Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

convalescence will often cause a relapse. 6. If the patient be properly nourished from the outset, there will be little need of alcoholic stimulants."

The different kinds of food are carefully considered in relation to their applicability in given diseases, the manner and time of eating are well described, and the book contains one hundred and twenty-one recipes, many of which would prove of great value to a patient who is longing for something palatable. We wish the book itself were served up in better shape, paper, printing, and binding.

THE PRIMÆ VIÆ.

OUR MISCELLANY,

Here the villi dip their noses,
Gifted with a wondrous power,
Not of smell, but of selection,
Of acceptance or rejection

Of the products of the hour.

Noble villi! Who instructs ye

Thus to choose our boon or bane?
How do ye secure your treasure?
How transmit it at your leisure?
Questions, yet to ask, is vain.

See that particle of butter,

Now an oil globe on its way;

The saliva lightly kiss'd it,

But the gastric juice has miss'd it,

And the purling stream has whisk'd it
In a duodenal bay.

There, coquetting with a portion

Of the undigested rice,

The hepatic fluid meets them,
Pancreatic juices greet them,

And they're married in a trice.

Canada Lancet.

*

THE Nashville, Tenn., Morning World publishes an article, the result of interviews with several physicians of that city, giving their opinions upon the New York Code of Ethics. Among others, Dr. J. P. Dake, a prominent homoeopath, was interviewed, and beside other things, he said, speaking of the old Code, that it did not really forbid consultation with homoeopaths. The section so construed had reference to practitioners governed by an "exclusive dogma," while any one taking pains to inform himself must know that homoeopathic physicians have nothing of the sort. They believe in the laws of nature as deduced from medical experience in the teachings of science, and not the dictum of authority, in the therapeutic principle similia similibus, but in no dogma whatever. If, in astronomy and physics, the law of gravitation is a dogma, then is the homœopathic law a dogma in medicine.

All the antidotes, he said, of chemistry, the supports and instruments of mechanics, and the varied agencies of hygiene are employed as occasion may demand in the treatment of the sick, and are used by homoeopathic physicians. And so also at proper times are the palliatives of allopathy employed by them. When medicines are employed in the cure of the sick similia is allowed to govern, and in no other As the believers in the homoeopathic principle had been driven from the old societies in years gone by, and denied recognition as medical men, and as the appeal made to an intelligent public had been triumphantly sustained, he now felt little concern as to the action taken anywhere in reference to the new Code of Ethics.

case.

[ocr errors]

CONSISTENCY. Dr. Eugene Grissom was elected a vice-president of the American Medical Association at its St. Paul meeting. Dr. Eugence Grissom is a member of the Association of Insane Asylum Superintendents. This association has, besides other homoeopathists, as a member, Dr. Selden H. Talcott, superintendent of the New York State Homœopathic Insane Asylum, and president of the State Homœopathic Society. The judicial council of the American Medical Association excluded the New York State Medical Society delegates for having a code not in accord with the Association. This action was certainly defensible on the ground that, until the law of the American Medical Association was changed, all members should comply with it. But then how much consistency is there in electing as vicepresident one who is a member of a medical association which admits homœopathists, and thus conflicts with the association's code? - Chicago Medical Review.

THE MIRACLES at Old OrchaRD. — The recent camp-meeting "Faith Cures " have been so conspicuous that it is impossible to avoid some comment upon them. They no doubt belong to the half-investigated nervous phenomena of the day, and should be ranged along with them. Yet the Herald confidently says, "There is no secret about these cures, no sleight-of-hand, no mesmerism; but all is accomplished by a few simple, heartfelt words to the all-powerful God." A large class of sceptics will doubt the reality of these cures; but they are as well attested as any human occurrence, in fact, far more so than most events, for they were witnessed by hundreds of competent men and women; nor, in the absence of every other apparent cause, is it reasonable to assign the cures to anything but to the faith of the patients; Dr. Cullis prayed; the sick believed.

About ten per cent or somewhat less announced themselves cured. The other ninety per cent were said to lack faith. This is an easy way of overleaping a huge obstacle. But faith has done yet more wonderful things. Just such wonderful cases have been affected by the human will without prayer. In the last number of the Index, Rowland Connor enumerates instances of personal observation and other well-attested cases, proving the effect of faith or imagination over physicial ailments; nd Dr. Dixwell of the Boston Dispensary presents some pertinent testimony in another communication to the same paper.

