of the Acetabulum, with dislocation of the femur; reduction and subsequent dislocation, caused by improper movement of the patient; the history of a suit for alleged malpractice; review of the testimony in the case; decision of the Supreme Court and final result of the case." We presume the profession of this State are tolerably familiar with the history of the case, of which the following are, briefly, the points: A young man, a brakeman on the Michigan Central R. R. was injured by getting between two cars. Dr. He was removed to Kalamazoo, where, in the absence of Dr. Hitchcock, surgeon of the road, he was attended by Dr. Stillwell, who diagnosed a fracture of the neck of the femur. Hitchcock on seeing the case, without a careful examination, accepted Dr. Stillwell's diagnosis and continued the treatment he had devised. By order of the R. R. the patient was shortly after brought to St. Luke's Hospital, Detroit, Dr. H. O. Walker removing him thither on a Wood's hammock splint. After lying in the hospital some weeks it was ascertained that there was dislocation of the head of the femur into the ischiatic notch, and after many ineffectual attempts it was finally reduced. The patient very naturally, under such circumstances, supposed some one had blundered, and he chose Dr. Hitchcock as the scape goat, and burdened him with a suit for damages for malpractice. The trial before the lower court resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for $2,000. Dr. Hitchcock at once appealed to the Supreme Court, and that body reversed the decision of the lower court, which, when the plaintiff sought to renew the complaint, finally dismissed the case. It was but natural that Dr. Hitchcock should feel himself very much aggrieved, seeing that in addition to the inconvenience and annoyance, it cost him $1,000 to defend himself in the suit. He chose the State Medical Society as a jury to decide from the evidence, of which he had a certified stenographer's copy, at whose door lay the error in diagnosis, He maintained that there was originally a fracture of the acetabulum and that a luxation occurred during the patient's removal to the hospital. Although accepting Dr. Stillwell's diagnosis at the time, his doing so worked no injury, inasmuch as the treatment of the two accidents is identical. The scientific points in the case are full of interest, and in so far as Dr. Hitchcock confined himself to a critical review of the testimony, his paper was a valuable one. The paper, however, was so full of personalities as to detract very materially from its value as a scientific article. The length of the paper also was an objection to it; its reading, with the bickering which it raised, and the discussion of the objections to its being proceeded with, occupied the time of the society to the exclusion of all the other papers which followed it on the printed programme. This was very unfortunate and should lead the society to the adoption of a rule restricting papers to a reasonable length. Dr. Hitchcock, however, in a measure atoned for the reading of his paper by withdrawing it from the society after it was read, and thus prevented the possibility of its publication in the printed transactions of the society. The other papers set down for a reading were read by title and referred to the publication committee. The following are the officers elect: President-G. K. JOHNSON, Grand Rapids. 1st Vice President-J. T. THOMAS, Bay City. 2d -D. O. FARRAND, Detroit. -W. F. BREAKING, Ann Arbor. -E. S. SNOW, Dearborn. 3d 4th 66 Treasurer-G. W. TOPPING, De Witt. Judicial Council-Wм. BRODIE, J. A. BROWN, J. H. BENNETT, FOSTER PRATT, and H. B. SHANK. The society adjourned to meet at Grand Rapids, on the second Wednesday in May next. REMARKABLE GROWTH OF HAIR.-The Philadelphia Medical Times states that "at one of his lectures at the College of Physicians, a year or two ago, Mr. Erasmus Wilson, of London, showed the photograph of a lady of 28, five feet five inches in height, whose hair, when standing up, enveloped her like a beautiful golden veil, trailing many inches on the ground. The longest hairs on this lady's head measured six feet three inches and a half in length. Thirty inches is the full average length in women, a yard being considered a fine and unusual growth. This, therefore, is a very extraordinary length of hair,-the longest, we believe, on record." We were recently shown a photograph by Dr. C. Henri Leonard, of this city, of a man living in the interior of this State, whose beard, when he stands erect, trails on the ground, and measures seven feet six inches. This is probably the longest beard of which there is any record. The wife of a druggist of this city has the most luxuriant growth of hair we have ever seen. It is not quite as long as that of the lady mentioned by Dr. Wilson, measuring but five feet, but for thickness it is probably unsurpassed. As she sits on an ordinary chair, by letting down her hair, she can arrange it to envelope her like a great mantle, resting on the floor, and completely hiding her body from view, OBITUARY.