they are the efficient agent in producing the flavor of cheese while they may produce the deadly tyrotoxicon.

Evidently they have much to do with the growth and maturing of plants. I have read somewhere that if you plant sterilized seed in sterilized earth, enclosed in a sterilized vessel, moistened with sterilized water, at the same time closing the vessel with a wad of cotton, that the seeds will not sprout for an indefinite time; but if you will then remove the cotton and admit the bacteria-bearing air the seed will germinate at once.

It is a fact known to farmers in some sections of the country that clover will not grow and mature on some fields. It has been found that from such fields a special bacterium has disappeared. It is also an observed fact that beans will not "fill" unless their roots bear thereon nodosities, which are produced by a bacterial infection thereof.

Pasteur's study of spoiled beer, the vine mildew, silkworm disease, and chicken cholera proved conclusively that all were caused by bacteria, and he showed how the invasion could be prevented. The first fruit of this induction in human medicine was Sir Joseph Lister's antiseptic surgery, in which he sought to slay the bacteria on the field by various microbicide dressings. Antisepsis has been followed by asepsis, by which the invasion of bacteria is prevented. This is the result of the labors and observation of many students. In the last twenty years the whole face of surgical practice has been changed. Once the center of interest was the operation itself, now it is aseptic detail, for when asepsis is perfect bungling surgery may be successful; when it is faulty the most perfectly performed operation may fail. Septicemia in obstetric work is rare, and when it does occur its cause should be sought in a dirty physician or nurse most commonly. Serum therapy has come into the practice of medicine for the cure if infections, as well as for their prevention. And disinfection and isolation are, or should be, as constant care to the physician as to the surgeon. Extended observation has shown that the problems of bacteriology are not as simple as they seemed at first. Pleimorphism has come to vex the souls of students. Influence of media in which the bacteria grow has been found to change a benign to a pathogenic bacterium.

Bacteriology is in its infancy yet. But a few outposts of the field have been carried; but what has been done has been most beneficial to humanity. While this study has simplified many

phenomena and illuminated many dark corners, it has brought perplexity and complexity into others. The first word has been. clearly spoken. When will he live who shall speak the last? The bacteria produce poisons some hundred times stronger, bulk for bulk, than any of our alkaloids. This is the notable fact in respect to tetanic bacilli.

PURE FOOD AND DRUGS.

The State of Ohio is to be congratulated on having a law for the protection of the people against adulterations of foods and drugs, and we feel that it is the duty of the medical profession to uphold these laws in spirit as well as letter.

The carrying out of these laws is the duty of the Dairy and Food Commissioner of this State and so far as he executes them in accordance with their spirit and letter, he should be supported whether it eeffets the manufacturer, wholesale dealer, or tailor or purchaser. Certainly the protection of the people against the use of adulterated foods and drugs is of great importance and no sympathetic scheme should be allowed to influence either court, jury or the Dairy and Food Commisisoner in carrying into effect laws which have made Ohio famous throughout the United States, as being a leader in the protection of its citizens against adulterations whether they be of domestic or foreign origin.

News Notes and Personals.

Dr. S. C. Tootle has removed from Milo, Ohio, to 38 East Town St., Columbus, Ohio.

DOCTOR OF LAWS.-Dr. George Ben. Johnston, of Richmond, Va., has received the degree of LL.D.

APPOINTMENT.-Dr. D. S. Hanson, of Cleveland, Ohio, has been appointed obstetrician to the city hospital.

Dr. J. R. McOscar, an alumnus of Ohio Medical University. class of 1896. is building up an enviable practice at Waterville, Ohio.

CHIEF SURGEON.-Dr. B. E. Hadra, of San Antonio, has recently been appointed Chief Surgeon for the San Antonio & Gulf Railway.

The address of the Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics has been changed from New Haven, Connecticut, to 104 Fulton St., New York, N. Y.

Dr. G. W. Burner, Appleton, Ohio, brother of Professor Burner of the Ohio Medical University, was visiting friends last week in the "Arch City."

Dr. L. E. Wills, of Omega, Pike County, Ohio, an alumnus of the Ohio Medical University, was in the city last week on business and made a pleasant call on ye editor.

Dr. E. W. Tidd, class of 1893, Ohio Medical University, located at Wakefield, Ohio, was in the city on business last week and met many of his numerous friends who were pleased to hear of his

success.

Dr. A. W. Squires, of White Cottage, spent two days in the "Arch City" last week. The doctor is a graduate of the Columbus Medical College and commands a very desirable practice at that place.

HONORARY DEGREE.-Dr. W. A. Adams, of Fort Worth, Texas, Chief Surgeon of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway Company, has lately received the degree of LL.D from Mercer University.

Dr. A. C. Wolfe, Professor of Laryngology and Rhinology in the Ohio Medical University, has removed his office from 755 N. High St. to 35 W. Fourth Ave., where the doctor has built a new and very commodious office which he has thoroughly fitted up for his special line of work.

