"On the other hand, in preparing dry vaccine points, the virus is transferred immediately from the vaccinated surface of the heifer to the vaccine points, so that all the germs and inflammatory products which are necessarily present in and about the vaccinated area of the heifer are, from very necessity, transferred direct to the ivory point. Consequently, vaccine points can never be absolutely free from germs and dangerous foreign material. Furthermore, points cannot be tested for activity." MUSTN'T BE TOO FRANK.— "How much is my bill, doctor?" asked Mr. Throgson. "It will be only $100," replied the physician. "It was rather a serious case, and if your boy hadn't had good nursing I couldn't have pulled him through at all. In fact, it was really more in the nursing than the doctoring." "I'm glad to hear you say so, doctor," replied Mr. Throgson, making out a check for the amount. "I shall give my wife a sealskin sacque worth $200." (Note.-Accompanying this little story was a note from the author to the effect that he had tried it on several other editors, and all of them had rejected it on the ground that it needed. something done to it to give it an appearance of probability.)-Chicago Trib une. FRENCH SAVANTS REPORT ON CONSUMPTION. The Secretary of State has received from Mr. J. B. Scovent, the United States Consul at Lyons, France, a translation of the report of the commission, consisting of thirty-two members, appointed by the French Parliament to inquire into the subject of pulmonary tuberculosis, its ravages in France, the cause of its prevalence and the progress made toward its cure. The mortality from consumption in France is very heavy, 150,000 persons dying of the discase annually. According to the report the breath of the consumptive does not transmit the disease. The air which he expels does not contain the germs. The spittle, dried and pluverized, is generally the agent of contagion. It is contended that this clings to the walls, furniture and floor of the patient's room for months, and even years; on the other hand, sunlight in a few hours destroys the bacilli. Alcohol makes the best bed for tuberculosis. The departments of France which are the greatest centres for tuberculosis are almost always those in which there is greatest consumption of alcohol. Among the precautions urged is the prevention of the act of expectorating on the ground and profuse sprinkling before sweeping. The report declares that consumption is curable at all stages. A Dr. Darfberg is quoted as having said: "During the last ten years I have cured a number of consumptives, who have resumed their active occupations, have married, and now have healthy children. I can even say that I myself am the consumptive that I know the best whom I have cured. I am, therefore, able to affirm that consumption is curable." Pure air, such as is found on the seashore and on high mountains, is the best remedy for consumption. In order that this remedy should be effective it should. be continuous-the patient should not only keep his windows and doors open night and day, but should persevere in this air cure for a long time.-New York Med. Jour. BLUE OR GREEN URINE IS often due to the eating of candies that have been colored with methylene blue. In the absence of other explanation, inquiry may be advantageously directed. to this subject. MUNICIPAL SANITORIA FOR THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS. It is a humiliating fact that we have been very slow in recognizing the importance of public sanatoria for the treatment of tuberculosis. But few of the States have thus far established them, and there is as yet only a promise When addressing our advertisers mention the Reporter. "It is hard for a student of pulmonary consumption to sufficiently emphasize the immense importance of food as a cure or rather nutrition which depends upon food." Chas. Fox Gardiner, M. D., The Care of the Consumptive. The difficult problem of proper nutrition in Imperial Granum It contains the most nutrition with least tax on the digestive organs, is easily administered with any form of milk or with water alone, and is unsweetened, so that the patient does not tire of its continued use. Samples are FREE to physicians. John Carle & Sons, Dept. R, 153 Water St., New York of an awakening of the public conscience to the necessities of the situation in this and other large cities of the country. Europe is far in advance of us in this humanitarian field. Two years ago there were thirty-three public sanatoria for tuberculosis in Germany and sixteen. others under private direction. In 1900 eleven more, and in 1901 fourteen more were opened, and still thirteen others were projected. Thus it is estimated that in the very near future there will be ample accommodation in Germany for the care of 20,000 tuberculous patients. unable to contribute to their own sup port. The results of sanatorium treatment are well known to depend largely upon the stage of infection in which the patients are received. In order to obtain patients in early stages, i. e., curable patients, Polikliniks are being erected and equipped in all the larger cities of Germany, with small outlying so-called "observation stations. " In order that heads of families, fathers and mothers, may come early under treatment and be restored to lives of usefulness, an attempt is being made. to provide means for the maintenance of their families during their absence. Much is hoped, too, from the educational value of a residence in a well-managed sanatorium and from the ultimate wide diffusion of the knowledge which may thus be acquired. It is estimated by Pannwitz that about seventy-five per cent of those treated in sanatoria are again restored to usefulness as practically cured within three months. To us this statement has an extravagant sound. As to the expense of erecting and equipping sanatoria, much depends upon their size and character of equipment. In a large number of establishments it varies between $800 and $1,500 per bed. For such patients as cannot find admission to sanatoria the Berlin Red Cross has erected an establishment where patients may spend the day under medical care and