Editor of AMERICAN HOMEOPATHIST:

SHREVEPORT, LA.

In your journal dated August, page 279, Dr. Orme, in his remarks on the "Resolution to have a belief in Homœopathy incorporated in the requirements for membership in the American Institute of Homœop athy," says: "The founders of our Institute were men of liberal views, forced by oppressive circumstances to protest against the illiberality of the times, and to organize a separate medical association. But they did not exact a declaration of a belief in what physicians might know little or much about, and they were prepared to say to any seeker after the truth, as I would have the Institute say now: 'If you are thinking of investigating Homœopathy, if you wish to mingle with us who are engaged in its study and development, come with us and we will do you good.'"

Now let us see what the founders of the Institute did say. In their minutes of the first meeting which was held in New York City, April 10, 1844, and through which the Institute got its name, a preamble and resolutions in these words were adopted:

"WHEREAS, a majority of allopathic physicians continue to deride and oppose the contributions to the materia medica that have been made by the Homoeopathic School; and,

"WHEREAS, the state of the materia medica in both schools is such as imperatively demands a more satisfactory arrangement and greater purity of observations, which can only be obtained by associate action. on the part of those who seek diligently for truth alone, and inasmuch as the state of the public information respecting the principles and practice of Homoeopathy is so defective as to make it easy for mere pretenders to this very difficult branch of the healing art to acquire credit as proficients in the same; Therefore,

Resolved, That it is deemed expedient to establish a society entitled, 'The American Institute of Homoeopathy' and the following are declared to be the essential purposes of said Institute :

"First. The reformation and augmentation of the materia medica. "Second. The restraining of physicians from pretending to be competent to practice Homœopathy who have not studied it in a careful. and skillful manner."

Does that look as though the founders of the Institute were willing to take in everything and anything that came along, whether they knew anything or nothing about the law of cure? I think not.

Now let us go one year further into the life of the Institute and see what these same founders have to say.

Thursday morning, May 15, 1845. The second day of the second yearly meeting of the Institute, which was also held in New York City: "On motion, Resolved, Not to admit as a member of this Institute

any person who has not pursued a course of medical studies according to the requirements of the existing medical institutions of our country, and in addition thereto sustained an examination before the Censors of this Institute on the theory and practice of Homœopathy."

Now if, in framing the constitution of the Institute, these Declarations and Resolutions were expunged, then I have nothing more to say; but if they were incorporated in the constitution (as they ought to have been), then the resolution referred to by the doctor is an unnecessary

one.

But to say that the founders of the Institute exacted no declaration from any one in joining the Institute, is wrong, and places them in a bad light. J. D. GRABILL.

SOCIETY MEETINGS.

The Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of Oregon held its thirteenth annual meeting in the parlors of the Gilman House, East Portland. This society is doing good work for the cause of homœopathic medicine in the State.

Its newly elected officers are as follows: President, Dr. George Wigg; first vice-president, Dr. B. E. Miller; second vice-president, Dr. E. C. Brown; recording secretary, Dr. S. Lewis King; corresponding secretary, Emma J. Welty; treasurer, Dr. Osmon Royal; board of censors: Dr. C. E. Geiger, Dr. B. E. Miller, Dr. Emma J. Welty, Dr. A. S. Nichols, Dr. L. Henderson.

The papers presented and read before the society were as follows: Annual address, by the president, Dr. George Wigg; "Prophylaxis of Vaccination," by Dr. L. Henderson; "Arsenicum," by Dr. S. A. Brown; "Hip-joint Disease, Its Etiology, Pathology, and Diagnosis," by Dr. C. E. Geiger; "Purulent Inflammation of the Middle Ear," by Dr. E. C. Brown; "Ophthalmia Neonatorum," by Dr. Emma J. Welty; "A Case from Practice," by Dr. Calla B. Charlton; "Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy," by Dr. B. E. Miller; "Parturition," by Dr. Wm. Geiger; "Sectarianism in Medicine," by Professor Wm. Tod Helmuth, of New York.

Next annual meeting the second Tuesday in May, 1890.

