look on the list, to prescribe what they never would have thought of, and from which many of their patients derive no benefit, but probably suffer injury.

The eagerness with which new agents are employed is illustrated in the use of jaborandi and its alkaloid pilocarpine. Dr. Fordyce Barker very earnestly protests against their administration in the dropsies and eclampsia of pregnancy, for which they have been highly commended. He bases his opposition on the results of six cases reported by him in the Medical Record of March 1, 1879. Five terminated fatally, and one recovered, the latter manifesting no improvement until after the discontinuance of the jaborandi. It is impossible to doubt, after reading Dr. Barker's full and candid report, that the vaunted drug was noxious rather than beneficial.

A new anesthetic is presented by Dr. George E. Sandford, of Cayuga County, N. Y. He calls it Chloramyl. It is composed

of

Squibb's chloroform, 1 lb.

Nitrite of amyl, 2 drachms.-M.

It is based upon the property of the latter in accelerating the circulation, thus preventing the cardiac paralysis attributable to chloroform narcosis. Cases confirmatory of this view are cited. It is urged that, as nitrite of amyl will rally the heart paralyzed by chloroform, if employed as above it will prevent this accident. The combination is certainly worth trying, with the suggestion-which, it is hoped, will be taken good-naturedly -that the chloroform is quite as necessary as an antidote to the amyl as the amyl to the chloroform.

The British Med. Journal of Jan. 25, 1879, presents also an anæsthetic, entitled "Dichloride of Ethydene," reported favorably upon by the Committee of the British Medical Association on the Action of Anaesthetics, and is of the opinion that "it possesses all the advantages of ether or chloroform without their disadvantages. Its odor is agreeable, it produces rapid narcosis without much previous excitement, and its use is rarely followed by nausea or vomiting. It is administered by pouring the liquid on a piece of lint placed in a tumbler, and this held over the mouth and nose. In from eight to twelve minutes complete anæsthesia and muscular relaxation are produced. During the anesthesia respiration goes on regularly, the pulse is full and slow, and there is no pallor or blueness of counte

nance. From half an ounce to an ounce of the substance is used."

This is probably similar to the bichloride of ethylene, one of the many anæsthetics tested by Sir James Simpson, who pronounced it safer than either chloroform or ether, but so irritating to the throat that but few could be induced to inhale it. It is described in the National Dispensatory.

This part of our subject may well close with brief mention of this valuable work, the rival of the time-honored U. S. Dispensatory. It contains over 1500 pages of most valuable matter, is abundantly illustrated with wood-cuts, and is a complete treatise on everything pertaining to the subjects within its scope. It is especially to be commended for the rare and critical judgment of its industrious and erudite authors, Professors Stillé and Maisch, who seem to have most thoroughly investigated all matters presented by them to the medical public.

PHYSIOLOGY.

Perhaps there is no department of medicine that should more properly be termed a science than this. Half a century ago it was a vague, theoretical, sophistical congeries of ideas; now it is a positive enunciation of facts, tinctured here and there with hypotheses, as must always be the case where mind investigates the workings of matter and reasons intelligently upon the processes presented to it. Never were investigation and research in this direction more active than at present. The "list of titles of works and papers of physiological interest published in the year 1878," by the Journal of Physiology, is in itself a volume. Most of these are by European authors, especially Germans; but our own country contributes no small number of valuable articles, of which there is only time to refer to a few.

Flint, Sr., of New York, and S. C. Busey, of Washington, have each written on Rectal Alimentation, and have shown that nutrition may be maintained for a great length of time by intestinal conveyance,-can it be called digestion? Flint, Jr., is investigating Animal Heat, and the so-called Correlation of Forces, and has advanced some new and ingenious ideas on these subjects. Joseph Jones, of New Orleans, has contributed a most valuable paper on the Detection of Human Blood.

