many writers, and has in our hands been of apparent benefit. Later, one of the insoluble preparations of bismuth, to which we have before referred, should be given in full doses suspended in a mucil age with some aromatic water. Other and more powerful antiseptics may in some cases be employed. Stimulants are required in the majority of cases. Old brandy or whisky forms one of the best, and, given well diluted in a little sweet ened or albumin- water, is acceptable even to the youngest infants.
All that we have said in the preceding section in reference to cool baths, dietary, and general hygiene is equally applicable in this class of cases.
Fifty-two children with grave diar rlileas treated with serum obtained from asses after injecting colon bacilli from virulent milk or stools. Twenty-six chil dren had no marked symptoms after 43 hours, fourteen were improved, twelve unimproved. In all cases where the stools were .green the color disappeared after the injections. The serum obtained after treating asses with the colon bacilli normally present in stools did not give these results. Lesage (Rev. de Therap. Med.-Chin, No. 24, '96).
Between sixty and seventy cases of "summer diarrhoea." treated in children in age from a few weeks to three years. The cases were in every way such as are met with in the crowded tene ments of large cities during the heated term. Lactic acid was used in every case. The maximum dose was grains, given every hour. The result was the disappearance of all symptoms in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The only medicine given besides the lactic acid was an initial close of calomel in cases where it was indicated. Bowles {Indian Lancet, Apr. 1, '97).
Eudoxin, which contains 52.9 per cent. of iodine and 14.5 per cent. of bismuth, recommended in the treatment of in fantile diarrha:a. The remedy is harm less, and can be administered in doses of 1 grain every hour to a child a year old.
INFLUENZA.—From the Italian, in fiuentia: a mysterious influence.
Definition.—Influenza, "la grippe," or epidemic catarrh, is an acute febrile affection generally accompanied by severe nervous and catarrhal symptoms, and often extending rapidly over many countries and attacking large numbers simultaneously, but resulting in a low ratio of mortality.
Symptoms.—Epidemic influenza is re markable for the suddenness of its at tacks and the number of persons affected at the same time. There is no well
defined period of incubation, and gener ally no prodromic stage. Persons appar ently in good health and engaged in their ordinary occupations are suddenly at tacked with sensations of coldness, often increasing to a chill, with general de pression and severe pains in the head, back, and limbs. The surface looks pale, the pulse and respiration variable, but these symptoms soon give place to dis tinct febrile reaction, some flushing of the face, general feeling of soreness of the muscles, and increased intensity of pains everywhere, with great sense of weakness.
The pulse and respirations increase in frequency, and the temperature generally ranges from 3S° to 40° C. The skin is dry, the urine is scanty and high colored; there is constipation, no appetite, but some thirst. In a large majority of cases before the end of the first twenty-four hours the vessels of the conjunctivae be come red, accompanied by active 'conges tion of the lining membrane of the nos trils, pharynx, and bronchial tubes, with cough and oppression in the chest. At first the cough is dry and harsh, causing some pain in the chest, and, in some cases, severe pain in the region of the frontal and maxillary sinuses. During the sec ond day the congested membranes begin to secrete a thin, almost water-colored mucus that flows from the nostrils and renders the cough less dry, and on the third and fourth days the nasal discharge and the expectoration become more opaque or muco-purulent, causing more or less moist rhonchi in the chest. At the same time the pains in the head, back, and limbs and oppression in the chest become less severe, expectoration more free, temperature lower, especially dur ing the morning hours, and by the end of the week the skin becomes bathed in perspiration, the kidneys secrete more urine, and convalescence begins.
A day or two after the invasion by influenza the tongue is coated with a white, opalescent fur, covering its centre. It is the last symptom to disappear, and as long as it remains, even if only as a whitish triangle at the base, the disease has not run its full course. This white fur is strongly acid in reaction to litmus, MIotel (Jour. de Med. Interne, May 1,, '99).