aforesaid. Thereupon was there deep indignation. "Shall we," quoth the righteous, "who are revered as the everlasting elect in Cook county medicine, submit to the dictum of a Philistine faction? Do not we represent a mighty institution of learning, whose luster surpasses that of all others in creation? Have not our hearts throbbed in unison with those of every county board, in their days of prosperity as in times of adversity? Was not the noble McGarigle our protector and friend, and did we desert him when bound and imprisoned by the unholy conspiracy masquerading as Reform? Shall we now falter in our devotion to the public weal, to professional righteousness, and yea, even to ourselves, and permit, without protest, the assumption of government by the carrion company to whom a malign fate hath given the majority? Who dares question our prowin the strife of debate, or dispute our supremacy in the councils of our beloved fraternity? Shall we now yield to the villain ess ous principle of majority rule, and thus belie our record and suffer dethronement from our empire? Never; a thousand times, never! On the assembling of the hospital staff our protest shall fill the chamber, and, like an Atlantic billow, sweep o'er our adversaries and drown them in the deepest depths of contrition and defeat; our voices are loud, our feet well shod, our hands forceful as anvil hammers, and our muscles of hardest steel. With these weapons will we advance on the enemy, put him to rout and capture all offices, and all honors and emoluments thereunto pertaining. We are few, but representing ourselves, our cause is just; a minority few, leagued in a common ambition, and fired by noble zeal for self-advancement, can and must succeed against a miserable majority representing, not themselves, but that hateful phantom described as 'intelligent and honest professional sentiment. We shall not die; but fight and live' is our resolve." The contest occurred in due season; the programme as to voice, boots, and anvil hands was faithfully enacted, with the result graphically portrayed the following day in the daily papers. The mighty wave arose but it swept away nothing: the pandemonium was heard, but it terrified nobody. The flag of the majority unfolded to the breeze, swept the minority and its "resolve" into the pool of defeat, and now waves serenely over the temple of peace. This is the trifling circumstance which filled the daily press with sensational reports of combat, slaughter and mangled medical remains. It was altogether a very dull and common-place act in the drama of county medical politics. ACCORDING to the Western Druggist" the German Homœopathic Association recently set itself to prove that there was systematic evasion of the German pharmacy law, which provides that if any remedy occurring in a prescription be not in stock and cannot be procured, no other remedy can be substituted; the missing ingredient must not be omitted, but the prescription must be returned. Prescriptions calling for tuber cinereum, urticaria, etc., were dispensed by 77 out of 89 pharmacies at which they were presented. The Pharmaceutische Zeitung" suggests that in every instance the proprietors were out when the prescriptions were dispensed, and the clerks must have read urtica for urticaria; jalap for tuber cinereum, etc. Considering the chirography of some German medical men, the last is a slightly plausible explanation, more especially when it is remembered the prescriptions were homoeopathic. But this explanation will not avail in all cases, for in some instances the bottles were actually labeled with the fancy remedies. These, it must be said in justice to the German pharmacist, are not a whit more absurd than the skin disease secretions like psorin and other ingredients of the animal remedies of the homeopathic Pharmacopoeia. The use of a skin disease secretion in medicine by a homœopathist is not intrinsically absurd. AN insurance lawyer named Clark Bell, who runs a medico-legal society in New York, frequently airs himself as an authority on medical topics in a journal published by his society. The value of his medical communications may be judged by the following unique physiological information given in a late number. Editorially, he says of the "Revista Clinica di Bologna": "The April number, besides various original articles and reviews, contains a very important paper by Professor Andrea Ceccherelli, on nephrectomy or the extirpation of the floating liver. The professor gives a minute description of an operation performed by him in the presence of the faculty of the University of Pavia in extirpating the right liver!!!" In a review of Judge Ewell's book, he says it has twenty-two chapters, including one on "baptising" and one on "obscene" diseases. This man actually had the impudence to impose himself on a Belgian medical society and be sent by it to select American medical opinions on a medical topic. The performances