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public health. These are in the legitimate realm of modern medical research. The relation which the study of materia medica bears is one of a lessening degree of importance. The watch-word of the future must be "prevention."

Until the therapeutic nature and strength of medical materials can be ascertained and until it can be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, by what law or laws drugs act, how weakly foolish and intolerant to waste any portion of energy in controversy or intrigue over what name a school shall adopt! Any name is weak enough and Truth is great and infinite enough to engage the best efforts of each and all. Loops may be looped, but honors are even. Let united energies be directed on all methods and theories for ridding society of disease, and leave to peanut politics the policies of slander and intolerance too often followed in the past.

The uniform success of all schools of medicine, in treating chicken-pox and diseases of like severity, whether prescribing "blue mass" or "diluted rain water," should inspire us with respect for the safety of all

treatments, and the regularity with which the adherents of all schools continue to lose an occasional case of phthisis or pneumonia, should cause us to sympathize with the fallibility of all discovered curative systems or agents.

Studies on municipal and individual cleanliness and other economic and social conditions, together with customs and habits, which may be classed among causes for disease, make a fascinating and sufficient field of study for him who holds a high opinion of his profession.

The history of medicine makes also a valuable study, for the mistakes of the past are still our mistakes if they have taught us nothing. Medical men should not be the last to recognize the needed reforms which bear upon the health of mind and body, and some of the mistakes which have made the past fill our minds with shameful recollection, can be turned to good account in behalf of society, by and through the agency of your magazine and others of its class. Very sincerely yours,

G. D. Cameron, M. D.,
Chagrin Falls, O.

Societies

At the annual meeting of the Monroe County, (N. Y.) Homeopathic Medical Society, held January 21st, the attendance was larger than usual and there was decided interest and profit in the meeting. Besides the paper by Dr. J. M. Lee, which is noted in another column, there was a very interesting discussion of a paper read by Dr. W. F. Clapp, of Fairport, concerning sections 214-216 of the Organon. This was discussed very fully by Dr. P. W. Neefus. Dr. Marcena S. Ricker was the president of the meeting and delivered a very interesting address.

It was resolved by the society that each individual member and the secretary should write at once to the Monroe county legislators in the local assembly, asking them to oppose the bill vesting the power of appointing a superintendent for the state hospitals in the governor, and the bill to legalize the practice of osteopaths. A committee was also appointed for the purpose of conferring with the committees from the other

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Dr. Gatchell's address might be taken as a model, in that it was full or hope and inspiration to the medical man. Running through the whole address was a plea for optimism in life as opposed to narrowminded actions. In the course of the forty minutes which he consumed in his talk, he made an inspiring comparison of the past with the present, emphasizing the fact that everything tends to show that the world is not going backward and that its rate of progress is becoming greater every year. His closing paragraphs are well worth quoting verbatim.

"Oh, this beautiful world! How it cares for its favored children! Toss it a seed and it returns a hundred fold. While man sleeps, for his waking vision it prepares pictures of beauty and music for his ears. The green of the summer tree, the scarlet of autumn foliage, the silvery sheen of moonlight on rippling waters, are all to delight his eye.

"The sweet notes of the birds, soft sigh of the breeze, the deep diapason of the roaring sea, make music for his ear. The fragrance of the jasmine flower, the odor of the honeysuckle, the clover blossom and the newmown hay, the pungent incense of spruce and pine, fill the air with sweet perfume to charm his enamored senses.

"Man is born, he lives, he dies; but mankind endures through the ages, in the genesis of nature reproduced in the child-emblem of futurity, loved object round which all hearts gather. The greatest thing on earth, its innocent happiness; the sweetest music, its childish laughter. The purest picture, the face of a babe. The holiest emotion, a mother's love.

"As we have begun, so shall we continue. Man's gaze is ever forward! The dawn, and not the sunset light, greets his waking vision, and the pathway that we traverse leads to fields Elysian.

