These, which are but a fraction of a series of results of a striking character known to us, serve to convince that Nature is unceasingly at work, that every atom is possessed of properties by which it influences every other atom in the universe, and that a most important class of natural phenomena appear, in the present state of our knowledge to connect themselves directly with the radiant forces.

of this wonderful band of forces, he is compelled to acknowledge that the flame upon the altar is, indeed, a dim shadow of the infinite wisdom which abides behind the veil.

The present condition of our earth is directly dependent upon the amount of heat we receive from the sun. If it were possible to move this planet so much nearer that orb that the quantity of heat would be much increased, the circumstances of life would necessarily be so far changed that nearly all the present races Ofan would perish, and the same result would happen from any alteration which threw us, yet farther from our cen

Sir John Herschel took up the inquiry, and he, with his usual power of inductive search and philosophical deductions, presented the world with a class of discoveries which show how vast a field of investigation has been opened for mankind. Others who have followed since these days have added much to the great foundation left to us by its pioneers.

I now come to another part of the subject which is so intimately connected that I propose to take it up in some detail.

We receive heat from the sun, associated with light, and we have the power of developing this important principle in many ways, from nearly every kind of matter. Our convictions are that the calorific element, whether derived from a solar or a terrestrial source, presents no essential difference in its physical characters, but as there are some remarkable peculiarities in the phenomena, as they arise from either one or the other source, it will assist our comprehension of this great principle if we consider it under two heads.

Untutored man finds health and gladness in the warmth and light of the sun, and he rears a rugged altar, and bows his soul in prayer to the principle of fire, which, in his ignorance he regards as the giver and the supporter of life. The philosopher finds life and organization dependent upon the powers combined in the sunbeam, and examining the phenomena

ity of cold and the wretchedness of gloom,

iying creatures would fail to support

rganization.

All things are adapted to the circumstances of the position of the earth in relation to the sun, to which, as has been shown, we are bound by the principle of gravitation, and in our examination it will be found that our common system of harmony runs through all the cosmical phenomena, by which is produced all that is so beautiful and joyous in this world.

Heat and the other elementary radiant principles are often combined as the common cause of effects evident to our senses. The warmth of the solar rays, and their luminous influence, are not, however, commonly associated in the mind as the result of a single cause. It is only when we come to examine the physical phenomena connected with these radiations that we discover the complexity of the inquiry. Yet it is out of these very subtle researches that we draw the most refined truths. The high inferences to which the analysis of the subtle agencies of creation lead us, render science, pursued in the spirit of truth, a great system of religious instruction.

(To be continued.)

Enclosed find two dollars, for which send me the BRIEF as long as it will pay for. I have taken and read the BRIEF for a long time and am not tired of it yet. The BRIEF and I are fast friends, in fact, a little bit inclined to be cronies.-W. H. BROWN, M. D., Lodwick, Texas.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Chorea. Boy aged fourteen years was so bad he could not walk straight, and if he attempted to go through a door, he would strike the sides. Could not feed himself. Gave agaricine, 2x two-grain tablets every two hours for two weeks, then four times a day with absolute rest. It being warm weather, he was allowed to rest in a swinging chair. Also had good nutritious diet. Recovery in ten weeks.

A girl, Miss H., aged twelve years, not so bad, received same treatment at the same time, but allowed her to go where she pleased. Recovery in two months.Edward Andruss, M. D., Holden, Mo.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Stomach Trouble.-Aged thirty-two; ailing for fifteen years. Sudden attack of cramps in stomach and bowels. Had explosions which could be heard by anyone; apparently in veins. Sometimes in hands, on back of hands, on forehead, and any part of the body. The veins would seem to puff up until a spot seemed as though it would break through the skin, would suddenly collapse, and a noise could be heard. After a time vomiting would occur. Finally, I concluded that I could do no more good. I found that chionia kept the action of the bowels (which vere very irregular) as good, if not better, than any combination I made or used.

