Entero-Colitis, Cholera Infantum, Peritonitis. In acute inflammatory conditions of the intestinal tract Antiphlogistine will be found of great value. It will not take the place of proper diet and internal medication, but by relieving the local congestion and soothing the nervous system, it will be found to be an inestimable adjuvant. Chicago THE DENVER CHEMICAL MFG. CO. San Francisco NEW YORK London Sydney Montreal THE MORTALITY OF PNEUMONIA IN HIGH ALTITUDES.— Charles F. Kieffer refers to the very common belief that penumonia is more fatal at high altitudes than at the sea level. Several recent papers are reviewed. The paper is a study of the cases occurring at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, at an elevation of 6195 feet above sea level, during the period between 1868 and 1905. During this time among 26,569 admissions for all causes, there were 127 cases of pneumonia with 20 deaths; a mortality of 15.74 per cent. The fatal cases are classified according to the anatomic location of the disease. The writer calls attention to the prognestic import of syphilis on pneumonia. The figures are compared with those of the entire army. In the period between 1868 and 1893 the total admissions in the army for pneumonia were 7078, with 1105 deaths; a mortality of 15.61 per cent. During the same years at Fort Russell, there were 123 cases with 18 deaths; a mortality of 14.63 per cent., the advantage in favor of the high altitude being I per cent. Charts are included showing the incidence of the disease by months and a chart showing the mortality and ratio of incidence in the army for 36 years. The paper concludes that the figures, as far as they go, seem to show that altitude has very little influence on the mortality of pneumonia. 4,523,508 quart bottles of champagne were imported into the United States during 1905. During the past five years the consumption of champagne in the United States has increased over 35 per cent. The custom duty paid into the United States treasury per annum on account of champagne is three millions of dollars. Great Britain imports almost double the amount of the United States and drinks more champagne than any other nation. The United States ranks second, and Russia third. Belgium, consumes more per capita than any other nation. The United States drinks one-seventh of all the champagne produced. The price of champagne never varies. A bottle of champagne at one of the leading hotels in Paris, where there is no duty, costs about the same as a similar place in New York, and the price is practically the same in London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, or Rome. Champagne does not improve with age. Some of the large producers of chanpagne, like Pommery and Mumm, have caves dug out of the solid chalk of the earth from eight to eleven miles in extent. Summer and winter the champagne is kept at an even temperature. The grapes are no longer trodden by the feet but are crushed by machinery. The champagne drinker who has no discrimination wants his champagne sweet, while the connois seur wants it dry. In former times the United States took its champagne considerable sweeter than now. "Brut" is a natural champagne without any artificial sweetening. "Sec" and "Extra Dry" ("Dry and Extra Dry") have a small percentage of sugar. OPERA AFTER SURGICAL TIONS WITHOLD WATER, said the late Dr. McGuire, as an empty stomach is one of the best safeguards against vomiting. Water should be withheld from the patient for several hours after recovery from anesthesia. If at the end of this time no nausea exists it may be given in small quantities at half-hour intervals, and if it be well borne by the stomach, the quantity increased until thirst is relieved. The water may be acidulated with lemon juice, or cold or hot tea, without sweetening, substituted for it. Meirosky has found that tattoo marks may be removed by long exposure with the Finsen light. WHO WAS THE FIRST STUDENT TO MATRICULATE IN THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, WHEN IT WAS FOUNDED TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO. GRAND RAPIDS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VOL. XXI. LOS ANGELES, AUGUST, 1906. DR. WALTER LINDLEY, Editor. No. 8 DR. F. M. POTTENGER and DR. GEORGE H. KRESS, Assistant Editors. DR. H. BERT ELLIS, DR. GEO. L. COLE and DR. W. JARVIS BARLOW, Associate Editors. THE EARLY DIAGNOSIS AND THE PROGNOSIS OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.* BY S. A. KNOPF, Mr. President, beloved former teachers, former fellow-students, members of the Los Angeles County Medical Society and co-workers in antituberculosis work, ladies and gentlemen: First of all, I desire to thank you for the honor you have done me in calling this special meeting at this unusual time of the year. Here where I received most of my undergraduate training and here where there are so many tuberculosis specialists, a teacher is not needed. I do not come to teach you, but rather to learn again. On the early diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis may be said to depend, in one sense, the solution of the antituberculosis problem. For the earlier we recognize this disease the earlier and surer shall we be able to cure the patient and the surer prevent the tuberculosis subject from infecting others, and reinfecting himself. The first thing in our endeavor to arrive at a diagnosis is, of course, always to take down carefully the history of the M.D., NEW YORK. case; that is to say, name, age, occupation, sex, previous diseases and length of the present ailment. We were once taught to ask what the patient's father, mother, grandfather or grandmother, uncle or aunt died of. I do not ask these questions any more directly, but try to find out the answers in an indirect way, for do not forget that the moment you ask these questions directly the patient becomes alarmed and nervous, because he still believes in hereditary consumption, and in its usually fatal issue. It is of far greater import in taking down the history to ask the patient whether he has associated with anyone who had lung trouble, whether there has been any obvious exposure to infection. When the personal history reveals a pleurisy we are justified in suspecting it to have been of a tuberculous nature. Pleurisy "a frigori" is exceedingly rare. In asking about the patient's home life try to find out something about his house and room, where he has been raised, and where he lives now, and Delivered upon invitation before the Los Angeles County Medical Association, July 20, 1906. Abstract by G. H. K. |