The readiness to attribute all the diseases of infantile life to teething has destroyed more human beings than many of the wars described in history.-A. Jacobi, 1860.

The Scientific Pharmaceutical Journal.

The drug business is to-day, more than ever before, a prob lem of successful merchandising, and the real economy to he practised is not that of pennies but of time and brains. Such being the case, the scientific journal finds but a small and ever diminishing field, which cuts it off not only from subscription receipts, but, what is more serious, also from advertising patronage as well. At the same time, it offers less inducement to writers of scientific articles than do purely chemical journals, for example, because of the larger circulation of the latter. So the existence of purely scientific, rather than trade pharmaceutical journals, in this country at least, seems to depend on the enthusiasm of their publishers and their ability or willingness to face a loss or in any event not a very perceptible profit. It is not a pleasant reflection, but we fear it is a true one.

So says the editor of the New Idea and the CRITIC & GUIDE fears that Mr. Knox is right.

A Love for Cathartics.

Dr. Zannini, we learn from The Hospital, has reported two "extraordinary" cases of what he calls "pharmacomania."

The first case was that of a journalist, fifty-six years of age. At the age of forty he suffered from a severe gastro-enteritis, and he then commenced to take magnesium sulphate [Epsom salts] periodically. At first he took a teaspoonful every other day, but this dose was soon insufficient, and he took it every day, then two and three teaspoonfuls every day. For five years the dose remained at about 50 grammes every day, and was then increased to 70, 90, and 130 grammes (over 4 oz.) a day. It was then combined with magnesium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. It is estimated approximately that within a year the patient absorbed about 25 kilos. of magnesium sulphate, 3 kilos. of magnesium carbonate, and 5 kilos. of sodium bicarbonate. In spite of this abuse of the alkaline salts the patient showed no signs of the "alkaline cachexia" described by Nothnagel. He is capable of considerable. work and fatigue, has a good appetite and no diarrhea. The urine. is normal in all respects, and most curiously remains strongly acid. In the second case a woman of sixty years some sixteen years previously commenced to use castor oil to correct severe constipation. Two teaspoonfuls from time to time were sufficient at first to produce the desired effect. Gradually the necessity became

daily and the dose was also increased. Then the patient found that the castor oil acted as an appetizer and digestive. After meals she experienced a feeling of weight and discomfort in the stomach, which was removed by a dose of castor oil. In the morning, too, she experienced a feeling of discomfort till she had taken a dose, and altogether in this way she absorbed 75 grammes (about 21⁄2 oz.) a day. She showed no sign of intestinal irritation or other trouble, and remained well nourished and even plump.

Dr. Zannini is not familiar with our inveterate patent-medicine consumers, or he would not describe the above two cases as "extraordinary." There are thousands of cases in this country who their lives long don't know what it is to have a bowel-movement without cathartic medicine, and there are thousands on thousands among all classes-poor, middle and very rich-who think they could not live without a daily dose of some tonic, bracer, appetizer, blood purifier, etc., etc. But a healthy reaction has already set in.

Night and Day Terrors. (Pavor Nocturnus et Diurnus.)

Mild and severe cases of nightmare may be due to gastrointestinal or respiratory disturbance-NASAL OBSTRUCTION. In some instances of circulatory disturbances consciousness is lost and the little patient appears to have no knowledge of the attack on awakening. In most instances there is an underlying neuropathic anemic constitution. In the management of such cases it should be remembered that ill ventilated, dark rooms, late meals, exciting games, and story telling before bed time favor the attacks. -Caillé.

In MENINGITIS we can generally elicit the TACHE MENINGITIQUE, or Trousseau's sign, by drawing the finger nail sharply over the skin. Owing to vasomotor distrurbances the red irritation mark comes slowly and disappears slowly.-Caillé.

KERNIG'S SIGN. In cases of meningitis it is usually impossible for a patient lying on his back to flex the thighs upon the body without flexing the knee at the same time, and complete extension of the legs is impossible.

Sterility from X-Radiance.

For some time it has been known that repeated contact with the active x-ray tube causes sterility in the male-permanent if long-continued: and it has been proposed to utilize the discovery by rendering all habitual criminals incapable of propagating, tho without interference with the power to copulate. The Roentgen ray has the same sterilizing effect upon the ovaries; by oft-repeated exposure of the lower abdomen to the x-ray tube all of the ova are completely destroyed. It does not directly affect menstruation, but the onset of the menopause is greatly hastened. Not less than twenty seances are needed; and to insure total destruction of the power of procreation fully fifty should be given.-Lanphear.

Leucorrhea of Pregnancy.

Some women are troubled by excessive vaginal discharge during pregnancy. A treatment very effective is as follows: (I) Vaginal douche of plain water, lukewarm; (2) this is to be followed immediately by a douche containing two tablespoonfuls of dry yeast to a quart of tepid water; (3) introduction of a tampon soaked in a mixture of equal parts of yeast and warm water. Most pregnant women are better off without douching. If they insist upon a weekly douche, normal salt solution is best.-Lanphear.

Iodine Lavage in Puerperal Sepsis.

