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to return to his duties, he had to resign his appointment, tothe jeopardy of his prospects in life. In another case,a lad of eighteen, was charged against and received a severeconcussion on the chest. At the time he fainted, but wasable to walk home; shortly afterwards he noticed an in-creasing difficulty of breathing whenever he went upstairsor attempted to run; it was then found that he was suffer-ing from aortic regurgitation, the mischief being fairlyattributable to the shock received in the charge. Fromthat time he become a chronic invalid, and though he stilllives, or was living a short while ago, he is only able to takecarriage exercise. With such dangers resulting from thegame of football, it is surely high time that an attemptshould be made to frame rules by which the game may berendered more scientific and less hazardous.

DO HEADS GROW WITH ADVANCING AGE?

SOME amusing letters have appeared in a daily con-temporary in regard to an alleged steady increase in thesize of Mr. Gladstone’s head, which, it is said, is renderedmanifest by a progressive enlargement in the size of thehat required to cover it. The correspondence exhibits anextraordinary ignorance of well-ascertained facts ; for, ifthere is one thing which would be acknowledged by allanatomists and physiologists, it is that the nervous system,like other parts of the body, undergoes atrophy withadvancing age-an atrophy that pervades every tissue, andis as apparent in the thinning of the vocal cords that altersthe voice to " childish treble," as in the shrunk shanksfor which the "youthful hose, well saved, are a world toowide." No reason can be assigned why the brain shouldescape the general change that affects the digestive and thecirculatory systems alike. Its attributes and facultiesattain their highest excellence at or before mid-age, andfrom that time forth exhibit only a steady decline. To

compare Mr. Gladstone with Napoleon, respecting whom asimilar story is related, is absurd. The head of Napoleonmay have grown between twenty and forty-five, becausehis brain was greatly exercised during the last ten years ofthe past century and the first ten of the present; but nocalls have been made on Mr. Gladstone of late years at all

comparable to the strain on the mental and bodily powersof the French Emperor during that eventful period. Theossification of the sutures of the cranium practicallyprevents increase of the volume of the brain in advancedlife ; and, even granting some slight increase, such increasewould be compensated for by the attenuation of the cranialbones which is well known to occur in old age. A changein form there may be, but none in size.

THE "VON LANGENBECK HOUSE."THE movement set on foot by the leading medical societies

of Berlin to perpetuate the memory of von Langenbeck bythe founding of an institution to be called after his namewas warmly taken up by the late Empress Augusta, as weare reminded in a brochzcre from the pen of Professor von

Bergmann, entitled ‘ Die letzte Stiftung der Kaiserin

Augusta " (Berlin : Hirschwald). He points out how thewhole life of this illustrious lady was devoted to thesuccour of the sick and suffering, recalling her early careof the sufferers from cholera when she was only the wifeof the Governor of the Rhine Provinces, also her devotedservices in the Danish war, and again in the memorable year1870. In this work she was associated with von Langenbeck,who obtained her warm interest in the scheme of foundingan Association of German Surgeons, which was set onfoot in 1872, at a meeting in his house, by Billroth, vonVolkmann, Simon, and himself. Professor von Bergmannsays that one of the first achievements of the Surgery

Congress was the introduction into German hospitals ofantiseptics. Another project urged by von Langenbeckwas that of founding an institution similar to the EnglishCollege of Surgeons, and in this, too, he had the strongsupport of the enlightened Empress, who, indeed, con-tinued after his death to urge on his successors in the

presidential chair (von Volkmann, and then von Bergmann)the practical importance of such an undertaking. Hencethe Empress Augusta may be deemed to be the founder ofthe llv. Langenbeck Haus," in support of which this

pamphlet has been written. A suitable site has beensecured near the Surgical Clinic, and the plans of the-institution have been projected. They are briefly describedby Professor von Bergmann, who speaks of the scheme as.

one likely to form a worthy centre of surgical science and a,fitting memorial to von Langenbeck.

BELGIAN MEDICAL LEGISLATION.! THE new law which is passing through the BelgianHouses of Parliament is very much opposed to the views ofthe profession. No sufficient test is to be required eitherfrom students wishing to enter the universities, or evenfrom those who have completed their studies and are about,to commence practice, and Government is to have the rightupon the advice of the medical commissions to authorise

any persons to practise "certain acts of the art of healing,"so that a bonesetter or other quack, supposing he couldget the ear of the medical commission, might conceivablyreceive an authorisation to practise. It is somewhat

bitterly remarked in the medical press that if the Houseof Representatives had been mainly composed of medicalmen,

" instead of briefless barristers," it would probably nothave ordained that medical students should enter on theirstudies without a good arts examination, while veterinarians.are obliged to pass one, nor would medicine have been theonly one of the liberal professions opened to women.

