But the essential attitude of the allopathic school remains unchanged. Their practice has not been modified in principle by Homœopathy. They still absolutely reject similia, even as a law of cure and where they employ a homoeopathic remedy it is used empirically.

Their organizations and journals are to-day as bitter and bigoted as ever. In its issue of February 26, 1898, the Medical News, a Philadelphia journal struggling for recognition in New York, kindly remarked that "It was notorious that judges selected their physicians from the ranks of the Homoeopaths or the quacks, and it was the exception for a judge to have in his employ a reputable, distinguished physician." This statement was also made at the Allopathic State Society meeting in Albany last month. The British Medical Journal, in the first number for the new year, printed the following on the question of consultation with Homoeopaths without a word of dissent: "And I venture to think the only at once plain and sufficient remedy is for the profession as a whole, to decline not only to meet or act in common on a hospital staff with such practitioners, but also to decline to meet or act with any practitioner so meeting them." These charitable and eminently conciliatory quotations sufficiently attest the spirit that still animates our "friends, the enemy." THE NORTH AMERICAN stands for the widest liberty of therapeutic belief and the greatest freedom in practice. It stands also for a union of the schools, whenever a union may be effected without the loss of liberty or honor to either side. In the meantime the attitude of the allopathic school remains unchanged.

Notes and Comments.

The State Society. The annual meeting of the Homoeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York, held at Albany, February 8 and 9, was one of the most successful in its history. The attendance was large and the action of the society entirely harmonious. More than the usual number of papers were presented and read and legislative matters of great importance were considered and disposed The semi-annual meeting will be held next September at Syracuse.

State Hospital for Consumptives.-The Senate Committee on Public Health, to which was referred the resolution introduced by Senator George A. Davis, relating to the establishment of a State hospital in the Adirondack Mountains for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis, has recommended that a joint committee of five be appointed by the Legislature, two from the Senate and three from the Assembly, to make further investigation of this subject, and that $1,000 be appropriated to meet any necessary expenses of such investigation, the committee to report its conclusions and recommendations to the next Legislature.

To Prevent Premature Burial. A bill has been introduced in the Legislature to prevent premature burial. The bill provides that cemetery associations and crematories shall not bury or dispose of a body within seventy-two hours of the time of death, except in cases of malignant contagious diseases. No body shall be received by a cemetery or crematory unless it be accompanied by a certificate or permit for burial from the Board of Health or health officer, which shall not be issued until the attending physician or the Coroner has certified that he has made certain specified tests to determine the fact of death. The penalty for violation of the act is a fine of not more than $2,000.

The Homoeopathic Journal of Surgery. We congratulate the editor of the new aspirant to professional favor on the marked excellence of the initial number. It is full of valuable surgical articles and compares well with other journals of its class. If it can keep up to the standard set by the first issue, it will succeed.

April 11, 1898.-It will be remembered by many that the following agreement was signed by about 150 gentlemen at the last alumni banquet: "We, the undersigned, do agree to send to the secretary of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital one half of the proceeds of our practice on the 11th day of April, 1898 (the birthday of Hahnemann.")

All of those at the banquet signed this paper, which was received

with enthusiastic applause. The alumni will all be given an opportunity to enroll their names in the near future, and a cordial response is expected. Alumni Day, which was so great a success last year, will be Thursday, May 5, 1898. Clinics and lectures will begin at 9 A. M.

To

Institute Members. The following letter has been sent to all the members of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. In order that this excellent epistle may be presented to many who are not yet members, we give space for it:

The Executive Committee, in whose care the Institute has placed its affairs for the year 1898, sends you this hearty greeting.

With one exception, this is the first time the Institute has ventured farther west than the great Mississippi. The recent rapid growth of Homeopathy in the West, and the interest in the western societies, promise much for the Omaha attendance. Indeed the whole present membership, and a large prospective one west of the median line are already so thoroughly aroused and interested for the coming meeting that their attendance in large numbers is fully assured. If any extra attraction were needed to induce our eastern men to make the slightly extended railroad trip, they can find it in the circular of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition with its beautiful illustrations showing a second edition of the "White City." The buildings for the various industrial purposes, for the United States Government, and for eight different states, are planned on an elaborate scale of architecture.

assure

Dr. Wood, as chairman, and his large local committee of all the Homeopathic physicians of Nebraska and Western Iowa have shown great activity and enterprise in already perfecting arrangements that we hope will induce you to place yourself and your family under their hospitable care for at least one week. They have secured for headquarters "The Millard" Hotel, and us of abundant hotel room at prices to suit everyone. They have planned for attractive excursions to the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone Park, etc. Indeed, it would appear that this excellent committee with the push of the West is going beyond all precedent. Moreover, the transportation committee will quite likely secure one-half fare on all railroads leading to Omaha. The general interest manifested by our medical journals along the whole line, so early in the year, is decidedly encouraging. The discussion and criticism on Institute work will inevitably produce good results. The faithful critic is one's best friend.

