Because of the normal acid condition of the stomach it is not acted upon, hence the non-gastric irritation, until it reaches the intestines, where it is decomposed into its component parts and exhibits the properties of salicylic acid and formaldehyde.

The process of manufacture being open to inspection and its methods thoroughly explained, justice to whatever appeals to one's unbiased judgment and proper regard to the demands of a suffering and confiding clientele compel the use of whatever means may appear to serve that end.

Many useful introductions into medicine are denied the atttention they deserve, because of an improper and imperfect use of the same. A spark of fire may be extinguished by a drop of water, yet, neglected, may assume such dimensions that a great volume of water will be required to control it. The longer a trouble continues, the more disastrous its effects, which effects may remain for some time after the condition which produced them has been removed.

The greater the trouble, the more pronounced must be the method of its treatment, and ofttimes more prolonged, to be effective.

You cannot control an extensive conflagration with a garden hose. That requires the efforts of the fire department of a large city; and were they to desist from their efforts before a complete subduing of the fire, there would, in all probability, be an awakening of the slumbering flame, and the subsequent destruction, if not complete, would add greatly to what already preceded it. As with fire, so with disease, especially rheumatic troubles. The treatment, to be effective, is dependent upon the extent the disease has assumed and the length of time it has existed.

Many a meritorious drug has been discarded because of the administration of too small a dose, and a too limited use of the

same.

In

We must remember, also, that a disease. may be obliterated, but if the condition. and circumstances that produced it continue to exist, as an inevitable consequence it will reappear as a new invasion. my use of acetyl-forma-sal, I made the mistake at first, as others perhaps have done, of giving insufficient doses and not looking for the cumulative effect. When I found it devoid of any gastric irritation or cardiac depression, I was encouraged to administer larger doses and persist longer in their use, until results were obtained; and found, however, it took less quantity by this means than if smaller doses had been given.

The value of salicylic acid as an eliminator of the effects of faulty metabolism and uric acid, which has been proven to be such a factor in the sequelae of rheumatism, if not its cause; its antiseptic properties, and a certain specific effect on the function of the liver, are generally admit-. ted by the medical world. One great objection to its use heretofore has been its intolerance by the stomach and its depressing effect upon the nerve-centers that control the heart's action, when synthetically produced from carbolic acid. This fact has militated against its use, and

various attempts have been made by chemists to modify this quality of salicylic acid without destroying its therapeutic properties.

This they have succeeded in doing by a process of acetylization, where by the introduction of new elements and the transforming of the elements that constitute the original composition, a new compound was produced which not only maintained the properties accorded to salicylic acid, but new properties, due to the association of formaldehyde, were acquired.

The following are a few of the many instances in which acetyl-forma-sal was used:

Case of Mrs. C.-Age, 48 years. Crippled in one knee, accompanied with tumefaction, making locomotion difficult, and almost constant pain; together with enlarged finger joints. After suffering for several months and having employed all the recogniezd specifics prescribed for her by others as well as myself, to no purpose, except in many instances to cause considerable gastric disturbances, I concluded to give acetyl-forma-sal a trial, to the effect

that after the use of the same in 10-grain doses, every two hours, for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, considerable relief was obtained; continued its use at less intervals for two months thereafter, when all signs of the trouble had disappeared. A year has elapsed, and no recurrence of trouble. The party in question had in earlier years prolonged and severe attacks prostrating her in helpless condition for weeks.

Case of Miss W.-Age, 52 years. Chronic rheumatism, with history of frequent acute attacks, for years past; great pain, fever, and pronounced swellings of the hands and wrists. The salicylates and The salicylates and iodides not well borne by the stomach, and lithia and alkalies too slow for relief. Employed acetyl-forma-sal in 10-grain doses every two hours and obtained decided relief in twenty-four hours; in forty-eight

hours the swelling subsided and pain nearly gone.

Case of Miss D.-Age, 36 years. Chronic sciatica. Gave 10-grain doses every two hours. In six doses found great relief; with an occasional 10 grains subsequently, was enabled to move about with more ease and comfort.

Being a sufferer myself from occasional attacks of rheumatism, both articular and muscular, which suddenly developed into a severe attack of lumbago, prostrating me and rendering me absolutely helpless (every motion being quite difficult without help, eliciting severe pains, and constant pain when not in action), took 10 grains of acetyl-forma-sal every hour for two or three doses, then every two hours for twenty-four hours, after which every three hours until trouble was completely removed. Found considerable ease after twenty-four hours, was able to move about unassisted in forty-eight hours, and in four days completely relieved, and attending to my usual work. Took no other medicine during such time.

Have found it of service in other cases of rheumatoid arthritis, myalgias, and uric acid headaches, by use of 5-grain doses every hour for twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

It is impossible to convey the abject horror expressed by the tones of his voice; yet at the moment I was convinced that he was but suffering from a fear of some perfectly natural process. I therefore said to him: "The condition you are in is exactly the reverse of one needing the recur. bent position; your face is enough flushed to demonstrate that, at once; and if you will allow me, I will walk with you; you need have no fear, I am in position now to do for you what is needed." "My limbs are so tremulous I can scarcely walk; do give me your arm."

Affording him such assistance as was deemed by him necessary, we walked up Broad Street, my time being given to an effort to reassure him and withdraw his mind from introspection.

