The Pennsylvania State Medical Society will hold its next meeting at Gettysburg, May 15, 16, 17, and 18, 1894. Those desirous of presenting papers are requested to notify, at an early date, the Chairman, or any other member of the Committee of Arrangements. Dr. E. E. Montgomery, of Philadelphia, is the chairman, and the other members of the committee are: Dr. Isaac C. Gable, of York; Dr. Geo. S. Hull, of Chambersburg; Dr. John C. Davis, of Carlisle; Dr. Henry Stewart, of Gettysburg; Dr. George Rice, of McSherrystown; Dr. E. W. Cashman, of York Springs.
The American Medical Association meeting is to be held this year at San Francisco, on Tuesday June 5th. To Californians this date is a little late for showing off their City and State to best advantage; it will be a trifle too hot for comfort by that time. A better date would have been May 5th, and by arranging early excursions the visitors could have taken in Lower California in April, then the Mid-Winter Fair—which will undoubtedly extend to May—and wound up their hours with attendance at the Convention. Perhaps a general request to re-consider the date should result favorably with the Committee who make the date and all arrangements.
After a spirited and quite acrimonious campaign, the New York County Medical Society held its annual election Monday evening, January 15th, 1894. All the candidates on the regular ticket, excepting Dr. McLeod for president, were elected on the first ballot. For the presidency three candidates were in the field, and none of them obtained a clear majority on the first ballot; a second ballot resulted in the re-election of Dr. McLeod. The candidacy of Dr. Alexander, urged by the younger and progressive members, was the disturbing cause in this election; the feelings of the contesting factions were wrought to a high pitch, and the proceedings were so turbulent that the daily press of New York took up the matter and regaled the public with entertaining accounts of the contest. All is now harmony again, we hope.
Correspondence.
THE DOSE OF SANTONIN.
To the Editor:
Sir:—On page 678 of the Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, of Dec. 9, 1893, appears a letter from J. M. Murkon, M.D., of New York, to the editor, calling attention to the dose of santonin, used as an emmenagogue, which I had reported in the American Therapist, vol. I., no. 1, p. 8 (July, 1892). Dr. Murkon asks “whether the dose as given is not a misprint; if not, it is certainly more than dangerous, as five grains has caused a fatal result.”
I wish to say that in the year and a half since the article in question was written, I have often made use of ten-grain doses of santonin for its emmenagogue effects, and in no instance have I learned of the slightest discomfort from such a dose. I rarely administer more than a single dose; but if more are required, I invariably wait twenty-four hours before giving them. The dose is always administered at night on retiring, and at the same time I order a mustard foot-bath, and frequently hot drinks ad libitum. I would say again that I have never seen this procedure lead to any untoward effects, or even any discomfort, and usually the menstruation is comfortably and apparently normally established by the next day.