Every one knows of Dr. Hammond's experiment upon the simple-minded woman who wanted water of Lourdes, and who was furnished with Croton water instead. The same physician testifies that pious Catholics in the New York hospitals who begged to be stroked with the bone of a saint were touched with a fragment of a broken toothbrush instead, and were consequently healed. The early Mormons worked similar miracles.

Many people remember the heap of crutches left in the office of a Boston healer who simply exerted his will over the minds of his patients. A semi-psychological system of this sort is now in use by a physician at the South End. In the article above alluded to, Dr. Dixwell tells the story of a washerwoman and two ignorant men who applied at the dispensary for medicines. The former was given a powerful drug intended to have exactly the opposite effect, but her faith not only overcame the disease, but the drug in addition. The two men were cured by rain-water. People are freed from rheumatism by carrying a horse-chestnut in their pockets, and boils keep at a distance while a nutmeg is hung around the neck. It does not seem to matter toward what the faith is exercised. A drug, a saint's bone, consecrated water, a medium's "spirits," the human or the divine will, are all equally useful as objective points of support. Any action or motive powerful enough to cause high nervous stimulation will be at least partly successful. But alas, for those whose reasoning powers are too well developed to admit such stimulation. The subjective condition of the patient is the main item in these cures. If patients could be prayed for and cured without their own knowledge and co-operation, the test wou'd be more scientific. Tyndall's famous "prayer-gauge," wherein he proposed that the inmates of one hospital ward should be prayed for during a year, and the inmates of another left without such grace, both being treated alike in all other respects, and both kept in ignorance of the experiment, would have been a scientific test of the efficacy of prayer. Dr. Dixwell says, "Given a clearly diagnosed case of phthisis in the third stage (consumption), or of heart disease involving the mechanism of the valves, which has been or can be relieved by prayer, and I will forget how little effect all the prayers said for President Garfield had, and I will believe' ardently."

[ocr errors]

One thing more must be noted. All well-attested "faith cures are either of purely nervous diseases or of organs closely dependent upon the nervous system. Of the four authentic cases of cure at Old Orchard, two were spinal affections, one sciatica, and one heart disease. But most so-called heart disease is a mere nervous derangement, and if this case were such, all four cases were nervous affections. All nerves centre in the brain and may be acted upon through the brain. This is best shown in mesmerism; but the fact is indisputable. A very powerful brain stimulus, an idea or conviction, an expectation even, or disappointment, will communicate itself to the whole nervous apparatus. The idea that the great spirit of the universe is exerting itself in his or her behalf must create a powerful excitation in a credulous mind. · Bones are not set by prayer nor by any nervous stimulation. No contagious disease is ever cured by miracle. Diphtheria, fevers, small-pox, and malaria are not influenced by faith. Freckles and sunburn, any disease of the hair or nails, in fact disease in any portion of the body not supplied with sensitive nerves, refuse to yield to the most devout faith. - Advertiser.

PERSONAL

MRS. A. M. SELEE, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has located at Melrose, Mass. WM. S. MORRISON, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), has settled at Memphis, Tenn. HERBERT C. CLAPP, M. D., has removed from 16 Concord Square to 11 Columbus Square, corner West Newton Street, Boston.

E. M. CURRIER, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), who has been in Vienna the past year, will continue his medical studies abroad another year.

F. D. TRIPP, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), has received the appointment of Interne at Ward's Island Homoeopathic Hospital.

M. F. STYLES, M. D., has removed from 28 East Brookline Street to 433 Columbus Avenue, Boston.

MISS M. F. MCCRILLIS, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has received the appointment of Resident Physician to the Conservatory of Music, a position for which she is admirably fitted.

WM. R. RAY, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '82), has returned to Australia, and is associated with his father, Robert Ray, M. D. His address is 131 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Prof. CarolinE E. HASTINGS, M. D., of Boston University School of Medicine, has been spending several months in Vienna, where she has enjoyed special advantages. We publish a letter from her in this number of the GAZETTE.

HORACE PACKARD, M D., has returned to Boston, after a year's absence in Europe, where he has been giving special attention to surgery and pathology. He has received the appointment of Clinical Assistant in Surgery in Boston University School of Medicine. He has located at 570 Tremont Street, Boston.

