One thing more must be noted. All well-attested "faith cures" are either of purely nervous diseases or of organs closely dependent upon the nervous system. Of the four authentic cases of cure at Old Orchard, two were spinal affections, one sciatica, and one heart disease. But most so-called heart disease is a mere nervous derangement, and if this case were such, all four cases were nervous affections. All nerves centre in the brain and may be acted upon through the brain. This is best shown in mesmerism; but the fact is indisputable. A very powerful brain stimulus, an idea or conviction, an expectation even, or disappointment, will communicate itself to the whole nervous apparatus. The idea that the great spirit of the universe is exerting itself in his or her behalf must create a powerful excitation in a credulous mind. Bones are not set by prayer nor by any nervous stimulation. No contagious disease is ever cured by miracle. Diphtheria, fevers, small-pox, and malaria are not influenced by faith. Freckles and sunburn, any disease of the hair or nails, in fact disease in any portion of the body not supplied with sensitive nerves, refuse to yield to the most devout faith. Advertiser.

PERSONAL.

MRS. A. M. SELEE, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has located at Melrose, Mass. WM. S. MORRISON, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), has settled at Memphis, Tenn. HERBERT C. CLAPP, M. D., has removed from 16 Concord Square to 11 Columbus Square, corner West Newton Street, Boston.

E. M. CURRIER, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), who has been in Vienna the past year, will continue his medical studies abroad another year.

F. D. TRIPP, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), has received the appointment of Interne at Ward's Island Homœopathic Hospital.

M. F. STYLES, M. D., has removed from 28 East Brookline Street to 433 Columbus Avenue, Boston.

MISS M. F. MCCrillis, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has received the appointment of Resident Physician to the Conservatory of Music, a position for which she is admirably fitted.

WM. R. RAY, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has returned to Australia, and is associated with his father, Robert Ray, M. D. His address is 131 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

PROF. CAROLINE E. HASTINGS, M. D., of Boston University School of Medicine, has been spending several months in Vienna, where she has enjoyed special advantages. We publish a letter from her in this number of the GAZETTE.

HORACE PACKARD, M D., has returned to Boston, after a year's absence in Europe, where he has been giving special attention to surgery and pathology. He has received the appointment of Clinical Assistant in Surgery in Boston University School of Medicine. He has located at 570 Tremont Street, Boston.

A. L. KENNEDY, M. D., who has been, during the past year, in the hospitals and schools of Europe, has returned, and located at No. 1 St. James Avenue, corner of Berkeley Street, Boston. Although he does not intend to relinquish general practice, he will give special attention to diseases of the chest.

GEORGE R. SOUTHWICK, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), who spent several months in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and received therefrom the degree of Master of Obstetrics, will soon return to Boston, where he has received the appointment of Clinical Assistant in Obstetrics in his alma mater.

WE had hoped that the legal troubles of the Homœopathic Medical College of Mich gan University had ended; but the last announcement states that H. C. Kussel. mann has been appointed Prosecutor of the Chair of Surgery. Our sympathies go with Prof. Franklin.

To what extent the subcutaneous injection of medicinal substances is to supersede the almost universally accepted method, per os, the present or coming generation of physicians must determine. Chrestien, in the beginning of this century, published a treatise on the iatraliptic method; but Magendie and Bernard first proved by physiological experiments the direct absorption of medicinal substances when introduced under the skin. Lafargue's discovery of the anodynous properties of morphine when inoculated under the skin, and the subsequent improvement upon this method by Rynd, Wood, and Hunter, have done more toward introducing this method than all else. Hunter it was "who demonstrated that hypodermic injections acted by absorption; that they acted quicker than by the endermic method or the stomachic doses; that they acted more effectually, and that a small injected dose was equivalent to a much larger one by the stomach." Eulenberg's work, German, and Bartholow's work, English, - have done much towards making physicians acquainted with the possibilities of the method; and the many experiments made during the past decade all attest its value. Its advantages over every other, Bartholow claims, are, “1. The effect is produced more speedily, and the whole effect of the quantity introduced. 2. The results are more permanent ånd curative. 3. Gastric disturbance rarely occurs, and irritation of the stomach is avoided. 4. The administration may be made to persons unwilling or unable to swallow." With the use of brandy, whiskey, and sulphuric ether in this way to stimulate the system after severe hemorrhage; of morphine to check puerperal convulsions; of ergotine to control hemorrhage, dissipate fibroid growths of the uterus, and expel uterine polypi; most of us are familiar: but the most brilliant results seem to have been realized in the treatment of syphilis with mercury in small doses. Lewin, of Berlin, Liegeois and Cornil, of Paris, have all experi

mented with it, and reported better success and fewer relapses than from any other treatment, and the dose varied from grain to grain In eczema and psoriasis M. Lepp reports most favorable results from the use of small doses of arsenic. Declat, from subcutaneous injections of phenic acid, reports cures which verge on the miraculous.

Homœopathic literature contains very little of clinical experience with this method; and this is easily explained when we consider that the first three of Bartholow's advantages are and always have been claimed as belonging to homoeopathic medication. Nevertheless, as physicians we must have cases where the last advantage claimed can be utilized. In cancer of the stomach or duodenum, chronic gastric catarrh, and acute mania, in convulsions, in coma, and many other instances this method might prove invaluable. Only lately we have heard of homoeopathic physicians experimenting with remedies hypodermatically in skin diseases, and with apparent good results. We republish in this number a report of two cases treated by Kalka, by hypodermatic medication, which may prove as interesting to our readers as to ourselves.. The late Dr. Okie, of Providence, reported several cases of chronic enuresis cured by the hypodermatic administration of homœopathic remedies, when the same remedies given in the usual way were of no service.

