ARTHUR VOS, M.D., AssOCIATE EDITOR.

H

YPNOTISM has been defined as "the art of persuading an individual to act upon or execute an idea or series of ideas, either consciously or subconsciously." In other words, the condition is induced solely by suggestion. Credulity is required on the part of the person hypnotized, or at least a passive condition of mind. Down in Birmingham, Ala., hypnotism has been used extensively in vaudeville to amuse the public, with many ill effects mentally and morally; in fact, physically, too, since an innocent subject succumbed to the effects of the hypnotic state. Now the Jefferson County, Ala., Medical Society has taken the matter before the Birmingham Board of Health, and an ordinance will shortly be framed and passed preventing such exhibitions. This is as it should be. Suggestion (said to be disguised hypnotism) is used by Christian scientists and faith healers to rob persons of the power of initiative. It causes people to become unreliable, capricious, lacking in individuality. Seeing the condition demonstrated on the stage makes a remarkable impression upon the plastic minds of our half-baked younger generation. Other evil effects not mentioned here are likely to occur. Hypnotic shows should be prohibited everywhere.

ACCORDING to the Berlin correspondent of the Journal A. M. A. (December 25) a petition has been presented to the highest legislative body of the empire proposing that those seeking a marriage license should also be required to present the certificate of a reputable physician, stating that both parties contemplating matrimony had been examined with reference to their physical condition. In a country where the reverence for law has become a fetich such a highly desirable step is possible of achievement. In the United States the question of the legal regulation of marriage has been often mooted, but the impracticability of attempting a solution recognized. Several State legislatures have considered bills looking to the enactment of a law requiring a medical certificate for candidates for matrimony. The fear of paternalism and officious

No. 1.

ness has effectively disposed of these bills. However, reluctant though we be to acknowledge it, the legal regulation of matrimony will in time be found a necessity. Society has as much right to restrain the unfit from matrimony as it has to place criminals behind prison walls to prevent them from inflicting their abnormal instincts upon the public. But, as usual, we will be compelled to label the law, "Made in Germany."

THE State Department has received an exhaustive report of the campaign against yellow fever in Brazil. According to it, in fourteen years the annual deaths from the disease in Rio Janeiro was reduced from 4,852 to nothing, 1908 having no mortality whatever due to the disease. It seems a triumph of magic, this wonderful change in the death-rate of a disease once the scourge of an entire continent. While disinfection may be given some of the credit, the actual abrogation of yellow fever was, of course, due to the efficient methods employed in destroying all mosquito larvæ. Petroleum, mixed with liquor cresolis compositus, was poured on the water or refuse known to contain larvæ. Where it was impracticable to use petroleum, a small fish, the "barrigudo," was placed in the water, which swallowed the larvæ voraciously. This, coupled with careful sanitary inspection and isolation, has wrought the wondrous change in a visitation once thought providential, and which it was deemed impossible to escape. Thus has modern science again demonstrated its excuse for being, and medical men have once more unselfishly labored to render themselves unnecessary.

THE Indiana State Board of Health has had its attention directed to the existence of unsanitary The foul air, the voting places at election time. tobacco smoke, the nauseating odor from the sputum ejected a thousand times during the day over the floor and furniture, the lack of ventilation, is bad enough for those who are compelled to enter

THE President's message has now been sufficiently commented upon for us to obtain a fairly satisfactory idea of the trend of public opinion with reference to it. What physicians are especially interested in, however, is how the proposal to establish a national bureau is regarded. The public press, upon the whole, has expressed its approval of the proposed measure. In reflecting the opinion of their readers the papers recognize that it is folly to spend millions of dollars annually on the prevention of hog cholera, and in inculcating upon the minds of agriculturists certain truths about the prevention of disease among poultry and cattle by a well-organized department of agriculture, while comparatively little has been accomplished by the government in the prophylaxis of disease among human beings. They know that volunteer organizations have done the major work in prophylaxis, aided in a small measure by the scattered efforts of various marine hospital and quarantine officials. As one paper, in commending the measure, aptly says: "What we spend on the prevention of disease we will save from the maintenance of hospitals. What we spend on teaching sanitation and the plain rules of health, especially among the tenements of crowded cities, we will save in reduced expense for reformatories and jails." This seems the consensus of opinion among intelligent people generally. It is to be hoped that our rather easy-going President, who, as is well known, is a trifle disinclined to continued effort, will recognize the necessity of following up his recommendation by advice to Congress looking to. its adoption.