When fever persists, after cleaning out the uterus, in puerperal infection, there is some infection other than saprophytic ; either staphylococcus or gonococcus in most instances. A treatment attended by good results, sometimes, is this. Dilate the cervix until outflow may be unimpeded, mop out remains of clots by means of gauze wound around a long clamp, flush the uterus with an iodine solution. This is to consist of from 100 to 500 Grams (3 to 16 ounces) of a dilute mixture of tincture of iodine and hot water. As soon as the patient begins to complain of burning, free irrigation with warm sterile water is to be begun to remove the excess of iodine. No tampon or drain is to be inserted either in the uterus or vagina, the latter being simply wiped dry, while an antiseptic pad is applied to the vulva. It is asserted that excellent results follow this method of treatment in very many cases.-Lanphear in Clinical Medicine.

Chinosol, which is non-poisonous and non-irritating, not only possesses many times the strength of the poisonous phenol or carbolic acid but is even superior to the sure but deadly bichloride (corrosive sublimate), and for the reason that chinosol can under any and all circumstances be used in completely effective germicidal strength, whereas bichloride in similarly effective strength could not in many instances be used at all, either in or on the human body. There is no chemical, except chinosol, regarding which this statement can be made.

A weak solution of lithium carbonate (one dram to a quart of water) will completely remove picric acid stains on the hands. or other parts of the body.

A solution of mercuric chloride will instantly remove the dark stains produced by argyrol.

Potassium cyanide is about the only substance that will effectively remove silver nitrate stains. But be careful, for potassium cyanide is poisonous.

Intestinal Autointoxication and Disease.

The question of intestinal autointoxication is at last coming very much more prominently to the fore (to its place where it belongs) and is now beginning to gain wide attention by the medical profession both in this country and abroad. That this is a subject of tremendous import to the general physician cannot be gainsaid, for not only are a large number of diseaseprocesses directly due to intestinal putrefaction and the poisons. resultant there from but also the complication of this unfortunate condition with other definite diseases seriously modifies their progress.

To accomplish the desired result in the treatment of intestinal autointoxication, several points should always be remembered.

First, all meats should be cut down to a minimum, or, better yet, in some cases entirely excluded from the diet, for not only do they contain in the tissues large numbers of putrefying organisms, but an excess of proteid or albuminous food makes conditions much more favorable for the proliferation of the harmful bacteria in the bowel. For this reason all proteid food-eggs, cheese, legumes, and so on-should be reduced as much as circumstances will allow.

Second, the intestinal canal should be frequently and thoroly flushed-thruout its entire length, in order to remove the often tremendous quantities of the accumulated offending organisms together with their poisonous products. For this purpose nothing is better than the morning dose of a saline laxative, with, perhaps, calomel in divided doses, given to effect, once or twice a week.

Third, the employment of various medicinal intestinal antiseptic agents is warmly to be recommended, for undoubtedly they diminish the vitality of the proteolytic bacteria in the bowel; and this is particularly true of the sulphocarbolates.

Fourth, the intestinal contents-the culture-media of so many harmful organisms-should be modified as far as possible by the means suggested above and in addition by the introduction into the intestinal canal of ferments producing lactic acid and other substances directly antagonistic to the putrefactive bacilli. This is accomplished by the internal use of milk soured by the addition of certain lactic-acid ferments and the administration of cultures of these "friendly germs" either in bouillon or tablet form.

Given a clean intestinal canal as a beginning, the treatment of many acute or chronic ills is a much easier matter.-Clin. Medicine.

According to Dr. W. D. Owens (Military Surgeon, April, '09), epistaxis and small ulcers in the nose are valuable signs in the diagnosis of cocaine habituation. These signs are specially prominent in habitués who use the drug in the form of catarrh snuffs.

Alcohol as Drug.

There are a few of the more potent and commonly ordered drugs about which there are such wide differences of opinion among practitioners of medicine as about alcohol. In this country [England], speaking broadly, the large majority employ it in various forms as one of their stock measures in the treatment of certain acute and very exhausting diseases, as, for example, pneumonia. But there is a minority, and one which numbers some very eminent men, which refuses to order alcohol in these circumstances; holding that it has serious disadvantages from which other drugs are free. On both sides are ranged men of the highest reputation, both as clinicians and as laboratory workers; the manifestoes which have been issued in this country have been evidence of this. So far the division of opinion is simply over a matter of therapeutics, the merits of a particular drug: but the question has much wider aspects of a sociological nature, which cannot be ignored. How far the moderate use of alcoholic drinks as beverages is harmful or beneficial is a point perhaps midway between the strictly medical and the strictly economic sides of the problem: upon this unanimity has no more been obtained than upon its acute use for acute diseases, tho here again the majority are opposed to total abstinence.—The Hospital.

A two per cent. ointment of YELLOW MERCURIC OXIDE is very efficacious in obstinate eczemas of the head in children.

For COUGH of all kinds and from all causes heroin is almost a specific.-H. Edwin Lewis.

In Treating Asthma.

In treating the attack no attention can be given to causal therapy, because the paramount indication is to give relief. When the patient has been studied by the physician during the intervals special remedies for the individual may have suggested themselves, but it has been my experience that upon the whole the practical outcome is not very great, so that here, at least, purely empirical methods are followed, and frequently the patient finds a remedy for himself which acts better than those prescribed by the physician. In this connection the neurotic character of the disease manifests itself in a way to be absolutely conclusive. I have more than once seen patients relieved during the attacks by some proprietary remedy whose composition was known to me, but when I gave it in the form of an impromptu prescription no result followed.-Forchheimer.

Cellasin, the new ferment used successfully in numerous cases of diabetes, has been granted a patent by the U. S. Patent Office, thus showing positively that it is a new, original, hitherto unknown product. It is worthy of a trial in every case of diabetes.