exists a condition with interests so divided that those who were in a position to correctly view the existing conditions, have come at last to recognize the fact that they must pool their interest in the evolution of one great medical college. Through the magnanimous spirit of the heads of these faculties and through the able efforts of the State Board, we have arrived at a stage where the most favorable condition exists for the establishment of such a school which ought to be, and which will be, the medical department of the great university of the State of Kentucky.

A committee was appointed from each school to draft articles of agreement and to furnish the details in regard to the appointment of a teaching faculty: Drs. Wm. H. Wathen and M. F. Coomes representing the Kentucky School of medicine; Drs. C. W. Kelly and H. H. Grant representing the Louisville Hospital College of Medicine; Drs. J. M. Bodine and J. B. Marvin representing the University of Louisville. To this committee were added Drs. J. N. McCormack, of Bowling Green, and Wm. Bailey, of Louisville, ex-officio members.

As has already been stated, the State University has not as yet accepted the proposition offered from this late merger; however, all interested feel that it will in the end become the medical department of this University. The University must recognize the fact and the purpose for which such a medical school has been created and will adopt it in the near future. In a few days this committee will unfold their plans which will be accepted and adopted by the three faculties now in existenee, and a catalogue with the combined strength of all the schools will soon be published. From the spirit which prevails now, Louisville will soon have its medical school which it will be justly proud of, laboring for higher medical education, where such can be obtained and second to no other.

Recent Progress in Medical Science.

E. S. ALLEN, M. D.,

Professor of Pathology, Kentucky School of Medicine.
LOUISVILLE, KY.

PATHOLOGY.

The use of Gonococcic Vaccine.-By Edgar Ballenger, M. D., Atlanta, Ga., Journal A. M. A., May 30th, 1908). Dr. Ballenger gives the result of his experience with over eighty cases of vaccine in gonococcic infection. He states that a free streaming of lymph fresh from the circulation and laden with opsonins, should be promoted and maintained in every fucus of infection.

Wright has shown that the locality in which bacteria cultivate themselves is deficient in anti-bacterial substances on account of the sluggish circulation and the clotting of the lymph in the sinuses. He also calls attention to the paralytic action brought to bear on the leucocytes by the tryptic ferment liberated from the disintegrating pus cells in abcess cavities and sinuses, and to the futility in attempting to cure them by vaccine therapy unless they are emptied frequently and flooded with opsonic blood.

Ballenger states that these facts are illuminating when considered in connection with the inflamed prostate, for the massage of the inflamed prostate has underlying it curative factors of which we were formerly unaware. The question of autoinocu

lation by massage of the prostate must also be considered.

As the extent of such inoculation cannot be known, this part of the treatment or manipulation of gonococcal joints should not be done at the time of injecting the vaccine as an overdose may be thrown into the system.

Dr. Ballenger states that we cannot over estimate the importance of a careful examination in every instance and the institution of appropriate treatment along with vaccine therapy, which should be employed as an adjunct, and not to supplant other forms of medication. Success will depend on recognition of these conditions, on secondary infections and on the time that which the injections were made. Gonococcic bacterin only affects the gonococcus and may leave other micro-organisms to perpetuate the inflammation. For this reason microscopic examinations should be made and other vaccines injected or other

measures employed to restrict the action of non-specific germs.. The matter of " personal" or "stock" bacterin is one of considerable interest and importance. As far as I am able to judge from my own experience there is very little variation in the gonococci, and about as good results obtainable with the stock vaccine as with the personal. The difference in the severity in course of the disease in different individuals is due almost entirely to the varying resistance of the hosts. Dr. Ballenger states that he is now giving the bacterin treatment with twentysix patients, and feels no hesitation in saying that he has been able in nearly all cases to obtain more satisfactory results with it than with the various forms of treatment previously used. Eight of the patients had chronic prostatitis; two acute prostatitis; two epididymitis; one a periurethral abscess; three urethral stricture; three uretho-cystitis and one cystitis.

Dr. Ballenger states that he has not given the vaccine to patients during the acute stage of urethritis, but has waited until the subsiding stage. Recently, however, he gave an injection of ten million gonococci to one patient in the acute stage which was followed by a very profuse discharge and acute symptoms, but he began to improve after the second injection and made an unusually quick recovery in spite of many disadvantages in not being able to take proper care of himself. He was entirely cured after the fifth injection and had no returning symptoms.

