RELATIONS OF VARIOLA TO VACCINE.-Researches made at the Vaccinal Institute in Geneva, show (Boston Medical Journal): 1. Variola is inoculable with certainty on the bovine species, when the operative method is such as it should be, and the virus. is collected at the opportune moment.

2. The inoculation of small-pox to the heifer constitutes a precious source for re-enforcements of animal vaccina. This may be of great practical benefit, not only to the vaccinal institutes of Europe, but also to tropical countries, where small-pox is endemic, and where the generations of vaccine tend rapidly to deteriorate.

3. Small-pox inoculated in the heifer becomes transformed into vaccine in the course of several generations by transmission through this animal. Duality is thus disproved.

4. Our practical conclusions confirm the views enunciated by Dupaul, in 1863, to the Academy of Medicine of Paris.—American Lancet.

THE MICROBE OF RHEUMATISM.-Dr. Bordas has given in La Medicine moderne the results of some of his researches in acute articular rheumatism, which in his opinion tend to show that the cause of that disease is a pathogenic micro-organism specific in character. He reports that he has been able to isolate and cultivate a microbe which, when injected into the carotid artery of a rabbit, engendered an inflammation of the endocardium with vegetation upon the valves. He believes that acute articular rheumatism with its complications will be proved to be a disease produced by microbes analogous to their production, for example, to the Micrococcus pyogenes, and he is convinced that the organism investigated by him will be found by others to be the specific germ of that disease. The investigation was conducted under the supervision of M. Germain See, and will undoubtedly stimulate parallel researches in other laboratories. These, if confirmatory, will be important as an advance, not only in ætiological, but in therapeutical results. It is only a year or two since the opprobrium was felt by nearly every thoughtful practitioner when the question arose how it was that quinine

cured malarial fever; and now this reproach no longer rankles in the mind since the laboratory work of Laveran has shown that the micro-organism of malaria is destroyed by quinine in his test-experiments; and thus the old answer of many greenrooms," that quinine is competent to check malarial fevers by reason of the profound impression it makes upon nerve-centers, is done away with. The history of this reproach makes it possible that the alleged discovery of Bordas' may in the future be the means of explaining away that other enigma-why it is that salicylic acid and the salicylates are able to antagonize the rheumatic enemy in so large a proportion of cases.-New York Medical Journal.

CRAMP IN THE LEGS.-Perhaps no minor affliction is more common or more annoying to the sufferer than is cramp in the legs, and yet it is very seldom that any attempt is made to remove it by remedial agents.

A few years since an old lady, in telling me of the ills from which she had suffered, finally came to cramp in the legs, and said: "Every night for more than twenty years I have been broken of my rest by terrible cramps in my legs, and during this time I have consulted dozens of doctors, but without getting the least relief from the cramps." I gave the lady a vial of the specific tincture of vibúrnum prunifolium, and directed her to take ten drops of it three times a day. In about one week she again called at my office, and told me that the cramps had entirely left her. From that time to this she has never been without her bottle of viburnum, and whenever she has felt the slightest return of her old enemy a few doses of the medicine have never failed to give her speedy relief.

This case is but a sample of more than one hundred similar cases which have come under my own personal observation. In their treatment viburnum prunifolium has been the only remedy used, and it has always given the same satisfactory results.

Viburnum prunifolium is one of the many remedies which clearly present the principles of specific medication. Cramp in the legs is a symptom of expression of a pathological condition.

Viburnum prunifolium opposes and removes this particular pathological condition, and it does it under all circumstances. Hence it is a true specific for this particular pathological condition, and it also demonstrates the truthfulness of the principle upon which specific medication is based, namely, that "the pathological condition being the same the drug action is always the same."-Meeical Summary.

