This is how I do it. An ounce block of carbonate of magnesia is shaved down with a knife, and all the little lumps broken up thoroly, the whole being reduced to a powder. This is done on a marble slab. Balsam copaiba in teaspoonful quantities is added and worked in with a strong spatula, until the mass is stiff enuf to be taken in the hands and kneaded without sticking. The dough is now rolled in powdered cubebs, and as much workt into it as well can be. Dose, a piece the size of the last joint of the little finger, after meals. It never disagrees with the most delicate stomach, and stops the scalding in twelve hours. -Dr. Hyatt.

I notice Dr. Hyatt gives in a short and concise form the formula for Velpean's mass or compound. I have filed in my prescription book the doctor's original copy, which I think is superior to the one he gives.

I learned after several days' compounding, while a student in Dr. H.'s office that it was impossible for the magnesia to be reduced sufficiently with a knife and my fingers to work well, owing to the small lumps. After shaving off an ounce block. I devised a plan of my own, which I have used ever since. This is how I do it: Take an ordinary sieve, turn it bottom up, rub your block of magnesia over it; then the magnesia will fall thru the perforations of the sieve on a marble slab, placed beneath for this purpose. Take of

Take ofCalomel Jalap Gamboge

...

Tartar emetic

Beat into a mass and make into 24 pills, mix with gum arabic or extract of dandelion. Dose-3 to 5 pilis as a purgative.

By substituting podophyllin in the place of calomel (same quantity) it makes a safer and better pill for common use. Dose-2 to 3 pills. -Secret Nostrums and Systems.

LINIMENT FOR MAN AND BEAST. Take of

Bottle up, tie the cork down tightly. Ready for use in ten days.-The Drug Mill.

Mix.

Trask's Magnetic Ointment. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Can you give the formula for "Trask's Ointment?" This ointment is used extensively by the laity here as a local application to neck and chest in croup (spasmodic) and bronchitis. It seems to thoroly relax the patient and apparently gives relief, but I have seen some very alarming symptoms follow its use, such as obstinate nausea and utter collapse. It is a black, heavy ointment, having a peculiar odor, and I think it contains tobacco or antimony-possibly both. I wish to say that I would not give

THE WORLD for all the other journals that come to my desk.

[Kilner gives the formula of "Trask's Magnetic Ointment" as follows: "Lard, raisins and fine cut tobacco, equal parts. Simmer well together, then strain and press out all from the drugs."—ED.]

Easton's Syrup of Phosphate of Iron, Quinin and Strychnin.

According to the Rocky Mountain Druggist, the following formula in Denver and many other parts of the country has superseded the old and tedious process of Dr. Easton :

Tinct. chlorid iron Quinia sulfat... Strychnin sulfat

5 fl. dr.

av. oz.

3 gr. Phosphoric acid, 85 per cent. . 19-10 av. Syrup enuf to make..........20 av. oz. Every pharmacist has observed the chemical change which takes place when phosphoric acid is added to tincture of chlorid of iron. A phosphate of iron is formed with an unimportant quantity of hydrochloric acid in solution, and on this fact the foregoing formula is based. The presence of glycerin is beneficial. Many pharmacists make a practice of omitting the iron ingredient until the preparation is called for. Others who have only a slight demand for it prepare it extemporaneously, which is very easily done, every ingredient being regularly and always kept in every pharmacy. The phosphoric acid ordered, it must be remembered, is the official (syrupy) variety.—Western Druggist.

Book Reviews.

The high standard set in the previous issues of Gould's Year-Book is well maintained in the issue for 1899, which in every respect gives a full digest of the state of medicine at the time of issue, the new drugs and other therapeutic measures introduced, with a careful discrimination as to their value and reference to literature upon them. All things of interest in all branches of medicine are mirrored in the most concise form consistent with clearness, and in terms suited to the needs of the general practitioner, not the dilettante in medicine. The book is from the press of W. B. Saunders, and is an imperial octavo of 1100 pages, bound in dark green cloth uniform with American Series of Text-Books, and is offered to the profession at the moderate price of $6.50.

"Self-Examination for Medical Students" is a little book unique in its line, comprising 3,000 questions on medical subjects arranged for selfexamination, with the proper references to standard works in which the correct replies will be found. The questions have been selected with regard to their bearing upon practical medicine, and are those most likely to be askt in the quiz-class or the examination room. has been prepared by a medical man, a teacher and a writer of experience, and is publisht by P. Blakiston's Son & Co., in a neat, cloth-bound

It

volume of 189 pages, at the moderate price of 10 cents.

The United States Department of Agriculture has issued a most valuable monograph in its Farmers' Bulletin No. 86, describing "Thirty Poisonous Plants of the United States," the author being V. K. Chestnut, assistant botanist of the Department. The brochure should have the widest possible distribution, and should especially form part of the library of every physician.

