DR. J. B. MATTISON.
Dr. Mattison recently spent several weeks in Bermuda, and the British Med. Journal in reporting a meeting of the British Med. Association, held in the Town Hall at Hamilton, says:
By request of the Society, Dr. J. B. Mattison, of Brooklyn, gave an address on the subject of narcotic inebriety. Attention was called to the extensive use of opium, chloral, and cocaine, notably in France, Germany and America. The genesis of the disease was a physical necessity in many cases. The speaker said in proper cases his plan—an original one—was to secure an entire narcotic disuse by regular reduction, in ten days, meantime bringing the nervous system under the sedative influence of bromide of sodium, in initial doses of thirty grains, at twelve-hour intervals, increasing the dose ten grains daily, and reaching, if required, a maximum of one hundred and twenty grains at the end of the withdrawal period. The resultant reflex irritation was treated by hot baths, cannabis indica, hyoscyamus, coca, and electricity, with a subsequent tonic regime. The prognosis was good as to recovery, but in most cases, sooner or later, there was a return to the narcotic, due to a renewal of the original cause, or to other conditions beyond control. A vote of thanks to Dr. Mattison closed the meeting.
Dr. Mattison is translating Erlenmeyer’s Die Morphiumsucht und ihre Behandlung—the Morphia Disease and its Treatment; third and last German edition, the latest and largest work on the subject, which, with notes and comments by the translator, will be brought out the coming autumn.