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is gone, nothing seems so certain and so natural as recovery. The doctor has brought sanity, hope, courage, optimistic expectancy to do their healing work. Happiness is an astonishingly good medicine for sick people. The sick are very receptive, responding quickly to manner. Appearances have an exaggerated effect on them. Now, to look happy one must feel happy, and this requires of the doctor that he cultivate optimism and enthusiasm until they become habitual, and he can wear them without awkwardness. It is easy enough for the doctor to find cause for enthusiasm in the noble profession he follows.

If the doctor adopts this course, he will find that the ignoring of the selfish side of his nature is repaid in many ways. First, he is a happier man; second, he is a more successful physician; third, he is a favorite with his patients. They love and depend on him, he is indispensable, and where is there a more gratifying sensation than the knowledge that we are indispensable in our small circle?

Bear in mind what Henry Ward Beecher said: "There never was a person who did anything worth doing who did not really receive more than he gave."

It is really astonishing how far the resolute determination to be happy and hopeful, no matter what turns up, will go in the way of lessening friction, mitigating personal suffering, even diminishing the sense of fatigue for a sunshiny disposition, favors the development of elasticity in the body, and the ability to throw off unfavorable conditions with ease. Everybody is glad to see the sunshiny man or woman, everyone has a kind word, a warm grip for him, it seems a pleasure to do him a favor.

It is strange that people do not realize more keenly the benefits of carrying sunshine wherever they go. Most of us are careful to secure the comforts of life for the body while paying little attention to the health and welfare of the soul. Light and warmth, food and exercise are even more necessary to the indwelling spirit. Physical comfort is an element of happiness, but the man who is always happy can disregard circumstances to a great extent. So be happy. Make it

a part of your plan to be happy. Cne way to be happy is to read the MEDICAL BRIEF. Whatever may be said about the Editor of this journal, no one ever accused him of being unhappy.

The Other Side.

All men of logical mind are beginning to understand the necessity of reading the other side before coming to a conclusion about anything. There are always two sides to every question. The man who hears only one side regards that as authoritative, final, binding. He does not broaden and grow mentally as he should. The logical thinker, who is accustomed to hear both sides, so develops that it is comparatively easy for him to separate error from truth, know where to look for the nigger in the woodpile. There is nothing that tends to make a man liberal, tolerant, progressive, like hearing both sides of every question.

In the recent Presidential election, it was necessary for a man to read what both sides had to say. A knowledge of the statements of both Parker and Roosevelt was essential to a clear understanding of the situation and its needs. The results of the election clearly demonstrate that the American people believe in a man who does something, whose character is unmistakably stamped on everything he says and does. It is plain that the country believes in the sincerity, energy, courage and patriotism of Theodore Roosevelt. The people evidently prefer the positive to the negative man. Everybody likes a man who does something better than one who only criticizes and abuses. The success of Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland puts this beyond a doubt.

Some years ago a physician consulted us in regard to an obstinate case of indigestion. The patient had tried many doctors, and his trouble had been pronounced incurable. We advised the use of California sylmar olive oil, but, as every physician who had seen the case had advised something different, the doctor decided not to try the oil until he could talk with us personally. A few weeks later he came to St. Louis and called on us.

In describing the case, he said that the man suffered severe colicky pains, and passed large quantities of mucus. We suggested to the doctor that the patient was suffering from colica mucosa, or, in other words, catarrh of the stomach and bowels, these organs being full of mucus. We demonstrated the theory of the oil's action by placing some mucus in a glass, and adding a little oil, which penetrated the mucus, the two passing out together. Practically the same thing takes place in the stomach and bowels.

On returning home, the doctor gave his patient half an ounce of olive oil an hour before breakfast each morning. The result was that the patient was completely relieved, and is now in excellent health. Although several years have elapsed, he has had no further trouble with catarrh, colics, indigestion, etc.

This case illustrates the advantage of taking advice on the other side of a question. So with all questions. There is always another side. Do not give up a patient until you have investigated the other side, and all the various remedies. Do not take anyone's word for it that a patient is incurable.

