to unravel it, namely, Byron Robinson, in his recent book on the Pelvic and Abdominal Brain. It still remains, from a profounder standpoint, an unexplored and unutilized province of human physiology. Who can doubt that in its complex rationale are bound up all the momentous problems of surgical shock and of visceral disturbances, to say nothing of general variations in organic vitality?

All of these important matters are as yet terra incognita, and all of them constitute essential links in our present chain of knowledge and hypothesis-for under present conditions there must needs be a certain element of hypothesis in our so-called knowledge-concerning man and his diseases. For a time it seems as though the objective features of medical science-the laboratory and the microscope-have turned the tide of investigation away from these profounder problems. Here is a field for the stimulus of a great medical organization like the American Medical Association, which spends so much on internal politics and next to nothing on the promotion of real, helpful scientific work. It would be a far worthier channel for its money and its activities than fiddling over ethics and proprietary preparations.

THE TREATMENT OF AMENORRHEA.

BY JOHN ALBert Burnett, Barber, Ark.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRIEF.]

There is no doubt in my mind but what potassium permanganate is one of the very best remedies in the treatment of amenorrhea and the most certain emmenagogue we have. It has a specific action on the uterine tissue. Most physicians give one to two grains thrice daily in capsules with powdered elm or licorice. It is claimed that in pills it may explode. I have used it in tablet form with safety so far. In my opinion the dose at first should not be over one grain, and in most cases I think it best to use less than a grain at first, and increase the dose or frequency as needed. When there is much pain, one or two grains of powdered extract of hyoscyamus can be added to each dose of potassium permanganate. Hyoscyamus is one of the best remedies we have to relieve the pains of amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea.

Potassium permanganate is not a remedy to be continued very long; as soon as the flow is started sufficiently, it should be discontinued or used only often enough to keep the flow from stopping, if there is such a tendency. The best way to use it is to begin one to three days before the menstrual period is due.

The following compound is especially recommended, not only for young women who leave the country to attend school in the city and

have amenorrhea, but also for many other cases, especially where there is debility or constipation:

R Potassium permanganate..

Iron sulphate...

Quinine sulphate..

Aloin ....

I grain.

11⁄21⁄2 grains.

11⁄2 grains.

1/10 grain.

This is one dose to be given in capsule three times a day, beginning about three days before the flow is due and continuing until the flow is free enough, and then often enough to keep it about right, if needed. This can be repeated each month just before the flow is due for three or four months, if necessary.

Damiana was at one time considered a powerful remedy for impotency, but has proved to be somewhat disappointing. It has proved to be of value in menstrual disorders, especially in young girls at the time of the establishment of the function. It has a somewhat favorable influence in amenorrhea as well as dysmenorrhea by improving the general condition of the central nervous system. Damiana can be combined with saw palmetto with good results, especially if there is any underdevelopment of the sexual organs in young girls at the age of puberty. Saw palmetto is of value in establishing a free circulation in the sexual organs of both sexes. Intra-uterine medication as taught by Dr. C. Woodward, of Chicago, is of much value, but will likely not become very popular in country practice on account of having to be done by the physician, and women not wishing to submit to treatment as often as it should be done. However, in some cases where there is no objections to the treatment, it is of especial value with married women. Electro-therapeutics is of great value when properly used. Animal therapy, such as ovarian and thyroid preparations, has proved to be of value in amenorrhea and other menstrual disorders.

POISONOUS VEGETABLES.

The same bacterial substances may result in the presence of infected vegetables as in the case of the animal foods. The richer vegetables are in nitrogenous matter, the more likely is there to be a bacterial poison production, and, on the other hand, the more carbohydrates and sugar there is present in vegetables, the less likely is there to be such a contamination.

Again, poisoning may result in the case of canned vegetables from metallic substances, as when vegetables are tinned in lead, zinc or tinbearing receptacles. This is due to the acidity of the contents, which causes a solution of the metallic constituents of the container.

Another form of vegetable-poisoning is due to the ingestion of plants that are in themselves poisonous, such as mushrooms, ergot, vetch, etc.

RECIPROCITY BETWEEN THE STATE LICENSING BOARDS.

BY LESLIE MARTIN, M. D., Baldwinsville, New York.

[Written for the MEDICAL BRief.]

All the schools of medicine are founded on the same basis, namely, the study of anatomy, physiology and surgery.

These leading branches can only be taught in conformity with the structures and organs of the human body. Consequently the lectures on these branches must be practically the same, no matter with reference to the name of the school.

None of us ever knew that God created a man specially or individualized him for the allopathic, homoeopathic or eclectic, or with separate functions or organs, or be subject to diseases, applicable for each separate school and required different methods of study and treatment. All diseases are the same in the United States, and present the same symptoms and types. Every remedy used is the same in all schools, only the methods of application vary when applied to the treatment of the disease, and each physician makes his application of the remedy to conform to his judgment.

