Vol. 10

No. 2

THE QUEEN LUISE FETE. It was not at all surprising that the Opera House should be crowded with the best people of the city when the ladies of the Huron Street Hospital presented their beautifully arranged fete. The hospital is no less in the hearts of Cleveland people than it was when some thirty years ago, the buildings were opened to take care of the sick.

Of course the fete was a great social, artistic and financial success. Mrs. Wm. Edwards, who was in executive charge, allowed nothing to stand in her way and reinforced as were her efforts by those of other ladies of the Board, success was an inevitable result.

The Queen was ideal. Queenly beauty, queenly actions, queenly stature, queenly costumes, queenly surroundings

all combined to make her a picture which

Our

once seen will not be forgotten. city may well be proud that among her beautiful women is one who can so completely realize Richter's masterpiece. And the court with which she was surrounded was ideal. We wish we might have space to go into details concerning the beauty of the women of the court, the stateliness of the men, the gracefulness of the dancers, the sweetness of the dear little ladies who seemed so tiny in the midst of the immense auditorium, the antics of the "bunnies"-all these appeal to our pen-we would time and Inspace permitted its unlimited use. terested as we are in the hospital and its success as a charity, we express our personal gratitude to those who sacrificed time, money, comfort in their anxious zeal.

And that calls to mind our pleasure

when we found our own opinions concerning the elements which contribute to the success of a hospital so fully and emphatically endorsed by Dean Wm. Tod Helmuth of the New York Homeopathic Medical College.

We have always thought that the financial privileges of a hospital are very generous, and should be utilized to the last degree.

In concluding his lecture, the subject of "The Finance of Hospitals" was handled in a rather new and remarkable manner. He said: "I am informed that this, the Hampden Homœopathic Hospital (which, in my opinion, should be rebaptized as the 'Wesson Hospital of Springfield'), has been in operation over a year, and at present is a few hundred dollars in debt and that this indebtedness has been incurred for repairs on the institution, and had it not been for these repairs the debit and credit sides of the hospital books would have balanced. I speak from experience when I say that this is an extraordinary and most satisfactory showing. The day before yesterday I received a copy of the 43d annual report of St. Luke's Hospital, New York, in which the following sentence appears: 'The current expenses have been $50,629.51 in excess of the current income.' According to the last report of the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, the deficit last year was $77,364.32, and the report of the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled shows its deficit for the year $36,924.74. St. Bartholomew's and Guy's in London are centuries old, but there are standing advertisements in the Times begging for voluntary contributions for the support of these ancient charities. As a rule, hospitals are never out of debt, because of the ever-increasing numbers of God's poor, the devil's poor, and the poor devils that are always crowding about its doors, each year bringing more unfortunates to claim shelter and suc

cor and mercy, and because of the very humanity which founded the hospital opens its doors for all of them, the worthy and the unworthy, the good and the bad, the true and the false, the buncoman and the honest countryman he has swindled. It is human suffering appealing to benevolent humanity and to human skill, and it never appeals in vain. There is almost always a deficit even in the most richly endowed institutions; when a hospital begins to get out of debt, its appeals to a humane public grow less frequent; the interest in its maintenance begins to flag; the widely-spread knowledge of its usefulness concentrates itself within the circle of the interested few, no appeals can be made to the public; no demands can be made upon the city fathers; no entertainments (not even poor lectures) can be arranged for its support; no afternoon teas can be organized for discussions and dissensions; no quarrels can be made with the treasurer; no fault can be found with the superintendent for his outlays, upon all of which conditions the hospital lives and grows. What a Lospital requires is a house free of taxes and an endowment to keep it alive as it grows, as its requirements increase, as evolution demands new methods and new instruments; then appeals should be made to a generous public, which never fails to respond to the cry of a sufferer in distress.

And Lakeside Hospital in our OWII city emphasizes the deficit idea by coming out at the end of the year thousands upon thousands of dollars behind. The Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, with an endowment fund of one million and a half of dollars reports this year a deficit of more than twelve thousand dollars.

appeal to those whose lives are thus built and whose charities are thus dispensed.

The main point is that those in authority in a hospital should not be afraid of debt. The good which a hospital accomplishes may be measured directly by its ability to dispense money-and it is a mistaken policy to endeavor to keep the expenditures within the receipts. Men (and women, too) who have money at their disposal for charitable purposes usually want to know just the use to which their money is to be put, and are much more likely to give it for a specific purpose (as for example, the reduction of a debt) than simply to send it in to be used as devised by the managers.

There is a very important item which should be taken into consideration. The atmosphere of a hospital where rigid economy must be practiced is cold and cheerless, uninviting and uncomfortable. All concerned in its active management are working under an oppression. In direct consequence there is a lack of that enthusiasm, without which the institution will sink into a deadly lethargy.

Supplies in a hospital should be bought and dispensed as freely as are warranted. Physician and surgeon should be made to feel that he is welcome to all that he can use. Patients should be used generously with regard to "Extras." Nurses should have social enjoyment furnished them directly by the hospital management. The resident staff should have more than simply hospital ccmforts-they should have "all

the comforts of home." They have so little to encourage them in the rigorous requirements of their daily life. The whole atmosphere would be saturated with good will, and enthusiasm, and peace and plenty. Cost money? Of course it would cost money-and lots of it--but there are thousands and thousands of dollars always waiting for an opportunity to do good, only they don't want to be squeezed so hard that life is crushed out of them— they like to slip through the fingers. easily then they get a chance to expand, they imbibe magnetism which draws to them other dollars and these necessarily are similarly infected and so they go on and on-and the poor would rise up and call them blessed.

