Foreign Cleanings
2
784 Since then Dr. Ga.rtner, of Stuttgart, has performed an analogous operation, the history of which is recorded in the article which we have here analysed. MEDICINE IN CHINA.* THESE medical reports, published by order of the In. spector-General of Customs, Peking, contain matter of muc), novelty-indeed some of them are not only interesting in the facts they narrate, but excellent specimens of medical reports. There are twelve contributors to the volume. The first paper is by Dr. Dudgeon, on the health of Peking, He says that fever is the most fatal of all the ailments tc which foreigners are subject, and, next to small-pox, is the most prevalent disease among the Chinese themselves, Carbuncles, which are at all times prevalent among the Chinese, were especially so during the summer of 1871. Dr. Dudgeon says he was much struck by their frequency and size. They were situated almost exclusively on the pos. terior part of the trunk and neck-the largest was almost one foot long by eight inches broad, the smaller ones averaged about four inches in diameter. The individuals attacked were commonly beyond the middle period of life, and in a debilitated condition of health. The mortality was of course great. Ague was also very common during the same period, and Dr. Dudgeon remarks that the sym- ptoms of this disease are minutely and correctly described in all Chinese medical books from 2600 B.C. down to the present dynasty. Dr. Watson’s Report on Newchwang contains some in- teresting information quite apart from that of a medical kind. Dr. F. Wong, in his Report on the health of Canton, adverting to the relative rarity of typhoid fever there, states that he has, during a residence of more than ten years, seen only two cases of that fever among foreigners. This im- munity from enteric fever is the more curious seeing that the conditions usually supposed to be productive of that fever are in full operation. In Canton large numbers of the native population are in the daily habit of using water and inhaling air charged with the impurities of human excreta. The creek San-t-’sung, is not far from the foreign settle- ment ; it is comparatively narrow and crowded with boats ; the alvine dejections and other impurities of thousands of inhabitants along it are daily discharged into the stream, and yet the water-too dirty one would say for washing-is daily used for culinary purposes. Boucnemia tropica, or elephantiasis Arabum, is a dis- ease often met with in Amoy. Drs. Muller and Manson, in their report on this district, state that their ideas of the pathology of this disease are in accord with those generally accepted-namely, that it is an affection of the lymphatics excited by malarious influences. They have never, or very seldom, observed enlargement of the spleen coexisting with this disease, although ague and malarial fever are the normal accompaniments of its development, and its ostensible ex- citing cause. They recommend in elephantiasis of the legs, accompanied by acute exacerbations that the treatment by blistering, iodine, and bandaging, with quinine and iron and a liberal diet, should be persevered in for some months. The operative measures proposed for adoption in those cases in which the disease involves the genital organs are dis- cussed, and the method employed by the authors is very elaborately set forth and illustrated by woodcuts. Dr. W. W. Myers, in his report on the sanitary condition of Chefoo, alludes to the remarkable efficacy in his hands of necacuanha in the treatment of dysentery, two the utility of nrropine as an antidote in cases of opium poisoning, and to the advantageous employment of quinine as an application to granular lids, with pannus, as recommended by Mr. Bader in the columns of THE LANCET. Dr. Edward Henderson’s memoranda on Steppe-Murrain in Shanghai is a paper embracing the results of a good deal of hard work and careful thought, and the facts re- corded ought to be of interest to those engaged in the study of the diseases of China. * Medical Reports for the Half-year ending March 31st, 1872. (No.3.) Foreign Cleanings. HYDROTHERAPY IN ORGANIC DISEASES OF THE HEART. IN an excellent paper on the above, published by Dr. Hirtz in the September number of La Gazette Medicale de Strasbourg, the use of hydrotherapy in certain cases of heart disease is advocated by the author. Dr. Hirtz, having stated that therapeutical indications in cardiac affections are afforded rather by the symptoms than the local lesions, proceeds to lay down three distinct series of rules in regard to the treatment of such maladies. - 1. Cases of exaggerated venous tension (cyanosis of face, cervical veins dilated, oedema of legs, extreme oppression, orthopnoea, drowsiness, weak beatings of the heart, small deep pulse, fall of temperature, frequently albuminuria); abstraction of blood in small quantities repeated two or three times the same day. No digitalis. 