carefully examined, and wrote comments upon much of it with remarkable discrimination for his age. Like Aristotle he would have been the first to repudiate the utterly senseless homage paid to his writings. One cannot read the works of Hippocrates without being impressed with the extraordinary acumen of the man. Much that now passes current under his name is doubtless not genuine, in the strict sense of the word; but is at least evidence to the prestige of the master's name. The thinker constantly appears along with the practitioner. And we must always keep in mind that chemistry was unknown and the microscope nonexistant. He tells us, among other things, that rain water is the purest, while ice and snow water are the worst for all purposes. He had carefully noted the radical differences between the people of Asia and of Europe, so far as he knew these parts of the world. What he says concerns the physician but little, the philosopher a great deal. He directly contravenes popular belief when he tells his readers more than once that there is no such thing as a sacred disease; that no disorder is sent by a god, and that all ailments are due to natural causes. How heterodox this was may be seen by any one who reads the first book of the Iliad, where Apollo is represented as having sent a pestilence upon the Greek host. In his discourse on ancient medicine-a singular title for a book written more than four centuries before the Christian era, whether by Hippocrates or some one else— we find the idea of the survival of the fittest clearly indicated; in fact, many of the Greeks had more than an inkling of it. His apprehension of gradual evolution is also shown by the assertion that the vegetables used for food are the outcome of experiments with coarser kinds and the deleterious effects upon the health of those that were rejected. He takes the ground that a man cannot understand the medical art unless he knows, as far as that is possible, what man is. He holds that the physician should be skilled in nature; but what he defines as "nature" is not cosmological, it is rather the etiology of disease and the laws of hygiene. He also speaks of the "common herd of physicians." Evidently professional pride is not the latest born of time's offspring. Among the most interesting documents included among the writings of Hippocrates is the physician's oath. While it may not have been. formulated by the master, it undoubtedly represents the principles of his school. Thus early had Greek physicians formed themselves into a guild and pledged themselves to certain rules of conduct. These guilds were, however, not secret associations or fraternities and had no professional arcana different from those of the present day. The novitiate pledged himself to regard his teacher as equally dear with his own parents; to hold his sons in equal esteem with his own brothers; to teach them and his own sons the medical art without fee, if they desired to learn it; to keep aloof from whatever is detrimental to health; to give no deadly drug even when asked; to pass his life in purity and holiness; to abstain from any harmful act in whatsoever house he might enter for the benefit of the sick; to divulge no secrets connected with

his professional practice, and to refuse to administer to any woman a drug that will produce abortion. It is evident from the oath here given in substance that the morals of the medical fraternity were, at least in theory, far in advance of those of the general public and of many well-known philosophers by profession.

[THE END.]

MEDICAL NEWS.

THE SUDDEN DEMISE OF SCHAUDINN.

THE profession will deplore the recent death of Doctor Fritz Schaudinn, the young German investigator, whose conjoint researches with Hoffman on the spirochæta pallida have attracted world interest. Doctor Schaudinn had recently been appointed to the directorship of the department of parasitology of the Institute for Tropical Diseases at Hamburg. His career, which was ruthlessly. terminated at the age of thirty-six, gave promise of being a brilliant one, and the medical profession as a whole will undoubtedly suffer a distinct loss through his premature demise.

PREPARED FOOD PRODUCTS.

THE packing-house exposures have undoubtedly exerted a profound influence upon the masses-not only in the United States, but in Europe as well. As accurately as can be estimated the demand for prepared food stuffs has decreased to the extent of twenty million dollars, and sixty per cent. of the packing-house workers are at present unemployed. Many European markets have refused to handle certain food products of American preparation, and the authorities in general are exerting every influence to exclude supplies which manifest the slightest trace of adulteration. That Upton Sinclaire's assertions with regard to the frightfully unhygienic conditions of the Chicago stock yards were, in almost every respect, founded on fact, is apparent from the report of the government committee of two-Messrs. Neill and Reynolds-which contains the following: "The neglect on the part of their employers to recognize or provide for the requirements of cleanliness and decency of the employees must have an influence that cannot be exaggerated in lowering the morals and discouraging cleanliness on the part of the workers employed in the packing-houses. The whole situation as we saw it in these huge establishments tends necessarily and inevitably to the moral degradation of thousands of workers, who are forced to spend their working hours under conditions that are entirely unnecessary and unpardonable, and which are a constant menace not only to their own health, but to the health of those who use the food products prepared by them."

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ROENTGEN RAY SOCIETY. THE seventh annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society will be held at the Cataract and International Hotels, Niagara Falls, New York, August 29-30-31, 1906, under the presidency of Doctor Henry Hulst, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. A large and interesting. program, containing the names of the best x-ray workers in this country, as well as a number from abroad, has been prepared. An interesting feature of the meeting will be the exhibit of prints and negatives. The railroads have granted a rate of one fare and a third on the certificate plan. Full information regarding the meeting and application blanks for membership may be obtained by addressing the secretary, Doctor George C. Johnson, 611 Fulton Building, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

MINOR INTELLIGENCE.

A SCIENTIFIC estimate places the loss of life from earthquake during the past nineteen centuries at over two million.

THE management of Oak Grove Hospital, Flint, Michigan, recently issued a handsomely illustrated descriptive brocure of that institution.

MANILA is suffering from an epidemic of cholera. Latest reports, however, are to the effect that the authorities have the disease well under control.

THE International Congress for the Care of the Insane will be held in Milan, Italy, during September. Preparations for the meeting ar already in progress.

