EDITORIAL AND MISCELLANY. Reports, Cases and Diagnosis. In reporting cases, it often happens that some of the facts connected with them are overlooked by the physician who reports them, in consequence of his notes having been made out a long time, or their not being as full as they should have been. This, we freely acknowledge, has been our condition in the present number of our journal. The duties of our profession have been onerous, and the office of reading and correcting proof has devolved, to a great extent, upon another. We would state, that the second case of Convulsions in the early stages of Pregnancy, reported in this number, has not ended as we stated, or as we could have desired. After we had written that article, the lady was again taken sick, and then miscarried; since which time, however, she has done as well as any woman could do after an ordinary accouchement, We would commend to our readers the remarks of Dr.. Hook, prefatory to the report of some interesting cases in our present issue, showing the importance of a proper diagnosis. We have often had occasion, during our career in the healing art, to conclude, like the Doctor, that more error results from an improper diagnosis, than all the untreated ills to which flesh is heir. ST. LOUIS MEDICAL COLLEGE.-The catalogue of the students and graduates of 1859-'60, together with the announcement for 1860-'61 of this institution, has been received, and indicates the college to be in a prosperous condition. At its last annual commencement in March, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon fifty-five young gentlemen. This college has an able faculty, many of whom are not unknown to fame. The American Medical Association. This body held its annual session in New Haven, on the 5th, 6th and 7th of last month. The meeting was a har monious one, the attendance large-almost every State in the Union being represented-and over five hundred delegates presented themselves and registered their names. Dr. Eli Ives, of Connecticut, was chosen President, and Dr. Wilson Jewell, Pa., A. B. Palmer, Mich., R. D. Arnold, Ga., and J. N. McDowell, Mo., Vice Presidents. Dr. S. G. Hubbard, Conn., H. A. Johnson, Ill., Secretaries; and Dr. Casper Wistar, Pa., Treasurer. Their proceedings were all of a very instructive and interesting character. The resolutions adopted by the convention of medical teachers connected with the Association, in reference to time of study required of candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine, the requisites for graduation, and method of conducting the examination of candidates before a board of censors appointed by the State Medical Societies, should meet with the approval of the whole profession, and be universally adopted by every medical institution in our land. REST AT THE PRESENT DAY.--In the present day there is no fixed time for sleep. The world roars around us like a torrent of events. Everything is rapid; and we are whirled with velocity in the midst of a vortex as vast as it is incessant. Repose there is none; and instead of sleeping on a pillow of down, we stand continually on the tip-toe of expectation, awaiting the coming-on of to-morrow, big, as it were, with the doom of some great hereafter. "EFFECTS OF DISEASE UPON THE TEETH," is the title of a neat and instructive pamphlet by Abr. Robertson, D. D. S., M. D., of Wheeling, Virginia, just received, which will be read with pleasure and profit by the members of the medical, as well as the dental profession. MEDICAL SCIENCE. The state of medical science may be considered as the criterion or barometer of the state of general science in a nation, (dark ages, present time, &c.) Of all the learned professions, Dr. Parr considered the preference due to the medical. In erudition, in science, and in habits of deep and comprehensive thinking, the pre-eminence must be assigned, in some degree, to physicians. The practice of the law spoils a man's moral sense and philosophic spirit; the church is too bigoted and stiffstarched; but the study and practice of physic are equally favorable to a man's moral sentiments and intellectual faculties. HEALTH UNDERVALUED.-Such is the power of health that, without its co-operation, every other comfort is torpid and lifeless, as the powers of vegetation without the sun. And yet this bliss is commonly thrown away in thoughtless negligence, or in foolish experiments on our own strength; we let it perish without remembering its value, or waste it to show how much we have to spare. It is sometimes given up to the management of levity and chance, and sometimes sold for the applause of jollity and debauchery. THE Massachusetts State Medical Society at its last meeting in Boston, adopted a resolution to propose what action is proper on the part of the Society respecting the disease now prevailing among the cattle in that commonwealth. A committee of five physicians was appointed, and requested to report at the earliest practicable moment. CAUTERY TO THE EPIGASTRIUM IN THE VOMITING OF PREGNANCY.-The actual cautery in the form of moxas, and issues made with Vienna paste have been successfully used by Mr. Ferrand in obstinate vomiting during gestation. Cases which resisted all other treatment were relieved by such application to the epigastrium. CASE OF VIOLENT EPISTAXIS-PLUGGING BY A PIECE OF DISTENDED ESOPHAGUS.-I was called in consultation with a neighboring physician some weeks ago. The case was one of very severe and violent epistaxis, the patient a negro woman. All the usual remedies had been resorted to without avail. The anterior and posterior nares of the right nostril were tamponed, as the hemorrhage appeared to come principally from that cavity. This, however, arrested the hemorrhage but temporarily, and it soon re-appeared with increased violence. Having read the report of a similar case published in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, by Dr. E. A. D'Arcy, of Jerseyville, Illinois, in which, after a failure of all the usual remedies and plugging, the oesophagus of a sheep was passed through the right nostril, from the anterior back to the posterior nares, and forcibly distended by injecting cold water, with the effect of arresting the hemorrhage, I suggested a trial of the same means. The physician attending the case at once consented to try it, and the result was, that the bleeding was arrested almost instantly.-Reporter. PREVENTION OF THE UNPLEASANT TASTE OF BALSAM COPAIVA.-Dr. Landerer observes that by keeping, the balsam undergoes some change, conferring upon it a taste which is very repulsive to the patient. While, too, some sorts of balsam are of light yellow color, possess a mild aromatic odor and taste, and swim when dropped in the water, there are other kinds which are brown in color, much less agreeable to the smell, are of a sharp, irritating taste, and often sink when dropped in water. He is inclined. to believe that these changes depend upon the formation of a resinous acid. At all events, the addition of magnesia or prepared oyster-shell to old, thick, brown balsam, very much diminishes the disagreeableness of its taste. The addition of syrup is a still further improvement; and if immediately after taking the balsam, a cup of well sweetened coffee be drank, the disagreeable after-taste will scarcely be perceived.— Buchner's Repertorium. ILL TREATMENT OF PHYSICIANS.-How often is the medical man treated with base ingratitude. When his services are not required, how often is he exposed to the neg lect, contempt and contumely of those who are the first, when ill, to demand his services. "God and the Doctor, they alike adore, But only when in danger, not before; A NEW DANGER FROM CHLOROFORM.-Mr. Syme has announced that chloroform induces pyamia. The evidences of it, or his theory in coming to this startling conclusion. have not yet been presented, but the Medical Times reports an operation of lithotomy by this distinguished surgeon, in which no anesthetic was used. The patient was otherwise healthy, and it is said bore the operation, which was protracted and painful, with great courage. Why, with his views, ether was not substituted, is not stated; nor can we determine whether Mr. Syme's opposition to chloroform is the result of an honest conviction, or merely the offspring of vicious feelings toward his great rival, the introducer of chloroform. CURE OF ITCH IN HALF AN HOUR.-Dr. E. Smith, at a meeting of the London Medical Society, called attention to an article in the Gazette Hebdomadaire, by Dr. Bourguignon, in which is a confirmation of the value of the treatment of Itch, in Belgium, by sulphur, combined with lime, in a liquid form. The remedy is prepared by boiling one part of quick lime with two parts of sublimed sulphur, in ten parts of water, until the two former are perfectly united. During the boiling it must be constantly stirred with a piece of wood, and, when the sulphur and lime have combined, the fluid is to be decanted and kept in a well-stoppered bottle. A pint of the liquid is sufficient for the cure of several cases. It is sufficient to wash the body well |