DEATH AFTER THE INHALATION OFBROMIDE OF ETHYL.

A SOMEWHAT important case is now before the Berlin

courts, in which a dentist is charged with having causedthe death of a patient by means of an anaesthetic. The

patient was a lady, and the dentist entrusted his pupil,whose age was under seventeen, with the administration ofbromide of ethyl. Of this about an ounce was administered,together with four or five drops of chloroform. The patientis stated to have recovered completely from the effects ofthe ansesthetic, and to have felt quite well during theremainder of the day. The next day, however, she died,and a commission of medical experts has been directed to.report upon the matter.

FOREIGN UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

Berlin.-Professor Grasheyof Munich has accepted theinvitation to the chair of Mental Pathology in successionto the late Professor Westphal.Basle.-Female students are to be admitted to medical

study only when they are of Swiss nationality, or whenthey have been educated in Switzerland.

Gratz.-Dr. Escherich of Munich has been appointedExtraordinary Professor of Children’s Diseases.Halle.-It seems that the announcement of the appoint-

ment of Professor Mikulicz was, like several previousannouncements in connexion with the chair of Surgery, a.mistake. It is now stated that Professor Bramann of

Berlin has been appointed.Heidelberg.-Professor Vierordt of Jena has accepted an

invitation to a professorship. Professor Leber of Gottingenhas been appointed to succeed Professor Becker.

Helsingfors.-Dr. Heinricius has been appointed Professor

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of Midwifery, and Drs. Clopatt and Sucksdorff recognisedas privat.doccnten in Children’s Diseases and Hygiene,respectively.

___________

AT a meeting of the Queen’s College (Birmingham)Medical Society held on Wednesday, 19th inst., the follow-ing resolution was carried unanimously :-" That this

’Society condemns the proposed reconstitution of theLondon University on the lines laid down by the SpecialCommission for a University for London, as being unfair tothe present graduates and undergraduates of the LondonUniversity, and as tending to lower the standard of medical,education and the value of the London degrees."

AN important addition to the Roman hospitals has-recently been made in the " Casa di Salute per MalattieNervose " at Castel Gandolfo. Professors Buonomo of

Naples and Sciamanna of the University of Rome havejust been appointed its directors.

MR. H. H. CLUTTON has been appointed Joint Lectureron Surgery at St. Thomas’s Hospital; and Dr. W. B. Haddenhas been appointed lecturer on Materia Medica and Thera-peutics at the same hospital.

PROFESSOR CARL L6WIG, the senior member of theBreslau professorial staff and a well-known chemist, is statedto be dangerously ill, He is eighty-seven years of age.

AN epidemic of influenza is reported to have broken out.at Melbourne, also in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Pharmacology and Therapeutics.CHLORIDE OF OREXIN AS A PURE STOMACHIC. I

Professor Penzoldt of Erlangen, after a series of obser- Ivations made both on healthy medical students and on.patients suffering from various affections accompanied bywant of appetite, thinks himself warranted in recommend-ing a complex cheniical substance, the correct systematicname of which is (( chloride of phenyl-dihydro-chinazolin, but tfor which he proposes the simpler name " chloride of orexin,"from Ojoet:, appetite. He found, by examining the con-tents of the stomach by means of the oesophageal tube,that in the healthy subjects bread and meat were alwaysdigested from half to three-quarters of an hour sooner whenchloride of orexin was taken than under ordinary circum-stances. Observations were subsequently made on thirty-six,patients who suffered from anorexia. In five there was noeffect, in five more it was of a doubtful character, but in allthe remaining twenty-six cases a marked effect, and insome a surprising one, was produced. This occurred in someinstances after the first few doses, but in others the treat-ment had to be continued for several days before its effectsbegan to show themselves, but these were mostly cases oflong standing. The class of cases in which orexin provedmost useful were those where the stomach was not diseased,’but where the loss of appetite was due to some generalcondition, such as anaemia, phthisis, or weakness followingan operation. Very rarely unpleasant effects were com-,plained of, as a burning sensation in the oesophagus duringthe deglutition of the orexin, or occasionally vomiting. No.effect was observed in the pyrexia of phthisis. The doseordered was generally from five to seven grains in fromthree to five pills, and this quantity was given once or twicea day, a cupful of beef-tea or broth being taken with eachdose, on account of the pungent properties of this com-pound. If no effect is produced in four or five days, thetreatment should be intermitted for a few days.

