policeman, the book is vague and unsatisfactory to one studying the medical side of criminology.

It is an acknowledged truth that needs no argument, that the line between sanity and insanity is a very fine one, and sometimes lost entirely; this is also true of crime, although we are not so willing to acknowledge it. I had a very close personal friend, a minister of the gospel, a man of undaunted integrity, courage, and almost every attribute that goes to make a perfect member of society. He many times told me that he would have the most awful thoughts of crime and a desire to do some dread. ful act, and that a great part of his life was haunted by a fear that he might in some way lose control of his will power and commit some overt act. Perhaps this mental condition was similar to that which disturbed Martin Luther, the reformer, who, according to his own statements, was always contending with a personal and visible devil, and probably only the preservation of his inhibitory powers saved him from becoming insane or criminal. But my friend led a quiet, unblemished life, and one of his most marked characteristics was the sympathy which he always evinced for criminals. A great majority of children even in good families are instinctive criminals, and we see many criminals who have all the characteristics of children-"selfish, prone to passion, giving way to anger at the slightest opposition to their wishes, indifferent to the welfare of others, and resenting deprivations and disappointments, sometimes cruel to animals, delighting in delusions and false statements, and gloating on pictures of cruelty and slaughter." These things, of course, denote an undeveloped brain structure, which undoubtedly is the cause of much crime as well as insanity in the adult.

In this age no one denies that there are members of the criminal class who are amenable to treatment, and not all of these are subjects of physical disease. Many of the younger criminals are reclaimed by better food, housing, and humane environments. It is a curious fact, and one that is disheartening to the reformer, to see an institution like that established in 1818 near Birmingham, in England, allowed to perish for want of support. At the small village of Stretton-on-Dunsmore Sir Eardley Wilmot and others established the Warwickshire Asylum for Convicted Boys. This was a small, unostentatious house capable of con

taining twenty boys, and under the care of a master the boys were taught shoe-making, tailoring, and regular farm work. There was nothing prison-like about the treatment, but the boys were retained nntil the master was convinced that they were cured of their criminal tendencies, and then they were allowed to go back to society. The period of residence ranged from one to three years. For the first nine years of this asylum "81 boys had been committed, of whom 39 had reformed and 42 were failures; 32 of these 39 were more than fifteen years old, and of these 32 there were 20 reformations and 12 failures. Again, of these 32 above fifteen years, 26 were above sixteen years of age, and of these 26 there was a larger proportion of reformations than among the 32 above fifteen years-namely, 17 reformations and 9 failures. Again, of the 26 above sixteen years of age, 8" were above seventeen, and of these 8 there was a still larger proportion of reformations than in the 26 above sixteen yearsnamely, 6 reformations and only 2 failures." Thus showing that the older the inmates the greater was the proportion of those reformed.

This institution was closed in 1854, probably on account of the death of the Rev. Townsend Powell, Vicar of Stretton-onDunsmore, who was the superintendent of the asylum, and one of its founders and "its soul," he serving without fee or emolument of any kind during the entire thirty-six years that the school existed, and probably also from lack of funds after Mr. Powell's death, as there was an effort made to raise other funds, which effort failed. "This fabric rose, flourished, and passed away, all honor be to its memory. The noblest and most enduring monument will be found in the succession of future institutions of a similar character, and in the universal recognition and adoption of those sound and just principles which, confined for a long period within the walls of Stretton, are now carried abroad by the winds of heaven and are finding their way into every heart throughout the length and breadth of our land." So wrote J. E. Eardley Wilmot, a descendant of one of the founders. No such institution has, however, been established in England since that day, but the sound and just principles were wafted to America, where they have crystalized in the establishment of the Elmira Reformatory, founded in 1877 by the State

of New York. This institution is acknowledged by all criminologists everywhere in the world as a model reformatory and a successful exponent of the curability of crime.

