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chemicals, not many remedies of a mechanical nature have been offered to the maritime traveler, and hence announcement of the latest preventive will be accorded consideration. The novelty is in the form of at chair, the seat, arms, legs, and back of which are freely movable. The idea of the designer is that a counteraction of the long pitching movement of the sea-going vessel, by the short up and down and occasional backward movement of the chair-the motive power of which is furnished by a small electric motor-tends to overcome the seasickness. The inventor does not claim for his chair immunizing properties, nor does he even venture that it will effect permanent cure, but those who have had opportunity to test its virtues declare that a few moments of repose in the chair offer relief from the unpleasant symptoms.

CONTEMPORARY.

PHYSICIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS.

[PROFESSOR CHARLES WILLIAM super, of ohio UNIVERSITY, IN POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.]

ALTHOUGH the initial assonance of physician with philosopher is purely accidental, it is nevertheless a fact that philosophy and the healing art or medical science have been closely associated with each other from their earliest beginnings. It cannot but be regarded as a singular coincidence that for two and a half millenniums physic and philosophy, the practitioners of the healing art and the real or professed lovers of knowledge, have been more or less intimate friends. At the beginning they seem to have found themselves in each other's company almost by chance; then by a sort of elective affinity like that which often springs up between persons of opposite sex whose paths in the ordinary course of events incidentally crossed each other, to have discovered that they could make the rest of the journey together to reciprocal advantage.

Herodotus, the Father of History, was a native of Halicarnassus, and Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, his younger contemporary, first saw the light on the island of Kos, only a few leagues distant. Born in the same year with Hippocrates was the philosopher Diogenes, of Apollonia in Crete, whose few literary remains not only attest his interest in human anatomy, but also furnish proof that he early came under the influence of the Ionian thinkers. Though never regarded as a physician, but only as a philosopher, he tells us in one of the very brief fragments that have been preserved that the veins of the human body are divided into two branches; that they pass through the abdominal cavity along the backbone, one on the right side, the other on the left, into the legs; and that two branches pass into the head. He then goes on to describe the course of the blood-vessels and their ramifications as far as the ends of the toes, the fingers, and so on. It may safely be assumed from this fragment that Diogenes gave much attention to the structure of the human body.

In the southwestern portion of Asia Minor, the disciples of Asclepias or Esculapius had several therapeutic establishments, and it is in connection with these that we discover the first signs of what may be called the healing art in the entire ancient world.

It was especially the priests of the temples of Kos and Knidos who cultivated a primitive and simple medical science in connection with their service of the god. In this part of Asia, also, philosophy took its rise. For not only was Hippocrates a philosopher as well as a physician, but the same affirmation can be made of a considerable number of Greek thinkers. Diogenes has just been mentioned. Moreover the two lines of investigation were often parallel. in other parts of the ancient world. Empedocles who was a full generation older is supposed to have been a physician. Pythagoras, who lived still earlier, though perhaps not a physician in the strict sense of the word, gave, according to tradition, no little attention to the laws of health and formulated a number of precepts supposed to be conducive to its preservation. Plato, though not a special student of the healing art, shows in many passages of his Dialogues, a considerable degree of familiarity with the subject. Aristotle was the son of a physician and was indebted to his father not only for much of his knowledge, but also for his interest in natural history; while his pupil Theophrastus is regarded as the father of medical botany. Among the Romans we find Pliny paying a good deal of attention to facts or supposed facts in the realm of medicine. The same thing is true of Seneca and still more of Vitruvius, though it would perhaps be as far astray to call him a philosopher as a physician in the strict significance of the terms. Toward the latter part of the second century we are carried back again to Asia Minor to find in Galen of Pergamus, not only a distinguished writer on philosophical subjects, but a man whose reputation as a physician is fully equal to, if not greater than, that of Hippocrates, notwithstanding that he was a man of less native capacity. It may be confidently affirmed that Hippocrates, Celsus and Galen represent the entire healing art until modern times. With respect to Cornelius Celsus, who lived in the reign of Tiberius and who occupies an important place in the history of ancient medicine, it must be said that it is uncertain whether he was really a physician. It is rather more than probable that he was a savant. On the other hand, the question is raised, Why would any one but a practical physician compile a medical work? Could any other person do it successfully? Another singular fact that has added to the difficulty of defining Celsus' position is that even as late as the age in which he lived nearly all the physicians in Rome were Greek freedmen. At any rate the work of Celsus at once sprang into prominence, and though it is only part of an encyclopedic compilation, nothing else remains at the present day. As is the case with not a few other works of antiquity, its connection with modern times hangs by the slender thread of a single manuscrpit from which all later copies have been made. This portion of the encyclopedia of Celsus has also an important historical value since it

gives brief sketches of more than seventy physicians who had lived before his time and had attained a certain degree of eminence. It had not escaped his observation that only persons of mediocre ability are loth to admit errors, while the reverse is true of genius, since there still remains a large residuum of truth in its possession.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

MEDICAL NEWS.

A PHYSICIAN GRANTED PATRONYMIC APPELLATION. DOCTOR CHARLES BEYLARD NAN CREDE, Professor of Surgery in the University of Michigan, recently petitioned the Probate Court of the County of Washtenaw for a change of his name, and he will henceforth bear the appellation of "Charles Beylard Guérard de Nancrède.” The application recounts the information that the grandfather of the petitioner bore the cognomen of "Paul Joseph Guérard de Nancrède," but discarded the "de" at the time of his naturalization as an American citizen; that the father, who was born in 1799, was baptised "Thomas Dixey" and never utilized the family patronymic "Guérard de Nancrède," simply abridging the name to "Nancrede." Restoration of the name to its original form was desired for family reasons.

