The Physician at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.-I.

Three different persons were trying to direct the Western stranger to the Anthropological Building and each gave a different route. We are not sure but that they all were cor. rect, but the tendency of mankind to graft their own ideas on those of others was strikingly exemplified. So we will be pardoned if we also give some of our impressions of the Louisiana Purchase Expositions hoping that our foot-prints might be seen and serve as a guide for other physicians who will visit the World's Fair, during the summer.

In the first place, medical displays are found everywhere; you can't miss them. The baby incubator on the Pike and the ova of the Anopheles in the Department of Entomology may serve as the extreme examples of exhibitions which may be interesting even to the ultra-scientific physician.

But each physician has a hobby. Some will spend days in studying Architectural Designs, others will find the Building of Fine Arts the most entertaining, still others will get most delight in the problems of Anthropology, and the Iggorotes and Esquimaux will be the center of attraction.

We found a whole day's pleasurable study at the Department of Anthropology. The geologist or paleontologist, and the many physicians who dabble in one or both, will forget the attractions of the Pike when studying the thoroughly classified objects of prehistoric man. It is wonderful how our prehistoric ancestor interests us, when possibly some of us entirely ignore some cousins, or are in ignorance of a greatuncle, not to speak of the neglected mother-in-law. Still, from the size of the crowds we were inclined to believe that the modern foreign races are still more attractive, judging from the crowds found in the Egyptian village, the Phillippine colony, or the Indian Schools. My young friend Dr. X., remarked that he found more inspiration in studying the Egyptian dancing girls than the mummies of the Egyptian kings. Perhaps, he is correct, but, he is young.

This is the first of a series of three papers written by the Editor on the Medical Aspect of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

We found one disciple of Esculapius lost among the splendor of the Parisian costume exhibit. We heard afterward that he was married, and his wife knows how to get him interested in useful knowledge. After this we felt no surprise when a physician bought a Japanese $1,000 vase.

But we started to write of medical things at the Exposition, and we constantly drift into another stream. That is the principal difficulty among the exhibits; you lay down a certain route or arrange a series of studies for the days and you as constantly drift into something else. Perhaps, you are studying the chemistry of sugar in the Education Building, and wonder if raffinose, a sugar found in sugar beets but not in sugar cane, may be beneficial in certain cases of diabetes, when you are suddenly attracted by a strong beam of light in the center of the Palace, you must investigate, and find a Yale University Professor give stereopticon demonstrations of the stellar phenomena.

Perhaps, you are absorbed in digesting certain morbidity tables in the German Hygienic Exhibit in the Palace of Liberal Arts, when the martial strains of a brass band near by attract you, you investigate, and find the magnificant musical exhibit of a French company. Or you are intently studying the gross anatomy of the stegomya fasciata in the Government Building

when the rattle of machinery takes you to the manufacture of gold coins. Consequently, it is impossible to study medical things at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition without having them mixed with art and industry. It

is a kaleidoscopic panorama, which does not resemble a college lecture room, much less a research laboratory. This only makes it the more attractive, the few moments of professional interest are followed by an excitation of our artistic sense.

Are you interested in the milk qustion. Go to milk laboratory in the Education Building, and find how dirt can be kept out of milk; the most important thing about milk from a hygienic point of view. But you can study the bacteria of milk, the ingredients of milk, etc., etc.

Are you interested in biologic Medical Products? In the same Palace you will find the different products of the Japan Imperial Institute, the German Institute and H. K. Mulford & Co. There are antityphoid sera and vaccins, vaccins for dysentery and cholera, toxins and antitoxins. The methods of vaccinating animals and lesions produced are demonstrated by Anatomical Specimens and Wax Models. The lesions of variola, varicella and varioloid are splendidly shown by H. K. Mulford & Co. You may be interested in Sato's (Japan) vaccinating utensils for a child. There are charts and photomicrographs everywhere. The whole history of modern medicine and sanitation is illustrated by graphic charts, and curves, statistical tables and colored cylinders and cones.

The German exhibit of Medical Sience is far above others in extent, especially is this true since, all the features are well classified and are grouped together.

The American exhibits in medicine and hygiene are scattered. They are found in the displays of the universities and the municipal government of states and cities. There is the Department of Health of the City of New York, of Massachusetts, Missouri, etc. Cuba has a special exhibit of its Health Department and its work. The University of Illinois has a fine exhibit of pathologic and anatomical specimens, and others will be found. But the exhibit of Germany comprising the display of many different manufacturers of medical instruments and models of the Imperial Medical Institutes, all together constitute an unrivaled exhibit and the practitioner can see the highest medical attainments exemplified in a thousand different ways. The principal German exhibit is in the Palace of Education, and a hygienic annex is found in the Palace of Liberal Arts. The former treats of practice and pathology, the latter of hygiene and balneology.

If the Germans excel us in medical research, their exhibition also excels all others in the variety of of subjects illustrated. Not only will the surgeon be interested in the apparatus, but especially in the beautiful Wax Models which vividly illustrate the different steps in some classical and many new operations. The Bassini operation for hernia which has become so well known and so highly valued; and the old operation for tracheotomy is elegantly illustrated by the side of a new operation for gastroenterostomy, or another giving the necessary details in extirpation of the larynx.

Perhaps, many of us have to learn that there is such an instrument as the esophagoscope, and that it is invaluable in the diagnosis of the diseases of the gullet. Some will be especially interested in the latest instruments for exploration of the bladder and urethra; but many more, even in a general way, will not fail to scrutinize the bacteriologic exhibit, coming, as it does, from the laboratories of Koch and Behring. Prof. Ordt has sent interesting specimens from the pathological laboratory; some are preserved in antiseptic fluids, others are pictured in wax models.

The rarer and interesting diseases of the skin, pictured in beautiful wax models will also be of general interest. It may be profitable for the general practitioner to have erythema