instruction; and, with a general extension of knowledge of the means of preventing a spread of the infection, the general hospitals of Ger many are more and more opening their doors to these unfortunates and subjecting them to intelligent treatment. In France, too, well directed and humane efforts are being made. In Paris a special polyclinic for tuberculous children collects patients in suitable condition for treatment and sends them to a public sanatorium. Sooner or later those that are sufficiently improved are transferred to a convalescent home and make room for others to follow them. In this convalescent home they are put to work under intelligent supervision experimentally at open-air occupations, in gardens, fields, pastures, etc. Later, if they improve in this environment and with these occupations and acquire sufficient strength, they are once more transferred, this time to a sanitary farm colony. Here, under favorable conditions and with properly regulated out-of-door work, they grow up to be strong, healthy men. At the present time the benefits of this system are not extended to girls, although it is hoped to add to the endowment sufficiently soon to include both sexes in the beneficent sphere of its operation. Thus far, with boys, the best results have been obtained between their third and seventh years. Among them, under the humane and intelligent operation of this charity which is known as the Ocuvre d'Ormesson, fifty per cent of permanent cures are claimed. A very grave responsibility rests upon members of the medical profession to press upon those in charge of municipal affairs the urgent need of provision for the large army of unfortunates who are the victims of tuberculosis among us. Every hospital doctor, every dispensary doctor, sees many cases in his daily work, many incipient cases in which the disease is as yet local, in most of which he feels justified in believing that arrest of the process and its cure are only a question of proper food and environment. Sooner or later, when they are hopelessly ill and incapacitated, the municipality does supply them with a place to die in. Apart from all humanitarian considerations, which perhaps appeal more When addressing our advertisers mention the Reporter. Physiological (HENSEL) GIVES Blood to the Bloodless Sleep to the Sleepless Rest to the Weary Color to the Colorless Appetite to the Convalescent Vitality to the Weak Health to All It is "THE TONIC OF CIVILIZATION." It is not a disguised cocktail or drugged drink. It IS a true physiological tonic. BOERICKE & TAFEL, Homeopathic Pharmacists, Importers and Publishers. strongly to doctors than to boards of estimate and apportionment, solely upon business principles, would it not be more economical to care for these unfortunates at an early period of the disease when it is still incipient and curable, than to let them suffer for years and then die at the public expense with the result of perhaps infecting many others in the process. It should be remembered that the evil of tuberculosis is not confined, like so many others, to the individual it attacks. It threatens the environment of every victim and it is, therefore, more legitimately a subject for public concern than are most of the diseases which are cared for by the public purse.-Dr. G. L. Peabody, N. Y. Med. Jour. Abstract. OPPOSITE EFFECTS OF LARGE and Small Doses.-It appears to us that one of the problems to engage the attention of the twentieth century therapeutists and pharmacologists will be the action of drugs as influenced by the dosage. This part of pharmacology has been neglected too much. There are hundreds of drugs whose action not only varies under different dosage, but it is diametrically different. Ipecac in very small doses allays vomiting; in large doses it excites it. Cocaine in small doses excites the reflexes; in large doses it depresses them. In the case of a number of drugs it will therefore be insufficient in the future to attach a labeldepresso-motor, excito-motor, emetic, etc. The different action in different doses will have to be stated.-Merck's Archives, August, 1901, Editorial. company for $5,000 damages, the amount of an accident policy she held on the life of her late husband. He had been taken suddenly ill with what was supposed to be either typhoid fever or appendicitis, and lay at death's door for several days. Then his condition began to mend, and with the improvement came a strong desire for more substantial food, so he asked his wife to prepare some baked beans, of which he ate a great quantity. Soon afterward he was taken with severe pains and died. The post-mortem examination showed that the beans had perforated the man's intestines. The widow holds that the fatal result may properly be termed an accident. This is not a fable invented to illustrate a late eminent and lamentable case. We find it for a fact, related in the Medical Examiner. RECTAL FEEDING AFTER ABdominal Operations.-Much of the success of abdominal surgery at the present day is attributable to the great care bestowed in the preparation of the patient for operation and in the after-treatment. As in many instances the nutrition is more or less seriously impaired, the question of alimentation assumes great importance in the after-management of the case. After operations upon the stomach and intestinal tract it may be, and often is hazardous to feed the patient by mouth for some time, and rectal feeding becomes indispensable. In selecting foods for nutritive. enemas the point to be borne in mind is that the mucous membrane of the lower portion of the intestinal canal has but little digestive power, and hence the nourishment must be presented in such form that it can be easily absorbed. For this purpose there is no food which equals bovinine. It is a blood food and can be used alone or be added to any predigested combination. Another point is that the mucous membrane of the lower bowel soon becomes irritable nuless the nutritive material is perfectly bland, and also in such condensed state as to leave behind no residue to decompose and act as an irritant. The bowels When addressing our advertisers mention the Reporter. |