pathic colleges in New York and Philadel- above the common herd: The soldier, the phia, who does not almost daily administer remedies which in no sense can be called homeopathic. In name they are sectarian, fighting with all their force for a name which binds them to exclusive practice, and yet in the sick room unsectarian, broad and liberal, bringing to their aid facts and suggestions culled from a large reading of the literature and experience of all schools." sailor, and the shepherd not unfrequently; the artist rarely; rarelier still, the clergyman; the physician almost as a rule. He is the flower (such as it is), of our civilization; and when that stage of man is done with,and only remembered to be marveled at in history, he will be thought to have shared as little as any in the defects of the period, and most fully exhibited the virtues of the race. Gen A correspondent to one of our exchanges erosity he has, such as is possible to those says: "I fail to see where odium can be attached to a progressive, liberal-minded homeopath, desirous of being conversant with current medical literature, who keeps a well-stocked medical library of standard authors of any or all schools."- who practise an art, never to those who drive a trade; discretion, tested by a hundred secrets; tact, tried in a thousand embarrassments; and what are more important, Heraclean cheerfulness and courage. So it is that he brings air and cheerfulness into the sickroom, and often enough, though not so often as he wishes, healing. That's just the point; neither do we see any offense in it, only at the same time crawl up It has been Mr. Stevenson's sad fortune to and paint out the word "Homeopath" on your have lead the life of an invalid, and his hapsign and substitute Universalist, and then we piness to have met only with physicians who will pin our faith to you. "You can't have realized in a high degree the ideal of their your hog and eat it too" in this case as much profession. And so his picture of the physias any other. But, martyrs live long, and we cian is an ideal one, true of the best men in will not perpetuate your existence by giving the ranks of the medical profession, and proyou a chance to pose as such before a highly-bably of as large a proportion of them as of liscriminating (?) community. We have had any profession in the world. But even the our say, and henceforth are done. WHAT OTHERS SAY OF Us. It is always of interest to members of any rade or profession, to hear what outsiders ave to say concerning their virtues or defects, s the case may be. Unbiased by habits of thought engendered y association with their kind, these expresions from strangers may often be looked pon as more truly indicative of the true state f affairs, than those which come from those Fin the ring." It is with this idea that we eel that interest will be shown in the followng remarks from the American, concerning he recent Medical Congress and physicians mfgeneral: In the dedication to his recent volume of poems, Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson writes: There are men and classes of men that stand members of that profession would hesitate to endorse his statement that the physician "almost as a rule" is one who "stands above the common herd." And those of us who have had any opportunity of wide observation of medical work must have met with more than one physician who fell miserably below the average level of men in devotion to duty, in the discretion which should guard professional secrets, and in the knowledge of that science which he had undertaken to administer for the benefit of mankind. But after all deductions, the profession is entitled to the benefit of Mr. Stevenson's beautiful words of praise; for poor indeed has been his experience of doctors who has not found among them friends whose names he cannot utter without kindly emotion, or who has not found reason to admire the selfsacrificing devotion with which the true physician battles with disease, at the cost of his own strength and comfort. And closer grows the bond when we have had our own given back to us as from the dead by the doctor's skill and painstaking, or even have witnessed how these were expended unavailingly to save a life that death had marked for its own. And the respect rises to a loftier height when we have seen a physician assuage the terrors of a dying-bed, and point the dying to the hope of a life beyond. How much literature and life would lose if the story of the beloved physicians of Christendom were obliterated from it. John Rutty, Samuel Fothergill, Carl von Linne, John Locke, Ambroise Paré, Sir Thomas Browne, Sir James Y. Simpson, John Abernethy, William Cullen, Albert von Haller, Sir Henry Holland, John Brown, Marshall Hall, Samuel G. Howe, Forbes Winslow, John Radcliffe, Edward Jenner, Erasmus Darwin, John Dalton, and William Harvey are names which occur at once to an outsider as showing what a variety of mental type and practical capacity has been embraced under the common designation and profession of the doctor. Evi dently the profession is one which has in it the elements which attract generous minds. It is, as Mr. Stevenson says, an art, not a trade. It calls for the highest courage, and the calmest foresight, and the most unwearying patience, and it offers as the reward of all these a success which is measured by use and not by gain. It accepts no mercenary standard of success, but sets him the highest in its places of honor who has done the most to alleviate suffering and to prolong life. It judges every member of the profession not by his bank account, but by the record of his discoveries and his cures. It attacks incessantly and relentlessly that by whose existence its members obtain a livelihood, and would count it the highest snccess to have brought about a state of things in which the need for the doctor would have passed away. So it is a liberal profession, because it has other weights and measures for things than