Miscellaneous.

A writer in the New York Medical Journal suggests using dry quinin as an insufflation in acute rhinitis. He has found it successfully curative.

Those who administer calomel very often forget that they should not give potassium iodid at the same time, as a poisonous mercurious iodid is apt to be formed.

The remedies in common use in the profession in treating diabetes are valerian, arsenic and ergot, with some collinsonia or morphin. We must find better remedies than these for this serious disorder.

A number of experiments and observations on accidental cases have proven the conclusion that the x-ray administered to the pregnant female will induce abortion. Not only this, but its persistent use over the ovaries induces sterility.

A case is reported in the British Medical Journal of internal cancer, probably of the pancreas, which was treated by hypodermic injections of trypsin and amylopsin, as introduced and recommended by Baird, with improvement from the first.

A foreign writer claims to depend upon a one-per cent solution of the chlorid of ammonium, with which to clear up opacities of the cornea. He has gone through the list of all advised remedies for this purpose and finds this remedy more efficient than any of the others whatever.

A foreign writer claims that in twenty-two cases of incipient tuberculosis, he observed an irregularity of the pupils in four cases. He has seen this in other cases and believes that this may be a diagnostic mark, when other symptoms of the condition have not yet conspicuously appeared.

Perhaps no discovery has been more important in the past few years than the influence of the mosquito in conveying disease. In ten years since this discovery as been known and acted upon, the death rate from malaria alone has fallen from nineteen to eight per hundred thousand, and the mortality in Italy alone has been reduced two-thirds.

Cold applications as a treatment to pruritis ani, especially in those cases where there is a constant moist, sticky discharge, should be used in preference to hot applications. Cold is also of value when there are hemorrhoidal conditions developing. The careful but not over-application, will sometimes cause the early symptom of piles to disappear, provided the fecal movements are kept soft and no local irritation is allowed to persist.

In commenting on some articles that have appeared in THE THERAPEUTIST, Dr. Burnett, of Little Rock, Ark., says that he has used quinin a number of times for rhus poisoning, but not always with satisfactory results. In some cases it produced no influence, whatever.

He claims to get better results from a mixture of salicylic acid and glycerin in controlling both the itching and the progress of the condition. He says this is the result of his experience, and experience is what counts with him.

A report has been made through the medical press, of a foreign operator who injected paraffin into the side of the nose to overcome a deformity, with the result that permanent blindness occurred. A satisfactory explanation for the cause of the blindness is not given.

In another case where a medicated wax bougie was introduced into the urethra and escaped into the bladder, it acted as a foreign body and induced irritation. The doctor injected fifteen c. c. of benzine into the bladder, where it was kept for forty or forty-five minutes. A larger quantity was then injected and the whole was evacuated. No vesical irritation remained.

I have received the following letter from Dr. L. H. Downs of Galveston, Texas:

This will be of mutual advantage and will greatly facilitate the making of a correct list. This should have prompt response from every member of the school.

Lippincott's Magazine for February presents some interesting features. The plan laid out for the entire year includes twelve first-class novels. Those presented in the February number are of unusual interest. The short stories are attractive. Dr. George Lincoln Walter presents an article on sleeplessness that brings forward some facts for the lay reader that are of practicable value. This popular journal needs no commendation from us. It occupies a well sustained, prominent place among periodical literature.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.