cines-especially their tonic mixtures. After considerable argument I at last succeeded in getting the manufacturers of Ferro-Nutrine to make up a sample lot of a product to be called Ferro-Nutrine Plain for my use in dispensing purposes.

This contains 1-60th of a grain of inorganic iron to the dram and at sufficient amount of Somatose-from which is derived the nutrient qualities to give to each dram decided food value.

My expectations with this agent have been more than realized. I have used it with quite a number of the Specific Medicines and, up to the present time, have found no mixtures that were not clear and very pleasant to the taste. This last result pleased me very much indeed, as I have found that pleasant tasting tonics will be taken for a long time without any demurrance from your patients, and in chronic cases this is quite a desideratum.

I am very glad to bring this before the members of this Medical Society, and would bespeak a trial of this new preparation which will be manufactured by the Ferro-Nutrine Chemical Co., of Portland, Me.

Thinking that you might not be very familiar with the nutrient portion of the vehicle-Somatose-I have taken the liberty of incorporating in this short article extracts from a paper that was printed on this agent in one of the early volumes of the Journal of Therapeutics and Dietetics.

"In view of the prominent part taken by albuminous substances in the diet of healthy persons, it is easy to understand how absolutely essential they are in the treatment of various diseases, both of acute and chronic character. In the selection of albuminous foods for the sick and weakly, however, much difficulty has been experienced, because they are frequently unadapted for the needs of patients, even if sufficient for the nourishment of healthy persons. When it is remembered that in all diseases the digestion is more or less impaired, it will be readily understood that the necessary albumens should be administered in a form in which they will be easily digested, and that they should be as concentrated as possible, and contain no useless residue to derange the stomach and intestinal canal. More important still, they should be given in a form in which they will be immediately and completely appropriated in the system and produce a rapid gain in flesh and strength.

"Somatose is an albuminous food product prepared in accordance with these principles. It contains the nourishing elements of meat in a readily soluble form, eighty grains of Somatose being equivalent to about one and a half ounces of fresh beef-1 to 8. The salts

present in Somatose correspond to the nutritive salts of fresh meat, among which occurs the phosphate of potassium, so important in the formation of bone and muscle. Somatose is a light yellow, somewhat granular powder, readily and completely soluble in water and other fluids, odorless, and practically tasteless.

"Somatose consists almost entirely of albumoses, and exhibits the highest percentage of albuminous matter of all the preparations of meat in the market, including the so-called meat-extracts, meatpeptones, meat-bouillon, etc. It is of uniform composition and devoid of superfluous material, and in consideration of its high nutritive value Somatose is much to be preferred to all other albuminous food products. It is best administered shortly before meals.

"The properties which render Somatose especially suitable as a food for the sick are as follows: (1) It is readily absorbed even in diseased conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract. (2) It is taken up in sufficient quantities to insure the patient against mal-nutrition, and has the remarkable property of stimulating the appetite-which is diminished under the influence of artificial peptones. (3) It does not disturb the most delicate stomach, never causing flatulence nor diarrhea. (4) Being tasteless and odorless, it is easy and agreeable of administration and, if desired, may be given without the knowledge of the patient. Somatose is indicated in all conditions in which an effective nutrient and reconstructive is required.

"In a paper on Somatose by Stevenson and Luff, London Lancet, September 30, 1899, they arrive at the following conclusions: (1) Somatose is a true meat nutrient, possessing restorative and stimulating powers. (2) It is well borne by delicate patients. (3) It improves digestion and causes no gastro-intestinal disturbance. (4) It has a favorable effect on general matabolism. (5) It never gives rise to the appearance of albumen, albumose or peptone in the urine."

It is well to remember the apparently new and very effectual method of resuscitating a drowned person, as advised by Prof. Whitford. He places the patient in a bath tub, or on canvas or oilcloth, and has an assistant pour water of a temperature of 100 degrees F. from a height of four or five feet on the spine of the patient, while the doctor resorts to tongue traction 16 times to the minute. Of course it is necessary to see that all air passages are free from water. The patient should be frequently turned, so that the stream of water may reach all parts of the body. The Professor says that he has succeeded in a case where the patient has been in the water an hour.

TREATMENT OF GONORRHEA.

By J. A. Burnett, M. D., Hartshorne, Okla.

This is not intended to be a very long and extensive paper on the treatment of gonorrhea, but a short, practical one, offering a method that is not likely known by very many.

First inject a two per cent. solution of quinine and urea hydrochloride and in 10 to 30 minutes inject a four per cent. solution of compound tincture of iodine. The quinine is used to prevent the pain that the iodine would cause. If desired one can use orthoform in place of the quinine. If you do not know the value of iodine as a germicide, etc., read up on it. It is an old remedy, but far superior to some of the new ones that are on the market at a high price.

