which depend on defect of constitutional vigor would not be claimed as coming under his prohibition." There is only one way by which Dr. Lincoln could by any possibility, have arrived at this unwarrantable conclusion, and that is by neglecting to study what Weismann has written. Had he read the "Essay on Heredity," published in 1883; "Continuity of the Germ-plasm, Etc.," published in 1885, (especially page 171); or "The Supposed Transmission of Mutilations," (1891), translations of all of which may be found in one volume published by the Oxford (England) University Press, he would never have written anything so absurd. Dr. Lincoln's book is full of discussions of heredity, intended for the layman, and yet its author has not mastered the contention of such an authority as Weismann! The erudite doctor continues: "That a man of originally sound health could acquire the trait of chronic drunkenness, with immunity as respects the mental health of his children, would not probably be claimed; or if the claim were made, it might safely be disregarded." ୮ In other words, he investigations men like Francis Galton and Ray Lankester (to mention only two), are to be "disregarded" because a single Boston doctor, whose name is unknown. in the biologic world, says so. Dr. Lincoln is asking too much, just as a certain Mr Thistle (of London) asked too much when, a few years since, he tried to make the readers of the Lancet believe that cases of what he called traumatic epilepsy were hereditary. No doubt the epilepsy was hereditary, and epileptics occasionally have falls on their heads. In addition, if a person belongs to a family which is subject to epilepsy, or insanity, or some similar disorder, a fall may be the exciting cause of the fits. I propose to si.ow that Dr. Lincoln is wrong, and that we have proof that acquired alcoholism has not been transmitted to the next generation in the past. Indulgence in alcohol increases, to some extent, the desire for whiskey or some other tipple. But the extent of the craving differs in individuals to a very marked degree. In some persons, experience of liquor awakens a desire for great quantities of drink. They have the alcoholic diathesis, an inborn trait, which is transmitted with considerable certainty. If the possessor of this diathesis is deprived of all drugs, his neuropsychopathic constitution is demonstrated in some other way. Dr. Lincoln refers to a man giving up alcohol and becoming a gambler, and one case of this kind, as well as similar cases, have come under my observation. We do not know how congenital variations originate, and I have no more idea to what the first case of the alcoholic susceptibility was due, than I have of the origin of supernumerary fingers. Both are undeniably hereditary. The man born with the alcoholic diathesis becomes a drunkard, unless withheld by moral or other deterrents. In the normal man, experience of drink, no matter how prolonged, awakens merely a desire for moderate indulgence. But this desire. for indulgence, the capacity for enjoying drink, has been acquired by the individual himself, assuming that he is normal. If acquired traits are usually transmitted, the race which has longest used alcohol would be the most inclined to drunkenness, because each generation would inherit its parents' and grandparents' capacity for enjoying drink, plus its own acquired desire produced by drinking. It is evident that, if the supply of alcohol were sufficient, the desire would become uncontrollable, and the race would be exterminated. The conclusion, therefore, must be that the acquired taste for alcohol is not passed on to the next generation. But if it were, the Jews, who have had alcohol for innumerable years, would have been almost wiped out by its use. If a few Jews were still left upon the face of the globe, they would be chronic drunkards, having inherited the desire for drink of many of their direct male progenitors added together. This is not so. Indeed, the Jews are extremely sober people, although their ancestors may, centuries ago, have been drunkards. All the facts are easily explainable upon a neo-Darwinian basis. Men differ in the intensity in which they crave for drink; those who crave most, usually drink most. These are the men who were born with the alcoholic diathesis. Alcohol poisons most of those who consume the largest quantities, and by degrees they are slowly weeded out. This is merely the process of natural selection, and it follows, if acquired characters are not transmitted, that the elimination of the biggest drinkers and the survival of the smallest -those who have not inherited an abnormal desire-will result in a lessened tendency to deep indulgence, to the disappearance of those individuals who have inherited the alcoholic diathesis, and promote the evolution of a more temperate race. History demonstrates the accuracy of what I have written. For example, savages who have never been accustomed to alcohol, are very drunken, when they can get whiskey. Upon the other hand, the inhabitants of the wine countries generally, who have had liquor for generations, are temperate