gested, we believe, that the cheapest way to meet the difficulty is to place at the disposal of the City Relief Officer a fund, upon which he can draw for sums sufficient to pay the passage back home again of all undesirable immigrants.

Surely this immigration question is one that the lay, as well as the medical, press of the Mother Land ought to take up and discuss fearlessly for the enlightenment of the general public. It is a shame to make the colony, from whom England expects so much, merely a dumping ground for the human mistakes with which her overcrowded cities are teeming, creatures neither good for king nor country. Canada may need immigrants, but let them at least be clean and free from disease, strong in wind and limb, "hewers of wood and drawers of water." The land is worthy of the best, not Utopia, perhaps, but it has milk and honey in it in plenty; but if the immigrant wants the fatness of the valleys, let him understand, ere he leaves his native shores, that he must raise the cows first ere he regales himself on a milkshake, and let the honey bee sting him often, for that's the cure Canada offers for his rheumatism.

W. A. Y.

THE MEDICAL PRESS NOT LACKADAISICAL.

THIS is an independent journal. We proved it by publishing an article by one John Hunter, M.B., the only one, patent rights applied for, for use of M.P.P. after name-patent refused— entitled "Medical Men and the New Provinces," appearing on pages 150-1-2 of our March issue. The first part of the article is well written and properly devoted to the subject, but the latter part we deem an impertinence, in its reference to the Medical Council and its attack upon the medical press. Our Medical Council has the quietness of strength and the conservatism of good judgment. Almost unanimously physicians are in favor of Dr. Roddick's bill. John Hunter frets and fumes at the lackadaisical attitude of the Medical Council and press on inter-provincial legislation in the new provinces, whereas, in the same. journal in which is printed Dr. Hunter's scolding, an editorial appears, strongly setting forth our views on the subject of Dr. Roddick's bill, which will include in its comprehensiveness, of

course, the new provinces. Rome was not built in a day, and all the fuss that one man can kick up on a subject cannot make it law. The medical journals do their share, we think, in setting forth sanely and strongly from time to time the claims the various questions at issue have upon the support of the profession throughout Canada. Perhaps the great West calls Dr. Hunter; it may need him; perhaps he needs the space, the elbow room, in which to air his views and edit a paper of his own. If so, why does he tarry? It might be that the parting with him, to the Medical Council, medical journalists, and at least some members of the profession in Toronto, would indeed be "such sweet sorrow."

W. A. Y.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

The Antidotal Effect of Alcohol in Carbolic Acid Poisoning. -The employment of 95 per cent. alcohol to surfaces with which strong solutions of carbolic acid have come in contact, in order to overcome the caustic influence of the acid, has of late received much attention. A good many reports have appeared on this subject in the medical journals, but the explanation of the antidotal influence of alcohol to carbolic acid is not easy. Reports have also been made of cases in which, after poisonous doses of carbolic acid had been swallowed, the internal administration of alcohol mitigated the noxious effects of the carbolic acid. The combination, or mixture, of alcohol with carbolic acid also negatives the effects of the poison. Thus at London, Ontario, a woman who wished to end her life, swallowed a quantity of carbolic acid mixed with gin; but the gin so lessened the effects of the carbolic acid that a fatal result did not ensue. Poisonous doses of carbolic acid powerfully depress the heart, stopping it in diastole. The arterial tension is lowered by lethal doses, from paralysis of the vaso-motor centre in the medulla (see Butler's "Text-Book of Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacology"). Now, the action of alcohol in causing the heart to beat strongly and rapidly, at the same time dilating the blood vessels of the peripheries, renders alcohol one of the most valuable of diffusible stimulants, and this property of alcohol may serve to explain, in part, at least, its antidotal effect in cases in which a poisonous amount of carbolic acid has been swallowed.

But the purely local action of alcohol in the presence of carbolic acid also deserves consideration. 66 Alcohol, locally applied, prevents the caustic action of even pure phenol" (Butler). At 60 deg. F., 100 parts of carbolic acid should be liquefied by the addition of 10 parts of water, and should form a clear liquid with 30 or 40 of water; but, being insoluble in water, carbolic acid exists in these solutions in such a concentrated form as to be injurious to living tissues. On the other hand, carbolic acid is very soluble in alcohol, and the introduction of alcohol into the stomach of an individual who has just swallowed a strong carbolic acid solution may cause the poison to be partially dissolved out of the tissues of the stomach, and subsequently held in a more dilute and less irritating form, until it is vomited.

Beer-Yeast in the Treatment of Phlyctenular Ophthalmia.Starting from the idea that beer-yeast exercises an efficacious therapeutic effect in staphylococcic affections, Dr. Genestous, of Bordeaux, tried it in phlyctenular ophthalmia, which is also produced by staphylococci. Dry beer-beast, in doses of sixty grains a day for an adult and thirty grains for a child (given in two cachets, one at the beginning of each principal meal), was tried in twenty-five cases of phlyctenular ophthalmia. The ordinary local treatment, viz., atropine solution, ung. hydrarg. oxid. flav., etc., was continued. However, on each occasion when the internal use of beer-yeast was essayed, a notable improvement was immediately observed in the patient. In some cases the ocular affection, which had proved rebellious to local treatment alone, only yielded after beer-yeast had been administered internally.

