Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

mingling and of blending; who shall care what it is that is really partaken when thus it commends itself as a whole!" Cells endeavor to select what they need.

I would urge, however, that simplicity ever be the starting point and from this no departure be permitted except with a definite object in view and upon a reasonable expectation based upon observation and experiment. Count up, for instance, the active principles in opium, digitalis, cinchona, ergot, senna, and the like. Opium, for instance, contains some nineteen alkaloids besides other ingredients. True, several of these alkaloids are present in traces only, and we find that certain of the contained active principles are strongly antagonistic, the one to the other.

Thus, in opium we meet with the sedative, morphine, and the convulsant, thebaine; in calabar bean with the depressant, physostigmine, and the strychnine-like calabarine; in gelsemium, with the coniine-like body, gelseminine, and gelsemine, a tetanizer. In these combinations it can scarcely be said we have cooperation, so that, without there is some good reason to the contrary, it is better to use single active principles.

"God said, 'I am tired of kings,

I suffer them no more;
Up to my ear the morning brings
The outrage of the poor.""

How sublime is the appeal from monarchy to republicanism in the pitiable spectacle now witnessed in the Levant. Think of it: All Christian Europe cringing before the wiles of Moslem hatred and barbarism. A fleet compared with which the majestic Armada was but as a child's flotilla; 20,000,000 trained soldiers at command; all Christendom to lend moral supportgathered there while thousands of Christian men, women, and children, almost within sound of the royal guns, are systematically butchered by merciless Turks.

and

Breathless ado and regal flutter about a few inconsequential personages trembling in foreign embassies and alleged zeal in behalf of a handful of missionaries, while a noble, intelligent, and industrious race, owners of the soil as well as tillers of it, Christian brothers in the faith of Europe, is ruthlessly warred upon!

The august powers assembled to witness, in silent irony of Christian love and pity, the awful drama of a people's martyrdom,

have pompously decreed that the disturbed area shall at some future period or under certain contingencies be subject to their jurisdiction. Their motive can scarcely be to aid suffering humanity, since, when the era of occupation shall have arrived, there will be no Christians to protect-only a charnel-house where once were smiling fields and happy homes, and everywhere a haunting cry to God for righteous redress.

Let no one dream that these Christian majesties are imbued with human sentiment. They are here simply in obedience to the behest of cold, calculating, crafty territorial greed the accursed imperial avarice that has for centuries drenched Europe in blood; the savage instincts that have swayed kingly heartlessness and shielded tyranny, from Attila to Bonaparte.

Away to your gilded ease, gluttonous enemies of mankind, accessories today, before, and after the fact and may kind heaven protect her own! But know that, had your dominions of twelve hundred years' selfish possession but for a single century been republican, these atrocities to which you are now indifferent had never been, nor a skulking Moslem dared approach the Dardanelles or the Bosporus. Enlightened peoples are content with their own, generous and humane; enlightened monarchs are by nature and tradition incapable of magnanimity, turning ever to their selfish lust for power and territorial aggrandizement "as a dog re

turneth to his vomit."

Was it King John or were it his subjects who gave to fellow men the priceless boon of Magna Charta? The end of the feast is yet far off, but it will surely come, as there broods over men the benediction of divine justice.

Not long ago I was dining in a fashionable restaurant and became interested in watching the people. Near me sat a slight, pale lady, with a waist like a wasp. It would not have needed very long hands to clasp around that waist, and within that space not only must the stomach work, but spleen, pancreas, transverse colon, several feet of small intestine, and many large arteries, veins and other organs must all find room to perform their duties. What a double and twisted hotch-potch, seemingly! At another table near by sat a large, redfaced woman by the side of a little man. What immense shoulders and hips she had;

JUST AMONG FRIENDS

1231

but her waist was nearly as small as that of possible to look into the souls of every perthe other woman.

