with and without iodoform, was injected into rabbits. The results were analagous to those obtained in testtubes. If a certain amount, say one-quarter of a cubic centimeter, of a given sero-bouillon culture of staphylococcus was sufficient to kill a small rabbit in sixteen hours, the same amount of culture with iodoform would prove fatal only after the lapse of twentyfour hours. Here, again, the difference was one of degree only, though by careful work it was found possible to determine the dose of culture which would kill without the admixture of iodoform, but would not kill with it.

Similar experiments made with the filtered toxins. of pyogenic microbes (diphtheria and tetanus bacilli, and bacteria coli commune) gave like results, so that the iodoform may be said to have an antitoxic action, although it is by no means a complete one. The fact may be accepted, therefore, that iodoform is an antiseptic, and that it acts in the manner above suggested, although Lomry does not attempt to explain it. The so-called solution in serum, in fact, does not appear to be an ordinary solution at all. After being filtered, dried, and pulverized, and treated for a long time with ether, and then distilled, not a trace of iodoform or iodin could be detected in the distillate, although the residue gave a strong iodin reaction.

However, the first question is not, How does iodoform act?, but, Has it a real, even though weak, antiseptic action?, and this seems to have been answered beyond a doubt by this thorough series of experiments.

ECHOES AND NEWS.

An Italian Honor.-The Italian government has bestowed on Dr. Behring of Paris the honor of Grand Cordon of the Crown of Italy, in recognition of his discovery of the antidiphtheritic serum.

Sir Joseph Lister a Peer.-One of the chief interests in the New Year's honors is the peerage bestowed upon Sir Joseph Lister, who is the first medical practitioner called as such to the House of Lords.

British Medical Association Meeting at Montreal in 1897. The Montreal people have determined to build a temporary large hall on the grounds of the McGill University to supplement the other buildings upon the campus. This special building will be chiefly used as a reception room and business office, in order to avoid the overcrowding that has formerly been a drawback and source of confusion. Twelve college buildings will be thrown open to the meetings of the twelve sections.

Alumni of Mt. Sinai Hospital.-The associated alumni of Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, have elected these officers: President, Dr. Albert H. Fridenberg; vice-president, Dr. Richard H. Cunningham: secretary, Dr. Martin W. Ware; treasurer, Dr. Edwin Sternberger.

College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.-The Bulletin of Columbia University for December states that the serious illness of Professor Peabody has incapacitated him from giving his lectures in therapeutics and materia medica, though it is hoped that he will be able to resume his work early in 1897. His place has been filled by Dr. Henry A. Griffin, who graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1889.

Death of Dr. Pancoast.-Professor William H. Pancoast, the distinguished physician and surgeon, died at his home in Philadelphia, January 4, 1897, aged sixty-four years. He was the son of the famous surgeon, Joseph Pancoast, and was born in Philadelphia on the 16th of October, 1835. He was graduated in the Jefferson Medical College in 1856, and afterwards studied for three years in London, Paris, and Vienna. On his return to this country, he established himself in practice in Philadelphia, and soon acquired a high reputation as a bold, rapid, and skilful operative surgeon, who was seldom mistaken in his diagnosis and was always conservative in his treatment. He served as a surgeon in the army during the Civil War. In 1874, he was elected to succeed his father as professor in the Jefferson Medical College. He became professor of the Philadelphia Medico-Chirurgical College in 1886.

The Trained Nurses of America Organize.—Under the name of the " Trained Nurses United Aid Society of America" the most extensive association of nurses yet organized in this country has been recently incorporated. The movement, as enlarged, is in the interest of no less than 6000 trained nurses now finding employment in this country. The object of the society is the relief of members whose professional activity is suspended on account of illness or accident, and in case of death the payment of a funeral benefit. Such advantages also are proposed as homes of rest, loans of money in case of temporary distress, a sickness fund, endowed beds, and pensions.