Publicity.

Publicity is a more reliable weapon to control certain evils and abuses than passing so many laws. There is coming to be a perfect monomania in this country for passing laws which benefit no one except the politician. These laws create new offices, increase our taxes, and engender a false feeling of security, as witness the Slocum and Iroquois horrors.

The newspapers nowadays are full of reported adulterations of food, and discussions are in order as to the best means of preventing this constantly growing evil. A law is not adequate to reach the trouble. We have tried laws before. They are expensive, and do not give results. A detailed public exposure of these adulterations would destroy the indus

try.

This creates an opening for the services of the analytical chemist in a new field. If offices were opened in each of our large cities to which samples of suspected food might be sent for analysis at a small

fee, the report to contain the name and nature of the substances used for adulteration, together with the process of analysis, so that there may be no mistakes about it, and the name of the manufacturer, there is no doubt that the resultant publicity would make it impossible to impose upon people. The public would in time educate itself, and know upon what brands of food it could rely for purity and quality, and what to avoid. The people would be likewise impressed with the importance and responsibility of knowing what they are eating. Such knowledge would be of the greatest assistance to the doctor in controlling various manifestations of malnutrition, diatheses and

so on.

There is no doubt that publicity furnishes better protection than a special law. Our common law provides principles to cover all infractions of right of whatsoever kind or character without burdening the taxpayers with the increased expense of another special law.

The food chemist will attend to his business because it is his livelihood. His profession will be one which the growth of commercialism will make of increasing importance to the community. After the doctor has prescribed the proper diet for his patient there still remains the problem of securing these foods in a pure form. The quality of our food has much to do with the prevention of sickness, the comfort and happiness of people. The food chemist is bound to become popular, and his work will do more to control adulteration than all the laws of Christendom.

The political well-being of the Republic requires that men associate themselves together and make a study of means to put a stop to the incessant passing of laws. Our taxes are rolling up at a tremendous rate to support parasites. The inspection of the Slocum by government officials was a farce. Inspectors appointed by the government perform their duties in a perfunctory way, yet the people are compelled to pay for unsatisfactory serv ice.

Let the man who wants to eat pure food consult the food chemist, and pay him for his services just as he pays his

physician. The fewer laws we have the better. At the present rate of increase the time must come when we shall have no one to pay taxes. Let us learn a lesson from Germany, groaning under laws, and taxed to death without accomplishing anything because all her efforts are misdirected.

Do Not Halt.

When an individual believes that he has reached perfection progress is at once arrested, so far as he is concerned. The St. Louis World's Fair is a good illustration of this. A great many Eastern people did not go to St. Louis because in their self-satisfaction they took it for granted there could be nothing for them to see or learn at an exposition held in a Western city. Hence, they derived no profit from the most wonderful exposi tion ever held in any city at any time.

The Exposition was an unparalled success. The exhibits were the most remarkable the world has ever seen. Even those whom travel and culture have made more or less familiar with the achievements of modern progress, were amazed at the completeness and beauty of the exhibits, the amount of research brought to light by many of them. Never, except in dreams, has the like of this great Exposition been seen before. Those who were wise enough to embrace the opportunity will never cease to congratulate themselves.

Another thing noted by visitors to the Exposition was the astonishing progress made by the West. Those who inspected the exhibits in the Building of Education, could not fail to see that Western colleges are rapidly outstripping their Eastern rivals. The day is not far distant, unless Eastern colleges soon wake up from their lethargy, when fathers and mothers will prefer to send their sons and daughters to Western colleges as best fitted to equip them for life's battle. The West is not contented to rest upon its oars. There is much to do, and it is well to be up and doing.

We can all learn a lesson from this. Doctors, in particular, can afford to take nothing for granted. Let us always keep up with the van. Be fully awake all the time.

Never have fads or set beliefs, but

keep our eyes and ears open for more information, greater knowledge. Never have a prejudice for or against a person or thing. Never get in the dangerous position of thinking we know it all.