--Dr. Dwight B. Nims, of Jackson, Michigan, died, after an illness of five days, of pneumonia, on the 15th of April last. Dr. Nims was descended from English immigrants in colonial times, and the son of James and Lucy (Boyden) Nims. He was born in Conway, Mass., September 12, 1808. His professional education was received at the Fairfield, N. Y., College of Physicians and Surgeons, western district, and at the Berkshire Medical Institute, his degree of M. D. being conferred by the latter institution in June, 1833. In the same year he entered upon the practice of his profession in the State of New York; in 1835 removed thence to Clinton, Mich., in 1839 to Homer, Mich., and in 1864 to Jackson City. He was a member of the Onondaga Co., N. Y., Medical Society; of the Calhoun Co., Mich., Medical Society; of the Jackson Co. Medical Society, of which society he was also president; of the Michigan State Medical Society, and since 1856 of the American Medical Association. He married, September 8th, 1834, Anna A., daughter of N. White, Esq., of Manlius, N. Y. Dr. Nims was a physician of good abilities and a man of honorable standing. He was held in high esteem by his professional brethren, and his death, although he had reached the Psalmist's three score and ten years, is regretted by all who knew him. He was one of the pioneers of the profession of this State, whose ranks are now year by year becoming thinner and thinner. THE ORIGIN OF KEROSENE.--Nediela ("The Week"), a Russian paper, gives an account of a religious prejudice which has sprung up in one of the most ignorant of the rural districts of Russia. The farmers in the district of Kabilianki (Government of Poltava) have commenced to use kerosene lamps in place of the tallow candles or the pine laths which they had been in the habit of using. The innovation displeased their spiritual shepherd and he, therefore, denounced it from his pulpit, declaring that it was unlawful for a member of the Orthodox Greek Church to use the liquid. This sort of oil, he said, comes from the decomposed part of Satan, who had been confined to rot beneath the mounts of Caucacus since he rebeled against the heavenly powers. This was enough, and the parishioners returned to their tallow dips and pine laths. The story must be accepted as true, for it must be remembered that the Russian censor would not permit such remarks to be circulated as pleasantries. The THE MEDICAL CONFESSIONAL.-The British Medical Fournal as established a "confessional" and invites the record of errors, blunders, and faults, as a set-off against brilliant cures which are made so much of. utmost secrecy as to authorship is observed. The value of such a department in a medical journal must be great. The failures of the thoughtful physician are more instructive than his successes, and it is the thoughtful man who has most failures, at least it is he who recognizes failures which the ignorant blunderer relieves himself of the responsibility of, by attributing them to Providence. We shall be pleased to receive the record of any failures in the practice of our readers, and, while we require the name of the writer as a guaranty of good faith, we shall pledge ourselves never to divulge it. To illustrate the value of such a department, we give the following selections from the British Medical Fournal confessional : "R. V." says that he and a friend used forceps in a case of the delivery of a dead child, and five weeks after used the same forceps on another woman, who died of peritonitis. The forceps, he considers, ought to have been disinfected. On Another writer was called to see a patient who was passing a biliary calculus. Having relieved her from the pain of similar attacks by the hypodermic use of morphine, he injected the usual dose on this occasion. calling the next morning the patient could not be wakened, and he was puzzled how to account for the narcotism. A casual sight of the feet showed them to be aedematous, and the examination of the urine which this condition suggested, showed albuminuria. By the use of belladonna and diuretics she was relieved. Another writes: This morning, while in attendance on a first labor, in which the breech presented, I had the misfortune in bringing down one of the thighs to hear it snap; and, on examining it afterward, found a very loose fracture of the middle of the thigh. As far as I know I did not use any unnecessary force. I should like to hear the opinion and experience of older practitioners than myself, with some hints as to treatment. I have sought in works on midwifery in vain. XEROPHTHALMIA-A NEW OPERATION FOR ITS RELIEF.