Therefore, as we faithfully carry on our work, grateful for our opportunities for service, let us recognize that medical men. know no race, no nationality and no class in their common purpose. Every physician in this great land of ours who does his duty as a medical practitioner, and observes his obligations under the laws of the country, is entitled not only to immunity from discour tesy and insult, but all necessary protection against indignity and attack from the thoughtless. As members of the great brotherhood of medicine, let us be ready and quick to defend any colleague who may thus be made the victim of prejudice and intolerance. The Campaign Against Tuberculosis in France. Tuberculosis has been prevalent in France for many years. The conditions brought about by war, have, however, rendered the situation in this respect worse by far until, at the present time, the ravages of tuberculosis are exciting much apprehension among the authorities and the medical profession. In the first months of the war France with sublime courage was fighting for her very life and had no time to select her soldiers with regard to their physical fitness. She was compelled by dire necessity to take them as they came and the consequence has been that the hardships accompanying the peculiar manner of fighting has searched out the weak spots in the physical make-up of her unseasoned soldiers; of these the tendency to tuberculosis has been the most distinctive. Of course, the close association of life in the trenches has spread the disease like wildfire. France is endeavoring now to minimize as far as is possible the results of her early neglect by removing those infected with tuberculosis as rapidly as the disease can be detected. It must be borne in mind that altho in many ways France is the most cultured nation of the earth, she is far from being as progressive in all matters pertaining to sanitation and hygiene. Her backwardness in these matters is unaccountable and doubtless has a very considerable bearing on the prevalence of tuberculosis. Dr. Hermann Biggs was sent to France last year under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation to investigate and give his views on the state of affairs. He reported that tuberculosis was undoubtedly one of the most serious problems of that country and one that should be grappled with energetically and at once. It has been decided now that the Rockefeller Foundation with the approval of the French Government and in cooperation with the American Red Cross will endeavor to curb tuberculosis in France. A comprehensive and well organized plan looking to the control of tuberculosis in all parts of France will be put into working order, and by these means not only will the foundation be greatly assisting our ally, France, but at the same time, will be making of France a more healthy place in which American troops may live. This beneficent work will be carried on under the supervision of the French Central Committee and local committees which are being organized thruout provincial France. According to the New York Times, May 27, 1917, the present plans of the foundation as announced on May 26, provide: 1. The maintenance of a central organization which will have a general supervision of the work. This organization will be under the French Government and will combine the special interests in anti-tuberculosis work. It is expected that the Central Committee will, among other things, undertake the preparation of literature and exhibit material and will carry out a comprehensive scheme of education for the control of tuberculosis. 2. The organization of four units which, moving from place to place, will carry on a campaign of education and publicity. 3. The demonstration of dispensary methods and organization of local committees under whose auspices permanent dispensaries will be established. 4. The establishment of, at least, four centres for the training of nurses and others who will have charge of the dispensary work. No work ever undertaken by the Rockefeller Foundation has had a more noble object. It is both humanitarian and patriotic and also should prove of the utmost value from the standpoint of medical science. The treatment of tuberculosis in all its phases is more thoroly understood in this country, especially in New York City than in any other part of the world, and no body of medical men better fitted to cope with the disease on an extended scale could be found anywhere than those who will be sent out under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. France has won the admiration of the whole world-even of its enemies -for its heroic devotion to her ideals and principles, and if America can help her now by saving her children from the talons of tuberculosis, no time nor effort should be lost. The Fallacy and Futility of Child Labor. That child labor is beneficial to anyone is a fallacious and pernicious doctrine. Its cruelty and futility have been demonstrated times without number. In the long run, it is obvious that the employment of children must be an economic loss to a nation. The result will be that the strain put upon a child of tender years by manual labor will render him or her less fit by far on reaching maturity to produce healthy offspring, and the nation will be the chief sufferer. Industrialism begets money, but as a rule, deteriorates the race and every manufacturing country learns this lesson sooner or later. Therefore, it is a fact upon which little stress need be laid that child labor is an evil thing from all points of view. It has been argued that war changes all such considerations, and that if child labor will assist to win a war, that it should be employed without demur. Certain senators of the South, probably not averse to child labor so long as it does not affect their own children, have used this argument and are said to be considering an attempt to suspend the child labor law during the war. mon and with whom patriotism runs far behind their own interests. There is no necessity to go back to industrial slavery in order to fight the battles of this country and it is eminently fitting that an earnest protest should be made against the mere consideration of the reversion to so barbarous a procedure as the suspension of the child labor law. A National Food Administrator.