REPORT OF THE LEHIGH COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

THE Lehigh County Medical Society has, during the past year, greatly increased in membership; many of the younger and more enterprising, as well as the oldest and most experienced physicians, have united with us. But I have to lament, as others have done before me, a total indifference on the part of some of our members. I had addressed circulars to each and every member, but few have responded with a synopsis of their practice during the year. They seem to think they have performed their duty as soon as they have made their morning visits; but so long as they are members of the medical profession, or members of any medical organization, they do not fulfil their obligations to themselves, to the Society, nor to the community, if they are inactive in this work. A report to be interesting should contain communications from every member, and every part of the county. We are now making strong efforts to overcome the indifference of the Society; we have induced some of the most respectable medical men of the county to unite with us, and to assist in elevating the standard of the medical profession, and, with some degree of confidence, that at the next annual meeting of the State Society a full report of medical statistics of Lehigh County will be submitted.

Our meetings during the past year were not as well attended as they should have been. The benefit derived from them cannot be too highly estimated. I would most earnestly urge them to action; let their motto be, ever onward and upward. As opinions and views are interchanged, subjects are discussed, and ideas brought to the surface, which otherwise would lie dormant and inactive. Besides this tends to establish a better feeling towards each other.

In the past year our district has been unusually healthy. In my own practice, which is confined chiefly within the city limits, nothing has occurred of interest or importance. We will cite a case, however, merely to show how much nature will do towards repairing her injuries. Last October I was called to see Mrs. M., æt. 40, who had been thrown from a carriage, causing a comminuted

oblique fracture of the leg, midway between the knee and anklejoint. The accident had occurred twenty-four hours before I saw the patient. When she was brought home the limb had been temporarily dressed. I found there had been considerable hemorrhage, still not much shock; the soft parts much torn and bruised. The patient was much enfeebled by previous disease, making her condition anything but encouraging or favorable. With the assistance of Dr. E. G. Martin I adjusted the fracture; gave such medicines as the symptoms required, anodynes, tonics, to keep up the strength; good nourishing diet to furnish material to repair the injury; local applications of carbolic acid were freely used. Notwithstanding, there was a great deal of sloughing, so much as to expose the superior fragment, and leave the bone denuded of its periosteum; and at the end of two weeks, after setting the limb, it became necessary to remove the portion of exposed and denuded bone. After putting her under the influence of ether, I removed one inch and a half of the superior fragment of the tibia. Replacing the limb in a fracture-box, I applied two light lateral splints, merely as a support to the limb, and removed all extension and counter-extension. On the second day I had to battle with secondary hemorrhage, which occurred to an alarming extent, leaving her in a very weak, prostrated condition; but with plenty of stimulants she rallied, and gradually improved. The wound granulated kindly; and, at the expiration of three months, I had the satisfaction of seeing a perfect cure; limb straight, and without any perceptible shortening.

I met with a very singular case recently in my practice. William B., æt. 40; single; was suddenly attacked with swelling of the testicle, slightly painful to the touch, but no discoloration. Applied acetate of lead and opium. On the third day I discovered a livid spot about the size of a dime on the anterior portion of the scrotum, without any apparent cause. His general health was seemingly good. He was a machinist by trade, and worked steadily. He had no venereal disease of any kind at the time of the attack, but did have in his younger days. On the appearance of this spontaneous effusion, for such it seemed to be, I at once put him upon tincture ferri et quinia in full doses, and a nutritious diet. In fortyeight hours the ecchymosis had involved the entire scrotum. On the sixth day there appeared a small, watery blister; and, at the same time, a small spot of the same character appeared on the dorsal portion of the penis, midway, and in twenty-four hours had encircled the organ, extending forward to and involving the glans penis. When sloughing of the scrotum and penis commenced, its progress was rapid; and on the tenth day, while in the act of using the night

vase, the entire scrotum and half of the penis dropped off. With all my best directed efforts, and a supporting treatment from the very first, I could not overcome this fearful drain upon his system. Death closed the scene in twelve hours after the falling off of the organ. I could not account for the exciting cause, but, without a doubt, syphilis was the remote cause.

Dr. F. C. SENDERLING, of Lynnsville, writes as follows:

The much dreaded epidemic of cerebro-spinal meningitis made its appearance in this section last May. But since then we had no epidemic of any kind. During the winter, and at this time, scarlatina simply prevails to some extent, but not in an epidemic form. During last fall, and the forepart of the winter, there was unusually little sickness in my field of practice. Soon after the holidays there was a decided change. During January I treated several cases of pneumonia. In this disease I rely mainly on tincture of veratrum viride, that powerful pulse controller and arterial sedative; for with this therapeutical agent I can always say, "Thus fast thou shalt be, and no faster." Dover's powders are given in the first and second stages, and in the third stage simple expectorants, with ammoniæ carbonas or ammonia murias, counter-irritation, with sinapisms and turpentine stupes. During February more cases of acute pleurisy came under my observation than at any one time previous in the same space of time. The attack was sudden, pain severe, and the arterial excitement great. The duration of the disease was from six to fifteen days. In one case only, effusion followed, so as to be manifestly clear. The treatment was wet cups, sinapisms, and later blisters. Internally, arterial sedatives, opiates, absorbents, such as potassii iodidum, ammoniæ murias, in the second stages. Every case got well.

