DR. ALEX. HRDLICKA has returned from Boston, where he read some interesting papers before the American Association for Advancement of Science.

THE FACULTY of the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College will organize this month a medical society, to be called the Academy of Physicians and Surgeons.

DR. H. F. BIGGAR has summarized the after-treatment of laparotomies in a little pamphlet called "Suggestions for My Nurses in the Post-Operative Care of a Laparotomy."

THE SOUTHERN HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY will meet in Birmingham, Ala., November 8, 9 and 10, 1898. The interest evinced in its meeting is a marked sign of returning interest in the South.

THE Germantown Homœopathic Medical Society held its regular monthly meeting at "The Manheim Clubhouse," August 15. A number of new members were elected, and an extremely interesting meeting held.

THE BUFFALO HOSPITAL is filled to overflowing with soldiers sick with typhoid contracted in Cuba and in the camps in this country. The type of fever is unusual, as also are the complications which occur.

OBITUARY.-We regret to announce the death of Dr. E. A. Wareheim at Glen Rock, Pa. Dr. Wareheim was a graduate of the N. Y. Hom. Med. College and Hospital in 1868, and a zealous and successful practitioner.

MAJOR OSCAR LE SEURE, professor of surgery, University of Michigan Homoeopathic Department, has been appointed by President McKinley a brigade surgeon of volunteers, and has been on duty in Chattanooga. Homoeopathy in Michigan is at the front as usual.

THE GRADUATION EXERCISES of the Brooklyn Homœopathic Hospital and Training School for Nurses were held Thursday evening, September 29, 1898. Addresses by members of the institution, with the presentation of diplomas and badges, made up a most interesting evening.

PROF. C. B. KINYON has perfected a most excellent course in gynæcology and obstetrics at Ann Arbor. The important part being the great care given the graduating class in drilling them in the preparation for operation, care of instruments and patient, and very careful reports of preliminary examinations and after treatment.

EARLY ADVERTISING.-That the quack nostrum was early advertised is shown by the following, which appeared about the middle. of the seventeenth century. Whether these necklaces were made from the traveler's own joints, deponeth sayeth not: "The much

approved necklaces of Joynts of the great traveler J. C., which absolutely eases children in breeding teeth, by cutting them, and thereby preventing fevers, convulsions, &c., are sold by T. Burrell, at the Golden Ball under St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet street."

A SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT man from Santiago gives this pathology of the "black-vomit" of yellow fever: "After a few days, a patient with a bad case of yellow fever gets rotten inside. Then he begins to vomit up his insides. His heart and lungs rot away, and are vomited up, then his liver and intestines, everything he's got. That's what black vomit is. When a man gets that he's done for." So we should think!

THE ENTIRE MEDICAL STAFF of the First Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, is made up of Homoeopathic physicians, Major Wm. G. Willard, Captain Thomas E. Robert and Lieutenant C. B. Walls, all of whom are members of the faculty of the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College. The First Illinois was in the trenches at Siboney, and is one of the regiments that has suffered many of the hardships incident to the Cuban campaign.

A VOTE OF THANKS.-At a regular monthly meeting of the Homœopathic Medical Society of Germantown the following resolution was unanimously carried:

Resolved, That a vote of thanks be presented to Governor Vorhees of New Jersey for his action in appointing Dr. Adams, a Homœopathic physician of Hackensack, N. J., on the medical and surgical staff of the Second Regiment of New Jersey Militia, but who was previously refused recognition because he was a Homœopath.

THE COMMENCEMENT NUMBER of "The Michigan Alumnus" contains a well written article on the Homoeopathic College in Ann Arbor. It reviews somewhat briefly the history of the college from the first when it had but one lecturer and few students, to the present when, with five professors, numerous assistants and a large class of students, it is looked upon by the profession as one of its best schools. The entente cordiale between the Homoeopathic and the other departments of the University is gratifying, and we bespeak for the school, now that harmony is restored, a brilliant future.

HAHNEMANN'S TOMB.-At a regular monthly meeting of the Homœopathic Medical Society of Germantown the following resolution offered by Dr. J. W. Heysinger was adopted:

Resolved, That the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia, who have a title in and to the last resting place of the immortal Hahnemann, be requested to communicate with the proper authorities in France, with Dr. Süss Hahnemann, of London, the grandson, with the Committee on Hahnemann Monument at Washington, and learn if it will not be possible to have the remains of Hahnemann transported to America and placed beneath the National Hahnemann Monument, now being erected in the Capitol City of the United States.

NORTH AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF HOMEOPATHY.

Original Articles in Medicine.

DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN HOMOEOPATHICALLY

CONSIDERED.*

BY MARTIN Deschere, M.D.

New York.

Ta juncture when homoeopathic physicians advocate the

A empirical use vi antitoxin in the treatment of diphtheria

some even going so far as to consider it criminal to avoid its useit is about time for us to take a survey of the clinical success alleged for it from allopathic quarters, and see whether there are no dissenting voices there. Such a survey may prove very useful in determining the proper place for this new remedy in the homœopathic materia medica.

The chase after phantoms is unbecoming to the homœopathic physician, for the fashion of the "Old School" to introduce the new products of chemical and bacteriological laboratories, lauding their crown virtues, simply to cast them aside as soon as another meteor flashes across the scientific firmament, is in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of the homoeopathic school.

