with the yolks of egg, add the gum tragacanth, make a good mucilage, and then add very gradually the glycerine and sulphur. Many cures have been obtained by this preparation, which has the advantage of giving no pain.

The well-known Helmerich ointment being really useful, M. Bourguignon has modified it, and substituted glycerine for the axunge. In the altered form, the preparation is not any dearer, as efficacious, and less painful than the original ointment. It does not grease the clothes, and has an agreeable perfume. Gum tragacanth, fifteen grains; carbonate of potash, thirteen drachms; well-pounded sulphur, twenty-six drachms; glycerine, fifty-two drachms; essence of lavender, lemon, mint, cloves and cinnamon, of each fifteen drops. Total weight, nearly eleven ounces. Make a mucilage with the gum and one ounce of glycerine, add the carbonate, mix until it is dissolved, and then gradually add the sulphur and glycerine; lastly, pour in the essences. With this compound, M. Bourguignon advises two general frictions of half an hour, within twelve hours of each other, and followed, twentyfour hours afterward, by a simple warm bath, as the glycerine is soluble in water. Two-thirds of the preparation should be used for the first friction, and the other third for the second.-London Lancet.

3. Hydrophobia treated with Calomel.-Dr. John E. H. Liggett of Middleburg, Md., reports in the last number of the American Medical Journal, a case of hydrophobia successfully treated with calomel. He administered to his patient doses to the amount of 3j. repeated every four hours. The patient was a colored girl, aged 20, was bitten by a rabid dog, about the first of July; she manifested symptoms of hydrophobia about the 15th of the month, having convulsions, inability to swallow fluids, etc. The mercurial treatment was kept up from the 16th to the 20th of the month, producing very prompt arrest of the more urgent symptoms, and speedy convalescence.

4. Tannin in Albuminurious Anasarca.-Dr. P. Garnier reports three cases of the above disease in which he used tannin in 3 ss. to 3 j. doses, with, he thinks, marked effect. Since seeing his treatment, I have had one case in which I used the tannin, with apparent good effect. It will be recollected by members of the

society that Dr. Gaston used large doses of tannin in a case of hæmorrhage from a malignant tumor, with the effect of prolonging life for many months. Knowing tannin to be the best indirect hæmostatic we have, the modus operandi is at once plain. By its use you arrest the effusion of fluid, and give the absorbent and other emunctories time to remove that already accumulated. Dr. H. WEST, Belmont Med. Journal.

5. Smoking the Exciting Cause of Cancer.--M. Bouisson has published a valuable article in the Montpelier Medical, wherein he endeavors to prove that smoking is often a very active exciting cause of epithelial cancer about the tongue, lips, sides of the cheeks, or soft palate.

M. Bouisson has collected sixty-eight cases of cancer and cancroid of the lips, in which the habit of smoking was either carried to excess, or was very inveterate. He considers that such morbid products have more frequently been seen since the custom of smoking has become general; but concedes that, for the development of cancer, there must be the proper diathesis. The author maintains, however, that this tendency would often have remained latent without the local exciting cause to which we have alluded. He further states, in support of this opinion, that labial cancer mostly attacks the lower lip, where the cigar or pipe rests; and that such cancer is rare with women and children. One young lady is mentioned who suffered from the affection; but she used by stealth to smoke immoderately. The more inveterate the habit, the more frequent the cancer, especially with those who smoke short pipes and strong tobacco. Cleanliness, long pipes and mild tobacco may keep off the the complaint.

M. Bouisson operated upon a medical man of Barcelona, who, in the Spanish fashion, allowed the smoke of cigarettes to escape through the nose. The nostrils were filled with epithelial vegeta

tions.

No doubt M. Bouisson's paper is extremely valuable; but it might be asked whether the disease in persons laboring under the diathesis would not have broken out elsewhere. It is, besides, well known that labial cancer has been found in patients who never smoked in their lives. That smoking may act as an exciting cause, is, however, both rational and in accordance with fact.-London Lancet.

6. Another Sovereign Remedy for Ascarides.-The Amer. Med. Monthly says Dr. Compénat has got a cure for ascarides, which has never failed in his hands. It is a simple injection of water, containing five, ten, fifteen or twenty drops of sulphuric ether, according to the age of the individual, and repeated more or less frequently, according to the number of the animals present. This agent, he says, has a double advantage: by its subtilty it readily enters into and destroys the larvæ; and by its antispasmodic powers it allays the spasmodic and the nervous symptoms produced by the animals.

7. Pulmonary Consumption-A Prescription of Dr. Louis.-The Druggist copies the following from Championniere's Journal: "To support strength, to subdue the cough and promote sleep, to diminish night-sweats, such are the three-fold indications which are met by the following prescription of Mr. Louis, in the case of confirmed phthisis: 1. Take, one hour before the principal meals, one pill of proto-iodide of iron (Pilules de Blancard). After ten days, increase the dose to two pills, and drink immediately afterwards a small tea-cupful of infusion of quassia, made with cold water, and not sweetened; 2. At night, or four hours after the last meal, take a pill of extract of opium from one-sixth to a half grain; 3. If abundant perspiration be present, take at bedtime one or two pills of two and a quarter grains of white agaric; 4. The diet should be generous, but not stimulating."