Dr. Milo Wilson, of Gilboa, Ohio, an alumnus of the Ohio Medical University, has recently been appointed medical examiner of the New York, Mutual and Manhattan Life Insurance Companies of that district. We congratulate the doctor on his appointment to these responsible positions.

Dr. Henry D. Didama recently celebrated the completion of fifty years of practice in Syracuse.

This is one example at least where the good failed to die young. May Dr. Didama have many years yet to enjoy the benefits arising from half a century of practice.

The Western Medical and Surgical Gazette of Denver, Colo., a monthly journal of medicine and surgery, edited by Drs. Wm. N. Beggs, A. B., M. D., and Lincoln Mussey, M. D., under the business management of W. H. Sharpley, is announced to make its debut to the medical profession October 1, 1897.

The Columbus Academy of Medicine held its regular meeting Monday evening, September 6th, in the public school library, at which time the program called for a paper on "The Abuses of Opium," by Dr. Starling Loving of East State St.; also a paper on "Adenoid Vegetations," by Dr. J. E. Brown of East Town St.

A PRIZE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF THE BACILLUS OF YELLOW FEVER. One-half of the prize of $220,000 which the government of Brazil is to present to the author of a work demonstrating the existence of the bacillus of yellow fever and to the discoverer of an effective treatment of the disease, will probably be awarded to Sana relli.

Homeopathists all over the country are awakening to the deplorable condition of their fad, and are seeking education in regular colleges.-The Ohio Medical Journal.

Very true, and at the same time we have "the stiff-necked and uncircumcised" who refuse to open the doors of their colleges to "these unregenerate sons of the desert" who have repented and seek admittance with an earnest desire to obtain "more light."

FAITHFUL TO THE END.-The following abstract of a letter from Dr. W. T. Mitchell, of Allenport, Pa., not only voices his own sentiment but we are quite certain voices the sentiment of many of our subscribers. In speaking of the COLUMBUS MEDICAL JOURNAL, the doctor says:

I have been a subscriber since its first issue and cannot afford to do without it now, since it has got on new clothes and has become so very valuable with its up-to-date news, that when my name is not on your subscription list, you may publish my obituary. I hope to have it call regularly twice a month.

The ninth annual meeting of the Tri-State Medical Society of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee will be held in the Senate Chamber of the State Capital at Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 12, 13 and 14, 1897. Those desiring to read papers before this enterprising Association are requested to address the President, Dr. W. F. Westmoreland, Atlanta, Ga., or the Secretary, Dr. Frank T. Smith, Chattanooga, Dr. W. D. Haggard, Jr., of Nashville, Tenn., is Chairman Committee of Arrangements and the profession can be assured that they will receive every attention that southern hospitality can afford.

Tenn.

The Missouri Medical League of St. Louis is the name of a newly organized society of medical practitioners in St. Louis. modeled after the New York Medical League. It is stated in the Medical Review that the organization is the outcome of the recent

investigation of the committee on clinics and dispensaries appointed by the St. Louis Medical Society, and has for its object the elevation of the medical profession by influencing legislation to require a higher standard of general education before students can matriculate at a medical college and a higher standard of requirements for graduation in medicine. The suppression of free-dispensary and clinic abuses, et id genus omne, the fostering of fraternity between the members of the medical profession, and the support of a movement to secure a national department of public health, are also among the aims of the society. The first meeting of the new organization was held on July 1st.

The North Central Ohio Medical Society will hold its next annual meeting at Marion, Ohio, September 24th, under the Presidency of Dr. A. Rhu, of that city. This is one of the oldest local societies in the State and has held its meetings regularly every quarter since its organization some fifteen years ago. It is needless to say that under its present administration the next meeting will be a success, as Dr. Rhu is one of the hustlers in the medical profession and Marion is one of those hospitable places which makes everyone feel as though he had lived there a lifetime when he visits the city.

Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus physicians will be on the program in addition to the country practitioner, who, above all others, should be recognized on the programs of our local societies. Whilst it is important that the country practitioner and the city practitioner should exchange views it should not be at the expense of the former as many country physicians have experience which the city physician may well envy.

Dr. George Miller Sternberg, Surgeon-General of the United States Army, and President-elect of the American Medical Association, was born June 8, 1838, at Hartwick Seminary, Otsego County, N. Y., and educated at the same place; commenced the study of medicine in 1857, at Cooperstown, N. Y., under Dr. Horace Lathrop, of that place; attended two courses of lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, and was graduated in 1860. Entering the service during the civil war, Dr. Sternberg distinguished himself with General Syke's command, and later with General Banks. He has made many valuable additions to our medical literature on cholera, typhoid fever, and yellow fever, his experience in various epidemics having eminently qualified him to speak on these scourges. Dr. Sternberg has made original researches in the etiology of infectious diseases, the comparative value of disinfectants, etc. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Michigan in 1894, and Brown University 1896. Dr. Sternberg married first, in 1866. Miss Maria Louisa Russell, of Cooperstown, N. Y., who died of cholera in 1867; married second, in 1869, Miss Martha L. Pattison, of Indianapolis, Ind. They have no children.