590

peculiar to women. In the past the operations performedhave not been restricted to this class of disease. The new

regulation is, we think, a step in the right direction.

Pharmacology and Therapeutics.EFFECT OF IODIDE OF POTASSIUM ON THE BLOOD.

ACCORDING to Dr. T. V. Ishunin1 of St. Petersburg, whohas examined the blood of fifteen patients and four healthypersons before and after taking iodide of potassium, the effectof quantities of this drug ranging from fifteen to thirty grainsper diem on non-syphilitic patients and on healthy subjectsis, during the first two or three days of its administration, toincrease the number of young corpuscles and to diminish thenumber of over-mature white corpuscles in the blood, and atthe same time to increase the number of those breaking up.As to the total number of corpuscles per cubic millimetre,the effect of the iodide appears to be to cause an increase,but a slight one. When the iodide is given to syphiliticpersons the over-mature elements increase in number and theimmature white corpuscles and those which are breaking updecrease.

GUAVA LEAVES IN DIARRHŒA.

Dr. K. Hungel2 of Würzburg has recently carried out a largenumber of observations on the value of the white guava plant(Psidium pyriferum) in diarrhoea and cholera nostras. The

astringent virtues of the plant are recognised both in Javaand in the Brazils, where the natives use it as a householdremedy. The preparation employed by Dr. Hugel was aninfusion made from five parts of the leaves and eighty partsof boiling water, with the addition of twenty parts of syrup.Of this a tablespoonful was ordered hourly or every twohours, according to the gravity of the case. For children, ofcourse, a smaller dose was prescribed. Sometimes, instead ofthe infusion the leaves in powder were ordered, the quantityin each powder being from eight to fifteen grains. After usingthis remedy in several hundred cases of infantile choleraDr. Hugel became convinced of its superiority over all

ordinary remedies for acute gastro-enteritis. After threeor four doses had been given the most severe cases ofdiarrhoea and vomiting showed a decided improvement Infive cases of cholera nostras in the adult the vomiting,diarrhoea, cramps, and drowsiness rapidly disappeared afterthe administration of half a grain of calomel, followed by afew doses of guava infusion. In the chronic diarrhoea of

phthisis and in the diarrhoea of typhoid fever this remedy alsoproved useful; also in dyspepsia., and in chronic gastric andintestinal catarrh. In all Dr. Hugel’s experience he nevermet with any case in which guava produced any disagree-able effects. He has not himself had an opportunity oftrying it in true cholera, but he understands that it is used inthat disease by the natives of Java.

MERCURIALISED TRAUMATICINE IN SYPHILIS.

Traumaticine, a 10 per cent. solution of gutta-percha inchloroform, has been employed by Dr. Peroni of Turin,3 as aconvenient vehicle for the cutaneous administration of mc-r-cury in syphilis. He adds to it a quarter of its weight ofcalomel, and after the patient has had a bath the syphiliticpatches, if there are any, are painted over with the liquid.If there are none the back is painted all over, and when thechloroform has evaporated the skin is left coated with a mer-curial varnish which adheres closely. This treatment is

repeated three times a week until the specific symptoms havedisappeared. In papular, pustular, and squamous syphilidesa successful result may be expected in from three weeks to amonth. Of course, general treatment can be carried onsimultaneously, but in very weak subjects, or in such as donot bear the internal administraton of mercury well, thetraumaticine method is very saitable alone. It may also be

employed in the case of children with hereditary syphilis andin late cutaneous eruptions.SULPHIDE OF CALCIUM OR BARIUM AS A DEPILATORY.

Dr. Annequin,4 a French military surgeon, recommends asa depilatory before operations in regions where shaving is

1 St. Petersburg Dissertations, 1894, No. 120.2 La Semaine Médicale, 25 Juillet, 1894.

3 Thesisby Dr. F. Cauchard, quoted in La Semaine Médicale, ler Août,1894.

4 La Semaine Médicale, ler Août, 1894.

difficult, sueh as the scrotum or anus, the use of sulphide ofcalcium, made into a paste with water, and applied to thehairy surface. This removes the hair completely in less thanten minutes without causing any irritation of the skin orinjuring the hair-follicles. The sulphide of barium maysimilarly be used mixed with half its weight of starch

powder and the same quantity of oxide of zinc. This ismade into a paste by the addition of water and is applied tothe part.

ANTI-TOXIC EFFECT OF SALAMANDER’S BLOOD.It is known that the salamander is but little affected by

curare, the reason being, according to some observations com-municated to the Societe de Biologie, Paris, by M. Phisalix,5that there is in this animal’s blood some anti-toxic substance.He found that a mixture of the defibrinated blood of thesalamander, with a considerable quantity of curare, wasinert when introduced into the system of a frog. He believes,that this anti-toxic effect was due to some vital principlerather than to a mere chemical antidote, for frogs into whose-peritoneal cavities salamander’s blood bad been injected’remained for a long time incapable of being acted upon bycurare. These facts appear to afford some explanation of thetolerance of the toad, salamander, and some other animalsto the poison of reptiles which is more or less similar in itseffects to curare.

TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OFTHE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD,

1892-1893.

THE supplement of this departmental report, which is.made up of the medical officer’s report and the appendicesto the same, has just been published, and is an interestingand important volume.’ At first sight the discrepancybetween the date of publication and the dates of the subjectsreferred to would seem to accuse the Local Government Boaicof very leisurely methods ; but when we consider the mass ofmaterial requiring to be exhaustively dealt with in an annualreport of this character, we shall agree that the dilatorinessis only apparent.

Dr. Thorne Thorne commences his report by summarisingthe returns made by vaccination officers for the year,from which it appears that of children whose births.were registered in England and Wales during the year1890, there remained 11’3 per cent. not finally accounted foras regards vaccination, the percentage for the metropolis.being 13’9, and for the provinces 10 9. These figures.indicate a larger amount of default in regard of vaccinationthan any which has been recorded since the passing of theVaccination Act of 1871. In the metropolis the percentageof births unaccounted for has during the decade 1881-189&risen almost continuously from 5’7 to 13’9, and in the

provinces there has during the same period been an unbrokenrise from 4’3 to 10 9. A marked increase in these rates took

place as regards children whose births were registered duringthe year 1888, and whose vaccination became due at thelatest during 1889. In the metropolis the amount of defaultindicated is now nearly two and a half times as great,and in the provinces it is nearly two and a quartertimes as great as it was ten years ago. These figuresDr. Thorne Thorne finds very significant as affording anindication of a growing increase in the younger population ofpersons who are altogether without protection against small-pox ; and to us they seem to constitute a very urgent argument for the prompt issue of the report of the Royal Com-mission on Vaccination, which was appointed in May, 1889,ceased to take evidence at the end of 1893, but has not yetspoken. The mischief which further delay may do is wellillustrated by the meeting held in the East End on Tuesdaylast, when 2000 persons met in the Mile-end-road at Mr.Charrington’s Hall to protest against the enforcement of the"iniquitous compulsory "vaccination laws. Mr. Hopwoodin addressing this meeting quoted Professor Crookshank’sevidence before the Royal Commission, and said nothing ofcontrary or rebutting evidence. Mr. Hopwood is a lawyer.What sort of respect would he have for the layman (in alegal sense) who should pronounce in public on a case stillsub judice upon the evidence of one witness A short.sentence would hardly meet such a case.

5 Session July 28th. Report in Le Bulletin Médical, ler Août, 1894.