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are the conditions and ideas that prevail among our old school brethren, who even at this age of the world are willing to cry down a law, a principle which is as true as the law of gravity-Similia Similibus. Curentur. You may ask, how do you know it is true? Because it has been demonstrated and proven, not in one, but thousands, yea millions, of cases and is constantly being proven beyond all possibility of doubt.

When we are permitted to launch our little barque and set out to practice our chosen profession, it is with the assurance that we have with us something that will not only palliate a disease but will cure it when the correct similimum is selected. With what is my old school brother equipped when he also is permitted to enter practice? I can best express it in the words of one of my Allopathic friends, who said, "Ninety per cent. of cases will get well any way, medicine or no medicine. All there is to do is to make a correct diagnosis and even if the patient does die, no one can blame you, because your diagnosis was correct. Medicine is of little use and often does more harm than good, except as a hypnotic and a stimulant.'

My friend, being a senior in a college of high requirements, surely voiced the sentiment of his school. We do not wonder that they have no faith in their drugs or methods of prescribing, because their books on practice are very uncertain in their statements, i. e., one old school author gives a very scholarly description, etiology, and diagnosis of a certain disease, but when it comes to treatment he names a dozen or more remedies which, he says, other men claimed had stood them well in hand, or that some noted M. D. had hinted would be useful in the disease, but for himself he had an entirely different remedy, which experience had taught him to cling to, but was not satisfied with any treatment, so far, and was looking for a specific. This is cited from. one of their latest works on practice, and this uncertainty is not confined to one disease or to one book, but wherever therapeutics is expressed.

It was my good fortune to be in the company of an old physician not long since, a graduate of Western Reserve during its early existence. In discussing the principles of Homeopathy he pointed to the cemetery in the distance, and said: "Young man, you are not so far wrong. If the dead in yonder graveyard from strong drugs alone. could rise out of their graves, this town would go wild." He, having practiced these forty-five years, evidently knew the foundation for his statement.

We do not accuse our Allopathic brothers of not being conscientious and true to what they believe, but we do accuse them after being

in practice for a score or more years, of not coming out and admitting their blindness, as the good Justice Sewall did in Boston, after twenty innocent persons had been put to death because of witchcraft, superstition and ignorance.

This experimenting process upon humanity dates back quite a number of years, and if we mistake not it is being practiced to a greater or less degree at the present time, but we are glad to note that one factor is leading the majority of these experimenters to use small doses, even if it be of the crude drug; that factor is the manufacturing chemist, from whom all sorts of preparations and mixtures. are sent out daily to their agents-the physicians. Many of these mixtures are simply numbered, others go by the name of the particular disease in which they are to be used, and in a large number no formula is given.

It seems very odd that colleges of high requirements, a three-year college course for entrance, and a four-year course in scientific medicine, in costly buildings and perfectly equipped laboratories, are turning out men annually to act as agents, as it were, for some corporation which is becoming rich and powerful because of the skill of their agents, the physicians, who handle their goods. These very agents now claim that Homeopathy has thrived because of opposition and oppression, meaning that it long since would have gone down to defeat but for the public which loves fair play, and that Homeopathy has no inherent vitality.

I shall undertake no defense of Homeopathy, past or present. As to her past, she needs none; she has justified herself in history, we believe, squarely on her merits, not because of, but in spite of, opposition. My desire is to call attention to the new aspect of the historical struggle between the old and the new school. This is an age of big things, and the big things swallow up the smaller ones. Pressed by the rising tide of medical legislation on one side and hemmed in by the rocky bluffs of inadequate resource on the other, the small college must go to the wall unless heavy endowment or affiliation with a strong university comes to the rescue.

Our opponents say we are weak, and unable to cope with so formidable an adversary as endowment and high requirements; in the survival of the fittest it will not be a question of principles and theories so much as of the adequacy of facilities for a modern medical training. We are not weak, neither do we lack the material with which to equip our colleges with men of national reputation, if need be. What we do need, is to stop all factional fighting and quarreling and all pull together for the good of the common cause. By such

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action each individual would be helped and the cause strengthened a hundredfold.

THE MEDICO-DENTAL STANDARD.

By Robert B. Chamberlin, D. D. S.

Mankind should, and I think does, appreciate, as never before, the worth and possibilities of dentistry, and particularly is this true of the United States, which, were it not for the skill, ingenuity and achievements of the American dentist, would be inhabited by an almost toothless race.

The dentist should be recognized as standing side by side with the gynecologist, rhinologist and ophthalmologist, and I believe he should have the same medical education, for there is no doubt but that the dental practitioner, who has a sound medical education, is infinitely better equipped than the young D. D. S. who knows just enough about medical treatment to be dangerous. He can be likened unto an old school graduate who upon hearing of some of the many successes of the Homeopathic school man tells his patient that he does not confine his treatment to the teachings of the old school, but if they prefer he will treat them Homeopathically, then he proceeds to administer them drop doses of a few drugs of which perhaps he has read as being Homeopathic to the disease in question, expecting to have the same success as the physician who has made a thorough study of the preparation and administration of Homeopathic remedies; this, as we all know, may be the most dangerous treatment he can give to his clientage. For no man should be allowed to practice Homeopathy unless he has a thorough knowledge of potentization, which is no doubt the secret of the best Homeopathic physician's success.