The Fly as a Carrier of Bacilli.-Hoffman has demonstrated the presence of the tubercle bacillus in the bodies of flies taken in a room occupied by a consumptive. The droppings of the flies were full of bacilli, which were shown by experiment to be fully virulent. Coppen-Jones has proved by means of chromogenic bacteria that infection can be, and actually is carried, not only in the bodies of flies, but also by their feet. In one experiment cultures of the bacilli prodigiosus were mixed with tuberculous sputum. Flies which had been in contact with this mixture were permitted to walk across the surface of sterilized potatoes. In forty-eight hours numerous colonies of the bacillus prodigiosus were visible.

Prizes for Advances in Science.-A fund estimated to be nearly $10,000,000 has been devoted to the cause of science by the will of the late Alfred Nobel, the Swedish engineer and chemist, of Stockholm. The proceeds of this

handsome sum will be divided equally into five prizes, to be awarded annually. Three of the prizes will be for the greatest discovery in physics, the greatest discovery in chemistry, and the greatest discovery in physiology or medicine. The fourth prize will be for the most notable literary contribution on physiology or medicine, and the fifth for the greatest achievement for the promotion of peace. The competition for these prizes will be open to the world.

Russian Expenditures for Hygienic Purposes.-The Russian government has just published some figures which give an idea of the considerable sums that Russia consecrates to hygiene and medicine. These figures bear upon thirty-four governments of European Russia where the system of the Zemstros prevails. The Zemstros are the local committees of government analagous to the French municipal or general councils. These committees have in their jurisdictions free medical assistance in hygienic affairs. In 1895 the expenses depending on these two objects came to the sum of eighteen million roubles, about fifty millions of francs, whereas the total expenditure was sixty-six millions of roubles, or about 175 millions of of francs. Medical and hygienic assistance have thus absorbed about a third of the sum spent.

Dr. Theodore G. Wormley Dead.-Dr. Theodore G. Wormley, the distinguished chemist and toxicologist, and professor of these branches in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, died on the 3d inst. of stomach trouble, after an illness of several months. He was born in Wormleysburg, Pa., on April 1, 1826, educated at Dickinson College, and in 1849 was graduated in medicine from the Philadelphia Medical College. In 1852 he was called to the chair of chemistry and natural sciences at Capitol University, Columbus, Ohio, which he held until 1865, and was also professor of chemistry and toxicology in Sterling Medical College from 1854 to 1877. In 1877 he was called to the chair of chemistry and toxicology in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, which he has since held.

The Pennsylvania State Board of Medical Examiners.The rapidly increasing standard required by this board is an encouraging indication of progress toward the general elevation of scientific medicine in America. Nearly thirty-eight per cent. of the applicants were rejected by the board at its December meeting, while the percentage of failures in July last was only fifteen. Bacteriology is said to have been the subject upon which many showed an insufficient knowledge. The scope of each examination is intentionally broadened, and a more varied, as well as a more precise acquaintance with all departments relating to practical medicine, will be exacted at each succeeding session of examiners. While sympathy might be felt for those who fail, congratulation for the worthy should be extended by all who have the glory and honor of the profession at heart.

Yersin's Anti-plague Serum.-Dr. Monod, a prominent health official at Paris, has communicated the following in the Académie de Médicine: The French consul at

Haiphong writes that M. Chausse treated by injection two students who had been stricken by the bubonic plague, and cured them both. Dr. Yersin, during ten days at Amoy,, obtained twenty cures of bubonic plague out of twenty-two cases treated by means of subcutaneous injections of serum from the Pasteur Institution. The efficacy of the Yersin serum as a cure for bubonic plague may now be regarded as a scientifically demonstrated fact. It follows that by organizing a sufficient supply of serum it ought to be possible, provided the Chinese government takes the necessary steps, to cause the disappearance of the bubonic plague from the regions in China where the horrible malady is endemic.

Fees of Austrian Professors.—Everyone knows that in the German universities the professor is paid by his students, and that his fees represent the greatest part of his benefits. The Austrian government, notwithstanding the resistance of the majority of doctors, has just decided to modify this state of things by presenting a bill which regulates the salary of the professors of a university. This bill suppresses the fees of students to professors and allots the payment of professors directly to the government. Students will not pay less but they will pay to the government and not the professors. This is the French system. The professors who teach abstract matters (théoriques) and who have small audiences will profit by this change, but others, and particularly professors of clinics, who have from three to four hundred students, will see their It is to be feared that revenues considerably diminished.

these professors will no longer hesitate to respond to calls from German universities, and on the other hand that German professors will refuse henceforth to accept a chair in an Austrian university. The new law would be fatal to the old fame of the medical school of Vienna.-Méd. Moderne.

