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About fifty years ago, when the West was wild and woolly, and there were yet buckskinned pioneers in America, Shawneetown was a busy, lively, growing place. Men acquainted with that section of the country affirm that if it had only been named Shawnee City it would have outstripped any town in Illinois, and would occupy the position now held by Chicago.

"Grillparzer!" shouted Byron, in referring to the great Austrian dramatist, "Grillparzer! a devil of a name, but posterity must learn to pronounce it." A genius may win literary immortality in spite of an awkward name, but a town thus handicapped does not become the chief city or the capital of a state.

Perhaps Collinsville, also of Illinois, would have developed more rapidly if it had not been hampered by the "ville" in its name. At any rate, Collinsville is not asleep, and with the beginning of the new year it set the example of opening a hospital in the heart of its largest coal-mine. In view of the numberless accidents that occur to miners, this emergency hos

preach hygiene; let us teach hygiene. Personal, family, municipal, industrial, rural hygiene are phases of medicine and sociology. The common ground exists. exists. It is incumbent upon the profession to study the soil carefully, plough it thoroly, sow it wisely, and reap the fruits of their labors in the full consciousness of having attempted to enrich the ground while securing a splendid crop of health for the society of which, as a class, physicians form such an important part.

a Coal Mine.

pital is assuredly in the right place. But if its staff should concern itself merely with sawing off crushed limbs and in bandaging up mutilated anatomies, it will merit more blame than praise. It is to be hoped that these physicians will inform the community,

unhesitatingly, unquivocally, emphatically-that the unsanitary conditions of our mines are responsible for nearly all the accidents from cave-ins to explosions. Unprotected torches should not flare where enclosed electric lights are needed. Entirely too many miners have been sacrificed to the unnecessary greed of the President Earlings. No doubt it costs some money to replace rotten derricks and to install decent air-shafts, but is this an adequate reason why our mines. should remain danger-holes and deathtraps? After so much progress, after so many cunning inventions, must man still risk his life to feed his stomach? No wonder some men sign themselves, "Yours for the Revolution."

Humphry Davy received a baronetcy for inventing the miner's safety-lamp, but what will the humani

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Mr. Well Known Philanthropist announces that by reason of his increased earnings, the result of the greater efficiency obtained through the application of superscientific management to conditions in his various industries, he will, until further notice, award to the American public for their non-interference with his methods, benefits as listed in the following schedule:

(1) For the twisted lives and pirated happiness of one thousand children (by-product of his mills), one charity ward in hospital, to be operated as part of medical college of university hereinafter mentioned.

(2) For the smirched characters of one thousand women, driven to the street to eke out, to the point where they can live, the skimped wages allowed them in his department stores, one library, adjunct of the university hereinafter mentioned, wherein may be obtained books on leading the higher life.

(3) For the sodden hopes and blasted health of one thousand men, worn out in his factories, one scholarship, for the properly pliant, in university hereinafter mentioned.

(4) For the wrecked integrity, or

non-perpetuation, of one thousand. families, one university wherein will be thoroly promulgated the policy of Let Well Enough Alone.

NOTE. Mr. Well Known Philanthropist scorns, in advance the imputation that he makes the above concessions in order to draw attention from, or to offset the activities of, certain seeming tendencies of the times. His offers are prompted by purely philanthropic impulses.

Further, he holds that it were to show bad taste to question his motives.

When, at 3 A. M., the husband of the woman whom you have been carefully dieting for the relief of indigestion, due to insane methods of eating, rings you up to state that your patient ate a simple little supper-nothing that could possibly account for her present indisposition-said supper consisting of fried ham, fried potatoes, fried bread and lemon pie, and has awakened with cramps, nausea, et cetera, et cetera, and wants you to come out to South Framingham Avenue, two miles away, do you not feel a sudden access of faith in absent treatment and telephone prescribing?

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The Keystone of the Eugenic Arch

Only about half a century ago Mendel, the Austrian monk, made the experiment which has been truly said to be of more importance to the human race than the discovery of the steam engine.

What was this experiment, described in the simplest possible language?

It was an experiment with the common pea, and what Mendel was after was to determine the way in which fixed varieties found within a species are related. These fixed varieties breed true to type and are self-fertilizing. Having crossed certain varieties, Mendel studied the results in successive generations.

When he crossed tall plants with dwarfs (both ordinarily breeding true to type as regards height) he found

that all the resulting plants were as tall as, or taller than, the tall parents. So he called tallness a dominant characteristic and shortness a recessive characteristic.

But the seeds of this tall first generation, after planting and the attainment of full development, gave mixed results. Thus there were three times as many tall plants as short, and no intermediates.

ones.

The short plants of this second generation bred true, but not so the tall Some of the latter bred true, some produced three tall to one short. one, like the original tall hybrids. Mendel found that the number of tall plants that bred true was just half of the number that produced dwarfs.

Upon this experiment hang all the law and the prophets of heredity.

The Registration of Physical and Mental Pedigrees There is a society in New York which registers pedigrees. Of course they are pedigrees of the usual genealogical sort. The thought has occurred to us that the Government might found and maintain a bureau for the registration of physical and mental pedigrees. Why should we not be as much concerned about proof of good stock as about proof of blueblooded lineage?