After going to a hospital in New York City, the attending doctor could see no reason why she could not get better. All functions except the stomach were in a normal condition. After a little time, the doctors at the hospital concluded they did not know her case, and such men as Dr. Gilman Thompson, Janeway and others

were called in. They could not see anything dangerous, and practically agreed with the hospital doctors. In spite of their views of the case she lingered along and died. What always puzzled me was after one of her cramp spells, and the explosions apparently in the veins, terrible retching and vomiting, seldom anything besides the food, and almost clear water came up. Within twenty-four hours after such a spell, when it seemed as though she never would live through it, she would be up and out attending to her Sunday school class, riding, working, etc.

At times she had only headaches accompanying the explosions in the veins. Therefore, it seems that those who have many more cases than the country doctor, do not at times get much nearer to the cause of the disease than the poor country doctor.-A. D. Ayer, M. D., Madison, Conn.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Nervous Indigestion.-Bromide of strontium in the form of an elixir, twenty grains to a teaspoonful, has been of great service to me. It has been successful when all other remedies failed. Try it.John W. Bennett, M. D., Long Branch, N. J.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Modern Medicine. This is the great battlefield of life, and here it is that we have the great problems to solve, and the physician has no excuse for not standing abreast with the profession, surrounded with literature treating upon the great questions which we come in contact with each day. Besides this we have the experience of noble men who have spent much of their lives in placing before the

profession the scientific side of the practice of medicine and surgery, and we regard the MEDICAL BRIEF to be authority for many of the great and noble answers given to these questions. We have lived in the old rut where the physician resorted to depletion by bleeding, or the use of powerful medicine that would deplete his patient. Now that a more thorough investigation has been made, we have come to the light, and resort only to medication. It matters not to the surgeon of to-day whether there are bugs up his sleeve or not, for he is on the alert, and will use all the precaution necessary to prevent infection.-J. C. Branch, M. D., White Cloud, Mich.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Erysipelas. On page 781 of the September BRIEF, Dr. Conklin, in giving the treatment of erysipelas, says: "Salicylate or bicarbonate of soda will give results not to be had from any local treatment." I wish to say that lobelia is equal to any single drug in the local treatment of erysipelas, and when combined with bicarbonate of soda, as follows, is as near a specific for erysipelas, rhus poisoning, and various other skin diseases as a remedy can be:

no one system is all good. "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn't behoove any of us to find fault with the rest of us."-G. B. Clark, M. D., Armonk, N. Y.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.]

Washing the Newborn Babe.-Place a warmed bath tub on chairs or a bench, · and cover its bottom with a sheet, put enough water in to saturate the sheet and to rise above it one inch, place the baby on its back in the tub, and bathe it deliberately. The water should be "good and warm." The proper thermometer for testing the water is the bare elbow. Lift the baby out into a blanket, protected by a diaper, and dress it as nearly as possible under cover. By this method the baby will have a fine glow of skin when bathed instead of being blue as a plum, and with flesh feeling like a toad.-J. J. Conner, M. D., Pana, Ill.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Indigestion and Biliousness.-A practice of more than twenty-five years has convinced me that there are few diseases more common than indigestion and biliousness. To counteract these most troublesome affections, I have tried calomel, podophyllin, leptandrin, soda, and the digestive ferments. All of these agents have merit, but still I found that I needed a remedy that I could, in office practice, give to all sorts of patients, that would afford results. After much experimentation, I evolved the following prescription:

powdered alum to two pints of warm water, often acts when every other remedy has failed. After the enema there is expulsion of flatus, and usually a bowel movement, which gives the patient great relief. Squibbs' compound alum powder dusted freely on indolent wounds, especially leg ulcers, acts rapidly, and heals them in a much shorter time than the usual astringents used.-Constance V. Curtis, Phoenixville, Pa.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Erysipelas.-Erysipelas has for the past sixteen years been one of the easiest diseases to treat which has been my fortune to encounter. I will say that I never had anything but good results. Paint the inflamed parts with fluid extract veratrum viride three times a day, using a small camel's hair brush at night, washing the parts painted with a solution of bicarbonate soda, and again painting; only wash once a day. At the same time give the following:

B Fl. Ext. Veratrum Viride. .10 drops. Water....q. s...... 4 ounces.