2. Cases of arterial tension (rapid and hard shock of the heart, shaking of the walls of the chest through palpita- tion, haemoptysis, oppression on the slightest exertion, rates in the chest frequently, cedema of extremities, face not cyanosed, but lips and cheeks red, cephalalgia, giddiness). Infusion of digitalis. 3. A third group of cardiac affections more prevalent in youthful subjects, and where a real organic disease is com- plicated by disorders in hsematosis. They do not consist in chlorosis, but in anaemia of various degrees, linked with an actual lesion of the heart, and often with stricture. The symptoms are prostration, pallor, muscular weakness, and, locally, palpitation, and frequent oppression, accompanied by oedema in many cases. It is in this group of cases that hydrotherapy, in the form of cold douches and lotions, should be employed, and proves highly successful. At the same time the patient should be sent to the country. THE ORIGIN OF GIANT CELLS IN TUBERCLE. Schiippel, of Tubingen, has recently published in the Archiv der Heilkunde the results of a series of microscopical researches touching the origin of giant cells, which he had formerly found to exist in tubercle. His recent researches show that the origin of these cells is due to the trans- formation of vascular contents, or the organisation of ele- mentary granules into giant cells. They are, therefore, formed at the expense of the blood plasrna, whether they take rise in the vessels themselves or out of them. The process is, therefore, a free formation of cells. FEBRIFUGE AND ANTIPERIODIC PROPERTIES OF LAURUS NOBILIS. M. A. Doran has communicated to the Paris Academy of Sciences the results of various researches showing the febri- fuge properties of Laurus nobilis. The leaves are first dried over the fire in a closed vessel, then pounded and reduced to a fine powder. The dose is about fifteen grains. The powder is made to macerate in a glassful of cold water for ten hours, and the patient takes both the liquid and the powder two hours before the expected fits. No abnormal effect follows, and one dose is often sufficient to break the fever. The dose must be repeated three times. The author records thirty-four cases with only six failures, in all of which latter the type was quartan. ACTION OF PHOSPHORUS ON THE ORGANISM. Dr. Wegner has been carrying on numerous experiments with animals (mostly rabbits) on the above. The results may be summed up briefly thus: Phosphorus administered in small doses produces a chronic intoxication, characterised by an alteration of the blood through the presence of phosphorus in this liquid, and which acts in a special manner on the osteogenous tissues, producing an exaggerated formation of compact tissue in the situations where this kind of tissue forms normally. The doses required to pro- duce these results were only 1/66 grain a day for rabbits, and grain a day with dogs.-Archiv fiir Pathol. USE OF COLLODION IN ERYSIPELAS. Dr. Broca recommends painting with collodion over the healthy skin, all along the edges of the inflamed surface, and over a space of at least six to eight centimetres in breadth.-Tribune Médicale.
Transcript of Foreign Cleanings
784
Since then Dr. Ga.rtner, of Stuttgart, has performed ananalogous operation, the history of which is recorded in thearticle which we have here analysed.
MEDICINE IN CHINA.*
THESE medical reports, published by order of the In.spector-General of Customs, Peking, contain matter of muc),novelty-indeed some of them are not only interesting inthe facts they narrate, but excellent specimens of medicalreports. There are twelve contributors to the volume.The first paper is by Dr. Dudgeon, on the health of Peking,
He says that fever is the most fatal of all the ailments tcwhich foreigners are subject, and, next to small-pox, is themost prevalent disease among the Chinese themselves,
Carbuncles, which are at all times prevalent among the
Chinese, were especially so during the summer of 1871. Dr.