THE DEMISE OF DE WECKER.

BARON DE WECKER, of Paris, who died recently, was seventy-three years of age. Through his death the world has lost one of the "Fathers of Ophthalmology" and one of the greatest ophthalmic surgeons of his day. He was oculist to Napoleon III, and to the Spanish Court, and was also von Graefe's chief of clinic and associate of Artt and Jaeger. He succeeded Desmarres in Paris and introduced the ophthalmoscope in France. The French government made him Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, and he received decorations from nearly every crowned head of Europe.

MINOR INTELLIGENCE.

OUR printing house is recovering from the effects of the recent printers' strike and succeeding numbers of this journal will be issued promptly.

THE Hungarian government has awarded one thousand kronen to Professor Kohut, of Konigsburg, for his prize essay on the treatment of trachoma.

ACCORDING to report the original copy of Harvey's paper on the "Circulation of the Blood" was sold recently for £30. The manuscript was written in 1628.

THE Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania is threatened with an epidemic of smallpox. A prisoner who has been incarcerated for over a year has mysteriously contracted the disease, and every precaution is being exerted to protect the nine hundred fifty inmates of the prison.

THE government contemplates the erection of a $400,000 hospital for the Army and Navy. Doctor Louis de Clermont, of Washington, has secured a site of over six hundred acres of ground in Illinois, and a structure sufficiently large to accommodate three thousand patients will be erected thereon.

MINNESOTA has a law compelling physicians to report to the register of deeds of their county, all accidents in which the victim is disabled for a period of two weeks or longer. Failure to comply with the enactment is punishable by a fine of one hundred dollars or imprisonment for a period of six months.

AN interesting case of premature maternity is reported from Bristol, Tennessee. The mother is a colored girl, ten years of age, a native of Virginia, and the infant weighs eight pounds. It is said that chances for its survival are excellent and that the mother has experienced a complete recovery from the early parturition.

SPRING BEACH, a suburb of Seattle, Washington, is to have a new $30,000 sanatorium. A four-story structure is contemplated, and as the promoters have already secured one hundred acres of land, ample grounds are assured. The institution will afford accommodation to five hundred patients, and will be under the supervision of a staff of fifteen physicians.

BROOKLYN has a novel institution in the form of a public library for the blind. Inasmuch as raised letter books are quite expensive, and as few blind persons can afford indulgence in them, the library is a very welcome acquisition to the educational system of the city. Most of the volumes deal with nature or light emotional subjects, as sightless individuals prefer this variety to works of more profound type.

THE war department has provided for the establishment of a chair of military hygiene at the West Point Military Academy. The cadets will receive sufficient medical knowledge to enable them to care for troops from a hygienic standpoint, and to administer relief in superficial injuries. The founding of the chair was doubtless prompted by the remarkable results obtained by Japanese military surgeons in the late

war.

The German Röntgen Society has issued an inaugural volume of proceedings, detailing the work of the first congress of x-ray workers. The book is divided into five parts enumerating the various features of the meeting. The first section is merely a compilation of the physicians who were in attendance; section two is devoted to exhibits; section three contains the papers read and the discussions thereon; and sections four and five are devoted to a history of the organization, and the publication of communications.

PROFESSOR TERRIANI estimates that eighty per cent of the child criminals of Italy owe their vicious instincts to unsuitable environment and insufficient educational advantages. He further states that thirty per cent of the criminals of the kingdom have not yet reached legal age, and that of this number eighty-five per cent are thieves.

EFFORTS are being exerted toward the establishment of a medical college for the United Provinces of India, as a memorial of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to the Peninsular. The question has long been agitated and it is probable that matters have at last reached a focus, as each province is endeavoring to outdo the other in the matter of support.

THE Consolidation of the Medical and Surgical Monitor and the Central States Medical Magazine has been effected at Indianapolis, the new publication being known as the Central States Medical Monitor. Doctors S. E. Earp and S. P. Scherer will comprise the editorial staff. The Monitor is the latest acquisition to the field of independent medical journalism, and we wish it success.

THE National Association for the Study of Epilepsy has announced its intention to award a prize of $300 for the best original paper on the "Etiology of Epilepsy." Essays must be submitted for approval before September 1, 1906, as the prize essayist will be announced in November. Physicians desiring information regarding the award may communicate with the president of the association, Doctor W. P. Spratling, of Sonyea, New York.

THE twenty-ninth annual meeting of the American Dermatological Association was held in New York City on December 28, 29 and 30, 1905. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Doctor Milton B. Hartzell, of Philadelphia; vice-president, Doctor T. Caspar Gilchrist, of Baltimore; secretary-treasurer, Doctor Grover W. Wende, of Buffalo. Cleveland was designated as the meeting place for 1906.

IN accordance with an order from the Commissioner of Immigration of the port of New York, saloon and second cabin passengers will henceforth be subjected to examination by the government physicians. Heretofore the order affected only steerage passengers, but owing to rejected immigrants taking advantage of legal inadequacy by returning as saloon passengers the regulations in regard to such persons were made more stringent.

BOSTON has a new hospital for the treatment of diseased horses, dogs, cats, and other domestic animals. The institution is to be equipped in the most approved fashion-operating rooms, exercising paddocks, private wards, and baths being stipulated in the architect's plans. A free clinic will be conducted weekly for animals belonging to the poorer classes. The hospital is under the direction of Samuel F. Wadswords, M. D. V., a graduate of the Harvard Veterinary School.

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