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THE MEDICAL FORTNIGHTLY by the municipal councils of Victoria and

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Denaturized Alcohol.

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agents ployed are multiplying since the passage of the bill removing the tax from this useful material. It appears that it is to revolutionize domestic arrangements. If we are to believe various promoters, it is to give us light and heat, and that in the safest, cheapest and most desirable form. It has been our privilege to investigate the generation of light with the German burner adapted to the common American kerosene lamp, and heat with a burner adapted to attachment to the ordinary gasoline or gas stove, and in both the alcohol is a success. The light is an intense white light, steady and clear, the heat of the stove was equal to any emergency. Whether its great economy is to be proved, as has been claimed, remains to be demonstrated, but the new fuel is certainly clean, safe and effective. It will be largely used under any circumstances, but if as cheap as claimed it will largely supercede the products of the Standard Oil Co.

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has been maintained, as it was established, Vancouver and the provincial government. Their policy in dealing with the lepers has been virtually the same as that prevailing in oriental countries during countless ages. Any one suspected of leprosy, and there have been about thirty sent to the island, has been hunted down by the police, and after conviction by the city medical health officers, condemned to life exile. There

was no appeal. Houses and food supplies were provided and isolated from all human intercourse, the poor creatures were aban. doned to inexorable and inevitable fate. This barbarous and obsolete policy the dominion refuses to pursue now that the lazaretto has become a Canadian institution.

In the past treatment has been a neglected feature of the work at this institution, here. after the unfortunates are to have the best that modern therapy affords, and oures are expected where hopelessness has heretofore reigned.

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lessly drop into some of these lay inaccura; cies, at least in conversation. The number of kinds of "trouble" to which the human body is heir to is illimitable, but in a gross way the limit, exclusive of subdivisions and doubles, is that of the number of organs composing the body. We have heart trouble, lung trouble, womb trouble, kidney trouble, etc. Kidney trouble is a fair example of the range of possible inaccuracy, this disorder may mean lumbar or dorsal myalgia, reotal ulcer, cystitis, prostatitis, some forms of intestinal disease, etc., and may mean genuine kidney involvement, though this is fortunately the least frequent. The unfortunate side of this is that while patients have a very erroneous diagnostic ability they have a real conception of the seriousness of a nephritis, and they read all the symptoms of their "kidney trouble" to point to that disease. The consequent mental distress and anxiety are deplorable and in a vast majority of cases needless.

To what extent a physician should instruct his patient in the details of his illness is a much debated question, but there can be no question of the propriety of giving sufficient information to allay anxiety, and the patient usually has a right to an expressed diagnosis; to leave a case of lumba

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go with the idea that a nephritis exists is quackish and cruel. Those who maintain that the patient needs to know nothing of his ailment, beyond what is necessary to the application of the line of therapy adopted, leave behind them anxieties which cannot be expressed; such a course is more frequently an error than that of those who take the opposite course and elaborate details beyond the grasp of the lay mind. There is a happy medium which spells success; it knows patients, and will go into details where details are needed and will withhold judiciously. There is no calling where that admirable quality known as common sense, and its exercise is more demanded than in medicine. The physician who is happily possessed of this, is fortunate for it is a tremendous necessity in handling patients, and except by birth right it is almost impossible to acquire.

IN common with other sections of the country St. Louis has been financially embar

The Price of Ice.

rassed in her individual households and in her charitable endeavors by the fact that ice, which they have taught us is a necessity and not a luxury, could be had only at an unaccountably increased price. The why of the increase is not apparent for we have not, for years, depended on natural ice, and the cost of manufacture is as small as ever. Trust tactics were so manifest that an investigation was started early in the summer, and at the present rate of progress we may hope for some definite results by the middle of next winter.

Ice is a necessity, especially so in a climate like ours, where the heat comes so steadily and is so trying. The addition of ten cents to the price of a hundred weight and the reduction of the size of the five cent piece to proportions mythical is little short of a crime, unless there is a very demonstrable. reason in the cost of manufacture, which certainly cannot be shown. What St. Louis needs is a man at the helm, a whole souled, public spirited man, one full of initiative who can rise to the situation, who will make his authority, if need be, and get action. The poor and the sick are waiting to call such an one blessed.

THE INTERNATIONAL SURGEONS CLUB is the name of a new organization at Rochester, Minn., composed of visiting surgeons at the Mayo Brothers hospital in that city. The society starts with a membership of fifty.

