The annual report of the Grace Hospital has just been submitted to its board of trustees by the superintendent of the hospital, and such portions of it as are considered of interest to the general public are herein given:

Total expenses of year $43,065.51.

Total revenue from pa

tients, training school endowment $41,701.61, leaving a deficiency of $1,363.90.

Number of patients treated in hospital, 1,094; in dispensary, 4,870.

Total number of days' service to all persons, 176,666, at an average cost per person per day of 83 cents; average cost per person per day of uncooked food, 26 cents.

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The ambulance made 655 runs, covering a distance of 2,165 miles; the longest trip was thirty-nine miles, the shortest oneeighth mile, average three and one-half miles.

The training school has received 392 calls for special nurses, of which 230 were supplied; 109 applications from candidates were received, of which 23 were accepted and 16 retained; 11 nurses were graduated.

The expenses of the training school were $9,983.54; earnings, $13,356.06, leaving a surplus of $3,372.52.

Through the generosity of Hon. James McMillan the hospital has been provided with very substantial balconies at the north end of the private room wing and bridges connecting the two southern wings, thus providing ample means of escape in case of fire as well as a suitable promenade for convalescents.

The report is now in the hands of the printer and will be complete and ready for distribution about February 1.

Respectfully submitted,

ROBERT N. SILLMAN, Supt.

The Medical Visitor.

A MEDICAL NEWSPAPER.

No. 4.

APRIL, 1893.

VOL. IX.

OUR GROWTH FOR THE YEAR.

According to an annual custom established by the MEDICAL VISITOR Some years ago, the figures showing the growth of homoopathy in the various States is herewith presented. It will no doubt occasion surprise that the showing this year for the first time is a rather poor one-in fact the grand total shows a loss compared with last year.

There are quite a number of reasons for this apparent loss Firstly, the death rate in the homoeopathic ranks the past twelve months has been unusually high, owing to la grippe and other diseases which overworked even the strongest men.

Secondly, at the suggestion of subscribers, the names of those who deserted homoeopathy for the gold cure or for other of the fads of the day, have been dropped permanently from the list.

Thirdly, the names of physicians who are abroad or away from home at seats of learning not expecting to return to the same field of labor, have also been dropped for the present, or until they locate again.

Fourthly, a careful revision of the list revealed the names of a number of physicians of the regular school, and of course such names were erased, and lastly this summary for the year is made before the homoeopathic colleges graduate their classes.

The

Bearing these facts in mind the showing is not a bad one. The death rate the past twelve months has exceeded 100. names dropped from the list for the desertion of homoeopathic principles exceeded twenty, and the number of regular physicians erased amounted in the entire list to twelve or more.

The

homoeopathic graduates who will settle in the States in the list published will probably exceed four hundred. Hence, if the annual summary was to be made later there would be the usual increase of over two per cent. instead of a loss of equal amount.

Massachusetts, 586 added the present year.

Rhode Island, 81 added the present year.

It will be seen upon inspection of the figures that California is still losing at a rapid rate the natural result of a former

boom. The same may be said of Washington, which is also suffering from a decadence of a boom-the loss being 37 per cent.

Arizona leads in high percentage of increase-200, and she is now in the swim.

Colorado is again looking up as a health resort, New Mexico not quite fulfilling the expectation raised by persistent and judicious advertising.

Michigan, which was formerly the banner State of homoeopathy shows a loss of 3 per cent., while the former year the loss was only 2 per cent.

Maine and Vermont show losses, while little New Hampshire exhibits a gain. Massachusetts and Rhode Island were inserted

too late to make comparisons.

Our own State of Illinois, as usual, shows a slight gain, and the World's Fair with the consequent boom, accounts for it. A loss may be looked for next year when the boomlet is over.

Ten or twelve years since, Dr. Fincke sent me some notes of the effects of O. G. Pel. and its sphere of action, but the letter was mislaid, and I had forgotten the occurrence until I noticed in a recent number of the Investigator results obtained by Dr. Edson with Ova Tosta, or toasted egg-shell.

I have not the books at my command, to ascertain if egg shell, raw or toasted, was much used in olden times, but I find in "Reverius' Practice of Physics" published in 1658, that powdered egg shell is named as a remedy for nocturnal enuresis. "Also the powder of egg shells alone is commended, a dram thereof being given divers mornings together; it is accounted by some for a secret," and was prescribed for "immoderate flux of the courses, while the shells of two new laid eggs, burnt," was an ingredient in a prescription for the same complaint.

I doubt if there is anything new in remedies. Looking over this old work on practice, I find nearly all the medicines used at the present day, and a very large number used singly.

I prepared ovi gal. pel. by triturating the fresh pellicle in

*Read before the Denver Homoeopathic Club.

.95 alcohol, and then allowing it to digest for several days before potentizing. The Cm I sent to my friend Dr. Boardman of Trenton, N. J., who had a young lady willing to prove drugs.

This lady while menstruating at the age of sixteen, shoveled snow, and while doing so, felt something give way in her left groin, causing great pain, extending down the thigh to the knee, and thence to the foot and toes, compelling her to keep in bed.

These conditions always appeared after slight exercise or walking, lifting, using the arms, as in sweeping, dusting, reaching upward, and especially while menstruating, which added severe bearing-down pains, and increased pain in the region of left ovary.

During the succeeding twelve years, to the present time, she had been constipated, going a week or more, and sometimes a partial movement every four or five days. She had a pressure against the spinal column, which, while it caused no pain, suggested in connection with the painful menstruation, retroversion; at the time of her courses the abdomen would be greatly and painfully distended; could not learn if it was tympanitic.

In this long period, she says; "if I keep quiet, walk, or stand very little, live well, amuse myself with light reading and music, I feel perfectly well, but any extra efforts, or exercise in standing or walking, cause me to break down with pains in left ovarian region, thigh, knee and foot, followed by deep melancholy."

It is proper to state, that the above facts were not known at the time she commenced the proving; only that she could not stand exercise.

I have been thus prolix, for a better appreciation of O. G. P. On Wednesday, April 4, when she first took a powder, she was suffering from an attack of the above mentioned pains from over-exertion. In about an hour they suddenly left her, and she got up, dressed, went around and took more than usual exercise. These pains have never returned.

The next day she had two or three slight, sharp pains in left ovary, and the same unusual and peculiar pains came on Friday the 6th; they did not again appear. On this day she engaged in house-cleaning, which she had never before been able to do without great suffering and prostration, and on Saturday, the 7th, was at real work in the morning, and in the afternoon took