COLLEGE NEWS. PRESENTATION OF PROFESSOR WILLIAM H. PANCOAST'S PORTRAIT BE. FORE THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE. BY ALSTON H. BICKERS, M.D. MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND FELLOW STUDENTS:—In the beginning of the session which will terminate to-morrow, the class learned with great sorrow and deep regret that our esteemed teacher and friend, Professor William H. Pancoast, would resign the Chair of General Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy in this institution at the close of the present term. for twenty-nine years; two years as Adjunct and fourteen years as Demonstrator of Anatomy, two years as Adjunct Professor of General Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy, and eleven years ago he was chosen by the Honorable Board of Trustees to fill the Chair of General Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy—a chair vacated by the resig nation of that illustrious anatomist, that world renowned surgeon, whose name and reputation have spread with civilization throughout the length and breadth of this land. I thus briefly refer to his distinguished father and predecessor, the late Professor Joseph Pancoast. The tribute of which I have spoken, and which was procured by the hearty cooperation of every student in this institution, and which I will have the honor and pleasure to present in your presence, is a portrait of himself. We thoroughly realized the significance of his And now, Professor Pancoast, I have the opresignation, we were aware that it takes from our portunity to perform the most pleasant duty of Alma Mater one of her oldest and most accom- my life, a duty rendered so pleasant and agreeplished teachers, her most gifted and skilful sur- able by the assurance that every word I have geon, her most interesting, practical, and emi-spoken or shall speak is and will be the feeling nently instructive surgical clinician, and from us our best and truest friend. We, therefore, earnestly urged him to reconsider his intention to resign, and continue to teach the chair which he has so long and ably taught with credit to himself and honor to our Aima Mater, and with inestimable benefit to the thousands who have gone out in all parts of America and Europe to practice medicine under the broad banner and great seal of the Jefferson Medical College. But, owing to his desire and determination to lessen his arduous duties, he was unable to comply with our earnest and unanimous request. Finding our efforts to retain him futile, we determined to present him, on this occasion, with some tribute of our respect, esteem, and gratitude, with some token which would show to the world, to after classes in this college, and to his posterity, the love and appreciation of five hundred and thirty students for their teacher and friend, for him who brought to the daily routine of his duties a mind so stored with learning, and a skill so subtle, as to render clear, concise, comprehensive, and thoroughly interesting, that difficult and monotonous study, anatomy. Likewise to create within us that ambition, that thirst for knowledge which success alone can gratify, which would serve to perpetuate his memory in the college, in which and for which he has so earnestly and indefatigably labored for twenty-nine years -the institution which he, by his inherited and acquired ability, coupled with his genius and industry, has aided to overcome all obstacles, and has been so instrumental in making her first among the medical schools of the world. and sentiment of my classmates. I have been chosen by them to present this meagre token of our esteem and love, and to thus publicly express and convey to you our feelings of appreciation and gratitude. A feeling which, sir, you have not instilled in our hearts by a single act or deed, not in a day or session, but, sir, it is a feeling which you have created, nourished, and indelibly implanted in our hearts by your long and able teaching, by your ever willingness and eagerness to admonish us with the gentleness of a brother, to advise and guide us with the genius of experience, and to shield and protect us with the strong arm of friendship, and when, during the vicissitudes of college life, misfortune cast her mantle of gloom upon some unfortunate student of this institution, you were ever ready and willing to listen to his appeal, to direct and advise, and, nobler still, to shield and protect him. Professor Pancoast we eagerly longed for the day to come when you would meet us, either in the amphitheatre of the college or the clinic room of the hospital, not only to teach and instruct us but to gladden our hearts with your kind words and genial manner, to impart fresh energy and inspire new hope, to lead and guide onward to the success which we have attained. We love and cling to you, Professor Pancoast, we respect and obey you, because you manage us with the sternness of a disciplinarian, united with the tenderness and consideration of a father. Professor Pancoast, you are verily the student's friend, and no man ever more richly deserved that appellation, or had