Surgery and Vivisection.-A curious instance of the direct application of vivisection to practical surgery was related to the Linnean Society, by Mr. J. D. Middleton. It is the custom in Smyrna to heal wounds by the help of ants. A friend of Mr. Middleton received a severe but clean cut on the forehead. He went to a Greek barber to have the wound dressed, and the barber employed at least ten living ants to bite the two sides together. Pressing the margins of the cut with the fingers of the left hand, he applied the insect by means of a pair of forceps held in the right hand. The mandibles of the ant were widely open for self-defence, and as the insect was carefully brought near the wound, it seized upon the raised surface, penetrated the skin on both sides, and remained tenaciously fixed while the operator severed the head from the thorax, so leaving the mandibles grasping the wound. The same operation was repeated until about ten ants' heads were fixed on the wound, and left in position for three days, or thereabouts, when the cut was healed and the heads removed. Sir John Lubbock, in his work on " 'Ants, Bees, and Wasps," quotes from M. Mocquerys a passage which relates that the Indians of Brazil made use of this procedure in the case of wounds. He had often seen natives with wounds in course of heal

ing with the assistance of seven or eight ants' heads. This surgical ant is the Atta æphalotes (Linn).-The Scalpel, December.

The Commissioners of Charities and the Hospital Question. At the last meeting of the Medical Society of the County of New York the following preamble and resolutions were proposed and adopted:

WHEREAS, During the year 1895 the previous Board of Commissioners of Charities dismissed the members of the medical staffs of the City, Fordham, Gouverneur, Randall's Island, Workhouse, Almshouse, Maternity, and Nervous Diseases Hospitals, replacing them by nominees of the three medical schools of this city, to wit: the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the University Medical College, and the Bellevue Hospital Medical College; and

WHEREAS, The Commissioners of Charities have not rectified the injustice done by their predecessors during the past year, notwithstanding that frequent and repeated petitions have been made to them so to do; and

WHEREAS, The medical profession is satisfied that no permanent or equitable arrangement can be arrived at under the present condition of affairs, and that, if matters are left in their present condition, these positions will be a continued source of ill-feeling in the profession and of annoyance to the commissioners; therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the opinion of the Medical Society of the County of New York, as the legal representative of the medical profession of this county, that all medical positions, salaried as well as unsalaried, which are within the present gift of the Commissioners of Charities, be taken away from said Commissioners and from the medical colleges and be placed under the control of the municipal civil service of the City and County of New York, to the end that fitness and merit, and not political nor collegiate favoritism, shall be the tests for appointment in the medical positions of the municipal service; and be it further

Resolved, That this resolution be referred to the Comitia Minora of the Medical Society of the County of New York, with instructions to draft a bill for presentation to the Legislature at an early moment, and to consult or cooperate with any body or bodies that it may think proper to secure the objects proposed by this resolution.

He

Obituary. Dr. Jacob T. Field, of Bayonne, N. J., died November 24th. He was born at North Branch, Somerset County, N. J., in 1839, and was a graduate of Rutgers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, class of 1863. He served in the United States navy with distinction during the war, and was honorably discharged from the service. With the late Dr. Frederick G. Payne, he founded the Bayonne City Hospital. was a skilful surgeon with a large practice, and had practised his profession in Bayonne for more than thirty years. His wife and one son, Dr. Frank L. Field, survive him. -Dr. William Wallace, who died in Brooklyn on the 22d v.t., was a man of special prominence in charitable and educational work, as well as having an extensive practice. Among the institutions with which he was associated

were the Long Island College Hospital and Dispensary, St. John's and St. Mary's Hospitals, and the Home for Consumptives, the Church Charity Foundation, and the Vestry of St. Ann's-on-the-Heights. He was ex-president of the Pathological Society. He was a native of Cork, Ireland, having been born there sixty-one years ago. He held a double qualification from the Royal Colleges of Scotland in 1855 and 1860. He was an assistant surgeon in the naval service during the Crimean war. He settled in Brooklyn in 1864, and straightway became enlisted in all the honorable departments of work that signalize our profession. His final illness was locomotor ataxia, from which he suffered for about six months. His wife and two sons, one of the latter a graduate in medicine, survive him.

