ing of the estivo-autumnal variety. I de- This antistuporous properties, so to speak. Instead of manifesting the usual symptoms of opiates, many of the actively febril patients were roused by it out of the characteristic lethargy of the fever, and even in the weak apyretic patients with pronounced anemia the testimony was almost uniform that they felt better and stronger after taking it, the effects appearing the very reverse of narcotic and more like those of a cardiac and general nervous stimulant. I have noted analogous results also in private practice in the treatment of chronic malarial infection, notably when the patients complained of repeated headaches and general malaise, so that I have no hesitation in recommending this preparation of opium as one of our most trustworthy agents in the management of this common cause of prolonged invalidism in our climate.-W. H. THOMSON, M. D., in N. Y. Med. Jour. A New Poet. As I have already publisht a detailed account of our observations on the effects of the camphorated tincture of opium as an adjuvant to quinin in these Roosevelt Hospital cases, I will only quote from it the following: In twenty-two, or fortyseven per cent. of the number who took paregoric, the result was an immediate break in the fever-that is, the temperature fell to normal in twenty-four hours, A new singer hails from the Golden Gatenor did it rise again afterward. His lute has been heard up and down the effect was the more impressive because in Pacific coast, but one of his songs has leapt every instance they had been unavailingly over the Sierras and the Rockies, across the treated with quinin and Warburg's tinct- plains, and on and on it has come till we on ure for an average period of ten days pre- the Atlantic slope are entranced by it. On viously without reducing the fever. Of Of the following page we give this song, with an the remaining twenty-five out of the forty- illustration of the European peasant which seven there were ten patients, or about it describes. Read the poem, then read twenty-one per cent., in whom it took again with a pause for thought after each from thirty-six to forty-eight hours to re- stanza. This poem, tho young, has already duce the temperature to normal. No re- taken a permanent place among the classics. lapse was recorded in the case of any The reason it is introduced here is to show patient who took the paregoric treatment the influence of heredity. Militarism seafter the temperature was once reduced to lected the best, for slaughter in the wars, normal. leaving the worst physical specimens to propagate their kind. To this add oppression, and you have the result given below. Would it not be better to reverse this process? Sir William Roberts, chairman of the British royal commission appointed to investigate the opium question in India in the years 1893-'94, maintains that the antimalarial properties of opium are due to its alkaloid, commonly named narcotin, but which he maintains should be termed anarcotin, as it has neither anodyne nor narcotic properties. The proportions of the two alkaloids in Smyrna opium are morphin, eight per cent.; narcotin two per cent.; while in Bengal or India opium the proportion is morphin, four per cent., and narcotin, six per cent. In many cases, according to the voluminous statistics of British India surgeons, narcotin administered alone has been more efficacious than quinin as an antiperiodic. One of the most striking effects of the paregoric treatment in my hands was its unlookt for Mr. Markham appeared at the Buffalo Conference on the last day. His keen, black eye, iron gray hair and beard and kindly face reminded me very forcibly of Longfellow. His hand-grasp was warm and lingering, his voice musical and his demeanor extremely modest. It is seldom that one meets so delightful a personality. Upon request he made a very neat and inspiring speech to the Conference, but the audience would not consent to his leaving the platform until he recited "The Man With the Hoe," which he did in a masterly manner. I will always remember this as the crowning event of the Conference. [Poem on next page.] "The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems." Doubleday & McClure Co. "THE MAN WITH THE HOE." Written after seeing Millet's World-Famous Painting. By EDWIN MARKHAM. "God made man in His own image. in the image of God made He him."-Genesis. Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To trace the stars and search the heavens for To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns And pillared the blue firmament with light? More filled with signs and portents for the soul- What gulfs between him and the seraphim! O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, This monstrous thing distorted and soulquenched? How will you ever straighten up this shape; Give back the upward looking and the light; O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, Oakland, California. Cure For Rhus Tox Poisoning. [Perhaps some of our readers do not think to examin past issues of THE WORLD for seasonable remedies. For this class, and for our new readers, we republish the following from WORLD for July, 1898.] Editor MEDICAL WORLD:--Have seen a great deal in the medical press about "rhus tox poisoning" remedies, recommended and "voucht for" by the skill and talent of the land. Yet in all, the one great "specific" (and, by the way, that is a big word) is never mentioned. I, too, have worried over these cases of poisoning by "ivy," "barley," "certain weeds" and "certain oaks"; many vegetables also poison some people. All complain of the same sensations, all down the doctor, and the doctor