We think that it was George M. Gould who, some years ago, proposed such a bureau, and worked out the details with his usual scientific thoroness.

We talk a good deal about the advantages of publicity for corporations.

Why not publicity in respect to stock? It would possess decided eugenic advantages. To those who could stand the publicity much social benefit would accrue, comparable to that derived from the recording of blue blood. Why should there not be an aristocracy of brain and physique as well as an aristocracy of birth? If anything the former should confer the greater honor. Indeed, there are not a few who despise the pretensions of the common, or garden variety of aristo

crats.

We are in the habit of comparing the corporation to the individual and advocating that the laws governing the

life of the one should govern the life of the other. We want entire publicity for corporations, whether they

can stand it or not, for the good of society as a whole. If we are sincere in our comparison and in our desire for social good perhaps we should be willing to submit to entire publicity

for individuals, the details to be worked out by boards of medical experts.

Can a greater incentive to the maintenance and cultivation of good stock

be imagined than that which we pro

pose? Such a definite and tangible plan would be worth far more than all the abstract talk that we are hearing nowadays.

The Nervous Child

Possibly the etiology of many of the nervous affections of children is to be found in the social "arrangements" that prevail among us. A. Maurice Low ("The American People: A Study in National Psychology"; Houghton Mifflin Co.) tells us that foreigners are always greatly impressed by the "nervous energy" of the American; "but the nervous energy of the American people as a whole can be traced to the mothers of the race, who are straining at the leash that the American man has made for them, who fails to see that it is none the less a leash because it is made of velvet cunningly worked and not infrequently studded with precious stones."

Low goes on to say that the American woman is at last in revolt. She is tired of her alleged inferiority and is satiated with luxury and pseudochivalry. She wants what has never been granted to her. She wants the recognition of intellectual and moral equality.

But we do not think that American nervousness is to be traced to the mothers of the race any more than to the fathers, for it is true in a sense that the American man is a sort of dependent a social defective, if you

like. We mean We mean the married man. He has paid a penalty for his subjugation of woman. The indirect influence that woman has been compelled to exercise over him has been very demoralizing to him and the institution of marriage has indeed made an institutional case of him. The nerves of both have suffered in the immoral process, and the nervous child is the expression of both.

It is about time that we began to study the influence of our social maladjustments upon our children's nervous organizations.

Man has always been prone to act selfishly, to dominate unreasonably, and to force concessions that secure him so-called "advantages," losing sight in the process of ultimate effects upon others than himself. It has been a foolish, even if "natural" policy, and his selfishness has been a stupid selfish

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Surgical Diagnosis.1

By ROYALE HAMILTON FOWLER, M.D., Brooklyn, N. Y.

In determining the diagnosis of surgical lesions, four influential factors are to be considered, the history, special methods of investigation, laboratory aids and the study of living pathology observed at the operating table.

THE HISTORY

Progress in diagnosis can best be made by studying disease in its earliest manifestations. Errors in diagnosis are due to haste, leading to insufficient or incorrect observations from which necessarily incorrect deductions are drawn. These errors may do no injury to the patient or they may do irreparable harm. Dr. Maurice H. Richardson writes: "Diagnosis before operation, controlled by operation and laboratory findings, cultivated by assiduous study before and after operation, corrected by errors and stimulated by successes, affords the most valuable and refreshing means of high intellectual effort the medical profession affords." Accurate diagnosis means correct observation and logical deduction. Think of the diagnostic capabilities of the late Joseph Bell of Edinburgh, the eminent surgeon who has been credited with being the original of Sir Conan Doyle's famous character, Sherlock Holmes. In case of a wide possible margin of error, deduction is often more dependable than observation. Surgical observations and deductions are subject to immediate control; medical diagnosis is not subject to such scrutinizing tests. Accuracy in surgical diagnosis means, in reference to history taking, the 1 Read before the Medical Society of the County of Kings, at Brooklyn, Dec. 19, 1911.

emphasizing of some statements, the minimizing of the importance of others, complete rejection of some, the simple acceptance of others. Each Each symptom must be given its proper weight. After the selection of the significant subjective facts, these observations must be considered in conjunction with objective signs noted by sight, touch, hearing and smell. The diagnostician's chief pre-operative reliance must be placed especially upon the feel of things. In certain diseases, e. g., chronic duodenal ulcer and chronic relapsing appendicitis, in which physical findings may be absent, reliance must be placed entirely upon the history.

The most experienced surgeons have learned to distrust the physician's unchecked checked diagnosis. The physician should distrust the judgment of the surgeon who fails to make a physical examination. The neglect of this most obvious essential is a frequent source of error. In case of referred patients it is best never to accept a diagnosis. without careful examination and reflection, even though the physician enjoy the surgeon's highest regard. In case of wrong diagnosis and unnecessary operation the physician does not always blame the surgeon's judgment, inasmuch as he has made the diagnosis in which the surgeon has concurred, but failure to make physical examination has resulted in years of invalidism. The following case has recently come under my observation and is a forceful example of this neglect.

A lady of 65 years of age complained of frequent urination attended with much pain and distress. She had been

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