During March we had for some three or four days a heavy fog, feeling all the while as if an ice storm was approaching. One week after that time acute articular rheumatism came on. A number of cases, in fact all the rheumatic subjects in the district, were taken down. In this disease I depend on tinctura colchici radicis, potassii acetas or nitras, and opiates. As soon as I can change the quality from acid to alkaline, and increase the quantity of the urine, the disease will yield. As soon as the poison, the excess of lactic or uric acid, can be eliminated from the system, our patient will be all right. This object I have as yet always been successful in accomplishing in from five to fifteen days with the above-named agents and the usual hydragogues. In no case treated in this way have I had any cardial complications occur. Neuralgia was quite frequent

during the spring, intercostal and sciatic, of the paroxysmal form. The former yielded readily to the usual remedies recommended in this affection, such as quinine, iron, zinc, valerian, belladonna, and muriate of ammonia. But the latter proved very obstinate; in fact every case running into a chronic form. I had four cases running on for six and nine weeks; nothing seemed to answer a good purpose. I put them all on the great alterative pill, pil. iodoform. et ferri. Two or three have got entirely well under two weeks' treatment; and in the others there is a decided change for the better. Erysipelas was quite frequent during the year. About every other patient, with a wound of any kind whatever, was attacked with the disease. I had three cases of necrosis under treatment, and all of them had an attack. I know that some of the neighboring physicians had the same difficulty to contend with in their surgical cases. I had several cases of simple incised wounds; they also had severe and extensive attacks. Every case recovered under tincture ferri chloridi, potassæ chloras, and cinchona. In general surgery nothing unusual occurred. I had about the usual number of fractures that are common in a general country practice. In obstetrics, I lost two cases during the past year, one of malignant scarlatina, nine days after delivery. The other died of angina pectoris after the fifth day, she being affected with a valvular lesion for the past seven years.

Dr. P. R. PALM, of Allentown, gives the following report:

Abortion produced by the use of the root of asarum Canadense.— In the night of December 9th I was called to see Mary W., aged seventeen years, unmarried I found her laboring under considerable febrile excitement; pulse quick and full; pain in the abdomen and back at intervals; abdomen full and somewhat tender, and a tendency to convulsions. I suspected she might be pregnant, and questioned her concerning her catamenia in the presence of her mother. She assured me that she had her "menses regular," that she was slightly unwell then, and her mother did not contradict her story. I gave her an anodyne, and left her with the understanding that I should be called if she should get worse. Early next morning, her father called on me stating that she had given birth to a child, and desired me to see her at once. I found that she had given birth to a three months' embryo, without calling any of the family. Suspecting that she might have had an operation performed, I questioned her closely, but she strictly denied it, but at once admitted that she had been using a strong tea, and chewing a root; she said it was called "haselwurzel." When I asked her who

advised her to use it, she said the girls use it, and that one of her female companions had used it for the same purpose, and with the same results. For the past few days had taken a strong tea of the root. Her mother, on searching her pockets, found some of the root, which she gave me, but it was not the root of asarum Europæum asarabacca, or haselwurzel, but the root asarum Canadense; had it been of the former I should not have been surprised at the result. Still having my doubts about the matter, I asked her where she got the so called root. I called at the drug-store designated, and asked the proprietor to show me some, giving the German name "haselwurzel," when he showed me the asarum Canadense, and not the asarum Europæum. He assured me that that was what they always sold for "haselwurzel," and in fact insisted that they were identical. I also ascertained that large quantities of the asarum Canadense are sold to women, especially to girls. I do not know of any place in this city where the European root can be had. In my case there was neither vomiting nor purging, as there would have been had she taken the asarabacca root. For three or four days my patient had high fever; pulse 140, and even higher, with tenderness of the abdomen. I anticipated puerperal peritonitis, but by the use of the tincture of veratrum viride, and other antiphlogistic remedies, I succeeded in subduing inflammation, and the patient recovered. It would seem from this case, and from what I have since learned from others, that the Canada root is not quite as harmless in its action as is generally supposed; and that it is frequently confounded with asarum Europæum by some apothecaries.

Dr. A. P. FETHEROLF, of Chapman's Station, writes as follows:The year has been a very remarkable one in regard to thermometric deviations; changing from a comparatively warm temperature suddenly to one of intense cold, in consequence of which we had to contend with acute affections of the lungs, more espe cially, because whooping-cough was one of the prevailing epidemics; in fact all the diseases occurring during the last winter appeared to be of an aggravated type, and excessively obstinate, pertussis frequently lasting from three to five months, and patients to all appearance cured and free from the disease would suffer from repeated attacks of cold, or perhaps more properly relapses, which would protract cases almost indefinitely, or they become complicated with pneumonia, with a strong tendency to a fatal termination. In this connection I will mention my thorough conviction of the inefficiency of all the remedies hitherto recommended for