him to miss them more than any equal number of other remedies if they were withdrawn from his command, inevitably feels that the neglect of the general profession to employ or advocate these therapeutic resources is an undesirable disregard of medical progress.

If it is not the duty of physicians to follow close in the footsteps of advancing medical science, the motive for clinical observations, laboratory researches, and the devotion of genius and labor to improving therapeutics falls to the ground. JENNER'S immortal benefaction to the race involved not only the discovery of vaccination, but its general adoption among civilized people.

About 1840 there was completed the great work begun by FARADAY in 1831, which gave us a remedy for, among other things, muscular rheumatism-about as sure to relieve it as vaccination is to prevent smallpox. But take your library textbooks and run

tions are made, that douches, iodine, astringents, caustics, tonics, and so-called sedatives are resorted to with persistent devotion on the part of the patient, yet does not the message of electro-therapy also bid us hearken to its unmistakable service in these cases? Between the indications for a surgeon's knife and the wellnigh useless routine of topical treatment of certain chronic uterine conditions there is a field unoccupied successfully by any therapeutic agent except electricity.

APOSTOLI, GAUTIER, and about two hundred other physicians have taught and demonstrated to the world for at least twelve years that particular galvanic methods will relieve certain states of the pelvic organs which no other medical measures will so satisfactorily combat. It would seem to be the duty of the general profession to keep step with such progressive and beneficial therapeutics Nevertheless the number who do so does not exceed 2

down the list of lotions, liniments, firing, aquapuncture, acupuncture, counter-irritants, and internal remedies variously advised for this ordinary but annoying complaint. Electricity will indeed receive. casual mention by the majority of authors, but how small a proportion of physicians give their myalgic patients as prompt relief as the proper use of an induction or static current will afford? In paralysis also, and in neuralgias, pains of many sorts, in chronic cachexias, hysteria, insomnia, and other typical states in which "electricity" is an invaluable aid to treatment, do not most patients wait in vain for their medical adviser to prescribe what is often demonstrably the most potent remedy indicated in the case? Take hystero-neuroses for example, or any of the formidable variety of pelvic affections which are long and faithfully treated by tampons and pessaries throughout the length and breadth of our land.

Granted that somewhat more extensive applica

per cent. of the total. What is the net result to patients of the conservatism (?) of, the remaining 98 per cent.? 98 per cent.? Is there any moral responsibility in the case? Probably the laity would consider that there was

In other pelvic conditions much valuable service is also rendered, when medicine wholly or partly fails, by secondary-coil currents of special character. They allay pain, establish a local anesthesia, combat venous engorgement, relieve congestion, increase peristalsis, hasten the absorption of effete products, or, in greater volume and less frequent periodicity will stimulate functional tone, activity, and muscular strength of the parts to which they are applied. Similar and equivalent services will not be rendered by any other agent at the physician's command, yet the great majority of the profession still disregard and ignore the momentous clinical facts. Both the essential apparatus and the operative skill to use it are happily now within easy reach of the

practitioner. With less difficulty than he acquires the simple technique of minor surgery, for example, he can familiarize himself with a proper coil apparatus. It is important to recognize, however, that for this class of work an ordinary faradic battery is unfitted. Not only is it necessary to command currents of special quality and attributes, but the apparatus from which they are obtained must admit of a large variety of adjustments to meet the indications of various cases. The important relation between a proper induction apparatus and good clinical results is far from being universally appreciated at the present time. In many cases "family batteries" with a single cell, crude rheotome, and toy coil are employed in vain attempts to secure the same happy effects in pelvic neuroses, congestions, inflammations, etc. which clinicians who report such effects only obtain through the use of highgrade and scientifically constructed apparatus of the most improved type.

As well may we attempt to investigate a colony of microbes through a low-power lens as to accomplish through a low-power coil what only a hightension coil is qualified to do. It is a moderate estimate of the facts to say that probably not more than one faradic battery in every hundred in the hands of physicians at present is suitable for refined, skillful, and satisfactory gynecological treatment. It is less than three years since really adequate apparatus was available at all.

Two years ago not a single competent current controller for the regulation of high-tension secondary-coil currents was made; and while no therapeutic meter for such currents is likely to be invented in the immediate future, it has only been within a short time that any accurate substitute method of recording the treatment given has been proposed for clinical use.

Dissatisfied with every faradic apparatus formerly constructed, and finding them all open to various grave objections, I finally devised and have had. made for me by the Jerome Kidder Manufacturing Company, New York city, a portable high-tension induction apparatus which is entirely satisfactory and comprehensive for all purposes for which coil currents can be employed in medicine.

With a view to placing in the specialist's hands an effective and impressive office apparatus, entirely dissociated in the patient's mind from the frequently discredited ordinary coil batteries in common use, I have designed a switchboard, as seen in the cut, on which only the adjusting parts appear.