"The Pocket Therapist," as it has been appropriately called, is a critical digest based upon the personal experience of the author in the field of new remedies especially and their application to disease, and is arranged in a wonderfully concise and practical form. It is the completest, smallest and handiest dictionary of treatment issued, and is open to but one objection, that, being the result of personal experience only, the wide field of therapeutics cannot be covered in the fullest manner. It is by Thomas Stretch Dowse, of the Central London Sick Asylum, and the American edition is publisht by Wilbur Ketcham, of New York. It is a duodecimo of 179 closely printed pages, neatly bound in flexible cloth, and is priced at $1.50.

"The Compend of Physiology," No. 4 of P. Blakiston's Son & Co.'s admirable series of ? Quiz Compends? has reacht its ninth edition and is presented revised and enlarged with new illustrations. It is the most concise and reliable presentation of this broad science we know of, and will meet the needs of the practitioner as well as of the student. It is by Albert P. Brubaker, adjunct Professor of Physiology and Hygiene in Jefferson Medical College. It has 266 pages, and is offered for 80 cents net.

"What a Young Woman Ought to Know." No. 2 of "Self and Sex Series" for women is written in a singularly pure and clear style, touching on the most delicate subjects with a tact that makes all things plain and yet elevating. There is nothing to gratify prurient curiosity, but much that will benefit the young girl into whose hands it will fall. The book should be given a wide circulation. The author is Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M. D., and it is publisht by the Vir Publishing Company of this city as a neat duodecimo volume of 264 pages, cloth bound, at the price of $1.00. It should be in the hands of every young woman in the land.

An attractive brochure, "The Rational Treatment of Acute and Chronic Diseases of the Genito-urinary Tract," is issued by Charles Marchand of New York, and has already passt into its second edition. It has 39 pages of interesting and instructive matter, and will be sent free to physicians applying.

Doctors are beginning to think and write upon social problems. And why should they not do so? They, as much as any others, are a part of the social organism. Indeed they prosper or suffer exactly as general society prospers or suffers. When society is prosperous, individuals can pay their doctors just compensation for their services. When times are hard, the doctor's work is just as great or possibly greater-but individuals are unable to pay him for his services. Thus he suf

fers when society suffers. No class of individuals have as good an opportunity to see the exact condition of society as doctors have. They visit rich and poor, and go into the very heart of the family where no one else is permitted to enter. Knowing the condition of society thus intimately as no one else does, why should he not think and write upon this subject? Dr. August Greth, 620 Laguna street, San Francisco, Cal., has been doing so. The title of his pamphlet is "The Extinction of Poverty," which consists of 110 pages. Price, 25c. He proposes a system of co-operation which will assure "present and future well-being for everyone who will work." The development of society has been the development of co-operation. The future improvement and perfection of society lies in the direction of co-operation. This book contains many good suggestions upon this subject. Doctors like to read the thoughts of other doctors; so perhaps many of our readers will want a copy of this book.

In the "Adult Diet List," compiled by C. S. Millet, M. D., and offered for sale at the moderate price of 25 cents, the profession has a handy printed list for use in various effections, in which care in diet is indicated. By crossing off certain articles in the different lists a full printed dietary of articles to be used and avoided may be given the patient.

"How to Study Law." No. 1 of Home Law School Series. Published quarterly at Conneaut, O.; 50 cts. per single number or $2 per year. Future members will be devoted to "Constitutional Rights," "Personal Rights," "Contracts and Partnerships," etc.

The most valuable improvement in our government in the last ten years has been the substitution of the merit system of civil service for the spoils system in many of the routine departments of the government. Before us is the "Manual of Examinations for the Classified Civil Service," revised to January 1, 1899. It gives all details for examinations for the service, including physicians for the Indian service, and surgeons for pension examiners and for the Marine Hospital service. Medical men who are interested should send to the United States Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C., for information.

fortunes of hi

"The Coming Age," published at St. Louis, Mo., will contain, in April number, an article on "Do physicians and pharmacists live on the mis" by Professor John Uri Lloyd. This may izine is $2.00 per year; 20 cts. a single copy; it contains much interesting reading, but the above article will be of special interest to physicians.

In "The Principles of Bacteriology," translated by Dr. E. O. Jordan, of the University of Chicago, from the German of Dr. Ferdinand Hueppe, of the University of Prague, the Open Court Publishing Company of Chicago and London offers to the profession one of the finest

ordinary practitioner. The chapters on the structure of bacteria, the vital phenomena of bacteria, and on immunity are particularly good. Price, $1.75.

