that should be enforced by everybody, from the man who employs a single domestic up to those that employ thousands. In this way the great mass of people about the cities and factories would become immune, and this would do much to check the disease. Vaccination should be insisted upon by the doctors all over this broad land. They should let their clients know that they do not care to treat them when they become affected with smallpox, and explain to them that in many instances they can not treat them because they will be sent to special hospitals erected for the treatment of the disease. This of itself would doubtless cause many persons to readily consent to vaccination who would not do so under other circumstances.

Current Surgical and Medical Selections.

THE GOVERNMENT MEDICAL SERVICES.-The incident serves as an excellent argument for putting all the medical departments of the government services on an equal basis as regards rank, promotion, pay, and allowances, and making the latter sufficiently generous to constantly attract to the government services the best medical talent that the United States affords. The medical profession, by united action, has it in its power to do this, and to prevent the passage of unwise legislation affecting its representatives, such as that by which the efficiency of the medical department of the army has been lately crippled. There is not a medical department under the government which does not need-and is not worthy of-the support of the profession in the attainment of necessary reforms.-Medical Record.

Overfeeding and Cancer.-Josiah Oldfield, in correspondence with the British Medical Journal, adds further testimony to his conviction, expressed in a paper read before the British Medical Association at Ipswich, that the overfeeding of animals and the retention in their tissues of the decomposition products make the eating of such animals as food productive of an unstable cell equilibrium which foreruns the cancer incidence, and that the same thing applies to vegetables, though in a lesser degree. During his late tour through India he found cancer practically absent from all those areas where vegetation was sparse and where the animals used for food had lived a hardy existence, and in those regions marked by ranker vegetation and where the animals were more highly foddered it was more prevalent.— American Medicine.

PARASITES AS A Cause of APPENDICITIS.-Von Moty, in a communication made to the Echo Medical du Nord (1902, p. 217), states that in three out of five cases of appendicitis occurring in his own practice he found the oxyuris either in the appendix or in the intestine. The presence of this or of some other parasite in this disease is so frequent that it can hardly be regarded as accidental, and he therefore draws the conclusion that the parasites which have been observed, as the trichocephalus dispar, oxyuris, and ascaris play an active part in the production of the disease. Ascarides seem to be associated with gangrenous inflammation, while the trichocephalus or the oxyuris leads to chronic appendicitis. Those cases which occur in women in childbed and are of a mild character are amendable to medicine, to the removal of the parasites, and to the regulation of the general health. He has found the administration of thirty or sixty grains of bismuth subnitrate taken in eau sucree in small quantities at intervals in the course of the day of much service in relieving the cramps that so often accompany the disease.-The Lancet.

A DOCTORLESS AND DRUGLESS EARTHLY PARADISE.-Millionaire Elijah Dowie is making great progress with his Zion City, forty-two miles north of Chicago. The Chicago city assessors refused to let his several millions of dollars' worth of property go free of taxes, so the modern Elijah has run away from them where only State taxation will bother him. The millions, it is said, that he will make by the new "real estate deal" are sufficiently numerous to make a European capitalist envious. Among the conditions of a lease of his land in Zion City are that no person shall sell liquors, tobacco, oysters, or drugs, nor shall any one living thereon practice medicine, surgery, or dentistry. The believer in medicine may call in a physician from the outside, and may use drugs if he buys them on the outside. We wonder if the oyster may also be bought outside and eaten upon the grounds or not, and why this poor innocent is classed with immoral doctors and dentists and pharmacists. What are "drugs" is a question Dowie may have to decide in the courts; shall mineral and spring water, decoctions of berries, etc., be held as drugs or as food? Is the bark of one tree food and another a vile drug? Is trimming one's nails or cutting the hair neither sinful nor surgical, while wearing filled teeth and spectacles, or setting a dislocated finger, or stopping a hemorrhage, are both medical and immoral? The antimedical crank is a strange product of the times.American Medicine.

A MODEL TOWN.-Wiesbaden, brought into prominence by the German Medical Congress holding its recent annual meeting there, presents conditions worthy of imitation. The streets, which are all asphalted or paved with wood, are well flushed with water and swept after midnight, and by this means dust and refuse are effectually prevented, and in consequence the buildings retain their snow-white appearance, the air its purity, the foliage of the trees its freshness.-Ibid.

INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL ON THE SYSTEM.-The Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift of September 29th contains a paper read by Dr. Arthur Clopatt, of Helsingfors, at a recent meeting of the Congress of Finland Physicians in that town, upon the Action of Alcohol on the Metabolism of Man. The older authorities, such as Tiedemann, Gmelin, and Lallemand, thought that alcohol was excreted unburnt from the economy. Later experiments, however, like Anstie, Binz, and Strassmann, have shown that it is to a certain extent destroyed in the body by oxidation. Dr. Clopatt has made a series of experiments upon the effects of the use of alcohol upon the weight of the body, and the results at which he has arrived are, first, that alcohol, when the system has become accustomed to it, supplies the place of both nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous food by rendering a less amount necessary, and secondly, that alcohol has no demonstrable action in promoting the absorption of food from the intestines.-The Lancet.

A SIMPLE ANTISEPTIC DRESSING.-Camphor and carbolic acid (crystals), triturated together until liquefied-equal parts are probably taken-forms, according to Dr. E. L. Sharpe, the simplest and most effective antiseptic dressing with which he is familiar. It forms a clear, heavy, oily liquid, with an aromatic camphoraceous odor; it is bland, not toxic [?], and outside of a momentary stinging, non-irritating; on the contrary, it is quite a local anesthetic. It is the only antiseptic which he uses on his own hands and on the surface of the body to be operated upon. The eye is the only organ of the body to which the dressing is unsuitable.