Dudgeon says he was much struck by their frequency andsize. They were situated almost exclusively on the pos.terior part of the trunk and neck-the largest was almostone foot long by eight inches broad, the smaller ones
averaged about four inches in diameter. The individualsattacked were commonly beyond the middle period of life,and in a debilitated condition of health. The mortalitywas of course great. Ague was also very common duringthe same period, and Dr. Dudgeon remarks that the sym-ptoms of this disease are minutely and correctly describedin all Chinese medical books from 2600 B.C. down to thepresent dynasty.
Dr. Watson’s Report on Newchwang contains some in-teresting information quite apart from that of a medicalkind.
Dr. F. Wong, in his Report on the health of Canton,adverting to the relative rarity of typhoid fever there, statesthat he has, during a residence of more than ten years, seenonly two cases of that fever among foreigners. This im-munity from enteric fever is the more curious seeing thatthe conditions usually supposed to be productive of thatfever are in full operation. In Canton large numbers of thenative population are in the daily habit of using water andinhaling air charged with the impurities of human excreta.The creek San-t-’sung, is not far from the foreign settle-ment ; it is comparatively narrow and crowded with boats ;the alvine dejections and other impurities of thousands ofinhabitants along it are daily discharged into the stream,and yet the water-too dirty one would say for washing-isdaily used for culinary purposes.Boucnemia tropica, or elephantiasis Arabum, is a dis-
ease often met with in Amoy. Drs. Muller and Manson, intheir report on this district, state that their ideas of thepathology of this disease are in accord with those generallyaccepted-namely, that it is an affection of the lymphaticsexcited by malarious influences. They have never, or veryseldom, observed enlargement of the spleen coexisting withthis disease, although ague and malarial fever are the normalaccompaniments of its development, and its ostensible ex-citing cause. They recommend in elephantiasis of the legs,accompanied by acute exacerbations that the treatment byblistering, iodine, and bandaging, with quinine and ironand a liberal diet, should be persevered in for some months.The operative measures proposed for adoption in those casesin which the disease involves the genital organs are dis-cussed, and the method employed by the authors is veryelaborately set forth and illustrated by woodcuts.
Dr. W. W. Myers, in his report on the sanitary conditionof Chefoo, alludes to the remarkable efficacy in his hands ofnecacuanha in the treatment of dysentery, two the utility ofnrropine as an antidote in cases of opium poisoning, and tothe advantageous employment of quinine as an applicationto granular lids, with pannus, as recommended by Mr. Baderin the columns of THE LANCET.
Dr. Edward Henderson’s memoranda on Steppe-Murrainin Shanghai is a paper embracing the results of a gooddeal of hard work and careful thought, and the facts re-corded ought to be of interest to those engaged in the studyof the diseases of China.
* Medical Reports for the Half-year ending March 31st, 1872. (No.3.)
Foreign Cleanings. HYDROTHERAPY IN ORGANIC DISEASES OF THE HEART.
IN an excellent paper on the above, published by Dr.Hirtz in the September number of La Gazette Medicale deStrasbourg, the use of hydrotherapy in certain cases of heartdisease is advocated by the author. Dr. Hirtz, having statedthat therapeutical indications in cardiac affections are
afforded rather by the symptoms than the local lesions,proceeds to lay down three distinct series of rules in regardto the treatment of such maladies.
-
1. Cases of exaggerated venous tension (cyanosis of face,cervical veins dilated, oedema of legs, extreme oppression,orthopnoea, drowsiness, weak beatings of the heart, smalldeep pulse, fall of temperature, frequently albuminuria);abstraction of blood in small quantities repeated two or threetimes the same day. No digitalis.
2. Cases of arterial tension (rapid and hard shock of theheart, shaking of the walls of the chest through palpita-tion, haemoptysis, oppression on the slightest exertion,rates in the chest frequently, cedema of extremities, face notcyanosed, but lips and cheeks red, cephalalgia, giddiness).Infusion of digitalis.