in the best sense of the term. I assert without fear of contradiction by any competent person that the vast majority of drunkards are persons who were born with a brain and a nervous system of poor quality, and that narcomania, in any form, is merely the outward manifestation of the disease. Anybody who investigates the family history of drunkards will very quickly discover that these sufferers belong, in most instances, to families which are on the "down grade." I gladly admit, however, that two persons whose ancestry was satisfactory as far as I could discover, but who drank to excess, have come under my observation. These individuals may have represented "acquired alcoholism," but assuming that they were the fathers of abnormal children, I should regard that phenomenon as aue to pseudo-heredity, and not to true heredity. Moreover, young men become drunkards by imitating the drinking habits of parents. As some men boast of how much they can drink, it is natural for their sons to grow up with the idea that the ability to drink much is a creditable habit. Why does not this same thing occur with the daughters? may be asked. Sometimes it does, but they usually imitate their mother, rather than their father; and a woman's opportunities for drinking are not as numerous as a man's. With women, "good morning" is very seldom equivalent to "come and have a drink," as it often is with men. Concerning pseudo-heredity, the facts are well The truth is that the problems of heredity are very intricate, and cannot be summarily dismissed because, upon superficial examination, certain conditions seem absurd to those whose knowledge of biology is limited. A parent is, in reality, a trustee. He trans-` mits, not himself and all his acquired modificaticns, eccentricities, and tendences, but merely the representative constituents, of which he is both a product and a custodian. In my estimation, his influence over his reproductive elements is little greater than is that of the host over the parasite. Whether this is correct or not, the dictum of Galton, expressed as long ago as 1875, that "acquired modifications are rarely, if at all, inherited in the correct sense of the term," should never be forgotten. Dr. Lincoln, in writing that "cases which depend on defect of constitutional vigor would not be claimed as coming under his (Weismann's) prohibition," confounds pseudo-heredity with true heredity. A word concerning the historic aspect of the doctrine that acquired characters are not transmitted: It is an error to regard it as anything new, for the facts are quite clearly stated in James Cowles Prichard's "Physical History of Mankind," published in 1813. Finally, Mr. Leonard Hill, of University College, London, (England) has repeated BrownSequard's experiments upon guinea pigs, with a different result. The details are as follows: (Nature, Vol. LV, page 161.) By dividing the cervical sympathetic nerve, a permanent droop of the eye-lid can be obtained. When this operation is performed upon guinea pigs, according to Brown-Sequard, the droop (ptosis) is inherited by their progeny. Mr. Hill divided the nerve of six guinea-pigs on the left side, but none of the offspring of these animals inherited a permanent droop of the eyelid. He again divided the nerve in twelve animals and interbred them, but none of the young inherited the permanent droop. A temporary droop of either the right or the left upper eyelid, frequently observed in the young, was caused by conjunctivitis, arising from infection of the eye after birth, for the young were never born with the droop. The droop disappeared with the conjunctivitis, which was not due to paralysis, but to photophobia, and often disappeared on sudden excitation of the animals. Mr. Hill's experiments seem to show that a temporary droop deceived Dr. Brown-Sequard. I consider that I can afford a good excuse for having written this paper. It is the duty of scientific men "to educate their masters," the sociologists and the legislators, by demonstrating to them that the hypothesis of the heredity of acquired characters is not sustained by reliable evidence, and that the complete recognition of the Darwinian principle of the selection, by Nature, and artificially, of those who are congenitally "the fittest," is the only method by which the human race can become permanently master of its destiny. THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. The important post of Medical Director of the St. Louis World's Fair has been filled by the appointment of Dr. Leonidas H. Laidley. Dr. Laidley was born at Carmichaels, Pa. He was educated with a view to the medical profession, and entered Cleveland Medical College in 1866. The following year he entered the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. After graduation in 1868, he practiced medicine with his father and brother, and then went to New York, where he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College and took a higher and more thorough course, being graduated with distinction in 1872. Coming to St. Louis the same year, he entered upon a successful career both as a