was a euphemism often employed to obviate the necessity of plain speaking, or might be used erroneously to explain the symptoms in the early stages of an organic malady.

The self-deception on the part of the physician or his inaccuracy in diagnosis led to improper methods of management, and the prescription of travel often made for such patients was deplored, and incidentally hospital care for neurasthenic cases was advised.-C. B. Burr (Mississippi Valley Medical Association: Medical News, October 24, 1903).

DIGESTION.

There are many physicians that do not understand the meaning of the word in its entirety. They do not comprehend the physiological actions that take place when digestion is going on. This is evidenced by what they prescribe to correct some of the causes of indigestion. If the patient complains of pain in the stomach the first thing they think of is a dose of morphine-shooting at the pain-or a dose of calomel to arouse the secretions (?) or some other remedy that is equally as far from removing the cause. First seek the cause of the indigestion and then use good sense in trying to remove that cause. If bad teeth are causing the trouble have them repaired by a good dentist, so that the patient can chew his food thoroughly and masticate it properly. If the teeth are very much decayed it is sometimes the best to remove all of them and have artificial ones made to take their place. This enables the patient to grind and comminute the food so that the secretion of saliva can be thoroughly mixed with it, thus digesting some portions-starches turned into sugars-before it reaches the stomach.

This takes a great burden off of the last named viscus and enables it to carry on the process of digestion to a better advantage as the stomach is not constructed to grind the food. No wonder the American people are called a nation of dyspeptics. They never take time enough to masticate their food as it should be, but bolt it and thus throw all the burden of chewing, masticating and digesting the food upon the stomach. The stomach is too delicately organized to withstand such treatment very long. The result is irritation, ulceration and atony. The patient finds out, too late, that it would have been better to have taken a little more time in eating his meals. We also find thousands of patients who have indigestion from chewing and smoking "that filthy weed that from the devil doth proceed." They chew and spit, or smoke and spit, and use up the saliva that should necessarily be mixed with the food they eat to aid in its proper diges

tion. The consequence is that sooner or later the person that does these things must suffer for it in having dyspepsia.

It is absolutely necessary to keep the stomach temperature at, or near, 100° F., that digestion may be carried on properly.

The habit of drinking ice water, iced tea, or cold drinks of any kind while eating is a very quick way to reach the goal of dyspepsia. So, too, you may reach the same ends by taking too much fluid of any kind with your meals. The juices of the stomach that are expected to digest your food become too much diluted and cannot perform the work of digestion as it should be done. Drink just as little as possible while eating and then there will be a chance to use some of the secretions of the salivary glands by mixing it with the food you eat. The cold drinks lower the temperature of the stomach and digestion cannot go on to any degree until it rises again to, or near, 100 degrees. In order to nourish our bodies the food we eat must be of that quality that contains the proper nutriment and it must be carefully and properly prepared.

A person may be able to exist on badly cooked food and some digestive organs may be able to dispose of it three score years and ten, but a large majority fail.

We apply heat in cooking our food for the purpose of breaking up the cell forms, or to macerate, solve or render friable the connective tissue, so that it may be more readily broken up by digestion. It also makes our food more palatable. The juices-and real food-are set free and many changes made in fitting them for use in the body by using heat.

Our bodies need certain kinds of food to keep them nourished properly. And they need that kind that contains the materials to make good blood, good innervation and good secretions.

A physician is called upon many times to prescribe a certain regime of diet for his patients. In making his prescription he must be governed largely by the condition of his patient-and especially the condition of the patient's stomach to digest the food prescribed. He is to decide whether he needs tissue building food or food that will keep up the normal temperature of the body. He finds, often, that it is quite a problem to solve as he has so many things to contend with. He knows, however, that the digestive tract of his patient must be in condition to perform its normal functions or else he will have prescribed in vain. In the wasting diseases, the fever is burning up all the material that is put into the system via way of the digestive tract, and in consequence of the high temperature maintained, the weakened stomach cannot digest material fast enough to supply the demand for

fuel, let alone material for tissue building. The physician must in some way bring about an equalization by first quenching the fires that are burning up everything in the body. This he does by the proper use of his sedatives, baths and diaphoretics, which reduce the abnormal heat of the body, restore the secretions, and cause the digestive tract to perform its proper function once more.

Then by choosing the proper diet that the weakened digestive organs can readily and easily digest and assimulate the patient can be again restored to perfect health.-"M. Quad," in Medical Arena.

RADIUM IN MEDICINE.

The discovery of radium may make it necessary to change our theories of the old hypothesis about matter and the conservation of energy. It may possibly open up the way for a cheaper and more wholesome lighting of houses by phosphorescence. It is a practical agent to differentiate genuine gems from artificial. It is a useful agent to kill bacteria. It may be considered a valuable agent for the treatment of lupus, cancer, and tuberculosis; and a possible agent to improve the eyesight and overcome partial blindness. No doubt, later discoveries will show it to be of service in other diseased conditions.— S. G. Tracy (New York Medical Journal and Philadelphia Medical Journal, October 24, 1903).