How to Succeed as a Doctor.

We have received a great many letters the last few years asking how to succeed as a doctor. The answer is simply to be yourself. Be honest, straightforward and kindly. Treat your patients as you would have them treat you. Be a gentleman in every sense of the word. Treat all men the same way.

Read all sides of every question. Do not try to follow anyone. Have positive views on subjects with which you are familiar, and assert them fearlessly. Do not wait to find out what the other man is going to say, or surrender your own judgment at the dictation of authority. If, after investigation, you are convinced you are wrong, be equally fearless in saying so. We all make mistakes. None of us are infallible.

Do not try to manage the other man's business. It will take all your time and brains to look after your own. Do not dabble in outside business. Instead, devote your leisure time to studying up your cases or subjects which interest you in a professional way. The result is sure to tell in your practice. Do not let yourself be prejudiced for or against anything.

Do not do things from a sense of policy. Be honest, courageous, diligent, and bide your time. If you will bear these things in mind, your success is sure. People always find out exactly what you are sooner or later, and if you deserve success it will be yours.

Never be afraid of abuse. If you are honest in your views, there is no reason why you should fear it. You can not avoid it whether right or wrong, but it will not hurt you, because only a few narrow-minded fools will believe it. People whose opinion is worth anything never listen to calumny, well knowing it is the price of all success. In fact, abuse is more apt to help than to harm you.

It never hurts a man to be abused except when he does wrong. That particu

lar time he usually escapes, for strangely enough the self-appointed censor does not resent real shortcomings any more than he does obscurity. A man only becomes a target when he stands in somebody's light. Fair-minded people will not take the word of another in such a matter; they will always investigate, and then the truth will come out.

Last, but not least, take all the medical journals you can pay for, of all the pathies. Have your own views on all subjects, but read widely with unprejudiced mind. Do not believe things merely because others say them. Investigate for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. People often say things, especially injurious reports, for interested motives.

Journalistic Enterprise.

One of the finest evidences of journalistic enterprise lies before us in the shape of the October number of the National Druggist, Henry R. Strong, Editor and Publisher, St. Louis, Mo. This number gives the best description of the medical, surgical and scientific displays at the World's Fair of any publication we have seen. This number is of as much value and interest to the doctor as the druggist. It contains an immense amount of reading matter of a character which well repays perusal to the man in search of information. The doctor can not do better than to send ten cents for a copy to the National Druggist, St. Louis, Mo.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] Reminiscent Chats.

BY OLD DOC.

Hello, boys, how are ye, this fine frosty morning? I'm going to fire a few facts at you before I start out on my rounds, so here goes.

Say, you want to remember that vomiting in children is often a prominent symptom in pneumonia, so whenever you find it present at this time of year, don't fail to examine the lungs carefully.

In a healthy woman, who has passed a menstrual period, vomiting is an almost certain symptom of pregnancy.

Say, when you prescribe cimicifuga, if you add a little aconite, you will get quicker results. This is a point worth remembering.

In taking the pulse, don't forget you must consider the state of the mind and the body to get a correct idea of its meaning. In a good many cases, the pulse showing is of little importance as compared with the temperature.

Intermittence in the beat of the heart has scared lots of people. It is not a dangerous sign at all; is due to nerves in most cases, and may occur in perfectly healthy people, disappearing without treatment when the exciting cause is removed.

Say, boys, a bread 'poultice, made up with strong vinegar, and applied for several nights, will take the soreness out of corns, and loosen them so they can be easily picked out.

When you run up against a case of delirium tremens, you had better give your heart remedies by the needle. The stomach is sluggish, and either refuses to absorb or is very slow about it.

To know how to handle small troubles is a good card for the doctor. If you can give a man relief in even such a little thing as a painful corn or an aching tooth, he will remember you as good for something the first time there is sickness in the house. If a troublesome tooth has a hole in it, the pain can be stopped, in many cases, by clearing it out, and packing with acetanilid.