The success obtained by the methods employed at the Elmira Reformatory is doing more in this age to encourage the work of the criminologist than any other organized effort that has preceded it. The class of inmates is limited and somewhat selected, but the good accomplished is marked and decided. The London Law Journal, in an extensive article explaining the workings of the institution, concludes in these words: "The working of the New York Reformatory at Elmira appears at present to furnish a model upon which English prison authorities, if not those of the whole world, might well build an improved prison system."

But all this is not what I started out to call your attention to, nevertheless it is encouraging to us to see how much has been done that was neglected in former years, and this is especially due to the large amount of work done in the field of criminology throughout the world. Certainly it may be said, we are not specially criminologists, but as an association of lawyers and physicians part of the general work of our kindred professions surely comes under this head. It would be perfectly proper for this society to recommend a plan of medical examination of every prisoner who is convicted on a criminal charge, for the first offense at least. An especially printed blank filled in by the examining physician ought to be presented to the judge when the prisoner is brought before him for sentence. It could not be considered unreasonable to have one or more physicians attached to every court, whose duty it should be to examine carefully every convicted prisoner before he is sentenced. The examination should be very thorough, in fact, embodying a complete clinical history of the prisoner. The physician's examination blank would in many cases indicate to a thoughtful judge whether or not a convicted prisoner before him should be summarily committed to a place for undoubted criminals, or placed where there would be a possibility of healing some bodily ailment and thereby curing a criminal.

Crime and insanity often begin with the invasion of many of the common maladies of humanity. Professor A. Jacobi, speaking of the causes of insanity and crime, says that the small pin

worm has been known to produce mania, and that disease of the heart influence the circulation of the brain to such an extent as to produce moral disturbance. The changes in the life of woman which alter her nature likewise produce "alterations of the brain and its functions." In fact, all sick conditions that affect the brain and its functions do at times eventuate in crime or insanity, or both. An examining physician in the jail ought to be able to distinguish the alcoholic, epileptic, insane, the vagabond, morally insane, and the degenerates, and all the pathological conditions of life that disturb the circulation of the brain and

the

weaken the will power of man. Undoubtedly many first crimes are committed under conditions induced by some of the drug habits so prevalent to day. Probably, too, puberty and the menopause are responsible for many crimes of females, and there are a multitude of causes, in the decay and disease that are going on about us and in us, that can only be distinguished by the doctor. Dr. Austin Flint truly says: "The reformative treatment of criminals is that which appeals most strongly to us as members of a profession whose mission it is to alleviate suffering and preserve health and life. We do not ask if it is worth while to attempt to reform criminals, but simply 'Can they be reformed?' '

Thus, when the doctor has examined the convicted prisoner and informed the lawyer of the true mental and physical condition of the individual to be placed before the bar of justice, and the judge takes these facts into consideration, in his judgment then the words of Richard Hooker will be true: "Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care and the greatest as not exempted from her power."-New York Medical Journal.

Extracts from Home and Foreign Journals.

SURGICAL.

PARENCHYMATOUS INJECTIONS OF CARBOLIC ACID IN TONSILLAR DISEASE.

The frequently recurring attacks of suppurative disease of the tonsils has led Kramer (Cent. für Chir.., November, 1896) to the conclusion that this recurrence, which is so presistent in such large number of cases, is really due to the presence in the tissues of the gland of bacterial spores, which are evidenced by some fresh exciting cause or condition to a new activity. His observations on a large series of cases confirmed this opinion and led him to try to destroy these spores by parenchymatous injections of carbolic acid.

For this purpose he employed, a few weeks after the recovery from an attack, the injection, by means of a sterilized hypodermatic needle, of a 2 to 3 per cent. solution of carbolic acid. The amount employed was nine minims injected two or three times a week, the treatment comprising four to six doses.

The point selected for injection was cocainized, the needle introduced, and, if no blood could be withdrawn, the injection made, pushing the needle in different directions and distributing the whole amount over a limited area.

The later injections were made each time in some new point. The patients were all full grown. Very little pain was felt; only a slight difficulty in swallowing, which lasted only a few hours. No marked general symptoms were noted, or the slightest sign of poisoning. The local swelling in the part disappeared