Amid this general expectancy among the profession-as among the laity for a specific germicide for the bacillus tuberculosis, we are not only like the Athenians, constantly "in search for some new thing," but there is a possibility, in this looking for a something to act in a specific form or way, that we may overlook the remedy when it shall be found, and so be not unlike the Jews of the time of Christ: in constant expectancy of the Messiah, yet rejecting the Saviour when he

comes.

If it were not so serious a matter, it would be exceedingly amusing to listen, at times, to medical discussions, and see how easily men, who ought to be more careful with their words, reject and even ridicule suggestions for treatment of disease because these suggestions do not exactly agree with their own thought in the matter. Thus the methods of treating consumption by the pneumatic cabinet, by disinfectant injections, or the hot-air treatment, are easily disposed of, in medical societies and in medical monographs, not by careful trial, but by flippant criticism and rejection, and the assertion that thus and thus are the facts; and so the ipse dixit of men who would be authorities sets aside even what is good and of value in these treatments, which are generally the results of careful thought and study on the part of men who have faithfully tried to answer the vexed question we are all asking, viz. What will destroy the bacillus tuberculosis, and so cure consumption?

It is said that the liquids of the animal body, when in a proper normal condition, are bacillicidal, and that certain forms of bacteria work the destruction of other forms.

Any farmer's son, or cowboy of the West, will tell you that there is no better remedy for "chapped hands" (a painful condition, caused by exposure to cold and lack of cleanliness) than recent urine. "It is healing"-antiseptic-in its effects when freely applied to that or other

eczematous conditions.

A German woman of the middling class, but observing, once assured me that a friend of hers had been cured of consumption by the free use (taken internally) of recent urine.

Liquor amnii, as is well known, is aseptic, and probably antiseptic, being protective to the mother and the child, and no doubt oftentimes protective to the hands of the accoucheur.

Bacteriologists (if I mistake not, Prudden among others) tell us that recent blood-serum (according to Buchner, the albumen in the blood-plasma is the destructive agent of the bacteria) is a bad culturemedium for some of the forms of the disease-germs. It is very likely that an abnormal condition of these organic liquids tends to develop bacterial growth within the body, more especially certain special forms

thereof, as of the cancerous, scrofulous, or tuberculous, and thus we find developed in such individuals special cachexias, diatheses, etc.

It seems to be a law of nature that when organic matter (whether vegetable or animal) dies, when vitality ceases in it, germs, either microscopical or macroscopical, immediately develop in it or around it, and cause a chemical action, or assist a chemical action, or are caused by a chemical action, which sooner or later work its utter decomposition and destruction as such organic substance or matter. This being a fact, is it not probable that, as organic matter (a human body, if you please) weakens, lessens in vitality, the liquids and perhaps solids assume a condition-abnormal, of course-in which germ-life (just in proportion to the loss of vitality in the individual) grows, develops, and, by the time the individual dies, has complete control of the carcass (hence come perhaps the poisonous alkaloids which make autopsy-wounds so fatal); and that the constitutional condition, peculiar to, or favoring the growth of the tubercle bacillus, for instance, after generations of repetition, is transmissible from parent to child. And thus we have the explanation of heredity, and can understand that, as a rule, not the disease itself is transmitted, but the tendency to the disease the condition of body well adapted to the growth of the germ. and to this development of the abnormal condition.

To prevent the disease, then, we must prevent the implantation of the germ, or change or prevent this condition of the body so peculiarly adapted to germ-growth, or both.

What we want now, it would appear, is to call a halt in this mad rush after new things—after a specific for tuberculosis, if you please— and take a retrospective view, as well as a prospective, combine old thoughts and things with new, and so endeavor, through the light of the present, to understand the modus operandi of what the fathers in medicine learned by observation. It may be in this way we shall discover that, in part at least, what we have been so diligently searching for is already within our grasp, and that we need only to understand how to use it.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

PERSISTENCE OF THE TYPHOID BACILLUS IN THE BODY.-Chantemesse reports a case of typhoid fever with relapses extending over five months. Orloff has published a case in which a pure culture of the typhoid bacillus was obtained from an osteo-myelitic abscess nine months after the beginning of the affection. Achalme has reported a similar case. These cases are rare, but they teach the possibility of prolonged infection in typhoid.

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EDITORIAL.

ANESTHESIA AND FORCED RESPIRATION.