The superiority of such an arrangement over the well-known humpbacked faradic box is unmistakable to the physician who has to encounter the mental idiosyncrasies of certain classes of cases. Patients who have tried faradism" with alleged injury and are prejudiced against it find no suggestion of their bête noir in this impressive and unfamiliar switchboard. This is a not unimportant point when longcoil bipolar sedation is imperatively indicated and there is no alternative procedure equally efficient.

The improved apparatus which bears my name also contains the original secondary-circuit rheostats suggested by the author which are calibrated to permit the accurate report of every application made in practice. The method of dose-registration suggested by me is the first to conform to scientific conditions of electrical measurement. But a complete account of this detail of technique cannot come within the limits of this paper. The application of the point involved in these remarks is not limited to any branch of therapeutics; it applies to all.

In conclusion, it may be stated as a legitimate expression of fact, that what is now most urgently required at the bedside of the invalid is not so much further advancement in laboratory medicine as more generally diffused and accurate knowledge of the clinical results already obtained by demonstrated methods, and an appreciation of the bearing of these results and methods upon medical practice. Brooklyn; 865 Union street.

Gunshot Wounds in the Transvaal.-The recent crisis in the Transvaal, as shown by the report of Prof. LIEBMANN, Secretary-general of the St. John Ambulance Association in South Africa, is responsible for about forty cases of gunshot wound. The report chronicles some unique data for students interested in this class of injuries, of which the following is a summary: Wounds made by the Lee-Metford rifle were much cleaner and healed more quickly than injuries inflicted by any other weapon. One burgher, shot through the lungs, left the hospital convalescent the next day, and another, shot through the head, lived for ten days afterward. The Lee-Metford bullet completely shattered bone it came in contact with, and did little injury where the wound was confined to the fleshy parts, while the Martini-rifle bullet made large, jagged, ugly wounds with bad apertures of entrance, and worse of exit. The Lee-Metford is, therefore, conceded to be inferior to the Martini rifle.

X-rays and Bacteria.-Surgeon-General STERNBERG, U. S. A., is reported to have said, in discussing the possibility of the application of the X-rays to the destruction of tuberculosis bacilli? "It is not

impossible that the Röntgen rays may prove to have a certain germicidal value. It is well demonstrated that exposure to direct sunlight does destroy pathogenic bacteria. The electric light gives a similar result. There is also some recent experimental evidence showing that a strong electric current may destroy the vitality of bacteria; but in proving the germicidal power of electricity it has not thus far proved to be available for the treatment of infectious diseases, and it is entirely doubtful whether the Xrays will be available for the destruction of disease germs in the bodies of living animals." SurgeonGeneral STERNBERG went on to say "that the publication of the report of the experiments of two prominent Chicago physicians appeared to be premature. The value of these experiments could not be, he said, estimated until a detailed account of the methods employed had been published. He had noticed that reports of experiments in some of the recent medical journals upon bacteria did not support the view that the Röntgen rays have any decided germicidal power. He was not prepared to accept the simple newspaper statement as to the result of the alleged experiments in Chicago.

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EXPERT-TESTIMONY ACT.-We publish in another column the contents of "An act to Regulate the Employment of Medical Expert Testimony in Criminal Proceedings," which was given a hearing before the State Assembly Committee on Judiciary on Wednesday, April 22. The act is the outcome of the deliberation of a special committee appointed for the purpose by the State Medical Society, and has the support of the Committee on Legislation, as well as that of a large number of alienists and medico-legal experts throughout the State. By the existing law it often happens in criminal proceedings that the prisoner suffers detriment from an inability to secure expert testimony in his own behalf. That the defendant should have every opportunity to prove his innocence is a fundamental principle in criminal jurisprudence; and although at present such a one may have counsel assigned to him by the Court, the counsel is at the serious disadvantage of being unable to controvert or explain the opinions of experts who are paid for by the District Attorney's office. In the present act, provision for experts is made simultaneously for both sides, so that there shall be an equal allotment in the number and standing of paid witnesses. The part of the bill which refers to the report of the experts is obscure. From the present

wording it is impossible to understand whether the experts are to express individual opinions or whether they are to act as a commission and give a final decision. We would suggest that this part of the bill be amended. Much unnecessary discussion will be avoided by the provision for the limitation of the examination of the expert witnesses to the matter in hand. The object of the bill is in every way necessary and judicious, and we hope soon to see it become a law.

LEAKY PRIVATE GARBAGE-CARTS.--The private garbage-cart, with its leaking wooden box, is still allowed to trundle its noisome load along our streets and scatter its filth on pavements otherwise clean and wholesome. Neither the Health Department nor the Street-cleaning Department, though both are responsible, seems to be capable of abating this nuisance.

