ROCHESTER STERILIZING OUTFIT AN INSTRUMENT STERILIZER. A WATER STER- A DRESSING STERILIZER. Additional Water Sterilizer if All fitted to a neat, "chronic shock." The heart is weak and unresponsive to demands on its energy, the blood-vessels are in a state of atonicity, and the blood pressure is dangerously affected by every mental or physical influence. Under these conditions it is apparent that the la grippe convalescent is not only constantly menaced by serious heart or circulatory depression, but by many acute diseases as well. The great need is supportive and restorative treatment, and few remedies will be found as promptly useful in this direction as Gray's Glycerine Tonic Comp. It furnishes the heart with just the right kind of aid it urgently needs, tones the blood-vessels, and promotes normal restoration of all bodily functions. In simple language, Gray's Glycerine Tonic Comp. is a dependable means of helping weakened cells and tissues to recover their vital balance. POST-HEMORRHAGIC ANEMIA. The anemia which follows the hemorrhages of trauma, gastric or intestinal ulcers, epistaxis, child-birth, profuse menstruation or hemorrhoids, presents a clinical picture that is well known. Examination of the blood immediately In this day of competition, the best equipped man in the medical profession is the one who becomes a success. By this it is meant not only mental equipment, but office equipment as well. He must be prepared to give his patients full service, else they will go to some other man who is properly equipped. The physician whose office is equipped with the Allison System is inferior to none. It will pay any physician to write to W. D. Allison Company, Indianapolis, and get full particulars concerning their system of supplies as used in the physician's office. Saunders' Forthcoming Books. Messrs. W. B. Saunders Company. medical publishers, of Philadelphia and London, announce for publication before June 30th a list of books of unusual interest to the profession. We especially call the attention of our readers to the following: Bandler's Medical Gynecology-Treat after a hemorrhage shows no dispropor- SAL HEPATICA tion of the cellular elements, but exam- The original efferves- in eliminating toxic products Write for free samples. ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT DR. R. B. WAITE'S Antiseptic Local Anaesthetic 1st. IT IS ABSOLUTELY PURE. Each and every ingredient that enters into its composition must meet the requirements of our chemist, being subjected to a rigid chemical test before it is accepted from the manufacturer. 2nd. IT IS UNIFORM. Owing to the great care and scientific methods employed in combining the ingredients, it does not vary and you get the same results to-day, to-mor row or a year hence. 3d. IT IS SAFE AND RELIABLE. No impurities are being injected when using Dr. R. B. Waite's Antiseptic Local Anæs thetic. Our guarantee of absolute PURITY is your protection. 4th. IT WILL NOT DETERIORATE, but will keep for years, consequently you always have ready to your hand not only a perfect Anæsthetic, but Antiseptic as well. Dr. I. N. Cohen, of LaCrosse, Wis., under date of March 19, 1908, writes: "Last December a patient presented herself to me for examination of a wound on the right side of her face. I found that she was suffering from Carcinoma which had been operated on some two years previously. As the patient was 72 years of age and feeble, I doubted very much if she were able to stand chloroform, consequently decided to use your Anesthetic. The operation lasted one hour and twenty minutes, during which time the patient cracked a joke once in a while, and claimed that she felt no pain whatever. The cancer was completely removed, and the best of it all is, it has not reappeared. I shall never feel that my dispensary is complete without your preparation." We want you to know our Anæsthetic as we know it, to be convinced of its unquestionable value in surgical operations, consequently we will send you for trial ONE DOLLAR BOTTLE FREE upon receipt of 25 cents to pay for packing and postage. PRICE-1 oz., $1.00; 6 ozs., $5.00; 12 ozs., $10.00; 20 ozs., $15.00. The Antidolar Mfg. Co. 68 Main St., Springville, N. Y. BRANCH: 498 Argyle Ave., Montreal, Quebec. ing exclusively of the medical side of this subject. Bonney's Tuberculosis. Volume II, Kelly and Noble's Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery. Volume IV, Keen's Surgery. Gant's Constipation and Intestinal Obstruction. Schamberg's Diseases of the Skin, and the Eruptive Fevers. John C. DaCosta, Jr.'s, Physical Diagnosis. Todd's Clinical Diagnosis. Camac's Epoch-Making Contributions in Medicine and Surgery. All these works will be profusely illustrated with original pictures. Medical Emergencies. A Great Society for Coping with the Emergencies of Peace and War. The National Volunteer Emergency Service, instituted in 1900, has recently been reorganized by the election of Dr. James Evelyn Pilcher, the distinguished editor of The Military Surgeon, as its Director-General, and