it more heartily bestowed by a class than yourself. I have indicated to you that Professor William A few more words and I am done. When you H. Pancoast has been a teacher in this college | look upon this portrait as it hangs upon the walls of the clinic lecture-room of the Jefferson Medical College Hospital, in juxtaposition with your distinguished predecessor, expressing to the world our love for you, I beg you to console yourself with this truth, that we, the students who so much love you, will take with us to our distant homes your image, which your long and successful career as a teacher, and your pure, unalloyed friendship have assisted nature to enframe in our hearts a living and an imperishable monument to your memory. STRYCHNIA AS A PREVENTATIVE OF POSTPARTUM HEMORRHAGE.-Dr. A. Walker (British Medical Journal) says: In a number of cases, strychnine administered along with iron for a month before labor, has exerted a remarkable influence in preventing post-partum hemorrhage, where severe flooding had occurred in previous labor. A CASE OF PERSISTENT MENSTRUATION IN A LADY OF SEVenty Years of AGE.-To the New York Obstetrical Society, December 15, 1885, Dr. T. Addis Emmet reported the case of a lady of MEDICAL NEWS AND MISCELLANY. seventy, whom he had known for several years. DR. GEORGE R. PANCOAST has removed to 2634 Brown Street. Franklin Street. She had menstruated regularly every month since the age of sixteen, except when she was pregnant, and during a certain interval after she had reached the age of forty-five or fifty. Her DR. JAMES COLLINS has removed to 704 daughter, who was aged fifty, also had a regular monthly flow. The mother was, as far as he knew, in perfect health, and had been a widow for thirty years. He regarded the case as a very Dr. T. Spencer COBBOLD, the distinguished English helminthologist, is dead. DR. A. Y. P. GARNETT, JR., one of the most brilliant young physicians of Washington, D. C., died at his home in that city on March 10th. unusual one. PROLAPSE OF THE RECTUM.-Dr. S. A. Scott (New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal) was called during the summer of 1876 to see a child aged eighteen months, who was suffering from complete prolapse of the rectum. The bowel was swollen and looked as if it were bruised. THE fourteenth annual meeting of the Ameri- that the child could protrude it again with almost The doctor replaced it immediately, but found DR. F. E. STEWART has been appointed Demonstrator of Pharmacy in the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia. can Public Health Association will be held at Toronto, Ont., October 5th to 8th, 1886. THE MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL COllege OF PHILADELPHIA.-The annual commencement was held in Association Hall on Saturday, April 3d. BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE. Dr. E. G. Janeway has been transferred to the Chair of the Principles and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine. UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.-Professor S. O. Chew has been transferred from the Chair of Materia Medica to that of Practice of Medicine, and Professor I. E. Atkinson from the Chair of Pathology to that of Materia Medica. THE annual address before the Alumni Association of Jefferson Medical College was delivered in the lower lecture-room of the college on April 1st, by Dr. William H. Warder, on "The Lights and Shadows of Medicine and Professional Life." JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE.-The sixtyfirst annual commencement of Jefferson Medical College was held in the Academy of Music on Friday, April 2d. Professor Theophilus Parvin delivered the valedictory address, after which Dr. E. B. Gardette, President of the Board of Trustees, conferred the degree of Doctor in Medicine on two hundred and thirteen graduates. as much ease as it could extend the leg. He then replaced it again, and, while an assistant held it in place, injected one-eightieth grain sulphate of strychnia into the sphincter ani and then applied a wet compress. After this simple procedure the bowel remained in place and did not descend again. ST. LOUIS MEDICAL COLLEGE.-Several very important changes have been made in the Faculty of the St. Louis Medical College. Professor L. Ch. Boisliniere and E. F. Smith, for many years respectively occupying the Chairs of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Clinical Medicine, have resigned, and the following gentlemen have been elected to the designated positions: J. M. Scott, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics; W. L. Barret, M.D., Professor of Gynecology; John Green, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology; W. E. Fischel, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine; John P. Bryson, M.D., Professor of Genito-Urinary Surgery; B. J. Primm, M.D., Professor of Descriptive Anatomy; Dr. Mudd's Chair is now designated as that of Surgical Anatomy and Clinical Surgery.-St. Louis Courier of Medicine. CALOMEL AS A DIURETIC.