Do you know that women have naturally larger waists in proportion to their shoulders than men? Look at the Greek Slave, modeled by Powers. Compare that with any of the great masterpieces representing the male figure, and you will see that the female has a larger waist in proportion to the shoulders than the male. I wondered how that big woman in the restaurant could store away the large dinner she ate. No one but a woman could have done it.

I was getting interested and looked about me. I saw a man with a red nose and a woman with an ugly eruption on her face, but both the nose and the eruption could be accounted for when I saw what they ate and drank. Soon a fine looking man came in, limping badly. I knew the cause of the limp. I have treated him for gout. He insists that the moon is responsible for his gout, since his bad attacks come on "at the full of the moon." I tell him that his stomack, from which the poison in his toe comes, is somewhat like the moon in shape, and so he may not be so wide of the truth after all. Following my fat friend came another acquaintance of mine. This man has the blues fearfully; he wishes himself dead a hundred times a day. You see, his brain must receive his supplies from his stomach. But his stomach furnishes not sweet, healthy chyme, but acids and poisonous gases. Of course his brain gets poison instead of food.

It cannot be repeated too often nor in too many ways that the stomach is the fountain from which every part of the body is supplied. If that is sick then the brain, heart, lungs, liver, bowels, kidneys and spine must all be sick. The pain or other bad feeling may be all in one spot. It may be in the stomach itself, or it may be in the brain, or spine, or in the gouty toe. It will be felt in the weakest place. The strain is alike in all parts-every link in the chain must bear the same strain, but only the weakest one gives way.

The restaurant was crowded and from thinking of the extravagant waste of money for food, which would sooner or later impair the health of the people there assembled, if such habits were indulged in, I thought of the terrible scenes I might witness if it were

son present. That smiling, vivacious woman yonder, would show a soul of envy, malice, and deceit; that beautiful young lady talking to the handsome young man in the corner would show a nature as impure as a sewer; and her escort covers beneath his suave and courtly manner vices that would shame the demons of hades. The devout and charitable

looking gentleman at my right certainly has a pure and saintly nature! He is a millionaire, a director of a big trust, but he is also noted for his church work. But let us turn the x-ray upon his soul and we shall see avarice, dissimulation, hatred, envy and secret vices that walk to and from there like hyenas in a cage.

I find but few angels in this crowd of fashionable people. There are some, but their faces are not concealed; they are unmasked, natural, and they speak to you in loving glances and tender smiles, in generous deeds and cheerful service. How few people are taken for what they really are! How few get their just deserts here on earth! But when death unmasks us all we shall then be classified according to our true worth. Dissimulation and fine attire will not serve to mask our true selves then.

INSPIRATION FROM BEYOND THE PACIFIC

As I renew my subscription for THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE, I cannot forbear adding my typewriter to the "cloud of witnesses" who are sending up their praise for your journal. It contains the most newsy, practical, workable lot of information which I have found in any magazine of any kind. And you can guess that that is the kind we need out here, where we have little opportunity for consultation and much lonely. work.

I was introduced to the hyoscine-morphinecactin anesthetic by a friendly doctor while on a furlough in America, in 1907. That led me to your journal, and now to experimenting with the alkaloids. Here at our Yangtse Valley Sanitarium in Kuling, where not only many missionaries and business people come for the summer but also where we hold annual medical meets, I take pleasure in telling the other doctors of the value of alkaloids and active-principle medication in general. ELLIOTT I. GOOD.

Chuchow, China.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Surgical After-treatment. A Manual of the Conduct of Surgical Convalescence. By L. R. G. Crandon, A. M., M. D., and Albert Ehrenfried, A. B., M. D. Second edition, thoroughly revised. With 265 original illustrations. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company. 1912. Price $6.00 net.

Only little more than one year has passed since the publication of the first edition of this important work, which was reviewed in these columns in the issue for March, 1912. In the present, second, edition Dr. Ehrenfried, to whose assistance the senior author had paid graceful tribute in the preface to the first one, has been named as co-author, and several material changes in the subjectmatter have been introduced, while the text has been slightly added to.