Presently he was asked if he had ever used liquor; and replying that he had, he was asked if he had not at such times felt sensations analogous to those he now suffered from; to which his reply was that he did not think so.

A few moments' conversation along this line led him to acknowledge that it was posssible, particularly as to the sensation of "unsteadiness" and that of "fullness."

I then explained to him that in lieu of some dreaded evil, he had simply an active and an unusually "quickly-acting-underdemand" heart; in other words, a perfectly competent heart, which could be relied upon to do any duty demanded of it; and that in lieu of there being any reason for his fears, he had every reason to thank his Creator that his heart was alive.

Many meetings with this patient thereafter enabled me to lead him to give logical consideration to such "attacks," with the ultimate result that he was able to agree with me that the so-called attacks were nothing more nor less than an exhibition of the following conditions: The heart, released from the duties imposed by physical exercise, became as mettlesome as a kept

up colt, and under the opportunity offered by out-of-door exercise, simply "acted up."

Standing at the eastern end of Girard Avenue bridge, I observed a man slowly and laboriously, with frequent stops, making his way up from the river drive. On reaching the bridge he leaned on the railing as if exhausted, and to my remark, "You apparently suffer from some cardiac affection," he responded: "Yes, a weak heart; nothing organic, but yet such a weakened condition that my heart palpitates under the slightest exertion, dreadfully, and I am advised that if I overexercise I am liable to drop dead."

I asked to be allowed to take his pulse and to listen to the heart's action for a moment; both of which requests, it being in the early part of the evening, were very graciously acquiesced in. After examining these for a moment I asked him: "Are you not troubled to a very great degree by flatulence after eating starchy foods?" "Indeed I am, to such a degree that their use has been absolutely interdicted by my family physician."

Here was a case where "professional etiquette" might have barred one medical. man from animadverting upon the fiat of another; but as the writer has not taken a "fee" for professional advice for overtwenty-five years, and as in his mind the primary desideratum is the good of the patient and neither the reputation nor the emolument of the medical man, straightforward truth was essential, and a tiny lecture on the case in point was delivered, as follows:

"If you had a child who had a weak limb, and the doctor advised you that the only way of saving the use of that limb was by disuse, what would you tell him?" "That he was a confounded ass," was the, to me, somewhat unexpected reply.

"Well, sir, there is absolutely nothing the matter with your heart save its muscles have atrophied, solely because their use has been interdicted. Exactly

the same result in regard to your heart is being accomplished by the advice given you as would be achieved by advising you to place your right arm in a sling, and give it constant and eternal disuse; any organ under such conditions will lose all tone, and ultimately atrophy. Moreover, the 'palpitation of the heart' which you have been advised to avoid is an effort of nature, under the direct command of the Creator, to replace your lack of physical exercise of the heart in this wise. When a man refuses to give the heart actual forcible exercise absolutely necessary to its continued vigor, nature gives to that man an appetite for such foods as will easily produce those gases whose pressure on the heart demands its exercise. And that there be no failure in this programme, the appetite is large; the demands of the muscular system are small, and accordingly the quantity of gas evolved is very great; and the desired effect, the demand on the heart. for exercise, in spite of the ignorance of the medical man, is accomplished."

Our "Christian Science" and "Osteopathic" brothers have one great advantage over us of the "Old School," in that their treatment is along two lines which usually the "Regular" physician fails to recognize.

Christian Science (I have never read a book on this subject, nor have I attended any discourse thereon, but rely on the published statements as to this point) teaches "there is no such thing as evil"; and truly this is a Godly statement, and moreover one which calm and methodical examination of the processes of nature, the handmaid of God, verifies, if those facts are pursued to their logical end, and not beyond.

"Disease," in other words, does not mean. decay, but active work; decay being universally a painless process; the pain attendant on any process being the call of the nerves for food, the rationale of which may be stated as follows:

Injury, decay, or other process causes irritation of the nerve-filaments in the invaded tissues; the telegram over the nerves reaches the solar plexus, and, returned along the sympathetic nerve, causes the enlargement of the caliber of the arterioles, thus bringing an enlarged supply of food to the invaded part. There being no capacity for enlargement on the part of the veins, there is necessarily deposition of the excess at the point of invasion.

Pain, in lieu of being any indication of decay, is invariably a symptom of repair; and should therefore in no case be interfered with for the purpose, or to the degree, of interfering with that process.

Disease, being but a subacute pain, is therefore equally a part of repair, it being evidently discerned by the patient only as something unusual; and through misunderstanding, on the part of both the patient and the physician, causelessly relegated to the class of an "evil," where in truth it is a "good," and not to be tampered with.

So well known are the effects of "fears," on both the mental and physical nature, that the exceedingly unexpected results of Christian Science in the recoveries of patients affected by acute pains, or diseases attended by unusual sensations, are easily understood, when it is remembered that in all such cases, if the mind of the patient is able to grasp the theorem, "there is no such thing as evil,," he is assuredly in the best of all conditions to aid Nature in her conservative efforts.

It, however, remains for us of "the pill, the potion, and the embrocation" to remember that while some patients are thus capable of the exercise. of the will, there is yet assuredly another class in which we produce that calmness of mind which is nearest akin to the exercise of the will, only by the use of some drug, the mere exhibition, or the bitterness or strength, of which succeeds in attracting the confidence.