AUTOMATIC DRAINAGE OF NORMAL CAVITIES.

It is not my desire to enter into a consideration of the relative merits of capillary and tubular drainage, when it becomes necessary to conduct undesirable liquid products from cavities. Suffice it to say that each will at times find a field of application peculiarly its own. There can be no doubt that when large cavities, i. e., peritoneal or pleural, or hollow viscera, i. e., gall or urinary bladder, are to be drained of considerable quantities of liquid, tubular drainage—either by means of glass or rubber— with few exceptions will offer the ideal method. The advantages of tubular drainage are briefly stated: 1,that by this means the product sought to be removed may be conveyed through the dressings applied, so preventing soiling of them, which is certainly of much importance in cases in which contamination of the wound would be undesirable; 2, that the discharges may be efficiently withdrawn