and quinine, cleansed the parts locally with water as hot as could be borne twice a day and applied pixine liberally on oiled linen. A gradual improvement in patient's condition speedily became ap parent, the inflammation subsided, the gangrenous patch cleaned, the discharge lessened and in four months' time the patient had entirely recovered, except for the loss of the joints, which had become anchylosed before our treatment was applied.

Case VII.-A. P. H., male, age forty, suffering from phthisis, entered hospital a week after having frozen both feet to such an extent that all his toes were a black, gangrenous mass, the metatarsal bones being nearly denuded of their flesh. Patient's temperature 104° F. The limbs were edematous and showed effects of the freezing to the knees. This patient was put on the operating table for the purpose of amputating each limb near the knee joint. Five physicians decided with me that he could not stand the operation and would die on the table. With no hope of success we cut the bare metatarsus with bone forceps, washed parts with nitric acid three drams to a quart and applied pixine, giving patient malt with cod liver oil, creasote and tonics. In three days the temperature was normal, the stumps presented a healthy granulating surface, and in two months the parts were entirely healed and patient was up and about the ward. Patient died of phthisis two years later.

Case VIII-Arthur K., age four. A sister of his mother died of cancer, a brother of chronic Bright's. Other family history negative. Patient was taken with swelling of right knee, which became painful on use. Was treated as a white swelling and came under my observation after six months, at which time fluctuation in and about joint was marked. Patient's temperature 100° F. With assistance of two colleagues we opened up the parts, securing free drainage from three places, washed out the opening, using different antiseptics in turn, but could get no improvement. We decided the trouble was tubercular and that the limb should be amputated. Parents not consenting, we decided to use pixine. Placed patient on malt with cod liver oil and washed the parts with water as hot as could be borne and applied the ointment

under oiled silk. In a few days improvement was noticed and in about six months was healed, with good free use of joint. Three years later boy still entirely well.

Cases IX, X and XI.-Three children of Wm. V., age from two to six years. Mother and father both victims of chronic articular rheumatism. Mother suffering from arthritis deformans. Each of the children was of a strumous diathesis and had large cervical glands. The oldest was taken with a large painful swelling in the region of the parotid gland, was given cod liver oil internally and the swelling treated with inunctions of oleate of mercury and tincture of iodine. It finally suppurated and went through the long tedious routine of such cases until pixine was applied, when it healed rapidly. Each of the other children was taken in the same manner a year and eighteen months respectfully thereafter. The ointment was applied from the start and the inflammation subsided in each case without going the tedious process of suppuration.

Case XIII.-J. C., age forty-one. Family and personal history negative. Entered hospital December, 1899, suffering from severe case of psoriasis, involving whole body, of two years' duration Had been treated in two New York hospitals and by a number of physicians with but little relief. Having successfully treated two severe cases of psoriasis during the winter of 1887 and 1898, which I reported in the New York Lancet, November, 1898, I put patient on Fowler's solution gtt. v. after meals and phosphate soda gr. v to x before meals. Gave him a bicarb. soda bath once a day and had him apply pixine to the whole surface three times a day, rubbing it in thoroughly. The result was almost marvelous; in two months he was entirely recovered and had charge of the assistants' work in the ward for over six months, when he left the hospital without any recurrence of the trouble.

With the records of over one hundred cases similar to those above treated at the hospital during the past six years-many of which had been the rounds of the hospitals before reaching me-it is with no little gratification that I can report there has not been one case that has not responded to the treatment and been discharged cured.-M. A. WHEELER, M.D., in Med. Council.

The Prophylaxis of Baldness. The view that baldness is essentially due to the depilatory action of certain bacteria appears to be gaining ground. Hitherto it has been the generally received view that baldness is of the nature of an inherited predisposition, and it is a matter of everyday observation that the members of certain families are more prone to premature calvities than others. This, however, holds good in respect of almost every disease, consumption for instance, although the latter has been long since conclusively proved to be a transmissible, and therefore a preventable, disease. The fact that baldness is usually associated with the presence of certain bacteria hardly suffices to prove the accuracy of the deduction, for these may be merely the accidental accompaniments of a depreciation of local vitality. However produced, it can hardly be doubted that the neglect of hygienic precautions has a definite influence in determining the premature loss of hair, hence the imperative necessity for greater attention to surgical cleanliness in respect of instruments and appliances used to the scalp. It may be urged that in parts of the body which receive less attention than does the scalp baldness is quite the exception, but these parts are also less exposed to infection from without, so that the argument fails. No doubt a number of factors conduce to

the premature shedding of an appendage which is sometimes ornamental and always useful, and if any progress is to be effected in the prophylaxis of baldness we must carefully avoid concentrating our attention upon any one factor to the exclusion of the others.-Med. Press and Circular.