In this connection it is almost ludicrous to note, when considering the remarks of Dr. C. W. Stiles, of the Marine Hospital Service, how bureaucracy and inertia go hand in hand when anything is proposed in the nature of an innovation. In discussing the paper of Dr. Montgomery on "The Problem of a Federal Department of Health," read before the recent Mississippi Valley Association meeting (published in the last issue of this journal), Dr. Stiles gave expression to some peculiar views. The doctor has deservedly been recognized as an

authority on the hookworm disease, and his services in the cause of prophylaxis of infections, particularly in the South, have been priceless. Yet bureaucracy has him in the toils completely. He opposes the creation of such a department because, forsooth, to his mind, "it is a much better plan of administration to have a broad business man, a broad lawyer, or a broad politician, in the cabinet, and to have as head of the public health service a permanent appointee, who can inaugurate a given policy and continue that policy administration after administration, without reference to the political changes." There you have a plain statement of how you are regarded by men attached to the government. Lawyers and politicians, with all their admitted defects, are more capable of inaugurating and directing measures for the furtherance of the public health than trained physicians. If anything can be conjured up that is more effective in showing the necessity for physicians taking a hand in large matters affecting public health than the above statement, we want to know it.

AN INNOVATION, A PROMISE AND A WISH.

W

E may be pardoned a little pride in the fact that THE LANCET-CLINIC is to-day entering its one hundred and third volume, and is doing so in an enlarged, and, we hope, improved form. Several generations have welcomed the paper every week, and have become so accustomed to the standard magazine size that we have decided upon the change of form with some reluctance. The other four American weeklies, however, have been appearing in a uniform style, and THE LANCET-CLINIC wants to conform to it, even though the journal in its contents is first of all a non-conformist. hope that the larger page will become just as familiar and be as welcome as the one it superseded.

We

As to the policy of the paper, a hint has already been given. It aims to have individuality, to stand for well-recognized principles of medical journalism; and, as in the past, it will express its convictions without fear or favor. The namby-pamby stuff that frequently masquerades as journalism, puerile, non-committal and on the fence, will be eschewed. The paper has for years shown that it possessed a certain well-defined character. This it will aim to maintain. Abuses of every sort will receive short shrift, needed reforms every encouragement. It will be the exponent of independent medical thought in the great Mississippi Valley.

In local matters it will endeavor to assist everything tending to increase the prestige of this one

time great medical center. In a sense every city is a world in miniature. The passions and ambitions, the jealousies and rivalries, the noble sacrifices of self, too-these play their part on the local stage, and are but an evidence of the ever restless energy in the world at large. Readers in the distance will be pleased to know that our luminous treatment of things in medical Cincinnati will be continued, because in a way they have the same conditions prevailing in their own communities. The matter will, as usual, be subordinate to the rest of the journal; so that THE LANCET-CLINIC can in no sense be regarded as a local publication. Its the ater is the United States, with especial reference to the Mississippi Valley.

In expressing the hope that the new year will bring to our readers increasing happiness and prosperity, we bespeak for ourselves their continued interest and patronage. THE LANCET-CLINIC is necessary to them; independent journalism is as much required now as in the days of Benjamin Rush and Daniel Drake.

Here's to a successful new year!

IT

PHTHISIOTHERAPY.