There is but little in the dominant school's practice of medicine which can be used with any degree of success in the art and science of dentistry. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that a dentist, educated to the principles and practice of Homeopathy, could increase his capabilities two fold or more in the treatment of diseases pertaining to the mouth and teeth.

The dental profession, I believe, is making a great mistake in their present efforts to turn out better prepared men from their Dental Colleges. They have recently raised the standard from a three to a four years' course of study in a recognized and reputable Dental College. On looking over their curriculum I find no practical changes as regards the course of study although the increase of clinical practice is an improvement. This change is not necessarily going

to make better prepared men for the dental profession, but is going to shut out many men who may be mechanical artists, but having no wealthy parents, will be unable to meet the additional expense of another college year.

The way to increase the dental, as well as the medical standard, is to raise the entrance and graduation requirements, and having raised these, refuse to admit or graduate men who are unqualified. All professional schools should, within a reasonable time after a student enters school, advise those whom they deem incapable of being successful professional men, to turn to other vocations. This, I admit, would hardly be possible under the conditions under which many schools are conducted at present.

The proper way to increase the ability of the dental profession, after observing and fulfilling the preceding regulations in reference to entrance and final examinations, is to increase the dentist's knowledge of medicine and enable him to administer intelligently the remedies necessary to remove the cause of many of the diseases of the mouth and teeth. Every intelligent person will admit that it is a waste of time and money to remedy the damage that has been done while the cause still remains, as, for example, the filling of cavities on labial or buccal surfaces of teeth when such cavities are caused by an erosion due to acidity of the saliva which is normally neutral or alkaline, but owing to some morbid constitutional condition has become acid in reaction; and the filling of children's teeth in which the predisposing cause of the existing cavities is the lack of tissue salts necessary to proper enamel development, salts which can be so readily supplied by the proper Homeopathic remedies. These are only two of the many instances in which a knowledge of medicine would raise the standard of dentistry. There are many and even more striking examples of the value of medicine in the practice of dentistry, but time and space forbid my giving more, and besides, I wish to look at this subject from the standpoint of the dentist.

Many times one of the most detrimental factors in a child's or even an adult's life, is the meddlesome M. D., who, thinking he is all-wise, proceeds to practice dentistry on his poor, unsuspecting victim. This you may say is a rare occurrence, but it is not; hardly a day passes in which the average dentist does not see some bad results of a doctor's ignorance of dentistry. Especially is this true of his treatment of children's teeth, which should have most skillful care during the process of dentition. Nearly all of the irregularities of the teeth, and even facial deformities, are the result of lack of proper attention to the teeth during this period of a child's life. Nothing

could be more convincing of the truth of this statement than a visit to the laboratory of Dr. Barnes, of this city, who is a specialist of Orthodontia. In a large per cent. of his cases the cause of the irregularity and deformities is due to the premature or delayed extraction of the temporary or milk teeth, which are, in the majority of cases, removed by the family physician.

To remedy this great evil and incidentally raise the MedicoDental standard, it will be necessary to have a good course of dental surgery taught in every medical college. And in order to insure this the State Medical Board should examine in this study. The medical practitioner would then not only be better prepared to care for his patients' teeth but would be in a position to instruct the parents to care for the children's teeth.

The present relation of dentistry to medicine is not what it should be. In the present state of affairs the dentist should not be given the title of Doctor; this is, according to my idea, belittling to some extent the noble profession of medicine, but if the dental profession would come up to the standard of a medical specialist then should they receive this title as well as the specialist. It would be better for all concerned, then the dentist would not be clamoring for recognition by the medical profession, for they would be a part of it, and as a specialist they would practice dentistry.

Let us hope that in the course of only a few years the MedicoDental standard will be raised to where it should be.

A FEW POINTS IN THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
OF THE EXANTHEMATA.

By C. N. Welles.

I apprehend that in the experience of the average general practitioner no task offers more perplexities than the diagnosis of some of the exanthemata. The difficulty in differentiating these perplexing diseases does not, however, entirely remove the chagrin which follows a mistaken diagnosis nor, at times, prevent the censure of the public who scarcely appreciate the remarkable similarities which sometimes present, especially, in atypical forms of these various diseases. It should, nevertheless, serve as a warning against a too hasty conclusion in cases in which immediate diagnosis is not demanded.

For the sake of brevity I have omitted the discussion of diphtheria, erysipelas, and vaccinia, sometimes considered among the exanthemata, and will confine myself to the five remaining diseases of this class, viz.: smallpox, varicella, scarlet fever, measles, and

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