Assuming the population to be 133,000, which is the estimate of city officials, the death rate was 26.46 in each 1000 inhabitants. E. A. WOOD, M.D. REPORT OF THE BEAVER COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. By virtue of a rule in our County Society, the delegates to the State Society compose the Sanitary Committee, and, as no reports have been received, my report must necessarily be brief, and made from my own experience. Our Society has held regular meetings every two months during the year. And it is with great pleasure that I am able to testify to the harmony and good feeling among our members. We regret that many physicians still prefer to remain outside of our county organization, and often, some at least, in their conduct, act in direct violation of the Code of Ethics. As we understand the object of a sanitary report, it is but a compilation of pathological and therapeutical facts, derived from the medical experience of each county in the State. This being the case, in the absence of anything better, I will detail briefly a few facts which have occurred in my own practice during the last medical year. And here I would ask a question that should be definitely settled by the State Society: What is meant in our reports by medical year? In looking over the various county reports, some seem to comprehend the proper calendar year; while others continue their reports up to the time of writing, or to the meeting of the State Medical Society. This matter should be definitely settled, which would give reports at least more statistic value. In Obstetrics, I have one case I will detail, it being of an extraordinary character. On the 10th day of April last, I was called hastily to attend Mrs. G., who was in labor. On arriving in the sick room found the lady sitting in a rocking-chair, surrounded by three or four nurses. I caught a glimpse of her face, which was a perfect blaze; this attracted my attention, as she was naturally a very pale and anemic woman-having attended her in two previous confinements-this being her third. As she seemed to be in great agony, and fearing labor might be going to terminate abruptly, I went to her at once for the purpose of ordering her to bed, putting my fingers on the pulse, found it 112, at the same time pressing my other hand over the uterus to ascertain the amount of contraction, found, to my surprise, that organ apparently unaffected. In an adjoining room I conferred with one of the nurses, and gave it as my opinion that she was not in labor, but that some other grave trouble was the cause of her extreme suffering, requesting her to arrange the patient in bed, to enable me to ascertain her condition. On making a digital examination, I found a strange and certainly a very unusual state of things. From the meatus urinarius, in passing the finger down throughout the whole region of the vagina, there was nothing to be felt but one continued plain, with a hard tumor pressing from above, which I decided was a child's head, impacting down to the floor of the perineum, a large section of the bladder, and I came to this conclusion because it could be nothing else. I told the lady that there was some advancement, but that she was not now in labor, and that her suffering came from another cause; to this she readily assented, and to use her own words: "For I never felt this way." In my explorations no os uteri could be found. As she seemed now to be in great agony, I gave her a full dose of opium; this, in a very short time, seemed to act like magic, relieving all nervous symptoms, and rendering her entirely easy, and gave me time to think over the case. On inquiry as to how much urine she had voided during the day, she replied that it was all in the chamber; in this I found 1 ounces, heavily charged with lateritious sediment, which at first sight I supposed to be blood. Having no catheter, I could go now no further with the examination; the patient being very comfortable from the opium, I now retired, it being about midnight, with directions to be called if any change occurred. She rested well till morning, and slept some during the night. She was now put on a slight anodyne treatment, not enough, however, to mask uterine pain, or any dangerous symptom. The pulse was down to 92; skin moist; and, as there was no pain, I left, with orders to be sent for if labor came on. The next morning I found her still comfortable, she had passed or rather percolated about three tablespoonsful of urine; pulse 89; skin the same as before. On passing the catheter, it went almost directly downward, and when introduced to its full length, it stood in a vertical or nearly perpendicular position, and I could very easily, while introduced, place the index-finger of my left hand under the further or initial end of the instrument. This fact alone was sufficient to establish the diagnosis of the case. I found it, therefore, impossible to reach the bladder, owing to the firm manner in which the head was pressing the impacted section against the perineum, and was satisfied that I had now to deal with a very rare and certainly extraordinary condition of things, an impacted section of the