"But this beautiful world, that bears upon its fruitful breast the destiny of the human race, did not come by chance; it did not make itself. In words so plain the blind may read it tells the mighty story of a workmanship divine. It bids the skeptic

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abandon doubt, and to the pessimist it gives the lie!

"Man is ever watched by holy things, and nature never withdraws her blessings. Her flowers, her music, her joyousness and her sunshine abide forever. Summer remains summer, the lily remains the lily, the star remains the star, and over all reigns a power supreme."

The January meeting of the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical Society was held at Stranahan's Cafe, on the 31st, some fifty members being present. Dr. H. F. Biggar, during the course of an hour's talk, gave a multitue of good points concerning constipation. He was followed by Drs. Sanders, Cameron, E. O. Adams, Jewitt, and others, the whole giving a very instructive and interesting picture of that most intractable of common, ordinary complaints.

Following him Dr. A. B. Schneider addressed the Society on the subject of "Empyema," relating his experience with a number of cases. Following him Dr. B. F. Gamber gave the history of the illness of one of our good friends, Dr. G. D. Nicholas, '01, resident physician in the Huron Street Hospital, who has been ill for more than a month as a result of cutting himself during an operation, with subsequent blood poisoning. Dr. Gamber's paper was extremely in. teresting, showing the careful, systematic and scientific work he had done in his investigations of the blood in this condition. It was the most scholarly exposition of hematology we have listened to in a long time. Dr. W. T. Miller, president of the Society, who was the surgeon in charge, supplemented Dr. Gamber's paper with a history of the case viewed from a clinical standpoint. This also was extremely interesting and served to show how closely the two methods of diagnosis are related one to the other and how the blood examination will both point to the surgeon the diagnosis of the case and also later confirm him in his decision.

By a unanimous vote it was decided to continue the meetings with the social feature as a prominent part.

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so many years, but to the entire country. Our most sincere hope is that he may

recover.

Byron E. Miller, '83, Portland, Oregon, is secretary of the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners.

Lewis F. Sipher, 'or, has removed from Whitehouse, O., to 707 Dorr St., Toledo, O.

Frances McMillan, '94, has removed from Nashville, Tenn., to Mexico City. We feel like commiserating the Nashville people on their loss of so good a doctor, and at the same time congratulating our Mexican brethren because they have as an acquisition to their numbers one who is so full of ability, enterprise and energy. We hope Dr. McMillan may make a splendid success in her new location.

Dr. Henry Houghton, New York, who died in December, by his will directs that all his books and surgical instruments shall be given to the New York Ophthalmic Hospital.

The death of Dr. Seth Freeman, which occurred in this city February 1, was the closing incident of the life of one of the oldest practicing physicians in Ohio. Born in Painesville, October 1, 1830, the boyhood of Dr. Freeman was spent, with the exception of five terms in winter school, in learning and working at blacksmithing, and later the carriage ironing trade. In this latter trade he became one of the most expert of workmen, starting as a helper and working his way up to the position of master workman in the Lowman carriage works of Cleveland. It was while engaged at

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his trade in this shop that, through his friend, Jehu Brainard, professor of chemistry in the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College, he became interested in the study of medicine.

Taking up this new line of work, at first as an interesting study, he soon determined to follow it through and to enter the ranks of professional men. Working at his trade and supporting a family of three persons besides himself, he pursued the study of medicine for two years until he was able to enter the Homeopathic Hospital college and take the prescribed course of lectures. In 1857 he graduated as a Homeopathic physician and began the practice of medicine in Twinsburg, O.

Owing to prejudice against and distrust of the "new school," as the Homeopathic school of medicine was called, it was only after a long and bitter struggle that patients came. With them came

success.

