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THE PROFESSION OF MEDICINE A DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE.
1226 ON Wednesday morning seven more nurses, sent out under they are ill-patients too ill to attend the hospital-presumably, therefore, in need of much the auspices of the committee of the Daily Chronicle Fund attention and skill. Surely Dr. Russell does not properly for the Greek Wounded, left Charing-cross Station, en route hold up either the value of medical service or the for Athens. standard of attention due to those very ill. PROFESSOR GEORGE HARE PHILIPSON, M.A., M.D.Cantab., D.C.L., has been re-appointed the representative of the THE LATE MR. L. P. CASELLA. University of Durham on the General Medical Council. PASCAL died at on who Louis MR. CASELLA, Highgate WE regret to announce the death of Dr. James Andrew, April 23rd, aged eighty-six years, will long be remembered as the author of many important improvements in scientific consulting physician to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, which apparatus of various kinds, especially in thermometers took place on April 21st. Next week we shall publish a full In obituary notice of his career. and in the instruments used by meteorologists. he did much for the clinical thermometer. particular Sir William Aitken, of the Army Medical School, has THE Ingleby Lectures will be delivered at Mason College, perhaps the best claim to be regarded as the pioneer of Birmingham, by Professor Bennett May on May 19th and medical thermometry in this country, and Mr. Casella has 26th, the subject being the Operative Treatment of Cancer the credit of being the first to construct a registering clinical of the Breast. thermometer. The present serviceable pattern was slowly WE understand that Mr. Owen, the senior surgeon to developed. Many middle-aged practitioners will recollect the time when there was no self-registering index and when St. Mary’s Hospital, will be a candidate for a seat on the the stem was about ten inches long, as it was necessary to Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England at the take the reading before the instrument was removed from forthcoming election in July. The last representative that the axilla. Mr. Casella belonged to an Italian family, but St. Mary’s Hospital had upon the Council was Mr. Haynes he was born in Scotland and came to London when a youth. Walton, who was elected in 1873.
it remembered that
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THE PROFESSION OF MEDICINE A DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE. OUR Australian Correspondent writes : -The retiring president of the Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association, the Hon. C. F. Marks, M.D. R.U.I., proposed in his address that the medical care of the people- should be part of a Public Health Department of the State. He suggested that a medical service for the whole colony be established, modelled somewhat on the lines of the Army Medical Service. The country should be divided into suitable districts having a senior and two junior men to each, with relieving officers and inspectors ; salaries to begin at not less than Z300 a year, and promotion to be by years of service or for distinguished service on ballot of all the medical officers. Dr. Marks assumes that there are about two hundred practitioners in Queensland, with, roughly, an average income of .glOOO a year, and the population is about 500,000. A sum of 8s. per head of population raised by Government taxation would give ample funds for the scheme, allowing for fair superannuation allowances. Such a scheme, he maintained, was the only remedy for the present abuses of lodges, dispensaries, and hospitals. At the annual conference of the Political Labour League of New.South Wales on Jan. 26th it was moved and carried, "That the care of the public health being among the first duties of the State, the practice of medicine should be a national service, the country to be divided into medical districts in charge of Government medical officers, whose services shall be absolutely free." The proposal simply charmed a large proportion of the
Pharmacology and Therapeutics. EUCAINE HYDRO CHLORATE.
remedy continues to attract attention, but further experience tends greatly to modify the enthusiastic records of early days. Professor Hobday of the Royal Veterinary College, London, has lately published the results1 of the THIS
of eucaine as a local anaesthetic. He says that the use of cocaine for operations upon the dog and cat must be attended with the greatest caution, as the toxic doses are very small. The newer remedy has been employed by him in some forty cases, some of them being specially favourable for making a comparison between the action of eucaine and cocaine. His results confirm the opinion that the toxic dose of eucaine is somewhat larger than that of cocaine and, at the same time, that for operations on the cornea eucaine compares very favourably with cocaine, although anaesthesia is not produced quite so rapidly ; but for its local anaesthetic effects when injected subcutaneously or applied locally to places other than the eye, the results obtained in the horse, dog, and cat have not by any means come up to the results obtained with cocaine. It has been found, however, that a mixture of cocaine and eucaine dissolved in water possesses the better anxsthetic properties of the cocaine solution, and can be tolerated in larger doses than cocaine alone ; and this is undoubtedly of advantage when removing large tumours from animals in which the toxic dose is so small. The solution of cocaine and eucaine recommended consists of half a grain of each to the drachm of water. With regard to the amount that can be used subcutaneously with safety, Professor Hobday considers that in the case of the cat and dog about one-fifth of a grain to each pound of body weight should not be exceeded. use
conference.
THE TREATMENT OF ASCITES BY THE INJECTION OF OXYGEN INTO THE PERITONEUM.