those of the market place, and aims at higher ends than money-making. The great international Medical Congress which has been in session at Washington, has suggested to many persons a higher and worthier estimate of the medical profession than the current one. It is the tenth session of the Congress since the first was held at Paris, in 1867, but it is the first held on American soil. That it came across the At lantic this year at a great sacrifice of the time and convenience of so many members of a busy profession, was a very high compliment to us and our physicians. It showed that the scientific achievements of our American doc tors had impressed their European brethren as quite sufficient to put us as a nation on an equal footing medically with any in Western Europe. And the compliment was a deserved Here and there in Europe there may be an eminent man like Dr. Esmarch, who thinks that American physicians need to go to school to the masters of medicine in the Old World. But they are exceptions, and they are not well informed as to American conditions. one. It is quite true that medical education is in a sadly unorganized condition in America, and that we make by far too many doctors, having one already to every thirteen families. and being likely to have one to every half dozen if we go on. It is trne that the Ameri can States generally do not do half their duty in defending their people from the incursions of untaught quacks. It is true that the med ical course given in all but some half-dozer of our schools is far too short and insufficient and that there is an entire absence of govern mental control of the avenues into the medi cal profession. It is true, even of our physi cians who have received a proper technical training, that by far too few are liberally educated men. All these things are true, and they were brought into the light even in the discussions of the Congress, but they do not detract from the solidity and value of the work done by American physlcians, or from the general high standard of medical practice in this country. To Philadelphians the matter is of especial interest, as we have nothing but our medical and other scientific schools and institutions to compensate for our barrenness in a literary and artistic achievement. Once we enjoyed a preeminence in medical scholarship which permitted of no comparison with any other city of the Union. We have not lost that preemirence through any retrogression on our part. On the contrary, we have made marked progress with every decade. But other cities have come forward with great rapidity. In the East, New York is our chief rival; in the West, Cincinnati has risen to very high rank, | and its rivals among the Western cities do not mean to be left behind. It is not, therefore, by any policy of drift or let alone that Philadelphia is to maintain its place as the first medical center of the country, the place ven her by Dr. John Morgan and his associstes before the Revolution, and so long maintained for her by her Rushes, her Physics, and other notable physicians not a few. We mast strain every nerve to keep the means and the facilities for medical education the best in the country. The step taken by the University, in bringing the standard of education to the requirements of the National MediAssociation, must be taken by its great ival also. We must make understood every where that the physician who can say: "I udied in Philadelphia," has had the most borough and ample indoctrination into his ience that is to be had. And the growing realth of the city must come to the support of both with ampler endowments to secure ibraries, hospital accommodations, museums, endowed chairs for the enlargement of courses of study, dormitories, and other means to attract and profit the students of medicine. Even Prof. Sumner admits that the higher education is something which cannot be left to the chances of general competition, and that the generosity of individuals must make ip for the shortsightedness of the community nd the country. ment of gonorrhea often renewed by seeing THE RESULTS OF TREATMENT IN GONORRHEA. 2-5 days. Certainly, statistics like these ac Since the general acceptance of the germ theory of disease, and the discovery of the gonococcus, readers of medical journals have their worn-out interest in the successful treat cumulating in such quantities as they recently have, render it very probable that the best method, so far known, is now in use; but on the other hand we must take into consideration the results of good men which differ from these, else we shall be led to promise ABSENCE OF FREE HYDROCHLORIC ACID IN Dr. L. Wolff, of Gothenburg, and Prof. Ewald, of Berlin, report upon eight cases, where, in spite of repeated examinations, they were unable to detect free hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Six of these never complained of disagreeable stomach symptoms nor was there the least cause of suspicion of carcinoma; the other two patients had had dyspeptic troubles. They found (1), that hydrochloric acid can be absent, using the ordinary chemical reagents to detect its presence in the stomach, even after the administration of hydrochloric acid per os, without the presence of any manifest stomach trouble; (2), that in different diseases of the stomach, positively not carcinomatous, hydrochloric acid can be wanting; (3), that there are cases where the peptone creating power of the stomach is missing, and where there is no doubt as to the non-carincomatous nature of the disease. The gentlemen, moreover, state that under certain circumstances the digestive function of the stomach, as far as peptones are concerned, is missing, and that the contents of the stomach enter the intestine unchanged, and are there first peptonized. Medullary sarcoma of the breast, 3 cases, all above 10,000. Scirrhus of the pancreas, 2 cases, 9400 and 9900. Medullary sarcoma of the testis, 12,250. Osteosarcoma, 7 cases, 19,500; one case of very