A remedy lauded by the daily press is a dangerous element; for the public enthusiasm thus created is sure to be followed by a decided reaction. So much is certain, that at the present day the evidence against the absolute usefulness of antitoxin is growing, and although its advocates claim that there is no more doubt about its established position in therapeutics, there are very reliable. and authoritative voices warning against its employment.

It is significant to observe that so strong an advocate as Dr. *Read before the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of New York at Syracuse, 1898.

Boetticher of Berlin, admits that just the busiest practitioners, and those sought after by the public in Germany, stand antagonistic to diphtheria serum. Hence, it is evident that many prominent physicians abroad are better satisfied with their success without antitoxin.

In the face of the reports of the American Pædiatric Society, which were published with a view of impressing favorably towards the new remedy, it is important to listen to the statement of men who stand at the head of large hospitals, and who are therefore in a position to judge of the point at issue.

Dr. Arthur Hennig of Koenigsberg, emphasizes the frequent presence of genuine, virulent diphtheria bacilli in the nose and mouth of perfectly healthy children and adults, also in convalescents for months after the cessation of the disease. Likewise in typical follicular angina, fibrinous rhinitis, aphthous pharyngitis, as well as in individuals with phlegmonous inflammation of the skin, who have never had diphtheria, nor have been in contact with diphtheritic patients. He comes to the conclusion that the diphtheria bacillus is not, under those circumstances, a specific cause of the disease, and therefore irrelevant for practical purposes. He therefore places the clinical diagnosis above the bacteriological. Consequently, a method of cure based solely upon the presence of the bacillus can never be considered specific.

For years Hennig used a uniform treatment, consisting of the persistent use of lime-water and cold external compresses. With this method he has treated 1927 cases of diphtheria during the term of eighteen years; comprising all degrees and shades of the malady, with only fifty-nine deaths, which equals a mortality of 3.06 per cent.-Therapeutische Wochenschrift, Nos. 17 and 18, 1896.

Prof. Monti, of Vienna, has treated 104 cases with serum in the hospital during 1895, with a mortality of 20 per cent. Still he insists that "the diphtheria antitoxin forms our best remedy against diphtheria."-Archiv. f. Kinderheilkunde, vol. xxi.

Prof. Schmiedeberg, of Strassburg, also an advocate of the serum, publishes his observations on the kidneys of diphtheritic children. Those treated with serum presented 20.9 per cent. of severe kidney affections, and 26.3 per cent. of slight albuminuria. Those treated without antitoxin presented 4.6 per cent. severe and 9.2 per cent. of slighter affections. According to this observer it is undeniable that "the influence of antitoxin is unfavorable to kidney affections."-Reported by Dr. E. Siegert, Virchow's Archiv., vol. 146, No. 2.

Dr. A. Posselt gives his observation in the General Hospital of Innsburck, Austria, thirty-two cases treated with serum of which nine died; twenty-six cases treated without serum, of which two died. Posselt's resumé of his observation contains the following: "Firstly, frequently the injections were made without success. Secondly, in three cases the serum could not prevent the ensuing. weakness of the heart. Thirdly, marked albuminuria could be observed in four cases following the injections. Fourthly, the post mortem examination of the fatal cases showed an extreme enteritis, as well as a swelling of the follicles and the mesenteric glands. -Wiener Med. Wochenschrift, Nos. 45 to 51, 1896.

Prof. Kassowitz, of the University of Vienna, shows, that Paltauf's deductions, according to which the cases of death following diphtheria had markedly decreased since the introduction of antitoxin, were incorrect; because they were based upon a wrong statistical method. The authentic tables for Triest given by Paltauf, actually show the direct opposite, that is an increase of the diphtheria mortality since the introduction of antitoxin. This mortality amounted for Trieste, during the year 1888, to 98 cases; in 1889, to 93 cases; in 1890, to 118 cases; in 1891, to 182 cases; in 1892, to 182 cases; in 1893, to 222 cases; in 1894, to 349 cases; in 1895, to 271 cases. These proportions are especially interesting, because in that city injections of antitoxin were made in all diphtheria cases, without exception. Notwithstanding this, not only is the absolute mortality higher than in former years. but this city shows the largest diphtheria mortality of all the large cities of Europe, amounting to 16.9 deaths to every 10,000 inhabitants, while Berlin shows 5.3, Leipsic 4.5, Munich 5, Vienna 4.4, Budapest 4.2, Paris 1.7. London 5.6.

Kassowitz remarks that it is true that in some of these cities the mortality decreased since the introduction of serum, as for instance, in Paris, Budapest, Berlin and Vienna. In other cities the mortality hardly changed, as in Leipsic, Milan and London, and in others it certainly increased since the introduction of the serum, besides Trieste, also in Moscow and St. Petersburg. "With these facts confronting us the decrease of mortality in a number of cities. has lost all power of proof in favor of antitoxin." "As little as you could deduce that the increase of mortality is due to the introduction of the serum treatment, just as little have you a right to attribute the decrease of mortality to the same cause, especially, if we consider the colossal fluctuations which diphtheria mortality has shown at all times."-Wiener klin. Wochenschrift, No. 17, 1896.