Dr. J. G. Richardson in the Connecticut Medical Times of March,

1878, gives a very clear and exact method of "Enumerating corpuscles of the blood." The lamented Dr. L. R. Longworth, of Cincinnati, who died since our last meeting, published in "The Clinic" a mathematical demonstration of the reason "why the semilunar valves are three in number." Dr. H. P. Bowditch, in the Journal of Physiology, p. 104, discusses the automatic contraction of the heart's apex. Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, in the American Journal of Medical Sciences, No. CII. gives an interesting account of "Sphygmographic experiments upon human brain, exposed by an opening in the cranium.” Dr. J. N. Langley writes on the "Physiology of the Salivary Secretion,' and Dr. H. Sewell on "The development and regeneration of the gastric glandular epithelium during foetal life and after birth," both in volume I. of the Journal of Philosophy. Dr. I. S. Lombard, of Boston, now in London, is publishing some "Experimental observations on the temperature of the head," which are very noteworthy, and may be continued with much advantage.

In addition to the standard works of Dalton and Flint, Jr., on physiology, Prof. James T. Whittaker, of the Ohio Medical College, has just issued a valuable volume. It is very modestly introduced by its author, who says he endeavors "to put within the reach and comprehension of the first course students the foundation facts and principles upon which the stately edifice of physiology is built." This object is certainly accomplished, but also much more. Its pages will well repay perusal by any physician. Evolution, protoplasm, and conservation of force are prominently brought forward, but in a pleasant and candid manner, and both sides of disputed points are so presented that the student must draw his own inference and conclusions.

Dr. Edward G. Loring, of New York, in a pamphlet of twentysix pages makes the important and suggestive inquiry, “Is the human eye changing its form under the influence of modern education?" It brings up the natural question as to how many other organs may also be more or less physiologically morbidly modified by the various surroundings and influences of what is called progress in life and habits.

Reference might be made to many other papers, but your time has already been sufficiently occupied, and your attention will only be asked longer and but for one moment to those marvels of science, the telephone and the phonograph. The probabilities of the use of their principles of action in the investigation of

disease and of health cannot now be fathomed, but that their future is one of immense extent of application and of usefulness is beyond all question. Proud should be its citizens, and blessed should be that land, whose sons first chained the lightning, then taught it to write, and now have made it vocal, and have given it a graver's tool, which traces indestructible lines, which may be carried for any time or any distance, as an individual chart, and may after any interval be made to utter not only the words, but the words in the voice of the person it represents.

REPORT ON THE PREVENTION OF BOWEL AFFECTIONS, BOTH IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS, AS INDICATED BY A COMPARISON OF CLINICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL FACTS RELATING TO THEIR ETIOLOGY.

BY N. S. DAVIS, M.D.,
CHICAGO, ILL.

THE results of your committee's investigatious concerning the keeping of clinical records in regard to the initial development of attacks of acute diseases, and their comparison with coincident meteorological records, have been presented from time to time, and may be found in detail in the volumes of the "Transactions" of this Association for 1875 and 1877. Since the last-named date, additional records of value have been received from Dr. H. Wardner, of Cairo; Dr. Henry R. Rogers, of Dunkirk; and Dr. A. N. Foster, of Chicago; all of which when analyzed and compared with the records of coincident meteorological conditions, lead to the same conclusions as those given in detail in the report for 1877.

As the records thus far have served to develop very clearly and fully the connection between certain meteorological conditions. and the prevalence and fatality of Bowel Affections, including Cholera Morbus, Cholera Infantum, and Diarrhoea; and as these diseases are among the most destructive to human life, especially in infancy, it has been thought best to occupy the present report with a more full statement of the inferences justified by the records, and the important practical measures of a preventive and remedial character which they indicate. The general facts in relation to the prevalence and fatality of this group of diseases, are: First, that they are far more destructive to life in infancy than at any subsequent period of human life. Second, that they prevail almost exclusively during the warmest months of the year. Third, that they are far more prevalent over that geographical belt or climatic zone of the earth's surface characterized by a wide range between the extremes of cold in winter and of heat in