upon with kisses by the children and welcomed by his true comrade and partner on the road.”

All of which is very true and somewhat unfortunate for the average physician who can not conveniently manage an office apart from his residence.

American Medicine, June, 1912, announces that its gold medal for "the most conspicuous and noteworthy service for humanity, in the domain of medicine during the past year," by an American physician, has been conferred upon Col. William Crawford Gorgas, Chief Sanitary Official of the Canal Zone.

The same journal deplores the small attendance at the A. M. A. meeting, appeals to the profession to take a more active interest, and offers the friendly criticism that such interest might be forthcoming if the profession generally had some part in the management of affairs. In particular, it suggests that the President should be more than a figure head and should, at least, have the veto power.

We acknowledge the courtesy of American Medicine in abstracting our article on the Economics of Food from the Interstate Medical Journal of April, 1912.

The St. Louis Medical Review, June, 1912, reprints our article on Wild Parsnip Poisoning, from the April issue.

Merck's Archives, June, 1912, reprints Col. Floyd S. Crego's article on Meningitis, from our March issue.

The Medical Standard, July, 1912, contains a full abstract of Dr. A. H. Noehren's article on Traumatic Finger Amputations, from our June issue.

The Dominion Medical Monthly comments as follows:

The National Insurance scheme of Mr. Lloyd George has now been before the English public for one year, yet success for the measure is not in sight.

That the medical profession is not treated fairly by this measure there are many evidences other than those set forth in the medical press.

The new move by the profession, designed to bring Mr. Lloyd George to his senses, is for the doctors to cut off all their contract relations with friendly societies.

It seems that the profession mistrust the insurance committees of the friendly societies, for on these committees the doctors will be in the minority.

The British Medical Association, through its State Sickness Insurance Committee, is now pledging members to resign from club and lodge practice and not to accept appointments under this Act.

The accompanying picture is taken from the Burning Bush, one of the batteries of the church militant. The Burning Bush

Burning Bush

believes in some things that the average professional man does not, and vice versa but it stands for sincerity. It hits hard at the hypocrisy of an orthodox church passing over to liberalism or altering its time-honored standards to insure popularity among the young folks. The meanest part of such hypocrisy is that it undermines and seeks to steal the proper reward of the heterodox organizations which, half a century or more ago, suffered the persecutions of the orthodox. But our readers will be most interested in the campaign of the Burning Bush against the prostitution of religious papers in advertising nostrums.

BUFFALO MEDICAL JOURNAL

A Monthly Review of Medicine and Surgery

EDITOR

A. L. BENEDICT.

All communications, whether of a literary or business nature, books for review and exchanges, should be addressed to the editor, 354 FRANKLIN STREET, BUFFALO, N. Y Please make personal or telephonic calls before 1 p. m.

THE BUFFALO MEDICAL JOURNAL will publish regularly, full transactions of any professional organization in western New York at cost. Personal notices, brief reports of society proceedings, and the like, are always welcome and will be published without charge.

Subscriptions may commence at any time. $2.00 per year in advance,

VOL. LXVIII.

AUGUST, 1912

No. 1

It is wickeder to be idle on week days than to work on Sundays.

The Past Year and the Future

It is more than a year since the present editor began, informally, to assist in the conduct of this JOURNAL, a little less than a year since he assumed full charge-reluctantly, from apprehension of interference with more practical and more necessary work. Thanks to the unanimous and cordial support of the profession, this apprehension has proved to be unfounded and, with increasing familiarity with details and improved assistance, the additional labor will probably prove less exacting. With allowance for subscription sharing, the subscription list for Buffalo and neighboring towns is estimated to be within about 80 of a possible maximum. For Rochester, we need about 50 more subscriptions, and the same number for the towns in that zone of our territory. To the east and south, the field for extension increases as the radius lengthens. The appointment of Associates conveniently located has proved to be wise from every standpoint, and local centers will probably be added as the need arises. While the JOURNAL aims especially to serve western New York as a medium for exchange of news, lines of political geography are arbitrary and we have a considerable circulation in Ontario, Pennsylvania and Ohio, following established lines of travel. With no special effort toward a general circulation, we also mail to almost all states and countries of the globe, and this circulation is gradually

increasing, almost every day's mail including requests for samples or comments showing that the work of our contributors is appreciated, and that we reach, indirectly, localities that we do not realize.

