were gymnastics, including the formation of classes for calisthenics, massage, and hydro-therapeutics. During the past year he has treated fifteen cases of chronic spinal sclerosis by suspension, a method of treatment which he regards as wholly empirical. In almost every instance these patients declared themselves improved, both as regards eyesight and general condition.

In concluding his paper Dr. Putnam stated that during the past few months he had tested the Flechsig treatment of epilepsy by means of large doses of opium; and he referred to a paper on this subject by Dr. Joseph Collins (New York Medical Record, September 22, 1894). The treatment was employed in ten cases; in none of them were the attacks wholly checked, but in all of them an improvement was noted. The opium was never pushed beyond ten grains daily.-Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.

A MINDLESS FROG.-At the meeting of the Association of American Anatomists in New York on Saturday, December 29th, Prof. B. G. Wilder showed a frog from which, while under ether, the entire cerebrum was removed on the 7th, three weeks before. It looked natural. The scar on the head was hardly visible. It can swim and jump and even balance on a cylinder while it is slowly turned, and swallow food that is placed far back in the throat. But when undisturbed it sits without motion, and presumably has no consciousness. That such a frog, while in possession of all his senses (excepting smell, the olfactory lobes being removed with the cerebrum), has no real "sense" may be seen from the behavior of a similar specimen shown the American Neurological Association in 1886. A minnow was put into the mouth; the head reached the throat and aroused the swallowing reflex, but the tail protruded from the lips and caused the frog to put up his hands to push it out. The normal frog would have decided whether the fish should go up or down. The decerebrized animal was a mere reflex machine, and could make no choice between incompatible operations. Ibid.

A SNAKE STORy Verified.—A surgeon who doubted the story of the male python in the London Zoological Garden having swallowed his mate, and claimed that the reptile might have in some way crawled out of the cage, is reporten by the Medical Press to have had his doubts set at rest by the discovery of several vertebræ of the defunct reptile among the feces of the survivor. The surgeon now has the vertebræ in his possession. Ibid.

OPPOSITION to the Use of the Antitoxin Treatment for Diphtheria has already taken an organized form in England. A deputation headed by Lord Coleridge has protested to the authorities against its use in the hospitals on the ground that "public money ought not to be devoted to experiments in psychology."

THE AMERICAN PRACTITIONER AND NEWS.

Vol. 19.

"NEC TENUI PENNÂ.”

SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1895.

D. W. YANDELL, M. D., and H. A. COTTELL, M. D., Editors.
JOHN L. HOWARD, M. D., Assistant Editor.

No. 7.

A Journal of Medicine and Surgery, published every other Saturday. Price, $3

per year, postage paid.

This journal is devoted solely to the advancement of medical science and the promotion of the interests of the whole profession. Essays, reports of cases, and correspondence upon subjects of professional interest are solicited. The editors are not responsible for the views of contributors.

Books for review, and all communications relating to the columns of the journal, should be addressed to the Editors of THE AMERICAN PRACTITIONER AND NEWS, Louisville, Ky.

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THE VIVISECTION CONTROVERSY.

The Philadelphia Record of March 14th and the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of March 21st devote some space to a remarkable correspondence between Prof. W. W. Keen, of Jefferson Medical College, and Mrs. Caroline Earle White, the President of the Woman's Branch of the S. P. C. A.

The professor wanted a dog from which to exsect a sciatic nerve for the purpose of grafting it into a gap in the sciatic of a patient in the Jefferson College Hospital. The proposed procedure was of course an experiment in surgery, since it looked to what has never before been done, the re-establishment by grafting of continuity between the centers and the fibers of distribution of a nerve, a considerable section of which had been destroyed.

The professor sent to the dog-pound of the City of Brotherly Love for a canine of proportions suitable to his purpose, and to his surprise and chagrin his request was denied by the President of the Woman's Branch of the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals, which it seems now has charge of the pound.

An extract from one of Mrs. White's letters and some paragraphs from Professor Keen's reply will lay before the reader the issues not only in this case but the gist of the whole seemingly irrepressible controversy.

Mrs. White to Professor Keen:

In answer to your note I will say that although I should always approve of sacrificing a dog's life in order to save that of a man, unless the latter was a curse to the world and the former a boon and a blessing (which is sometimes the case), I think that I am justified in refusing to give you one of the dogs at our pound for an experiment which may prove of benefit to one of your patients, or may not, the latter being the most likely alternative. Professor Keen to Mrs. White:

Aside from myself there are three parties who are to be considered in this matter. First, the dog; second, the man; and third, mankind.

First, the dog. I stated to you that the dog would not suffer; that he would be treated with the same care as the man, and that after the operation I should continue the anesthetic until the dog was dead. . . .