-The State Homœopathic Medical Society of Florida met at the residence of Dr. H. R. Stout, in Jacksonville, recently, with Dr. P. E. Johnson, president, in the chair. Dr. H. R. Stout acted as secretary. After a general discussion of business pertaining to the society, an election of officers was held, which resulted as follows: President, Dr. H. R. Stout of Jacksonville; vice-president, Dr. Ada F. Bruce of Tampa; secretary, Dr. C. W. Johnson of Jacksonville; board of censors, Drs. T. J. Williamson, Blanding, and P. E. Johnson.

The second annual meeting of the society will be held at Tampa the second Tuesday in June, 1890.

A STUDY OF MAN, AND THE WAY TO HEALTH. By J. D. BUCK, M.D., Cincinnati. Robert Clarke & Co., 1889. Pp. 302. Price, $2.50. A cursory study of the title of this volume will give no one, save the initiated, an inkling of the true depth of its contents, nor the wonderful grasp of the master-mind in dealing with that most unreal of all real things, Man! It would be difficult to classify the book in any set group. It partakes in general of the psychological, yet it is intimately interwoven with the physical and physiological, a very evident design of the author being to write for the thinking middle classes, and not for a select coterie of metaphysicists. In this the author has succeeded. He has presented to the literary world a volume which combines the ethical with the practical in such well-balanced meter as to make it attractive as well as instructive to all. The limits of a medical journal will not permit the reviewer to enter into the detail of any literary output, beyond so much thereof as appertains to the medical profession; it would, however, be extremely laborious to apply that rule to this book, since Dr. Buck, himself a successful practitioner, has so powerfully interwoven the material man with the higher ideal of manhood as to make their severance hazardous to the unities of the work. Of the preface, it may be said, as of Hering's prefaces, it is worth several readings. In this the author blocks out the book and in a few pages of crisp, new language defines his subject. The chapters are: The Criterion of Truth; Matter and Force; The Phenomenal World; Philosophy and Science; Life; Polarity; Living Forms; Planes of Life; Human Life; The Nervous System; Consciousness; Health and Disease; Sanity and Insanity; Involution and Evolution of Man; The Higher Self, from a reading of which titles a very fair idea of the book may be had. Dr. Buck's style is terse, epigrammatic, yet withal pleasing and attractive. In his chapter on sanity and insanity he deals powerful blows for a national religion and a doing away with superstition. The Nervous System, Health and Disease, as well as the Planes of Life, are especially good. We recognize our inability to condense our review within a journal compass, and therefore desist, expressing the hope that the book will be extensively read and its teachings heeded.

THERAPEUTIC METHODS. An Outline of Principles Observed in the Art of Healing. By JABEZ P. DAKE, A.M., M.D., late Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine in the Hahnemann Medieal College, Philadelphia, and formerly Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the same; President of the American Institute of Homœopathy, 1857; American Edition of the "Cyclopædia of Drug Pathogeny," etc., etc. Otis Clapp & Son, Boston and Providence, 1889. College Edition.

In addition to the favorable notice given in these pages to the first edition, we can only say that we are pleased to have it so successful a financial venture as to necessitate new editions. The author says: "By an agreement with my publishers, and in deference to the wishes of medical teachers, who desire a convenient and inexpensive text-book on the principles of medicine, especially on the Institutes of Homoopathy, this issue will be known as the COLLEGE EDITION, and will be put within the reach of every student." The volume will fill a place which thus far has been unoccupied, a step between the doctor's (preceptor's) teachings and the Organon. Dr. Dake supplies this step.

Once well grounded in the principles of homoeopathy, and a careful study of therapeutic methods, the Organon will cease to be the sealed book which it is to-day to the great majority not only of students but of practitioners. The volume bespeaks great learning, much laborious research, and a grasping of detail and its presentation in so palatable a form as to make it deservedly popular. One other, though a mechanical, detail we desire to mention; that is, as to the type. This is certainly most excellent: clear, large, and perfect. The presswork is on a par with the general beauties contained in the volume.

CHARLATANRY AND THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. The Secretary of the American Medical Association at the thirty-ninth annual meeting, held in Cincinnati May 8-12, read a memorial from the Arkansas State Medical Society relating to advertisements of quack nostrums in religious newspapers. Personal certificates from clergymen and the editorial indorsements of those newspapers gave quackery a standing with the community which it would not otherwise have. Members of the medical profession were in the habit of treating clergymen gratuitiously, and this was the way in which they were rewarded. To accept such advertisements for the support of the paper was doing evil that good might result, and was inconsistent with the moral pretensions of the clergy. The co-operation of the association and that of State societies were invoked to secure a suppression of the evil. A resolution was passed approving of the memorial.

