The secondary current will always be more intense than the primary for the same adjustment of the apparatus, and it will be a stimulating current because its direction is necessarily reversed automatically by the spring; its sedative and chemical effects will be subordinate ones.

To convey the general idea of these distinctions, let us contrast the kind of currents called for by paralysis and neuralgia. I instance the treatment of these merely as illustrative cases, not at all because I wish to dogmatize. First, then, in a case of neuralgia, confined to a definite region and not depending on cerebral disease or traumatic injury to a nerve, we shall find in electricity a powerful sedative and tonic; but obviously to be so applied, its alterative and soothing influence is required, not its stimulating one. The interrupted primary would, therefore, be used; the positive electrode would be applied as near the trunk of the nerve as possible, and the negative electrode, which must have a large surface, would be at the periphery; the spring would be adjusted to its most rapid movement, and a mild current barely capable of causing any muscular contraction would be employed for ten or fifteen minutes.

For paralysis, depending, for example, on lead-poisoning, we need stimulation, and this, of course, would be secured by the secondary current, applied by electrodes terminating in sponge or cloth surfaces so as to make complete contact with the skin; without this precaution there would be danger of cutaneous irritation, the spring would be made to vibrate rather slowly and shocks sufficient to cause strong contractions in a healthy muscle would be employed.

The electrodes required for the application of electricity for general purposes like the above are not many. Properly, any conductor held by the patient is an electrode, but the term is restricted to especially shaped pieces of metal which lead the current into the patient's body. A pair of handles and a pair of sponge cups with insulating handles will be all that will be required for most purposes.

For the local application of electricity, where its action is chiefly chemical, a greater variety of electrodes will be needed.

In using it in this way, the object is to produce electrolysis, and the galvanic current is here superior to any other. Each pole will have the same definite action which it has on nonliving matter, that is, the positive electrode will determine the production of free acid in the tissues in its vicinity, and the negative electrode will generate alkali. To obtain a marked effect, the cuticle must be absent where only two cells are employed, because of its high resistance, and the pole whose influence is desired, must be attached to a small electrode in order to concentrate the current. In the treatment of an indolent ulcer, for instance, the positive electrode, which should be of platinum, or, at least, of iron nickle-plated, in the form of a small olive would be applied directly without any covering to the surface of the ulcer, while the negative electrode might be a sponge cup, moistened in salt and water and placed on the skin a few inches away from the margin of the sore.

A New Method of Engendering Tuberculosis.
(Uber Eine Neue Method Tuberculose zu Erzergen.)

DR. TAPPEINER DE MERAN, in Virchow's Archives. This author, taking into account the fact that very frequently persons who are descendants of robust families become phthisical from contact with tuberculous patients, was led to regard tuberculosis as a contagious disease. He thought that the particles of expectorated matter diffused in the air at the moment of coughing might be the cause of the contagion. Direct inoculation, the introduction of tuberculous sputa with the food, and the injection of tuberculous matter into the trachea, did not yield satisfactory results, as practiced by Lippl. Dr. Tappeiner therefore tried a new method of experimentation. He made the animals breathe air saturated with an atomized solution of the sputa, thus compelling them to introduce into their lungs the supposed elements of the contagion. The experiments were performed at Munich, in the pathological institute of Prof. V. Buhl, under the following conditions: The sputa of tuberculous patients having cavities

In

in their lungs, was dissolved in the water of an atomizer, in the proportion of from three to five hundred grammes of water to one spoonful of sputa. The solution thus obtained was projected by the atomizer into closed wooden boxes, containing the dogs. In the first eight experiments, the boxes were 1.12 meters long, 0.82 of a meter wide, and 0.86 of a meter high. One of the ends of each box was made of wire lattice, covered with linen cloth. Through these ends, the atomized spray was introduced. In the four first experiments, atomization was performed twice each day, and was kept up for an hour each time. The animals were not permitted to leave the boxes at any time during the continuance of the experiments. the four succeeding experiments, atomization was performed but once a day, the animals being free in the intervals. In the three last experiments, the animals were kept in wooden cages of twelve cubic meters, the boards being separated by spaces of considerable size; the material atomized in three days contained only a teaspoonful of sputa. Dogs were chosen for these experiments, because, according to Prof. Bollinger, they are seldom affected with tuberculosis. The animals could move around freely in their cages, and the jet from the atomizer was never thrown directly on them. In eleven dogs treated in this way, there was found, at the autopsy, miliary tuberculization of both lungs. Tuberculization of the kidneys occurred in a still greater number of cases, while the liver and spleen were rarely found affected. The nature of the deposits was verified by the microscope-in one case only were the characters of the lesion doubtful. It was generally about the end of the third week that miliary tubercles were deposited. In two dogs killed before this time-one at the end of ten days, the other, after the fifteenth day-no tubercules were found. At the beginning of the fourth week, an abundant infiltration of tubercules was was found. The quantity of expectorated matter that gained access through the bronchi was necessarily very small, since, in the last experiments, the animals were confined in cages into which the air could easily penetrate through the spaces between the boards. Moreover, atomization was performed but once a day.

