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composed almost wholly of leucocytes and epithelial cells which show fatty degeneration. Stage of resolution: there is fatty degeneration of the cells, and the exudate is liquefied by emulsification and carried off by, the lymphatics or expectorated. Before completion of resolution, the epithelium of the alveoli and bronchioles proliferate to repair the diseased portions.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

AMONG THE MAGAZINES

JOHNNY ON ANTS.-My subjeck this month is ants. There is 2 kinds of ants, namely, insecks and lady unkels. They live in little hills of sand and with their married sisters. 2 stay with us. They krawl in the suggarbole. This is all I know about ants. Johnny Green.-May St. Nicholas.

ETHEL A. PENNELL'S sketch, "In Chaucer's Youth" in the May St. Nicholas, is based on an unfamiliar historic fact. Chaucer, writer of verse, is well known to every school girl and boy; but not every grownup, even of fair general information, knows that the lad Geoffrey Chaucer was a favorite page in the court of King Edward III, and later a squire to Prince Lionel. "In Chaucer's Youth" tells the pretty story of the ready wit and quick courage which advanced young Geoffrey Chaucer from lady's page to prince's squire.

ANDREW D WHITE, who has been resting quietly in Italy since his release from the cares of the German Embassy at Berlin, has just sent to The May Century the first part of a manuscript upon which he has long been engaged, consistng of reminiscences of his diplomatic life. The present part covers his recollections of Beaconsfield, the Emperors William I and Frederick, Bismarck, Browning, and other famous European statesmen and writers Further papers will include recollections of his recent embassy to Berlin. Dr. White, who is a graduate of the famous Yale class of '53, has filled many diplomatic positions, beginning with an attacheship of the United States legation in St. Petersburg when he was a very young man. He was special commissioner to Santo Domingo in 1871, commission er to the Paris Exposition of 1878, minister to Germany 1879-81 (his first mission to Germany), minister to Russia 1892-94, member of the Venezulan Commission of 1896-97, member of the Peace Commission at the Hague, and ambassador to Germany (his second mission) from 1897 until his recent resignation and retirement. The recollections of such a life are sure to be of very great interest. The papers will begin to appear in an early number of The Century.

IN China a man who killed his father was executed, and along with him his schoolmaster for not having taught him better.

A. R. KIEFFER, President.
LOUIS T. PIM, Vice-President.

THOS. A. HOPKINS, Recording Secretary. DAVIS FORSTER, Corresponding Secrectary. R. M. KING, Treasurer.

St. Louis Medical Society of Missouri.

Meets every Saturday evening, Board of Education hall, 9th and Lcoust.

ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS.

ELECTION OF MEMBERS. -On the evening of April 4th the society broke its best record in the matter of new members, twenty-eight having been elected. The following were elected at that time: H. D. Carley, 3021 Washington Ave.; V. J. Miller, 823 N. 11th; H. G. Nicks, 933 Goodfellow; B. L: Dorsey, 1422 N. Taylor; M. R. Horwitz, 3000 Olive; W. T. Hirschi, 2217 St. Louis; W. W. Vogt, 1443 Blair; O. E. Lademann, 4102 Laclede; E. F. Tiedemann, 3932 Castleman; H. Clay Creveling, 2946 Washington; B. M. Bolton, M.-S. -Beaumont College; Waldemar Fischer, 3554a Olive; J. C. Gallagher, Emergency Hospital No. 2; W. G. Kirchner, City Hospital; W. Doyle, City Hospital; H. A. Weineberg, City Hospital; Ella Marx, 505 N. Theresa; A. C. Bedall, 3518 Lucas; Frances L. Bishop, 516 N. Garrison; G. Z. Higgins, 609 N. Garrison; Mary E. Newell, 3880 Washington; W. D. Aufderheide, 2754 Arsenal; D. L. Harris, Jefferson and Dayton; W. F. Callfas, 2928 Pine; L. C. Stocking, 5100 Vernon; Norman Windsor, Etzel and Etzel Pl.; W. H. Knapp, 2939 Lawton; O. L. Howard, 4133 Nat. Brg. Rd.; H. J. Helwig, 4268 Cook.

