All injuries, of whatever kind, have been treated with dressings of this remedy, and where this has been done from the first to last, in no instance has there been an attack of erysipelas.
The usual manner of application was in solution of six to twenty drops to the ounce of water, keeping the parts covered with cloths constantly wet with it. In ulcers or wounds it may be used in the form of a poultice, by stirring ground elm into the solution, the strength to be regulated according to the virulence of the attack. Ordinarily, ten drops to the ounce is strong enough for the cutaneous form of the disease and in dressings for wounds or recent injuries. If the inflammation threatens to spread rapidly, it should be increased to twenty or more drops to the ounce of water.
The antiseptic properties of this remedy render it of additional value, as it will certainly destroy the tendency to unhealthy suppuration, and thus prevent septicæmia.
In the treatment of hundreds of cases of erysipelas but one fatal case has occurred, and that one in an old and depraved system. In the less violent attacks no other remedy was used, but where constitutional treatment was indicated, the usual appropriate tonics were prescribed.
There is no question in my mind but that creosote is as much a specific in erysipelas as quinine is in intermittent fever, and may be used with as much confidence.—St. Louis Med. Jour.
A NEW APPARATUS FOR THE STUDY OF CARDIAC DRUGS.
By WILLIAM GILMAN THOMPSON, M.D., New York.
The apparatus was devised by Mr. R.D. Gray (the inventor of the ingenious "vest camera" and other photographic improvements) and by myself. I described what was required and suggested various modifications and improvements, but the mechanical details were worked out exclusively by him. To test the rapidity of the camera, we photographed a "horse-timer" clock, with a dial marking quarter seconds, and succeeded in taking five distinct photographs in half a second with one lens, which has never before been accomplished excepting by Professor Marey,[1] at the College de France, who has taken successive views of flying birds, falling balls, etc., with one lens at a very rapid rate. His camera was unknown to me until after mine was constructed, so that as a success in photography alone the work is interesting.
The camera consists of a circular brass box, 5½ inches in diameter and 1¼ inches deep, containing a circular vulcanite shutter with two apertures, behind which is placed a circular dry plate. Both plate and shutter are revolved in opposite directions to each other by a simple arrangement of four cogged wheels moved by a single crank. The box is perforated at one side by a circular opening, 1¾ inches in diameter, from the margin of which projects at a right angle a long brass tube (Fig. 1), which carries the lens. In Fig. 2 the lid of the box has been removed, and the bottom of the box, with the wheels, springs, and partially closed shutter, is presented. The lid is double—that is, it is a flat box in itself. It contains nothing but the dry plate, supported at its center upon a small brass disk, against which disk it is firmly pressed by a pivot attached to a spring fastened in the lid. The aperture in one side of this double lid, which corresponds with that seen in the floor of the box, may be closed by a slide, so that the lid containing the plate can be removed like an ordinary plate holder and carried to a dark room, where it is opened and the plate is changed. When the lid is replaced this slide is removed, and as the shutter is made to revolve, the light falls upon whatever portion of the dry plate happens to be opposite the opening.