During the period of the Civil war and for years afterwards the practice of Dr. Freeman was one of the largest in Ohio, his daily visits taking him into six of the adjoining towns. In 1892, to secure a practice the duties of which would be more adapted to his advancing years, Dr. Freeman opened an office in Cleveland. in the Kendall building. He remained. there for some years, when he removed to No. 262 Prospect street. Here he maintained an office until within a short time of his death.

Possessed of a retentive memory, a broad, keen and analytical mind, he probed to the bottom of all problems. with which he was confronted, and in this lay his thoroughness and consequent success. Pursuing his medical studies until the last, he still kept himself conversant with the problems of the day, and many of his friends will remem

ber with pleasure those times when he would lay aside his professional cares and enter with them into the discussion of various subjects. It was during such talks that he gave evidence of his rare conversational powers. Choice of words, exact in construction, logical and original in thought and of pleasing rendering of language, he inspired in all who knew him trust, confidence and respect.

Death overtook him in the midst of his duties while he was making a professional call at No. 282 Streator avenue, Cleveland. He left his home in Twinsburg Saturday morning apparently in perfect health, and was about to return in the afternoon, when he was taken with a fit of coughing, which brought on a hemorrhage of the lungs. His death occurred an hour later.

Dr. Freeman leaves a widow and four children, George P. Freeman, of Cleveland, Edson T. Freeman, of Pittsburg, Ray Freeman, of Twinsburg, and Mrs. Mary Alexander, of Cleveland.

At the time of his death Dr. Freeman was seventy-one years and four months of age. Monday the remains were taken to Twinsburg, where the funeral took place on Tuesday. The burial will take place in Twinsburg.

Dr. Paul F. Munde, widely known in this country and in Europe as a gynecologist, died February 7th, at his home. in New York city. He was a native of Saxony. He was brought to this country by his parents when a child. He graduated from the Harvard Medical school in 1866, served as a surgeon in the Bavarian army in the war of 1866 and distinguished himself in the FrancoPrussian war. He was the editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics from 1874 to 1892, one of the founders of the Ameriçan Gynaecological society, of which he

was president in 1898, and a member of the gynaecological organizations in England and Germany.

We are in receipt of an article by H. P. Hurley, '97, in which he gives a very interesting account of the treatment of a case of gun shot wound of the chest, the bullet entering the chest below the heart and being found in the deeper muscles of the back. We will take pleasute in publishing the paper in our next issue, as it is a very interesting one. We are glad to hear from Dr. Hurley and hope that his ways are cast in pleasant and profitable places.

We are in receipt of the Rochester Democrat-Chronicle, under date of January 23rd, in which is a very laudatory editorial concerning our good friend, Dr. J. M. Lee, of Rochester. The editorial was written because of a paper which the doctor had read before the Medical Society meeting the day before. The edi

tor says:

"We are led to special notice of this paper partly because its author briefly and, possibly, justly criticised the public press for its treatment of the course surgeons were pursuing in dealing with appendicitis, and partly on account of the great importance of the question in its bearings upon the health and lives of the people. I have no doubt,' says Dr. Lee, 'that the position that the press took upon this disease had much to do with retarding the spread of appropriate treatment. Indeed, a few years ago it looked upon the disease as a fad and heralded deaths after operations broadcast over the country, making it appear to the public that they occurred from the operations themselves instead of from the disease."

The editor takes a very reasonable view of the situation, calling attention to

the fact that the term "appendicitis" was an entirely new name and the operation began to be much more frequently done than formerly. He says also that the criticism and satire indulged in by the press might have had a good effect in restraining "reckless imitation by novices of the numerous successful performances of skilled and experienced surgeons."

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L. D. Eaton, '71, West Palm Beach, Fla., in remitting his payment for the Reporter says that he has been a subscriber to all of the journals which have appeared sporadically under the College auspices from 1871 up. He expresses the profound wish that the present journal may be permanent, because it takes him back to the time-thirty-one years ago when he graduated from the old halls. "Nearly every day I think over the good advice I received from the professors in the old College on the Heights."

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