"Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendor crowned;
Ye fields, where Summer spreads profusion 'round;
Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale;
Ye bending swains, that dress the flowery vale;
For me your tributory stores combine;
Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!"

The Traveler.

T IS in the spirit of these classic lines of Goldsmith that this paper, discursive, disjointed, has been conceived. The sun has conquered. Winter's bonds are breaking. Benumbed nature rouses, stirs, murmurs a song-note. Sweetly floats in upon the soul the call of the open and the wild. The impulse comes to wander forth, regardless of road or path or fence. And even so thought vaults on, heedless of rein, scornful of beaten track, defiant of boundary-will be today no plodding, submissive hack. Within moderation as to expenditure of time and energy, cross-country thinking, like cross-country walking, is both delightful and profitable. Especially is there a joy and a thrill in the movements of mind spontaneously following its head-all untrammeled—all unconstrained and unrestrained. Under the influence of such urge, the writer in formulating a theme ran a differential gamut, thus— "Thought Saunterings," "Thought Excursions," "Thought Ramblings," "Thought Rovings," "Thought Sallies," "Thought Forays." As a mean and merger he coined the title announced "Thought Ranging"!

Immemorially the proverb has been a recognized and approved literary form. It represents thought epitomized, judgment condensed, the idea in sharply chiseled relief, truth in starkest nudity. Cast in this mold are the "Precepts" of Ptah-Hotep, Egyptian viceroy of 3500 B. C. The collection constitutes one of the very oldest of known books. The wisdom of Solomon has been preserved in the "Proverbs" of the Hebrew scriptures. The doctrines of Confucius are embodied in a volume of "Sayings." The Wise Men of the dawn of Greece were wont to forge the product of their reasoning into apothegms. The "Aphorisms" of Hippocrates are an early Hellenic creation of universal fame.

Later came in paragraphic guise the "Characters" of Tyrtamus, the renowned disciple and literary legatee of Aristotle. The great Stagirite surnamed him first Euphrastus, one who speaks well, and then Theophrastus, one who speaks divinely. His cited treatise became calssic

ally French in the translation of La Bruyère, who imitated him in a work of the same title which is a masterpiece of the prolific and lustrous period of letters land-marked by the reign of the Grand Monarch. The teachings of Epictetus, the stoic, also, are paragraphically recorded by his follower, Arrian, in the "Enchiridion," or "Manual," and are faithfully mirrored in the "Thoughts" of Marcus Aurelius. The "Maximes" of La Rochefoucauld,

the "Reflexions et Maximes" of Vauvenargues, and the "Pensees" of Pascal are other chefs-d'oeuvre of the golden age of French literature.

The distinguished author of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse" confesses the belief that the novel has attained pre-eminence as the most highly developed and most widely potential medium for the verbal expression of thought. That may be true and Ibanez is a master of the genre who has won the ear of the world to its benefit. But scholars and thinkers will forever choose, in the main, an intellectual diet more concentrated than such attenuated pabulum. And Solomon and Confucius. and La Rouchefoucauld will continue to guide the minds and hearts of men while the flood of novelistic nectar, sweet, but thin, rolls on over time's precipice into the abyss of oblivion.

How tonic, how bracing, how refreshing is succinct, concise, clear-cut statement! "Have you a case to present, Sir?"—said the judge to a young lawyer of rhetorical and oratorical aspirations making his maiden plea before an appellate court. A crown gem of "Hamlet" is the line, "Brevity is the soul of wit." And two thousand years before Shakespeare Aeschylus made a character say, "Let there be no long preambles, recitals diffuse and dragging-folks here have no fondness for them"; and another character, "Tedious narrations, remind thyself of it, are not to our taste here." At this day of grace, when so many would speak and write, and when we can spare so little time to hear and read, paramount propriety requires that utterances be brief and of indubitable worth and use. Writers should aim to alike save pages to the publisher and minutes to the reader. Apropos of this contention, blessed are the memories of Jacobi and Osler! In the same connection certain names of the living might be deferentially and gratefully mentioned were it not for the risk of suggesting invidious

Then quite as relevant as the consideration of "mul

tum" is that of "multa."

Martial, himself a model of laconism, propounded this query-"He who writes distiches wishes, I suppose, to please by brevity. But, tell me, of what avail is their brevity when there is a whole book full of them?" It is easy to be prolix-exuberance is spontaneous. It is hard to be brief—terseness must be laboriously wrought out. In one of Pascal's "Lettres provinciales" occurs this passage—“Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loiser de la faire plus courte"-("I have not made this longer only because I have not had the leisure to make it shorter.")