3. A third group of cardiac affections more prevalent inyouthful subjects, and where a real organic disease is com-plicated by disorders in hsematosis. They do not consist inchlorosis, but in anaemia of various degrees, linked with anactual lesion of the heart, and often with stricture. Thesymptoms are prostration, pallor, muscular weakness, and,locally, palpitation, and frequent oppression, accompaniedby oedema in many cases. It is in this group of cases thathydrotherapy, in the form of cold douches and lotions, shouldbe employed, and proves highly successful. At the sametime the patient should be sent to the country.
THE ORIGIN OF GIANT CELLS IN TUBERCLE.
Schiippel, of Tubingen, has recently published in theArchiv der Heilkunde the results of a series of microscopicalresearches touching the origin of giant cells, which he hadformerly found to exist in tubercle. His recent researchesshow that the origin of these cells is due to the trans-formation of vascular contents, or the organisation of ele-mentary granules into giant cells. They are, therefore,formed at the expense of the blood plasrna, whether theytake rise in the vessels themselves or out of them. Theprocess is, therefore, a free formation of cells.
FEBRIFUGE AND ANTIPERIODIC PROPERTIES OF LAURUS
NOBILIS.
M. A. Doran has communicated to the Paris Academy ofSciences the results of various researches showing the febri-fuge properties of Laurus nobilis. The leaves are first driedover the fire in a closed vessel, then pounded and reducedto a fine powder. The dose is about fifteen grains. The
powder is made to macerate in a glassful of cold water forten hours, and the patient takes both the liquid and thepowder two hours before the expected fits. No abnormaleffect follows, and one dose is often sufficient to break thefever. The dose must be repeated three times. The authorrecords thirty-four cases with only six failures, in all ofwhich latter the type was quartan.
ACTION OF PHOSPHORUS ON THE ORGANISM.
Dr. Wegner has been carrying on numerous experimentswith animals (mostly rabbits) on the above. The resultsmay be summed up briefly thus: Phosphorus administeredin small doses produces a chronic intoxication, characterisedby an alteration of the blood through the presence ofphosphorus in this liquid, and which acts in a specialmanner on the osteogenous tissues, producing an exaggeratedformation of compact tissue in the situations where thiskind of tissue forms normally. The doses required to pro-duce these results were only 1/66 grain a day for rabbits, andgrain a day with dogs.-Archiv fiir Pathol.
USE OF COLLODION IN ERYSIPELAS.
Dr. Broca recommends painting with collodion over thehealthy skin, all along the edges of the inflamed surface,and over a space of at least six to eight centimetres inbreadth.-Tribune Médicale.
785
CAPILLARY PUNCTURE OF THE PERICARDIUM BY SUB-
CUTANEOUS ASPIRATION.
At the meeting of the Académie de Medecine de Paris onthe 22nd October, Dr. Chairou, physician to the Convales-cent Hospital of Vesinet, communicated an interesting caseof capillary puncture of the pericardium. The case in whichit was performed was that of a young soldier, who, at theend of an attack of pleurisy, presented all the symptoms ofdropsy of the pericardium. The introduction’of a trocarinto this sac has hitherto been regarded as a dangerousproceeding, and it has consequently been but rarely per-formed. M. Chairou employed a capillary needle, bymeans of which he drew off a large quantity of sero-sangui-nolent fluid, which quickly gelatinised. No accident fol-lowed, and the following day he found the patient loungingabout the passages of the hospital.
TESTING OF URINE FOR BILIARY ACIDS.
M. Straburg uses the following method, which seems
elegant, safe, and easy:-1. A bit of sugar is dissolved inthe urine. 2. A bit of filtering paper is dipped in the urineand dried. 3. When the paper is dry, one or two dropsof sulphuric acid are put upon the paper. If the urine con-tains biliary acids, the paper assumes a bright violet colouron being examined with a strong light.-Repertoire dePharmacie.
TESTING OF URINE FOR SUGAR.
M. Seegen, proceeding from the fact that when urine con-tains very slight quantities of sugar the cupro-potassic tartaraffords a doubtful sediment which may be due to uric acid,advises to filter the urine with animal charcoal, and to washthe latter with a little water. It is in the water which hasserved for this purpose that M. Seegen searches for sugar.He considers that his proceeding enables him to find outsugar even in the proportion of 1 to 100.
