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no debt the average person so reluctantly pays as that to the doctor, and his is one of the professions which affords many opportunities of meditating on the meanness of some human natures. The nurse must and should of course be paid, but the doctor must wait; and if in spite of his efforts, broken rest and anxiety, the patient dies, the lawyer and the undertaker command the situation. The doctor's bill is the one to be heavily discounted."

Our profession is greatly overcrowded. One might suppose that the increast stringency of the curriculums and the State Board examinations, together with the expenses, would check the rush into medicin, but it seems not. Colleges spring up like mushrooms; there is no lack of material. What is to become of all the newly hatcht and fledged M.D.'s, our annual output, if they expect to make a living by their profession, is more than I can say, and I am înclined to fall back on Mark Twain's suggestion anent the "poor man." "Can them." Undoubtedly the inroads upon our practise by quacks and impostors of every denomination has much to do with the difficulties reputable doctors find in trying to make a living. These charlatans obtain a large share of the money annually expended for medicins, as they do a cash business.

I think that a protectiv association-state -independent of existing medical societies and open to members of all reputable medical associations, would best serve to check the growing evils besetting the profession. The members of such associations would be required to furnish a monthly statement of the names of habitual delinquents. The association would also take measures to unmask and enforce existing laws, as they are not now generally enforced against unlicensed practicians of medicin. Many of these are itinerant charlatans. They appear meteor-like, collect money from their dupes and are off, never visiting a place twice except disguised beyond recognition. Verily, "the Gods help only those who help themselves." We must organize. Unity is strength.

West Sound, Wash.

DR. J. FITZ-MATHEW.

The Barbarous Orthoepy of the English

Language.

The sound of sh in ship is represented by ce in ocean, by ci in suspicion, by ti in nation, by xi in anxious, by sci in conscience, by s in sure.

The long sound of e in mete is represented by ea in meat, ee in meet, i in machine, ie in believe, ei in receive, eo in people, ae in aegis.

The short sound of e in let is represented by ea in head, eo in leopard, ay in says, ai in said, ei in heifer, a in many.

[The above comes from Stamford, Conn., without the name of the writer; but it is good enuf to go in, even if anonymous.-ED.]

Removal of Head Lice.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I have just been reading the September WORLD, and by so do. ing have discovered that I am not thoroly posted in materia medica yet. In one of the cures for head lice it is recommended to fill a bottle one-third full of fish berries and then fill with whiskey or brandy. Now, please tell me what are fish berries. I was not aware that fish patronized berries.

So far as the killing of head lice is concerned, it is a very easy matter to kill the lice. There are many things that will do this, but to get rid of them you must destroy the larvae or nits. These are very numerous and very hard and fast upon the hair. I have seen girls' hair so covered with them as to give the appearance of being covered with fine sand. In my opinion there are only two ways of getting rid of them: One is to take clippers and clip the hair off close to the scalp. In the case of boys this should always be done; but in girls it is often objected to. often objected to. Then I recommend the hair to be thoroly coated over with lard or vaselin for a day or two, a cap being worn over it. This softens the larvae. Then give it a thoro washing in hot water to which has been added a spoonful of borax or carbonate of ammonia. Then use a good fine comb to remove the debris. This must be repeated until the head is thoroly cleansed. R. J. D.

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How to Estimate Quantity of Drug for Percentage Solutions.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-The exact weight of an ounce of water is 455 grains; multiply 455 by the percentage wanted; this will give the number of grains of the drug to the ounce of water. For example, 455 X 1 percent 4.55 grains to the ounce for a 1 percent solution; 3 percent solution: 455 X 3 percent 13.65 grains per ounce. W. L. WILSON, M.D. Scipio, Ind.

Dr. W. J. Baird, of Plain Dealing, La., wants to know the best remedies for vomiting of pregnancy. He will find a great many in the books, and he will also find in this as in other diseases, a great many remedies being recommended means that the treatment is usually unsatisfactory. Study the books well, then study the case well; and then do the best you can. Perhaps some of our readers have had unusually satisfactory experiences. If so, they will wish to give Dr. Baird the benefit of the same, either directly or thru THE WORLDyour WORLD.

An Experiment with Bacilli.-Formulas For Diarrhea.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-On exposing a test tube containing a culture of hay-bacilli, to the rays emitted by a tube of calcium nitrate (which had previously been exposed to the sun's rays, so as to produce phosphorescence), the growth of the bacilli, I observed, was inhibited. My experiments on the tubercle bacilli so far have been negativ. Calcium nitrate is easily prepared by adding calcium carbonate (chalk) to nitric acid, and evaporating the liquid. Reaction: CaCo,+ 2HÑo, Ca (No,), H2O + Co,.

