Dr. Gallinger, the medical politician from the Granite State, and its surgeon-general, then gave a stirring address, in which he enthusiastically portrayed the advantages derived from medical legislation, and appealed to every member of the society to use all his influence toward obtaining a legislative act regulating the practice of medicine in Massachusetts. He reported a severe case of diphtheria in which he attributed success to the persistent use of two atomizers, thus keeping the air of the room heavily charged with moisture. At this point in the proceedings, the committee reported supper waiting in the hall below, to which the meeting was at once adjourned. After an hour of sumptuous repast and social conversation, the meeting was again called to order and remarks made by Dr. Von Gottschalck, of Providence, R. I, and Dr. Budlong, of Centredale, R. I., surgeon-general of the military forces of that State, and others. The exercises of the evening were closed by a humorous poem recited by the poet-physician, Dr. Helmuth, which was received with enthusiastic applause. The next meeting of the society will be held on Thursday evening, Feb. 10, at which interesting papers on practical subjects will be read. In the future, special effort will be made to have all the meetings of this society worthy of a large attendance. RHODE ISLAND HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY. REPORTED BY GEO. B. PECK, M. D., SECRETARY. A QUARTERLY meeting of this society was held at the residence of Dr. Asa W. Brown in Elmwood, the most charming suburb of Providence, on Friday afternoon, Oct. 15, at five o'clock. The president, Dr. Sawin, occupied the chair. Dr. Peck reported his visit to the semi-annual meeting of the Connecticut Society at Hartford, giving abstracts of the more important papers there presented. An animated discussion then ensued on topics relating to Dr. Foote's paper, "Heredity and Opium Cure." Dr. Barnard detailed a case of the latter recently accomplished by himself. The essay of the evening was by Dr. Charles A. Barnard of Centredale, on "Ulcerative Endocarditis." He gave a complete account of the last sickness of a patient he had just lost from this disease; also an accurate résumé of everything known concerning it. Dr. Geo. D. Wilcox reported that on a recent Saturday he was called to see a gentleman aged eighty-four, who had performed no labor for several years, and was possessed of a quiet temperament. He found him suffering from a mild gastralgia. On Sunday his tongue was coated, and there was no appetite; on Monday, he was improved, and on Tuesday he was so well he ventured on steak. On Wednesday, while crossing from one room to another, he suddenly placed his right hand on the region of the heart, fell, and instantly expired. He had suffered from severe fainting spells for a year, and several years since Dr. Wilcox treated him for partial paralysis of the lower extremities. The autopsy revealed a pericardium filled with blood and clots, and a rupture in the left ventricle sufficiently large to pass a pencil through. It was occasioned by fatty degeneration. Dr. Darius Hicks mentioned the case of a gentleman fortytwo years of age, who had been troubled for nearly six years with a stinging pain in the region of the left nipple. He recently had suffered from a severe pulmonary affection, which lasted six weeks, and subsequently he was unable to lie down for a similar length of time. A change of climate was deemed advisable. Although the gentleman had been upon the street attending to his business, it was not thought safe for him to ride in the cars, so Dr. Hicks offered to drive him to the depot. When on the way, and while moving quite moderately, he suddenly remarked: "Do not drive so fast!" Dr. Hicks asked if it hurt him, when the gentleman sank down, and was dead before the carriage could be turned around. No examination was permitted. Dr. Barnard, at the request of a physician whose opinion had been asked in the incipiency of the case, but who had not seen the patient, told of a woman about sixty years of age who complained of slight constipation, a pain in the left hypochondrium, and a swelling just below the liver. Three months previously she was under the care of an allopathic physician, who gave her something that bound her up. It was soon determined to be unconnected with the liver: it seemed to be freely movable. A judicious administration of castor oil brought away four immense focal masses, but the bunch remained. After several days it was thought fluctuation was detected. Now increase was rapid, and soon the aspirator was employed, which brought away a pint of laudable pus. The wound was kept open, and recovery was rapid. The cause of this abdominal abscess was believed