DISEASES OF CHILDREN.
Crede claimed to be able to prevent ophthalmia neonatorum by instilling into each eye at birth two drops of a two per cent. solution of nitrate of silver.
Cassels of Berlin, after an exhaustive investigation, claims that no remedies are so reliable in pertussis as belladonna and quinia.
In the treatment of diphtheria, Tr. Ferri and Potass. Chloras seem to stand as high as ever in the opinion of the profession. Calomel, which also has its admirers, seems to have lost no ground, as well as the use of the steam atomizer.
Dr. Allen presented a dermoid cyst of the left ovary, removed that forenoon from a nullipara aged twenty-seven. Six hours after the operation the patient's temperature was 99.6° Fahr., and there had been but little vomiting.
Dr. Sihler showed a gall stone found at the autopsy of a woman forty-eight years old, whose symptoms had not been those which are usual in fatal cases of obstruction of the gall duct. There had been no jaundice, no bile in the urine and no previous attacks of pain. She complained one morning of sore throat, and was given one-eighth of a grain of morphia. In the evening there was pain in the stomach and the morphia was discontinued. This was on Saturday. By Sunday or Monday the pain had become located along the border of the liver. On Tuesday the free edge of the liver could be felt, and the temperature had risen to 102° or 103°, pain and vomiting having also become very severe. The next week pain was less and swelling less, and in two weeks all symptoms were gone. She never before had symptoms of colic. Two weeks later, after she had been asleep about three hours, she had another attack. The next day the temperature rose again, and there was a larger region of sensitiveness than before. On Tuesday the fever subsided. On Wednesday collapse and vomiting ensued, ending in death. The autopsy disclosed adhesions of the liver, omentum and colon, an effusion of bile in the tissues, and this gall stone was found in the gall bladder.
Dr. Allen mentioned a case that he had seen in Keith's Clinic in Edinburgh, where an operation was undertaken for ovarian cyst, but when on opening the abdomen the tumor was found to be the gall bladder so enlarged as to fill the whole lower part of the abdomen.
Dr. Sihler said that in his case the gall bladder was not so very much enlarged.
Dr. Tuckerman reported a case where a gall stone the size of a pigeon's egg was found post mortem, but which during life could sometimes be felt through the abdominal wall and sometimes not, and which gave rise to a bruit so distinct as to warrant a strong suspicion of aneurysm.
Dr. Vance stated that according to his observation the passage of a gall stone into the intestine by ulceration was a common cause of intestinal obstruction. He also called attention to the value of the symptom of itching as pointing to the gall bladder as the seat of the difficulty.