mentioned above, I have frequently removed tubercular glands of the neck and axilla, tied off varicose veins of the legs, removed testicles, and done plastic operations, etc. In the one hernia case in which I tried it, I hurt the patient. He complained of a very disagreeable pulling sensation when getting out the sac. However, I believe I could do better now, as I think I have become more proficient in this method of anesthesia. In summing up, I would say that the subject of local anesthesia should be elabo rated. I believe that a surgeon is never justified in subjecting his patient to the horrors and danger of a general anesthetic when it can be avoided. It is true that the death rate from ether is indeed low, yet death does occur, and when it does it makes a very bad accident; and death on the operating table is not the only accident that can occur during anesthesia. I have had two patients die from inhalation pneumonia; and this summer two cases of toxic insanity have come to my notice following an operation for hernia. Whether or not the ether was the cause would be hard to determine. The Newly Isolated Microbe of Infantile Paralysis and Its Relation to the Fly. Brief announcement that Dr. Simon Flexner and Dr. Hideo Noguchi had found the micro-organism which produces epidemic infantile paralysis and had cultivated it, even producing the disease experimentally with cultures, is confirmed and elaborated in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. The micro-organism consists of globlelike bodies, measuring from the third to the seventh of a "micron," or at most. the hundredth thousandth part of an inch in diameter. They grow in pairs and chains and masses when cultivated and so seem to be bacteria. In human beings, or in monkeys, or other animals infected, the chain-like growths do not appear. Consequently the question whether these microbes are bacteria or protozoa, vegetable or animal, is not yet settled. They are so small that they pass through the special filters of the laboratory. The filtered liquid, under proper treatment, yields them up again, though in reduced quantities. The microbes belong, thus, to the class known as filter-passers, such, for example, as those which produce smallpox or foot-and-mouth disease, that the actual micro-organisms which produce the disease are invisible. They are beyond the powers of the microscope. No ingenuity in stain ing the material in which they dwell or are cultivated will make them visible. What do become visible are the secondary bodies produced under the action and growth of the bacteria. Dr. Flexner and Dr. Noguchi have succeeded by devices of staining in making visible certain globoid bodies which are characteristic of the disease produced. They do not exclude the possibility that these are secondary or additional bodies and that in combination with them there may exist an invisible organism which is the true disease producer. This is the provisional theory of the existence of other disease producing organisms, notes our authority. They are called technically chlamydozoa" in the two diseases, smallpox and foot-and-mouth malady. as well as in scarlet fever, measles, distemper and silkworm disease. These elementary and invisible parasites are believed to wrap themselves as with a mantle-hence from "chlamys," a mantle, their name-in the nucleolar substance of the animal cells they invade. Thus provided with food, they become progressively malignant. Dr. Flexner, while admitting the possibility, according to our contemporary, does not seem to favor it in the instance of the microbe of poliomyelitis," or infantile paralysis. He prefers to regard the minute but visible globoid bodies as the real microbes of the disease. He discusses the alternative possibility, seemingly, in view of the fact that not all the cultures of the microbe which he and Dr. Noguchi have succeeded in making are of equal virulence or effectiveness in reproducing the disease symptoms. It is only the exceptional cultures which are sufficiently poisonous or "pathogenic" to produce experimental poliomyelitis. This fact is not inconsistent with well-known truths in experimental biology, in which the poisonous qualities of bacteria may vary according to the environment of the bacteria. Thus there may be a loss of virulence in cultures which merely feed the bacteria, but virulence may not only be retained but increased in passage from animal to animal. The problem of the transmission of the disease, we read also, is as yet unsolved. Dr. Flexner has stated heretofore that poliomyelitis-which was only recognized as an epidemic disease in the closing years of the last century, and has been gathering virulence in the course of a world tour begun six years ago-could be transmitted by stable flies, or carried by them. They are not and could scarcely be its sole carriers. Hence a question of importance is the distance to which they travel from their breed ing places. House flies seldom stray more than five hundred yards, although it has lately been shown that they will sometimes travel a mile. Observations reported by Dr. C. F. Hodge on a plague of flies at water works a mile or more from land in Lake Erie indicate that on occasion the distances flown are much greater.-Current Opinion. The Action of Certain Oils upon the Uterus. In In the olden times the oils of tansy, pennyroyal, and savin had considerable reputation as emmenagogues or abortifacients, notably pennyroyal. More recently apiol, derived from parsley, has been largely used as a substitute for these oils. It has been recognized for a long time that these substances cannot be used as abortifacients with success unless the dose which is given is so large as to produce abortion by means of the general poisoning which ensues. the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics for July, 1913, Macht has studied the influence of pennyroyal, savin, tansy, rue, thyme, turpentine, and apiol upon the uterus of the cat, pregnant and virgin. The results which he obtained show that all of these substances, even in large amounts, exerted absolutely no stimulating action on the uterus; on the contrary, they caused it to relax, and even paralyzed it, and the tracings which accompany Macht's papers certainly show that his interpretation of his result is correct. We, therefore, have experimental evidence confirming the decision heretofore reached by clinicians and already mentioned that the "emmenagogue" and abortifacient action of these oils is entirely due to gastrointestinal irritation or general constitutional poisoning and not to any specific influence upon the uterus.-Ther. Gazette. Science and Mercy. The antivivisectionists have been putting out a circular in Philadelphia, with the statement that Dr. George W. Crile made experiments on 148 dogs in an endeavor to learn the extent of the agony that can be inflicted on a living animal." Do the kindhearted women who are backing this movement believe that Dr. Crile did anything of the sort? When they leave out all mention of anesthesia, do they do it by accident? If not by accident, why do they do it? Surgeons until recently thought that when a patient was unconscious they could tear loose adhesions and manipulate tissues roughly without doing mischief. Crile's experiments were to determine whether this view was correct. He found that it was not; that serious injury could be caused by shock even when there was no consciousness. Realizing the difference between psychic shock, which is prevented by anesthesia, and traumatic shock, which is not prevented by anesthesia, is an important step ahead, which has already resulted in a lower death rate and a shorter time for recovery. Crile, like other men of science who are called monsters of cruelty, by these kind but ignorant sentimentalists, is the apostle of gentleness.-Harper's Weekly. "Safety First" seems to be the slogan of the Kansas City and Excelsior Springs Electric Line. A bond issue for $135,000 has just been authorized for the installation of a block system on this line. The Missouri State Board of Health elected the following: President, Dr. S. H. Mathews of Liberty; vice-president, Dr. G. A. Cuppidge of Moberly; secretary, Dr. J. A. B. Adcock. T MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY. HE SPRING MEETING of this society will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska, under the auspices of the Lancaster County Medical Society, on Thursday and Friday, March 26 and 27, 1914. A program of much interest is in the course of preparation, and several men of National reputation will be present. Arrangements are in the hands of a capable committee composed of Drs. A. I. McKinnon, R. B. Adams, and R. L. Smith. The profession of nearby states cordially invited. Titles of papers should be sent not later than February 10th. Under the editorial direction of CHARLES WOOD FASSETT and S. GROVER BURNETT ASSOCIATE EDITORS P. I. LEONARD, St. Joseph CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ST. CLOUD COOPER, Fort Smith, Ark. S. S. GLASSCOCK, Kansas City, Kan. JOHN PUNTON, Kansas City PAUL V. WOOLEY, Kansas City W. T. WOOTTON, Hot Springs, Ark. HUGH H. YOUNG, Baltimore DEPARTMENT EDITORS KANSAS CITY P. T. BOHAN, Therapeutics DON CARLOS GUFFEY, Obstetrics J. E. HUNT, Pediatrics JOS. LICHTENBERG, Ophthalmology R. T. SLOAN, Internal Medicine EDW. H. THRAILKILL, Rectal Diseases ST. JOSEPH J. M. BELL, Stomach C. A. GOOD, Medicine A. L. GRAY, Obstetrics J. W. MCGILL, Rectal Diseases L. A. TODD, Surgery F. H. SPENCER, Surgery OMAHA H. M. McCLANAHAN, Pediatrics H. S. MUNRO, Psychotherapy DES MOINES WALTER L. BIERRING, Medicine Address all communications to Chas. Wood Fassett, Managing Editor, St. Joseph, Missouri. Vol. XXXIII No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1914 Editorial THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING. The editor of the Critic and Guide in its January number warms up, and prints "A Statement and a Challenge" as follows: "One Thousand Dollar Challenge. "I shall debate here in New York with anybody the following question: "Resolved, That a knowledge of safe and harmless means of preventing conception would prove of the greatest benefit to the human race, and that the laws against the dissemination of such knowledge should therefore be abrogated, as opposed to the interests of humanity." This editor is taking the affirmative, but he fails to explain the method of choosing a jury and whether he would abide by the majority, or desires an unanimous ver dict. Now this editor assumes a purely materialistic attitude, while it appears to a great many thinking people that it would be risky for the state to assume such an attitude. We are not spiritualistically inclined, believing that all philosophical systems and all religious systems are of human origin, possessing the limitations of finite man, yet it seems to us that this is an ethical question of great import, and of deeper significance to the future than is apparent to this cocksure editor. We are aware that what he advocates is in great use today, and that even abortionists are in great demand. We know the difficulty or impossibility of convicting them by a jury even when "caught with the goods." Religions have been promulgated in the past in order to lead man to a higher ideal, and we appreciate his short comings during a few thousand years, yet we also agree, unpleasant as it is, that whatever is, is right, historically. That many people have children who perhaps ought to be childless, education, and economic conditions when they become improved, will lessen the demand for relief of which we hear so much. The ethical or moral considerations are not a simple question, and we suspect the panacea suggested will leave mankind in worse shape than ever. We know that morality depends on time and country. Huxley maintained that the struggle for survival must always continue, while Spencer replies that already the strong are protecting the weak in many different ways. It is impossible for any one to tell what is right and moral, and as we may personally dream of Utopia, we beg to be excused for forcing our opinion upon moral questions. Evolution is a slow process, with actions and reactions, and development is not accomplished with jumps. Our present civilization has been accomplished during thousands of years, and as we believe in progress, in going forward to better conditions for mankind, not in retrogression, we hesitate to believe in the wisdom, on the part of the state, of teaching the limitation of offspring. In his essay on Hamlet, Henry Maudsley says that "The life of man is the definite result of fixed relations between the individual and circumstances; and the events of its evolution take place in accordance with laws which, though little knownalmost, indeed, unknown-are yet as certain as those which govern the motions of planets in their orbits. In the pathless immensity of the heavens these cannot miss their way; and how little must be his insight who can think that man passes unguided through space and time!"' If mankind is to survive in a creditable form mankind must pay due regard to justice or morality, and the moral sense already acquired must not be discarded. There are many admirable accomplishments. in our present society and we must take notice of the good as well as the bad. Mr. Editor, we do not want your money, this is also materialistic. Remember Haeckel telling us that we may as well call the universe spiritualistic as materialistic, the phenomenon remaining just as mysterious, in spite of our juggling words of indefinite meaning. As an atom in the universe we fool nobody as much as ourself when we disbelieve in the existence of the higher ethical, or what Spencer calls the unknowable. It may be that even editors have eyes and see not, and the easy remedy he has in store, leaves out of consideration the moral duty of man and wife, their ethical relation to society and the race. We are from Missouri and have to be shown, and furthermore, we are sincere, as there is no advertisement or money in it for us. P.I.L. HIGHER EDUCATION. · Whether higher medical education is bearing fruit would be indicated by this quotation from the London letter to the Journal of the A. M. A., under date of January 3d, 1914: "A year ago a physician could be obtained for $600 per annum when living with his principal, who provided food and lodging, Now or for $900 when living 'outdoors.' the rates are $1,000 and $1,250, respectively. The shipping companies have also had considerable difficulty in obtaining surgeons for their vessels. The rate of remuneration has risen from $50 per month to $75 and even $100, with, in addition, the privilege not hitherto accorded except in a few cases of charging fees from first-class passengers. The royal navy is in a similar predicament as there is a serious deficiency in the number of candidates for surgeoncies. In the country also the deficiency is making itself felt. In the outlying district of the highlands physicians tempted by the new opportunties have in many cases resigned their appointment, and successors cannot be found. At least two parishes in the Orkney and Shetland islands have been without physicians for six months and seem likely to remains unless the state comes to their assistance with a 'grant in aid.' The situation is remarkable and unprecedented. In the great industrial centers the physicians are enjoying prosperity previously unknown. Meanwhile, curiously enough, the entries at the great medical schools continue to show a falling off." The drifting straws indicate the direction of the wind. The numerical medical cheapness of the past bids fair to be succeeded by a quality standard that is gradually commanding attention if not respect. Certainly, there is no retrogression in a medical efficiency that will lift the profession from the commonplace standard of dictated contracts and that of public football amusement, to the dignity of a compeS.G.B. tent essential. A.M.A. pays the following brief tribute to Col. Gorgas and his magnificent service to his country: "While Colonel Gorgas' work as canal commissioner and head of the Department of Sanitation has, perhaps, attracted more public attention than any other of his achievements, his long experience as a sanitarian, his noteworthy work in cleaning up Havana, his response to the request for his experience and advice at Guayaquil and in South Africa all furnish corroborative evidence, if any were needed, of his fitness for the high office to which President Wilson has appointed him. Graduating from medical college in 1879, and entering the Army Medical Corps in 1858, nearly his entire professional life has been passed in the government service. In 1903 he was promoted to the rank of colonel by special act of Congress, in recognition of his distinguished services. It is characteristic of It is characteristic of the man and of the profession which Colonel Gorgas represents so well, that no reward in the form of great wealth will be his, nor would it be considered or accepted. The promotion which is his by right of seniority and which he has doubly earned by achievement, the holding for a few years of the position as surgeon-general until the time for his retirement comes, the quiet and peaceful years of rest which he has so well earned, the satisfaction of work well done for the good of humanity-these are the modest rewards which will be bestowed on Colonel Gorgas, and they are the only rewards which would be worthy of the man, of his profession and of his monumental work." NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RACE Four hundred men and women of prominence, comprising the first representative group of scientific experts ever gathered in America for that purpose, met in Battle Creek January 8-12 to assemble evidence of race deterioration and to consider methods of checking the downward trend of mankind. The meeting was known as the First National Conference on Race Betterment. Through the co-operation of the press, the objects and aims of the Conference have been very widely disseminated and a resultant influence for better race ideas is anticipated. Already, the effect of the conference is apparent in Battle Creek where popular interest in mental and physical efficiency was awakened by a series of public school tests which showed an alarming percentage of defective children in all grades. The conference had its inception in the efforts of three men, particularly interested in race betterment-Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale University, Dr. J. H. Kellog of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. At the invitation of a central committee chosen largely by these men, fifty men and women of national prominence in the fields of science and education consented to share in the program. Their addresses, together with open discussion of many of the points considered, constituted a very widespread study of all phases of evident race degeneracy and the advocacy of many ideas of reform. of many ideas of reform. Some of the suggested methods of improvement are frequent medical examination of the well, outdoor life, temperance in diet, open air schools and playgrounds, the encouragement of rural life, the segregation or sterilization of defectives, the encouragement of |