ANNOUNCEMENT.-E.B.Treat, Publisher,771 Broadway, New York, will publish, early in 1890, the Seventh Annual Issue of the English "Medical Annual," a resumé, in dictionary form, of New Remedies and New Treatment that have come to the knowledge of the Medical Profession throughout the world during 1889. The editorial staff of the forthcoming volume will include articles or departments edited by Sir Morell Mackenzie, M.D. (Laryngology), London, Jonathan Hutchinson, Jr., M.D., (Genito-Urinary Diseases), London, J. W. Taylor, M.D. (Gynæcology), Birmingham, William Lang, M.D. (Ophthalmologist), of London, James R. Leaming, M.D. (Heart and Lung), New York, Charles L. Dana, M.D. (Neurologist), New York, H. D. Chapin, M.D. (Pediatrics), of New York, and others, comprising a list of twenty-three collaborators, widely known in Europe and America. In its enlarged and widened sphere it will bear the name of "The International Medical Annual," and will be published in one octavo volume of about 600 pages at $2.75, under copyright protection, and issued simultaneously in London and New York.

GLOBULES.

-Goodell says the head of the child and not the perinæum needs support in labor.

-Item in a London (England) paper: Born-On May 12, 1889, at Darjelling, to the wife of John James Brown, Esq., a son (by telegraph).

-Dr. Bowen, of Ft. Wayne, says that no one ever dies with tears in their eyes. If tears are found, as in cataleptic patients, there is life.

-Erratum. In August number, page 274, 18th line from top, read "perinæum "instead of “peritoneum.

-Sir William Gull says that when fagged out by professional work he recruits his strength by eating raisins, and not by drinking wine or brandy.

-There are 300,000 blind in Europe, and 30,000 in England. Of this number not more than one-third should really be blind; the other two-thirds can attribute their blindness to ignorance and neglect.

-Dr. J. D. Kelly, of Severy, Kansas, insists (Medical Brief) upon the absolute necessity of repeated large doses of opium, together with perfect rest, in the treatment of threatened miscarriages. It is far better than chloral or any other drug so commonly employed.

-A half ounce of ground quassia is steeped in an ounce of acetic acid, adding a pint of water before steeping. A teaspoonful in a little water should be taken every time the liquor thirst is felt. It satisfies the craving and produces a feeling of stimulation and strength.

-B. G. Pullin (Brit. Med.-Chir. Jour.) gives the history of a number of cases in which he has cured warts on the hands by the use of small doses of arsenic, from one to three minims of Fowler's solution twice a day. He states that in every instance the cure has been rapid and complete.

-It is claimed that a few drops of the following: eau de cologne, ether, chloroform, three drachms each, poured on a handkerchief previously wetted with cold water and placed on the seat of neuralgic pain, gives instantaneous relief. It is also very efficacious for nervous headache. A burning sensation is felt at first but quickly disappears.

-In the removal of the tubes great care should be taken to remove them as close to the uterus as possible, so as to embrace the nerve trunk that enters the cornu of the uterus in the angle between the round ligament and the tube, which has been proved to have a powerful agency in the process of menstruation, and in the formation of tubal and uterine epithelium.

-"The Folly of Persecution." Under this caption Dr. Wm. B. Clarke of Indianapolis contributes a long paper to the Indianapolis Journal on Homœopathy, which is ably written and was doubtlessly extensively read. If this same spirit and enthusiasm could be infused into the leaven of current Homoeopathy it would better for all concerned.

-Artificial light should be avoided by all those who can make use of daylight, or whose eyes are weak. It is absolutely necessary that the artificial light should not cause any smells or poisonous vapors injurious to the general health. Have the artificial light on your left, or let it fall from above; it should never be opposite the eyes; if it be uniform, sufficient, not flickering, it will not hurt; those who are obliged to work for many hours with constant strain of the eyes should from time to time pause, at least every hour, a few minutes, and, if possible, move about. Soc. for Prevention of Blindness-London.