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Here are two valuable formulas for summer diarrhea. For summer diarrhea of children the following:

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Secrets in Medicin.-Ideal Hernia Cure. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Your comments on page 395, September issue, recall the oft repeated statement that the medical profession is lookt upon as a fertil field for the individual or concern with a secret system or private formula for sale.

In the past ten years you have publisht in THE WORLD dozens of formulae for flexible splints, any or all of which are undoubtedly as good as the one the fakir sold to the Canadian physicians.

This class of business, not very many years ago in a very flourishing state, is gradually becoming less prevalent. This is, I think, due to the educational campaign carried on by journals whose editors have the financial as well as the professional welfare of their readers at heart.

In this connection I will give you the formula of the Ideal Hernia Cure, of St. Paul, Minn. For this formula and a hypodermic syringe they charge only (?) $10.

R Glycerole of tannic acid (90 grs. to oz. 1) drs. ij
Alcohol.
dr.

dr.

Tr. cantharides. M. Sig.-Five to fifteen drops should be injected at each treatment. Patient must remain in bed at absolute rest two days after each treatment.

The method of injection and technique of the operation are the same as have appeared in the columns of THE WORLD a number of times. According to their claims, it is seldom necessary to give more than six treatments for a

cure.

It will be seen by this that this formula offers absolutely nothing to the practician that has not heretofore been publisht. The fact that business of this nature can still be done simply demonstrates that secrecy still exerts a peculiar charm on humanity, and as doctors are only human, they occasionally give way to their curiosity and loosen their purse strings. Hundreds of these secrets have been investigated and exposed, and there is seldom anything offered that is new, or of more advantage to the physician than formulae and methods which are publisht in practical medical journals and books on the subjects.

PRACTICAL M.D.

While it is admitted that it is impossible to disinfect the air in the sick room while occupied by the patient, much may be accomplisht by the removal or neutralization of foul odors. Thoro aeration is possible in nearly every case, and the germicidal properties of sunlight should not be forgotten. If complete aeration is not sufficient to keep the air sweet, pastiles may be made containing benzoin, which, when burned, impart a delightful fragrance to the air which is agreeable to patient and attendants. Formaldehyd pastiles, if vaporized very slowly, are quite efficient. In small quantity this gas is not disagreeable or irritating, and acts powerfully as a deodorant, not by supplanting one disagreeable smell by another, but by destroying the offensiv odor thru chemical union with it.

OCTOBER, 1903]

What Shall we do with our Maniacs and Degenerates?

What Shall we do with our Maniacs and Degenerates?

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-In a recent issue of THE MEDICAL WORLD I notice an article by Dr. Spalding, of Narberth, Pa. In this article Dr. Spalding claims that idiots, lunatics and other degenerates have no excuse for living. While the world would be better off without such degenerates, no doubt, I do not see how the views of our eminent friend can be carried out. Why?

First: The milder types of insanity are often of progressiv development; they are not exhibited in the baby or child, but mature in the adult, and it is then too late to resort to execution.

Second Legally speaking, there is not a perfectly sound man or woman in the world; all men and women are mentally more or less deranged. Where shall we draw the line between sanity and insanity? One man has a mania for pilfering, another for carnal intercourse, another for large amounts of money, and so on.

Mr. Morgan wants power, and knows that money is the means to gain it. It's a mania of a mild type and a harmless one in his hands, for he does not abuse his wealth or influence.

Pyromania, dypsomania and about thirty other forms of mania are seen and recognized, but it would be a mistake to say that, unless violent, they are especially dangerous, and deserve death. Many maniacs are not violent or dangerous. Why kill them off?

A woman came to me some years since who was suffering with religious frenzy; she passed much of her time in prayer; another confest that she could not receive enuf drink to satisfy her appetite; and still another told me that she had received eight men in one night; another could not get satisfaction or pleasure from the sexual act.

There were four instances of mania.

1. Religious mania.

2. Alcoholic mania.

3. Sexual mania.

4. Non-sexual mania.

Would you kill off these poor deluded maniacs? One word to Dr. Spalding: Where shall we draw the line?

LUIGI GALVANI DOANE, M.D. New York City, N. Y.

Reply:

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I am very much obliged to Dr. Doane for his courteous criticism of my article (page 338, July WORLD), on incurable insane, idiots and criminals, but if he will kindly refer to the article again, he will see that I did not say they should be executed, but I advised that they

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should be emasculated, after examination by a competent board of physicians and pronounced incurable. While the execution of these poor incurable sufferers might be best, yet the thought is terrible and the populace would not acquiesce in it.

