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the wire is threaded, and around which other short wires or cords are tied.

Poles. Small trees or stiff saplings about fifteen feet high, about one hundred feet apart. Tie the short wires holding insulators and wire to poles, so that the wire swings free from everything, from end to end, only touching the insulators, and stretch tight. Turn no sharp angles anywhere. Sharp taps on the copper cents will act as calls. If this line is thus put up, ordinary conversation can be carried on for a quarter of a mile easily, by simply talking into, and hearing from, the terminals. No batteries necessary. The terminals can be placed inside the house, by passing the wires thru long bottles or glass tubes in the walls. Better string on two insulators for each pole, so that in case one should break you will not have to cut the wire or take down the whole line to put on another one.

H. C. BENNETT, M. D., M. E.

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DR. C. F. TAYLOR: Dear Doctor:-I have read with a great deal of pleasure, as well as profit, the book entitled "Rational Money." Please state at what price you can furnish this book in half-dozen lots. I want to distribute them among the people where I think the seed will take root, and, of course, it will be gratuitously. No book which has come to my notice has seemed to cover the ground in such a thoro and practical manner as this one. Athens, Pa., Feb. 21, '99.

J. T. HOLCOMB, M. D.

Ed. MEDICAL WORLD:-You will find inclosed one dollar to pay for THE WORLD another year. I am well pleased with THE WORLD and especially with the Monthly Talks. I would take THE WORLD if it contained only these Talks; but it is also rich in the finest of medical knowledge. I earnestly think you should discontinue the journal to subscribers,

when they fail to renew their subscriptions. Devotedly, Luther Knight, M. D. Foster, Miss.

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[Who will furnish the information desired?-ED.]

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Diagnosis and treatment wanted in the following case: Male, age 28, school teacher; weight in health, 150; family history good, good health himself up to two years ago when he commenced with these symptoms: Dull heavy feeling at base of brain, with hot nervous feeling along the spine; broad tongue with ruf white coat, worse at base. with nausea and eructations of gas, bitter taste, worse in morning, with sensation of heat in stomach after meals; stomach tender when there is an excess of gas; starches and sweets make fermentation worse; flatulent bowels with a tendency to constipation, yet they are usually regular. Since

he quit his studies he is not so bad; but he is despondent, has spinal irritation. worse in warm weather; weight stays at 130 pounds.

I have given him anti-ferments; viz.: bismuth, sodium salts, sulphurous acid, carbolic acid, salol, and others. Also digestants: pepsin, seng. lactopeptin, together with the bitter tonics and laxatives.

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Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-On the 8th inst. (June), I was called to see a boy three years old who had congestion of the liver and bowels. His stomach was very irritable and he continually complained of his right side when not under the influence of opiates. I gave him powders containing calomel 3 grs., bicarb. sod. 3 grs., and ipecac gr. every 2 hours in the following: Elix. lact. pepsin ss3, carb. acid 1 gtt, ol. terebinth 2 gtts, Fowler's sol. 1 gtt, aqua q. s. for one dram. For pain in the side, gave him gr. morphin with atropin 1-300 gr. every 4 or 5 hours, which had the desired effect. Continued powders until six were taken, and then used an enema of warm water, getting two small actions. Then continued powders and fluid as before, giving an injection every every half to one hour until I got three copious bilious stools. Then they called in another physician who had treated the patient thru a hard spell some fourteen months before.

He took charge of the case and his treatment was, first, a hypodermic of atropin 1-600 gr., morphin 1-16 gr. in abdomen; next, calomel 1-20 gr., sach. lactis 2 grs., every 2 hours, with 2 drops of Fowler's sol. every 3 hours, and 1 gr. quinin sulf. every 2 hours.

These were the exact treatments used by him and myself.

After he took the case the child's bowels never moved from the effects of his medicine, and the patient died the next morning. He had taken the case the morning previous.

The reason I report the case is to have the readers of THE WORLD say, judging from the description and treatments above given, the treatment most likely to be correct. Will also state that the temperature never exceeded 101° F. during his illness, and also that no more enemas were given after this physician took the case.

There were four more sick, but I continued with them and I succeeded in bringing them thru. DR. E. BARLOW.

Pankey, Tex.