A classic work, and one of general interest, is the volume on "Nervous and Mental Diseases," by Archibald Church and Frederick Peterson. publisht from the press of W. B. Saunders of this city in a large octavo volume of 843 pages, at $5 net. There are 305 illustrations, many of them upon the various stigmata of degeneration. The chapters on hysteria and the various motor paralyses are fully up-to-date, and these are of unusual value in general practice.

The third edition of G. E. de Schweinitz's "Diseases of the Eye" bears internal evidence of having undergone thoro revision at the hands of the author. It has 255 illustrations and two chromolithograph plates, and is a standard for ophthalmic practice for both students and practitioners. It is a large octavo, of 696 pages, and is publisht by W. B. Saunders of this city at the net price of $4, cloth, and $5 net for sheep or half-morocco. It is the book for the specialist in the diseases of the eye.

Board of Medical Examiners is full of the eviThe Annual Report of the New Jersey State dences of good work. It contains a synopsis of the law, rules for examinations, a list of successful applicants, etc. A valuable feature of this report is a detailed list of percentages obtained by the graduates of the different medical colleges-an exposition of the teaching results of the different colleges. Those who are specially interested may perhaps procure a copy of the report by addressing the Secretary of the Board, E. L. B. Godfrey, M. D., Camden, N. J.

Current Medical Thought.

Final Reports of Treatment of Soldier Typhoid Fever Cases in the Hospitals of Philadelphia.

From a series of extended reports before the Philadelphia College of Physicians, publisht in the Philadelphia Medical Journal, we glean the following:

UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL.

Reported by James Tyson, M. D. :

"The treatment, outside of the dietetic, may fairly be said to have been the cold tub-bath method of Brand. Not every patient was tubbed, for some did not reach the temperature which called for the tubs. namely, 102.2° F. In the majority of cases on the other hand the hydrotherapy, by reason of late admission, was instituted much later than its advocates hold should I do not insist that the very favorable rebe done in order to secure its best results. sults were due solely to the Brand treatThere were undoubtedly a good

many mild cases. On the other hand quite a number of these were thrown out of consideration altogether. My experience with the Brand treatment in this set of cases has in no way diminisht my confidence in it as the best available method for treating typhoid fever, subject to the limitations which good sense and experience may demand."

Cases, 112; deaths, 5-mortality about 4.5 per cent.

GERMAN HOSPITAL.

Reported by J. C. Wilson, M. D. :

"Of the 147 cases of enteric fever, 121 cases were treated by systematic cold bathing, the average number of baths administered to each case being 37.8; 26 cases were not systematically bathed for special reasons; the greater number of them were admitted with falling or already normal temperatures; several were admitted with a history of recent intestinal hemorrhage and were therefore not bathed, and one was admitted moribund with the symptoms of peritonitis."

Mortality, 3.4 per cent.

PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL.

Reported by Arthur V. Meigs, M. D. :

"The treatment I pursued with my patients was as follows: Absolute confinement to bed; six ounces of milk every three hours; the administration of five minims of dilute muriatic acid every three hours; and sponging of the surface with cool water every three hours if the temperature rose as high as 102° Fahrenheit. The sponging was continued during fifteen minutes. This was the routine treatment, but it was varied to suit the needs of individual cases.

In severe cases, when it seemed desirable to give medicines every two hours, the nourishment also was given every two hours, but in that case only four ounces of milk were given at a time. Three pints of milk I consider to be the proper total quantity, and this amount need seldom be exceeded. The food and medicines should be given at like intervals, either every two, three, or four hours, as the requirements of the cases seem to demand, and the medicine should be given a quarter of an hour after the food. This is as nearly together as it is desirable to give them, and gives afterward the longest period of rest that can be obtained. It is very important that the patient should be disturbed as little as

possible, and that the administration of food and medicines at very short intervals should be avoided. The medicines I varied as seemed to be desirable, using turpentine, carbonat of ammonia, digitalis, spirit of chloroform, or other drugs as it appeared likely their effects might be sustaining to the failing powers of the patients. I tried not to give many drugs at the same time, withdrawing one as another had to be given. -

"Our hospital afforded an opportunity to compare the results obtained by the use of the cold plunge-bath with those obtained from such treatment as I have described. This comparison is interesting and I hope may be instructive, altho it cannot be expected to yield evidence which will be accepted as conclusive with regards to the merits of the one method of treatment or the other. It will require more than 214 cases of typhoid fever to put this much vexed question at rest. The physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital are divided in their opinions in regard to the use of the There were certain cold plunge-bath. wards, therefore, in which the bath was regularly used as a routine method of treatment, and others in which it was not. There were admitted to the wards in which the cold plunge was regularly employed 95 patients with typhoid fever, of whom 11 died, and there were admitted to the wards where bathing was not employed 119 patients, of whom 8 died. This made a mortality under the bath treatment of 11.58 per cent., and without baths a mortality of 6.72 per cent.