-The action of calomel in causing diuresis in morbid conditions with dropsy is not generally recognized. In health, indeed, it may be said that the drug has no such action. Dr. Jendrássic has found in toms reappeared. A double dose of the gin, with cases of cardiac dropsy, that calomel in appropri-artemesia blossoms, was given him. He vomited ate doses causes well-marked diuresis, a "sort of violently and expelled myriapods from the mouth, diabetes insipidus," by which the results of want nasal fossæ, and anus. The treatment was conof cardiac compensation, dropsy and œdema are tinued a month, and the pseudo-parasites disapdissipated. The effect comes on within twenty-peared. Probably, during the season of ripe four hours; one and a half grain of the drug being given three to five times a day. No diarrhoea is usually produced; but, in some cases, it had to be prevented by the administration of laudanum. Salivation and stomatitis were obviated by the prescription of a chlorate of potash gargle from the first. The result in all cases in which the treatment was adopted was beneficial, no unfavorable depressing symptoms being noticed.-British Medical Journal. DYSPEPSIA. Drs. C. A. Brugeman & Son, of Marysville, Neb., emphasize the value of a wellknown antiseptic in troubles arising from indigestion by reporting the following case: Mr. John M., æt. 32, a sufferer from dyspepsia for many years, in vain sought relief through a great variety of patent drugs. His principal complaint has been pain in the stomach with giddiness and headache, and after meals a most distressing sensation of heaviness in the stomach, his countenance being indicative of great misery. We placed him on the prescription recommended by Dr. O. F. Taylor, of Magnolia, Ill. (Peoria Medical Monthly): It proved a safe, elegant, and pleasant prescription. By this treatment alone, with reasonable attention to diet, all symptoms were entirely removed in four weeks, and he now takes his meals with comfort. We are confident that listerine gives us better results than other similar remedies in this type of cases, because, while promptly arresting fermentative changes, it also exercises a decided sedative influence on the mucous membrane of the stomach.-Kansas Medical Index. MYRIAPODS IN THE HUMAN BODY.-M. Rooms, in the Archives Médicales Belges, reports the following case: A boy, æt. 11, showed symptoms of illness which lasted three years. He had strange tastes and fancies; he grew thin and was excessively irritable and nervous. It being imagined that intestinal worms were at the root of the evil, vermifuges were administered without any result. The child was better in winter and grew worse in summer. One day he drank a glass of gin, in which artemisia blossoms had been infused, and he afterwards expelled a quantity of living myriapods, which lived several days. The child's condition greatly improved, but on the summer following it again fell, and the old symp fruit, the boy ate blackberries, and thus swallowed these insects. The vitality exhibited by the myriapods in the intestinal canal is explained by the denseness of the envelope and the peculiarity of their respiration.-Paris Correspondence, British Medical Journal. Circumstances OIL OF TURPENTINE IN DIPHTHERIA.-In the Journal de Medecine of January 31st, Dr. Delthil, of Paris, reports a case of diphtheria in a child thirty-two months old, in which the patient occupied the same room with four puerperal women and their newly-born infants. rendered isolation impossible. The whole mucous membrane of the patient from the lips to the bronchi, including the nasal passages, was covered with a thick diphtheritic exudation. The treatment consisted of quinine, emetics, abundant nourishment and painting the affected mucous membrane with undiluted oil of turpentine every hour. To protect the puerperal women and their children from contagion, the atmosphere of the room was kept saturated with vapor produced by the evaporation of oil of turpentine and fumes from the combustion of a mixture of oil of turpentine and coal tar. The patient recovered, and neither the puerperal women nor their newly-born infants were infected. Το facilitate applications to the throats of young children, the writer recommends the novel expedient of tickling the fauces with a feather introduced between the teeth. The efforts at vomiting excited thereby will cause the child to open its mouth and the application may then be easily made.-Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal. A NEW EMMENAGOGUE.-In the November number of the American Medical Digest is an article upon the new emmenagogue of Dr. Y. Matthews Duncan, of St. Bartholomew's, London. The emmenagogue is "erotic excitement." The editor very justly takes exception to it on moral grounds, and observes that in most cases the treatment would be worse than the disease. The effect of this treatment is, of course, sympathetic. I wish to suggest a method of obtaining the same results by sympathetic action, which is free from the objections above referred to. It is mammary irritation. then sinapisms to breasts, to produce marked irritation, but not to blister. The breasts became inflamed, showing enlargement, hardness, and tenderness. When the inflammation subsided the menses appeared and were normal afterwards. She has since borne a family of children. Since that time I have frequently succeeded by the same treatment, but not always.DR. THOMAS D. STRONG, Buffalo Medical Press. DIFFICULT CATHETERIZATION.