to be the carrying of bundles of wood. It reached to the rectus muscle and crest of the ilium. Dr. Brown presented specimens of Marigold and Calendula tincture, prepared with dilute alcohol, from the fresh flower, which he considers much superior to that from the dried. He spoke of its use for burns and wounds, applying it of one-tenth strength. He mentioned a case of urethral abscess treated therewith, and Dr. Hicks also extolled its excellences. A vote of thanks to Dr. Barnard for his paper was adopted. The society now adjourned to the dining-room, where a fine supper was elegantly served. Everything was done by the host that could minister to the comfort of his guests. The annual meeting was held at the Hotel Dorrance on Friday, Jan. 14, at four o'clock P. M. Report in the March GAZETTE. REVIEWS AND AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. MEDICAL HERESIES, PAST AND PRESENT, ESPECIALLY HOMEOPATHY. By Gonzalvo C. Smythe, M. D. Philadelphia: Presley Blakiston. Boston: Hall & Whiting. From the title of this book our readers will not have much difficulty in imagining its contents Although on the title-page Medical Heresies appears in very large type, and Homœopathy in very small type, yet that this latter is the real bête noir is evident from the fact that its discussion occupies one hundred and twenty-two pages, while all other medical "heresies," such as demonology, Egyptian mysteries, incantations, holy waters, cabalistics, witchcraft, etc., etc., mixed in with accounts of Hippocrates, Galen, and other luminous bodies, fill up but seventy-seven pages. Five chapters are devoted to homoeopathy, which the author pretends to treat, not by ridicule, but by the ordinary rules applied to scientific investigations; and we must give him the credit of resorting to ridicule much less frequently than the average of his fellows. His life of Hahnemann, for Here example, although not excessively eulogistic, is in strange contrast to the garbled statements and cunningly devised lies which make up the same biography in Palmer's Homeopathy. Smythe also in the freshness of his information excels Palmer, who evidently has not read anything homoeopathic for years. we have many quotations not only from the earliest and intermediate authorities, but also from the very latest; as the famous resolutions of our New York Society, the Milwaukee test, the simon-pure International Society of last June, Ludlam's ovariotomy case in the " Clinique " for August, etc., etc. We could hardly expect Dr. Smythe, with his natural bias, to discuss the subject with perfect fairness; but after his lofty promises in the preface, of doing this "from a scientific standpoint," we are surprised at his regarding as such (to quote only one instance, on page 194 about Ward's Island Homoeopathic Hospital) the stupidly ignorant, sensational falsehoods of a reporter for a daily newspaper. DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF EAR DISEASES. By Albert H. This, the eleventh volume of Wood's Library of Standard Medical Authors, was prepared especially for this library by Dr. Buck, surgeon to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, who is well known as the editor of the American edition of Ziemssen's Cyclopædia. There is a good deal of originality in this treatise, and most of the illustrative cases are drawn from the author's private or hospital practice. There are twenty-seven wood-cuts. TRANSACTIONS OF THE HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, FOR 1880. Last year we commended the extraordinary promptness of issue of the Transactions of this reviving society, and now have occasion to renew our commendation, the present volume, neatly printed and bound in cloth, having reached us about seven weeks after the date of the annual meeting. It contains three hundred and eighty-eight pages, and, what is of vastly more importance, is full of valuable articles. We have been particularly interested in two by Drs. Bushrod W. James and T. M. Strong, on Diseased Meat, and are pleased to see that both of these gentlemen recognize that tuberculosis can be in this way transmitted. On page 298 begins an exhaustive article of forty-four pages, on the Pancreas and its Diseases, by the Philadelphia Society. Other articles discuss Bryonia and Rhus tox., Ophthalmoscope, Abdominal Tumors, Dosage, Typhoid, Cholera, Eczema, etc. Potter's Com OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED. - Von Tagen's Biliary Calculi, etc. parative Therapeutics. Boyce's Electricity. Revelations of a Boston Physician. Burnett's Medicinal Treatment of the Veins. - Drury's Teething and Croup. — Dennison's Rocky Mountain Health Resorts. Warren on Hernia. - Mundé's Minor Surgical Gynæcology. -- Fox's Cutaneous Syphilis, 3 parts. HIPPOPHAGY. OUR MISCELLANY, - In 1879 nearly two million pounds of horse, mule, and ass flesh were consumed in Paris, France. INDIA. More than twenty thousand persons were killed in India during the last year by wild beasts and venomous snakes. UNIQUE ENTERTAINMENT.