For after-dressings he uses camphorphenol diluted with three to six parts of olive oil. Thus diluted, the author found it very soothing in burns and a stimulant of granulations. It is also a good local application in eczema, erysipelas, etc. Several serious operations are reported in which this combination proved highly satisfactory as an antiseptic.-Therapeutic Gazette.

ANTIVACCINATION HOSPITALS are urged by an Englishman, who volunteers to subscribe $25 and to raise $500 toward founding one. Our esteemed contemporary, the Medical Press, calls attention to the fact that such a hospital already exists, the Hospital of St. Francis, in London, with a branch in Essex. The Press also states that qualified practitioners are on the staff, and that the contention of the chairman of the hospital that diet can take the place of vaccination will hardly pass muster professionally. The hospital's work in this method of supplanting vaccination does not seem to have aroused much attention. We do not understand why. Every anti should subscribe to its funds and support it vi et armis. It is the best way in the world to convince the doubtful. St. Francis seems to be still more interested in antivenesection and in vegetarianism. By all means add these and other similar desiderata. It would be well for the American antis to establish such a hospital and to make Dr. Pfeiffer the manager. In analogy with his own journal, it might appropriately be called "The Cranky Notions Department" or institution.-American Medicine.

THE ACTION OF DIGITOXIN.-Dr. F. Curioni instituted experimentswith digitoxin (Merck) at the Turin Medical Clinic, and he reports the following results: In cases of pronounced cardiac insufficiency digitoxin produces not only an improvement in the pulse, but also an increase in the arterial blood pressure. The maximum effect becomes apparent four to five hours after the administration. In reference to the dosage the individual tolerance must first be ascertained, and it is therefore best to commence with grn. (1⁄2 milligram). Such doses remove the dicrotism, make the pulse full and strong, and prolong the diastole. Doses of grn. also raise the blood pressure. In severe, chronic disease of the heart muscle, where drug habituation usually exists, doses of o grn. may be used with good effect. The advantages which digitoxin possesses over digitalis are its greater efficiency and greater promptitude of action.-Therapeutic Gazette.

SECRET AND IGNORED VACCINATION.-The growing conviction on the part of the antivaccinationists that their cause is hopeless, combined with the increasing pressure of public opinion, is producing a peculiar state of mind and more peculiar practices upon their part. The actual result is that they continue to preach the anti dogmatism, but secretly practice vaccination. This at first comes about by a supercilious scorn of vaccination (similar to the lofty contempt of Eddyites for the contagiousness of contagious diseases, while humoring the law that requires reporting such cases) and a large-minded tolerance for the poor stupid folk who persist in ignorance and error. To satisfy such people they consent to vaccination. Then when they do not get smallpox they forget that they have been immunized, and claim that their freedom from the disease is due to their faith or to their natural immunity. Dr. Pfeiffer erred in a too thoroughgoing sincerity. It is undoubtedly true that this absurd condition of mind exists in a large number of semi-civilized antis. Among semi-savage antis it is well known. In his last report Lord Cromer tells of the success in vaccinating the Egyptian natives upon the condition of secrecy. The Bisharin Arabs present themselves readily for vaccination, provided their names are not entered upon the register."-American Medicine.

DEATHS FROM SPINAL COCAINIZATION.-M. F. Legue, Presse Medicale, reports two immediate deaths from spinal cocainization. He believes cerebral congestion, arterio-sclerosis, and severe renal lesion as contraindications to the use of cocaine by the intra-arachnoid method.-The Fort Wayne Medical Journal-Magazine.

COMPULSORY VACCINATION OF RAILROAD EMPLOYES.-The general manager of the Boston & Maine Railroad has issued an order to the effect that the twenty-five thousand employes of the road must be vaccinated. The company employs physicians to vaccinate the employes without charge, but those who prefer may be vaccinated elsewhere and present a certificate to the railroad company testifying to their successful vaccination.- Ibid.

LIBRARIES THAT DO GOOD.-There are a hundred ways in which money could be given for libraries where it would be of far more benefit and much better appreciated than in the stereotyped way of fashion. One such is indicated by the following excerpt from a paper by Warden W. A. Hunter, of Anamosa, Iowa:

"Another factor contributing to the happiness of unfortunates is the establishment of libraries of carefully selected works of fiction, history, biography, science, literature, etc., giving a means of pastime, recreation, and instruction, and likewise showing a healthy condition of public sentiment in whatever contributes to the amelioration of the conditions surrounding public wards. As an indication that this is appreciated it is but necessary to state that the library at the penitentiary at Anamosa last year issued 29,246 books, almost as many as the Cedar Rapids Public Library, which circulated 33,939 for the same period in a city of 25,000 inhabitants, against a prison population of 500."-American Medicine.

Special Notices.

THE usefulness of good Hypophosphites in pulmonary and strumous affections is generally agreed upon by the profession.

We commend to the notice of our readers the advertisement on third cover page of this number. "ROBINSON'S HYPOPHOSPHITES," also "ROBINSON'S HYPOPHOSPHITES WITH WILD CHERRY BARK" (this is a new combination and will be found very valuable), are elegant and uniformly active preparations, the presence in them of quinine, strychnine, iron, etc., adding highly to their tonic value.

FOR the convenience of physicians Messrs. H. Planten & Son, the well-known capsule manufacturers of New York, have just issued a list, with detailed formulas, of capsules and "perloids" of sandal oil and its various combinations, which is so full of valuable hints to the profession that we suggest you write for a copy. It is one of the most instructive price lists we have yet seen of this class of pharmaceuticals. Address your request to Messrs. H. Planten & Son, 224 William Street, New York, and mention this journal.