-Dr. Noyes (American Lancet) in an interesting article on difficult catheterization, says: I remember a case which I met with in my hospital practice. I made several efforts to introduce a catheter, trying instruments of various sizes. I reported my want of success to the surgeon in charge, who also made unsuccessful attempts, and finally left me to manage the case as best I might. I found that by the aid of a hot bath, I could pass the catheter, and this is often the case. In general practice I have met with many cases of retention from enlarged prostate. I once got great credit for relieving an old man who had been attended by several physicians. They had tried in vain repeatedly, several days, to pass the catheter, and when I was called in they repeated their attempts, before giving me an opportunity to try. The youngest of them, whose turn came last, was especially anxious to succeed, and he employed so much violence in his efforts that he drew blood. Such force is never justifiable, nor is it necessary. When they at last passed the instrument to me, I found that it went in readily enough until the point reached the prostate, and could not find the passage beyond. I placed the finger in the rectum, and lifted the point of the instrument a little, causing it to ride over the obstruction, and in a moment it passed into the bladder. I wish to repeat, that no force should ever be used in introducing the catheter. AN UNUSUAL CAUse of Burns of tHE FACE. -I have thought it right to put on record the following case, as it seems to me to be one of some rarity, and to have some importance from a medico-legal point of view. I cannot do better than give the facts in the words of the patient himself, who communicated them to me by letter. He writes as follows: "A rather strange thing happened to myself about a week ago. For a month or so I was troubled very much with foul eructations. I had no pain, but the smell of the gas which came from my stomach was disagreeable to myself, and to all who happened to be in the room. About a week ago, as I said, I got up in the morning and lighted a match to see the time, and when I put the match near my mouth, to blow it out, my breath caught fire, and gave a loud crack like the report of a pistol. It burnt my lips, and they are still a little sore. I got a terrible surprise and so did my wife, for the report awakened her." From the above occurrence it would appear that the condition known as " halitosis," or diseased breath, is not only a source of misery to the sufferer, and to those compelled to associate with him, but may, under certain circumstances, become a condition of danger to the unfortunate possessor of it. In the present instance, the gaseous results of the imperfectly digested food had their atoms of carbon and hydrogen so arranged as to give rise to the presence of carburetted hydrogen, the inflammable and explosive qualities of which came into play when mixed with a due proportion of atmospheric air in presence of the unguarded light of the burning match. I may add, that the patient to whom this accident happened, is a most intelligent and observant man, and that the diet I prescribed for the indigestion from which he suffers from time to time has alcohol excluded from it, and I know that my instructions in that respect are acted upon.-Dr. George T. BEATSON, British Medical Fournal. UNUSUAL EFFECTS OF MALARIA.-Dr. J. J. Norwine (Therapeutic Gazette) reports the following peculiar cases of malarial poisoning : Case 1. Mamie M—, aged 13. Family history good; no syphilis, gout, or rheumatism; has always been a healthy, stout girl, and at present presents a very healthy appearance; menstruated first at the age of twelve, and has been regular in frequency, normal in quantity, and without pain during the flow. This, in brief, constitutes the past history. Patient now presents the following symptoms: Three weeks ago she arose from her bed feeling quite well, "but," says her sister, "she was so nervous." This condition has existed ever since, and is gradually growing worse; her rest at night was good after once geting to sleep, probably not awaking during the night; bowels constipated; appetite failing last few days; does not complain much of pain. Upon this history, in connection with a close physical examination, I diagnosed chorea, the result of malarial infection, and upon this basis I gave the patient the usual anti-malarial agent, sulphate of quinine, combined with that most efficient vehicle, the syrup of yerba santa, in doses of eight grains every two hours, giving four doses daily, and to my satisfaction the patient had entirely recovered on the third day. I should have added that a liberal mercurial purge was given prior to the quinine. Case 2. Child, age one and a-half years, sufferring from chronic diarrhoea