THE LAY PRESS AND QUACKERY.

The average country editor is open to the seductive, beguiling glances of the quack doctor. The sheen of gold which glitters in his inside pocket, after the contract has been signed, is an anodyne to his conscience and allays his fears of having been an agent to create favorable consideration of irregular practitioners who wish to reach the ear of the public. The editor thus subsidized will print column after column of the vilest nonsense and justify his position by saying it is business. Oh, business! thy name is calumny, for what malicious accusations, what deeds of darkest hue, what acts so foul, what ruination so complete, hath been committed in thy name! And yet thou would have us respect thy sacred word, thy proud and glorious history! Is it possible that it is the chase after the filthy lucre which makes thee close thy eyes to the consequences of thy acts perpetrated under the name of business? Yes, alas! it is true. The editor of the lay press is not that honorable lover of the body politic that we supposed. No; he is an idolater, in love with the golden calf, and feeds his selfish lust for gold by stooping to humbug the people. But then the editor says, "If we must do dirty work you must pay cash," and

so long as a cash consideration is obtained the public will have Lydia Pinkham, Woodbury, Sweeney, Riggs and a few more familiar faces to smile upon them. The good citizens of Kirksville, Mo., will have the Graphic tell them what the modern Balsamo is doing to relieve hysterical females and disjointed individuals. The Loyal Workman of Ottumwa, Iowa, will try to tell how osteopathy was discovered in order to earn its "so much per column."

But why need we go on? The subsidized lay press is the handmaiden of the quack-they are lovers for mutual benefit. Neither of them know anything about medicine as a science, and neither of them can tell the truth, and as they seem specially fitted to mutually admire each other, and as no divorce is imminent, we will have to accuse both as belonging to the unfit, untrustworthy freebooters, to be named only to be condemned.-Frank Parsons Norbury, in American Medical Journalist.

GROWING TEETH.

According to a Russian report a Moscow dentist appears to have solved the problem of supplying the human mouth with false teeth which will grow into the gums as firmly as natural ones. Dr. Znameusky has performed several successful operations on dogs as well as on human beings. The teeth are made of gutta percha, porcelain, or metal, as the case may be. At the root of the false tooth holes are made. Holes are also made upward into the jaw. The tooth is then placed in the cavity. In a short time a soft, graduated growth finds its way from the patient's jaw into the holes in the tooth; this growth gradually hardens and holds the tooth in its position. It is stated that it does not matter whether the cavity in which the tooth is to be placed is one from which a natural tooth has been recently drawn.

Books of the Month

FOUR EPOCHS OF WOMAN'S LIFE. Second Edition, Revised and Greatly Enlarged. Maidenhood, Marriage, Maternity, Menopause. By Anna M. Galbraith, M. D., Author of "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women"; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc. With an Introductory Note by John H. Musser, M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. 12mo volume of 247 pages. Philadelphia, New York, London: W. B. Saunders & Company, 1903. Cloth, $1.50 net.

To every practitioner sooner or later comes a time when he is con

fronted with the problem of giving advice to the young girl, and in many instances it is an exceedingly difficult and delicate position to occupy. It is hard to know just how much to tell, just how little to tell, just what to emphasize and just what to advise. Books which treat of abnormal conditions of woman are legion, but books which treat properly of normal conditions of woman-of her development from childhood into girlhood; from girlhood into womanhood; from wifehood into motherhod are few and far between.

In the course of twenty years' practice the author has paid a special and studious attention to women. She is the author of a work on "Hygiene and Physical Culture for Women," and has been associated with hospitals and a medical college in a way that places her in a pretty good position for writing just such a work as this. The cordial reception which was given the first edition of the book shows that those who appreciate the need of their women clients appreciate also the fact that they can give a great help in giving them advice by suggesting the reading of Dr. Galbraith's book.

This second edition is enriched by the addition of three sections one on the Hygiene of Puberty, one on Hemorrhage at the Menopause, a Significant Symptom of Cancer, and on the Hygiene of the Menopause. Take it all in all the book is one which the general practitioner would do well to keep in mind, and it is one which he can safely recommend to his clientate.

MODERN SURGERY: General and Operative. By John Chalmers DaCosta, M. D., Professor of the Principles of Surgery and of Clinical Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Fourth Edition, Greatly Enlarged and Entirely Reset. Handsome octavo volume of 1099 pages, with over 700 illustrations, some in colors. Philadelphia, New York, London: W. B. Saunders & Company, 1903. Cloth, $5.00 net; Sheep or Half Morocco, $6.00 net.

This work presents in a concise form the fundamental principles and the accepted methods of modern surgery. Obsolete and unessential methods have been excluded in favor of the living and the essential. The author's extensive experience as a teacher is evident throughout the entire work, the statements being clear and to the point.

The progress of surgery in every department is one of the most notable phenomena of the present day. So many improvements, discoveries, and observations have been made since the appearance of the last edition of this work that the author found it necessary to rewrite it entirely. In this fourth edition the book shows evidences of a thor