This treatment works well in both acute and chronic anterior gonorrhea.

Dr. Butler, in one of his excellent articles, made the following unquestionably truthful statement regarding the "social evil."

"So long as man may without scruple, without violation of social law, with what one may term the tacit encouragement of society, freely consort with immoral women without incurring any stigma, so long will they continue to infect the innocent women they marry with disease which soils them, which poisons them, and which kills them."

Another authority states that statistics show that out of fourteen million young men in this country today, under the age of thirty, fifty per cent. have some form of venereal disease, and from seventy-five to ninety per cent. of all our men have contracted some taint. He might have gone a little farther and told us who had the first taint, Adam or Eve.

And now we are learning that some doctors are curing eclampsia. by Cesarian section, claiming that it is easier and more effectual. For whom, the doctor or the patient?

Are we patient enough in our treatment of cases of heart disease that come to us for treatment? It is a fine point to decide whether it is rest or stimulation that is needed, and if we are in doubt as to what is best to do, "Do nothing and let nature take care of her own," is a safe rule to follow.

DIETETICS

DIET AND ENDURANCE.

By Henry Light,

Twenty Years Captain Vegetarian Cycling Club; Vice-President of the Vegetarian Society.

(Continued from page 357, Vol. VII.)

I quite anticipate having quoted against me the experiments of Professor Irving Fisher, as recorded by him in his pamphlet entitled "The Infiuence of Flesh-eating on Endurance."

But interesting and instructive though his experiments are, the title of his pamphlet is most misleading to the average reader. The mere horizontal holding out of one's arms as a test of endurance is farcical. By saying that, I in no way desire to ridicule the experiments or underrate their value, nor to impeach the motives or honesty of the Professor, but only to register my regret at the misleading nature of the title and the impression it conveys, and to dispute the Professor's conclusions, if by endurance he means what the man in the street understands by endurance.

The trained man who, while putting forth his utmost energy in strenuous effort lasts the longest in any test which involves the whole man, is usually understood to have proven himself, or his dietary, or both, capable of the greatest endurance; and not the man who simply shows he can last longest at doing nothing, as relatively the mere holding out one's arms horizontally does but show.

In the first test at "arms holding" the best vegetarian lasted eight times as long as the best flesh-eater. Now that, I admit, is certainly endurance of a kind—and endurance with a vengeance-but if readers interpet the experiment as proving the superior capacity of men fed upon the low proteid standard during the time they are actually putting forth their utmost energy, to endure longer than those fed upon a higher proteid standard under like conditions, then it certainly proves too much; for, other things being equal, no one individual can outlast another to that absurdly marvellous extent simply by curtailing hist amount of protein-food.

But though difference in the character of food used will not bring that about, unequal training will, and I well remember such a case when in his six days' walk at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, Weston

out-distanced six of our English athletes, though only one of them at a time was upon the track, whilst the remaining five were resting preparatory to taking their separate turns. That this result was due to special training for special work, and not to difference in the kind or quality or quantity of food used is proven by the fact that after special training for the same purpose, one of them alone found himself equal to rivalling Weston's own performances.

That the experiments of Professor Fisher were not so much tests of endurance as tests of the fitness of particular muscles and limbs for particular work is also demonstrated by the contradictory nature of the statistics provided by the arm-holding contest to those supplied by the leg-raising one. For, whereas in the former even the sedentary vegetarian workers beat the flesh-eating athletes, in the latter those self-same sedentary workers were themselves beaten hollow by the flesh-eaters, and the best flesh-eating athlete also actually beat the best flesh-abstaining athlete, thereby showing the unreliability of the tests for the purposes used, or at least often quoted.

Again, in the arm-holding contest, whilst 17 of the 19 vegetarian athletes endured but for an average of 23 minutes each, the other two vegetarian athletes endured for 160 and 176 minutes respectively. This very extravagant difference between the performances of vegetarians themselves show the personal element to have been a bigger factor in the test than was the diet; and relative natural susceptibility to pain may well have been another factor; and so may obstinacy, for obstinacy, or steadfastness of purpose, is a requisite acquisition to all successful reformers. Optimism also has an effect in such experi

ments.

Yet one more illustration: One of the vegetarian athletes (H. O.), who lasted at the "arm-holding" contest only 13 minutes, as compared with 176 minutes endured by the winner, nevertheless at the "leg-raising" contest actually outstripped all other competitors by an extremely large margin, and succeeded in doing the set exercise no fewer than 1,000 times as against but 305 by the next best vegetarian, and only 37 by the poorest.

In this case the man and food were identical in both contests, yet he came out at the top of one contest and practically but at the bottom of the other.

This again but emphasises the fact that, whatever else the experiments proved, it certainly was not that any necessary relation existed between the food consumed and the endurance displayed, but rather that local developments-such as size, quality, and training of