In another part of his article he throws a bouquet at Mr. Morgan, saying that he has a "mania," and that he does not abuse his wealth or influence, but wants the money for the power it will give him. Right here I should differ from the Doctor, and say that Morgan, Rockefeller, divine right Baer and all others of their kind will some day be regarded with abhorrence, when the people rise to the point of true justice, which seems to be coming fast. Even Mr. Carnegie has reformed, and Mr. Hanna is under deep conviction, if their statements can be relied upon. Some day the law must control the great avarice of these men or our Republic is doomed. How a person can want another million" is a mystery, and the Doctor may be right in calling it a mania, or financial greed amounting to insanity. What more prolific cause of insanity, degeneracy and criminality than the long hours and poor pay to increase the riches of those already too rich? Such men regard the law with contempt; and President Roosevelt is today staggered by the thought that they cannot be controled. Such men seldom advance civilization, but retard it. When I recall the wholesale robbery of the masses by such to increase their wealth, the scorching invectiv of Bram comes to mind, who says: "I long for the mystic power to coin sentences that sear like sulfurous flames from hottest hell, and weave of words a whip of scorpions to lash the rascals naked thru the world."

Narberth, Pa.

C. M. SPALDING.

[Bram was an iconoclast of tremendous power. When he was killed, the world lost the best of his kind. But does the world, particularly this country, need men of his kind? I think not. While it is necessary sometimes to tear up and destroy the weeds of civilization, and demolish structures that have far out-lived their period of usefulness and are a burden and a hindrance to progress, yet iconoclastic destruction is liable to include much that is of permanent value (for which humanity has labored for centuries), and leave only desolation in its wake. We need constructiv men. The old will be deserted if the new is better. We should keep the old structure until we have a better to go to. Progress in New Zealand was made by constructiv men and measures. For example, when credit was nationalized, and the Government offered money to farmers and small busi

*Our book, "The Story of New Zealand," is now partly on press, and will be ready in a month or two.

ness men at a low rate of interest, usury was destroyed-not by repressing it, but it died a natural death because something better was offered in its place.

Dr. Doane says that Mr. Morgan "does not abuse his wealth or influence." I suppose he would say the same of Mr. Rockefeller and many other prominent millionaires. The question that the country is interested in is not "the abuse of wealth," but the many abuses incident to obtaining the wealth. I know a civil war veteran who, after a singularly industrious and abstemious life, and after successfully raising his family and seeing them placed on a self-supporting basis, was induced to invest the savings, upon which he and his wife expected to retire and spend their declining days in modest comfort, in United States Steel (steel trust) stock, upon the assurance that it would be a safe and productiv investment. The stock was bought at 45, and now it is in the neighborhood of 18! Thus over half of the savings of this worthy and industrious citizen, a war hero, has been swept away. Yet Mr. Morgan complains of "undigested securities"—that is, that the public has not purchast this watered stock freely enuf! When Mr. Morgan and his co-conspirators unload upon the public, something else will be gotten up temptingly and unloaded on a gullible public, and thus Mr. Morgan has made his millions. This refined sort of robbery is what the people are suffering from, and not from "abuse of wealth." This is a sample of the ways in which Mr. Morgan has made his millions, and these millions have given him great power. And he does abuse his power. His position in the financial world gives him great influence with the leading and powerful newspapers. All observing people saw how steel trust stock was exploited in the newspapers, both by advertisements and editorials (many no doubt inspired), and thus many people were induced to invest their savings, and add to Mr. Morgan's millions.

All

Mr. Rockefeller does it by his monopoly of the oil market. He maintains his monopoly by preventing competition in this way: Suppose competition appears in a certain district. Immediately the Standard Oil Co. reduces the price of oil in that section, even to much below cost if necessary, at the same time raising the price in other sections sufficient to regain its loss in the competing section. Thus Mr. Rockefeller can continue the fight indefinitly, and the competition, however strong at first, must finally go under, for it cannot recoup by an abnormally high price in other sections. As soon as the competition is driven out, up goes the price again to the former level. this way competition is downed every time, and the monopoly is maintained. Is not this

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an abuse of power? Is it for the country's best good that any man, any firm or any company should possess such power? This is a big subject, interesting and important; but we must be satisfied for the present with the above slight peep into it. There are adequate remedies for these abuses of power, but we cannot go into them here.—ED.]

Dwarf Elder.-Trismus.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD :-Since the publication of my article in the August WORLD, I have been busy answering letters from almost every state in the Union, asking me to "state fully what part of the dwarf elder is used and how to prepare it, etc." As I am still receiving letters, I desire to explain more fully thru the WORLD the properties of the dwarf elder, so that all may learn something about this most useful plant.

Since writing the above, a letter is just now dropt on my table, stating: "I read your article on page 355, in THE MEDICAL WORLD of August, 1903, with much interest and benefit. I hope you will give us more of your experience on various diseases in the near future in THE MEDICAL WORLD."

