CONDUCTED BY

Current Events.

WILLIAM S. PEARSALL, M.D.

Readers of the JOURNAL are cordially requested to send personals, removals, deaths and all items of general news to Dr. William S. Pearsall, 128 West 78th Street, New York City.

Secretaries of societies and institutions are invited to contribute reports of their proceedings, and as it is intended to make this department crisp and newsy reports should be complete but concise.

DR. B. F. BAILEY, of Lincoln, is the president of the Nebraska State Board of Health.

DR. CHARLES H. HELFRICH has removed to 64 West 49th Street, New York. Hours, 9 to 1.

DR. HORACE G. KEITH, of Yonkers, has removed from No. 2 Hudson street, to 107 South Broadway.

THE WOMAN'S GUILD gave a "Musical Morning" on March Ist in the interest of the Flower Hospital.

DR. A. C. CowPERTHWAITE was in Omaha in February on business connected with the American Institute.

DR. HOWARD LAWRENCE COLES is located at 23 West 93d street. Office hours, 8 to 10 A. M.; 5 to 7 P. M.

DR. J. H. MCCLELLAND was recently in New York on business connected with the Hahnemann Monument Fund.

OUR SINCEREST SYMPATHY is extended to Dr. John S. Bassett in the death of his son, Jay Lester Bassett, aged 22 years.

DR. SHELDON LEAVITT has been appointed professor of Gynecology in the Chicago Homoeopathic Medical College.

"THEY SAY" that riches won't buy happiness, but there are lots of people who would like to try the experiment and find out for themselves.

DR. ALLISON CLOKEY of Louisville has again resumed his professional and college duties, from which he was obliged by ill-health to retire for a time.

OBITUARY.-We regret to announce the death of Dr. Wilson Peterson, well-known and much beloved by the older members of the profession in this city.

DR. W. W. KNOWLTON, of Camden, N. J., sailed on Feb. 26th for Europe, where he will devote his time to the study of diseases of the skin and genito-urinary organs.

DR. CHARLES E. FISHER has been elected to a professorship in the department of obstetrics and pediatrics in the "Old Hahnemann," vice Dr. S. Leavitt, resigned.

DR. A. R. WRIGHT, of Buffalo, was severely injured by being thrown from his carriage. We are much pleased to have received. information that Dr. Wright is improving.

THE CRESSET is the name of a bright and interesting journal, published monthly during the college year by the students of the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women.

ANNOUNCEMENT.-The Twenty-ninth Annual meeting of the Homœopathic Medical Society of Michigan will be held at Grand Rapids, Mich., Tuesday and Wednesday, May 17 and 18, 1898.

DR. B. G. CLARK of 162 West 122d Street, calls attention to the change in his office hours and telephone call. Office hours-II to 1; 6 to 6:30. Sundays, 9 to 10:30 A. M. Telephone-988 Harlem.

OBITUARY.-The college has been very much saddened by the death of Franklin T. Pettibone, a member of the senior class. A memorial service was conducted at the College by the Rev. Doctor Brown.

THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING of the Maine Homoeopathic Medical Society will be held at Augusta, Maine, Tuesday, June 7, 1898. An interesting and well attended meeting is expected.

A VALUABLE GIFT has recently been made to the New York Homœopathic Medical College and Hospital, in the library of the late Hugh M. Smith, M.D., of Brooklyn, comprising about a thousand

well selected volumes.

THE HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY of Germantown held its regular meeting on Monday evening, Feb. 21st. The address of the evening was given by Dr. Weston D. Bayley upon the subject: "Some Facts in Mesmerism."

C. I. H. M. A.-The Central Illinois Homœopathic Medical Association held its fourth session in Bloomington, March 22, 1898. The entire session was devoted to surgery, and the members each wore a ribbon in recognition of "Ye Ancient Barber-Surgeon."

DUNHAM CLUB. At a meeting of the Dunham Club held on Saturday evening, Dec. 11th, the following officers were elected for 1898: President, Dr. H. G. Keith, of Yonkers; Vice-President, Dr. John B. Palmer; Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. J. I. Dowling.

DR. RICHARD HUGHES' Manual of Pharmacodynamics has been translated into the Russian language, and now his Manual of Therapeutics is undergoing the same process in St. Petersburg. Both books have already appeared in French and in Spanish.

DR. HERBERT W. Hoyt desires to announce that he has re

turned from a course of study in New York and Europe, and will hereafter confine his practice to the diseases of the nose, throat and lungs. 75 South Fitzhugh Street, Rochester, N. Y. Hours from Io to I, and by appointment.

COMMENCEMENT.-The faculty and the graduating class of the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College request the honor of your presence at the Twenty-third Annual Commencement, Tuesday afternoon, the twenty-second of March, 1898, at 2 o'clock; the Great Northern Theatre, Chicago.

PHYSICIAN going out of the city from June 15th to October 1st would like to have someone occupy his office and substitute for him during his absence. A good opportunity for a man who desires to do some graduate work during the summer months. Address "Vacation," office of this journal.

ANNUAL REUNION of the Alumni Association of the Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia.-The annual reunion and banquet of the Alumni Association of the Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia, will be held on Thursday, May 12, 1898.

Class reunions will be held at 10 A. M. in Horticultural Hall, Broad Street, above Spruce. The business meeting will convene at 4:30 P. M., and the banquet will be held at 7 P. M., at Horticultural Hall.