Hydrotherapy in the Treatment of Tetanus.-Dr. Sadger (Zentralb. für d. Gesam. Therapie, November, 1904, p. 563) describes some extraordinary results which he obtained in a case of tetanus from the use of hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy is an old remedy in such cases: Ambrose Pare cured soldiers of tetanus. by causing them to be covered with hot manure, thereby producing excessive perspiration. Dr. Sadger placed his tetanic patient for three hours in a hot bath, until abundant perspiration had resulted; afterwards in a luke-warm bath, cold water being syringed over the nape of the patient's neck. Afterwards the patient was wrapped in a wet sheet. The hot bath was then resumed, and

the remaining treatment, in the order mentioned, was kept going incessantly for ninety-six hours. In twenty-four hours lock-jaw had disappeared; in forty hours the tetanic cramps had gone. As a matter of precaution this treatment was continued, and the patient was completely cured in ninety-six hours. There was no relapse.

Myositis Caused by Gonococci. In the Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 1904, n. 165, p. 165, a very interesting report is given of the strange outcome in the case of a woman, thirty-two years of age, who for many years had been a sufferer from leucorrhea. About two weeks before entering the hospital she noticed a swelling in the calf of the right leg, and also a second one in the sacro-lumbar region. Each of these swellings was as large as a hen's egg. On incision each swelling proved to be an intramuscular abscess. A bacteriological examination of the pus taken from these abscesses was made by Dr. L. Haskell, and revealed the presence of the gonococcus.

Thermogenesis in Man after Baths and Douches at Different Temperatures.-Experiments made by Ignatowski (Arch. f· Hygiene, t. li., p. 1., 1904) to show the influence of cold baths or douches, confirm the experiments of Lefevre. Thus an individual who, before entering the bath, showed, by the anemocalorimeter, less than two calories a minute, showed twenty-eight a minute after he had been immersed in a bath at 62 deg. F. for two and one-half minutes, and his rectal temperature rose 7-10 deg. F. But this enormous elevation lasted but a short time, and during the ensuing minutes, when the bath was endurable at 77 deg. F., thermogenesis was less excessive. After the cold bath there are two periods observable in the bather, a primary period, which varies according to the lowering of the temperature of the water in the bath and the reactive power of the bather, and which may last over two hours. During this period the losses indicated by the calorimeter indicate a diminution of radiation, and as the central temperature of the body is also lowered, there is a diminished production of heat, this diminution arising from the action of the temperature of the bath or douche. During the second period, which may be very long in duration, and the limits of which are not precisely marked, an increase of heat production is noted. After hot baths, on the contrary Ignatowski observed

an increase in the emission of caloric, represented principally by evaporation, which may be tripled in amount. Febrile persons treated with baths and douches behave generally like persons in health, the modifications being, however, more strongly marked in them than in healthy persons.

The Japanese Art of Ju-Jitsu.- So little is known in a practical way of the art of Ju-Jitsu (pronounced Jew-Jitss), that an exhibition of it in some of the cities of Canada would not fail to be of great interest. In an editorial in the British Medical Journal, February 4th, 1905, a description is given of an exhibition of Ju-Jitsu, given at Chelsea Barracks, London, or. January 27th. The programme included demonstrations in the art of falling, of how to upset an opponent by disturbing his balance, of how to throw an opponent, and concluded by bouts between the Japanese teachers and some young soldiers trained in wrestling. It appears that the light-weight men trained in Ju-Jitsu got the better of men thrice their strength and weight, young English, Irish and Scotch soldiers of fine physique and plenty of pluck being disposed of one after the other by the Japanese featherweights. We also gather from the above-mentioned article that Ju-Jitsu is not wrestling pure and simple, though the literal meaning of the words is "muscle-breaking." It is rather the art of defeating brute strength by stratagem, arte non vi,” an art which enables light-weight men or women to protect themselves against a powerful antagonist, provided he does not know this form of the science of self-defence. T save one's strength, to defend one's self by sleight of body, while drawing from an opponent all his strength-this is the art of Ju-Jitsu. The main object of a student of Ju-Jitsu is by stratagem to render an antagonist helpless without using up his own strength. An effort is made to get an opponent into some position in which advantage can be taken of some simple fact in anatomy to paralyse resistance. The school-boy trick of suddenly twisting another boy's arm behind his back and thus disabling him may be compared to some of their sleights-of-hand. But they have elaborated a complete system, and work not only with their hands, but with their arms, their feet and their legs. They have also made a study of the balance of the body, and can take advantage of the momentary failure of poise in an