How Can Asthma be Prevented? Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Please give me a preventive for asthma. The old saying is, one preventive is worth two cures. I have been a great sufferer with asthma twice a year for the last eight years, one spell in winter-December and January-and one in summer-July and August, generally. You will much oblige an old reader of THE WORLD if you can tell me how to prevent these attacks. Pomeroy, O. D. N. ALLARD.

Herpes Preputialis.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:- I want a cure for herpes of the prepuce. The patient has never had venereal disease, but about two weeks after visiting a house of prostitution, two years ago, the eruption of herpes appeared, and has been recurring regularly every two to four or six weeks ever since. He is a gold miner. He is young, healthy and unmarried. Some of the vesicles will appear on the frenum and sulcus of the glans penis, as well as on the prepuce, so that circumcision would probably not bring about a permanent cure. Please give a treatment that has cured in your hands, if you have one. Phosphid of zinc, potass. iodid, mercury bichlor, hydrastis, berberis, arsenious acid, stillingia, iris, etc., have been given. Locally, antiseptics, as listerin, formolid, bismuth and a host of others have been used. Is there anything that will permanently remove this trouble? The parts, to the eye, are normal when the vesicles are not there. DR. D. D. HUNTER.

Columbia, Cal.

Weak and Intermittent Heart. Editor MEDICAL WORLD: -I have had one or two cases of heart weakness-intermittent and very weak, and got some benefit from the usual remedies, digitalis, strychnin and strophanthus; but no good lasting results. These remedies were continued for about two months with some other remedies as symptoms called for, but the desired result was not obtained. tient got tired of these and used a few bottles of "Dr. Miles' New Heart Cure" and was greatly benefited. Now what I want to know is a remedy equal to this for these

cases.

Pa

Do you know the formula for this prep

aration ?

I have never been thoroly successful in these heart troubles, and I ask for help of

the brethren; so please be free and open. Of course I realize that complications have much to do with heart troubles. I have seen more intermittent heart troubles this spring than I ever saw before, and do not know how to account for it, unless it is an after effect of the grip. I like THE WORLD and its help. Long may it prosper for good. F. M. SHIRK.

Lincolnville, Kan.

[We do not know the formula for the remedy mentioned. Perhaps some of our Perhaps some of our readers can give it. Weak and intermittent heart is usually a symptom. The correct treatment is to discover whatever may be wrong and correct it. Possibly your patient's elimination may have been at fault. Did you test the urine, and have him to measure the quantity voided each day? To treat the heart is not enuf; you must treat the patient.-ED.]

Formulas.

[In our issue for November, 1897, we began republishing the formulas for the leading advertised nostrums. We do this believing that physicians have a right to know what the people are taking, and that they ought to know in order to administer proper antidotes if called in case of an overdose, which often happens, particularly with the various soothing syrups given to children. Back numbers can still be furnished to those who wish the series complete.]

SWAYNE'S OINTMENT.

Swayne's Ointment is put up in an ordinary swedge-top tin box, 14 inches in diameter, and 1 inch deep; is filled with a rancid, tallowish-smelling ointment, light-grayish yellow color, medium consistence. Its composition appears to be precipitated sulfur 2 parts, tallow 3 parts, lard 3 parts. It states on the label that this ointment cures tetter, itch, salt-rheum, scald-head, piles, ringworm, pimples, blotches, barber's itch, ulcers and eruptions of the skin.-New Idea.

THIELEMAN'S CHOLERA MIXTURE. Take of by measure

containing three small plasters stuck face downward on linen. These adhesive wafers are about one inch in diameter, and essentially are a cheap, resinous, adhesive plaster, containing in a central medicated portion quantities of salicylic acid. We would suggest the following formula as a satisfactory one for making a good plaster to replace the secret article:

Make an adhesive plaster by melting equal parts of resin and balsam of fir together; while warm spread on linen, and when cold cut into circular discs, about the size of a nickel, and in the center of each place a quantity, about the size of a half pea, of the following mixture: 3 parts. .24 parts.

Resin.....

Balsam of fir Salicylic acid

5 parts.

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Oil peppermint..

4 dr.

Chloroform

4 dr.

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EMBALMINg fluid.

