which will tend to lessen sickness and mortality rates. The old theory that running water in a stream would purify itself in a small number of miles has been exploded. There are certain inexorable laws of Nature which cannot be violated with impunity. A robbery of the land without corresponding restitution will be followed by disaster. The deforesting process of the present century must cease and a reforesting undertaken. Such changes are in the interest of a higher and better civilization, and will lead to a positive improvement of the human race.

Man's greatest battles are to be fought with deterioration and degeneration as the enemy. Farmers know by experience, which is nothing more nor less than empiricism, that all grain crops have a constant tendency to "run out." The best species of wheat that ever were raised, if sown upon the same land year after year, will soon show evidences of deterioration and exhaustion. Usually this is first manifested in a softness of straw, while the grain itself for a brief period retains its plumpness. Next the yield of grain becomes less and less, until actual sterility takes place. A remedy is found in a rest of the land by a change of crops, and then a regeneration of the grain by change of seed or species. In a similar way potatoes; same species in same ground runs out," becomes sterile. This is a law of Nature that pertains to every vegetable, fruit, tree and plant that grows.

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The law of deterioration and degeneration is also found to exist in all animal life. Attempts at breeding "in and in" are followed by a fine system of nerve ganglia, with softness of muscle and nerve fibre, succeeded by sterility. The law holds good in the human race as in other animals; re

generation can only come through a transplanting to new fields, with new occupations for individuals and families. New blood by marital engagements is essential to perpetuity of family life.

As country products of every kind from the vegetable and animal kingdoms flow into and nourish the city, so the city must give up its sullage, sewage and animal life to the country for revivification and regeneration in the country.

Country youth, rich and awkward with brawn and red blood corpuscles, overloaded with energy and power, are needed in every occupation, while in turn their fine-fibred progeny, if they would live in after-generation, must seek a recuperation and regeneration in country environments.

This is God's

law, and His mandates cannot be violated in any particular without a corresponding retribution. Hence, it becomes the province of municipal authorities to practically recognize such immutable decrees, and send all children to country districts for school and other training. It is go and live or remain and die. For such reasons the writer advocates country schools for city children.

No country or nation can live within and off itself; it must expand in order to grow. To stand still means deterioration, sterility and eventual extinction. The United States, in proportion to its population, is at this time the strongest of all nations, because of an infusion of new blood through a continuous stream of immigration. It is this regenerating process that has given the people their remarkable vitality. This vital property, with its propelling energy, has driven hundreds of thousands to the cities, where, in the round of the life circle,

they have driven the Nation to the very front of the world's influences.

Knowledge is just as much a power as it ever was, and its adaptability to the conditions of modern life must find

its exposition in a sufficient recognition of sources of regeneration to make the Nation continue to live up to its highest and best attainments. Knowledge of scientific developments is neighborly and social. An hour's ride to a business office or other employment is common for troops of men; nor is this too long a period for children to be on the way to and from school a length of time that would be sufficient to carry on a trolley car any child from any part of the city to the country. In this way the city is able to make a restitution whereby there will come a regeneration of the people that will strengthen the Nation.

VITAL STATISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES CENSUS.

Physicians and students of mortality statistics will be interested in learning of the work now being accomplished by the Chief Statistician of Vital Statistics of the United States Census, by the authority of the Director, Hon. William R. Merriam. It is a practical effort, necessarily of limited scope, to secure the adoption of a uniform certificate for the return of deaths and looking toward the establishment of a common national system of collection of vital statistics for the purpose, primarily, of the Census tables and publications.

Correspondence has been had by the Chief Statistician, Mr. William A. King, with the officers in charge of mortality registration in the States employing such a system, and in the cities having a population of 5,000 and more at the last Census which also collect and register death returns. Complete and accurate information of the different methods in vogue has been obtained, and it was found that there is much unnecessary and objectionable variation, considered from the Census point of view, in the form of official returns.

Having no power to compel co-operative action, and hampered by want of time in which to carry out the whole project, nevertheless the Census Office undertook to secure the modification or amplification of the death certificates so as to have them include the items necessary to obtain Census data. A model return form was prepared and submitted, with explanatory correspondence, to each registration office or officer controlling the preparation of the State or local forms.

The result has been more important and gratifying than even the Census Office expected, as not only have the items in the specimen form been very generally adopted, but the registration officers have abolished many practically obsolete local variations in their certificates, and the latter have been made to conform to one standard more nearly than ever before.