THE PHARMACOLOGY OF METHYLAL.

Dr. Tsisvitski publishes as his graduation thesis in theMedico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg a detailed

account of an elaborate series of observations on the physio-logical effects on frogs, dogs, and other animals of niethylalor methylene-di-methyl-ether. The first application of thissubstance to therapeutic uses was made by Dr. B. W.Richardson in 1887, since which time it has been employedby various observers in all countries as a hypnotic. Dr.Tsisvitski finds that methylal diminishes the irritability ofthe brain, it does not cause sleep in dogs, only in large dosesdoes it diminish the reflexes, it causes a quickening of theheart’s beats by acting on the cardiac accelerator centre, itraises the blood pressure at first, but afterwards diminishesit by stimulating and subsequently exercising an inhibitoryaction on the vaso-motor centre, it increases the rapidity ofthe respirations by stimulating the respiratory centre, andthat, finally, it has no effect on the temperature of thebody.

THE EFFECT OF OPIATES ON THE GASTRIC JUICE.

Dr. Abutkoff has examined the effects of opium and twoof its alkaloids on the digestive function in healthy people.He found that the three substances experimented with-viz, opium, morphia, and codeia-all exert a retardingaction on gastric digestion by diminishing the generalacidity of the gastric juice. Neither the quantity of pepsinnor the absorbent power of the stomach appeared to beaffected by any of the three substances. As to their relativeeffects in such doses as can be given medicinally, opium haddecidedly the most marked influence and codeia the least.Dr. Abutkoff suggests that in the case of patients with weakdigestion due to deficiency of acid in the gastric juice opiatesought to be given some hours after a meal, but that wherethe hydrochloric acid is excessive they may be given withmeals.

HYOSCINE.

Merck’s Bulletin contains a very valuable account ofhyoscine, in which the physiological and therapeutic actionsare summarised from the reports of numerous observers.Hyoscine is eliminated as such through the kidneys; itcauses more or less dilatation of the pupil in most cases,and reduces salivary secretion and perspiration. The effectsupon the pulse are still open to some doubt, whileupon respiration, upon the spinal cord, and upon theelectrical susceptibility of the motorial region of thebrain it appears to have given negative results. Itis regarded as a very powerful mydriatic; but on

account of its liability to act on the organism generallyit should be employed with caution. The mydriaticaction is energetic and prompt, the dilatation beingmore rapid and greater with a i to 1 per cent. solu-tion of hyoscine than with a 1 per cent. solution ofatropine; the duration of the mydriasis is, however,briefer. It is said to be eligible in chronic glaucoma,while acute glaucoma is considered a counter-indication.With regard to the method of administration, thereappears to be some difference of opinion, although itseems not to matter whether the hydrochlorate, the hydro-bromate, or the hydro-iodate is employed. Hypodermicinjection is described by some as very painful, whileinternal administration acts less promptly, but is lessdangerous, and the effect is very enduring. When given in-ternally, l’Igrain may be employed, which when given in twotablespoonfuls of menstruum is absolutely insipid. Uponthe hypnotic action there is singular unanimity, notwith-standing the difference in the susceptibility of variousindividuals; one observer, however, considers that theimmediate and constant effect of hyoscine injection is notsleep, but a condition greatly resembling sleep, in which thepatients are always found somnolent but yet awake. Ofits sedative uses in the excitement of insanity there alsoappears to be no doubt, although it has given but little orno effect in melancholia. Erb has found it a most excellentpalliative in the tremors of paralysis agitans, and in thiscondition it also affords relief from the salivation and dia-phoresis which are occasionally so troublesome. The tremorsof multiple sclerosis and of chronic alcoholism were alsobenefited by it. These advantages have to be weighedagainst certain disadvantages. Many of Erb’s patientscomplained of a feeling of general debility, drowsiness,flushed face, dry throat, slight vertigo, confusion, indistinctvision, and difficult speech. Hallucinations have alsobeen noted. One observer, however, states that all theseaccessory effects of subcutaneous injection were reducedto utter insignificance by the internal administration ofhyoscine.