of this cheap legal pretender should be brought to a standstill before they seriously injure the profession of medicine. DR. S. B. THRALL, a prominent figure in the councils of the Iowa Medical Society, has just passed away. He was born in Ohio in 1832 and was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of New York in 1853. He took an active part in medical society organization in Iowa and for several years was Secretary of the State Medical Society. He was careful and methodical in the performance of the duties of his office and enjoyed, in an exceptional degree, the confidence and esteem of his fellows. Iowa loses in Dr. Thrall a man whose qualities of mind and heart signally fitted him to adorn and strengthen the local profession, and whose absence will be most sorrowfully felt in the circles which knew him best. THE New York City Department of Charities and Corrections needs thorough reorganization. One of the three commissioners is a man whose chief occupation is that of a marshal at political processions. He was originally a night watchman in Bellevue Hospital, and became its warden under the Tweed régime. By dint of corporation whiskey and sensational news items he became the pet of the Tweed newspaper reporters, and was appointed commissioner in consequence of their fulsome laudations. He was severely criticised by Dr. Bucknill, of London for his mismanagement of the New York institutions. Several recent investigations have shown that the insane hospitals under his care are about as badly managed as that of Cook county. The food at Bellevue and Charity Hospitals is pronounced by good authority seriously below par, and far inferior to that supplied at the Cook County Hospital. The medical profession of New York owes it to its honor to see that these evils are remedied. THE majority of the Illinois State Board of Charities, a body whose duties are chiefly medical, is now composed of physicians, but the chief executive officer, the secretary, is a layman. He has repeatedly insulted the medical profession. During the year 1886, in a newspaper published by him, he charged the Illinois medical profession with responsibility for the deplorable condition of the insane in the county almshouses. This man was paid a liberal salary for supervising these places, yet he neglected his duty and denounced the medical profession of the State for the consequences of his own neglect. He has served the State quite long enough and a successor from among the ranks of medicine is urgently needed. PASTEUR'S proposal to rid Australia of its rabbit-plague by infecting the rabbits with chicken cholera, has met with deservedly severe criticism, since it is a well known fact that lower organisms develop objectionable peculiarities under Australian conditions. Megnin has lately discovered that the strongylus causes a tuberculoid disease in hares, and some one will soon be emulating Pasteur by proposing that this parasite be introduced among the Australian rabbits. The fact should, however, be borne in mind that it sometimes infests the human kidney. Australians would hence probably have greater reason to curse the strongylus than they ever had to curse the rabbit. IT is to be regretted that medical journals should fall into the trap laid by political journalists and accept specious positions antagonistic to the welfare of the profession. The "College and Clinical Record" indorses a position taken by a New York daily, which, it says, "takes a view diametricaly opposite to that entertained by many members of the profession, especially those in it who hope to be candidates for the position-when it states that there are few physicians competent to fill the position of coroner of a great city. In the taking of evidence in cases of homicide or suicide, nice legal distinctions have often to be made. The taking of evidence in doubtful cases should be done in so thorough a manner that there should be no omissions which would permit of the escape of a malefactor. All these require that the coroner should be familiar with legal methods of procedure and possess skill in cross-examination not necessarily acquired by even the most thorough medical instruction. Something more is requisite-a judicial cast of mind and a thorough knowledge of medical jurisprudence. As the medical schools are (most of them) conducted, the future medical coroner is left practically uninstructed in the most important knowledge he should possess. If he is willing to study and has the time, he may learn these most necessary things in the course of his first term in office. But if he continues in office for a term or two, he must neglect his ordinary business and begin life over again when he resumes his private practice." This is the usual logic of the politician. Most physicians have not all the qualities necessary for a medical office, hence that office should be filled by a political heeler. The evils of nonmedical coroners have