The promptness and willingness displayed by the State and local officers in complying with the request of the Director has been surprising as well as gratifying. The benefit that will result to the Census Office and to science from this first step toward the goal of national uniformity is incalculable, but it will be seen readily that the study of the natural law of the growth of the population is made easier and more certain.

The Director of the Census confidently expects that physicians everywhere will appreciate the desirability of the new order of things, and that they will earnestly and actively co-operate in securing prompt and accurate mortality returns of the uniform character required by Congress and sought for by statisticians. He recognizes the fact that failure on the part of physicians to give vitality to the common standard by carefully reporting the items that may be new to their certificate will be fatal to the end in view.

The United States Director of the National Census has undertaken to secure something like uniform mortality returns from every part of the country. This is a most commendable proposition. The form adopted is simple and explicit, and tells all that need to be known by vital statisticians. The Census Director, in the kindliest manner, requests the cordial co-operation of members of the medical profes

sion. This should be as cheerfully given as it is politely sought.

All broad-minded statesmen, political economists, students of sociological conditions of the people and physicians are alike interested in vital statistics. It is from this source alone that infor

mation relating to the health, virility and vitality of the Nation can be obtained. It is a master stroke of cleverness upon the part of the Census Director to attempt to obtain this information through the medical profession by an appeal to their special interest in this part of his work, and his appeal should not go unheeded. He should be met with a spirit similar to his own. Every registered physician in the United States will receive the necessary blanks, with instructions to fill and transmit.

This labor upon the part of the Census Director is made comparatively easy through an enactment of physicians' registration laws in most of the States since the last census was taken, and indicates the great value of such legislative measures. If all the States had uniform registration laws such vital statistics could be collected annually by the Nation at very little ex

Some Mastoid Cases. Dr. Jno. A. Thompson, Cincinnati.

Appointment of Committees.
Case Reports.

AFTERNOON SESSION-I P.M.

Admission of New Members.
Report of Treasurer.
Payment of Dues.

Miscellaneous Business.

A Consideration of Certain Drugs Com

monly Used in Disorders of Digestion. Dr.

Henry W. Bettmann, Cincinnati.

A Fibroid Tumor and What Became of It. Dr. Wm. Scott, Loveland.

Fifty Years of Practice. Dr. D. S. Lyman, Goshen.

Tetanus. Dr. T. A. Mitchell, Owensville. Some thoughts on Psychic Forces as a Cause and Cure of Disease. Dr. R. T. Trimble, New Vienna. Volunteer Papers. Case Reports.

OFFICERS.

Dr. H. A. Beeson, President, Leesburg. Dr. J. S. Combs, Vice-President, Owensville.

Dr. Con. W. Gatch, Acting Secretary, Milford. Dr. J. D. Wakefield, Treasurer, Loveland. Dr. Leonard Mounts, Censor, Morrow. Dr. A. Morris, Censor, Goshen.

Dr. Rufus B. Hall, Censor, Cincinnati. Dr. Wm. Scott, Committee on Arrangements, Loveland.

HEALTH REPORTS.-The following cases of small-pox, yellow fever, cholera, and plague have been reported to the Surgeon-General of the United States Marine Hospital Service during the week ending September 30, 1899:

Cinnamon as an Internal Antiseptic. Cinnamon is recommended as an internal antiseptic by Dr. C. G. Grant (British Med. Journal). When in Ceylon he discovered that persons working in cinnamon gardens seemed to be immune to malaria. On trial he found it valuable in gastro-enteritis, recurrent boils, and, he thinks, in typhoid fever. He was astonished by its wonderful influence in influenza, and earnestly recommends its free use by others.

SLIGHT rises of temperature after an operation, even in cases which give no septic results, warn the surgeon that he is probably erring in some way, and that his methods and material should be pretty thoroughly overhauled.-International Journal of Surgery.

Current Literature.

SELECTIONS FROM THE LATEST MEDICAL JOURNALS.

Collective Reports on Glycerinized Vaccine Lymph.

The recent widespread epidemic of smallpox in the United States has necessitated general vaccination which has afforded excellent opportunities to determine the exact actual and comparative value of glycerinized vaccine.

For the past ten months I have been collecting reports from the various infected districts in an effort to ascertain not only the actual value of glycerinized vaccine as a protective against smallpox, but its relative value compared with vaccine points, quills, crusts, and the older methods of producing vaccination.