A Shorter College Course.

We are glad that a halt has been called by leading educators and business men to the tendency within the past few years to increase the length of the preparatory course for an entrance into professional life. So much preparatory work is now required of the student that he is well on in years, some of which might better be directed to the practice of his profession or courses of study in the line of his life work. In addition to the arguments already advanced, Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, in his reports to the trustees, advances another

which by some might be considered less important, but which has certainly a strong bearing upon the subject. From statistics taken from six classes of Harvard University covering a period of twenty-five years, President Elliot reaches the conclusion that the highly educated part of the American people does not increase the population at all, but on the contrary, fails to reproduce itself. This is due in part he thinks to the postponement of marriage of educated young men, a postponement which the protracted education now prescribed for men who enter the learned and scientific professions makes almost unavoidable. It is a question worthy of grave consideration if in our zeal for a higher education we may not have crowded the list of studies with matter unnecessary to produce the desired results. As this subject has been taken up by the leading universities in this country and in Europe, we may hope for a remodeling to a certain extent of our educational courses, eliminating much that is useless. for the more practical, in that line of scientific thought necessary to prepare one for a life of usefulness and success. -Med. Times.

An Early Sign of Scarlet Fever. In view of the obligation imposed upon practitioners to diagnose certain infectious. diseases, scarlet fever among the number, even in the absence of the fully developed predroma, every minor sign which is likely to assist in an accurate diagnosis is of value. According to Dr. McCollom, of the Boston City Hospital, great importance attaches to the altered appearance of the fungiform papillæ of the tongue. Early in the attack, long before the appearance of the classic symptoms, close inspection of the tongue reveals wellmarked hypertrophy of these papillæ, which, in some cases, resemble nodules of Cayenne pepper, while in others they are merely little pimples without any distinct reddening. The "strawberry tongue" is only a later development of this inflammatory hypertrophy, which first manifests itself in the fungiform papillæ. It is the first characteristic sign to appear, and it does not subside for at least five weeks. A somewhat similar hypertrophy is met with in certain other exanthemata, notably in measles, but in such case the hyper

trophy is less pronounced and the distinctive coloration is not observed. Incidentally, Dr. McCollom calls attention to a retrospective sign of scarlet fever which may prove useful in cases in which the disease has not been diagnosed at its onset, viz., a white line which makes its appearance on the nail close to the bed, coincidently with the commencement of desquamation, that is to say, at about the fifth day of the malady. Even when desquamation is but slight, consequent upon an ill-developed eruption, this white line. is always present.-Med. Press and Circular.

Filtration Plant at Ithaca.

On February 27 there was signed a contract between the Ithaca Water Company and the Council of Cornell University, in which the latter agreed to furnish $150,ooo for the construction of a filtration plant. On the same day the Board of Health passed a resolution making it a misdemeanor to drink or serve to others unboiled water supplied by the local water system. Nine new cases of typhoid fever in Ithaca during the preceding twenty-four hours were reported to the board. On February 28 nine additional new

cases

were reported. Several Cornell students who had gone away from the university have died from typhoid at their homes. One of these deaths occurred in Brooklyn on February 22; one in Paterson, N. J., on February 23; one in Watertown, N. Y., on the same date; one in Middletown, Conn., on February 25, and one in Auburn, N. Y., on February 28. Two others have died of the disease in Ithaca, one on the 22nd and one on the 28th, bringing the total deaths among students up to eighteen.-Boston Med. and Surg. Four

nal.

Early Cancer.

In early cases of cancer of the uterus, vagina and cervix there is usually no bad odor. Hence the practitioner must not be led by its absence to diagnose a benign growth. As a matter of fact, in the majority of cases, by the time that a bad odor has developed the patients are beyond the reach of surgical aid. Pain, wasting and cachexia are also late symptoms in this region, and only occur when the case is a hopeless one.—International Fournal of Surgery.