Schottelius (Vorlauf Mittheil. med. Centralblatt, Number III), obtained the same results by using the mucous expectoration of patients suffering from simple bronchitis, and who were not tainted with tuberculosis; he attributes the development of tubercules to the introduction of foreign bodies. Tubercules were also produced by the absorption in the lungs of atomized solutions of particles of cheese, cerebral matter, etc. According to Dr. Tappeiner, the conditions of Schottelius' experiments did not prevent the penetration of a considerable quantity of solid particles into the bronchi. Besides, repeated under different conditions, the experiments of Schottelius yielded negative results.

acts.

The lungs are not the only organs through which the poison The infectious particles are also absorbed by the digestive canal. To two dogs, about fifteen grammes of tuberculous sputa were administered every day with their food. At the end of six weeks, their lungs were examined, and in them were found numerous miliary tubercles. Tuberculous ulcerations were also found in the intestines. On the other hand, six other dogs, treated in the same manner, presented nothing abnormal.

Of the eleven dogs experimented on, nine were lively, and presented the appearance of perfect health up to the last moment. May it not be inferred from this that there exists a latent period during which the infection is produced? Reasoning from analogy, it is very probable that phthisis is produced in a somewhat similar way among men--the infection being accomplished by means of special particles diffused in the expired air at the moment of coughing.--A. Mathieu in Archives Generales de Medecine. Translated for Physician and Surgeon.

The Eclectic School in Medicine.

Perhaps the majority of our readers will demand of us some explanation for publishing the reports of recent meetings of eclectic medical bodies, State and national, as they appear in our present number. It is not, by any means, in a spirit of

apology that we refer to this matter, and yet, we feel that the position which New Preparations seeks to maintain on the question of therapeutics, more particularly calls for a few words on the subject. We trust that we are not so bigoted as to be blind to the good that is patent in any system, how much soever that system may, as a whole, be contrary to that to which we adhere. We are not so egotistic as to maintain that prejudice has no place in our mental make-up, but it is our aim, as honestly as we may, in the field which we especially cultivate, to allow no preconceived opinions to interfere with our selection from whatever source it may come, the new and the useful. We aim, ourselves, to be "eclectic" in the broadest, and in the true etymological meaning of the word. If, for instance, .should we believe that the effects of mercury are injurious, and that as a cholagogue podophyllin is a superior drug, it is our privilege to avoid mercury entirely, and to administer podophyllin. But because we do this we are not a dogmatist, and neither is our standing as a regular practitioner at all impaired, and because we may think that small doses are more effective than large doses, we are not a homoeopathist.

We recognize the fact that the school of practitioners who (incorrectly, we believe) style themselves eclectics have contributed a number of valuable articles to our materia medica, and we are willing to accept what they have done as an earnest of what they may yet do. We recognize them as co-workers in the same field in which we ourselves labor, and the only possible objection we have to them is that they set themselves up as dogmatists, and either allow, or wink at practices which we believe are inconsistent with those of a learned and dignified profession, these practices not necessarily pertaining to the science of therapeutics. Indeed, as far as their practice is concerned, and aside from their theories, we (in our ignorance, probably) fail to discover any valid reason why we might not consult with them at the bedside. As we remarked in our last number, in noticing a report of the proceedings of their State Medical Society, their practice bears but a slight relation to their theories. We had supposed that they were herbalists, pure and simple, but a reference to Dr. McMaster's communication