We wish to impress on our readers the importance of putting forth their best literary efforts in the field of their practice and upon our readers throughout our territory that we wish to serve all parts of it equally, in all ways. The JOURNAL is the third oldest in this continent, it was original called the BUFFALO MEDICAL JOURNAL and, with some slight variations, has always borne that name and it is printed in Buffalo, so that it seems inadvisable to change the name, if indeed, any short designation could be found to indicate its rather broad local scope. Figures speak eloquently and this is our apology for impressing on our readers in a rather sordid way, the debt they owe the advertisers, in the way of careful attention to the advertisements. Each copy mailed to a Buffalo subscriber costs $2.05 for printing and mailing alone; each copy to a neighboring town about 1.90 providing that payments are made without requiring bills and receipts and without exchange. After passing the first thousand of the profession, outside of Buffalo and neighboring counties, a small gross profit exists but, at the maximum estimate of circulation, not sufficient to publish a journal of the same size without advertisements, unless a very broad and large field could be covered by an entire change in policy and scope.

Notwithstanding, the JOURNAL inforces, so far as possible, the highest standard of advertising ethics, including those of simple honesty as the fulfillment of a contract, however conflicting with personal opinion-fair play, and common sense. In the last ten months, enough advertising has been refused to pay the expense of more than one issue. We invite suggestions on this, as well as other points.

Scientific material of the highest grade is available among our own subscribers but we shall, from time to time, include articles from distant parts, especially Europe. Several of the most important advances in professional achievement and policy, especially along educational and legislative lines, have originated in western New York. At least three such movements have started within the last year and a half, have been first published in this JOURNAL, and have set up sympathatic vibrations throughout the profession of the country.

IT

The Domestic Pet

T cannot be denied that domestication of animals has played a very important part in the civilization of the human race. The economic value of draft, milch, wool bearing and meat yield

ing animals, kept in captivity, trained to assist man in his labors or available as needed to supply his wants, requires no argument. It is not generally realized that the relative abundance of such animals in the eastern hemisphere and their almost entire absence in the western, is, without any other factor, sufficient to account for the different rates of progress of man in the old and the new world. With the exception of the llama, a domesticated huanaco, the paco, the turkey and certain central American fowls and rabbits, there were no domesticated animals in America prior to its discovery by Europeans. The llama was merely a pack animal, able to carry not much more than 50 pounds, far inferior to the camel or dromedary in all ways and, not being able to survive long in low altitudes, it could not have been utilized as a draft animal. The paco is far inferior to the sheep, as a supply of clothing. It is said that no animal indigenous to the new world would produce milk in captivity, and it is doubtful if the buffalo, deer and goats of the new world were susceptible of domestication.

These statements must be qualified by excepting the far north of America, where certain deer and dogs or domesticated wolves, played a useful role as in eastern arctic regions.

They must also be qualified, if we employ the word domesticated in the minor sense of pet animals. Various birds, and dogs were more or less domesticated by various Indian tribes; so, too, captive bears and other wild animals were rather frequent sources of amusement. The dog, in the absence of herds and flocks of more useful animals, obviously could not fulfill his old world function of a shepherd's assistant; in a roadless country, he could not be used as a draft animal to any extent except when a crust had formed on snow; there being for the most part, little private property and little personal dishonesty, he was of slight value as a watch dog, though he might give an alarm when a village was attacked at night. It does not even appear that the Indian trained the dog to any great degree as a help to the hunter.

But, quite apart from the main economic value of domestic animals so conspicuous in the old world, and whose absence was so conspicuous in the new world, the mere fact of domesticating, disciplining and controlling and looking after the welfare of lower animals, helped mightily to civilize man, to teach him self control and self denial, and to develop the sense of responsibility. Every instance of cruelty and neglect, brought him loss and even suffering, and thus taught the lesson of mercy and prudence. To a limited degree, therefore, the Indian enjoyed the civilizing influence of domesticated animals, in common with our own ancestors and other natives of the eastern continent.