T is a fundamental concept of physiology that the living human mechanism is not exempt from the operation of natural law. Phthisiotherapists in common with immunologists in general will do well to bear this in mind when advocating specific treatment for tuberculosis. Recently there appeared in an eastern magazine an explanation of the supposed specific influence of Cuguilière's serum in tuberculous infection, and the author who should have known better, attributed it to the liberation of sulphuric acid at the foci. (?) Now, as is well known, the resistance of an organism is in versely as its differentiation. This is an unchalThis is an unchallenged proposition in bio-chemistry. Sulphuric acid liberated in its pure form in the living human body will destroy the cell tissues and body structure long before its action upon the bacilli will be observable. Whatever action this serum may have other than that of a formative stimulus must be ascribed to other decomposition products than sulphuric acid.

Immunization of an animal to attenuated tubercle bacilli results in the modification of the fluid and cells with respect to the organism injected. There is a molecular rearrangement which in a degree renders them insusceptible to the action of tubercle bacilli. Immunization is not associated with the production of bactericidal compounds or of mythical amboceptors and other imaginary and

impossible substances whose purpose is the annihilation of the invading organism. On the contrary, immunized cells undergo molecular rearrangement which in a degree renders them unsuitable as pabulum.

The demonstrated failure of serotherapy in tuberculosis is due, first, to the fact that immunized substances injected into man undergo change which modifies or nullifies their therapeutic value (if they possessed any), and secondly, to the fact that no influence is exercised upon the bacilli at the disease foci by injected compounds which are only unsuitable pabulum.

The various tuberculins, which term in its generic sense means any extract of the bacilli, act as formative stimuli, increasing cell proliferation, which in a favorable case will incorporate the foci in cells which are unsuitable as food for the organism. It may be laid down as a rule that newly proliferated cells are modified with respect to the factor engendering their production. This talk of the action of this or that tuberculin destroying tubercle bacilli is the veriest rot, and fools none but newspaper reporters and superficial thinkers in the profession. Up to the present time all forms of specific therapy against tuberculosis are either formative stimuli or they have no value whatsoever. H. SCHROER.

THE THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES OF

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FOOD.

XPERIMENT in food and diet has been heretofore conducted principally with a view pertaining to the nutritive value of food materials and their necessary quantities for supporting and maintaining life in all its phases and activities. Very little, if any, experiment has been devoted to ascertaining the physiological functions, or what might be called the "specific values" of the articles. of nutrition and aliment; and yet that foods have certain specific or therapeutic properties is a fact that is slowly, none the less positively, gaining ground in many scientific quarters.

There are, for instance, certain foods that possess in a degree most characteristic and peculiar to themselves what is considered indissolubly associaated with all foods and articles of aliment, to-wit: The function of promoting constructive tissue metamorphosis; there are other articles of food that stimulate katabolic changes of the tissues, which is illustratively the case with the administration of certain fruits and their juices in articular rheumatism and the allied diseases of disturbed and impeded metabolism; certain foods possess the physiclogical activity of the various nerve stimulants

and regenerators, through which activity they admirably bestow the power for prolonged thinking and sustained mental exertion. The advantages of ingesting such physiologic nutriment over the administration of caffeine salts can be clearly apprehended when we reflect upon the depressing effects following the administration of either caffeine citrate or the alkaloids of nux vomica. Still other foods contribute to body warmth and physical comfort, notwithstanding the fact that they fail of being converted into nerve stimulants and tissue tonics and alteratives. Some foods possess special reconstructive qualities for epithelial structures, such as the hair, teeth and nails; some are rich in the salts that are necessary for the integrity of the various tissues and are incorporated in the structures of the body when the corresponding chemical salts are not metabolized.

Some foods display characteristics that are distinctly aphrodisiac, and children fed. largely on these foods will show tendencies towards unhealthy and immoral practices.

In view of these and many other considerations one might almost look forward to the period when a science of experimental or physiological dietetics could assume some recognizable form. The growing importance of food in both health and disease and the great attention that has been recently given to the subject of diet would lead us to be as sanguine in our hopes as we have appeared to be in the above paragraph.

The question of diet is not alone one of how much proteid, carbohydrates and fat are required to support life under given conditions, nor

of the elements regarding the digestion and absorption of these food constituents. But the question, as we see it, is one of the kind of proteid, the kind of carbohydrate and the kind of fat that should be administered and the way they should be combined, not alone for the purpose of curing disease but also for maintaining health under all conditions of activity, for contributing to cheerfulness of temper, for promoting the integrity of the moral character; in short, for the purpose of realizing what has ever seemed the most unrealizable of aphorisms, to-wit: Mens sana in corpore sano.