Expansion is the order of the day. Let it apply to our charities.

ATTENTION !!

"To confer upon them (osteopaths) the privileges which they are eager to obtain by a short and easy process would be grossly inconsistent with the policy by which this State seeks to protect human welfare. It would be demoralizing, dangerous and intolerable." This is the closing paragraph of an editorial in a late number of the New York Tribune dealing with Osteopathy and the efforts of its adherents to have a board of examination established exclusively for them.

A bill granting similar privileges is now before the Ohio State Legislature and the situation calls for prompt and decisive action on the part of all who

would prevent its becoming a law. That it should not become a law should be the wish of every right-minded person in this commonwealth. It would establish an extremely bad precedent which might be taken advantage of by almost any one. It is illogical to enact a law which compels a man or a set of men to confine themselves to one particular line of treatment and still give them the privilege of treating all manner of diseases. It is also a bad precedent to grant license to practice medicine to those who confess that they do not know anything about the action of drugs. A knowledge of physiological drug action should be required. If a man has this knowledge State Boards will have nothing to say as to whether or not he shall use it in his practice. He may have the additional knowledge, as has the homeopath, and prescribe under the law of dynamic drug action, or he may treat his patients in any one of a number of different ways.

Furthermore-all should be required. to follow out the same course of study. The Osteopathic school should be under the same controlling rule as are all medical colleges. These are compelled to have in their curriculum provision for a certain number of hours each term in Anatomy, Physiology, etc., etc., including a definite course in laboratory work with clinical instruction coming on in the last year. Their students must attend four courses of lectures, each of six months' duration and each in a separate calendar year. Moreover, they must attend at least 80 per cent of the lectures. Does the School of Osteopathy require

this? If not, it is an additional reason why that school should not be placed on a level with schools already complying with the laws.

When they do comply with the existing regulations concerning the practice. of medicine, then it will be time enough to consider in what way they shall be represented, and we are sure that the Medical Board of the State of Ohio. will be the first to recognize them and will be ready with a proposition which they cannot help but accept as fair and equitable.

It is unfortunate that politics is playing such a prominent part in the agitation Osteopaths are making for recognition. This method is sure to bring reproach upon them sooner or later, and the gain which they seem to be making at the present time is only transitory. When a body of men is compelled to gather to their aid the forces which are dominated by leaders in politics it is prima facie evidence that their cause is not one which will stand entirely on its own merits. In two states the heads of the controlling political parties quoted as being determined that the bills shall pass, and possibly they may, but it will be a question of only a short time until the worst results in many forms fellow.

are

It is eminently proper that an appeal should be made to every physician in the state that he write to his Senator and Representative protesting against this legislation as being inimical to the best interests of the state at large.

MORE ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS.

A most startling condition has been shown to exist through the investigations made by the bacteriologist, Dr. B. G. Hannum, at his laboratory in the Rose building, this city. Dr. Hannum has been making bacteriological investigation of sputum, specimens of which he procured in a novel and unusual way. With an assistant he visited hotel lobbies, the entrances to the different theatres and public buildings in general, and gathered from these places specimens of sputum which had been deposited upon the floor by unthinking and reckless. people. From the sidewalks and the floors of the street cars other specimens were gathered until in all he had more than one hundred in his laboratory. He began then a careful, painstaking, systematic examination of these specimens, with the result of finding that a very large percentage were more or less infected with tubercular bacilli, some of them being completely infested, others less so. In still others there were pneumococci and bacillus influenzae. He cites one instance which brings the situation home to our ladies. A man walking along expectorated upon the sidewalk, and immediately following him came a lady whose dress trailed through the deposit. Dr. Hannum gathered what was left of it, and upon examination found it reeking with tuberculous matter. The greater part of the quantity, however, was deposited upon this lady's skirt, was taken to her home by her, where it became dry, finally mingling with the dust in the atmosphere,

and possibly being inhaled by members. of her family to form a nidus for tuberculosis. And the doctor will wonder how under the sun tuberculosis could have developed in that family.

Dr. Hannum is preparing an article concerning his observations, which we hope to review in the next number of our journal.

AN INJUSTICE.

Representative Denman of Toledo has in course of preparation a measure which will prove of great interest to every college student in a state institution, preparing himself either for the practice of law or medicine. As the statutes are at present, students of this character are compelled, after taking a full course at the schools and receiving their diplomas, to pass a further examination before state boards. These boards are maintained by a fee assessed against the applicants taking the examinations. It is said that the questions propounded by them are often such as do not come in the course O study given at the universities, and sometimes are of a nature irrelevant to the practice of either law or medicine. The bill to be introduced by Mr. Denman will admit students, who hold diplomas from either of ne state universities, to practice without a further examination.

The above item was referred to the editorial department by one of its good friends. We think the proposition calls for a very close inspection. It would, to our minds, be manifestly unfair that a graduate of the state universities. should be privileged to practice medicine under circumstances other than those which apply to the licensing of graduates of other colleges. If the instruction in the state college warrants