THE BANQUET TO "THE OLD GUARD." So much of the preparatory details for the banquet which was given in honor of Drs. Pollak, McPheeters, Johnston and Johnson on the 14th has appeared in our columns that beyond saying that the banquet was one of the most enjoyable we have ever attended further comment would seem superfluous. But the occasion was an unusual one, we doubt if it ever again happens that the society can do honor to four of its ex-presidents, all of whom have passed their 86th year, and each of whom has achieved an eminence in his professional career which is considerably beyond that which is the lot of the average physician. We feel that the Committee of Arrangements worded their invitation wisely when they said that we honor ourselves in doing honor to the "old guard." Considerable regret was felt that illness made it impossible for Dr. J. B. Johnson to be present, and the unoccupied chair would have occasioned genuine sorrow had we not been assured that the illness is slight and of a temporary nature. The main table for the guests of honor, the toastmaster, Dr. Funkhouser, the honorary presiding officers, Drs. T. F. Prewitt, J. M. Scott, E. H. Gregory, J. K. Bauduy, G. F. Dudley, LeGrand Atwood and Ludwig Bremer, and invited guests was arranged along the north side of the dining-room, while at other tables radiating out from it were seated the members of the local profession, every one a picked man. The banquet proper was a great success. After the feast and when cigars had been lighted toastmaster Funkhouser called on the following: Dr. Elisha H. Gregory, who responded to the toast,

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"The Old Guard." Dr. Woodson Moss responded to "The New Organization." "Honor to Whom Honor is Due" was responded to by Dr. W. G. Moore. "The St. Louis Medical Society" was responded to by Dr. A. R. Kieffer. Dr. LeGrand Atwood's toast was "Before the War." The invocation was pronounced by the Rev. John Mathews. At the close of the programme of speeches, Drs. Pollak, Johnston and McPheeters were called upon by the toastmaster, and in entertaining talks expressed their high appreciation of the honor conferred upon them. Among those present were Drs. H. J. Scherck, R. M. Funkhouser, Ohmann-Dumesnil, T. F. Prewitt, T. C. Witherspoon, F. L. Henderson, T. A. Hopkins, Y. H. Bond, Hugo Summa, C. V. F. Ludwig, John Mathews, R. M. King, P. C. Scholz, E. R. Meng, Davis Forster, E. H. Gregory, R. B. H. Gradwohl, J. Leland Boogher, O. A. Ambrose, H. J. Cummings, W. E. Sauer, Pinckney French, C. E. Ament, W. G. Moore, W. B. Dorsett, John Pitman, W. V. Loftus, W. C. Field, W. L. Dickerson, W. McN. Miller, J. R. Lemen, L. P. Butler, J. R. Clemens, D. A. K. Steele, I. H. Cadwallader, A. W. Flemming, W. B. Shields, Leon Straus, G. K. Fisher, D. Kuhn, Bransford Lewis, H. W. Loeb, A. Alt, C. Barck, P. Y. Tupper, Woodson Moss, W. M. McPheeters, J. B. Johnson, S. Pollock, W. Johnston, J. M. Scott, H. C. Dalton, H. L. Field, W. H. Fuchs, Edward Borck, F. J. Lutz, N. B. Carson, G. C. Crandall, H. Tuholske, J. M. Long, A. H. Meisenbach, C. G. Chaddock, Spencer Graves, H. W. Hermann, R. M. Higgins, John J. Miller, H. M. Whelpley, Amand Ravold, J. Y. Brown, J. E. Jennings, T. S. Hawley, A. R. Keiffer, Gib W. Carson, J. C. Lebrecht, C. C. Morris.

A STAGNANT ATMOSPHERE.-"Nature" tells of an indoor snowstorm on a very clear, cold evening at a party given in Stockholm, Sweden. Many people were gathered in a single room, which became so warm as to be insufferable. The window sashes were found frozen, and a pane of glass was smashed out. A cold air current rushed in, and at the same instant flakes of snow were seen to fall to the floor in all parts of the room. The atmosphere was so saturated with moisture that the sudden fall in temperature produced a snowfall indoors.

POSTPONEMENT OF PAN-AMERICAN CONGRESS.-At a meeting of the International Executive Committee of the Pan-American Medical Congress, held April 1st, 1903, it was decided to accept the proposal of the Argentine Republic to hold the Fourth Pan-American Medical Congress in Buenos Aires in 1905, instead of 1903, as had been announced in their invitation of February, 1901. This was considered by the committee much more advantageous for the meeting, as it has long since been realized that it would have been impossible to have had a good representation of the delegates from this and other countries had a convention been held there in June of this year. Dr. Ramon Guiteras, Secretary.

Correspondence.

COULD COW POX SERUM INJECTIONS MODIFY SMALLPOX?
NEW YORK, April 8, 1903.