-Ophthalmologists have, of all specialists, gynecologists not even excepted, burdened medical literature with the greatest number of unpronounceable names. They have laid the Greek language pretty thoroughly under tribute for their affixes and their prefixes, in compounding words to conve niently (?) describe diseases and operations for their relief. Dr. Eugene Smith, of this Dr. Eugene Smith, of this city, has devised a new operation for the relief of what is known as xerophthalmia, and he has our gratitude for not suggesting a name for it. A Greek ending to a word like this would make the operation itself intolerable. He described his method in a paper before the Ophthalmological and Otological section of the American Medical Association at its late meeting. The Medical Herald speaks thus of the operation: "Dr. Eugene Smith, of Detroit, read an interesting account of an operation he performed for the relief of a distressing xerophthalmia, with almost complete symblepharon. The operation consisted in scalping the free borders of the lids and uniting them so as to close permanently the palpebral fissure, and then removing the triangular section of the upper lid so as to permit an opening through which the function of vision was exercised. The case reported was greatly relieved by the operation, which now takes its place as one of the legitimate advances in surgery." THE WISDOM OF THE PAST.-The British Medical Fournal gives the following from among the graduating theses, which were defended with a great display of eloquence, in the 15th and 16th centuries, in Paris, at the Medical School, Rue de la Bucherie. The answer to each question is in the affirmative: Does Venus beget and expel diseases? Are the plague and venerie afflictions of Divine origin? Is wine good for healthy individuals as well as for invalids? Ought patients, sick with fever, to prefer a fish diet to a flesh diet? Has the plague been sent down from heaven? Has the moon any influence on the humors of the body? Do mineral waters make women more fruitful? Are short women more fruitful than tall women? Is wine the milk of old age? Is Aurora the friend of Venus? Can a toad be begotten in a man? Is it healthy for old people to put themselves in a passion? Are heroes given to melancholy? EDITORIAL COURTESIES.--The copy of the Southern Practitioner for June which we received was so crookedly folded and so mutilated by the trimming knife as to render it practically valueless. Enough, however, of the paper is left to indicate that our brothers of the Southern Practitioner and those of the Louisville Medical News are not possessed of the kindliest feelings one towards another. The mutilated copy of the Practitioner fairly bristles with such choice expressions as the following, the same having reference to the "We commend its editors to a vigorous study of the News, to improve their journalism; to throw away their dictionary of poetical quotations, or to get one more apposite; to pension off the weakly' witticisms; to measure the length of their quadriceps before they talk about kicking'; whole families of their size have dislocated their thighs in too lofty attempts in this direction; to get out of their penitentiary; live decent; and now that their school has joined the College Associa tion, they may be happy yet. To such ends shall we aid them, for In the slumbers of midnight the sailor boy lay, His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind.'' Before deciding which has the best of it we shall await the result of the contraction of the Practitioner man's quadriceps extensor cruris. the sick man, by this time up and dressed, followed him to the door and said, "Say, doctor, send in your bill the first of the month." When six months had been gathered to Time's bosom, the doctor sent in a bill for five dollars. He was pressed to cut it down to three, and after so doing was obliged to sue to get it, and after he got judgment the patient put in a stay of execution. THE NAME "ALLOPATH.' Editor MICHIGAN MEDICAL NEWS: I confess that I am astonished that so many physicians are content to be called allopathists. It is no less than voluntarily taking rank with the other sects in medicine, with the disadvantage of being considered older and more fossilized. Whilst seriously doubting that the words allopathy and allopaths were used by Dr. Dunster as reported in the Atlanta Constitution, the fact that they are used as applicable to rational practice by a majority of physicians is both patent and deplorable. What name shall we use? If a Greek terminology must be employed, why not adopt