This work has been received with the favor that it well deserved and which, we are sure, it continues to deserve at the hands of all who are engaged in surgical work.

COSGROVE'S "HISTORY OF SANITATION"

History of Sanitation. By J. J. Cosgrove. Published by The Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, Pittsburg.

This very interesting history of sanitation was written at the request of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, whose excellent work in sanitary plumbing is well known. The author has succeeded in presenting us with an attractive story of how the required water-supply for communities was obtained, from the beginning of history to the present, also how the refuse, the excreta and other discharges were taken care of an removed, respectively not removed, in which latter case they led to plague and pestilence.

The descriptions of the Roman baths are especially interesting, and the account of medieval darkness, in the matter of cleanliness as well as in intellectual and religious affairs, carries its own lesson and makes one thankful that he is not condemned to live

in times in which cleanliness is considered a superfluity, if not worse.

Mr. Cosgrove's book shows a great amount of patient research. The results of his studies are well worth reading and will undoubtedly form the foundation for further, more ambitious textbooks.

PHYSICIAN'S VISITING LISTS

The Practitioner's Visiting List for 1913. An invaluable pocket-sized book containing memoranda and data important for every physician, and ruled blanks for recording every detail of practice. The Weekly, Monthly and 30-Patient Perpetual contain 32 pages of data and 160 pages of classified blanks. The 60-Patient Perpetual consists of 256 pages of blanks alone. Each in one wallet-shaped book, bound in flexible leather, with flap and pocket, pencil with rubber, and calendar for two years. Price by mail, postpaid, to any address, $1.25. Thumbletter index, 25 cents extra. Descriptive circular showing the several styles sent on request. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York.

The Physician's Visiting List (Lindsay and Blakiston's) contains, besides preliminary matter, a calendar (two years), table of signs, to be used in keeping records, the metric or French decimal system of weights and measures, a table for converting apothecaries' weights and measures into grams, dose-table, giving the doses of official and unofficial drugs in both the English and metric systems to correspond with the new U. S. Pharmacopeia, facts regarding asphyxia and apnea, table for calculating the period of uterogestation, incompatibility, poisoning, and a comparison of thermometers.

The visiting list, is ruled and has dated pages, with blank page opposite on which is an amount column, for entering ledger page, and ample space for special memoranda. There is also space for special records of obstetric engagements, deaths, births, addresses of patients, nurses; also, for accounts due, cash accounts and general memoranda.

AMONG THE BOOKS

Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. Price $1.35 to $2.50, according to arrangement.

The Medical Record Visiting List or Physician's Diary for 1913. New York: William Wood and Company. Price $1.25, $1.50, $2.00, according to arrangement, for regular lists. It contains the following: Calendar; estimation of the probable duration of pregnancy; approximate equivalents of temperature, weight, capacity, measure, etc.; maximum adult doses by the mouth in apothecaries' and decimal measures; drops in a fluid dram; solutions for subcutaneous injection; solutions in water for automixation and inhalation; miscellaneous facts; emergencies; surgical antisepsis; disinfection; dentition; table of signs; visiting list with special memoranda; consultation practice; obstetric engagements; record of obstetrical practice; record of vaccination; register of deaths; nurses' addresses; addresses of patients and others; cash account.

MOLL'S "SEXUAL LIFE OF THE CHILD."

The Sexual Life of the Child. By Dr. Albert Moll. Translated from the German, by Dr. Eden Paul. With an introduction by Edward L. Thorndike. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912. Price $1.75.

Dr. Moll has long been known as one of the foremost investigators on this subject, for which he is unusually well qualified by his studies in hypnotism, in subconscious cerebration, etc. The reviewer has been impressed with the conservative and common-sense view of this very difficult subject, which the author expresses throughout the book. His studies on the requirements and methods of sexual education are particularly sane and deserve to be deferred to.