been seriously felt by New York citizens and partially remedied. It is unfortunate that medical journals should furnish the ward heeler with arguments which justlfy the appointment of political scavengers to medical positions, as is the case with most boards of health and other similar medical bodies in large cities. Better a physician who is ignorant of law than a cheap politician who is ignorant of both law and medicine. DR. ACHILLE FOVILLE, one of the foremost French neurologists, has just died. He was the editor-in-chief of the "Annales Medico-Psychologique" which, under his management, was singularly free from the narrowness so frequently • observed in Continental European medical journalism. He was quick to see the importance of a medical discovery and more than one American investigator has received generous recognition at his hands long before it was accorded in the United States. France, in losing Dr. Foville, has lost an able, conservative scientist, who has done more for her scientific status than all her theatrical germ and hydrophobia specialists, so much adored at present. THE "Western Druggist" states that a question has recently been raised in England as to whether a firm could use a physician's name without his consent in advertising a surgical instrument or remedy. The question was decided in the affirmative in the case of Clarke vs. Freeman. A druggist advertised "Sir Jas. Clarke's Consumption Pills." Sir James, a noted lung doctor, sued out an injunction, but Lord Langdale. although there was no defence, decided against Sir Jas. Clarke. This, by many lawyers in England, is held to be an unjustifiable decision, and all American cases have been decided the other way; Dr. Hammond having recently had Dr. H. H. Kane held to await the grand jury as a criminal, for the offence, which is certainly a variety of "false pretenses" if it be not forgery. THE "Macon Telegraph" says: "They call it 'Mind-cure' in Boston and 'Voodooism' on the Southern plantations; but about the only difference is in the name and in the fact that the Voodoo charges less." Speaking of recent developments among the "faith-cure" mountebanks, the Chicago "Daily News" very fittingly says: "No student of the history of medical delusions will expect any practical result from this business. Least of all will he expect the collapse of the 'faithcure' when Mr. Schrader finally confesses his inability to make the deaf hear, the blind to see, and the cancer-stricken whole. These crazes usually have a pretty long lease of life. The royal touch for the cure of scrofula began in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and survived long enough to enable Samuel Johnson to become one of the later witnesses to the absurdity of the superstition. The weapon ointment,' which cured wounded men by being rubbed upon the weapon which inflicted the wound; the 'sympathetic powder,' which had the same effect when applied to the blood-stained gar ments of the wounded; Bishop Berkeley's tar water, Perkins' metallic tractors, and a number of kindred delusions, all show the credulity of mankind on subjects connected with medicine and the insufficiency of argument, facts, and experience to counteract such gullibility. 'Christian science' or the 'faith-cure' must run its course as the rest of these medical fads have done. Just now it is exciting more than usual sensation in the East on account of the death of a number of those who had been under the care of its professors. It will probably die out about the same time that Pasteur's hydrophobia sensation gives up the ghost. There is about as much foundation for the one as the other." It is to be regretted that the "News" and other daily journals do not take an equally sturdy stand with regard to more dangerous forms of quackery. DR. FULTON of Dakota has, like many other physicians, naturally become indignant at the apathy of Congress in regard to the reprinting of the "Medical and Surgical History of the War." When thousands of dollars are wasted annually in printing worthless public documents which enrich the waste paper receptacles, there is no good reason why some of the money hitherto thus squandered should not be devoted to this purpose. The various medical societies certainly should take early action in the matter, which, as the years roll on. will become more and more difficult. The "History" in question is, from every standpoint, of great scientific value. DR. OSLER, elsewhere in the MEDICAL STANDARD, asks who was the physician to whom reference was made as the friend of Shakespere. As the matter is of some general interest the epitaph on the tombstone in the Virginian church-yard may be cited: "Here lies the body of Edward Heldon, Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery. Born in Bedfordshire, England, in the year of our Lord 1542. He was a friend and one of the pall-bearers of William Shakespere, of the Avon. After a brief illness his spirit