Thank God! the hell-storm is over. Of course, the wounds of war, which are many and large and deep, remain to be healed. And human life, social, political and national, must have imparted to it new purpose, new energy, new movement, And the burdens entailed by that dire debauch of Mars gone mad must be shouldered -squirming and shirking are idle. The fiddler must be paid-if one dances one must pay the fiddler. But for all of that, the hell-storm is over. How it deflected the set course of our activities! How it halted and suspended the progress of much of our work! How it shocked out of staid and steady habit, and intensified into highvoltage current, the even tenor of our thought! The hell-storm is over! The worker may again take up his task, cast aside when the past sprang at the throat of the future. The thinker may find and join his snapped thread, to those sitting at his feet saying, “As I was about to remark when my voice was drowned by the roar of Hun guns."

We are in a trolley-car on our way from the suburbs into town. Beside us sits a man of venerable appearance in clerical garb. He is intently poring over a pamphlet. What can it be? A dissertation bearing upon divinity? We catch the caption-ah!-"The Profits of Commercial Mining!" Are, then, the old preacher's mien and manner merely sanctimonious? Is he a pious fraud? Well, at any rate, he had better be conning the Prophets

of Israel.

To the insect with life-span of a day what matters it whether death comes in the forenoon or in the afternoon? To live joyously, rapturously in the sunshine, that is of greater import than to live long hours. Life should be estimated by its intensity, rather than by its extension. They ring true to an exalted, noble impulse, these lines of Scott

"Sound, sound the clarion! fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life

Is worth an age without a name."

Some people are grasping and avaricious to the degree of absurdity and asininity. They would vociferously and obstinately claim their full share were it an affair even of rattlesnakes! Of this class was the skinflint who, in watching a pharmacist compound for him a strichnine mixture, insisted that he should have good, down weight!

Medicine constantly faces numerous questions weighty and urgent. But about the most momentous, the most pressing, the most vital problem confronting the average medical man at present is to make an ante-bellum income cover post-bellum expenses.

Does a doctor wish to pass a peaceful, easy, comfortable, pleasant professional career? Let him at the outset enter into a close partnership with nature, and then allow her to lead, and depend on her to do three-fourths of the work.

"Cussing" may be elevated to a fine art. Most physicians have proficiently acquired it. Indeed, the writer cannot recall an instance where a genuinely worth-while doctor did not at the psychologic moment grandly respond to the exigency, doing credit both to the art and to himself. If you would hear the thing done to the pink of perfection you have only to surprise the doctor at his best! He will electrify you-spellbind you-overawe you! "Cuss words" constitute the natural safety-valve for pent-up feelings. Low-pressure men may ignore them; but to high-pressure men they seem to be an indispensable equipment. By the way, there is an internal variety of "Cussing" which better comports with particular personages and particular environments. But practically this sort functionates rather ineffectively and unsatisfactorily. Said the bishop to his comrade in the fishing boat when their bottle of burgundy slipped overboard, as they were preparing to lunch, "You say it, Jack; you're a layman.' And the doctor is a high-pressure man-inevitably so from

Within the innermost chamber of every man's soul is a holy of holies that no one but he may enter-where in privacy, in secrecy, in silence, he comes face to face with God. The final recesses of a man's being are a retreat for his only, his very self-are terra incognita to all the world besides. The ultimate paths of life a man is born to tread alone,

his life and his work. And he should not be censured too severely if those strong, hot invectives which at times stir and strain his very soul should leap forth from his lips. But a safety-valve ought to be set around two hundred pounds. When it reacts to such a pressure the effect is invigorating, exhilarating, inspiring-its operation symbolizes dignity and power! Yet, on the contrary, what

could be more contemptible and disgusting than a safetyvalve that at the most inopportune junctures intrusively and testily sputters and pluffs at any and every low pressure! Blow off at two hundred, but not till then! W. B. KONKLE, M. D.

Montoursville, Pennsylvania.

T HAD to come!

After the tremendous initial success that crowned the efforts of the ' promoters of the prohibition bill, it was to be foreseen that other bills would soon follow. Success is always the best stimulus to new and greater efforts. At present the exponents of the dry law are turning their attention to the country's wet baby diapers. Having succeeded in keeping the grown-up people dry, they are now trying to enact laws which will also force the babies to go dry.

The proposed new bill makes it a misbehavior and misdemeanor for any baby to be wet within the United States or its dependencies. A canvass among congressmen and government officials leaves no doubt as to its successful and early passage. Men and women of all parties realize its tremendous importance and have pledged themselves to give the new measure their wholehearted support.

The proposed law is indeed of the utmost necessity to this country. Only recently a well-known physician predicted the extinction of the U. S. within 150 years in case the doctrine of Birth Control continues in its present ascendancy.

Statesmen and educators have become alarmed and now realize that academic discussions will not bring any improvement in the situation. Only laws can prevent possible future disaster. The dry baby law is a beginning in the right direction.