Dr. Mark L. Nardyz, 227 South Tenth street, Philadelphia, gives us the following formula, with which he has been very successful:

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Fowler's solution of arsenic..

Mix.

A few ounces of chlorid of zinc may be added, if desired.

Directions: Extract the blood from the body and inject the embalming fluid.

The doctor embalmed the bodies of Archbishop Wood, of this city, Monsieur Le Moneu, of France, and Prince Aristoff, of Russia, with this preparation, without the chlorid of zinc. He warrants it to keep the body perfectly fresh for many years if the fluids of the body have been properly extracted.

Current Medical Thought.

"A Segment from the Swirl of Time and Tide."

'Twas a preacher of the gospel, To the devil ever hostile, And he punched the sulphur out of him,

as Luther did of old.

For, with plunging, plangent pounding, He kept the church resounding, As he hammered out salvation to his minifying fold.

And he had a son, Parmenus,

Who (I'll whisper this between us) Didn't want to be an angel and with the angels stand;

In fact, I'm forced to mention
That his uniform abstention
From religion was so marked, 'twas re-
marked on every hand.

Now, as a natural sequent,
Parmenus was a frequent,

And much disabled, caller at my office for repairs,

For, however it may shock us,

The nimble gonococus,

Concerning Lay Suggestions on Medico-Military Affairs.

The outbreak of the war with Spain was markt by a large increase in the general correspondence of the office of the SurgeonGeneral of the Army, especially with regard to that part relating to the medicinal treatment of disease. The subject matter has been of all degrees of dissimilarity, imembodied in these latter communications practicability and absurdity; while the correspondents were residents of various foreign countries as well as nearly every section of the United States. The letters received were largely with reference to the diseases especially prevalent in the army at various periods, and in the course of a few months this office received, answered and filed no less than 626 communications, of which 186 related to yellow fever, 77 were in regard to typhoid fever, 87 were on the subject of malaria, 58 were concerning dysentery, and the remainder were scattered among various other affections. Practically all these letters suggested methods of treatment for disease (the adoption of which the writers frequently

Perennially mixed up itself with all of his desired should be made compulsory on

affairs.

How e'er his conscience kicked him,
He made the cook a victim,

And his father, by some odd chance,

caught a fragment of her breath. For, as fast as he could travel, He came about his "gravel," And the poor old man was frightened to within an inch of death.

I gently reassured him,

And, in course of time, I cured him, And I seconded his homilies, and everything beside;

And the old man still is preaching,
And holy morals teaching,
And this is but a segment from the swirl
of time and tide.

-Dr. W. C. Cooper, in The Eclec.
Med. Gleaner.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD: I come again for another year with the WORLD family. I also wish to offer a word of encouragement for the continuance of your "Monthly Talks.' They are so much in line with what the people need. I am this week getting one of your Talks publisht in our home paper. "Thine for the right." S. Black, Burlington Junction, Mo.;

"I think your 'Monthly Talks' worth the price of THE WORLD, and your plan of stopping THE WORLD when subscription expires the only correct one." Broken Bow, Neb.

CLINTON DAY, M.D.

J. R. Trott, M. D., of Virden, Ill., writes: Never think that I have the slightest intention of discontinuing THE WORLD. I would not know how to run my practice or keep house without it. I have always enjoyed its monthly visits very much.

army surgeons), or else stated the possessions by the writers of secret methods or formula, guaranteed infallible for one or many affections, which they were willing to impart to the Government for a consideration; the consideration varying from a railroad pass to the lump sum of $50,000, and from an appointment as nurse or physician to a life pension. The polite refusal of the Surgeon-General to purchase their stock in trade was sometimes followed by charges and complaints to the President of the United States, or to the Secretary of War, that the Medical Department was criminally at fault in not giving the benefit of their superior knowledge or marvellous therapeutic discoveries to the suffering soldiers. This class almost invariably spelt fever "feaver" and understood no pathological difference between malaria, typhoid, yellow and other fevers. They were uniformly told that the Medical Department of the Army could neither purchase nor make use of any secret methods or preparations in the treatment of disease.

Another large class of correspondents was composed of purely disinterested individuals, usually veterans of the Civil War and motherly old ladies, who were anxious only to assist the department in the alleviation of suffering. Such were always courteously thankt for their interest and

suggestions, no matter how valueless or grotesque the latter might be.