In no instance was a patient made worse by the injection except that in a few cases there was a slight increase in the discharge during the negative phase, when the intitial dose was too large. Dr. Ballenger states that his best results have been obtained with doses varying from five to fifty million gonococci, and that in acute cases the intitial dose does not exceed five or ten million, but may be repeated somewhat earlier than when larger amounts are given. The injections were made in the subcutaneous tissue of the buttock. As yet a minimum amount of pain was produced.

There is no doubt but what inflammatory conditions, especially of the chronic type, where round cell infiltration has shut off the bacterian substances yield more readily to vaccine therapy than to any other type of medication. The time is rapidly approaching when these inflammatory conditions will deal with almost entirely by antitoxin in the acute stages and vaccine in the chronic. Dr. Ballenger is one of the few investigators who is blazing away in this new and interesting field.

Tuberculin Inunction.-By Ernest Moro, M. D., Munich, (New York Medical Journal, June 27, 1908). Dr. Moro gives his interesting experience with tuberculin inunction as a diagnostic measure without rupture of the continuity of the skin. He rubs into the skin of the chest or abdomen over an area of four cubic inches a peice of the following ointment of the size of a pea for about a half a minute and permit the ointment to remain on the surface of the skin to spontaneously absorb. The effect of this inunction is observed on the following day or a day later. The ointment is prescribed thus:

Koch's old tuberculin 5 c.c.

Anhydrous wool fat 5 grammes.

The result is positive when small papules appear over the area of the inunction, or in its immediate vicinity; negative when the skin shows no changes of any kind. With a positive reaction one often observes only a few very pale papules. Occasionally the papules are very numerous and red, and only exceptionally in the region of the inunction is very much reddened and itches. The papules usually disappear at the end of a week. Other local or general symptoms have not been observed.

A postive result obtained by this method is as conclusive for a present or previous tuberculous infection as is that obtained by the conjunctival reaction or cutaneuous method of Von Pirquet. Dr. Moro says, that by comparing the effects of his method and those of Von Pirquet upon a large number of patients the following differences were seen :

First, that in advanced cases of tuberculosis the skin loses earlier its reactionary power to the inunction.

Second, in cases showing no clinical signs of tuberculosis the percentage of positive results is much smaller in the inunction. method.

As opposed to the conjuntival and subcutaneous applications the inunction is entirely harmless. Patients never object to its use. Moro's investigation has been only upon children, but in the Munich Medical Clinics Von Muller and Von Bauer have demonstrated their efficiency of this method on adults.

SENSATIONAL SUIT IS FILED

BY PHYSICIANS DEFENSE COMPANY AGAINST THE PROTECTIVE COMPANY.—INJUNCTION IS ASKED ON THE ALLEGATION THAT Defendant Has Seized Ideas and METHODS OF PLAINTIFF.-CHARGES ARE SERIOUS AND THE INJUNCTION ASKED FOR IS OF A SWEEPING CHARACTER.

Physicians Defense company vs. Protective company is the title of a sensational suit filed this afternoon in the superior court. It is the most important litigation for many years and its course will be followed with large interest by the medical profession everywhere as well as by the people of Fort Wayne. It is a contest of the well known and prosperous Physicians Defense company to enjoin the Medical Protective company from an alleged seizing of the ideas, forms and methods of the Physicians Defense company in an effort to build up a competitive business. Besides the company named in the defense there are Charles M. Niezer, the well known attorney and Byron M. Somers, formerly assistant secretary of the Physicians Defense company, but now the secretary of the Medical Protective company. The chief financial backers of the defendant company are Louis Fox, Charles McCulloch and Maurice Niezer.

The attorneys for the plaintiff are Taylor & Hulse of this city and Steuart & Steuart, New York. Judge Robert S. Taylor is a lawyer of national reputation and he is a master of the branch of practice involved. Steuart & Steuart are also lawyers of great fame in this branch of practice. It is the present expecttation that Judge Taylor will give personal attention to the case. He does not often appear in cases in the local courts and the fact that he has been retained in this cause adds to its interest to the public.

The complaint was writen by Steuart & Steuart and is itself a master-piece of legal presentment.

The plaintiff is an Indiana corporation which was organized as the Physicians Guarantee company. Out of the experiences of the first few years of its existence the stockholders concluded to make a change in its methods and practices in order to conform to the laws of certain states in which it was desired to operate. It was then reorganized under its present name and it has enjoyed a prosperous career under the management of Dr. M. F. Porter as president and E. H. Merritt as secretary. Byron