-As we go to press word comes that President Wilson has made Herbert C. Hoover, the Director of National Food Administration. There is no man in the whole country today who has Mr. Hoover's particular qualifications for this great position. The splendid services rendered by this typical American while directing relief work in Belgium have made him a citizen of the world. The knowledge thus gained and the vast store of information he has acquired, will enable him to enter upon the biggest job of the century without delay. One great advantage which Mr. Hoover has over all other men who might be considered for the position is his appreciation of the size of the undertaking he is face to face with. He knows that all history records no task as enormous as the efficient control and administration of this country's food resources, with its bearing on the welfare of millions of foreign people besides those of our own nation. The heartfelt admiration we have for "Hoover of Belgium," the deep satisfaction we derive from our knowledge of the masterful way In this country, however, there is no he upheld the ideals of civilization during excuse for suggesting a retrograde step of Belgium's darkest hours of distress and this character. The gaps made in necessary despair, and the gratitude we feel to Presiindustries by the withdrawal of men to serve dent Wilson for selecting a man so ad-. as soldiers have not and will not be suf- mirably fitted to serve as administrator of ficient to justify the suspension of, perhaps, the nation's food resources, are responsible the most humane law ever passed. In for our presentation of the excellent likeness England where the supply of able-bodied of Mr. Hoover in this number. Not only do men is lamentably short, certain children we deem it desirable for the physicians of were exempted from school so that they America to be familiar with the features of might be able to work. The plan proved a the man who is going to play so important a failure. The child's education was neglected part in the immediate affairs of the nation, at the very time when he was best able to but we deem it a privilege to thus compliassimilate instruction, and thus both his ment a man whose career and achievements body and mind were in a fair way of be- exemplify so well the spirit of national serving stunted. The cry for child labor is ice, the desirability and importance of which actuated by the selfish motives of a group we are seeking so earnestly to demonstrate of men whose only God seems to be Mam- thru this special number. ON THE TREATMENT OF WOUNDS SUSTAINED IN WARFARE. BY SIR W. WATSON CHEYNE, Bt. F. R. S., etc. President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Surgeon General, R. N., London, Eng. In response to your invitation to contribute a paper on the surgical lessons of the present war I may refer to the question of the treatment of wounds quite shortly and without entering into any detail. In reality it is not possible to speak positively on the best method of treating war wounds owing to the arrangements employed in our Army (and I presume in the others also) for the disposal of the injured. I refer to the fact that patients are passed to the base as rapidly as possible, being handed from one surgeon to another, so that no continuity of treatment can be maintained, and no positive conclusions can be drawn, as to the efficacy of any particular line of treatment. In speaking of the treatment of wounds in war and the results, I have chiefly in my mind compound fractures and injuries of joints as being those which test the value of any system of treatment most severely. Now in this war, up to quite recently, when surgeons began to adopt Carrel and Dakin's methods, practically every compound fracture with a large wound of entrance or exit, in fact every wound of any size, with the exception of simple perforating bullet wounds, when they arrived in this country were suppurating, foul, and generally in a bad condition. On the other hand, our experience of compound fractures and other accidental wounds in this country, when treated by the Listerian methods, is quite different. If the wounds are thoroly disinfected soon after the injury, they run an aseptic course; the wound fills up with blood clot which adheres to the sides of the wound and becomes organized, so that after some weeks when the crust which has formed on the surface of the clot is peeled off, the wound may be found completely healed, or a small superficial sore is present which is not suppurating and which heals readily. With careful antiseptic treatment it is the exception for suppuration to occur in these wounds, and if it does take place it can usually be explained by some error in technic. The consideration of the reasons for this marked difference in results in the two cases is most important, but before dealing with that point I may say that altho these wounds arrive in this country in such a bad state, and altho the patients are often in a general septic condition with high temperatures, etc., yet the mortality is surprisingly low, and as far as one can gather |