"Whereas, Heredity plays a most important part in the transmission of crime, idiocy and imbecility;

"Therefore, Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, that on and after the passage of this act it shall be compulsory for each and every institution in the state entrusted with the care of confirmed criminals, idiots, rapists and imbeciles to appoint upon its staff, in addition to the regular institutional physician, two skilled surgeons of recognized ability, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the chief mental and physical condition of such inmates as are recommended by the institutional physician and board of managers. If in the judgment of such committee of experts and the board of managers procreation is inadvisable, and there is no probability of improvement of the condition of such inmate, it shall be lawful to perform such operation for the prevention of procreation as shall be deemed safest and most effective."

Within the first year after the law went into effect 296 perfectly successful vasectomies were performed in the State Reformatory. Neither local nor general anesthesia was found necessary and the prisoners did not have to lose one hour's time from their work. It is well to bear in mind that this operation leaves the man in full possession of his sexuality. He has the libido and organism, but is sterile and can not impregnate any woman. Semen is secreted, but it of course can not reach the ejaculatory duct and is reabsorbed. So far women have not been subjected to the operation of the law, though it is applicable to both sexes.-Medical Standard.

Sarcoma of the Orbit Cured by the X-Rays.

The occasional efficacy and at the same time the unreliability of the X-ray treatment of malignant tumors is admirably illustrated by a report of Van Duyse and Denobele (Arch. d'Ophthalmologie, Jan. 1909). The patient was a box of sixteen with a voluminous tumor of the right orbit which had destroyed the eye and was the subject of severe hemorrhages. There was pronounced marasmus and a number of small tumors had appeared at several points on the skin of the trunk. The tumor of the orbit was apparently completely cured by twelve ten-minute applications of the X-rays, while the tumors of the skin were not appreciably altered by twenty-four applications. It should be noted, however, that the tumors of the skin, although they had appeared two or three years after the tumor had started in the orbit, had progressed very slowly and possibly had undergone

some conective tissue transformation, while the original tumor, owing to its anatomical surroundings, or lack of surroundings, had been increasing steadily. The figures show the boy before treatment and after eight applications of the X-rays, during a period of about five weeks. In the course of eight days four exposures were given, one every other day. Then a period of fifteen days' rest followed and another course of four applications was given, etc. GIFFORD (Omaha).

School Work and Scoliosis.

Bradford, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, thinks the relation of school work to scoliosis is one which can not be overlooked as, Lange says, the schools are the great factories of scoliosis and it is the duty of instructors to help in the cure of scoliosis. That this may be done without interfering with instruction, Lange requires the co-operation of the educator with the surgeon. In Munich this is done by arrangements at the school by which active and passive scoliotic exercises, with and without apparatus, are carried on under the direction of a surgeon. These are practiced by the scoliotics half an hour a day, being supervised twice a week by a physician.

Where medical inspection at the schools is not possible, Lange advises the careful management of exercises at home under medical supervision. Results from work carried out in this way have been much better than where active and passive

correction was not carried out. He considers that physicians are at fault if they allow the many thousands of cases of light scoliosis to go untreated. By a proper arrangement the tax of time and care is not greater than can be borne by careful physicians. He considers it a social duty to meet the great and increasing number of scoliotics by an increasing energetic effort.

It is of interest to know that the city of Mainz undertakes the treatment of scoliotic school children and at the city's expense; in the year 1906 ninety-seven children were under treatment. The treatment is necessarily long and requires special adjustment of school hours.-Med. Standard.

Dermatitis Venenata Due to a Proprietary Hair-Dye.

I was called to see Mrs. E. W., November 4. For a week she had been treated for supposed erysipelas of the face, without benefit. The patient had a rapid pulse but normal temperature, the scalp and the face were much inflamed, of a dusky red, edematous, with a few scattered bullæ. The eyelids were swollen and closed, the eyes injected, smarting and extremely sensitive to light. The patient complained of a burning sensation (but no pain) and of general restlessness which had prevented her from sleeping during the last three nights. Applications of mud poultices and some other dark, sticky, ill-smelling "patent medicines" had succeeded in matting her hair into a felt-like mass and in making her decidedly worse. I diagnosed the case as dermatitis venenata, but was unable to discover the cause at that time. Under appropriate treatment the patient recovered quickly and on November 11 I discharged her cured. November 21 I received another urgent call to see her and found her in the same condition as the first time. Close questioning elucidated the fact that on the previous day she had dyed her hair with "Mrs. Potter's Pure Walnut-Juice Hair-Dye, warranted not to contain lead, silver, opium, etc.," and shortly afterward felt a burning sensation in her scalp, which was followed in a few hours by her present condition. She also acknowledged that her former similar experience followed closely on her first trial of the dye. Journal A. M. A. SCHALEK (Omaha).