Other objects to be determined were (1) the value of glycerinized vaccine as a preventive of smallpox; (2) the proportion of successful "takes in both primary and secondary vaccinations; (3) the relative frequency of compli cations, such as diffuse inflammation of the vaccinated area cellulitis, lymphangitis, lymphadenitis, ulcerations, abscesses, etc.-which so often follow the use of vaccine points.

The methods of inquiry adopted in this investigation, were by circularletter and personal inquiry, by large numbers of physicians throughout the country.

In a certain number of cases where wholesale vaccination was practiced, as for instance by health authorities, exact figures could not, for various reasons, be obtained. However, in such instances, the reports were conservative and were none the less illustrative and convincing.

In Baltimore, where for several months there has been a number of cases of smallpox, there were employed by the health authorities and physicians in private practice considerable over 100,000 tubes of glycerinized vaccine. Those vaccinated were periodically observed until the success or failure of the vaccination was determined. In not a

single instance did smallpox occur in a person vaccinated with glycerinized lymph. Conservative estimate places the number of successful takes as 95 per cent. in primary cases. The vesicles in most instances were typical and uncomplicated with staphylococcic and streptococcic infection. The number of excessively sore arms did not exceed 1 per cent. of the total number vaccinated.

In

In Minneapolis, in one series of 3,045 vaccinations with glycerinized lymph there were 29 failures, all of which were in secondary cases, i.e., those who had been previously vaccinated. the same city a second series of 3,875 vaccinations resulted in four failures in primary cases and in 51 failures in secondary cases. All the data collected from Minneapolis show a proportion of 95 per cent. of successful "takes" in primary cases and 75 per cent. in secondary cases.

Cleveland records show that a widespread vaccination was practiced. Both glycerinized vaccine and points were employed at the beginning until results proved the vast superiority of the glycerinized lymph, when points were almost entirely abandoned.

In one series of 20,000 cases vaccinated with the glycerinized product, there was an average of over 90 per cent. successful takes. Septic complications were almost entirely absent.

In Richmond, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, Va., no accurate records wére kept of results obtained, but in these three cities there were employed about 120,000 tubes of glycerinized lymph. Extensive inquiry concerning results obtained, place the successful takes over 90 per cent. In these cities the superiority of the glycerinized lymph over the points, in producing successful vaccinations and avoiding septic complications, were everywhere noted. The experience of the health authorities and physicians in private practice in Norfolk is particularly valuable. At the beginning of the smallpox outbreak, vaccine points of a standard make were employed extensively. In a large number of cases, smallpox in a virulent form occurred among patients who had

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been vaccinated with points. shows that the inflammatory reaction which took place at the site of vaccination, was due to staphylococcic infection and was not true vaccination.

From Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Chicago, Gloucester County (Va.), Pittsburg, Allegheny, Standwood, Ia., Lisbon, Ia., and over forty small towns throughout the country responses to inquiry show that while no accurate records were kept the glycerinized vaccine, in comparison with points, had proved so superior in producing successful vaccinations (averages from 90 to 95 per cent.) and in affording freedom from septic complications, that points had been largely abandoned in those places in which comparative tests had been made.

In Porto Rico, under the supervision of Dr. George G. Groff, Major and Brigade-Surgeon U. S. A., extensive vaccination was practiced. Vaccine points in this climate failed entirely, while glycerinized vaccine yielded about 90 per cent. of successful vaccinations.

Dr. R. T. Hammond, Jessup, Md., had vaccinated 236 patients with glycerinized lymph and had but one failure; no excessively sore arms resulted.

A series of 70 vaccinations in private practice in Indianapolis, with glycerinized lymph, showed successful takes in all but one case. No septic compli

cations.

Dr. F. V. Ely, of Pittsburg, secured 36 successful takes in a series of 40 vaccinations with glycerinized lymph. This is remarkable, inasmuch as at least one-third of these cases were secondaries.

Dr. F. A. Crosby, Beach Ridge, N. Y., reports 100 per cent. successful vaccinations with glycerinized lymph in a series of 60 cases. Sore arms were not noted.

Dr. G. G. Rusk, Baltimore, vaccinated 360 persons with glycerinized lymph and obtained a successful "take" in every instance.

Dr. C. T. Mattefeldt, Catonville, Md., employed glycerinized vaccine in a series of 157 cases, 20 per cent. of which were secondaries; 155 successful vaccinations resulted.