A. L. KENNEDY, M. D., who has been, during the past year, in the hospitals and schools of Europe, has returned, and located at No. 1 St. James Avenue, corner of Berkeley Street, Boston. Although he does not intend to relinquish general practice, he will give special attention to diseases of the chest.

GEORGE R. SOUTHWICK, M. D. (B. U. S. of M., '81), who spent several months in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and received therefrom the degree of Master of Obstetrics, will soon return to Boston, where he has received the appointment of Clinical Assistant in Obstetrics in his alma mater.

WE had hoped that the legal troubles of the Homœopa hic Medical College of Mich gan University had ended; but the last announcement states that H. C. Kusselmann has been appointed Prosecutor of the Chair of Surgery. Our sympathies go with Prof. Franklin.

[blocks in formation]

HYPODERMATIC MEDICATION.

To what extent the subcutaneous injection of medicinal substances is to supersede the almost universally accepted method, per os, the present or coming generation of physicians must determine. Chrestien, in the beginning of this century, published a treatise on the iatraliptic method; but Magendie and Bernard first proved by physiological experiments the direct absorption of medicinal substances when introduced under the skin. Lafargue's discovery of the anodynous properties of morphine when inoculated under the skin, and the subsequent improvement upon this method by Rynd, Wood, and Hunter, have done more toward introducing this method than all else. Hunter it was "who demonstrated that hypodermic injections acted by absorption; that they acted quicker than by the endermic method or the stomachic doses; that they acted more effectually, and that a small injected dose was equivalent to a much larger one by the stomach." Eulenberg's work, German, — and Bartholow's work, — English, — have done much towards making physicians acquainted with the possibilities of the method; and the many experiments made during the past decade all attest its value. Its advantages over every other, Bartholow claims, are, "1. The effect is produced more speedily, and the whole effect of the quantity introduced. 2. The results are more permanent and curative. 3. Gastric disturbance rarely occurs, and irritation of the stomach is avoided. 4. The administration may be made to persons unwilling or unable to swallow." With the use of brandy, whiskey, and sulphuric ether in this way to stimulate the system after severe hemorrhage; of morphine to check puerperal convulsions; of ergotine to control hemorrhage, dissipate fibroid growths of the uterus, and expel uterine polypi; most of us are familiar; but the most brilliant results seem to have been realized in the treatment of syphilis with mercury in small doses. Lewin, of Berlin, Liegeois and Cornil, of Paris, have all experi

[blocks in formation]

mented with it, and reported better success and fewer relapses than from any other treatment, and the dose varied from grain to grain In eczema and psoriasis M. Lepp reports most favorable results from the use of small doses of arsenic. Declat, from subcutaneous injections of phenic acid, reports cures which verge on the miraculous.

Homœopathic literature contains very little of clinical experience with this method; and this is easily explained when we consider that the first three of Bartholow's advantages are and always have been claimed as belonging to homœopathic medication. Nevertheless, as physicians we must have cases where the last advantage claimed can be utilized. In cancer of the stomach or duodenum, chronic gastric catarrh, and acute mania, in convulsions, in coma, and many other instances this method might prove invaluable. Only lately we have heard of homoeopathic physicians experimenting with remedies hypodermatically in skin. diseases, and with apparent good results. We republish in this number a report of two cases treated by Kalka, by hypodermatic medication, which may prove as interesting to our readers as to ourselves. The late Dr. Okie, of Providence, reported several cases of chronic enuresis cured by the hypodermatic administration of homœopathic remedies, when the same remedies given in the usual way were of no service.

WHAT SHALL HOMEOPATHS DO WITH THEMSELVES? IN the last number of the GAZETTE we considered the question which has troubled the allopathic mind for nearly three quarters of a century, "What shall we do with the homoeopaths?" Now we propose to look at the matter from our own standpoint and see what are our opportunities, our duties, and our responsibilities; in fact, what we can do with and for ourselves. In the first place, then, it may not be amiss to review our past work and examine our present position.

The very announcement of a therapeutic law, where all before had been vague, uncertain theory, and changing, often senseless, practice, was the first step toward setting aside the false pathological notions then prevalent, as well as the pernicious methods which they gave rise to, including the heteropathic polypharmacy which the combined efforts of charlatans, old nurses, and 'doctors" had concocted in the preceding three thousand years. That it was no easy task this century has proved. But to-day the great mass of the community, if not of the profession, rejoices in the setting aside and disuse of violent

66

« ForrigeFortsæt »