Current Literature.
NATURE’S CURE OF PHTHISIS.
Dr. Henry P. Loomis states (Med. Rec.) that he has found quite a number of cases of recovery from phthisis. His summary is as follows:
1. Out of 763 persons dying of a non-tubercular disease seventy-one, or over nine per cent., at some time in their life had phthisis, from which they had recovered.
2. The new fibrous tissue by which the advance of the disease was apparently checked and the cure effected, developed principally by round-cell infiltration of the interlobular connective tissue, which in some instances had increased to an enormous extent. Some of the new fibrous tissue was formed later by round-cell infiltration in the alveolar walls and around the blood-vessels and bronchi. Pleuritic fibrosis appears to be secondary to tubercular processes in the lung substance. The interlobular connective tissue is the primary and principal source of the fibrosis.
3. Tubercle bacilli were present in the healed areas in three out of twelve of the lungs examined. These healed areas did not differ in their gross or microscopical appearances from those in which they were not found.
4. Thirty-six per cent. of all cases where the lungs were free from disease showed localized or general adhesions of the two surfaces of the pleura.
VENTRO-FIXATION OF THE UTERUS.
Dr. Spaeth, of Hamburg, according to the Lancet, has now published reports of twenty-five cases in which he has performed the operation known as ‘ventro-fixation of the uterus.’ None of the cases proved fatal. In seventeen permanent anteflexion was obtained; in fourteen there was, besides the retroflexion, a diseased condition of the uterine appendages necessitating their removal. Of the cases that were not so complicated all except one were successful. Dr. Spaeth rarely fastens the stump of the broad ligament into the abdominal wound, usually stitching the fundus uteri directly to the parietal peritoneum. In the later cases he adopted Schede’s method—that is to say, silver sutures were drawn through the whole thickness of the abdominal walls at intervals of about an inch and a half, but they were not at first tied. In the intervals finer silver sutures were inserted through the sheaths of the recti, the peritoneum and the fundus uteri, and tightened, twisted, and cut short, the whole of course being beneath the skin; the thicker sutures were then tightened and twisted and the lips of the wound brought together with superficial catgut sutures. The subcutaneous silver sutures remained, but never gave any trouble. Dr. Schede and Dr. Spaeth are both of opinion that this method is the best for preventing any hernia, and that when it has been employed abdominal binders are unnecessary. Dr. Spaeth does not perform or recommend ventro-fixation in cases of retroflexion unless there is either disease of the appendages or chronic peritonitis.