ducted said examination, feels it a duty to state the exact facts of the case in as public a manner as the announcement has been made.

The examination referred to was held in December, 1898. Instead of "one hundred and sixteen applicants," there were only twenty-one applicants! Instead of "nearly one half the number being rejected," there were only two rejected, both of whom had failed before at previous examinations. (One applicant withdrew on the first day; but he appeared at a subsequent examination and passed with credit.)

The graduate of the Southwestern Homœopathic Medical College who "passed with the highest average" received only 93.57, a by no means unusually high mark when compared with the averages obtained by graduates from other homoeopathic medical colleges. In confirmation of this, a list is herewith presented of the highest averages attained since June, 1894, when the law of State medical examination in Pennsylvania went into effect:

At a special meeting of the Homœopathic Medical Examining Board of Pennsylvania, held in Philadelphia, June 28, 1900, it was unanimously voted that, in order to correct all possible misapprehension on the part of the medical profession, and in the interest of justice to all colleges, as well as for the maintenance of the honor and credit of the medical profession, a copy of the above statement be sent immedi

ately to the Southwestern Homoeopathic Medical College and to every homoeopathic medical journal in the United States.

This Board cannot allow the imputation that graduates from homoeopathic medical colleges receive such poor educational training that fifty per cent are liable to be rejected in any State medical examination.

By order, and in behalf of the Board of Medical Examiners representing the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania,

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BOSTON, MASS.

Dear Sir, The Pan-American Exposition has seen fit to entrust the care of the Department of Ethnology and Archæology to a practising physician. I should be very glad if you would allow me to reach your readers with the following request for assistance.

Many members of the medical profession are interested in the study of American ethnology and archæology, and not a few have valuable collections of Indian relics and skeletons. from Indian graves. Those not directly interested in this study are so circumstanced as to be aware of the hobbies of their neighbors and could doubtless furnish the address of collectors. I should be greatly obliged for information and for the loan of collections for the use of this department of the Exposition. Exhibits which represent study in some special line of American ethnology and archæology will be particularly suitable. Very truly yours,

A. L. BENEDICT, M.D., Superintendent of Ethnology and Archæology.

SHOULD OUR MEDICAL SCHOOLS TEACH THE THERAPEUTICS OF ALCOHOLISM AND OTHER

DRUG ADDICTIONS?

BY CHARLES J. DOUGLAS, M.D.,

Physician-in-Charge of the Walter Baker Sanitarium, 524 Warren Street, Boston, Mass. Author of "Psycho-Therapeutics," " Alcoholism," "Apomorphine as a Hypnotic," "Historical Notes on the Sanitarium Treatment of Alcoholism," etc.

There are few chronic diseases more prevalent and more curable than alcoholism and other drug addictions.

The ultimate aim of all medical education is to teach the art and science of relieving suffering and prolonging life. Whether it be the dry memorizing of anatomy, or the subtle investigations of chemistry or bacteriology, or the more interesting study of therapeutics, the one aim and object is. the prevention or cure of disease. It is a general and wellrecognized rule that the diseases properly demanding the most attention of the students are, first, those that are most prevalent, and second, those that are most amenable to treatment. Both of these qualities belong in an eminent degree to alcoholism. Is it not time, then, that our medical schools began to teach this important subject in as thorough and systematic a manner as other subjects are taught? Is it not a crime of wilful negligence to do otherwise? I remember with mortification the first alcoholic case that I attempted to treat after graduation. I was an untrained mariner upon an unknown sea, without chart or compass. I had received an alleged medical education from two of our oldest and largest colleges, and knew nothing of value regarding the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of one of the most prevalent diseases in this country and throughout the world. The few things that I had learned about it were not true, and consequently had to be unlearned.

Medical colleges that will thoroughly train their students in the management and treatment of these trying cases will have an alumni standing head and shoulders above their fellow practitioners. Not only will their counsel be sought by other physicians, but families in which they have successfully managed such cases will look upon them as essential to their

safety and comfort; thus will such physicians gain reputation both among the laity and the profession, and win the confidence and esteem of the community. Competent men of experience in this specialty should be engaged as teachers by every medical college. These teachers should be not mere theorists nor men who are simply learned in the technical pathology of these ailments, but rather men who have had as wide practical experience in this specialty as the oculist or gynecologist or aurist who attempts to teach his favorite branch.

Too much of theory regarding this subject, unsupported by practical experience, has already found its way into our text-books. We have good and trustworthy works on most subjects, while on this there is a lamentable deficiency. Rarely does a physician attempt to write a text-book article without thorough knowledge and wide experience regarding his subject; but the articles on alcoholism and other drug addictions appear to have been composed on the theory that such knowledge and experience is quite unneccessary, for most of these articles are either archaic, untrustworthy, or visionary.

While alcoholism can seldom be permanently cured except in a sanitarium, yet patients can be greatly relieved and the attacks materially shortened by proper medical procedure. It is not necessary that physicians should make such a mess of these cases as they often do, or that households should be torn up from garret to cellar for a week in an effort to get one member of the family sober. Chains and forced confinement are no better methods of treating alcoholic insanity than any other form of mania. But it has required many centuries for the medical profession to outgrow the absurd manacling treatment for both these diseases. The day, however, of scientific medical treatment for all forms of drug addictions has now dawned, and it is to be hoped that our medical schools will no longer delay in giving the profession the very best that is known regarding the scientific management of these diseases.

EDITORIAL.

Contributions of original articles, correspondence, etc., should be sent to the publishers, Otis Clapp & Son, Boston, Mass. Articles accepted with the understanding that they appear only in the Gazette. They should be typewritten if possible. To obtain insertion the following month, reports of societies and personal items must be received by the 15th of the month preceding.

Our esteemed contemporary, the Philadelphia Medical Journal, under date of July 7, 1900, honors the profession with a notice of the recent meeting of the American Institute of Homœopathy in Washington. While we may consider any reference to our chief society's doings an honor from such a source, it does not necessarily follow that the reference is in itself altogether honorable; perhaps that is hardly to be expected. The article in question, after referring to the unveiling and dedication of the Hahnemann monument, comments on the program of the society, and especially of the bureau of materia medica, as the means by which "an idea of the present status of homoeopathy could be formed." He very justly shows that but a very small part of the time of the Institute was devoted to "the backbone of homœopathy," and that most of that time was taken up with wrangling over the doses of strophanthus and digitalis, -"drugs not yet proven by the methods of Hahnemann," whence he concludes that "the tendency of the whole meeting went to show that the term "homoeopathy" is but a trade designation, and does not include adherence to the principle implied."

When the author refers to digitalis as a "drug not yet proven by the methods of Hahnemann," he shows that lamentable ignorance which is in evidence in most articles pertaining to homoeopathy which have emanated from "antipathic" sources.

Digitalis was proved by Hahnemann himself and published in the Fragmenta de viribus, and subsequently by Törg and eight pupils, whose results are published in the "Chronic Diseases." It was also subsequently proven by Bähr and