CORRESPONDENCE.

GUAIACOL IN RHUS-POISONING. To the Editor of the MEDICAL NEWS:

DEAR SIR: August 16th last I was called to see a patient, male, aged forty-five years, suffering from an aggravated form of rhus-poisoning, the face being swollen to such an extent as to wholly obliterate the features, and the eyes being entirely closed. I made an application of zinc-oxid ointment, and ordered applications of carbonate of sodium 3 ii in aqua 3 iii on absorbent cotton. negative. Third day after onset I made an application of pure guaiacol, freely painting it over the inflamed area with a camel's-hair brush, and then covering the parts.

Result

Next day there was marked amelioration of the trouble, and on the fourth day after inaugurating the guaiacol treatment, the poisoning and its resulting inflammation had entirely disappeared.

Again, on October 7th, I was called to treat a boy of eleven years with the same trouble, one side of the face and neck being affected to about the same extent as the previous case. I used the same treatment as before, viz., guaiacol, and on the second day thereafter he was out and at school, the trouble having entirely abated.

Some two years ago I was led to try this drug in the treatment of erysipelas, having received a monograph on the subject from Dr. C. J. Whalen of Chicago, and with good results, which was my reason for experimenting with it in the above two cases of rhus-poisoning.

Of course, these being the only cases in which I have had an opportunity of using this treatment, it would be premature to claim the guaiacol a specific; yet it certainly seems to have been of good service.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

[From our Special Correspondent.]

PROFESSOR ROUX TALKS ON DIPHTHERIA-PET ANIMALS AS DISSEMINATORS OF DISEASE-TWELVE FATAL CASES OF "PSITTACOSIS -TUBERCULOSIS IN DOGS" WOMEN AND THE CRUSADE AGAINST PROSTITUTION, VIVISECTION, ALCOHOLISM, AND

WAR."

PARIS, DECEMBER 14, 1896.

On December 11th and 12th Professor Roux talked before his special students at the Pasteur Institute on diphtheria. Needless to say the lectures were extremely interesting and complete. The review of the recent work on diphtheria the world over was made a special feature. Though the talks lasted over four hours altogether, not once did the speaker mention the Pasteur Institute or his own work. Behring's investigations were given a large place. The recent work of Brieger and Boes was fully recalled, and Ehrlich, Sydney Martin, and our own Park, Williams, and Talbot Smith, received mention. Only that certain important lacunæ in our knowledge of diphtheria were filled up, without the mention of any names, one would not know how much Yersin and Roux had done on that subject. Metschnikow, in treating of cholera, had displayed the same modesty. There was a casual mention of a personal experiment in swallowing a certain amount of a living culture, and that was all there was to show that he had ever done any special work in the study of the disease. Thus, it would seem, the traditions of the Pasteur Institute are being lived up to, and the modest spirit of the great master is perpetuating itself in his pupils, and in the atmosphere of the Institute where rest his remains. Such self-abnegation is delightfully refreshing in these days of savants who are usually thoroughly immune to the microbe of excessive modesty.

Roux finds so far that none of the objections urged against the serum is well founded. The serum does not sensibly affect the normal individual even when injected in considerable quantities: it does not produce nephritis; it gives rise to no rashes other than those which any serum may occasion, and it has now been used in too many thousand cases to leave at all uncertain its absolute innocuousness, even though its administration is sometimes accompanied by various pathologic phenomena, of which, however, it is not the cause. The doubting Thomases in serumtherapy would find serious matter for thought in his enthusiastic hopefulness. He urges the early use of the serum, as soon as the slightest patch of membrane is visible, and without waiting for the result of cultures, and insists on its liberal injection. Not 5 or 10 units, but hundreds, even thousands, may be used in serious cases without the slightest fear.