Two recent deaths in Brooklyn, following the use of anesthetics, have again directed the attention of the public and the profession to the dangers connected therewith. In one the death was due to the selfadministration of chloroform by a physician for facial neuralgia; in the other, death followed the use of but four drachms of ether, administered in the usual way and with the usual precautions by careful and painstaking physicians. Both deaths seem to have been unavoidable, and in the death from ether all means of resuscitation generally regarded as efficient were employed, but without avail.

In reading the history of these cases, the writer was reminded of the method of forced respiration advised and employed by Dr. George E. Fell, of Buffalo, for the resuscitation of persons in asphyxia, and the thought occurred whether in such cases this method would be efficient. Dr. Fell's method consists in first introducing a tracheotomy-tube, or in suitable cases using a face-mask without tracheotomy, and then, by means of a simple bellows, worked by hand- or foot-power, a steady stream of air is forced into the lungs, over-inflation being prevented by a valve, which is under the direct control of the surgeon.

Up to the present time Dr. Fell has made use of his method in eleven cases, seven of which recovered. Indeed, after a perusal of the history of these cases, it is not too much to say that seven lives have been saved by him which would inevitably have succumbed had the ordinary

The asphyxia was in

methods of resuscitation been alone resorted to. all the cases, but one, due to opium or morphia, and in none was an anæsthetic the responsible cause. Nor do we know that this method would be as successful after an anesthetic as in the instances referred to; but our experience in the resuscitation of dogs, whose breathing has ceased after the administration of ether and chloroform, leads us to believe that it would be well worth the trial. Indeed, it was this observation of Dr. Fell in his physiological experimentations which first led him to the use of forced respiration in asphyxia.

The question may well be asked whether, in light of the success of Dr. Fell, our whole duty is done until the forced-respiration method has been tried in all forms of asphyxia. We commend to our readers the papers of Dr. Fell, which are published in the "Transactions of the New York State Medical Association" (1888, 1889), and in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal, of March, 1888. His longcontinued efforts to save human life-in one instance extended over twenty-four hours, and with a successful result-certainly deserve the warmest commendation. And no surgeon can afford to ignore his method without having first given it the fullest trial.

THE EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA.

This

One of the most striking papers we remember to have read was prepared, some years ago, by Dr. Benjamin Lee, of Philadelphia, on the cost of an epidemic of small-pox to the people of that city. paper gave not only the actual loss which was incurred by the sickness and death of so many active individuals in the community, but the prospective loss as well of their services and of those of the children who succumbed.

Such a paper, dealing with the epidemic of influenza of 1889-'90 for all the countries visited, would contain statistics which would be inconceivable in their proportion. The cost to England alone is estimated at $10,000,000: one-half of this amount having been paid to insurance companies of various kinds, the other half representing loss of wages, etc. All of this was not a loss to the community, for presumably the money paid for insurance remained to a great extent in the country; but even leaving this out of the account, the actual cost was enormous, doubtless far surpassing the figures quoted.

It is to be hoped, as well for economic as for other reasons, that the fears of some, that the epidemic is to reappear this year, will not be realized.

KOCH'S CURE FOR CONSUMPTION.

The sensation of the past month has been the announcement that Koch has discovered a cure for consumption. This has come to us principally through the lay press, although within a few days Koch himself has made a contribution on the subject to the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift. If we understand the matter aright, Koch regards it as still sub judice, and has appeared in print only because his researches have been publicly communicated through the press in such form as to demand that he should put himself right before the profession. It is too early to pronounce the treatment a success and the greatest boon to humanity of the nineteenth century, etc., etc. It is a subject of such vast importance that we can well afford to wait until Koch has himself declared it a success and has submitted to the world his methods, which are as yet unknown except to a favored few.

COUNTER-PRESCRIBING.

The evils of counter-prescribing have become so great in St. Joseph, Neb., that some of the physicians of that city have determined to test in the courts the rights of druggists to prescribe for the sick. It is said that a syphilitic was being treated by a drug-clerk of the town under a contract to cure him in four months at the rate of $6 per month.

That this practice is largely indulged in in Brooklyn, no one at all familiar with the facts doubts; and any effort to mitigate the evil here would be to the advantage of both the purse and the welfare of many a poor sufferer.

OBITUARY.

GEORGE F. LLOYD, M.D., AND J. E. GREGORY, M.D.

The death of Dr. George F. Lloyd, at the Kings County Hospital, by the hand of an assassin, and that of Dr. J. E. Gregory, of 414 Clinton Street, by the self-administration of chloroform, for the relief of facial neuralgia, have been announced. As both physicians were members of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, we shall defer the publication of obituary notices until the committees appointed for that purpose shall present their report.