You, doctor, should attend the Omaha meeting in June; first, because the American Institute of Homeopathy, standing as it does for the best in scientific and practical medicine, is eminently worthy of being sustained by every one of its members; second, because it needs your support in maintaining a high standing in the medical profession. You can contribute to such a desirable result by assisting in its deliberations and discussions. Hence we earnestly urge you to come prepared to discuss at least one of the subjects named in the programme which you will receive before the time of meeting. Scientific research is constantly making discoveries, some of which we find on investigation, affect the practice of both the physician and surgeon. In the corridor and in the sessions of the Institute you can have face to face discussions on the adaptability of these adjuvants to your practices. But more than all, we want the grasp of fellowship in the common cause of humanity and a noble profession. Fraternally yours, A. R. WRIGHT, M.D., President.

E. H. PORTER, M.D., Secretary.

The Dispensary Bill. The so-called Sullivan bill, which gives control of all the dispensaries in the State to the State Board of Charities, and further gives to the board full power to issue or revoke licenses, has been reported favorably to the New York State Senate by the Senate Committee on Public Health. The bill has been

amended, however, so as to permit the action of the State Board of Charities in refusing a license to be reversed by the supreme court. This amendment, however, does not go far enough. Appeal to the court in such cases would be both costly and tedious. The bill still puts almost absolute power in hands of the State Board. It is unnecessary and unwise to do and the more the bill is discussed the more clearly this is seen. There is a very fair chance that the bill will be defeated in the assembly. THE NORTH AMERICAN will say more on this subject next month.

Correspondence.

LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

EDITOR NORTH AMERICAN:

Our Homœopathic Societies are in full swing, and thus far there is no want of material of interest to fill the monthly meetings. Cases of that favorite problem of surgeons and physicians, "Appendicitis," have been reported by Mr. Knox Shaw and Dr. Byres Moir. In a series of seven operations, all successful, by the former, recorded in the M. H. Review for January, we find that six of them were of the recurrent type. The ages of the seven patients (5 males, 2 females) ranged from 8 to 37 years. The first dressing of the wound was not disturbed until from 5 to 8 days after the operation, when it was, in each case, found aseptically healed. We may attribute this remarkably uniform success to the scientific method of operating-the stump of the amputated appendix being in each carefully invaginated into the cæcum-to the perfect asepsis ensured, and to the careful Homœopathic treatment both before and after operation. On the other hand, a rapidly fatal case of appendicitis is candidly narrated by Drs. Moir and Shaw in the February M. H. R. A little girl, aged six, was seized at 5 A. M. on the 13th of January, with all the symptoms of acute appendicitis, and in twenty-four hours the symfptoms developed into acute peritonitis, from which she sank and died thirty-six hours after Dr. Moir was first called. The post-mortem examination revealed a minute perforation of the size of a pin's head of the appendix, from which there had been leakage into the abdominal cavity, resulting in fatal peritonitis. There might have been a chance of success in operating at the first visit, Dr. Moir thinks, but he "could see, at that time, no symptoms justifying it." Any medical reader would, I think, come to the conclusion that no operation, however early, would have saved this life. Mr. W. Buist Picken, I note, writes to the M. H. R. on the subject of the "function of drugforces in their passive relationship to vitality." He commits himself

to the very vague theory of drug-action to the effect that "when rightly employed the positive action is good, the passive better, the negative best; and the advanced physician should know when and how fully to avail himself of all the modes of action established by Nature." To his paper Dr. Preston cleverly replies (M. H. R. for January, 1898) that "It is desirable not to compare the idea of vitality with that of physical vibration-the movements of the bioplasm in the cell are not in straight lines, and exhibit nothing of the nature of physical vibrations; they do not perpetuate themselves indefinitely, but are self-contained, and their behavior is more consistent with a higher form of chemistry than of mere wave motions." To this Mr. W. B. Picken replies in the February number that he is preparing an article for the NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL which will express his latest views on this interesting subject. It seems to the writer, that while man cannot create life, he can call into being latent dynamic and static electricity in highly attenuated drugparticles, which thus act on the molecular-elements of diseased tissues. February 7, 1898. M. D.

THE BULBOUS URETHRATOME.

A new instrument for the diagnosis and division of stricture of the

DEAR NORTH AMERICAN:

male urethra.

The mechanical devices that have formed the instruments which the surgeon has employed and continues to employ in the division of urethral stricture, are not only numerous, but each one is the single part of much variety as well as complexity in construction. I have at various times used instruments made upon the plan suggested by prominent surgeons, and which have in most instances done the work well and have met all of the conditions which a successful division of the stricture demanded or required; but, notwithstanding all that may be said in favor or against many of these urethratomes as regards their efficacy, an insurmountable criticism lies not only in their complicated mechanism, but the expense entailed upon the surgeon in their purchase, while I claim to have devised a urethrato me embracing all of the merits possessed by the others. First, be cause of its simplicity in structure; second, it identifying the presence of the stricture at once, holding it secure, and dividing it without its removal from the penis until the operation is completed; third, that it may be purchased for one-third the price of any efficient urethratome in use. The surgeon is saved the difficulty which now is required in the usual plan-first of locating the stricture by an independent instrument, which is removed from the penis afterwards, inviting the probability of error in again finding the exact location of the offending stricture when the urethratome is introduced after