Translations.

PARISIAN MEDICAL CHIT-CHAT.

BY T. C. M.

Is Consumption Contagious?— The Obligatory Declaration of Contagious Maladies-Failure of Plague SeramsSome Almost Extant Maxims from the School of Salerno.

A very grave error, to the mind of Professor Winternitz, is that infection and contagion are generally confounded. The so-called Koch bacillus is wholly different from that of malignant pustule, for instance, which is eminently toxic. Again, the so-called bacillus may be injected into the organism with impunity, as Pettenkoffer and Emmerich showed by experi ments on themselves. Was it not the first of these who so well developed the rôle of its disposition in epidemics? Was there not seen in the Hamburg cholera outbreak of 1892 more than 100,000 persons fly from that city and run over Europe? Without any doubt a large number of those leaving Hamburg, attacked by diarrhea, disseminated the bacillus every where they went; nevertheless, no spread of the cholera was ever manifested.

The author proves in principle that the first condition of resistance depends on the disposition of the individual. Tuberculosis is, then, infectious and non-contagious. What also proves this is that the injection of the alleged Koch bacillus into living tissue provokes merely a local tubercular lesion, but no generalized tuberculosis.

Besides, the Koch bacillus is frequently met in the mouths and noses of men perfectly free from all consumption. How can a reasonable being believe that this germ is contagious?

Daily investigations, too, have they not demonstrated that among a hundred married persons ninety of the hundred remain immune?

Microbes may soil walls, clothing, linen, furniture, carpets, hands, fingers, etc., without ever affecting the tenants. Unterberger, the great Russian physician, has shown that this fear of contagion in consumption has received an infamous and most cruel importance.

Unfortunately, all this is not the same when it comes down to heredity; for we know by the works of Cornet, Martin and Riffel that ninety out of a hundred cases must be attributed to heredity. Riffel is very categorical. He denies contagion, and supports himself upon a large private practice going back many years. His most striking case is as follows:

His

"X., tuberculous from birth; lived with many others under precarious conditions of life and unhealthy quarters. The wife who shared his bed and all the numerous children residing in the same quarter were not even affected by the breath, the sputum, nor even the dejections of the sick man. ""

But if the wife is from a tubercular family the picture changes its aspect, for progressively she and the children become the victims of contaminated surroundings. It is, then, not contagious but infectious -according to the soil and the disposition, in a word. This disposition cannot be denied by any sensible physician or hygienist, who is in a position to see such cases frequently. So in order to prevent any infection and ameliorate the condition of the masses of the people we must increase their power of resistance. Good food and proper lodging claim a second place from the public authorities. Barracks, schools and asylums must be the object of severe public surveillance. The question of a pure milk supply for the first years of infancy, too, needs our close attention. Look out for filthy and unsanitary dairies, with milk kept from souring by vile drugs, alleged antiseptics.

Public baths for all the people should be insisted on-cleanliness of the body, after that of the clothing then habitations, finally physical exercise in the open air. The medicines of alleged public hospitals, the spittoon business, the ridiculous sanatoria of the modern day do not hold much respect from really practical

of the virus of Roux, their colleague; afterwards those deemed most worthy were forced to publicly express to the Committee on Epidemics a laudation of the microbian law concerning the obligatory declaration of so-called bacteriological maladies, and make disinfection, too, obligatory.

By reason of these different facts, the Biblical name of Josiah evoked that of Jonas, recalling to mind a descendent. So in times past as present there were two unhappy beings; one who found asylnm in a whale's belly, and the later one in the bosom of the Academy. Hard as we are to grow weary, we yet avow it is difficult always to write in the contra sense, taking for scientific conceptions the pleasantries and the amusements of bacteriology; it is growing wearisome, yet when we see such ideas made the text for public laws, rules so contradictory that they are demolished at a single blow by merely showing their incoherent insufficiency, by reporting who formulates them and the peculiar systems that have produced such legislation.

The effect, if for so many months and years, the differing bacteriologists informed us that typhoid, typhus, scarlatina, smallpox, cholera-in other words, all maladies said to arise from contagion -must have obligatory declaration, we were likewise informed that whoopingcough, pneumonia, erysipelas, leprosy, conjunctivitis, but especially consumption, arose in the same manner.

We put the terrors of Loeffler and Eberth in the same title; they terrified the world with the dangerous pneumococcus and that awful (?) Koch bacillus.