for over thirty days. The usual treatment was given-astringents, pepsin, bismuth and tonics-but all seemed to only relieve for a very short time. At last my attention was called to the fact that the child's bowels were In ante-bellum days I was called to a large plantation in my neighborhood by the manager, one of the old-time overseers, who had great confidence in his powers of healing, and was convinced of his superiority over any new fledged Esculapius, and that what he did not know of medicine was not worth knowing. horseback riding, producing almost complete paralysis of the lower extremities, being unable to stand or walk without assistance, and suffering intense pain in the lumbar region. He was at once leeched, and this treatment was followed the next day by dry cups along the seat of the injury, and he was retained in the horizontal posture for some weeks. During this enforced quietude, my attention was directed to his extreme nervousness, which amounted almost to this organ hysteria; and on examining his penis, I found firmly constricted around the glans, and it was in a state of erection; the prepuce was with great difficulty it could be pushed behind the corona. The frænum was so very short as to draw the urethral orifice backward and open. The least touch upon the meatus produced a peculiar nervous spasm over the entire body. The prepuce being drawn behind the glans, a thin white line was to be observed girdling the entire penis, and he complained of this causing him great pain. He then informed me that he suffered from constant erections of the penis, fre In many instances while in the society of ladies he would be compelled to leave the room, and frequently while horseback riding he would have to get off his horse and abandon this exercise, as the penis would become so irritable and erect that semen would pass involuntarily from him. He pointed to a ghastly-looking African sitting on a verandah, with his head leaning against the brick pillar, blanched as much as his color allowed, and with a small stream of blood and saliva trickling from one corner of his mouth; he had extracted, twenty-four hours before, the third molar, and the blood had never stopped-quently lasting from twelve to eighteen hours. he had applied strong vinegar, Parvaz's perchloride of iron, nitrate of silver, and had caused the blacksmith of the plantation to bend and file down to a point a goodly-sized wire with which he had cauterized the socket. After doing all this he confessed he was at his wit's end, "au bout de son latin." I told him I would extend his Latin to " Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas," and after reviving the drooping African with a square dose of whiskey, I made a wad of cotton to be compressed between his jaws, leaving a piece protruding in the mouth of sufficient size to allow the involuntary play and suction of the tongue to be exerted on it, and not disturb the formation of the clot in the socket. The hemorrhage was arrested in ten minutes. Some time afterward, a planter living some ten miles from my house sent for me for his daughter, who had been bleeding some twelve hours from the same cause. I directed the father to apply a similar wad, and gave two doses of brandy and digitalis, which set everything right. On the same principle, violent epistaxis can be controlled in many instances by occluding the nostrils between thumb and finger, preventing the forced entrance in and out of air, also an involuntary act, during which no clot can be formed. GENITAL IRRITATION AND SEVERE NERVOUS PHENOMENA. Dr. Lewis A. Sayre (Virginia Medical Monthly) reports the following remarkable case: Mr. M-, aged twenty-five years, an unusually well-developed, muscular man, but exceedingly nervous, came to me suffering from an injury to the spine from the plunging of his horse while I divided this girdling band upon the dorsum of the penis, and then divided also the frænum, tearing the latter down to the extent of nearly an inch, thus allowing the glans to assume its natuappearance, and removing all constriction. Since the operation his nervous system has undergone a complete and entire change, and he will now leave on an extended European trip. ral STATE SANITARY CONVENTION.-The following circular which we have received from the Pennsylvania State Board of Health explains itself: A sanitary convention, the object of which will be to afford an opportunity for an expression of opinion on matters relating to the public health and the discussion of methods looking towards an advancement in the sanitary condition of the Commonwealth, the prevention of sickness and avoidable death, and the improvement of the conditions of the living, will be held in Philadelphia, under the auspices of the State Board of Health, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, May 12th, 13th, and 14th, 1886. The Address of Welcome will be delivered by His Excellency, Hon. Robert E. Pattison, Governor of Pennsylvania. The following will be among the subjects that will be discussed by prominent sanitarians:— 1. The Sanitary Needs of School Buildings and Grounds. |