syringed out with it. The importance of cleanliness is very great. You notice in the man whom I showed you just now the spots of acne and boils around the edges of the carbuncle. This points out the necessity of care, which I suppose had not been taken there, to keep the surface of the skin adjacent to the carbuncle perfectly dry, and free from any contact with the discharge, which seems really to have the power of infecting the neighboring skin, and so producing the boils which are apt to arise sometimes in clusters around the carbuncle. Of diet I have already spoken to you. Of medicines I say nothing. Quinine, bark, and other medicines of that class, may be given if you please, or in case of evident. need, and so may aperients; but there is really no need of them in an ordinary case of carbuncle. But there is one medicine which you may find very valuable, and that is opium, especially in all the earlier painful stages of carbuncle, in which it relieves the suffering as thoroughly as incisions, or anything I know. After the early stages, even that is unnecessary, except for some patient who may be unable to sleep.

There is one measure in the treatment of carbuncle which is seldom employed, and is yet of great importance, and that is, letting the patient have very free air. The general idea that carbuncles are very dangerous diseases has commonly led to the patients being entirely confined to bed and kept shut up in their rooms. There is in that an unnecessary care; and this, too, I learned from a patient who refused to comply with injunctions-a gentleman with a large carbuncle on the back of his head, who would not keep his bedroom. He had been accustomed to an active life, and after seventy or eighty years of that custom he was quite indisposed to remain in his room. So with that carbuncle he daily came. down stairs, changing his room and moving about the house as well as the pain and weakness would allow him. No carbuncle could go on better; all the stages were passed through without any risk or trouble, and it healed with unusual speed. After that I had a yet more striking case. A lady came to London "for the season," as she called it; and she had not been here more than a week or ten days before a carbuncle came out on the back of her head, just under her hair. It was a great vexation to her that she had to give up all her amusements; and so, as she did not mind the pain, she would go out. And it was then that, for the first time and the last, I saw any value in a "chignon." She dressed her carbuncle under the chignon, and she went to the park, to

the theatre, and to dances unharmed, and with her carbuncle quite unseen, and no trouble whatever followed. It healed up after the ordinary fashion in about the ordinary time. But, indeed, you may see cases of this description on a much larger scale if you watch the carbuncles that come to us in the out-patients' room. There we often see them of considerable size, and they do as well among the out-patients as among the in-patients; and yet these out-patients are freely in the air all day, and many of them continue at their work. You may set it down as one point to be attended to in the management of carbuncles that patients should not be confined to their room. They should at least have change of air in their own house; and, unless they are too low, they should not avoid exposure to the fresh open air.

Treating your case of carbuncle upon this plan, I believe you will find that the great majority will pass through their course well. I cannot tell you what the ordinary proportion of deaths from carbuncles is; but I know that carbuncles are commonly looked upon in the profession as dangerous things, and a large carbuncle on the back of the head is considered to be fraught with risk to the patient's life. But that is very far from being the case in my experience. Remembering, as far as I can, or rather guessing at the number of carbuncles I have had to treat, I should say that there is no other disease of the same extent and general severity which is at tended with so little risk of life. During twenty years of hospital and private practice, I cannot have treated less than 200 carbuncles; and of these 200, four have died, giving a mortality at a fair guess, of only two per cent.--a mortality which is less than that of most of the minor operations of surgery, and less really than that of any disease of equal severity that you can name.-London Lancet.

EDITORIAL.

End of the Volume.

THE present number completes the fourth volume of the Eclectic Medical Review. A glance at the table of contents appended, will indicate the variety and practical value of the matter presented during the past year. Gratifying evidence of the growing popularity of the Review comes to us in the shape of a large increase to our subscription list, and words of cheer and encouragement from a vast

number of readers. These last, though less substantial, are none the less grateful as they furnish testimony of the high estimation in which the Review is held; and give assurance that our efforts to advance the cause of liberal medicine are felt and appreciated.

We shall redouble our exertions another year to make the Review still more worthy the confidence and support of the Eclectic Medical Profession. With the addition which will be made to the editorial corps, in the person of Prof. Browne, whose elaborate articles have formed one of the most valuable and attractive features of the volume just closed, and with the assistance of a number of able collaborators who have promised to contribute regularly, we feel assured that we hazard nothing in asserting, that the Review will not be surpassed in practical value and scientific merit by any medical journal published in the country. All that we need, to make the Review the most extensively circulated as well as the most valuable of medical journals, is the cooperation of our readers. Let every subscriber send us a new one, or send the name and address of any physician who, he thinks, would. like the Review. To such we would be pleased to send a specimen. number. We think that an examination of its merits would be allsufficient to induce physicians to subscribe.