THE second annual report of the Henry Phipps Institute for the treatment, study and

Second Annual Report of the Henry Phipps Institute.

prevention of tuberculosis (1906) gives an account of the work of the second year, a review of the subject of immunization in tuberculosis, a preliminary report on the Maragliano serum treatment, and a report of some of the scientific work dcne by members of the staff of the Institute during the year. This report is an admirable exposition of the possibilities and impossibilities in the practical sanatorium treatment of tuberculosis on this continent. The institution is located in Philadelphia, and its medical director is Lawrence Flick, a gentleman whose reputation as a tuberculosis expert is well known. In his account of the work of the year, he states that while the work has been carried on in temporary quarters, with great difficulties, these very difficulties an impediments increase the value of said work from a sociological point of view, inasmuch as they have enabled the Institute to give an object-lesson of what can be done under unfavorable conditions. It was shown at this institute that tuberculosis is quite amenable to treatment. Nearly all cases can be benefited for a time at least, and many can be cured. The curability depends upon the stage somewhat upon the chronicity. Even advanced cases can be benefited. Most of the cases treated at the hospital were advanced cases. Nearly half of those admitted were discharged as improved and one case was discharged as having had the disease "arrested." Less than one-third of those admitted died.

The most advanced cases improve for a time when put at rest in the open air and properly fed. Death is brought about by an intercurrent disease as a rule, cold, influenza or pneumonia.

Patients treated in the dispensary were less advanced, but the results obtained were only a little better than those obtained in the hospital, because of the difficulty of bringing dispensary patients under control. On account of home conditions and great poverty it is next to impossible to maintain discipline with such patients in their homes.

Flick says that the story of tuberculosis work among the poor can be read out of the last table which he gives, showing that out of 477 patients treated this year, 156 had improved the year before, 119 had not improved the year before, and in 202 no result was recorded the year before. Restoration to health and preservation of health depend upon assistance. To restore these poor peo

ple to health without material aid is impossible. To keep them well without material aid after they have been restored to health is equally impossible. Most.cf them go under unless assisted. In other words, this prob. lem is a sociological one and must be dealt with as such. The cost of living in America and the average daily income of the class applying to such institutions for treatment do not balance. It is impossible for one making the daily average income of these people to get well. One earning but $1.34 per day if healthy cannot remain healthy on such an income, and one suffering from a chronic ailment, such as tuberculosis cannot get well. Food and housing are important factors in the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. Both are high-priced.

What good is accomplished by all this work? The good comes, says Flick, from the prevention which is brought about.

Treatment of these people and prolongation of their lives give opportunity to teach those who have the disease, and those about them methods of prevention. All who bave not yet had an implantation can be protected against implantation; many of those who have already had implantation can be prevented from getting the full development of the disease; of those who have the disease in a full developed state, most will have to die. The fruit of the labor is in saving those who are still in health.

The remainder of the report is a splendid monument to the workers who have compiled it. The institution is doing most creditable work, and the reading of this report should inspire all medical men to join with them in the great propaganda of prevention and the saving of healthy human lives who have not yet been infected. R. B. H. G.

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on the skin that are left by the sweat and tend to retard the evaporation and to embarrass the excretion of heat. 3. Give plenty of cool boiled water to drink, thus replacing that lost by perspiration. 4. Pasteurize all food of well infants to retard decomposition. 5. In close or muggy weather, or, if the humidity is high, dilute the food to one-half with boiled water. In very mild weather, with high temperature, stop milk and feed with gruels till the humid spell is over. 6. On warm, humid nights stop milk feeding, as the humidity is greater at night, though the temperature may be lower. Feed gruels or whey, which produce little heat. 7. For diarrhea, give castor oil or calomel to eliminate decomposing food. Stop milk feeding temporarily. If the air is hot but dry, milk may be resumed with high humidity, feed gruels or whey to starve out putrefactive bacteria and get back to milk very cautiously. 8. Keep up a good air circulation, as stagnant air soon becomes saturated, thus preventing perspiration and heat absorption.

Osteopathy and Smallpox.

A GOOD story comes from the City Dispensary, which demonstrates the wisdom behind osteopathy. A lady 'phoned the dispensary that she wished a physician to call and examine two "doctors" who were suffering from a suspicious eruption. The dispensary, physician responded, and found two osteopaths with an eruption so obvious that it was quite beyond "suspicion." Questioning developed that they had been treating a child for such an eruption which they had diagnosed as due to a "luxation of one of the dorsal vertebra." Investigation showed that the child and its "doctore" had the smallpox, and they were sent to quarantine. It is safe to say that these osteopaths will hereafter have a belief in something other than dislocation when they see this form of eruption, but what of the community while others are learning the same lesson?