ditto. A good old lady way out in Dakota told me several years since that if I would "wash the poisoned parts with sweet spirits of niter" I would cure. I tried my next case on niter. It workt like a charm. My next was some forty-eight hours old; I added gr. x plumbi acetas to the ounce of niter, and it was cured at once. By "at once" I do not mean in a few days or hours, but as fast as the remedy is applied the skin cools down and feels comfortable. The first application is somewhat "smarty," if you know what that means; then the skin cools off and gets white and natural. Usually a few applications are all that is necessary, and the patient says he was scared more than hurt. If this remedy is used any time within the first twenty-four hours the results will be sure and satisfactory. We have here the largest greenhouse in the West, covering over 100,000 square feet, and their leaf mold always had some of the florists poisoned, so badly, indeed, that a doctor made regular calls to treat this poisoning alone. I was called, prescribed the niter, and told them what I used. They now buy their niter by the gallon, and the doctor never gets to treat a case of poisoning in that immense concern from one year's end to the next. Every florist washes his hands in niter, and they all say Dr. Young is an angel, and they regularly keep his table supplied with cut flowers. I know many physicians will look upon this as empirical-in fact, smacking very strongly of quackery; and begin to ask for physiologic reasons, etc. To such I can say: Don't use it if you do not wish to. I once was just as exact. Would never give a remedy without knowing all about it. Now, after some twenty years, I am just on the verge of a great discovery, and that is simply that I do not know over half as much about medicine as I thought I did when I began the practice. Pleasant Hill, Mo. W. H. YOUNG. Diagnosis of Cancer of the Breast. 1. Classical signs of cancer: a. Adherence of tumor to skin and deep parts. b. Retraction of the nipple. c. Hardness of the tumor. d. Early involvement of axillary glands. 2. In certain cancers of the breast these are not always all present. 3. Chronic mastitis and cancer of the breast. a. Hard to distinguish from beginning cancers. b. Usually occurs during pregnancy or after parturition, this not common with cancer. c. Edematous condition not seen in cancer, in which tumor does not keep imprint of finger on only to a small extent. d. After retraction of nipple, but in a regular manner, surrounded by a circular ridge of skin which, if pulled out, will allow the nipple to stand out-this is not the case in cancer. e. Pain severe and attacks more frequent, while in cancer there may be no pain as long as there is absence of ulceration. f. Improves under the influence of rest and pressure. 5. Tuberculous lesions of breast and cancer. a. Generally co-exists a regular pulmonary tuberculosis. b. Temperature changes suggesting tuberculosis. all tuberculous lesions we see after a while symptoms of local inflammation, often ending in fluctuation thru the formation of more or less cheesy pus. 5. With all these rules for diagnosis we still are sometimes rather in the dark; in such cases our duty is very clear-operate at once!-The International Jour. of Surg. Increase of Cancer. During the past few months the different journals have been devoting much space to theories regarding the increase of cancer. W. Roger Williams propounds a new one, and, and says in The Lancet, That in England four and one-half times as many people die now from cancer as one-half a century ago, and that probably no single factor is more potent in determining the outbreak of cancer in the predisposed than high feeding. There can be no doubt that the greed for food manifested by modern communities is altogether out of proportion to their present requirements. Many indications point to the gluttonous consumption of meat, which is such a characteristic feature of this age, as likely to be especially harmful in this respect. Sta tistics show that the consumption of meat has for many years been increasing by leaps and bounds, till it now has reacht the amazing total of 131 pounds per head per year, which is more than double what it was half a century ago, when the conditions of life were more compatible with high feeding. When excessive quantities of such highly stimulating forms of nutriment are ingested by persons whose cellular metabolism is defective, it seems probable that there may thus be excited in those parts of the body where vital processes are still active such excessive and disorderly cellular proliferation as may eventuate in cancer. No doubt other factors co-operate, and among these I should be especially inclined to name deficient exercise and probably also deficiency in fresh vegetable food."-Va. Bi-Mo. Bul. Dr. C. F. Taylor; Dear Doctor: Please find enclosed herewith $1 for your most excellent Journal for 1899. Your Monthly Talks are worth the amount. I only wish they could be read by every voter in this land, and that the voters would only think about the good of our country for just a little while each week. The trouble is we don't think enuf, but let prejudice govern us too much in our politics. G. G. Thornton, Gravel Switch, Ky. WORLD one year and Dr. Waugh's book, $5. You need them both. Medical Examining Board of Virginia.-June Give the treatment of penetrating wounds 5 to 8, 1899. of the abdomen. R. M. SLAUGHTER, M.D., ACTING EXAMINER. Answer six questions. 1.-(a) What is auto-intoxication (or auto-infection)? (b) Explain the importance of its prevention, and the means of so doing in patients before and after operation. 