- From the "Homœopathic World" we learn that during the session of the International Congress of Hygiene at Turin, the city of Milan invited the members of the Congress to a breakfast and to two cremations! We unite with the editors of the named journal in the hope that Dr. Roth will favor the public with an account of the visit, including the "breakfast and the cremations." MORTALITY IN BOSTON. There were Soo more deaths in Boston for ten months of 1880 than during the corresponding time the previous year. The increase is attributed, in part, to the hot weather, and in part to the prevalence of diphtheria. INFLUENCE OF MIND IN PUERPERAL SEPTICÆMIA. At a recent meeting of an obstetrical society in this city, Dr. Richardson reported that in the Lying-in Hospital, twenty-three out of twenty-six fatal cases of puerperal septicemia were single women with mental trouble. AMERICA A REFUGE FOR CONSUMPTIVES. The British Medical Review" says: "It might be worth the while of many English consumptives, especially in cases where the disease has an inflammatory origin, and who have undertaken long sea voyages, to try the Colorado district of North America." PROFESSIONAL! - Paul Broca, who was a capital raconteur, told the following anecdote of himself: He was in Seville, and wishing to be shaved, he applied to a barber whom he chanced to know. After the conclusion of the operation, the barber declined to accept any pay, on the ground that confrères should not accept fees of one another. ("American Practitioner.") THE BALLING OF HORSES' FEET WITH SNOW may be prevented by filling each hoof with about one quarter of a pound of gutta-percha; not the raw material, but in sheet form. By putting it in hot water, it becomes as soft as dough, and can be well pressed in between the shoe and frog, leaving a smooth surface. As after each shoeing it is reheated and put back, it will last forever. "AN HONEST CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL." — In a letter to Dr. Gaillard, editor of "L'Homœopathie Militante," Dr. Boens - member of the Royal Academy of Medicine, Belgium-says: "I cannot refrain from acknowledging that the homœopathists have rendered incontestible services to many persons, in replacing by a suitable diet the infatuation for drugs, one half of which are useless, a quarter harmful, and only the other quarter useful and efficacious." A MOOTED QUESTION.. Was the Apollo Belvedere a negro? Dr. Broca informed the Society of Anthropology, of Paris, that for a long time he had been in search of a skeleton which corresponded in proportions and outline to that of the statue of the Apollo Belvedere. He had discovered that a negro skeleton alone presents similar proportious. The Apollo Belvedere has, in fact, thoroughly negro limbs. BAD SMELLS. The Boston "Medical and Surgical Journal " is responsible for the following: Apropos of the increasing bad smells in which various quarters of Paris abound, a late number of the "Charivari" depicts a gentleman in the country standing over a manure heap inhaling its emanations. He replied to his son, when asked by him what he was doing there, "Going into training for a visit to Paris!" THE DOCTOR. - Translated from the Latin in 1864: — BROMIDROSIS. "Three faces has the doctor: longed for, he Appears angelic; giving ease, divine; But let him, long delaying, ask his fee, His horrid visage Satan's doth outshine." Remedies for "bromidrosis" abound in the journals. The latest one is a solution of chloral in alcohol and water, applied several times a day. An application of equal parts of belladonna ointment and glycerine we remember to have seen lately as a highly praised remedy. One great difficulty in the way of remov ing the odor lies in the stockings and shoes. These must be treated as energetically as the epidermis. NEW METHOD OF TESTING FOR TRICHINE. - A late British journal gives an account of a peasant of Holstein, who, uninstructed in microscopical research and not possessing the requisite instruments of precision, has devised for himself a new test for the presence of trichinæ in pork. When he killed a pig, he sent a portion of itham or sausage to his minister, and for fourteen days awaited the result. If his Reverence remained well, he felt easy in his mind and well assured of the sound condition of his pig, which he then dispensed in his own family. This ingenious method of research has not, however, been considered sufficiently satisfactory by educated physicians to tempt its general adoption. |