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A CQURSE of lectures on Diseases of Tropical Climates will be delivered by Dr. Patrick Manson in the medical school of St. George’s Hospital on Tuesday, May 18th, and every succeeding Friday and Tuesday till July 23rd, at 5 P.M. The course is intended for medical men intending to practise in the tropics or in Eastern Asia, and as far as practicable will be illustrated by living specimens and by demonstrations of parasitic organisms associated with these diseases. The fee for the course will be three guineas, and application should be made to Dr. Isambard Owen, Dean of the Medical School, St. George’s Hospital, S.W., from whom cards of admission may be obtained.
M. Tessier last year recorded a case of ascites at the Lyons Societe Nationale de M6decine, which had been successtully treated by Potain’s method of abdominal puncture followed
of oxygen into the peritoneum. The case was of ascites and generalised cedema, which probably depended upon cirrhosis of the liver. After the first tapping fourteen pints were withdrawn, but the fluid rapidly collected again. A second puncture was then made, and followed by the injection of 1300 cubic centimetres of oxygen. The operation was not painful and there was no rise of temperature. The abdominal circumference diminished from 128 to 102 centimetres, and the oedema of the lower limbs disappeared
by injections one
1
Journal of
Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, March,
1897.
it remembered that
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___
THE PROFESSION OF MEDICINE A DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE. OUR Australian Correspondent writes : -The retiring president of the Queensland Branch of the British Medical Association, the Hon. C. F. Marks, M.D. R.U.I., proposed in his address that the medical care of the people- should be part of a Public Health Department of the State. He suggested that a medical service for the whole colony be established, modelled somewhat on the lines of the Army Medical Service. The country should be divided into suitable districts having a senior and two junior men to each, with relieving officers and inspectors ; salaries to begin at not less than Z300 a year, and promotion to be by years of service or for distinguished service on ballot of all the medical officers. Dr. Marks assumes that there are about two hundred practitioners in Queensland, with, roughly, an average income of .glOOO a year, and the population is about 500,000. A sum of 8s. per head of population raised by Government taxation would give ample funds for the scheme, allowing for fair superannuation allowances. Such a scheme, he maintained, was the only remedy for the present abuses of lodges, dispensaries, and hospitals. At the annual conference of the Political Labour League of New.South Wales on Jan. 26th it was moved and carried, "That the care of the public health being among the first duties of the State, the practice of medicine should be a national service, the country to be divided into medical districts in charge of Government medical officers, whose services shall be absolutely free." The proposal simply charmed a large proportion of the
Pharmacology and Therapeutics. EUCAINE HYDRO CHLORATE.
remedy continues to attract attention, but further experience tends greatly to modify the enthusiastic records of early days. Professor Hobday of the Royal Veterinary College, London, has lately published the results1 of the THIS
of eucaine as a local anaesthetic. He says that the use of cocaine for operations upon the dog and cat must be attended with the greatest caution, as the toxic doses are very small. The newer remedy has been employed by him in some forty cases, some of them being specially favourable for making a comparison between the action of eucaine and cocaine. His results confirm the opinion that the toxic dose of eucaine is somewhat larger than that of cocaine and, at the same time, that for operations on the cornea eucaine compares very favourably with cocaine, although anaesthesia is not produced quite so rapidly ; but for its local anaesthetic effects when injected subcutaneously or applied locally to places other than the eye, the results obtained in the horse, dog, and cat have not by any means come up to the results obtained with cocaine. It has been found, however, that a mixture of cocaine and eucaine dissolved in water possesses the better anxsthetic properties of the cocaine solution, and can be tolerated in larger doses than cocaine alone ; and this is undoubtedly of advantage when removing large tumours from animals in which the toxic dose is so small. The solution of cocaine and eucaine recommended consists of half a grain of each to the drachm of water. With regard to the amount that can be used subcutaneously with safety, Professor Hobday considers that in the case of the cat and dog about one-fifth of a grain to each pound of body weight should not be exceeded. use
conference.
THE TREATMENT OF ASCITES BY THE INJECTION OF OXYGEN INTO THE PERITONEUM.
___
A CQURSE of lectures on Diseases of Tropical Climates will be delivered by Dr. Patrick Manson in the medical school of St. George’s Hospital on Tuesday, May 18th, and every succeeding Friday and Tuesday till July 23rd, at 5 P.M. The course is intended for medical men intending to practise in the tropics or in Eastern Asia, and as far as practicable will be illustrated by living specimens and by demonstrations of parasitic organisms associated with these diseases. The fee for the course will be three guineas, and application should be made to Dr. Isambard Owen, Dean of the Medical School, St. George’s Hospital, S.W., from whom cards of admission may be obtained.
M. Tessier last year recorded a case of ascites at the Lyons Societe Nationale de M6decine, which had been successtully treated by Potain’s method of abdominal puncture followed
of oxygen into the peritoneum. The case was of ascites and generalised cedema, which probably depended upon cirrhosis of the liver. After the first tapping fourteen pints were withdrawn, but the fluid rapidly collected again. A second puncture was then made, and followed by the injection of 1300 cubic centimetres of oxygen. The operation was not painful and there was no rise of temperature. The abdominal circumference diminished from 128 to 102 centimetres, and the oedema of the lower limbs disappeared
by injections one
1
Journal of
Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, March,
1897.