2.-(a) Give causes of acquired (inguinal) hernia, and explain how each cause acts. (b) Give the clinical varieties of inguinal hernia. (c) What the dangers of taxis in the attempted reduction of hernia? (d) How would you proceed if in an operation for strangulated hernia you found the gut gangrenous? 3-(a) Define each of the (3) degrees of burns (or scalds). (b) Give the general prognosis of burns, and (c) indications to be met in the treatment of burns of the third degree. 4.-(a) Give the respective indications for asepsis and antisepsis in operations. (b) Give the essential symptoms of tuberculosis of bone. 5. Give the differential diagnosis of penetrating and non-penetrating wounds of (a) the chest, and (b) the abdomen. 1.-(1st) When is a disease said to be (a) epidemic-(b) pandemic-(c) endemic? (2d) Under what circumstances are such diseases as diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, etc., said to be epidemic? 2.-(a) What measures are required to prevent the spread, and stamp out an outbreak of diphtheria in a boarding school. (b) How soon should children be allowed to return to school after recovery from measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, or small-pox? 3.-Construct a model school room according to modern views for forty (40) pupils. 4. (a) Describe the best method of disinfecting bedding, clothing, etc., after exposure to the contagion of small-pox, diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, etc. (b) Disinfect a room in which a patient has been sick with diphtheria. HISTOLOGY, PATHOLOGY AND BACTERIOLOGY. R. M. SLAUGHTER, M.D., EXAMINER. Answer questions 1 and 2 and any four of the remaining six. 1.-(a) Name the tissues of special function. (b) Name the (3) collections of lymphadenoid tissue to be found in the alimentary tract. (c) Name the varieties of cartilage, and state of which variety temporary cartilage is composed. (d) Do the bile-capillaries penetrate the substance of the liver cells? (e) Name the layers of skin, and state the tissue of which each is composed. 2. (a) Name the micro-organisms or organisms causing each of the following diseases: Continued malarial fever, acute osteo-myelitis, hip-joint disease, puerperal fever. (b) The following organisms cause what diseases?-The common bacillus, the ameba coli, the oidium or saccharomyces albicans, diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis. (c) Describe (i. e., give morphological characteristics of) the bacillus tetani, the micrococcus tetragenus. 3.-(a) Name the condition of the heartmuscle found in affections requiring extra exertion of that organ, and mention some of these affections. (b) Name the condition which results in the conversion of a part of a normal structure into some other substance, and give example. (c) Name the condition found in the uterus after the menopause. (d) Define necrosis. 4. (a) Name the infective granulomata. (b) What variety of tumors do they resemble in structure? (c) Name the possible terminations of tubercle. 5.-(a) What is endocarditis? Is it a primary or secondary disease? (b) What the most common etiological factor in acute endocarditis? (c) What the difference in location of the acquired and congenital forms? (d) What the terminations of acute endocarditis? 6. Name the cause and chief manifestations of scorbutus in infants. 7.-(a) Where is the seat and what the nature of the lesion in acute poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis)? What is the pathological anatomy of this disease? What are its results? 8.-(a) What are neurons, and where are they founded? (b) Describe a neuron. PHYSIOLOGY. ROBT. C. RANDOLPH, M.D., EXAMINER. 1.-(a) Give physical properties and histological characteristics of blood. (b) (b) Describe the process of coagulation or clotting of the blood. (c) Name the ductless, vascular or blood glands. 2.-(a) Describe the mechanism of the heart's action. (b) Describe the sounds of the heart and their cause. (c) What physical factors are necessary to the maintenance of arterial blood pressure? 3.-(a) What is the blood supply of the lungs and which arteries supply them with nutrition? (b) What is the chemical difference between inspired and expired air? (c) What is meant by residual air? 4.-(a) Describe the mouth digestion. (b) What substances are absorbed directly from the stomach? (c) What is the succus-entericus, and what are its functions? 5.-(a) Give the number of the spinal nerves, and the function of the anterior and posterior roots? (b) Name the cen MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS. 1.—(a) Which digestive ferment is most efficient, and why? (b) In what medium is each ferment most active? (c) Direct a diet for diabetes mellitus. (d) Direct a diet for typhoid fever. 2. (a) Give doses, therapy and dangers of three coal-tar products most used as antipyretics. (b) Give therapy of nux vomica and its chief alkaloid. (e) Compare ether and chloroform as to their anesthetic value, giving contraindications for each. (d) Give means of resuscitation in case of danger. 3. (a) What are the therapeutic indications in poisoning by strychnin, and what drugs are useful? (b) Treatment of acute poisoning by arsenic. (e) Treatment of acute poisoning by opium. ( Treatment of acute poisoning by corrosive sublimate. 4. (a) What three drugs are best stimulants to tardy uterine contractions? (b) What dangers may result from their use? (c) What advantages has strophanthus over digitalis? (d) Write two prescriptions for ophthalmia neonatorum. 5.-(a) Give origin, derivatives and therapy of guaiacol. (b) Compare atropin with morphin in physiological effects. |