At present parents are not willing to bring babies into the world because servants are not to be had, and the little help that a selected few can secure is utterly insufficient to take care of all the wet diapers of the community. Should the law be passed and vigorously enforced,

then parents will not hesitate any longer to rear as many children as the welfare of the country demands.

A careful study and analysis of the new law easily convinces the most skeptical of its urgency and efficacy.

Government officials have estimated that the yearly saving in cotton alone (up till now consumed in the useless manufacture of diapers) would pay off our total war debt. Besides it would make available this tremendous quantity of cotton for other purposes and thus reduce prices considerably.

The eradication of wet diapers will further result in a yearly saving of about seven billion pounds of soap, enough to give every citizen of the United States a thorough scrub three times a day. This again will inevitably result in a cleaner and more sanitary people and will increase the average life of the inhabitants from five to ten years.

The doing away with diaper washing will considerably reduce the demand for labor and consequently make its cost come down materially. This can fortunately result in reduced prices for all commodities without disturbing the usual profits of the manufacturers and speculators.

Therefore from whatever angle we look at the proposed Dry Baby Law we must come to the conclusion that it is the most sensible and the most wholesome proposal ever submitted to a legislative body. The existence and welfare of this country demand more babies. Wet diapers, shortage of help, and the high cost of living prevents citizens from fulfilling their patriotic duty. The Dry Baby Law remedies all these conditions, and let us hope that it will be passed without any unnecessary debate or delay, and that the wetting of diapers will be made a federal offense.

New York, N. Y.

M. A. FINK, D. D. S.

OU know that many new discoveries were only brought about by the accidental observation of facts that in

reality had been taking place again

and again without being noticed. Today, I am going to speak to you about phenomena so unsuspected and so sensational that you may perhaps think I am entertaining you with the wildest, strangest, most mysterious, most stupendous, most marvelous of fairy tales. Yet, the occurrences, I shall presently describe and explain, are not new, rare, or abnormal; they are daily taking place in our midst and no doubt have existed since the beginning of creation. But it required the alert, receptive, and gifted minds of the great scientists of this institute to uncover and to disclose these wonders and mysteries of the universe.

Give me your close and undivided attention, allow nothing to distract you while I am pouring into your well-shaped ears the most marvelous, the most astounding, the most electrifying, the most bewildering, the most fascinating story of our wonderful, amazing, startling and stupefying discoveries; discoveries the capital importance of which cannot as yet be fully grasped or conceived.

Many years ago, scientists suspected already that the. classification of the world into an organic and inorganic kingdom was merely arbitrary and that in reality nature did not draw a distinct line of demarcation.

When, finally, the famous chemist Woehler succeeded in making urea, a characteristic compound of animal metabolism, from ammonium cyanate, an inorganic compound, this suspicion became a certainty.

However, our recent researches in the laboratories of this Institute have brought to light facts which the boldest philosophical speculators would not have dared to entertain as possible. The facts simply stagger the imagination; they revolutionize altogether our conception of this universe; they put topsy turvy all the scientific chemical, physical, physiological and biological laws which humanity considered inviolable and which up till now were held in great reverence and admiration.

tions and consciousness just the same as any living creature! Such a person would either have been burned alive, or at least confined to a lunatic asylum. Alone the thought of such a possibility makes us look aghast and doubt whether we stand on our heads or our heels.

And yet, unbelievable and preposterous as it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact; a fact which can be proven, and has been proven.

My eminent confrère, Professor Fiddlestick, of Missouri, was not less startled than you are now, when i

first acquainted him with the result of my researches and

confided to him my new discoveries. He became dumfounded, fainted, and only a few weeks ago regained his

senses which we feared were forever lost. He at once set to work to check up my experiments, and, behold, as I said before, he found the unconceivable to be nevertheless true. Professor Fiddlestick rubbed his eyes. He looked into the mirror. "Am I dreaming?" he said to himself. "No, I am wide awake, and have convinced myself that my friend's sensational revelations are not exaggerated at all; they are not, as I at first thought, the offspring of a wild and too vivid imagination; they are simply plain and conservative statements of facts scientifically proven."

Indeed, my dear students, there really does not exist any so-called dead matter in this world. Everything possesses sensations and probably also consciousness.

Let me describe to you in what manner these stupefying discoveries were brought about. The daily administration of different anesthetics in our clinic, brought me to the idea that it would perhaps be worth while to investigate what became of the pain. I remembered that matter and energy were indestructible and as I considered pain only an expression of energy, I reasoned that it also could probably not be destroyed, but only transformed. I thus began to conduct experiments on this line.

First of all, I studied the expressions of laughter and tears on numerous patients, and soon came to the conclusion that both were only different manifestations of the same sentiment or feeling which the laity calls pain. Time is too short to describe to you, in one lecture, in detail all the experiments which finally led me to formulate my new theory; let it suffice to give you only a few

Figure to yourselves for a moment what would have happened if only a few years ago somebody would have