ICHTHYOL. So eminent an authority as Dr. Bulkley, says that ichthyol stands very high in importance among the newer additions to the therapeutics of dermatology. In eczema in 10 per cent ointment, in dermatitis herpetiformis in 5, 10 or even 20 per cent aqueous solution, in burns 6 to 10 per cent ichthyol ointment, in pruritus ani as ointment or wash, in chronic ulcers of the leg in stronger solutions.

THE REVIEWER'S TABLE

Books, Reprints, and Instruments for this department, should be sent to the Editors, St. Louis.

A LABORATORY MANUAL OF PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. By Elbert W. Rockwood, M. D., Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology and Head of the Department of Chemistry in the University of Iowa, etc. Second edition, revised and enlarged. With one colored plate and three plates of microscopic preparations. Large 12mo, 229 pages, extra cloth. Philadelphia, Pa.: F. A. Davis Company, Publishers, 1914 Cherry street. (Price, $1.00, net.)

In reviewing the second edition of this practical work we are again impressed with the remarkable progress which is being made in this special branch of science. These are days of applied chemistry, and today as never before the student must leave his college with a thorough working knowledge of physiological chemistry. This volume has been prepared with an aim of imparting accurate knowledge through the student's own observation, it purposes guiding his experiments through accurate and scientific channels that the results may be in the highest degree practical. The work has been arranged to require but a small stock of apparatus and only such reagents as are easily obtainable. The text has been made concise, yet explicit in matter of necessary detail. Revision has placed the instruction abreast with the latest advances in an ever-developing and advancing science. As a guide for independent or class laboratory work the volume will give great satisfaction, opening the door to an intelligent view and practical acquaintance with a field of scientific information which has been largely developed since many of us left college.

A COMPEND OF MEDICAL CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC AND ORGANIC, INCLUDING URINARY ANALYSIS. By Henry Leffmann, A. M.. M. D., Professor of Chemistry in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Fifth edition, revised. Philadelphia, Pa.: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1012 Walnut street, (Price, cloth, $1.00 net.; interleaved for taking notes, $1.25 net.)

The why of the existence of the student's compend has nowhere been more satisfactorily explained than by Prof. Leffmann in his preface. He says that "it has been said that Alexander Pope is a poet whom everybody quotes and nobody reads. It may be said of compends that they are books that most professors and reviewers condemn and that nearly all students The use. truth is, that in the present systems in professional schools, students are obliged to meet two dis tinct requirements. They must study for the knowledge necessary for the practice of the profession and they must study to pass examinations. The latter are in so many cases arbitrary in scope, affected by the personal equation of the examiner, that the student cannot be blamed for resorting to a concise presentation of the more important facts of the science, supplementing this by notes of

the narrower and more strictly personal items of the teaching. Some teachers hold that note-taking is the best method, and are opposed to printed summaries because these latter obviate the student's obligation to take notes. In a large experience with a class of stuents of the best type of those in American professional schools, I have been led to the view that voluminous note-taking is not a good method. The pronunciation of techLical terms is so irregular, and many of them are so strange to students, that they are entered erroneously in the notes and serious errors may be inade and persist. The writconpend affords this aid. The merit of any ten word is necessary to full knowledge; the compend will depend on the correctness of the statements and the clearness and conciseness of the text."

In this little volume Prof. Leffmann concisely considers organic and inorganic chemistry in so far as a knowledge thereof is necessary to the graduate in medicine, concluding the volume with practical discussions of uranalysis, the chemistry of milk, blood tissues and secretions, etc. The book is excellent in every sense, and will continue popular with students and practitioners who wish to "brush up."

ABBOTT'S ALKALOIDAL DIGEST. A brief description of the therapeutics of some of the principal alkaloidal medicaments with suggestions for their clinical application. By W. C. Abbott, M.D., editor of the American Journal of Clinical Medicine. Chicago: The Clinic Publishing Co. (Price, 50 cents.)

The remarkable enthusiasm of those who are using alkaloidal therapy has been so often witnessed, and of late is so frequently met that there is no longer room for skepticism about the efficacy of this system of medication. Unquestionably the writings of Dr. Abbott have done more than any other one agency to bring this about. This little book is like a dictionary in being full of information, and like the dictionary it contains nothing unimportant; to pick features would be like trying to say the definition of which word in Webster is the most important. It gives in concise language and compact form the alkaloidal platform and the explanation of It is a most readable the why therefore. book and one reading will insure further readings and investigation.

THE HEALTH CARE OF THE BABY. A Handbook for Mothers and Nurses. By Louis Fischer. M D. 12mo cloth.

166 pages. New York City: Funk & Wagnalls. (Price, 75 cents, net; by mail, 82 cents.)