At the hands of a number of French scientists, lately, pet animals have been coming in for their share of blame in the conveyance of infectious diseases. Two very striking reports have been made to the Academy of Medicine within a month. Gilbert and Fournier reported a series of some fourteen cases of a peculiar contagious disease which was almost always fatal (only two patients survived), which they traced to parrots. The specific

cause of the disease is a bacillus that was described by Nacard in 1893 as having been found in the bone-marrow of certain parrots dead from the disease. The bacillus was found in the lungs of patients after death, and was rapidly fatal to guinea-pigs and rabbits, producing characteristic lesions. The microbe resembles very closely the bacillus of typhoid fever, and was at first supposed to be identical with it. It gives even the agglutinative reaction with typhoid serum, that has been considered so characteristic of Eberth's bacillus. Widal has pointed out within the past week, however, that there are certain distinguishing characteristics in the quality of its agglutinative action. symptoms of the disease are those of a fulminant type of broncho-pneumonia, with intense depression, and Gilbert and Fournier are of the opinion that some of the reported family epidemics of pneumonia have been really due to this disease, for which they suggest the name, Psittacosis (πσιττακος, a parrot).

The

The dog has usually been considered very immune, or at least resistent, to tuberculosis. At one time injections of canine serum were suggested, I believe even employed, as a therapeutic measure in this disease. Dr. Cadiot now reports to the Academy of Medicine that in 205 autopsies on dogs, he found tubercular lesions 105 times. Only about half of the lesions were localized in the lungs. The dog is especially liable to mucous and cutaneous tubercular lesions. The nasal secretion often contains the bacilli, and the animals are peculiarly prone to have small and not easily noticeable but persistently discharg ing tuberculous fistula in the cervical region. The danger of infection, especially of children, is easily understood in such a case, and some of the cases of tubercular meningitis, where the family history and the personal environment give no trace of the mode of injection, may have had such an origin as this. The cat is reported by the same observer to have a series of mucous and cutaneous lesions very like those observed in the dog. The striking picture of the English observer in Iceland describing the children as "exchanging caresses and echinacocci" with dogs, is vividly recalled by the possibilities suggested by these observations.

Women

Speaking of animals, one has been inclined to think that it is only in America that physiologic and bacteriologic work is hindered by the antivivisectionists, but, alas! it is now commencing in France, also. One of the recent num bers of Larousse's Encyclopedic Journal was devoted entirely to women and women's work, "Les femmes et les feministes," and a leading paper bore the title: and the Crusade Against Prostitution, Vivisection, Alcoholism, and War." Verily, the experimenters have gotten into unsavory company. The wonderful results achieved during the last ten years by experimentation on animals does not hinder the propagation even here of rabid fanatical ideas of ultra-carefulness of animal feelings. Even Magnan's now classical description of the antivivisectionists as a special class of degenerates coming under the same general head as a number of other monomaniacs-people who have a little too much of one quality to be perfectly sane-does not seem to have stopped the propagandism very much. Meantime, the medical pro

fession in general, as with us in America, looks idly on. One would not think their interests were at all involved in the question.

OUR PHILADELPHIA LETTER.

[From our Special Correspondent.]

PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL TRAINING

SCHOOL' FOR BY THE PHILADELPHIA POLYCLINIC-UNSANITARY CONDITION OF BAKESHOPS-BEER BOTTLES AS RECEPTACLES FOR SPECIMENS OF URINE.

NURSES-COURTESY EXTENDED

PHILADELPHIA, January 2, 1897.

At the graduating exercises of the Philadelphia Hospital Training School for Nurses, held in the amphitheater of the hospital on the 29th of December, twenty-one nurses were awarded diplomas. Addresses were made by Dr. John H. Musser of Philadelphia, and Dr. William Osler of Baltimore.

No better illustration of the good feeling which exists between the medical profession of New York and Philadelphia, and especially between the teaching faculties of the two cities, could be had than the fact that upon the receipt of the news of the damage by fire on Christmas morning to the New York Polyclinic building, the Faculty of the Philadelphia Polyclinic promptly extended its sympathy and the courtesy of recognizing, without charge, the tickets held by the students for their unexpired term. This was gratefully appreciated by the Faculty of the former institution, but their prompt and vigorous action in providing facilities for continuing their work rendered acceptance of the courtesy unnecessary.