COWING'S "BLOOD PRESSURE"

Blood Pressure; Technique Simplified, by W. H. Cowing, M. D. Published by Taylor Instrument Companies, Rochester, N. Y. 1912.

This little manual forms an excellent guide for the observation of blood pressure readings which have come to be considered of such

great importance for diagnosis and prognosis.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Manual of Clinical Pathology: Comprising the Examination of Urine, Stomach Contents, Feces, Blood, and the Serum Diagnosis of Syphilis, Tuberculosis, Typhoid Fever, etc.

1233

By Richard Weiss, M. A., Ph. D., in collaboration with George Herschell, M. D., and Andrew Charles, F. R. C. S. London: J. and A. Churchill. 1910. Pamphlet. Price 2 Shillings.

Arteriosclerosis: Etiology, Pathology, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Prophylaxis, and Treatment; with a Special Chapter on Blood Pressure. By Louis M. Warfield, A. B., M. D.; with an introduction by W. S. Thayer, M. D. Illustrated with 28 engravings. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby

Company. 1912. Price $2.50.

Autointoxication and Disintoxication: An Account of a New Fasting Treatment in Diabetes and Other Chronic Diseases. By Dr. G. Guelpa (Paris). Translated by F. S. Arnold, B. A., M. B. New York: The Rebman Company. 1912. Price $1.35.

Pellagra: History, Distribution, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Treatment, Etiology. By Stewart R. Roberts, S. M., M. D. With 89 special engravings and a colored frontispiece. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company. 1912. Price $2.50.

Diet for the Sick. Arranged and compiled from leading authorities, with supplementary notes. By H. Edwin Lewis, M. D. New York: The American Medical Publishing Company. 1912. Price $1.00.

What to Do in Cases of Poisoning. By William Murrell, M. D., F. R. C. P. Eleventh edition. New York: Paul B. Hoeber. 1912. Price $1.00.

Massage and the Original Swedish Movements: Their Application to Various Diseases of the Body. By Kurre W. Ostrom. Seventh edition, revised and enlarged. With 115 illustrations. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. 1912. Price $1.00.

Spondylotherapy. Spinal Concussion and the Application of Other Methods to the Spine in the Treatment of Disease. By Albert Abrams, A. M., M. D., F. R. M. S. Illustrated. San Francisco: The Philopolis Press. Price: Edition of 1910, $3.50; edition of 1912, $5.00.

X-Ray Diagnosis and Treatment. (Oxford Medical Publications.) A Textbook for General Practitioners and Students. By W. J. S. Bythell, B. A., M. D., and A. E. Barclay, M. D., M. R. C. S. London: Oxford University Press. 1912. Price $5.50.

Textbook on the Therapeutic Action of Light, Including the Rays, solar, and violet. rays, electric-arc light and the light-cabinet. By Gorydon Eugene Rogers, M. D. With original illustrations. Published by the author. New York. 1910. Price $3.50.

Practical Electro-Therapeutics and X-Ray Therapy; With Chapters on Phototherapy, X-Ray in Eye Surgery, X-Ray in Dentistry, and the Medicolegal aspect of the X-Ray. By J. M. Martin, M. D. With 219 illustrations. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company. 1912. Price $4.00.

The Technic and Results of RadiumTherapy in Malignant Disease. By M. Dominici, M. D., and A. A. Warden, M. D. London: J. and A. Churchill. 1912. Pamphlet. Price $0.75.

The Bacillus of Long Life. A manual of the preparation and souring of milk for dietary purposes, together with a historical account of the use of fermented milks, from the earliest times to the present day, and their wonderful effect in the prolonging of human existence. By Loudon M. Douglas, F. R. S. E. With 62 illustrations. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1911. Price $1.50.