CARBOLIC ACID IN INTERMITTENT FEVER.
M. Ferriete, at a recent meeting of the Academy ofSciences of Paris, related Salisbury’s views on the palmellaeof intermittent fever, and Calvert’s researches with carbolicacid, and put down as the results of his own investigationsthat carbolic acid destroys vibrions and mildew, sulphateof quinine mildew only, and that both substances elucidatethe question of the etiology of intermittent and typhoid,and constitute rational means of medication in such sortsof disease.
TINCTURE OF IODINE.
At a recent meeting of La Societe Medicale des H6pitaux,Dr. Moutard Martin called the attention of his colleaguesto the inconveniences of old preparations of tincture ofiodine which, in external application, cause severe irritationof the skin with excessive itching. This, he thought, wasdue to the formation of iodic acid in the liquid. He in-sisted upon the necessity of using freshly-prepared tinc-ture of iodine.
CASE OF ECLAMPSIA CURED BY SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTION OF
ATROPIA AND MORPHIA.
Puerperal eclampsia; no albumen in the urine; fitsviolent and rapid; injection with a solution of sulphate ofatropia and acetate of morphia; seven hours’ sleep; no re-turn of violent fits; only a few convulsive movements onthe following day, with feeling of dryness in the throat.-Recorded by Dr. Divet in Gazette de Joulin, No 2.
COFFEE AND SULPHATE OF QUININE.
Dr. Briquet recommends that sulphate of quinine be notadministered with infusion of coffee, as an insoluble tannateof quinine is formed.-Bulletin de Thirapeutique, Oct., 1872.
HOSPITAL SUNDAY.
A MEETING of the Committee for the promotion of a
Hospital Sunday in London was held in the London Tavernon Wednesday, at one o’clock. The meeting was of a pre-liminary character. A letter was read from the Lord Mayorintimating his great interest in the movement, and hiswillingness to further it. Other letters were read indicatingthat all denominations are likely to concur in helping thescheme. The Committee appointed a deputation to wait
on the Lord Mayor requesting him to fix an early day for ameeting of the Committee. Those hospitals not alreadycommunicated with will be invited to send a representativeto the meeting. The leading Bishops and Ministers of thevarious denominations will also receive invitations. Thedetails of the scheme are, as yet, all undecided. The prin-cipal of these are, the area to be included, the kind of inr.stitutions to be comprehended, the principle upon whichthe money collected shall be distributed, &e. With un-selfishness on the part of the hospitals, and a catholiccharity on the part of all the churches, it is to be hopedthat London will not much longer lag behind the largeprovincial towns in the matter of a Hospital Sunday.
New Inventions.THE STEAM-DRAFT INHALER.
THis machine has been invented by R. J. Lee, M.D., inorder to supply ready means for the treatment of all dis-orders of the respiratory organs which are benefited byinhalation. The chief merit it possesses is that the vapouris made to issue with considerable velocity from the inhaler,so as to do away entirely with any inspiratory effort on thepart of the person who uses it, which is clearly a great
advantage in cases of debility. The current of air is pro-duced by a contrivance well known to engineers, and, thoughnever yet applied to the present purpose, it surprises usthat such a simple method of removing one serious difficultyin inhaling should not have been adopted before.By means of a jet of steam which plays into a tube open
at both ends, a constant stream of air, heated to a suitabletemperature and slightly moistened, is obtained, which
may be inhaled directly by the patient, or introduced withinthe curtains of a bed, and so increase the warmth of theatmosphere.
It is unnecessary to enumerate the cases which will bebenefited by this contrivance, but we expect to see it usedwith considerable advantage in whooping-eough, croup, andacute diseases of the larynx. It is also intended to be ap.plied to the purposes of vapour-baths.
Messrs. Maw, Thompson, and Co., have given directionsfor the use of the inhaler, which is simply constructed andeasily managed.