ascended in the year of our Lord 1618, aged 76." It is sufficiently evident from this epitaph and his daughter's marriage to Dr. Hall that Shakespere mingled in medical society. A RECENT Irish case just decided illustrates one danger to which medical men are exposed. Dr. Davy, of Kilmainham, Ireland, was sued by an intemperate man to recover damages for alleged adultery with his wife. The plaintiff admitted that he was in the habit of brutally treating his wife and that he was an habitual drunkard. The evidence was so conclusively in favor of Dr. Davy that the jury stopped the case after one or two witnesses for the defence had been heard, and honorably acquitted Dr. Davy. The judge denounced the plaintiff in very severe terms and ordered his arrest for perjury. The lesson of this case is, that physicians cannot be too careful in their professional relations with the wives of intemperate men. The fatty degeneration of the seminal tubules, consequent on intemperance, engenders a sexual incapacity which disgusts the wife, and thus leads the husband to suspect marital infidelity on her part. THE Texas Supreme Court has just decided a case of great importance, not only to the physicians of Texas but to the entire profession. Dr. J. B. Fearns of Garrison sued Nacogdoches county in a lower court for payment for expert services as a witness in a homicide case. The amount involved was small, but Dr. Fearns deemed the principle of so great importance that he submitted to the necessary legal expenses to test it. The lower court decided against Dr. Fearns, but the Supreme Court reversed its decision and directed the payment of his bill. Dr. Fearns deserves the thanks of the profession for his sturdy defence of its rights. It is a standing disgrace to the profession, however, that such important legal questions have to be tested at the expense of individuals. The money wasted by the American Medical Association and the State and other societies on "prizės" for what is called "original" investigation, could be devoted, with more permanent advantage, to testing legal questions which involve the welfare and honor of physicians. FEW physicians have any conception of the extreme duplicity of the advertising quacks. An invalid soldier, almost totally blind, was induced to consult one of the Illinois ten-year "exempts" who pronounced his trouble catarrhal" and "kidney," and promised to cure him, whereupon the following contract (frequently used by the advertising gentry so much lauded of late by the "incorruptible press"): ASHLAND, ILL., Oct. 11, 1887.-Received of Isaac Hileman $117, to apply on a course of medical treatment. In consideration of $350, of which said sum is part payment, we, Black & Son., agree to give said Isaac Hileman a full course of treatment, under the care and personal supervision of G. B. Black, M. D., for the following disease: catarrh and kidney. Said Isaac Hileman agrees to abide by the direction and guidance of G. B. Black, M. D., until cured, and when cured, the balance to be paid for such course of treatment shall become immediately due and payable. If at any time said patient shall fail to follow the directions of said G. B. Black, M. D., or submit himself for treatment, such failure shall release us from any obligation to continue the course of treatment, and the balance of the agreed price shall immediately become due and payable to Black & Son. [Signed by G. B. Black & Son and Isaac Hileman.] The man followed the directions explicitly for the period of four weeks. During that time he paid the sum of $300 on account, and experienced no relief whatever. At the end of the four weeks' time in which a cure had been guaranteed, he was informed that it would require at least two weeks longer to effect a cure, and the balance of the contract price was demanded. This agreement, it will be obvious, is a receipt, contract and promissory note all in one, and, like the celebrated coon-trap, calculated to catch the patient going and coming. The patient has all the obligation, the quack none. Yet these are the contracts which victims of the great claimants of the right to advertise usually sign. Their victims, as in the present instance, are usually so robbed as to be unable to prosecute until too late. THE "Medical Record" says that Dr. Albrecht, of Vienna, advances the theory that the defects found in the lower extremities of man, such as bow-legs, knock-knee, etc., are the punishment entailed upon him for assuming the erect posture, thus departing from the original scheme of nature which intended him to go upon all-fours. He looks upon the scrotum as no more than a normal inguinal hernia, and the descent of the testicle into them as a dislocation of an organ from its natural position, owing to the assumption of an unnatural posture. Dr. Albrecht is not entitled to claim originality in these views. They have been held in their essence for a long time by evolutionists, but were first definitely formulated by Dr. S. V. Clevenger (" American Naturalist" 1884) who also pointed out that the presence or absence of valves in certain veins, was readily explicable on the same hypothesis. The perversity of human nature is strikingly illustrated by the popular preference for the "unnatural" position, despite the great risks it involves, and the warning of eminent scientists. AN error crept into Dr. Booth's valuable communication in the January MEDICAL STANDARD. He was made to say Central Illinois Association when Southern Illinois Medical Association was meant. The profession of Southern Illinois are, with good reason, proud of their Association. THERAPEUTICS AND PHARMACOLOGY. COCA IN GASTRALGIA.