Vade-Mecum of Treatment. A practical guide and index of treatment for the use of medical students and practitioners. By Edward C. Seufert, A. M., M. D., and John Stuart, B. S., M. A., M. D. Chicago: The Chicago Medical Book Company. 1911. Price $2.50.

The Physician's Formulary. Things a doctor ought to make and how to make them. Newark, N. J. The Physicians' Drug News Company. 1912. Price $2.00.

Hermann Peters: Die Neuesten Arzneimittel und Ihre Dosierung, Inklusive Serumund Organtherapie, in Alphabetischer Reihenfolge. Sechste voellig umgearbeitete auflage. Herausgegeben von Sanitaetsrat Dr. J. Haendel. Leipzig und Wien: Franz Deuticke 1911.

Treatise on Diseases of the Hair. By George Th. Jackson, M. D., and Charles Wood McMurtry, M. D. Illustrated with 109 engravings and 10 colored plates. Philadelphia and New York: Lea & Febiger. 1912. Price $3.75.

Care of the Skin and Hair. By William Allen Pusey, A. M., M. D. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1912. Care of the Skin in Health. By W. Allan Jamieson, M. D., F. R. C. P. E. London: Oxford University Press. 1912. Price $1.00. Compendium of Diseases of the Skin. Based on an analysis of thirty thousand consecutive cases. With a therapeutic formulary. By. L. Duncan Bulkley, A. M., M. D. Fifth revised edition. New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1912. Price $2.00.

London Practitioner's Manuals: Minor Surgery. By Leonard A. Bidwell, F. R. C. S.

With 88 illustrations. London: University of London Press. 1911. Price $2.00.

London Practitioners' Manuals: Anesthesia and Analgesia. By J. D. Mortimer, M. B., F. R. C. S. London: University of London Press. 1911. Price $2.00.

Manual of Surgery. By Alexis Thomson, F. R. C. S., and Alexander Miles, F. R. C. S. Second Volume. Regional Surgery. Fourth edition, edition, revised and enlarged; with 274 illustrations. London: Henry Frowde, and Hodder & Stoughton. 1912. Price $3.50.

Manual of Surgery. By Alexis Thomson, F. R. C. S., and Alexander Miles, F. R. C. S. Third Volume: Operative Surgery. With 220 illustrations. London: Henry Frowde, and Hodder & Stoughton. 1912.

Manual of Instruction in the Principles of Prompt Aid to the Injured; including a chapter on hygiene and disinfection. By Alvah H. Doty, M. D. Designed for civil and military use. Fifth edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1912. Price $1.50.

The Immediate Care of the Injured. By Albert S. Morrow, A. B., M. D. Second edition, thoroughly revised. Philadelphia: The W. B. Saunders Company. 1912. Price $2.50.

Orificial Surgery: Its Philosophy, Application and Technic. Compiled and edited by B. E. Dawson, M. D., assisted by Elizabeth H. Muncie, A. B. Grant, M. D., and H. E. Beebe, M. D. Newark, N. J.: The Physicians' Drug News. 1912. Price $5.00.

Oral Surgery: A Textbook on General Surgery and Medicine as Applied to Dentistry. By Stewart Leroy McCurdy. With 228 illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1912. Price $3.00.

Surgical Operations. A Handbook for Students and Practitioners. By Friedrich Pels-Leusden. Authorized English translator, Faxton E. Gardner, M. D. With 668 illustrations. New York: The Rebman Company. Price $7.00.

Surgery of the Brain and Spinal Cord. Based upon personal experiences. By Fedor Krause, M. D. English adaptation by Dr. Max Thorek. Vol. II. With 94 figures in the text, 14 of which are colored, 27 colored figures and four halftone figures, on fifteen plates. New York: The Rebman Company. 1912.

Price $7.00.

Handbook of the Surgery of the Kidneys. By W. Bruce Clarke, M. A., M. B. With 5 plates and 50 illustrations in the text. New York: The Oxford University Press. 1911. Price $4.00.

« ForrigeFortsæt »