All branches except therapeutics are taught the same in all schools, and the same remedy is used in the same disease treated, only in its method of application of each school. Years of study and requirements are nearly the same, while each school is legalized and protected by the statute laws of the State in which it is located. Fractures and dislocations are treated in the same way in all schools, while diagnosis is also identical. It is better for the public that there are different schools of practice for the sick to choose from, as we could not force them to employ only one school of practice, no more than we can compel the people to have one church and one form of worship. The only and sole aim of all schools is to aid and promote the recovery of the sick. We have too much red tape, politics and jealousy at the present day, and it is a hindrance and clog to the profession, and they should annihilate it and then apply their time to the study of advancing the good of the sick and suffering. Do away with ostracism, and grant all schools equal rights recognized by the statute laws of each State, where located, and give them all a square deal.

Reciprocity should exist between all the States of the Union, of the three schools that use medicines in treating the sick, and if a physician from the Eastern States desires to locate in one of the Western States, or vice versa, all that should be required is to present to the county clerk of the county where he locates his diploma and license from his former State to establish his qualifications to practice his profession, and not compel him, as the medical boards do now, to pay the fee of $25.00 to be admitted to the board and have to pass a severe course of examinations as to his qualifications, when his diploma and license should admit him to practice.

How many of you physicians would oppose strenuously this course, if, after having been engaged in active practice for ten, twenty or thirty years, you would find yourself obliged for health's sake to locate in one of the Western States, when you have your well-earned diploma and yet forced to go before the board and pass a rigid examination to obtain a license to practice? I think very few of you could pass such examinations. Would you not be quite rusty? And yet the board would not let us practice, when we have been many years among the most successful physicians, and thoroughly competent to treat all forms of disease intelligently. Do you think that such physician would not know how to treat a case of typhoid fever in Illinois as well as he would in New York State, or would have to reduce a fracture or dislocation differently than what he had done for years and years? This law would be just as equitable and just to apply it strictly to the clerical and legal professions. All churches use the same Bible, only a different application in some denominations.

Our Protestant churches have begun a good work of federation in the United States, and commune with each other. (Let us follow their example.) The profession of dentistry has begun the good work of reciprocity, also. The State of New York has begun a good work by having one licensing board. Now let us be altruistic and let the good work go on, and have reciprocity of the three schools of medicine. The great hindrance to reciprocity in the past years has been the fact that the members of the medical profession have been envious and jealous of each other in general. The reason is very obvious, because the practice of medicine is an art and can never become a science. We have good laws in regard to foreign physicians who wish to engage in practice in the United States to protect us from imposters and the unqualified. Should such a condition. be tolerated in the three schools, when our laws are so lax as to permit such a large number of so-called physicians in towns and cities, who advertise so extensively their vaunted cures and practice on the credulity of the people? Should so many druggists be permitted to prescribe for the sick?

Let the three schools awake to their full duty to the sick and suffering, and cause a great reform in the medical profession, to overcome this class who are prescribing and treating the sick, and causing untold suffering and rendering curable cases incurable.

Schools should retain their distinctive names for the public to choose from, just as our churches do. Names of schools have no bearing on the use of remedies for the treatment of the sick. There is no law to prevent any physician from using in either school mental, physical or medicinal means or methods to benefit the sick and suffering.

The Hague conference has begun a good work of arbitration between nations who recognize each other and live in peace and harmony. Let the three schools of medicine follow their example, and unite to work in

harmony for the promotion of the welfare of their fellow beings in this present age of activity and constant change of location of the general public and physicians. This is the true spirit of altruism in the medical profession. Why does one State refuse to recognize a license granted by another, perhaps an adjoining State? In view of all of these positive facts let all duly licensed physicians be filled with a full spirit of true altruism. What is your answer, my brethren?

We have at present quite a number of States who now so believe and have entered into this compact of reciprocity.

I copy in full the reports from the States of Texas and Wisconsin concerning reciprocity.

Texas, from an editorial in the Recorder, says: "The Lone Star State is becoming a rival of Kansas for freak legislation. Their examining board is now composed of five allopaths, one osteopath and one physiomedicist and two homoeopaths. Inasmuch as the five teams are pulling in opposite directions, the examination must be a screaming farce.

"If such a board were to be abolished and one established to subject each doctor's diploma to a verification, throwing out all from freak colleges, there would be some protection to the public. However, this examination business is in an embryonic state, and it is to be hoped that if it must be continued that the day will come when once a man has passed his college and board examinations he will be permitted to practice in any part of the United States."

Wisconsin says: "Old doctors not in it," and is having apparently a nauseous dose of "examining board" tyranny, as witness the following from the Wisconsin Medical Recorder:

"The maneuvers of our professional board of health have succeeded in getting the law changed, so that all physicians who graduated over ten years ago are handicapped in changing their location. They must take an examination, and upon subjects that were not taught when they were in college. They must pass an examination in anatomy and chemistry, in competition with the recent graduate. They are expected to give the points of interest upon the petrous portion of the temporal bone or a plan of the brachial plexus; of course, all of my readers can do it off-hand (perhaps), as they have found it the most useful information that was taught them in college, and without this knowledge presumably they would not have been able to practice medicine successfully (?); but these questions are a fair sample of the rot that makes the doctor under the law. This law ought to be amended for the protection of the public. If Dr. Pills, for many years practicing in Swampville, is not a fit man to practice in Crosswoods without an examination, why should the people of the firstnamed place, where he has successfully practiced for many years, be denied the beneficent protection?"