EDITOR MEDICAL FORTNIGHTLY:

For the information of H. L. F., a correspondent in the Journal American Medical Association who inquires relative to cow-pox serum injection, I beg to state that vaccine inoculated during the incubation period of variola should modify the latter more, the larger the space that lapses between vaccination and variolus eruption. Eight days would give perfect immunity. Trousseau formulated the law, according to which every variolous eruption which appears on the second day of a variola, is a sinister prognostic. Chauveau and the Lyonese Commission, 1865, assert that the variolus virus and the vaccinal virus are different; the variolic virus inoculated in the cow, remains always variolic virus, and never turns into vaccinal virus. Jenner, first, then Thule and Creely, in 1839 admitted on the other hand, the identity of the two viruses; in 1886 Fisher, then Flaccius and Eternod took up again this opinion and set at naught the opinions of M. Chauveau. It is known that Fischer, by inoculating into a cow, by scarification, a mixture of the solid and liquid parts of a variolus pustule, obtained umbilicated pustules having all the characters of vaccine; after making twelve successive passages, he inoculated the pustule to his grandson and obtained a legitimate vaccine. Since that time thousands of persons have been vaccinated in this manner, in the dukedom of Baden; there has never been a single case of variolization.

From the clinical point of view, the pustules of vaccine and those of variola, have a perfect resemblance, and everything speaks for their identity; the results obtained by Fischer, seem to confirm this identity, variola and vaccine seem to be the same disease, therefore, and with one the other may be made, and inversely. Mr. Fischer, in demonstrating the identity of these made a great step in advance, attentuated variola gives vaccine. Will exalted vaccine give variola? This question has been incidentally answered, for he took as vaccine virus the 12th passage of the variolic virus; the fourth passage inoculated in man gave general accidents which reminded of variola. The simultaneous evolution of variola and vaccine in the same subject, however, may be said to favor the duality of the viruses.

M. Chauveau thinks that the two viruses are intimately related. He says: "There is no doubt that we may reasonably admit that they have a common origin. But, for the present they are two species absolutely distinct and irreductible into one, by the acts of experimentation.

The Lyonese Commission showed that the ox and the horse take the variola perfectly, when it is inoculated into them, but it also proved that these animals return the variola to men, as they have received it from them. The ox and the horse variolated, are made immune from vaccine just as the vaccinated man is immune from variola. But this reciprocal prophylactic action was by no means considered as a proof of the identity of the two diseases. In the animal, as well as in man, and even better

than in man, they keep both their specific character. The local phenomena of variolous inoculation in the ox, consists in simple papulous eruption, which is in striking contrast with the typical pustulous eruption produced by vaccinal inoculation in man. It is not possible to confound the character of these two eruptions. Therefore, the inoculation in animals of the bovine species constitutes an excellent criterium, if we wish to ascertain whether a given lymph contains variolous lymph, or at least vaccine lymph. An infallible criterium! much preferable to the inoculation in man in whom, both viruses produce identical local effects, so that if the general effects belonging specially to variola, above all the secondary eruption, should be missed, which may happen, it would not be possible to establish the differential diagnosis between the two diseases. But in order to obtain in the ox, the characters which distinguish the variolous and vaccinal eruption, with all desirable distinctness, it is necessary to perform inoculations by sub-epidermic punctures, or by means of very short and superficial scarifications. The long incisions usually made to inoculate calves, in the institutes of animals vaccine production, detract from the clearness of specific characters of the two eruptions. This accounts says M. Chauveau, for the erroneous interpretation given of the recent attempts at transforming variola into the vaccine, by transplanting variolous virus upon the organism of the calf. He tested a sample of variolous lymph cultivated upon the calf, and supposed to be transformed into vaccinal lymph. And he satisfied himself in the most positive manner that the active principle contained in said lymph, was purely and simply variolous vaccine.

The readiness with which people are inclined to hail the supposed success of these attempts at metamorphosing variola into vaccine, is accounted for by the confusion which exists in the public mind, between transformation and attenuation of virus. The magnificent results obtained by M. Pasteur, says M. Chauveau, do not belong to the same order of facts, as the metamorphosis of variola into vaccine. The latter is not an attenuated form of the former. The vaccine is not simply an attenuated virus, although derived from the variolous virus. It is a variolous virus so well grounded in its new attributes that it cannot return to its pristine malignity. The vaccine, therefore, has not originated variola, even after inoculation into millions of individuals every year for a century. It can only be an absolutely transformed virus; in other words, a new virus, independ ent, capable of presenting different forms in its activity, consequently, susceptible itself of exaltation, of attenuation as well as any autonomous virus. It is not an attenuation of variola. The natural variolous virus is a strong virus. The natural vaccine virus is another one. If nature has made the latter with the former, she has changed a strong virus into another strong virus without contenting herself with producing in fixing a simple toning down of the properties of the variolous virus.

The attempts at metamorphosing variola into vaccine, have failed. The general mechanism of immunity is founded, as shown by Dr. Chauveau, upon the impregnation of the organism by the various products of microbian life. Now the microbian life in the whole pathogenous and saprogenous world obeys the same physiological laws. It may certainly form products more or less similar, if not even identical, although due to different creatures. Here is a vein to exploit.

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