Say, boys, don't forget that poisons, even in small doses, sometimes cause jaundice.

Don't use digitalis, not even by hypodermic injection, in cases of sudden heart failure or shock. It is not a drug for emergencies, it acts too slowly.

Say, boys, there's nothing better than injections of a hot infusion of hamamelis for the relief of a sore rectum. Also there are few things which hurt so bad. Your patient will be correspondingly grateful to the man who eases him.

Watch a wound, and if suppuration appears, open and make sh dressings without delay.

Congestive asthma is relieved by setting up a good action of the skin and other emunctories of the body. A favor

ite prescription with me for this and other respiratory troubles is ten drops each tinctures of aconite and ipecac, eight ounces respiton, teaspoonful three or four times daily. If, however, there is an element of reflex irritation caused by enlarged tonsils, the presence of adenoid tumors in the nose or throat, an over-tight or adherent prepuce, etc., additional treatment to remove the cause of trouble will be necessary before any permanent relief can be had.

One reason we doctors have so much trouble curing chronic diseases is that we so often forget that the cause may be hydra-headed, so to speak. We may remove sections and sections of tape-worm from a man, for instance, but until we get the head his trouble will go on multiplying itself. So with many diseases, we must chop down all the heads, get rid of all the disease-producing elements.

Say, boys, when you want to make a radical change in a patient's diet, I advise you to begin by ordering a fast. By so doing, you will find the patient's system responds much more quickly and kindly to the change.

False labor pains are often troublesome both to doctor and patient. Considerable relief can be obtained by means of enemas to unload the bowel, hot baths of ten or fifteen minutes' duration, and teaspoonful doses of neurilla repeated at two or threehour intervals.

At the first sign of bone felon, wrap the finger in salt, and keep it soaked with turpentine. Nine times out of ten that will be the last of it.

Pilocarpine, in doses to cause free sweating, ought to be tried in glaucoma.

Say, hyoscyamus is great in cases of delirium with hallucinations.

Well, I must be off. Mr. Editor, please correct mistakes, no time to read this over. So long, boys.

I have in my office twenty full volumes of the good old MEDICAL BRIEF. Have been reading it all the time since it was a little blue-backed journal away back in the eighties. It has made the rocky way smoother for me a great many times and I love it like an old friend.-G. H. ALEXANDER, M. D., Hot Springs, Ark.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.] The Nervous System as a Vital Keyboard.

BY YANDELL HENDERSON, PH. D., Assistant Professor of Physiology in Yale University. Medical Department. New Haven, Conn.

The attitude of the modern physiologist toward the functions and intimate structure of the nervous system was well developed in the lectures of Prof. Sherrington, of Liverpool, in the Silliman memorial lectures at Yale University last spring. In his view the relations of the organs of the body in the higher animals one to another, their working, and the reaction of the organism as a whole to its environment, are directly dependent upon the functions of the nervous units, and their combination to form the nervous system. By the combination of these nerve units or neurons, to form that vital keyboard, the nervous system, the activities of the various organs of the animal body are kept in adjustment.

By this adjusting keyboard, also, the flood of impressions from the world about the organism is received, and those reactions of the motor organ in turn produced which determine whether the animal shall obtain its food and propagate its kind, or furnish itself as the next meal for its enemy.

Nerve fibers or axons are mere conductors, over which an impulse travels at a speed of 100 feet per second. Investigation has not revealed what this impulse really consists in. Modern microscopical methods have shown that a synapse consists in the interlacing of the minute fibrils or dendrites of one neurone with those of another or of many others. The effector muscles of man are few. The number of axons to these organs is proportionate to the number of muscle or gland cells composing them. The complexity of the co-ordinated control is referable to the fact that while there are but 500,000 axons to all the effector organs of the human body, yet it is through the use of these "common paths" that all activities are effected. There are 2,000,000 receptor or "private paths," each of which is thrown into activity by only one particular form of stimulus at a particular spot, as by a ray of light on a cone of the

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