POLITICIANS in France accord more distinction to the medical guild than they do in our own country. Forty-six physicians represent the profession in the newly elected chamber of deputies.

NOTWITHSTANDING assertions to the contrary, the report of Doctor J. H. White, of the Marine Hospital Service, informs the public that there is not a single case of yellow fever in New Orleans.

DOCTOR HOWARD A. KELLY, of Baltimore, delivered the address at the commencement exercises of the American Medical Missionary College, in the Tabernacle, at Battle Creek, Michigan, June 18, 1906.

THE medical profession has a slight claim upon the late Henrik Isben, Norway's famous poet and dramatist. His business career was inaugurated in an apothecary's shop, where he served an apprenticeship.

HONORARY degrees were conferred on the following physicians at the recent Commencement exercises of Yale College at New Haven: Doctor William W. Keen, of Philadelphia (Doctor of Laws); Doctor Francis Bacon, of New Haven (Doctor of Science); Doctor Henry H. Donaldson, of Philadelphia (Doctor of Science).

FRUIT and candy on sale in the shops of Los Angeles, California, have recently been investigated by the board of health of that city. Discovery of the presence of many bacteria supposed to be conveyed to these palatable articles by the wind has resulted in a request for legislation demanding that they be exhibited in glass cases.

Ar a meeting held in Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, on the 12th instant, the regents of the University of California voted to transfer the work of the first two years of the department of Medicine and Dentistry to the university buildings at Berkeley. The move is made to afford more room in the college building for clinical work.

THE failure of the German athletes to secure laurels at the Olympian games, recently held at Athens, is attributed to their excessive use. of beer. Indulgence in the product has been the subject of speculation among Teutonic investigators for some time, and journalists have recently inaugurated discussion of the subject with marked enthusiasm.

Ar the Boston meeting of the American Gastroenterological Association the following officers were elected: President, Doctor Henry W. Bettmann, of Cincinnati; first vicepresident, Doctor Julius Friedenwald, of Baltimore; second vicepresident, Doctor Frank H. Murdoch, of Pittsburg; secretary-treasurer, Doctor Charles D. Aaron, of Detroit.

THE Paris Medical Journal has recently been launched in the French metropolis, under the editorship of Doctors Warden and Gras. Its function will be to disseminate, in the English tongue, French practices, researches, and discoveries. It should enjoy a large circulation among English-speaking physicians who are interested in foreign medicine.

THE Jewish Maternity Hospital of New York City was recently incorporated by the State Board of Charities. Plans for a new building are already in the hands of the Board of Directors, and as soon as a suitable site can be procured, the work of erection will be inaugurated. The promoters desire to establish the institution on the lower East Side of the city.

THE Wayne County (Detroit) Medical Society elected the following officers on May 21: President, J. Henry Carstens; vicepresident, Doctor William F. Metcalf; secretary-treasurer, Doctor Walter D. Ford; directors, Doctor George W. Wagner, Doctor H. Wellington Yates, Doctor Louis J. Hirschman, Doctor Guy L. Kiefer, and Doctor Frank B. Tibbals.

THE organization of a guild to be known as the Southwestern States Medical Association, and to which physicians from Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma, will be eligible, is being agitated. A committee has been appointed by the Arkansas State Medical Society to formulate plans for its foundation. The idea is said to contemplate secession from the American Medical Association of the entire Southwest.

THE medical building of Queen's University was destroyed by fire on July 4. The conflagration is supposed to have had its origin in an oil stove. The loss to the institution is estimated at one hundred thousand dollars.

DOCTOR AUSTIN FLINT was presented with a silver loving cup by the class of 1909 of Cornell University, on May 24, in commemoration of his services as Professor of Physiology, which chair he recently relinquished, after forty-five years' service. Doctor Flint's work will be continued by his assistant, Doctor John A. Hartwell.

DOCTOR HENRY P. BOWDITCH, who for the past thirty-five years has occupied the chair of physiology at Harvard, recently severed his connection with the institution. Doctor Bowditch was a well-known teacher and his work has been recognized by many educational institutions, he having received honorary degrees from Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leipzig and Toronto.

THE State College of Physicians and Surgeons of Indiana was incorporated on May 23, 1906. The building formerly occupied by the Central College of Physicians and Surgeons has been secured, and operations will be formally inaugurated in September next. The institution will be a corporate part of the University of Indiana, and will be under state supervision.

THE female population of Nordhausen, Prussian Saxony, must henceforth wear short skirts, or suffer the inconvenience of carrying a long train high above the ground. The authorities have decreed that the accumulation of dust upon the trains of fashionable skirts is detrimental to the public health, and a fine of seven and one-half dollars will he imposed on breakers of the law.

THE pure food agitation is affecting every section of the country. The city physician of Little Rock, Arkansas, recently confiscated and destroyed fifty gallons of milk which had been treated with formaldehyde as a means of preservation, and as a consequence an ordinance has become vogue that henceforth venders of adulterated food, of whatever nature, will be prosecuted.

WHILE the list of dead and injured resulting from celebration of the fourth of July stands as an argument against pyrotechnic display, the number of fatalities for 1906 is a trifle smaller than for 1905. This year fifty-three succumbed from wounds, as against fifty-nine for last year. The number of wounded, however, was greater in 1906, three thousand six hundred and fifty-five having received injuries.

Ar the recent meeting of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Doctor William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins University; vicepresident, Doctor Aldred S. Warthin, of the University of Michigan; secretary, Doctor Harold C. Ernst, of Harvard University; treasurer, Doctor Herbert W. Williams, of the University of Buffalo.