rapid growth, 52,700. Lymphosarcoma, from 11 to 20,000. Gastric cancer, in 7 cases, an average of 7600; in 5 cases, 17,600. The influence of operations was shown to be Mammary scirrhus, 3 cases; before operation, 21,700, 11,500, 11,000; after recovery, 6200, 6200, 8400. Medullary sarcoma of the breast, before operation, 10,000; after operation, 9000. Lymphosarcomata and osteosarcomata showed a still greater diminution after operation. BENEFICENT BACTERIA. An editorial in the "Med. News," speaking of Pasteur's experiments with regard to or ganisms found in the alimentary tract, has the following: Pasteur, having first isolated no less than seventeen microorganisms of the mouth, including the micrococcus Pasteuri, o Sternberg, and the coccus designated by the title k, of Pasteur, proceeded to add a give number of these microbes to various matter commonly taken as food, and the results ar here expressed in the brief terms of the author The addition of seven of these microorgan isms to albumen dissolved that substanc completely, while five caused it to swell an rendered it transparent. Ten of them adde to fibrin dissolved it, while four rendered transparent and swollen, nine dissolved gi ten, seven coagulated milk, and six dissolve caseine. Three transformed starch into suga Taking as normal 6000 white blood cor- and nine changed lactose into lactic acid puscles in 1 cubic millimetre of blood, the va- seven changed crystalline sugar; seven pr riations were as follows: duced fermentation of glucose and tran Mammary scirrhus, 13 cases, 7400 to 21,700; formed it partially into alcohol. These c in 10 cases, over 10,000; in a 14th case, ganisms also were found to possess the pow aged patient, the number was greatly reduced. of resisting the gastric juice for as long a DIAGNOSIS OF NEOPLASMS BY EXAMINATION A peculiar mode of adding probability to an uncertain diagnosis in neoplasms, is furnished by Hayem, whose results are given in the "Med. News." in an twenty-four hours at the temperature of the body. In the fecal matters he recovered six of these microorganisms of the mouth, the bacillus mesentericus fuscus, the bacillus coli commune, the bacillus b, c, and e, and the coccus k, and four other microorganisms. One of these last dissolved albumen, two rendered fibrin transparent, three dissolved gluten, one transformed potato starch, three transformed lactose to lactic acid, while two coagulated milk, and so on, with many of the various substances generally taken by man. M. Pasteur, therefore, concludes that the microorganisms found in the normal human alimentary tract are important factors in aid ing the carrying on of digestion. While it has generally been supposed that these microorganisms must have some functions to perform in the intestinal canal, so far as we are aware, these experiments are the first to place the supposition on anything like a firm basis, and the repute of the investigator gives assurance as to the accuracy of the deductions he has drawn. Further experimentation may, and very likely will, give us still further data concerning this important matter, and the world, both professional and otherwise, may soon learn that the word microbe and microorganim is not always synonymous with some morbid process. A SPECIALIST ON SPECIALISM. At the International Congress, Dr. P. G. Unna, of Hamburg, Germany, begins his address on "Dermatology in its Relation to General Medicine," with the following language: The true specialist, he who, from pure enthusiasm for his profession, has left the ordinary path of medical practice can travel only one way. Theoretically, and possibly also practically, instructed in all branches of medical science and art, he will devote his entire life to the double object of planting seeds, gathered from the immense field of general medicine, into his special soil, in order to return gratefully to general medicine his harvest-as a ripe fruit. From this point of view gentlemen, let us consider to-day, the relations of dermatology to general medicine. Let us lay aside all those trifling external circumstances which ordinarily are advanced as an excuse for the existence of special branches. We will forget that the specialist may and must acquire in his small domain, more extensive knowledge, and greater skill than any one engaged in the entire field of medicine. This circumstance which, with iron necessity, has created specialism, is also the one which forever separates it from general medicine. Let us make use to-day of the pleasant fiction that the specialist is created from the growing and ripening conviction of the eminent physician and naturalist, from the ideal wish to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge of naOur eye will be sharpened at once for that which connects it with general medicine forever,-i. e., for the interest which general medicine has, on its part, to desire in future the disconnected special culture of individual branches of science and to favor the same. I consider my task for to-day accomplished if I should succeed in convincing you that general medicine, that every practising physician, has a great, and ideal interest in this, that dermatology may be cultivated in a manner far more earnestly and extensively than heretofore, by the greatest possible number of workers; that this young daughter of medicine is worthy of such special attention and favor, and will reward the mother for all the trouble spent in its culture. ture. TETANUS. Drs. W. Ohlmüller and F. Goldschmidt, of the bacteriological laboratory of Trürenberg, tell of a very interesting case of tetanus after a slight injury to the thumb, the patient dying in two days. Cultures were made of pus taken from his thumb, and a bacillus obtained perfectly similar to the one obtained from garden soil, by Dr. N. Kolai. The growth of the bacillus caused liquefaction of the gelatinized blood serum, and a most peculiar odor. Mice were infected with the culture, and died of tetanus. Older |