-D'Ardenne ("Rev. de Clin. et de Therap.") has found coca of great value in the treatment of gastralgia. CAPSICISED LANOLIN IN DANDRUFF.— The following is of value ("Med. Bull.") in dandruff: R Lac. sulph. 3 ss; pulv. capsici 3 ss; oleum lanæ ii M. S. Rub in every night. ZINC OLEATE AND IODOFORM IN GYNÆCOLOGY.-Dr. W. D. Haslam ("Brit. Med. Jour.") claims that a mixture of equal parts of iodoform and zinc oleate, used either by insufflation or on the tampon, is of great value in gynæcology. ANTIPYRIN SOLUTION.-The "Journal de Medecine" gives the following: B Antipyrin . Rum Syrup limon.. Aquæ destil., q.s. ad M. S. 3 i as needed. pigr. xv ZINNIA ELEGANS, mixed with wood ashes, or an alkali, is claimed by Dr. S. F. Landry, Logansport, Ind., (“Med. Bull.”) to produce excellent results, so far as regards pain, as a local application in burns. It is generally known as "Youth and Old Age." SODIUM BENZOATE IN URÆMIA.-Dr. A. S. Partzevsky ("Medit. Oborz.") claims that sodium benzoate administered at the first appearance of the symptoms of uræmia, will cut short the attack. Given in five- to ten-grain doses, every hour, it exerts a beneficial influence over all cases of uræmia. PISO'S CONSUMPTION CURE has the following composition: Morphine sulph.... Acid hydrocyanic, dil. Chloroform Glycerin. Syrup enough to make. Mix and color green with chlorophyll. STRYCHNINE IN INSOMNIA FROM EXHAUSTION.-Dr. Lauder Brunton (“Practitioner") has found strychnine, given either in form of nux vomica tincture (5 to 10 minims) or in grain doses of the sulphate, repeated in two hours, to produce healthy, comfortable sleep in cases of insomnia arising from overwork or exhaustion. OPIUM-EATING AND CHILD-BEARING.-Dr. Erlenmeyer, Bendorf bei Coblenz, agrees with the views expressed by Drs. Calkins, F. B. Earle, Hubbard and Kiernan (MEDICAL STANDARD, December, 1887), for he says ("Die Morphium M sucht und ihre Behandlung") that the newborn children of opium-eating females are apt to suffer from collapse which may end in marasmus and death, unless opium be given them. SODIUM IODIDE IN PHTHISIS.-Dr. Potain ("Bull. gen. de Therap.") finds the following of value in the treatment of phthisis: R Sodii chlorid.. Sodii brom. Aquæ destil q.s. ad.... M. S. Dessertspoonful every glass of hot milk. ACTION OF 3 iiss 3 i gr. xv 3 ss gr. viii iii 31 morning in a CHLOROFORM. - Dr. Ungar ("Viertelj für gericht Med.") claims that chloroform, given as an anæsthetic, has a tendency to produce a fatty degeneration of the heart and mucous membranes. This occurs with great frequency in animals. The drug acts directly on the chlorine salts diffused through the tissues. The Ungar's opinion, death within a brief period, after seeming recovery from chloroform anasthesia, is more frequently due to this anæsYthetic than is generally supposed. JAMBUL IN DIABETES.-Dr. H. Fenwick ("Quarterly Therap. Review") has had the following experience with the jambul in diabetes. In polyuria no effect was noticeable. In glycosuria Cases presenting themselves with sloughing ulcers of diabetes origin, or accidental wounds in diabetes, refusing to heal under any application or treatment, gave these results : Water diminished; sugar decreased; ulcers filling in and wounds granulating and healing with surprising rapidity. Dose, 21⁄2 gr. to 3 gr. thrice daily after meals. with diabetic ulcers, a patient filled a full-sized zinc pail with urine every night, and in the day it was even greater in quantity. In one week, with jambul (21⁄2 gr. thrice daily) the urine diminished to one-half the quantity, and some of the deepest ulcers had filled up and skinned over. In one case, NABALUS ALTISSIMUS.-Dr. S. F. Landry ("Med. Bull.") reports good results from the local use of "silver-leaf" (Nabalus altissimus) in treatment of a case of threatened traumatic gangrene, resulting from a tibial periostitis and necrosis, the result of an old gunshot wound, where amputation had been decided upon, as all efforts to reduce the swelling and remove the pain were unavailing. The leg was black, the patient sleepless and wild with pain. The green leaves -whitish beneath-well washed, were applied all over the limb, and the leg was encased for twelve hours. They were then removed and |