8. Fotid Sweating of the Feet.-M. Gaffard recommends as a most effectual agent, the applying between the toes of a few drops of the following liquid. An application once a week is usuall5 sufficient, but during summer it may sometimes be required to be made daily: Red oxide of lead 1 part, and the liquor of the subacetate of lead of the French Codex (3 parts of acetate, and 1 of lithrage, to 9 of distilled water) 29 parts; bruise the sesquioxide of lead in a porcelain mortar, and add the liquor gradually, directing the bottle to be well shaken whenever it is used. -L' Union Méd.

9. One Thousand Feet of Tape Worm-The Boston Transcript says, were expelled from the intestines of a lady residing in the vicinity of Boston. It was believed that several worms had existed. The expulsion occurred after taking a mucilage of pumpkin seeds.

SURGICAL.

10. Abortive Treatment of Paronychia.-Dr. Van Archen, in an article in the Medical Monthly, on diseases of the tropics, says: "If called to a case of whitlow-which frequently occurs during convalescence from typhoid fever-while still in its beginning, I order two ounces of saleratus, or crude carbonate of soda, to be dissolved in about four ounces of boiling water; in this the finger should be held until the solution cools, which should then again be warmed, and kept applied for three or four hours. In nearly all the cases this abortive treatment is sufficient to effect a cure. In more advanced cases the whole finger should first be wetted and then rubbed with a solid piece of nitrate of silver until the skin becomes discolored; the finger must then be kept in an emollient poultice, until, at the end of thirty-six hours, the whole of the cuticle peels off, and the cure is complete. But if suppuration takes place, which is marked by lancinating pain and throbbing, free incision is the remedy."

11. A Remarkable Case.-Dr. King, of Monongahela City, Pa., reports a remarkable case of ascites, in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, in the person of a Mrs. Adams, aged forty-five years, on whom, during the last four years, he has performed the operation of paracentecis abdominis forty-three times, and drawn off in all six hundred and twenty-eight gallons of fluid. He concludes with the remark, that Mrs. Adams is in the enjoyment of tolerably good health, and, should nothing unusual occur, bids fair to live for years to come; and that her condition is much better than when the operation was first performed.

12. Amputation of the Hip-Joint.-This, the third we had occasion to do, was performed November 16th, at the City Hospital. The patient, a woman, aged thirty years, had a large encephaloid tumor of the left lower member, which extended from the middle of the leg to near the hip. A bony and brain-like tumor, of large size, had been removed from behind the knee of this patient eighteen months previously, by Prof. Freer, and she remained well for about one year, when the commencement of the present growth was perceived.

The vascularity of the tissues, the vessels of which were of immense size, rendered the operation difficult, and it was necessary to tie the principal arteries before finishing the operation, which

was completed, however, without unus of blood, owing to the care of Professors Freer and Rea, in compressing the vessels as soon as divided. For forty-eight hours the patient did well, but at the end of that time tympanites and nausea with vomiting occurred, and she died sixty hours after the operation.-Prof. Brainard.

13. The Ecraseur.-Dr. J. P. White, at a late meeting of the Buffalo Medical Association, reports three cases in which he successfully applied the écraseur to the removal of tumors from the uterus. Two of these were cauliflower excrescences. In applying the instrument, he worked it continuously until the tumor was separated, and no hæmorrhage followed. The other case was a fibrous tumor of the uterus. In this case Dr. White substituted a wire rope for the common chain in the écraseur, and liked the substitute, as he was enabled by it to introduce the instrument well up in the vagina.-N. Y. Review.

14. The Theory of Tertiary Syphilis-According to Gamberini, is a prodigious humbug, having the effect of confusing and confounding that which otherwise would be easily understood. The regular succession of symptoms in the onward progress of syphilis, as described by Ricord, may and may not occur. The so called secondary and tertiary syphilis are but different local manifestations of the same general disease. The secondary and tertiary forms of syphilis may alternate or coëxist, thus demonstrating their identity.

OBSTETRICAL.

15. The Number of Children a Woman can Bear. The question of how many children a healthy woman can bear, during the child-bearing period of her existence, is one of some interest. If a couple live harmoniously together during a long life, and marriage has taken place very early, it is quite possible that as many as 24 may have been born to the state, at intervals reasonably short, and without their coming as twins or triplets. Amongst the poorer classes this regularity is not met with, although even amongst them a pretty large number of children are born. On looking over the Register of the St. Pancras Royal Dispensary since the year 1853, six instances occur in which over 16 children were born; thus, two patients, aged 42 and 46 years respectively, were each confined of their 17th child; one, aged 39, of her 18th; whilst