practitioner and a medical teacher, showing always a decided love for the humanitarian side of his profession. He helped organize the Young Men's Christian Association, and attended the sick applying to that institution for aid. He organized the free dispensary which became the nucleus of the Protestant Hospital Association. He filled the chair of anatomy and chemistry in Western Dental College of this city, and after the organization of the St. Louis College of Physicians DOCTOR L. H. LAIDLEY. to the Protestant Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Female Hospital, and a leading member of the St. Louis Medical Society and other medical organizations. He was a delegate to the British Congress in 1883, and while abroad visited the hospitals of the principal cities. When the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company was organized he was one of the incorporators. Dr. Laidley is possessed of mature judgment and steadfast energy. In assuming his responsible position he has the respect and confidence of the local profession, and the expectation is justified that his administration of the medical features of the World's Fair will be attended with shining success. Characteristic Reaction of Carbolic Acid. According to Mansean, the following reaction is characteristic for carbolic acid: Dissolve a few crystals in I c.c. of alcohol, add a few drops of ammonia and finally of tincture of iodin. The iodin vanishes at first very rapidly, but more slowly later on, and eventually the liquid takes on a sea-green color which is permanent under heat, or on the addition of hydrochloric acid. Notes and Items. Rudolph Virchow, the eminent pathologist of Berlin, recently fell from a street car and fractured his right femur. A police census of Philadelphia shows that there are 352 blind persons in that city, III of whom are in institutions. At the instance of Mayor Wells of St. Louis, an investigation of the health department will be made with respect to the number of its employes and the salaries which they receive. It is considered probable that the department will be reorganized. The hundreds of men who have been employed by the city of Philadelphia to guard quarantined houses infected by smallpox were paid $2 a day, a few days before Christmas. This used up $19,000 out of the fund of $63,000 appropriated for this purpose. Seicher Atsye, a comely. Pueblo Indian maiden, has graduated at the head of the class of professional nurses at the Woman's Hospital in Pennsylvania. Miss Atsye shatters generally accepted ideas as to the personal appearance of Indian women, being petite and quite good look-. ing. She was educated in the Carlisle Indian School and has lived in the East or a dozen years. The pension board of Bloomington, Ill., has discovered a man whose heart is on his right side, instead of his left. This man is George W. Hurst, of Lexington. When he appeared before the board to undergo the physical examination necessary before an application for a pension could be secured, the discovery was made that his cardiac organ was misplaced. The work of the City Chemist of St. Louis and his assistants in the investigation of the water supply with respect to its pollution by the Chicago drainage canal, has been stopped, and no further appropriations will be made for this purpose. The City Chemist has been directed to make a detailed report of his findings as a basis for the proceedings before the Supreme Court. There are about 900 cases of smallpox in London. The foreign consuls are now making the strictest investigation before giving clean bills of health to outward-bound vessels. William M. Osborne, consul general of the United States in London, has sent a full report on the epidemic to the state department. There have been isolated cases of smallpox among persons intending to start for America. These patients have been taken to the hospital ships in the Thames. Dr. Lucien Leroy has communicated to the Paris Academy of Medicine his belief that cancer can be cured internally by the administration of arsenic and quinin simultaneously in therapeutic doses. He says that he cured in a few days a case of cancer of the lungs, the patient being a woman 57 years old. He is experimenting further, and intends to communicate the results to the academy. He believes that the parasite of cancer is very similar to that of intermittent fever. A member of a Chicago school of hypnotism has obtained the consent of the Board of Children's Guardians at Terre Haute, Ind., to make hypnotic experiments on the children in the home maintained by the board. Children who have been taken from the most depraved and vicious surroundings will be the subjects. The operator claims that by the force of suggestion he can inculcate in the children the desire for better things and gradually train their minds so that they will develop into good men and women. The interesting case of Dr. Lazeare, who, at the instance of Johns Hopkins University and of the government, went to Cuba and submitted himself to inoculation with yellow fever through mosquito bites, and died from the disease thus