormal aspect, it is nevertheless certain that it is a case of hereditary asthma that we are confronted by here, and which has been considerably ameliorated by the iodide of potassium.

Asthma in children is not infrequent; it is most commonly met with about the age of two years, but it may also be observed before this period, though the facts reported as to this period of life must be taken with considerable

reserve.

In one patient the diagnosis is rendered more difficult by the slight intensity of the symptoms, and, on the hand, in other cases it is the very intensity of the manifestations that may be the cause of error. M. Grancher has thus observed a little patient who, after a severe attack of whooping cough, was afflicted with very intense paroxysms of asthma. The first of these attacks occurred during a voyage, and the physician who was called to attend the case, made a diagnosis of croup of great gravity, and but little and the child would have been tracheotomized. Since this epoch, the attacks have recurred in a rather particular form The crisis presents three distinct periods. In the first, the infant coughs and expectorates more than usual for three to five days; then comes the true paroxysm, which repeats itself for three or four successive nights; this attack comes on at about midnight, and lasts for one or two hours; the