T

WHAT SHALL HOMEOPATHS DO WITH THEMSELVES?

In the last number of the GAZETTE we considered the question which has troubled the allopathic mind for nearly three quarters of a century, "What shall we do with the homoeopaths?" Now we propose to look at the matter from our own standpoint and see what are our opportunities, our duties, and our responsibilities; in fact, what we can do with and for ourselves. In the first place, then, it may not be amiss to review our past work and examine our present position.

The very announcement of a therapeutic law, where all before had been vague, uncertain theory, and changing, often senseless, practice, was the first step toward setting aside the false pathological notions then prevalent, as well as the pernicious methods which they gave rise to, including the heteropathic polypharmacy which the combined efforts of charlatans, old nurses, and "doctors" had concocted in the preceding three thousand years. That it was no easy task this century has proved. But to-day the great mass of the community, if not of the profession, rejoices in the setting aside and disuse of violent

READING ROOM ASSOCIATI:1, What shall Homeopaths do with Themselves? p 291

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1882.] cathartics, emetics, sudorifics, anthelmintics, etc., etc., as well as of bleeding, leeching, blistering, and torturing generally. Still all of this change was attended with the most violent contortions and circumgyrations, euphemistically called " currents and counter-currents in medicine."

We need not here recount the bitter denunciation and abuse which have been heaped upon those who, by faithfulness to this therapeutic law, have done so much to free the profession from its tangled maze and provide for it a simple reliable materia medica. We are still too much involved in the smoke and confusion of the contest to faithfully describe the work they have done; but we can certainly say that they have brought the whole profession toward the light. What we have accomplished for ourselves is more apparent. We need not speak of a materia medica revised, constructed in fact, each article singly, from aconite to zinc; of the careful study of every disease, and the therapeutic application of these remedies thereto; of the acceptance of the principles and practice of homoeopathy in every country on the face of the globe; but we may profitably consider our own position in this country, and see how we may best benefit the profession by improving ourselves and using our opportunities to the greatest advantage.

After fifty-seven years of growth we have here more than 7,000 physicians, II medical colleges, 16 journals, 140 societies, 42 dispensaries, and 52 hospitals. Stephen Girard used to say that his first thousand dollars cost him more effort than all the rest of his fortune. Have we not already acquired our first "thousand dollars"? With the material and aid which we have at hand, and truth on our side, what may we not accomplish in the near future? For instance, let each one of the seven thousand homœopathic physicians exert his social and professional influence to that end, and how long would it be before our numbers would be doubled? Our colleges, which have done such excellent work, and never better than now, could at once be vastly strengthened and improved. But, in adding to our numbers, a regard to the quality secured is of the greatest importance. One man fitted for the profession both by inherent and acquired qualities, by birth, by nature, by social position, by education, by thorough training, by personal effort, and by ambition, is worth a score of those who lack in these important qualifications. Then, too, these schools, which are carried on at so much personal sacrifice on the part of their several faculties, should receive the appreciation and support of every member of the profession. There are physicians to-day having their sons educated at our colleges who, instead of sending in an extra hundred dollars to increase the library or museum, and which would add to the usefulness of the college,

actually figure to get their tuition at a reduction, or even try to obtain it for nothing, because they are "members of the profession." Such a suicidal policy needs no comments.

Our journals, sixteen in number, last year published over eight thousand pages; and the books and pamphlets of our school probably exceeded that amount. Sixteen thousand pages annually certainly ought to be enough to tell all the good that is new in medicine. We cannot therefore complain of the quantity. But what of the quality! Is it all that it should be? Does it command our own respect and that of the educated physicians whose respect we should have? Can it be improved? Is it our duty to better it? These are personal questions, which every physician may well ask himself and let his own reason and conscience faithfully answer them.

Our dispensaries last year administered to over one hundred thousand patients; and yet that in the whole year was only one patient in every five hundred of the entire population. We have cities with more than one hundred thousand, and many with more than fifty thousand, inhabitants, which do not possess a single place where the poor can be freely treated homoeopathically. And yet in every one of these places energy and effort only are required, and the means would not be wanting to supply this need. Have we not duties in this direction,― duties to the community, to the profession, and to ourselves?

Our hospitals have increased favorably in the past ten years. They number, so far as we know, fifty-two, have been erected at an estimated cost of three millions of dollars, and last year provided for fifteen thousand patients. This seems to be a grand aggregate; but when we consider that this gives less than one hospital, great or small, for every million of inhabitants, and that we have for the whole United States hospitals less in number, capacity, and cost than is provided in the city of New York alone, we may well open our eyes and take in the extent and amount of work before us. Can we, with our opportunities, cope with these necessities? To any one who has tried it we need not say that it is a difficult matter to raise a thousand dollars for any hospital; and yet in the city of Pittsburgh last year one hundred thousand dollars was obtained for their homoeopathic hospital; and a sufficient amount of well-directed work would do the same thing in every city of its size. It is estimated that over one hundred million dollars is annually contributed to charity in this country, a large share of which goes to hospitals. Can we not secure at least one per cent of this for our hospitals? There are many men and women holding money in their hands to-day who would willingly devote it to the building and support of homœopathic hospitals and institutions, were there some one to