Dr. F. Elbert Davis, of New York, as its AdjutantGeneral. Its work will be conducted along military lines, the details being worked out in three separate Corps, a First Aid Corps, a Public Health Corps, and a Medical Corps-the latter consisting of physicians, with rank from lieutenant to colonel, according to length of service, to whom are afforded special opportunities for emergency training. It includes among its personnel a large number of notable personages, and is rapidly extending its membership throughout the country. Full details regarding the service and its great work may be obtained by addressing DirectorGeneral Pilcher at Carlisle, Pa. Noitol in Eczema. Noitol is a remedy which overcomes the local inflammation in eczema, and at the same time it has no equal in stopping the itching which destroys sleep, and often transforms the life of the eczematous patient into a nightmare. It is used in the various kinds of eczema, eczema rubrum, eczema siccum, eczema capitis, etc. Noitol is applied to the diseased areas three or four times daily. Its use will be attended with rapid recovery of the afflicted patient. As in all methods of dealing with eczema, some attention should be paid to the correction of dietary errors.. This excellent preparation is made by the Wheeler Chemical Works, 90 Wash. ington street, Chicago, Illinois. The Medical Brief A Monthly Journal of Practical Medicine. VOL. XXXVI. ST. LOUIS, Mo., JULY, 1908. No. 7. WHAT MEDICAL JOURNALS CAN DO TO REFORM MEDICO-LEGAL INQUIRIES. BY R. B. H. GRADWOHL, M. D., St. Louis, Mo. Editor of THE MEDICAL BRIEF. [Paper read before the Thirty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Editors' Associa tion, held at the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, Ill., May 30 to June 1, 1908,] Among other things, it has always been considered the heaven-born privilege of the editorial writer to bring about reform. This is my apology for bringing before this association the need of reformation of the medical expert in general, the raising of this expert from his present lowly position, and again the necessity of doing away with the present obsolete and improperly constituted coroner's system; last, but not least, the institution of better methods of teaching legal medicine in our medical schools. It is proper and timely for this body to give serious consideration to this matter, so that, as in all things, the press may lead the way and blaze the trail for a better condition of affairs along this line. I am confident that the united action of medical editors will do more good in this direction than any other method of attacking the question. In some quarters, spasmodic attempts at enforcing certain kinds of legislation against the evil have. been made, but all have been singularly and uniformly unsuccessful. In the discussion of this matter, I wish to refer to conditions and causes. I shall offer remedies and hope to have your assistance with other remedies to meet the condition and restore the "patient" to a normal state of health. By "patient" in this instance, of course, I mean the medical expert. And the diseased condition in which he finds himself is that. lowly position to which he has sunk in the eyes of the bench, bar and public. Every murder trial sees another page written upon the disrepute of the medical expert. He is flaunted in the public prints as the comic. piece de resistance of the trial. The cross-examination of these experts keeps the reportorial pencil busy, for the newspaper man views with almost fiendish glee the discomfiture of the expert under the lash of the cross-examiner. And in civil suits for damages, too, one sees often a hand-to-hand conflict of experts, each side fighting desperately, each contradicting the one and thus practically endeavoring to show that there are no known facts in medicine. Sometimes the battle is terminated with vic tory for one side and confusion for the other, and vice versa. More often, however, there is a total disregard of the expert evidence offered by both sides and the jury decides the case on other points. Yet the same experts rush on to testify in other cases, callous, regardless of the lightness with which the previous jury received their testimony, indifferent and unabashed. The customary method of their employment is largely responsible for the partisanship of most experts in giving testimony. Many experts are attracted to testify in a certain cause and along certain lines because they know that they would not be employed if their views were not in consonance with those of their employer, i. e., the views that he wishes the jury to believe. They wittingly or unwittingly, as you please, bend their knowledge and their viewpoints to run parallel with the proposition to be proven, instead of having a presentment of the facts of the case before them, and giving their impartial opinion on this presentation, with the privilege on the part of the lawyer to accept or reject their particular expert views. Lawyers are keen to take advantage of