pantopathy? Anything wrong in its signification? It, however, relegates us into the list of pathists and brands us a sect. My preference is for the adjective rational, to designate the physician, and progressive to qualify medicine. Thus, we are rational physicians and we practice progressive medicine. W PARMENTER. In the last number of the NEWS you ask for suggestions looking to the relief of the profession from the term "allopathy." A homœopathic text book (Grauvogle's) has recently come to my notice, in which the author uses the term physiological school" to designate the regular school of medicine, as distinguished from his own, and the term has❘ VERTMONTVILLE, Mich., June 12, 1879. seemed to me so truly descriptive, and so wholly unobjectionable, that I wish the profession would unite in adopting it. The word is a long one, it is true, but it has the merit of carrying a meaning, which the masses can in some degree understand, and which, so far as it is understood, will be complimentary to the profession. It will be easier to adopt it, too, because it carries with it no implied reproach to others, as the word "rational" would, if the regular profession should assume to take it to themselves as distinguishing them from all others. SULPHATE VS. BI-SULPHATE OF QUININE. One patent-right on common property has already become a fixture, in the appropriation of the word "eclectic" by a sect in medicine whose eclecticism is far less thorough and universal than our own. If it were not for the fact that it has been thus appropriated, or if the sectarian school could be dispossessed of it, eclectic would be a good word for our use, but as it is, "physiological" seems to be the best term that I have yet seen, and the fact that some of the homeopaths are helping us to it is worth something. They have succeded in dubbing us with the term allopath, and if now each and all of the medical profession would unite in resenting that misnomer, as applied to himself and would agree upon some intelligible substitute, perhaps it would not be so very difficult to get rid of the nickname. It is possible that you may be flooded with suggestions on this subject between now and the next issue, but if you can find room for this letter in the NEWS I wish you would print it. I am, very respectfully, C. W. WOOLDIDGE, M. D. WHITEHALL, Mich, June 12, 1879. Editor MICHIGAN MEDICAL NEWS: In your periodical of June 10th, 1879, I find an inquiry by Dr. G. E. Corbin. "Is not the term 'allopathy,' in its signification, entirely at variance with the principles and practice of rational medicine?" EDITOR MICHIGAN MEDICAL NEWS-In the NEWS of June 10th, we notice your article, under " Miscellany," regarding pills, and we consider your editorial remarks just, even in view of the rather startling facts disclosed. There is one fact, however, that we do not think is sufficiently considered, viz., the insolubility of sulph. quinine itself. This salt, as you are no doubt aware, requires 700 parts of water to dissolve it; hence we recommend the bi-sulphate, which requires but 10 parts. Yours very truly, New York, June 17, 1879. MCKESSON & ROBBINS. Book Notices. HEARING AND HOW TO KEEP IT. BY CHAS. H. BURNETT, M. D., This is the first of a semi-popular, semi-professional series about to be issued by the enterprising publishers and edited by W. W. Keen, M. D., of Philadelphia, which are to be furnished at the low rate of fifty cents per volume. The range of subjects is to be confined to those pertaining to Sanitary Science and the Preservation of Health, and will be treated of from an American standpoint with particular reference to our climate and modes of life. The numbers announced to succeed that now before us are "Long Life, and How to Reach it," "Sea Air and Sea Bathing,' The Summer and its Diseases," "Eye-sight and How to Care for it,' The Throat and the Voice," "The Winter and its Dangers," "The Mouth and the Teeth," Our Homes," "The Skin in Health and Disease," "Brain Work and Overwork;" and other essays will follow these. The enterprise is one which deserves, and will, doubtless, receive a hearty support. ON THE DISEASES OF THE ABDOMEN: comprising those of the Stomach and other parts of the alimentary canal, œsophagus, cæcum, intestines and peritoneum. By S. O. HABERSHON, M. D., London, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Senior Physician to Guy's Hospital, etc. With illustrations: Second American, from third enlarged and revised English edition. pp. 554, 8vo. Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea. Detroit: E. B. Smith & Co. The title of this work fully expresses its object. The diseases which are enumerated are discussed with the minuteness and comprehensiveness of the specialist, and the work has the special merit of not being a mere encyclopedic compilation, but is based on the experience of the author in one of the leading hospitals of England. Each disease treated of is illustrated with a number of cases, 192 in all, taken from actual practice-a very agreeable as well as instructive feature of the book, and the individuality of the author pervades the whole. We notice that the author believes in vicarious menstruation and cites several unmistakable instances of its occurence. It is impossible for us to devote space to such a review as the character of the book demands, and must content ourselves by remarking that it is one of the best, if not the best, book in our language, treating of the subjects which it discusses. DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES AND PERITONEUM. By Drs. John Syer Bristow, Wandell, Begbie, Habershon, Cushing and Ransom. This is the June number of Wm. Wood & Co.'s subscription library series. It consists of a collection of papers by the distinguished authors mentioned on the title page, and is a fitting number for the practical series which this library will contain. The diseases treated of comprise all to which the intestines and peritoneum are liable, and the information is fully abreast of the times. The chapters on 'Intestinal Worms," by Dr. W. H. Ransom, and on 'Diarrhoea," by Dr. S. O. Habershon, are strikingly practical, the former being profusely illustrated with cuts of different varieties of worms. ELECTRICITY AS RELATED TO MEDICINE AND SURGERY. By A. D. ROCKWELL, M. D., Electro-Therapeutist to the New York State Woman's Hospital, etc. New York: Wm. Wood & Co. Detroit: E. B. Smith & Co. Dr. Rockwell's name is already familiar to the profession as one of the authors of the comprehensive work on Medical and Surgical Electricity" by Beard & Rockwell. The brochure before us is a reprint of a series of lectures which have already appeared in the Virginia Medical Monthly. Those who are in possession of the larger work, to which we have referred, will hardly understand why this small one was issued. To those, however, who do not wish to invest in the larger work this will prove a valuable aid to the study of the much-neglected subject of electro-therapeutics. HINTS IN THE OBSTETRIC PROCEDURE. By WILLIAM B. ATKINSON, A. M., M. D., Physician to the Department of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women, Howard Hospital, Philadelphia, etc. Philadelphia: D. G. Brinton. Detroit: E. B. Smith & Co. This little book is just of the size to put in one's pocket when he goes out to attend a confinement case, and it is just of the kind that he will find to be useful and agreeable reading while waiting for It will refresh his mind and prepare him to meet accidents which may occur. the denouement. SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EYE AND EAR DEPARTMENT OF ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, Detroit. Drs. EUGENE SMITH and C. J. LUNDY, Surgeons. This report records the performance, during the past year, of a large amount of work, and an increase of nearly 35 per cent. on that of the year preceding, a fact which shows that the institution is growing in favor. There were treated in all 622 cases, of which 486 were of the eye. These cases received 74,000 treatments, or an average of about 25 per day-a clinique, certainly, of no inconsiderable size. The report contains an elaborate classification of the various diseases treated. Under the head of operations there are 100 cases, of which 8 were for cataract, 6 for enucleation, 16 for iridectomy, 2 for iridotomy, 12 on lachrymal apparatus, 14 on lids and 16 for strabotomy. The report is very creditable to the surgeons in charge. TENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES:- DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, D. C., June 6th, 1879. SIR-I inclose a copy of a little book which has been sent to each practising physician and surgeon of the United States, where name and address are known to the Census Office, with the request that he will keep therein a record of all deaths occurring within his practice during the year June 1, 1879, to May 31, 1880, and will return the register at the close of the year to this office. It is hoped that this effort to improve the vital statistics of the United States will meet your approbation and receive your countenance and support. Very respectfully, FRANCIS A. WALKER, It is to be hoped that those receiving this little book will make use of it, and, doubtless, those who may not have received it will be supplied by dropping a postal card containing a request for it to the address indicated. By means of the plan proposed it is possible to greatly improve the vital statistics of this country-a consummation devoutly to be desired. |