"It so happened that there was a transfer at the end of four days after 17 patients were admitted, of one ward from a bath advocate, to another of our physicians who does not bathe. These 17 patients had, therefore, baths for four days after their arrival at the hospital, and during the rest of their stay they were treated without baths. All of them recovered. In the figures, as they have been given, these cases were classified with those that were treated with baths, but if it be considered that they belong rather to the number of those who were treated without baths, as they received baths only during four days and the rest of the time were treated by the other method, it makes quite a difference in the figures and in the resulting percentages. It would then be as follows: Treated with baths, 78, deaths, 11, percentage of mortality, 14.10; treated without baths, 136, deaths, 8, percentage of

mortality, 5.88. These percentages speak very eloquently to me, and, altho the number of cases is not sufficiently large to prove anything, a consideration of the results does lend strong moral support to those of us who have never been able to think that the cold plunge-bath treatment could accomplish all that its more enthusiastic advocates have believed."

ST. AGNES' HOSPITAL.

Reported by B. Franklin Stahl, M. D.: "The medical treatment of the cases consisted in the administration of fractional doses of calomel. At a later period salol with bismuth was given when there was a markt tendency to tympanites. Whisky and strychnin were given in the later stages, when the condition of the heart indicated the need of it. Turpentine was given when the tongue was dry, thick and brown, and the change wrought in twenty-four hours was usually so pronounced as to make me marvel that anyone treating a large number of typhoid fever patients should question its value. Early in my service I lost one of my patients, and the condition of his tissues on section gave me an important therapeutic suggestion. This patient seemed to have almost no liquid element in him. The liver cut like a piece of dried beef, and of similar character were the other organs of the body. This led me to resort to hypodermoclysis and enteroclysis-using for the purpose a normal salt solution. The results obtained were most gratifying. The mental and circulatory conditions frequently improved with surprising promptness. The patients were encouraged to drink unusually large quantities of water."

Cases, 144; deaths, 5; equaling 2.8 per cent.

Dislocation of the Heart From Indirect Vio

lence; Spontaneous Reduction.

He

Dr. F. A. Seymour (Southern California Practitioner) records the following extraordinary case: At about seven o'clock in the evening of a slippery winter day in 1878 a group had gathered in a lecture room, when Mr. L. joined the circle. was in his usual health. Remaining a few minutes, he left for another engagement, promising to rejoin us later. At 9.45 p. m. he returned. His aspect was startling. His complexion, ordinarily pale, had now, the pallor of death. His black eyes, usually flashing, had an intensified brilliancy as if by contrast to their surroundings.

His step was steady, his voice clear, and he did not give evidence of pain. Dr. Seymour's impulse was to assist him to a seat at once, but he showed no inclination to sit.

After a brief interchange of courtesies, in company with some member of his family, he went home. At 11.45 p.m. the doctor was called to see him, when he reOn counted the evening's experience. leaving the church, as his feet touched the icy walk, they slipped forward, throwing the upper portion of his body violently backward. With all the force at command he resisted the backward impulse, and by a rotary motion succeeded in avoiding an otherwise heavy fall, and so recovered his footing. Proceeding at once toward the place of his second engagement, he was conscious neither of pain nor faintness, yet had a peculiar sensation of discomfort in the region of the heart. A block and a half distant, a long, steep stairway led up to the office of a medical acquaintance, to whom he recounted his accident. doctor gave him a prescription which, he subsequently told Dr. Seymour, contained the tinctures of digitalis and iron. He stated that the patient's countenance had impresst him as it had impresst Dr. Seymour later in the evening, and that as the patient left the office he had followed him to the stairway, apprehensive lest he fall, but that his step had been firm to the

bottom.

The

The patient had retired immediately on reaching home, but by reason of the cardiac discomfort had been unable to sleep. His countenance had not changed in aspect, but as he lay, he was singularly serene. His pulse was peculiarly arrhythmic. It could not be counted. The intervals of absolute quietude between spasms of beating were distressingly prolonged. The pulsations themselves were tumultuous. Auscultation furnisht no clew to the condition. To distinguish the first from the second sound was an impossibility. The sensation imparted to the ear was as that of a small animal struggling with spasmodic violence to escape from the grasp of a powerful hand. These efforts were irregular in intensity and duration, lasting about fifteen seconds, followed by a despairing pause of ten seconds, and then reversing the order. Every struggle seemed to give promise of relief. Digitalin in those days was not an available drug, nor were the salts of strychnin. The hypodermic syringe was employed for the re