Dr. Fischer has succeeded in producing a book which must in a high degree meet the needs of mothers and those who have the care of infants, and who are so situated that they must depend upon their own resources

in various possible emergencies. The book has the advantage over many of like purpose in that it is really scientific and thoroughly practical. Every mother should be familiar with such details of ventilation, clothing and bathing as are here presented, and the subjects of feeding, weaning, teething and the symptoms of intestinal and other disease are worthy of thoughtful study. Such knowledge is entirely within the province of those who have the care of infants, and it is indeed a satisfaction to find it presented in a suitable scientific form, and shorn of such fads and inaccuracies as characterize the mass of works meant for lay readers.

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man living today has been privileged to know so much of the so-called fire-worshipers of Yezd as A. V. Williams Jackson, professor of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia University. On his recent visit to Yezd he was an honored guest of Dinyar Bahram, head of the Zoroastrian community there, met many other notable Zoroastrians, visited one of the fire temples, and was allowed access to interesting manuscripts. His account of this visit and of "A Religion Nearly Three Thousand Years Old" will be a feature of the September Century and promises to read like a page out of the past of another world-for this community of fire-worshipers is fifteen hundred years more ancient than the Coptic monasteries.

THE summer number of The Quarterly Journal of Inebriety is a particularly notable issue of this always interesting and valuable publication. It has been greatly enlarged and its typographical appearance is exceptionally attractive. Among the leading articles in this number are: "The Relation

of Alcohol to Tuberculosis, "by J. W. Grosvenor, M. D.; "Physiological Action of Tea as a Beverage," by Sir Lander Brunton, M. D.; "Morbid Predisposing Canses in Dipsomania," by W. L. Howard, M.D.; "Reflexes from the Eye in Narcosomania," by T. H. Evans, M.D.; "The Alcohol Cult," by John Madden, M.D.; "Comparison of the Effects of Alcohol and Opium," by W. H. Park, M. D., and two articles by the editor, Dr. T. D. Crothers, on "Unrecognized Toxic Insanities" and "Farmfield Reformatory for Inebriate Women." Many pages of sound editorials, entertaining abstracts, book reviews and comments complete an issue that will prove of interest and value to every physician. (Boston: $2.00 a year.)

THE ALIENIST AND NEUROLOGIST for Au. gust will contain, besides the usual number

of selections, reviews, notices, etc., the following: Erotic Symbolism-Psychoencephalonasthenia or Cerebrasthenia Simplex, and Psychoencephalonasthenia or Cerebrasthenia Insaniens-Mixoscopic Adolescent Survivals in Art, Literature and Pseudo Ethics-A Morphia Maniac on Trial for Murder-A Medico-Legal Study of the Matthews Case— Sadism: Report of a Medico-Legal CaseA Case of Reflex Epilepsy-Prognosis in Epilepsy-Dr. Geo. T. Tuttle-Cojal and the Development of the Nervous System-Chicago Beef Packing Rottenness-Sanitary Honesty-The Discovery of Ether Anaesthesia once more The Other Fellows Point of View -The Proprieties and the ProprietariesThe Iowa Euthanasia Proposition - The Metro-Therapy or Metrotherapy of Neuras. thenia-Congressman Brownlaw's BillCharacteristic of the Doctors Charity and Likewise of the Other Fellow-Terrible Railway Fatality-Pertinent Protest Against Overstudy-Lower Ceilings and Patent Fixtures-Remarkable Public Press StatementHospital Provision for the Insane and Delirious-Missouri's New Prison Hospital-A Negro Saved from Mob Becomes Insane-An American Institute for Psychological Research is Projected for America-Oklahoma Insane Asylum Burned-The Moro Immolation Psychologically Considered-Instances of Psychic Cause Blindness-The National Druggist.

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MORRIS' ANATOMY UNDER AMERICAN EDITORSHIP.-A new edition of Morris' Anatomy is announced by P. Blakiston's Son & Co., which will shortly be in the hands of the profession. It will contain two features which, aside from other considerations, must appeal particularly to all teachers and students of the subject who desire a text-book embodying the best modern thought, methods of study and results of recent investigation. These are, first, the fact that seven of the best known American anatomists have been

prevailed upon to write, rewrite and revise various sections. Second, the adoption of the new (B. N. A.) nomenclature. The effort to systematize and regulate the anatomical nomenclature has received in no other country outside of Germany so much encourThere are agement as in the United States. many reasons which favor its general adoption and there have been no good arguments It contains but few advanced against it. terms not easily recognizable by those who renders the literature of other countries more have been accustomed to the old, and its use readily understandable by students who continue their studies in foreign tongues, and facilitates reference to the translations of sev

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