But there is one feature of this business

that deserves special comment. The private garbage-cart is patronized chiefly, if not entirely, by the wealthy classes, who are thereby not required to separate the ashes and garbage in accordance with the sanitary ordinances, which are now rigidly enforced in the poorer districts. At the hours of the day when such thoroughfares as Fifth and Madison avenues, Fifty-seventh and other cross streets, are most thronged by fashionable pedestrians, the old uncovered and leaking garbage-cart of à century ago is gathering its filth in front of the homes of the wealthy, while the liquid portion runs freely out upon the street. If one notes the residences where the ashes and garbage are brought out in a festering mass, and dumped into this primitive cart, he will find that many are occupied by members of the Committee of Seventy, and that one has in front the insignia of the Mayor. It is a sad reflection upon the efficiency of our health authorities that there should be under their jurisdiction a favored class of nuisance-makers. Our contention is that every private garbage-cart should be licensed and compelled to comply with sanitary regulations.

THE NEW WOMAN.-Considered from a scientific standpoint the new woman is bound to be a distinguished success. The BULLETIN is not referring now to the new woman evolved as the result of the labors of the enterprising gynecologists, or of the gentlemen who advertise so assiduously their ability to remove all physical imperfections, and to make an angel of a fiend; but to the woman who is fast encroaching on man's peculiar style of dress -that is to say, those portions of his attire which

are en évidence. We hail with delight the day when the long skirt will no longer sweep the streets of refuse-even though this process decidedly assists the Street-cleaning Department-bringing into our homes the products of disease, whether it be the germs emanating from man's expectoration or those peculiar to decaying plant-life and animal excreta. The bloomers, from a sanitary standpoint, are unquestionably not open to the charge which may be brought against the trailing skirt. Further still, in the warm season of the year, when many of the fair sex dispense with the wearing of the "unmentionables," their limbs and other organs are kept in a better condition as regards personal cleanliness when encased in bloomers than when simply loosely concealed by drapery. Gradually woman is returning to the condition of Mother Eve in matters of dress, as regards simplicity, setting an example which possibly man, so far as he can, might to advantage follow. It is not for a moment to be thought that as woman encroaches on man's dress he is going to forsake his for that which she discards. On the contrary, as woman dispenses, in a measure, with attire of an unnecessary character, why should not man, in this climate at any rate, dress more in accordance with comfort, to say the least, during the heated spell? The graceful toga in the month of August will make him more comfortable, and therefore more equable, than do the stiff starched shirt and tight trousers. Altogether it would seem as though the new woman were not only on the road to bettering herself, but that she was also instructing man in regard to a more sensible method of attire. Let the good work go on, provided the horrible things predicted in the lay press as resulting to man do not see the light of day. Perhaps, in order to advance the cause of sanitation, however, there are medical men who will gladly stay at home and "tend the baby," while the fair sex is interesting itself in matters concerning the reform of hospitals and dispensaries, of which up-to-date man has made such a ghastly

failure.

HOSPITAL FOOD AND COOKING.-In connection with the recent complaints by certain members of the resident staff of one of our city hospitals against the quality and preparation of the food of the institution, facts were brought out that proved the standard of the rations supplied to be up to the requirements, but showed the preparation of the food to be unskillful and unsatisfactory. The matter-of-fact way in which these gentlemen discussed the prepara

tion of the hospital food points to the conclusion that a discrepancy exists somewhere in the particular executive branch of the institution in question that controls the administration of the hospital mess, and that at least some members of its staff do not appreciate the importance of the relation of food and its preparation to the treatment of diseased conditions. It would seem, moreover, that the attention of that body is thoroughly absorbed in combative measures of treatment, to the exclusion of the all-important matter of diet and food for the patient; else the employment of a cook having little or no knowledge of practical cookery would not be tolerated for a time sufficient to breed discontent among resident physicians, who, it is claimed, get choice dishes from the hospital kitchen. Patients must fare worse!

At least an elementary knowledge of practical cookery and the preparation of food for the sick should be part of the education of every physician, and a thorough knowledge of the chemistry of cooking is as much a factor in his education as is antisepsis; but it is not given the attention it should demand, and in some cases is treated entirely as a secondary consideration. This is evidenced and emphasized by the way in which the subject is ignored by at least one of our institutions.

In the smallest of our army hospitals, at posts away from civilization, where the straight Government ration is supplemented only by a supply of fresh beef, the greatest attention is paid to the preparation of food for patients. In the first place, the hospital steward is, ex officio, chef de cuisine, and his appointment to that position is made upon successfully passing a searching technical examination, in which the chemistry of cooking and a practical knowledge thereof form a material point. The cook is instructed by the hospital steward, and the latter is responsible for the proper preparation of every dish that leaves the hospital kitchen. We will venture the assertion that hospital cooks of the United States Army are better trained in practical cookery and have a better understanding of the theory of cooking than the majority of chefs of our better-class hotels. The army cook under the new régime would laugh at the idea of starting his soup with boiling or hot water, or his boiled beef with cold. He knows the function of baking powder and of yeast in breadbaking, and can tell you why he does not use them in his pie-crust.

Civil hospitals, surrounded by conveniences as they generally are, should have at the head of their culinary department a cook capable of preparing