M. Sig. Teaspoonful every hour. Try this and report to the MEDICAL BRIEF.-Eli Denny, M. D., Amsterdam, N. Y.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Diagnosis of Tobacco Amaurosis.1. At first one sees best at night.

2. Vision may be a little improved by smoke-colored goggles.

3. Red and green colors are confounded. Red with pink, dark brown with black, and green with light blue.

4. There may be a central scotoma, yet the disease may exist, and the ophthalmoscope give no aid in detecting it. 5. No gap is found in the field of vision if it is tested with a white object, but the trouble is revealed at once if you use a red or a green one.

6. Vision is about the same in both eyes, i, e., the patient sees as well with one eye as with the other, a fact which distinguishes tobacco amaurosis from other ocular troubles, such as choroiditis, pigmentosa retinitis, atrophy of the optic disk, cataract, etc., in which the two eyes are always affected in visual acuity in different degrees.-Anderson Nelson Ellis, A. M., M. D., Maysville, Ky.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Calcium Fluoride.-Calcium fluoride, 6x trituration, in one-grain doses has given me the greatest satisfaction in curing diseases of the vascular system where it acts by contracting the elastic fibers in the walls of the vessels. I have had wonderful results in stopping pulmonary hemorrhage and blood spitting which nothing else affected; also in stopping the humming cough preceding hemorrhage, and thus aborting it.

It has permanently cured varicocele, varicose veins and hemorrhoids by longcontinued treatment. It is also indicated in hard stony glands-induration, threatening suppuration, spots on cornea, etc. It is very useful in threatened miscarriage. After an experience of twenty-five years in medicine, during which I have impartially studied all the different systems, I find homeopathy to be the sheet anchor.-A. M. Duffield, Citronelle, Ala.

[Written for the MEDICAL Brief.]

Change of Climate.-Doctors of the lower altitudes, when contemplating a change of climate for your patients, who need sunshine and dry air, for those suffering from tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, heart trouble, etc., keep in mind the fact that high altitudes (four thousand feet and up), have a deleterious effect upon the nervous system, and, as a rule, nervousness is exaggerated. Very often nervous symptoms develop in those who have not noticed it in the lower altitudes. Nervousness in all its manifestations seems to be more pronounced in the female than in the male.-Samuel C. Gibson, M. D., Reno, Nevada.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Typhoid Fever.-Why is the medical profession SO prejudiced against the Woodbridge treatment of typhoid fever? It is exactly everything and all that is claimed for it. An antiseptic and abortive treatment, it is almost a specific. I have used it in every case I have had since 1895. Have treated a hundred or more cases-lost one. He had a normal temperature the thirteenth day, but had a second reinfection and died. Have

had but two other relapses, which recovered in the same time of their first attack. I never had tympanites. Keep the bowels acting five to ten at first, and, later, two to three times a day. In the fall of 1902 I treated eighteen cases, ten white and eight colored. All got well. The longest duration of fever, twenty-one days, the shortest, nine. Only one had a trained nurse, and the majority had absolutely bad nursing. One mother who had carried two children through the disease singly, and who was five months pregnant, had her medicines on a chair beside the bed, and helped herself, nobody to help her. Fever broke the twenty-first. day, and I delivered her at full term.

As to food, I do not give milk. It is indigestible in most cases, and indigestible food is more harmful than solid food. That is where you always get your tym panites. I give broths, extract beef, liquid peptonoids, with or without gualacol, panopepton or predigested beef, and egg albumen.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Tumors. To avoid pain, and save twenty-four hours' time in removing tumors by caustic plaster, remove the skin from the area of your intended plaster by injecting a weak solution of cocaine, and dissect immediately the part that is numb. Repeat the injection from the insensible part under the part next to be cut. Begin at the side of the greater nerve supply. The unabsorbed cocaine escapes so readily that I have removed an area of four by six inches without depression. Confine the caustic plaster at least one-fourth inch from the margin of the skin. Examine the effect of the caustic at least thirty hours earlier than when dermis is present.-Wm. Lane, M. D., Lockport, N. Y.

M. Sig. : A teaspoonful an hour before each meal and at bedtime.

Also producing counter-irritation over sternum, and branching out toward nipples on each side, with following unguent: