the remedy in the same manner, while the real fact is that their methods are as widely different as are the poles asunder. Let us compare the men, their methods and their practice. Hering, Dunham, Lippe, Skinner, Guernsey. The inductive philosophy of Bacon. The strict inductive method of Hahnemann. Selecting the remedy from the totality of the symptoms, subjective and objective. Individualization. Even in incurable cases the indicated simillimum is the best possible palliative. Homœopathy is good enough for him. The well selected remedy needs no allopathic adjuvant. Believes similia to be a universal law of nature; if true in one case, true in all. Hempel, Hughes, Hale, Dake, Holcombe. The deductive philosophy of Aristotle. The misleading deductive method of Galen. Selecting the remedy from the pathology of the case; the theory of the pathological action of the drug. Generalization. Alternation of remedies. Prescribes for diphtheria, pneumonia, ague, cancer. In incurable cases give morphine, Dover's powder, chloral hydrate as palliatives. Nothing in Homœopathy to prevent doing the best he can to relieve his patient: even the best Allopathy can produce. Believes similia is not a universal law, only a therapeutic method. It Dr. Skinner, we venture to say, did not look for a symptom of apoplexy when he prescribed for that patient. was the symptoms of the patient which called for, and for which he prescribed Lycopodium, and this remedy would have relieved the patient of the train of symptoms he presented if Lauder Brunton or any other allopath had diagnosed the disease dyspepsia. Dr. Dunham relates a case in which Hahnemann cured a patient of condylomata with Chamomilla, and the late Dr. Gallupe cured a pneumonia with Podophyllum. In both of these cases the diagnosis has been disputed, but as they prescribed for the symptoms presented and cured the patients, that matters little. Allopathy always disputes the diagnosis when an incurable disease is cured; some Homoeopaths are short-sighted enough to follow the unmanly example. The cm. potency may be "irritational and absurd," but the same may be said of the thirtieth, the third or even the law of cure itself. That we think it "absurd or irrational" does not justify us in denying a cure or declining to put a therapeutic fact to the test at the bedside. Put the cm. potency to the same test as you have the third and thirtieth, as Dr. Skinner did when an Allopath, and publish the failures to the world. Is it wise or just or scientific to deny a fact in therapeutics, because we have never put it to the test and consequently know nothing about it. It is true that Hahnemann did so write to Schreter, but in 1833 he used the 50th, 60th, 150th and 300th potencies. But first, this is a question of selection not of potency. Potency is not and should not be the dividing line. The members of the I. H. A. did not form an association because of the potency question, but because they preferred to adhere to the Homœopathy of Hahnemann, Hering and Dunham. So far as they are concerned they have done and could still do very good work with the 30th centesimal of Hahnemann, but neither members of the I. H. A. nor any one else could successfully use the 30th when prescribed on a pathological basis for diphtheria, pneumonia or croup. The sooner this question is thoroughly understood the better for the school individually and collectively. There may be some doubt about who has "strayed from the beaten path." COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL, CHICAGO.-The Medical Record is again in trouble. In its issue of Sept. 3, it says: The annual reports of the Cook County Hospital reveal some facts in which the profession should feel some interest. On the opening pages we find a list of the "regular medical board," and below of the "homeopathic medical board." Such juxtaposition seems a little at variance with conventional ethics, but in this we may be mistaken. * * * * * * ** The point that is of real importance is, that both in its totals and in its medical and surgical departments the mortality of patients treated by the homœopathic medical board is less than that of the regular board. And this is true not for one year, but apparently for a series of years, **** It is possible that the cases sent to the homeopathic side are of the less severe and acute char acter. Unless some such explanation as this exists, the reproach upon the skill of the regular medical staff is a severe one. Hospital statistics are extremely fallacious things, to be sure, and no inferences should be drawn from them without careful examination. But in the Cook County Hospital such examination seems demanded. The mortality on the allopathic side of the hospital is eight per cent. and only seven per cent. on the homoeopathic side. This is a difference of one per cent. in favor of Homœopathy, a very meagre showing indeed. The insinuation of the Record that "the homoeopathic cases are less severe and acute" is unworthy its character for honest dealing, for all cases are assigned by an Allopathic physician in this proportion: every fourth medical and fifth surgical case entering the hospital go to the homoeopathic wards. But the Record need not go to Illinois for mortality statistics of this kind. If it will compare the percentages of Ward's Island with the other New York hospitals, or Middletown Asylum, with the other asylums of the State, it will find a much lower per cent. in favor of Homœopathy. The homoeopathic staff in Cook County Hospital can and must do better work in the future. The use of the single remedy and less allopathic palliatives will reduce the record wonderfully. OUR EXCHANGES. THE Exchange Editor has been neither dead nor sleeping, but very busy in other departments of the ADVANCE. * The Medical Visitor (August) has a readable paper by Dr. J. B. S. King on "Bile and Blood in the Urine." But the best effort of this same writer appears in the following: A Recent Graduate, who had but recently ceased to manipulate the Plow, was basking in abundant Leisure, when he was accosted by a Lacerated Uterus. "Are you a Doctor?" asked the Uterus. "Yes," replied the Recent Graduate, "let me sew you up." "Hands off!" exclaimed the Lacerated Uterus, holding up her Fallopian Tubes in horror. I have been sewed up too much already, and what I come here for is to know why you doctors can't let me alone. Once I was young and handsome (here the Lacerated Uterus sighed so loudly that the Recent Graduate murmured Physometra,') but a long course of Local Treatment, injections, swabbings, applications and operations have left me in this disfigured condition. Why are all the ills of humanity heaped upon my neck?" continued the Uterus, wiping her lips with the fringed extremity of her left Fallopian Tube. "Why am I responsible for everything from Consumption to Corns?" At this moment A Rectum came strolling along, with his hands in his Pockets, just in time to hear the last remark of the Lacerated Uterus. Rats, Sister!" exclaimed the Rectum. "Prats, you mean," said the Recent Graduate, at which the Rectum winked, but continued. "Rats, Sister! It is I with my little pockets that have to bear everything. My Papillæ are cut off for Paralysis, and my Pockets are cut out for Boils, and my Sphinctre is stretched for Headaches, and I am maltreated in every way for the ills of other Organs." Here the Rectum sighed in an audible manner. "Pockets! Papillæ!" exclaimed the Recent Graduate in a frenzied tone, "Great Heavens! Let me cut them out." "Not much," said the Rectum as he rubbed one of his piles in a soothing way. "I have seen too much of it already. Only yesterday my brother arose from his downy bed after such an operation, very much disfigured but still in the Ring," Brother" said the Lacerated Uterus," possibly your words are true, and I am going to have a Protracted Rest. But I must be going; will your Hæmorrhoidal Highness accompany me?" "Certes," said the Rectum, with a smile upon his wrinkled countenance, and together they went out, leaving the Recent Graduate searching his pockets with an air of anxiety for a nickel wherewith to purchase Beer. "I would I had some Gold, besides Aurum 30x," sighed he, as he failed to find the Elusive Coin. Then falling into an empty chair the Recent Graduate assumed an attitude of Acute Despair. * Rev. David Wills, an eminent Presbyterian divine, of Philadelphia, in preaching on the subject of divorce, said: I was asked to-night, how true love could be discerned? I will answer in the words of a great Greek philosopher: First, by burning blushes when both parties are present; second, by the aching heart when they are absent, followed by indigestion and melancholy; and third and last, by the cold sweat. When you get the cold sweat it is dangerous to delay. It is the proper time to become united in the bonds of matrimony. If any of my young friends here to-night have the cold sweat, if they will call on me after the services, I will endeavor to make them conjugally happy. Burning cheeks, aching heart, indigestion, melancholy and cold sweat. The remedy for that is easy enough. Why, that's in-let's see-where's our Repertory? * While the homœopathic doctor pursueth the even tenor of his way curing diphtheria with the indicated remedies, "Sanitas" and Dr. Curtiss are having a sanguinary knock-down-and-drag-'em-out in the pages of our erring cousin, The Medical Record, of January 29, on the relative danger, as a means of contagion carriers, between whiskers and coat tails: Sanitas" pictures the method of catching diphtheria, or the contagion, by bringing the whiskers, rather than coat-tails, near the patient's face when making a professional examination; and also says most doctors expose their faces by this manœuvre rather than their coat-tails; but some may have idiosyncrasies which may destroy his argument. This is really very cunning, but let us see how it will work if applied to other cases. Diphtheria is not the only disease, nor is examining a patient the only method of getting a load of contagion which may be conveyed by the doctor. I have mentioned that contagious material may be deposited upon door-latches, car-seats, privy-seats, church pews, drinking utensils, cash, clothing, or most any other substance. Now, I do not know what are the idiosyncrasies of some folks, but out West a man is not so likely to get contagion in his whiskers from car-seats, privy-seats, etc., as he is in his coat-tails. Verily, if "Sanitas" cuts off his whiskers as a measure of sanitary engineering, he must, if he carries out his good intentions, be found standing on his head in many places to save his coat-tails. “Danger in Toast" (in the same journal) is an excellent paper by Dr. E. W. Hedges, of N. J. We quote: But the foes of health are not all included in the various forms of cocci. There are many other causes of disease that work with charming regularity, and all the more so because they are entirely unsuspected. One of these is toasted bread. An innocent looking thing, and yet, like the Grecian horse before the walls of Troy, it works sad havoc when once inside. It is with some hesitancy that I venture to say anything against toasted bread, for did not our mothers and our grandmothers and our great-grandmothers always give it in sickness, and does it not even now hold a sacred place in the heart of every housewife? .. Mrs. B, a delightful lady, was taken very severely with this trouble [dysentery]. A diet list was carefully made out and a special and emphatic warning left against toast. But with a perversity of appetite which others may be able to explain, toast was the one and only article of food which she wanted. A liberal bill of fare had no attractions for her; toast alone would satisfy her craving, and toast she ate. (Who is prepared, in the light of this incident, to say that the story of Eve and the apple [who said it was an apple?] is a myth?) An hour or two after indulging she was taken with violent pains (I refer to Mrs B-, not Eve) and all her symptoms returned in an aggravated form. She was a very penitent and tractable patient during the rest of her illness and has permanently abandoned the use of toast in sickness. ..... I have seen it produce pain and vomiting in gastric catarrh, in fibroid induration of the stomach, or whenever there is inflammation of the mucous membrane of the gastro-intestinal tract. In inflammatory diarrhoeas of children the anxious mothers are forever giving toast and it in turn is forever giving pain and more diarrhoea. It would seem as if the gritty particles of charcoal, insoluble in the juices of the stomach, are shoved up and down over the irritable mucous membrane like so much powdered glass, and finding their way into the intestine, scratch the inflamed Peyer's patches, or the angry mucous membrane, as the case may be, renewing and aggravating inflammatory action. * The California Homeopath (Sept.) presents its readers with Dr. F. F. De Derkey's excellent paper entitled "Health and Education." The author believes that The first and principal object of an educational reform should be to aim at the improvement of the animal body of the human young, without distinction of either sex, state or condition, and this improvement is best to be accomplished by physical education during the period from birth to the tenth or twelfth year of life. . . . . . Can physical education eradicate hereditary taints and improve the animal body? ... Herbert Spencer, the philosopher, . . . . . in all probability would have died in early childhood, being feeble and weakly and the only surviving child of his parents. He owes his preservation to the intelligent and especial care of his father and thanks to physical culture. Still we are creditably informed that the great author of "Social Statics" is an inordinate eater of peanuts, so that he has dyspepsia-to allay which he takes a ramble in his garden, smoking a cigarette. The venerable professor of Physiology in the St. Louis School, |