=Cold a Germ Disease.=—Walsh, in the _Medical News_, says a very striking indication that cold is due to _microbic invasion_ is to be found in the fact that the process is nearly always accompanied by _fever_. A distinct period of incubation can be traced, and the efficient cause of the illness is commonly farther off than the patient imagines. The treatment advised when fever and chilliness occur is the use of calomel and hot drinks, especially cream-of-tartar lemonade, which acts as a diuretic as well as a laxative. A diaphoretic at the beginning of the affection will always give the patient comfort and may unload the system of enough depressed toxic material to enable it to react and bring about the abortion of a cold. Other medical men objected to calling everything an infection. A common cold, they thought, was nothing else than the effect of the lowered temperature on the human system. The dry air of houses caused a chronic postnasal catarrh, which at times increased. To overcome susceptibility to catching cold, overdressing should be avoided and cold baths taken. TREATMENT OF HYPERIDROSIS. In sweating of the feet a single application of diluted formaldehyd will bring about permanent relief. For the axilla, use 10 drops of formaldehyd to 2 ounces of water. TREATMENT OF ERYSIPELAS. Apply a thick layer of white vaselin twice a day. Protect with linen and gauze bandages. TO DISTINGUISH CHICKEN FROM SMALLPOX. If the vesicle in chicken-pox is pricked with a needle, its contents can be completely evacuated and the cell will collapse; whereas, in small-pox the vesicle can be pricked twenty times and it will be impossible to empty it. TREATMENT OF FELON. A felon _may sometimes be_ aborted by the application of pure alcohol under exclusion of air. Cover the phalanx with a thin layer of absorbent cotton saturated with alcohol; over this put on a rubber finger-stall. In severe cases the tissues should be deeply incised. TREATMENT OF BOILS. Apply hot dressings; incise if necessary. The application of pure alcohol dressings and a plug of cotton saturated in the same solution and inserted in the wound promotes rapid healing. TO DISLODGE AN INSECT FROM THE EAR. Saturate a piece of cotton-wool in salt and vinegar. Fill the ear with it. Have patient lie on the ear and give firm pressure with the hand. The insect may be found on the cotton when the plug is taken out. Oil may be used as a substitute.[B] [B] Foreign bodies in the ear usually cause far less trouble and harm than does the attempt to remove them by anyone not expert. RELIEF FOR EARACHE. Make a small funnel of paper, and saturate a ball of cotton with chloroform; drop it into the funnel. Place the funnel in the ear, draw a long breath and then blow the breath into the large end of the funnel; the fumes of the chloroform are thus carried into the ear, and all pain ceases at once. No doubt, heat is the best remedy of all. RELIEF FROM FLIES AND MOSQUITOES.