OXYGEN ADMINISTERED BY THE RECTUM AND BY SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTION.-Dr. Francesco Valenzuela has written a paper for El Siglo Médico regarding his peculiar plan of employing oxygen by the rectum and hypodermically. An abstract of his paper appeared in the Lancet for January 3d. The new treatment has special reference to the relief of senile pneumonia. The writer was led to try this method by reason of his conviction that he had failed to get the desired results from the use of oxygen by inhalation, which failure he explains by the hypothesis that when dyspepsia exists the gas does not come into contact with a sufficiently large vascular area. In the course of his trial of oxygen enemata he found that dyspepsia was decidedly and permanently relieved. The ease with which the gas was absorbed by the intestines was remarkable. It was absorbed rapidly, almost as rapidly as by the lungs, and he found that he could administer four injections of the five quarts each in an hour. This suggestion opens a comparatively untried field or range of possibly useful therapeusis with oxygen and other gaseous bodies. Concerning Dr. Valenzuela's use of oxygen under the skin, the results were those of a cardiac stimulant, such as are at times desirable during the collapse that follows pneumonia and fevers of low type, cerebral congestion, and asphyxia. There was no calmative action or diminished frequency of the respirations. The arm was the part chosen for the injections, and the quantity of the gas introduced was from a pint to a quart. Cellular emphysema was, of course, produced, and a sensation. of heat was complained of, but both conditions passed away within a few hours. In the employment of the gas in this manner the author believes that he obtained his best results when the gas

was in its nascent state. The Lancet criticises the paper for its omission to state the temperature of the gas as it was administered by Dr. Valenzuela, the earlier observations of Dr. B. W. Richardson having demonstrated the importance of having the injections warm.-New York Medical Journal.

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE STOMACH.-Dr. E. Pesko, of New York ("Med. Rec."), reports a case in which a one-year-old child swallowed a screw one inch in length. The screw passed on into the stomach, and did not seem to be giving much trouble when the patient was first seen. To avoid both a laparotomy and the danger of internal perforation, the aid of the potato was invoked, in spite of the tender age of the patient and the fact that it had just been weaned from the breast. Potatoes were given in every form, and white bread dipped in milk, but no fluids. The child continued well. After the administration of a slight laxative, the screw was passed, enveloped in fæces. There was no apparent injury to the stomach, and no intestinal catarrh, and the child's general health remained unaffected. The interesting features of the case are the brilliant success of an unassuming remedy, and the fact that the patient was so young, and scarcely weaned. Pesko saw, in Albert's surgical clinic at Vienna, a boy six year's old, who, two years previously, had swallowed a nail, which at the time was removed by gastratomy, was brought there again with a nail in his stomach. This time the "potato cure," which had been introduced in the meantime, was used, with the result that on the ninth day the nail made its appearance per vias naturales. The procedure in its essence is an old "cure."-Medical Standard.

KOCH'S METHOD is thus summarized in the Provincial Medical Journal: Are we yet in a position to appraise the new remedy for tuberculosis? There are certain facts which we do know. 1°. We are ignorant of what the virus is made of. Various surmises have been made as to its constitution, but these are misleading. 2°. We know that the leaders of the profession in all

use.

civilized countries have made use of a secret remedy, thereby setting a most injurious prece lent for the future. 3°. We know that Koch has manufactured a powerful poison-just as the pharmaceutist has manufactured poisons-and that this poison has a certain definite action. 4°. We know that it produces what we used to call fever, and that a classical "reaction" follows on its 5°. We know that the reaction does not occur in all cases, and that it also occurs in cases outside of tuberculosis. 6°. We know that the dosage, though small, has produced dangerous symptoms, and that death has resulted in certain cases from the use of the remedy; that symptoms have been aggravated in others. 7°. The recent address of Professor Gerhardt points out its contra-indications, and emphasizes in a marked manner the toxic nature of the virus. 8°. We know that it should not be used on any patient in the second or third stages of phthisis. 9. We know that no definite cure of consumption has resulted from its use. St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal.

MURIATE OF AMMONIA IN PNEUMONITIS.-The utility of muriate of ammonium in pneumonitis is, we believe, both rationally and empirically demonstrated. That in all diseases in which there is a considerable inflammatory action there is an excess of fibrin in the blood, is, presumably, granted. No drug or chemical of a non-toxic character is so potential a defibrinator of the blood as muriate of ammonium. We believe, as the Germans, that if the fibrin of the blood be reduced to or below the normal quantity, there can be no further hepatization of the lung. Hence, one element of treatment to which other measures are secondary, is the administration of muriate of ammonia in pneumonitis.-Indiana Medical Journal.

SANDER & SONS' Eucalypti Extract (Eucalyptol).-Apply to Dr. Sander, Dillon, Iowa, for gratis supplied samples of Eucalyptol and reports on cures affected at the clinics of the Universites of Bonn and Griefswald.