Secondly, the man. This man knows what I am going to do, and is anxious to have it done. His leg is paralyzed. If by an ordinary surgical procedure I can re-establish the continuity of the nerve, I may be able to cure his paralysis. In that case I should not have recourse to the dog. If, on the contrary, the gap between the two ends of the nerve is so great that I can not bring them together, either the man must be condemned to paralysis for life or some other means must be tried to re-establish the nerve and so restore to him a useful leg. This might be done by the process of nerve grafting. Yet you refuse me a dog on the ground that it is an "experiment." Granting that it is, it is at the most a perfectly harmless experiment, for it would not be more painful than any ordinary operation; and even if it absolutely fails, it leaves the patient not a whit the worse off. If it succeeds, it will be of the greatest possible service to him.

Thirdly, mankind. The only way in which surgery can make any progress is by testing new methods of treatment which have at least a reasonable possibility of success. Just such persistence and continued trials have encircled the globe with ocean cables. But you assume the rôle of a judge who decides that such a new method of treatment shall not be tested. . .

If you had your way there would be no Pasteur Institutes in any part of the world to save so many lives from hydrophobia; there would be no antitoxin treatment of diphtheria, which already has borne such wonderful results; there would be no inoculation against cholera, which in the hands of Haffkine bids fair to rescue thousands of lives; there would be no cerebral surgery, since you would not allow us to investigate the functions of the brain; there would be little or no antiseptic surgery, the greatest stride forward of this century.

In your misguided zeal for dogs you are guilty, in my opinion, of cruelty to this man, and cruelty to all mankind, because you thwart scientific progress under the guise of love for animals. You would condemn to the torture and disabilities of accident and disease people who have happily been rescued by the more humane scientists in my profession.

The logic of Mrs. White's refusal is amusing, and shows most aptly the unfitness of woman for executive office. In the picture which the imagination of this good and tender-hearted lady has drawn of the dog under the knife of the surgeon, an unwilling victim of and martyr to science, the possible benefit that might accrue to one man, and the splendid catalogue of benefits which by like measures have accrued to humanity, are forgotten. At the same time the fact that the dog is to be under chloroform, and will feel no pain the while, does not, in her benevolent mind, rule the case out of court as one of cruelty to animals. And yet Mrs. White knows full well that if the dog desired for scientific experiment by Professor Keen can not after a reasonable time be proIvided with a Christian home he will be shot or have his brains beaten out by the city's dog-pelter, and in either case suffer pain which positively he could not suffer under the surgeon's anesthetic.

Surely the logic of the situation is funny. Macaulay says that a child can not help being afraid of a mask, notwithstanding the fact that he has been shown that it is nothing but pasteboard, and may be passed from hand to hand. Still, when it is put over somebody's face, the child's imagination is too much for its reason, and cries of terror demonstrate the fact. Such is the mental condition of the President of the Woman's Branch of the S. P. C. A., and such is the case with women as a rule. But the women are not the only short-sighted people in this matter; there are some well-meaning men who are evidently blind to the logic of the situation.

Let such put squarely before them the question: Which is more important to mankind, the removal of cholera from the list of epidemic diseases and the stamping of tuberculosis from off the face of the earth, or the supply of the tables of the rich with game, and the clothing of the same with furs? What is known to-day of the nature of cholera and tuberculosis has been learned by submitting a few animals to the experimentum crucis. But all the animals taken together which have been put to experiment by all the investigators in science combined are not a tenth part of a tithe to those that are yearly shot and trapped by the hunters, who not only employ cruel means of killing their victims, but wound and maim thousands of animals which they fail to

secure.

Instances of brutal cruelty against which the antivivisectionists are doing nothing might be multiplied, but the above will suffice for the purpose of argument. For it must be held that if it be right to inflict

pain upon animals for the material profit and amusement of mankind, then it can not be wrong to inflict less pain upon them for the sake of promoting man's health and prolonging his life by rendering him immune to destructive diseases. And the argument attains still greater weight when the fact is taken into account that in many experiments the animals are under anesthetics and suffer no more pain than the human subjects of ordinary surgical operations.

KENTUCKY STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

The following letter from the chairman of the Committee of Arrangements of the Kentucky State Medical Society has been received by every member, and it is to be hoped will bear fruit in a meeting of unusual size and interest:

The fortieth annual meeting of the Kentucky State Medical Society will be held in Harrodsburg, commencing Wednesday and continuing Thursday and Friday, June 12, 13, and 14, 1895. We desire a large attendance and a full program. Harrodsburg, the oldest town in the State, will not be outdone by any of her sister towns who have entertained the Society. The Committee of Arrangements will do all in its power to make the fortieth annual meeting the most popular and successful one in the history of the Society. Reduced railroad and hotel rates will be secured. We invite every member to attend and bring with him an applicant for membership. Our location is central and easily reached by rail from all parts of the State. Address Dr. Steele Bailey, of Stanford, Ky., Permanent Secretary, for further information. Fraternally yours,

E. M. WILEY, Chairman Committee Arrangements.

It should not be forgotten that Harrodsburg is not only the oldest town in the State, but that it is the most beautiful town in the State, and is inhabited by a people wealthy, cultured, and fully possessed of advanced bluegrass ideas. Some of the most prominent men in our profession live in and about Harrodsburg, and it may be safely stated that they, with the enlightened laity of the town, will make the fortieth meeting memorable in the annals of Kentucky medicine.