bladder (not hernia), and that the secretion of the kidneys had been for several days imprisoned above. I explained the critical condition of my patient, as well as I could, to her husband, and added that, although she appeared easy and comfortable, yet 1 regarded her situation as one of great peril. I now asked for consultation, and Dr. McKinney, of New Brighton, was chosen as my colleague in the case. Accordingly, at 4 P. M. of the same day, the doctor saw the case with me, and tried to reach the bladder with the catheter, but found it impossible; but in making still further explorations of the case he found the os uteri, far off to the left of the pelvis, and drew my attention to it. On examining, I found it correct, and that it was dilated to nearly the size of an old dollarthis was the only evidence that we had now that labor was nearfor the woman, as yet, had no pain, and from all appearance she had but entered into her last month of gestation. In looking over this strange case, carefully, we came to the conclusion that labor and delivery was the only hope for her life, and decided that I should return in the morning and bring on labor, if not called sooner. Hearing nothing from our patient during the night, I visited her in the morning. On examination, found the os uteri still far off to the left, but a little more dilated, and the liquor amnii gathered to the os about half an inch. The pains being now regular, I ruptured the membranes at once, and taking advantage during the intervals of pain, I pressed up the prolapsed fold of the bladder, and holding it while the pain spent its force, in this way succeeded in getting over the vertex and behind the arch of the pubes, when it retired away, and I felt no more of it. The head now with the aid of a pain or two swept round, and a first vertex presentation ensued, and the labor was accomplished in about one hour. The child was perhaps premature by three weeks-both it and the mother, however, did well. Now, this might be mistaken by the hasty reader for an ordinary case; if justly studied, however, it will readily appear to be not only a very rare and singular occurrence, but one of extreme hazard. I have never experienced anything like it, nor have I ever read of a parallel case, neither has any physician with whom I have yet conferred. It was not a hernia of the bladder, but a prolapsed section of that organ. I will detail another case, of vaginal hemorrhage, in a new-born infant, that was also new to me. On the 19th of January, Mrs. E. gave birth to a large, well-developed female child. About 12 hours after birth the nurse noticed the napkin saturated with blood, which alarmed them very much, and I was accordingly sent for in great haste; the child seemed to be in good condition, except this strange phenomenon. On examining the napkins, found that the blood it had already lost was considerable. After allaying their fears by giving a favorable prognosis, I directed the parts to be occasionally washed with a solution of alum; and, having no experience to rely on, I recollected that it was doubtless one of those rare cases of infantile vaginal hemorrhage referred to by Dr. Condie in his work on Diseases of Children. There seemed to be very little abatement in the discharge for the first two or three days, still I directed no other treatment but the alum water, assuring them that it would be all well inside of one week. Accordingly, on the sixth day the discharge ceased, and did not return. These cases are very rare, and I believe attended with no danger; but doubtless the result of hyper-congestion of the mucous membrane, it being naturally very vascular at that early age. season. Rheumatism. I have had during the past year more cases than usual of this disease, and particularly during the past winter, owing no doubt to the many sudden changes and wet weather during the I still find the shortest cures by the opium and alkaline treatment, together with veratrum viride, in all cases of the acute and subacute forms where the pulse needs controlling. As far as I have conversed with other physicians they tell me that neuralgia, of every description, has been on the increase in their practice during the last year; and this has been my experience during the winter and spring. Morphia, quinia sulphas, hyoscyamus, or chloral hydrate in appropriate doses, and according to the part affected, have been my most successful remedies in neuralgia, together with vesication, Granville's lotion, or equal parts of chloral hydrate and camphor combined, and painted or rubbed over the seat of the pain. I have prevented several recurring cases of hemicrania by directing the following: R.-Liq. potas. arsenit. fzij; Hall's sol. strychnia, f3vj; Sig.-Take 10 drops three times a day in water after eating. Prevalent Diseases.-Under this head I might add that whooping-cough and measles prevailed as an epidemic in some parts of my practice; in some families one disease would not have run its course until the other would invade. I believe that the formula of belladonna, as recommended by Dr. Corson, will cut short the spasmodic phenomena of whooping-cough, if you have an intelligent |