PUBLISHER'S RGE. In many instances the surrounddwellings ing conditions of city have rendered the construction of out-of-door bed-rooms impracticable, while in other cases the cost of such structures has been prohibitive. In addition to this, there are a number of disadvantages to actual out-of-door living, especially during very cold weather, which have to be taken into consideration. One manufacturer has succeeded in devising what is known as the Walsh Window Tent-a canvas arrangement which may be fitted to any window and which gives the patient out-of-door sleeping without taking him from his own room or his own bed. The head of the patient is actually out-of-door and yet the room is so slightly chilled that it is unnecessary to burden the body with the excessive amount of bed clothing necessitated when the patient sleeps on a porch. that Thomas Carlyle has said gratitude is purely an acquired trait in the human specie. He says that it is one of man's greatest virtues, but its absence in many quarters is based upon a purely natural condition; that when men are bereft of this gentle attainment it merely indicates that the animal, pure and simple, is still uppermost in such individuals. He says that the lion or the wolf, or the coyote, or the fox, know not native gratitude in a state, although the domesticated dog and the domesticated horse appear to possess it more than some humans do. ** * Injuries to the Child's Head during Labor.-Sachs in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal warns the obstetrician that, other things being equal, and the life of the mother not being in danger, it is wise to curtail the period of labor as much as possible, and not necessarily wait until the child's heart action becomes feeble. Many children might have escaped epilepsy, idiocy and paralysis if the period of labor had been properly managed. He is firmly convinced that protracted labor is the most powerful factor in producing epilepsy, idiocy, or paralysis in the newborn; one or often all of them are developed, and may be due to conditions present at the time of birth. further says that the medical men in attendance at confinements have for years followed a policy of indifferance toward the welfare of the child, and have allowed too many children to be born into the world after labor unnecessarily prolonged and in conditions that are a distinct disadvantage to society and to the individuals for the entire period of their natural lives. He Movable Kidney.-Prof. LucasChampionniers of the Paris Academy of Medicine believes that the numerous and variable symptoms met due with in movable kidney are particularly to traction upon the suprarenal glands. These symptoms may consist in severe disturbances of nutrition, with weakness and emaciation, reflex pains in various parts of the body, severe forms of The neurasthenia, and even marked psychical disturbances. Displacements of the kidney have been found notably frequent in cases of mental disease. Suckling has obtained marked improvement from operation in twenty such cases. chief benefit derived from surgical treatment is attributable to the fact that the kidney is rendered immovable. The results obtained by Championniere have been very satisfactory, even in severe cases, only two failures having been observed in sixty operations. In a paper on this same subject by H. A. Thompson of Edinburgh the writer says that he has obtained the most satisfactory results in the surgical treatment of movable kidney by employing a method which had been especially recommended by Harris of Chicago. The principal feature of this operation consists in forming a sort of shelf beneath the affected kidney. The technic is briefly as follows: An incision from the tip of the twelfth rib downward and forward in the line of the external oblique; separation of the fibres of the three layers of the perirenal fascia; removal of the perirenal fat from the lower pole of the kidney; then the insertion of sutures approximating the parietal peritoneum and anterior layer of the perirenal fascia and lumbar aponneurosis behind. *** Unexpected encouragement for President Roosevelt comes through the ten-year old son of my friend Hammond. Hammond is a club man, and his wife a clubophile, so, of course, their son Reginald must have a club too. A tent was provided in the back yard, and the club was organized among his younger cronies. So far, the functions of the club have been exercised in drinking super-saccharated lemonade and endeavoring to choose a name. This proved a more difficult task than was anticipated, but success has at last crowned their endeavor, for Reginald informed his mother the other day that they had found in the paper "a bully name," viz.: The AntiRace Suicide Club. May their number never grow less. PUBLISHER'S PAGE From Dr. JOHN H. HOLLISTER, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School.-"Thanks for the historic notes you have published on the early physicians. It is due them and the nation." 379 oses. Winter Coughs-Grippal NeurThat codeine had an especially beneficial effect in cases of nervous cough, and that it was capable of controlling excessive coughing in various lung affections, was noted before its true physiological action was understood. Later it was clear that its power as a nerve calmative was due, as Bartholow says, to its special action on the pneumogastric nerve. Codeine stands apart from the rest of its group, in that it does not arrest secretion in the respiratory and intestinal tract. In marked contrast is it in this respect to morphine. Morphine dries the mucus membrane of the respiratory tract to such a degree that the condition is often made worse by its use; while its effect on the intestinal tract is to produce constipation. There are none of these disagreeable effects attending the use of codeine. Antikamnia has also stood the test of exhaustive trial, both in clinical and regular practice and has been proven free from the usual untoward after-effects which accompany, characterize and distinguish all other preparations of this class. fore antikamnia and codeine tablets afford a very desirable mode of exhibiting these two valuable drugs. The proportions are those most frein the various, neuroses of the larynx as well as the coughs incident to lung affections, grippal conditions, etc.-The Laryngoscope. indicated quently I have tried it in many nervous affections and in Epilepsy of In long standing. some it is a specific, in others a therapeutic, agent of great value.-From W. L. There LIFE'S COME DIES. A Farewell Owed. These verses were written by the retiring Managing Editor as his last contribution to THE CLINIC under the present management. It is sincerely hoped that our readers will ponder over them carefully, not overlooking in the beauty and rythm of the masterpiece the dominant thought contained. We should be glad to receive many acknowledgements of a true appreciation of poetic effort which will be readily recognized by the opening clause of your letters: "I remit herewith." I have closed my desk on my work tonight And the key I have thrown away, And the sissors and paste, I have pawned the things My friends of a recent day. And I turn me now to the peaceful course Of the doctor in common life, With no other trials than the sick and halt And debts and an irate wife. And my student lamp that I've labored by Gives a pale and a sickly light, And my mind is filled with a flood of thoughts Of my past eight years, tonight. There were good fights won, there were true things said, There were prosperous days and we had our times When on harsh, rough seas we tossed. There were words of praise from our genial friends, With care and with smiles, with mirth and woe, And a bevy of libel suits. And back in the mist of the yesterday, I think as I sit tonight, I hear the voice of a reader say, In words that were most polite: And it is the afterwhile tonight-. THE CHICAGO CLINIC AND Pure Water Journal. (Established 1887.) Edited by MARCUS P. HATFIELD, M. D., and GEO. THOS. PALMER, M. D. With the Collaboration of Dr. L. Blake Baldwin, Chicago; Dr. George F. Butler, Chicago; Dr. Collaborators on Mineral Springs and Climate. Dr. Guy Hinsdale, Hot Springs, Virginia; Dr. A. N. Bell, Brooklyn, N. |