contracted, has been brought to the Senate's attention by Mr. McComas, who inquired whether Dr. Lazeare's widow would be entitled to a pension. No decision was reached, but it was the opinion of Senators Gallinger and Cockrell that the case had no pensionable status. A dispatch from Chicago says: Princess Bamba Dhuleep Singh and 70 other young women who are trying to make doctors out of themselves under the auspices of the Northwestern University, will have to seek a new school. After 32 years' trial the trustees of the university say women are not a success as doctors; that there is no demand for women physicians, and that medical co-education is a failure. The school is to be abolished and the property sold. "We have run the women's medical school at a loss of $25,000 a year," said Trustee Raymond. "Women cannot grasp chemical laboratory work, or the intricacies of surgery. Fifteen years ago the graduting class of men and women gave us a memorial saying co-education was a failure. Then we conducted the college exclusively for women, and it has been a worse failure." Professor Frederick G. Novy and Professor C. Freer, of the University of Michigan, have recently discovered an extraordinary germicide. Scientifically speaking, the antiseptic is an organic acid hyperoxid. The formation of an organic hyperoxid is due to active oxygen on the surface of solids and the oxidizing power of oxygen varies with the nature of the surface. Thus, organic acid peroxids can be made in large quantities. Peroxids are decomposed by water, giving solutions which, even when containing about 5-1000 of 1 per cent. of active oxygen derived from the hyperoxid, are fatal to bacteria, and a solution of ten times the above strength will destroy spores. The hyperoxid used by Dr. Novy in his discovery is benzozolacityl hyperoxid, and can be taken internally without poisonous effect. The St. Louis Hospital Bulletin proposes to publish articles for doctors, print their photographs, send them a hundred copies of their journal, tell 10,000 people about the doctors (and what marks they are?) all for five silver dollars in money. In comment, the Chicago Clinic says: We once bought from a man on the street a pair of gold cuff buttons, a watch chain, a box of "Clean-'em-quick," a mocking bird whistle and six bottles of Skookum's Bunion Cure, all for twenty-five cents-we didn't buy there again. Seriously we have not seen anything so artistically insulting to physicians for a long time as this proposition. The circular which they send. out simply says this: "You want advertising. We have a way by which we can print your articles for a price (insinuating that no one would print your articles unless hired to) and give you more publicity for the price than almost any one." So long as there is not a medical journal in all America which is not printing a mass of inferior matter on account of the scarcity of really good material, there is no reason why the doctor should hire anyone to print his writings if they have any merit at all. If they have no merit, they will do the doctor more harm than good if published. Sophomore students at Syracuse Medical College have the following yell: Well man, sick man, dead man-stiff! The Establishment of a State Sanatorium in Missouri for Tuberculosis Persons. Preamble and Resolutions Adopted by the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni on Nov. 21, 1901: Whereas, The provision by State government of sanatoriums for the reception and care of tuberculous persons has become an acknowledged necessity for the better protection of the public against tuberculosis in its various forms; and, Whereas, Several States already possess such sanatoriums while Missouri, although the fifth State in the Union in order of population, has taken no step toward providing for the establishment of such an institution; therefore, be it Resolved, That the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni recognize the urgent necessity for an adequate institution designed for the exclusive care and treatment, both hygienic and medical, of tuberculous persons in the State of Missouri, the said institution to be erected and maintained by the State government. 2. That this Society shall at once, by correspondence and otherwise, seek to enlist the active co-operation of other medical societies and bodies, and of the public press throughout Missouri to the end that a sanatorium, commensurate with the importance of the object sought, be authorized by legislative action, the same to be erected in some suitable location in the mountainous part of the State. 3. That copies of these resolutions be transmitted to all other medical societies in the State, to medical colleges, to the medical press and to the local daily press, to the Governor, and members of the General Assembly; and that a persistent agitation of this subject be maintained. in order that public opinion may be so influenced as to secure favorable action by the next legislature toward the more effectual prevention and control by approved methods of one of the most destructive diseases to which mankind is liable. |