THE COMMENTATOR.

A. V.

"Years follow'ng years, steal something ev'ry day; At last they steal us from ourselves away."-POPE. AT the beginning of a new year, such is the expansiveness of our hopeful natures, we anticipate certain advantages during the coming twelve months which have been denied us, of course most unjustly, during the past. And here is where the great difference in human beings is disclosed.

Some look forward to the possession of money, new habiliments and conveyances, a better habitation; and they would consider themselves miserable without the hope of securing one or more of these things. Others wish for preferment, a better social position, the increased approbation of their friends, a more secure fame and prestige. Some there be who suspect that the element of illusion enters into the ownership of these so-called advantages, and they prefer a more solid gain. They are conscious that the proper development of character is the only matter that is worth while. The refinements of simplicity, the forgetfulness of self, the sublimity of continued service which seeks no reward other than the consciousness of well-doing -these might be considered advantages, if these last-mentioned ever really think of them in that light. Men select what they wish; and hence the new year is freighted with various blessings to various minds.

**

"The more we live, more brief appears Our life's succeeding stages;

A day to childhood seems a year,

And years like passing ages."-CAMPBELL.

WE need not have our heads in the clouds to live up to the highest that is within us, neither must we feel our duty accomplished by negatively doing just what we must. The passing years ought to have taught physicians that life is barren of results. to both the unreasoning idealist and the crass follower of mere materialism. We can express our best aspirations by the proper performance of each day's duties, whether these be the saving of human life, or of time of which life is made. To rightfully demand pay for services rendered and to carefully husband our resources is just as necessary as to raise ourselves in our best moments into the highest realm of thought and morals. It were merely to emphasize what everyone knows, that there is nothing great and nothing small but thought makes it so. Our motives judge us. To pin our faith upon mere earthly possession simply to satisfy the desire for gain, is the mark of an inferior being. To regard things we possess as mere instruments by which we can assist others to secure a little happiness, transmutes them into precious and priceless things.

"Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace."
-TENNYSON.

THE writer of this department must be pardoned if on the occasion of the entrance of a new year he moralizes a bit. In this our hustling America, even the physician, of all men the most philanthropic, regards his neighbor's material possessions Medical men feel occasionally with envious eye. that the same amount of energy expended in the

business world which they have devoted to professional attainment would have made them immune to want or the fear of it. But their sober second thought will instil into them a satisfaction. in work nobly done that no business man can feel, and which our Carnegies and Rockefellers acquire artificially by endowing some charitable enterprise. Physicians have assimilated, by every kind deed, things that are unto the riches of earth as the effulgence of the sun is to the faint luminations of the glow-worm. The beginning of the new year ought to be the time for such reflections.

the

IN extending the usual felicitations on the entrance of a new year, the writer will wish you happiness which love alone can bring. Whether this love be connubial or parental, or a universal love, embracing all things, matters not, since it is one in kind. Mawkish sentimentality is here out of the question. The splendor and enthusiasm of youth, the self-possession and dignity of the mature man or woman, the serenity and peace of old age, derive their sustaining qualities from these attributes of love. The privilege to assist in rendering these possible, through kindly deeds in the exercise of his profession, ought to be happiness sufficient for the coming twelve months. And this genuine felicity the writer wishes, from the depth of his being.

THE WEEK'S NEWS.

Jackson, Miss., is boasting of a new and modern hospital. The Western Ohio Eclectic Medical Association will meet at Springfield January 10.

Dallas, Tex., physicians are already making preparations for the State meeting in their city, May 11 to 13.

In spite of the prevailing cold weather the fight in Dayton, O., on the question of abolishing the board of health is as hot as ever.

The Dayton, O., city officials are planning to create the position of chief surgeon of the police and fire departments, and to give him two assistants.