At the meeting of the Woman's Health Protective Association, held at Association Hall on December 29th, Dr. Benjamin Lee, Secretary of the State Board of Health, addressed the members on the subject of the unsanitary condition of the bakeshops of the city. He was present at the meeting in response to a request that he give his opinion on this subject. In the course of his remarks he said: The importance of removing the evils attendant upon the present filthy condition of the bakeshops is as great, or greater, than the importance of providing pure and wholesome milk. It is a matter of notoriety that in the outbreaks of cholera in Europe the workers in the bakeshops have been the first to be attacked by the disease, and it is also known that the mortality of bakers is greater than that of the average of artisans. These unfortunate results are due to the vitiated atmosphere of the cellars where baking is usually carried on. If the agitation for an improvement of the sanitary conditions were conducted solely for the welfare of the workmen in these shops it would be worthy of encouragement, but the need for it is very much greater in consequence of the spread of disease that must accompany the preparation of bread in such places. It has been suggested that a bill be introduced into the Legislature providing that the factory inspectors be instructed to inspect the bakeshops and enforce regulations as to their condition, but it would be more appropriate that the matter be under the care of the Board of Health.

A typewritten letter from the Pennsylvania Bottlers'

Protective Association has been received by the physicians of this city, calling attention to an enclosed letter from a physician, deprecating the use of beer or other bottles originally intended for beverages, as receptacles for specimens of urine, and requests the absolute refusal of specimens brought in such bottles. The practice, though strenuously to be condemned, is unfortunately only too common in certain portions of the city, and especially in dispensary practice.

TRANSACTIONS OF FOREIGN SOCIETIES.

London.

SPONTANEOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF SECONDARY CANCER. ARSENIC CAUSES DISAPPEARANCE OF SARCOMA OF THE TESTICLE.-THE CAUSE OF PAIN IN MOVABLE KIDNEY.-SUCCESSFUL REMOVAL OF A GLIOMA OF THE CEREBELLUM.-TREATMENT OF PERITONITIS DUE TO PERFORATIVE APPENDICITIS.

AT a meeting of the Clinical Society of London, November 27th, PEARCE GOULD showed a case of spontaneous disappearance of a secondary cancerous growth in a woman aged forty-four years. Ten years previously she had received a blow on the left breast. Five years after this the breast was removed for scirrhous carcinoma. Recurrence of the growth was twice operated upon. The tumor again recurred, with difficulty in breathing, and it was considered inadvisable to perform any further operation, as the growth had probably become disseminated. There were numerous hard nodules around the scar, and considerable enlargement of the glands in the axilla and above the clavicle. She also had pain in the left thigh and one inch of shortening, and below the trochanter there was a large, bony growth. Nodules also appeared in the right axilla and above the right clavicle, and the right chest was dull below the spine of the scapula. This was the condition in March, 1896, when she was thought to be in the last stage of malignant disease, and her death was daily expected. Three months later she was much better. The enlargement of the axillary and clavicular glands had disappeared, dyspnea had ceased, and there was no dulness on percussion except at the base of the right chest. The nodules in the chest-wall had also disappeared, and the swelling of the leg had markedly diminished. There had been no treatment which might influence the progress of the disease. Microscopic examinations of the growths made by two competent observers revealed typical scirrhous cancer.

GOLDING-BIRD mentioned the case of a man, aged sixty, whose right testicle had been removed for sarcoma, of which he had microscopic sections. Three weeks later the stump fungated, and a large mass was removed, with as much of the cord as possible. In another three weeks there was an infiltration in all the surrounding skin. Morris saw this case, and unhesitatingly pronounced it malignant, but suggested arsenic in rapidly increasing doses. In ten days, when the poisonous dose had been reached, the growth had entirely disappeared. That was three years ago, and there has not been any recurrence.

At the meeting held December 11th, DAVID NEWMAN read a paper on increased vascular tension in the kidney as a cause of renal pain, hematuria, and albuminuria,