this vacillating character of experts and often trap the unwary into committing themselves on a proposition, leading them gently along their own line of reasoning and finally binding them to the cause with fetters of gold by means of a munificent fee. The oft-repeated boast of lawyers that they can get. experts to prove any proposition in medicine, whether it is true according to authority or not, provided there is enough money on hand to buy in said experts, is a living confirmation of this question. The partisan witness takes refuge behind the disputed and moot points in medicine to cover his shame, yet there are many points in medicine that have been scientifically proven, and when brought face to face with such questions, there is no extenuation for the biased medical expert. This method of employing experts is bad, for few there are who can resist the almost unconscious desire to have the side win that pays their hire. High-minded, indeed, is the individual who can give damaging evidence against the side that employs him, and the chances are that he would never again be employed as an expert by that particular lawyer; yet a fair reputation made in this way would certainly result in frequent employment when lawyers really wanted to present the truth in their respective cases at bar―occasions not as infrequent as one would imagine. There is no reason on earth why a medical man should for one moment allow another to dictate his opinion. The cultivation of a high standard of morals and the faculty of truth-telling seem to lie at the basis of reform of partisanship. Another point that I wish to make here as calling for reform is the inadequate method of teaching legal medicine in our American medical schools. In but few colleges is this chair recognized as a most important part of the curriculum. In most instances, there is a so-called chair of medical jurisprudence, held by a member of the legal profession. This professor gives his students a series of lectures on the laws relating to the proper practice of medicine, paying attention to the rights of the patient and showing the legal responsibilities of the future practitioners to their clientele. This professor says little or nothing at all regarding the medical man as a court witness. On the contrary, he usually goes out of his way to avoid this question. Why? Either because he takes it for granted that the students learn all about this matter from some other teacher or because he, like most lawyers, is not at all disposed to alter the present system of medical expert testimony-giving. The average lawyer when asked his views on the medical expert question, side-steps and refuses to be drawn into a discussion. In other words, a large number of legal gentlemen are seemingly content with the present method of getting physicians to testify as they (the lawyers) want them to testify, evidently fearing that an awakening of the medical professional conscience will deprive them of valuable allies when they have an untenable and ordinarily hopeless point to prove. While this view smacks somewhat of an accusation against the members of the bar at large, certainly their general attitude on this question warrants it. There are but few schools in this country that attempt to give a proper course of legal medicine, a course which in first order would give instruction upon the ethics of medical expert testimony, where the students should be taught that the lessons that they have learned at the knees of their parents regarding truth-telling should be followed up when they take the stand before a tribunal of justice. They should be drilled in the course on legal medicine into believing that their opinion on a medical fact should be the same, whether given in their consultation chamber, in the sick chamber or in the court room. Next, they should be taken over the ground on the proper performance of legal autopsies, the detection of poisons, the detection of blood stains. and seminal stains by all the latest biological methods; the signs of drowning, matters relating to the still-born child, the crimes of feticide and infanticide, etc. This would properly constitute the technical side of the course and stands not less in importance to that part devoted to the training of the medical students in the ethics of their testimony. Where can we find men of sufficient training to give such a course as I have outlined? They must be recruited from the ranks of those who have held official positions like autopsy physicians in coroners' offices of the land. While it is true that the average coroner's autopsy physician is often very poorly equipped in training to hold his position and do his work properly, still there is growing up here and there a class of competent men who manage to drift into these positions, even though they are purely political in method of appointment. While on this point, I can not refrain from criticising in no uncertain terms the customary coroner's office in an American municipality. In the first place, the coroner's office |