Some of the correspondents were anonymous, and a few were evidently of unsound mental condition, as instanced by the maiden lady who for some weeks bombarded the office with thirty-page letters of closely written and almost illegible manuscript on most irrelevant subjects and of the greatest incoherency.

In tone the correspondence varied from the modest suggestion of some domestic simple by some patriotic old lady to the blatant offer of the Chicago quack who claimed his ability and willingness to preserve the soldiers from death and from contracting disease of any kind at the rate of ten dollars per capita.

Many of the communications received, as the appended exact copies illustrates, are curiosities from a literary as well as professional standpoint, and frequently were so incoherent and badly written as to be made out with difficulty, even by the experienced correspondence clerks of the department.

While the better element in civil life appeared to appreciate that the Medical Department of the Army was presumably in possession of adequate professional knowledge for the proper treatment of disease, a certain number of individuals, previously unknown to fame, appeared to be convinced that they, and they alone, were capable of curing" certain affections, notably yellow fever, and this conviction was apparently stronger in direct proportion to their own illiteracy and evident lack of medical training. Many, alleging themselves to be physicians, the appearance and orthography of whose communications failed to substantiate their claim to education, insisted that their services be accepted, as experts, to treat disease, particular or general, by some infallible method or secret preparation. The egotis tical impudence of some of these individuals was frequently astonishing. In the rare instances where their valuable "secrets" were divulged to the office they proved either to be well-known drugs or combinations long in the hands of the profession, or else extraordinary preparations compounded and administered in defiance of the laws of chemistry and therapeutics. It was noteworthy that, while a large number of individuals claimed to possess remedies of almost miraculous efficiency in the cure of yellow fever, these experts were largely from the northern and

northwestern parts of the United States. where yellow fever has never prevailed, and from such temperate climates as those of Germany, Austria and Russia.

From their letters one received the impression that the rapidity with which a remedy would cure yellow fever varied directly as the distance of its originator from endemically infected points. It was noteworthy that no special claims as to the cure of yellow fever emanated from southern points where the disease has from time to time prevailed. As illustrating the negative value of lay opinion in regard to yellow fever it is only necessary to name the following remedies, all of which have recently been strongly recommended to this office as positive cures for this disease:

1, Almond oil; 2, sulfur and molasses; 3, quinin; 4, "Holman's Liver Pad” 5, artificial refrigeration of the sick room; 6, artificial heating of the sick room; 7, "Yellow Jack Bitters"; 8, wine and loaf sugar; 9," Microbicide"; 10," Diffusible Tonic"; 11, "Combined Cure Yellow Fever and Worms"; 12, "Calaya "; 13, "Salvite"; 14, "Dr. Osgood's India Cholagogue"; 15, asafoetida and gum camphor; 16, carbolic acid; 17, washing in sulfur water; 18, mustard plasters and mustard pediluvia; 19, "Oxydonor Animator"; 20, "Dixie Chill Cure "; 21, maintained asepsis of air passages (prophylactic and curative); 22, orange leaf tea; 23, "Zymoticine "; 24, wire masks covered with absorbent cotton (prophylactic); 25, the use of powdered sulfur in shoes and clothing; 26, juice of chamomile blossoms; 27, "Labordin"; 28, hot lemonade; 29, preliminary administration of antiseptics (prophylactic); 30, "Bosso "; 31, a composition liver pad (composition secret); 32, boiled water; 33, "Wisky and Lemmon"; 34, the burning of tar (prophylactic and curative); 35, a pinch of salt on tongue twice daily (this will cure all fevers); 36, heated molasses; 37, "Micmac Indian Remedy "; 38, turpeth mineral; 39, Sanarelli's serum; "Electropoise" (guaranteed to cure 95 per cent.); 41, "Dr. Gray's Cure"; 42, lemonade and Epsom salt; 43, burning of rosin (prophylactic and curative); 44, cupping; 45, powdered charcoal; 46, bathing in alum water; 47, lemons and oranges: 48, ginger root; 49, bathing in sea with clothes on; 50, milk and tar boiled together; 51, mineral water (brand not specified); 52, "Mellon's Yellow Fever Remedy"; 53, peach leaf tea; 54, placing

40,

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