Our patrons would greatly oblige us by remitting promptly, so that we can form an estimate of the number of copies to be printed in the initial number of the next volume. We would reiterate the advice given in our last issue: in making remittances, send, as far as practicable, P. O. orders, or, if currency, send in registered letters. A receipt will be inclosed for every subscription received.

Annual Meetings of State Eclectic Medical Societies.

THE Semi-annual meeting of the New York State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in the City of New York, the fourth Thursday and Friday (24th and 25th) of June.

The Annual meeting of the Massachusetts State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in Boston, the first Thursday and Friday (3d) and 4th) of June.

The Annual mecting of the Vermont State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in Montpelier, the second Wednesday (9th) of

June.

The Annual meeting of the Maine Eclectic Society, will be held in Portland, the fourth Wednesday (23d) of June.

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The Annual meeting of the Indiana State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in Indianapolis, the first Tuesday (1st) of June. The Annual meeting of the Ohio State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in Cincinnati, the fourth Wednesday (26th) of May.

The Annual meeting of the Illinois State Eclectic Medical Society, will be held in Springfield, the fourth Wednesday (26th) of May.

We hope to have a large attendance of members at our New York semi-annual meeting. The address will be delivered by the distinguished president of the society, Dr. Alexander Wilder, and this is sufficient assurance that the society will enjoy an intellectual treat.

The importance of our societies need hardly be dwelt upon. Their intention is to bring us more closely together; to make us more united; to give us an opportunity for a free interchange of thought and opinion.

We are enlisted in a noble cause, even the establishment of a better system of medicine; and now that we have put our hand to the plow, it behooves us to look not back, but to press steadily onward.

The enemies of reform are making persistent efforts to crush us out of existence and to trample on the cause we advocate. Let us meet, then, and take counsel together, so as to thwart their plans and frustrate their designs. We have done much, but there is more yet to be done. Let us work harmoniously together. Let us move forward in solid phalanx, united and determined, the banner of reform unfurled to the breeze with this inscription on its foldsProgress in Medicine! The amelioration of the condition of man!!"

Legislation in Behalf of Eclectic Medicine.

THE Legislature of the State of New York, at its recent session, displayed a commendable disposition to favor the Eclectic School of Medicine. The usual appropriations were made without a dissent; and will, we trust, yield a hundred fold in their benefits conferred. Our friends in Brooklyn were especially favored. At the instance of Hon. Henry C. Cullen of the Assembly, a law was passed making it the duty of the joint Board of Supervisors and Aldermen to levy an annual tax of one thousand dollars and pay it for the support of the Eclectic Dispensary of that city. A law was also passed creat

ing it a corporation, so that there should be no let or impediment in the way of the institution, thus disposing summarily of its apprehended difficulties.

The charter of the Eclectic Medical College was also amended, defining more perfectly the scope of its powers and functions, and making it more homogeneous in its character with other institutions. As is the case with medical and surgical colleges incorporated by the Board of Regents of the University, a Board of Censors is authorized to examine and recommend candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The corporate powers are more distinctly expressed; and provision is made that the diploma of the college shall be a genuine certificate, the actual conferment of a degree, and bearing date from the day that it goes into practice. The disgraceful practice of some colleges and professors of vending spurious degrees, is effectually guarded against in the charter of the Eclectic Medical College of the city of New York. Its parchment is genuine.

This amendment to the charter also disposes effectually of all doubts in relation to the right of women to attend lectures and receive instruction from the Faculty of the Institution. The following clause, inserted at the instance of Hon. Winfield S. Cameron, of the Assembly, is explicit upon that point:

"No person over sixteen years of age, of good moral character, who has gone through the proper course of preliminary study, and conforming to the usual rules of admission and attendance, shall be excluded from attendance at the terms of instruction at said college."

This provision involves no new principle. The general statutes of the State in relation to medical colleges, uniformly recognize persons of good scholarship and moral character" as entitled to the benefits, honors, and diplomas, of those institutions. The exclusion of women as students, by the officers of any such college, is clearly without authority of law; their rights in this matter are the same as those of the other sex, equally as in the public schools. A right so well defined will be exercised. The usage in eclectic institutes has been to receive them as a matter of course. To place the subject unequivocally beyond controversy, the Board of Trustees of the Eclectic College of the city of New York, in 1868, adopted the following resolution:

"Resolved, That female students be educated in the Eclectic Medical College of the city of New York, upon the same conditions as male students."