Dwarf elder is a plant that dies every year and rises afresh in the spring with a foursquare, rough, prickly stalk three to four feet high. The flowers are white, with a dash of purple, standing in umbels on the top of the stalk, and terminating in reddish or darkcolored berries. The root creeps under the upper crust of the ground as large as the finger and springs up again in different places.

The succus or fresh juice from the green root is the part used for coloring the hair. I have never tried it in any other form, but I am satisfied it would be equally as efficacious if applied in the form of a strong infusion or decoction. It is worth experimenting with, as it is strictly a vegetable hair dye, safe and perfectly harmless. As a medicin, it is remarkable for relieving rheumatic pains and violent colics, toothache, etc. It has acquired great fame in curing dropsy, chronic rheumatism and cutaneous eruptions, and is sometimes employed in syphilis. The bark of the green root is an emetic and cathartic, and a powerful diuretic.

On June 15 I was called to see an infant son of Mr. G., six days after the cord had dropt off. At the moment I saw the infant it was attackt with trismus, or rigid convulsions. It would frequently start up from sleep, and seem to have an avidity for the breast, but soon forsake it. Its mouth would become pointed, lips comprest, and face corrugated by striated wrinkles, its eyes surrounded by a bluish ring

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Two teaspoonfuls of this were injected into the rectum every one or two hours, until its mouth was opened sufficiently to admit a teaspoonful by the mouth every one or two hours. Its bowels were kept open with castor oil and salts, and one drop of tincture of opium was given occasionally, as occasion required its use.

Milk and beef tea with yolk of eggs were injected into the stomach by the aid of a gum elastic catheter, which was easily introduced into the esophagus.

After two weeks suspended between life and death in this manner it seemed to fully recover, but the mother having applied to the maternal nipples a solution of carbolic acid, without my knowledge, the infant became disgusted and refused the breast. It was placed on sterilized milk and all the peptonized food obtainable by free samples and trial packages, and notwithstanding all the hygienic measures brought to bear in this case, the white-winged messenger conducted its spirit into the mysteries of eternity, yesterday at 4 o'clock a.m., August 31, 1903.

I am unable to recall to mind a half dozen infants who recovered from trismus or rigid convulsions which occurred early after birth in a practise of twenty odd years; and I know of but few children, who have been "handraised" partially or wholly, that did not present a disordered nutrition, and the bones become irregular, and calcification imperfect, and more or less deformities result, passing gradually into rachitis.

Our bacteriologists inform us that there are several forms of bacteria which will produce typhoid fever, and thirty odd germs have been discovered in the dejecta of infants suffering from cholera infantum. I have no unkind feelings against the germ theory, but in all infantil diseases like the one I have just described, they have nearly all crossed over the river. Perhaps I have been nagging at the wrong bug, or the infant has been "too smart

for this world," and God, for some special reason best known to Himself, took it home.

Chattanooga, Tenn. L. CASE, M.D. [Do you think it well to feed a baby seriously ill with "all the peptonized food obtainable by free samples and trial packages"? A rational and consistent selection should be made and continued according to judgment. This babe was ill two months and a half, and according to the above, it was fed during that time on free samples!!! In the offices of manufacturers, "sample fiends" is a familiar expression. It means those who always ask for something free but never buy. Doctors are not expected to buy for their patients, but they are expected to order their patrons to buy that which the doctor thinks will be best for the patient.-ED.]

Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Was called August 2, to attend Mrs. S., a primipara, in confinement. Presentation and labor normal, except second stage was prolonged, due to a rather large hydrocephalus. In due time a full term, seven pound girl was born. Tied cord, examined head and was about to give baby over to the nurse when I noticed, situated in the lumbo-sacral region, a swelling the size of a small orange, oval in shape and median in position. This, a position. This, a "spina bifida," is a congenital malformation of the vertebral column

in which one or more of the arches have failed to close and the contents of the spinal canal protrude in the form of a fluid tumor. The general health of the child seemed good and the functions intact. My prognosis was very unfavorable.

Treatment was limited to protecting the sac from injury. After cleansing with antiseptic solution, a dry antiseptic dressing was applied, then a bandage, which was removed every second day. At the third week a perforating ulcer occured with a little dropping of the cerebro-spinal fluid. This, if child were doing well otherwise, might be nature's cure for the hydrocephalus. However marasmus claimed the little victim at four weeks. A fever of inanition developt the last few days with crying and restlessness, but there were no convulsions at any time. Scribner, Neb.

O. C. HOPPER, M.D.

Probably no drug acts so kindly in pure neurasthenia as codein. It is given in small doses four to six times daily, and the dose gradually increast until the effect is secured; it is then continued in same quantity for some time; and then gradually diminisht. It is important to assure patients that they "are not taking morphin or opium," and not to permit them to know what they are taking.

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