Why to-day does medical Europe see this state of affairs changed? What are the new experimental (?) proofs, more positive even than the preceding-in fact, extraordinarily positive which allow our learned (?) academicians to establish all these distinctions, and say to you, my modest general practitioner, overawed by the clamor of official medicine, you must destroy Eberth without pity, you must annihilate Loeffler, but you may positively respect Koch, Feheilsen and the pneumococcus, if it pleases you?

In truth, the indications upon this point appear to us to be at discord with all the premises and information of bacteriological anti-science; that it injures this badly,

despite the faith of the most devout and sincere disciples.

All, too, even the most simple-minded, have now noted the other contradictory thing also, that obligatory disinfection applied to a collection of diseases that, aside from typhoid, croup and sometimes scarlatina, are but slightly observed, even little known, while disinfection remains applied when pleased in all the most murderous group of maladies, such as grippe, pneumonia and consumption.

It is plain to see why the foreign pontiffs have faith in the microbian notions that are their constant nightmare. Monstrous, ridiculous, murderous chimeras, things they call serum statistics. Why, they even often cut their own fingers and thumbs, these makers of serums and toxines, these generous commercial laboratories, filled with poison vaccines that spread tetanus, and serums that spread smallpox in the name of vaccination.

But who should complain of such bacteriological mafters, since the general practitioners have turned over all their own traditional honor to certain official clients? Does the general practitioner continue to practice the self-decadence of his honorable art? Ah! this glorious

medical science, paid for by ads. in the public and medical press by horse-serum makers, those prostitutes of all honest medical drug trade?

The deaths from the alleged anti-plague serum in India, that caused a suspension of sero-therapy, is noted in the following communication to the Indian Lancet:

"Sir: A letter has appeared in the Times to the effect that the anti-plague inoculations in the Punjab have been suspended in consequence of many deaths having occurred from them. My recent warning against these inoculations, addressed to the Secretary of State for India, has thus been fully justified, and it is to be hoped that these empirical and dangerous operations will now be countermanded, and pseudo scien. tists prevented in future from making their reckless and unjustifiable experiments upon the helpless population of India. Yours etc.,

J. H. THORNTON, C.B., M.B., B.A., Fellow of King's College, London, Deputy Surgeon General I. M. S. (retired)."

*

HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT A DOCTOR.

If good physicians fail in giving aid
To gaining health, have not the least disquiet;
Three new physicians call, be not afraid,
Doctors Repose, Gay Humor, Careful Diet.

MELANCHOLIC FOOD.

Fish and milk, apples, pears and cheese, Venison, hare, beef and all salted meat, Cause acrid gall, and nature e'er displease, All healthy bodies shun such food deceit.

WASH HANDS often.

If health is wished for often wash thy hands, Even after meals; two good things will arrive; For twice washed hands are free from dirt and sands,

Thy eyes shine brighter, thou art more alive.

TO EAT AND DRINK AND ON USING EGGS.

Drink often at meals, but always in a sup; When eating eggs, take fresh ones beaten up.

SLEEP AT NIGHT.

To sleep well at night, remember to think When supping 'tis best to begin with a drink.

QUALITY OFf prunes.

Prunes are refreshing, for we always see Their use keeps the belly open and free.

QUALITY OF BREAD.

Eat bread that's not too old nor hot,
Well raised, slight salted, or touch it not;
Made of good grain, baked by a master baker;
Eat not the crust or call the undertaker.
Crust engenders bile, nothing as bread so good
Providing 'tis proper prepared as food.

USE OF SAFFRON.

Saffron fortifies, 'tis joy's own giver, Restoring youth to body, strength to liver.

THE NATURE OF RUE.

Rue is a plant, most excellent to view,
For eyes shine brighter by the aid of rue;
Exciting women to most amorous pleasure,
Slowing man's passion in a certain measure.

EYE WASH.

Eye water made of vervain, esclair and rue, With rose and fennel, give a clearer view.

We fear the verses of the School of Salerno will never be popular to the scientific (?) medical men. Yet there is more common sense in them than in the vast majority of the vile poisons prescribed as medicine in modern days. Better die naturally at least than be killed by experimental medicine, such as practiced in almost all the great hospitals of the world. But this is no discussion on the morality of medicine of the kind in vogue.