The health board of Bristol, Va., has issued a statement instructing the public to either boil or filter the city water before using it, in view of the numerous cases of typhoid.

A new feature in the treatment of the mentally afflicted in Toronto, Ont., is to be inaugurated by the establishment of an outdoor free clinic for cases of mental and nervous diseases.

An order has just been issued by the Nashville board of health to all egg dealers to the effect that cold storage eggs must be labeled as such and that they shall not be mixed with the other eggs.

At the last meeting of the Orleans Parish, La., Medical Society, Dr. B. A. Ledbetter was elected President; Dr. G. H. Walet, First Vice-President; Dr. Charles B. Thibaut, Second Vice-President; Dr. C. N. Chavigny, Third Vice-President; Dr. Charles B. Holdrith, Secretary; Dr. Howard B. King, Treasurer, and Dr. Homer B. Dupuy, Librarian.

The November bulletin of the Texas State Board of Health shows that during the month of October there were 1,022 deaths in Texas, with 4,159 births. Of the births 2,035 were males, 2,124 females; 3,874 white, 285 black.

Dr. William Krauss, of Vicksburg, Dean of the Medical College of the University of Mississippi, was found not guilty by Justice Murch of the charge of vagrancy filed against him by his wife, Mrs. Daisy Krauss. The case has been attracting much attention.

"The Knights of Modern Chivalry," a fraternal insurance company of New York State, the membership almost exclusively confined to physicians, is being wound up by the State insurance superintendent. Doctors seem to have been mulcted in a shocking manner.

The San Antonio, Tex., Board of Health is assisting the mother's clubs of the city in their fight for a more sanitary method of delivering baker's bread. The present method is unsanitary and detrimental to the health of the city, and conditions should be remedied. The mothers insist that their plan of wrapping bread in oiled paper be adopted.

The spectacle of a physician actually inheriting a fortune has been observed recently in Chattanooga. Dr. H. Berlin has announced his intention of leaving for Germany to permanently reside in his native land. Dr. Berlin has fallen heir to a fortune in Germany, the extent of which reaches far into the millions. He is declining to take patients and is winding up his affairs here as rapidly as possible.

The Richmond, Va., Committee on Relief of the Poor is considering some means of collecting from other cities in the State the cost of treating their sick in the hospital department of the Richmond alsmhouse. The statutes require that inmates of the almshouse must be Richmond citizens, but the authorities have taken the ground that while that might well apply to paupers, they could not in common charity turn away any sick person asking admission. The Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association, at its recent meeting at Hot Springs, elected the following officers: President, Dr. W. O. Roberts, Louisville, Ky.; Vice-Presidents, Dr. Jos. E. Bloodgood, Baltimore, Md.; Dr. Lewis C. Morris, Birmingham, Ala.; Secretary, Dr. W. D. Haggard, Nashville, Tenn.; Treasurer, Dr. W. S. Goldsmith, Atlanta, Ga.; Chairman Committee of Arrangements, Dr. Rufus E. Fort, Nashville, Tenn. Nashville was selected as the next place of meeting.

Dr. J. B. Wakefield, of Loveland, O., has been 'acquitted in the Clermont common pleas court, at Batavia, on a charge of perjury, lodged against him by H. E. Rodenfels more than a year ago. The jury was out only a minute or two, and took but one ballot. The accusation against Dr. Wakefield had its origin in testimony given by him in a damage suit which Rodenfels instituted against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, for alleged personal injuries received August 1, 1896. Dr. Wakefield's testimony was inimical to Rodenfels' claim, and the perjury charge resulted.

A bill has been prepared by the Ohio State Board of Health, to be introduced in the legislature, authorizing the board to establish a bureau for the prevention of infectious and contagious diseases, and to appoint necessary district medical inspectors. The bill provides in brief for a division of the State into not to exceed twelve districts, and for the appointment of a properly qualified physician as medical inspector for each district. Such inspectors may be selected after an examination. It is provided that the State Board of Health shall respond promptly when asked for assistance, and send a medical inspector to investigate infectious or contagious disease. The State Board may also send an inspector to any community whenever it deems this necessary.