Treatment of Rheumatism.

Lees states that rheumatic fever is as definite and distinctive, and as certainly microbial, as pneumonia or typhoid, one of the most virulent diseases of childhood, and never produces pus. We must give up the conception of acute rheumatism as a form

of arthritis of adults, with occasional metastases to the heart, and with certain peculiarities when it occurs in children. We inust insist on the conception that it is a microbial toxæmia most virulent in early life, in which the heart is invariably affected to a greater or less degree, but the joints slightly and often not at all, with the peculiarity that when it occurs in adults the most prominent symptom is often a painful arthritis. Any improvement in the treatmnet of acute rheumatism must be based upon the curative effect of sodium salicylate. It only cures rheumatic arthritis-a definite antagonism to the rheumatic process or microbe. But the doses given are usually so small that only the more easily checked manifestations of acute rheumatism-the arthritis and the pyrexia-are fairly controlled. The addition of double the amount of sodium bicarbonate to each dose of the salicylate will go far towards preventing the unpleasant side effects which deter physicians from giving large doses of the drug.-British Medical Journal.

A Brockton father was telling a shop friend of the recent arrival of an addition to his family.

"Oh, say, Pat, did you know that I have an eight-pound boy up to my house, and they say, too, that it looks like me."

Pat sized him up for a few moments and then sympathetically replied:

"Sure, and what's the harm, so long as it's healthy?”—

Brockton Times.

AT FOUR MONTHS.

First time he kissed me with wide open mouth
And tiny lips as soft as scarlet silk;

And with that kiss, like breezes from the south,
There came the faint, sweet scent of Mellin's milk.

AT FOURTEEN.

Next time he kissed me he began to bawl;

I bribed and coaxed-deceiver that I am

To get a kiss that was just after all

A mixture of bread crumbs and currant jam.

AT TWENTY-FOUR.

Third time he kissed me-ah the memories!
Some things, indeed, a woman ne'er forgets.
"Twas one of these that first love kiss of his,
So full of ardor-and stale cigarets.

AT FORTY.

Just now he kissed me and I'd almost vow
E'en at this crowning moment of our bliss,
That I'd discovered-do not ask me how!-
A cocktail lurking in that tender kiss.

The Tight Bandage.

By D. W. BEATTIE, M. D., Neligh, Neb.

This subject seems like a strange one and one which could be given many different constructions in a discussion, and possibly it would have served the present discussion better if I had taken for my subject the overtight bandage.

The student of medicine has been repeatedly warned in regard to the bandage which might be easily applied so tight as to interfere with the circulation. Especially is this true in the application of the plaster of paris dressing, from the fact that the wet dressing will certainly shrink when it dries.

Few of us, I hope, have been so unfortunate as to see the results of the overtight plaster bandage, yet when once seen the impression made by its work of destruction should make an impression upon our minds which will not be readily erased, and the object of this paper is to try and bring the facts before this society in such a manner that the dangers may be seen and appreciated as they have recently been seen and appreciated by the author.

As we were taught in school we have the impression that when a bandage is sufficiently tight to shut off the circulation the limb became gangrenous below the point of constriction and the case becomes one for amputation and that is all there is to it.

Now if the return circulation were entirely shut off, this would be the result, but I have recently learned that conditions may result from the tight bandage which will render the picture much more perplexing than any case which requires amputation, and the question of when to amputate, where to amputate, or whether to amputate at all becomes one of the extremely difficult questions to answer.

It is obvious that not all limbs in which the circulation has suffered, and consequent interference with vitality has taken place, should be amputated, and yet some of those which you try to save may tax your judgment more than you would expect when you make the first examination.

Of course the bandage may be so tight that the limb is absolutely dead, and the case is one which anyone could decide at once. But let us try and reason out what would occur if the offending bandage were not quite so tight. Suppose there is