The trustees and faculty of the college extend a cordial invitation to all members of the Alumni and their friends to attend the Fiftieth Annual Commencement, to be held on the same day, at 2 o'clock, at the Academy of Music, S. W. corner Broad and Locust Streets, Philadelphia.

Banquet cards can be secured by notifying the secretary. Requests received after Wednesday, May 11, 1898, cannot be considered. W. D. CARTER, M.D., Secretary. 1533 South 15th Street, Philadelphia.

OFFICERS.-President, William W. Van Baun, M.D., '80, Philadelphia. Vice-presidents.-C. W. Roberts, M.D., '89, Scranton, Pa.; A. W. Baily, M.D., '86, Atlantic City, N. J.; L. deV. Wilder, M.D., '55, New York City. Treasurer.-William H. Keim, M.D., '71, Philadelphia. Permanent Secretary.-Woodward D. Carter, M.D., '94, Philadelphia. Provisional Secretary.-F. Walter Brierly, M.D., '94, Phildelphia. Necrologist.-Clitus S. Hoag, M.D., '77, Bridgeport, Conn. Executive Committee, one year.-Wm. R. King, M.D., '81, Washington, D. C.; Peter Cooper, M.D., '81, Wilmington, Del.; J. Herbert Reading, M.D., '78, Philadelphia. Two years. Isaac G. Smedley, M.D., '80, Philadelphia; Daniel P. Maddux, M.D., '83, Chester, Pa.; Joseph G. Guernsey, M.D., '72, Philadelphia. Three years.-Carl V. Vischer, M.D., '87, Philadelphia; Edward W. Mercer, M.D., '84, Philadelphia; James H. Closson, M.D., '86, Philadelphia.

NORTH AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY.

Original Articles in Medicine.

PAIN AND ITS HOMOEOPATHIC TREATMENT.*

BY WILLIAM BOERICKE, M.D.,

San Francisco, Cal.

ORMAL healthy life manifests its functional activity with pleasure to the subject if he is conscious of it at all. This sense of pleasure accompanying the performance of every function is one of the best evidences of perfect health, and so discomfort or pain is one of the most common, one of the earliest and most persistent evidences of disease. Pain may be looked upon as the physical conscience of the bodily life, the monitor of wrong done or endured.

Pain is a symptom always; true, at times, one of much dignity with imperious demands for immediate consideration, but nevertheless a mere symptom of mischief somewhere, and it behooves the wise physician to discover, whenever possible, its pathological basis, as it does the careful prescriber to analyze its character and conditions. Since its aid in diagnosis is frequently of higher value than that of any other single symptom, it becomes evident how important the recognition and study of pain as a symptom in every case of disease becomes. How futile, too, to cover it up by some painkiller and thus not only deprive ourselves of much valuable information as to the disease, but moreover load the system with some foreign intruder and possibly lay the foundation for some drug habit, by no means an imaginary fear.

We are told that pain is the cry of hungry nerves for healthy food and, unquestionably, impoverished conditions of the general

*Written especially for the NORTH AMERICAN.

system on account of deficient supply of nourishment to the part may give rise to pain which nothing will relieve until this cause is met. Here belongs the dull vertical pain with sense of weight and depression of cerebral anemia, very common with women. Phosphor, acid produces and helps to cure such a condition.

Malaria is a prolific cause of persistent pain. Brow-ague is its common expression. Periodicity, of course, is another of its manifestations. Arsenic, cedron, nat. sulph., and chin. ars. are our remedies to be considered. Then comes syphilis as a very frequent cause of violent, crushing, persistent pains. These are often due to the pressure of thickened periosteum and may yield only to iodide of potash. It must be remembered that the prognosis of neuralgia depending on both malaria and syphilis is quite favorable. It is too late in the day to deny the efficacy of the anti-kamnic properties of syphilinum given in the highest potencies. Many pains are due to the diathetic power of gout, rheumatism, and diabetes, which states must receive. attention before a cure is possible. Here the influence of uric acid as an etiological factor is of paramount importance, and before homoeopathic remedies can act satisfactorily suitable regimen and hygienic habits must be enforced. The same holds good of those undoubted cases of auto-intoxic conditions where long neglect of the state of the bowels has brought these on. Rational cleansing process of the tract primarily with all other extra homoeopathic aids may be necessary before the chosen similar remedy can effect a cure.

With us in California, a very prolific cause of pain of all kinds in certain patients is the north wind. This insidious, dry, irritating atmospheric factor is responsible for many a manifestation of "nerves" among our patients. I know no remedy that possesses much modifying influence over it, although, theoretically, aconite ought to be of benefit, and whatever good results I have seen from its use have been with the higher attenuations.

The successful treatment of pain unquestionably includes its reference to the pathological basis. The pathology and symptoms expressing this must form part, and a most valuable part, of the totality of symptoms that must guide us to our remedy. For instance, it is not immaterial, therapeutically, whether pain is caused by impoverishment of blood, or by encroachment of new growths, or by ulceration of tissues giving rise to exposure of nerve fibres, or to malaria or syphilis or some other toxic influence. In order to prescribe successfully for pain, the homoeopathic physician must bear in mind that pain is but one symptom whose peculiarity he must study;