co-workers will make a better man and a better doctor of you. Perhaps it will also be a benefit to them; but more probably the benefit will be mutual. Why not try it anyway?

However, when I sat down to write these lines, it was for the purpose of again urging any who may not have read the Principles of Ethics of the American Medical Association, to immediately, as a good beginning of the new year, send five cents to the secretary of the association above given, for a copy of the Principles of Ethics, and read it carefully. We know that many doctors were violently opposed to the old "code." The most virulent opposition came from those who had never seen a copy of the code. They imagined it to be an instrument of torture; whereas, if they had gotten a copy and quietly read it, they would not have found it to be such a dreadful thing after all. The Principles of Ethics are a modification and modernization of the old code. It is an important document, with possibilities for much good. No doctor has a right to oppose it, nor can he form an intelligent opinion concerning it, until he has read it. Fortunately we we have the privilege of addressing many young members of the profession, and many students about to enter the profession. To these the above is opportune. We have the privilege of addressing, also, many who are not in affiliation with the regular profession, but who are adherents to the so called "irregular" schools. While reminding these of the warm welcome which they have received in the WORLD "family," we wish to say that the above applies no less to them, for now the doors of the organized profession are open to all legal practicians. The old "regulars" who have wandered away under false leadership, with a false understanding of "independence," and who have become professional nondescripts-with these particularly we wish to plead. Don't be misled any longer. Get the document above referred to and see that it is a charter of dignified liberty, and not the instrument that you have imagined it to be. Round out your professional life within the ranks and in harmonious affiliation with your fellow workers, and not as a "kicker."

While I am earnest and sincere in the above remarks, at the same time I realize that organization, with consequent organization journals, means death to many now prosperous independent journals. For example, a doctor who receives the excellent, able and enterprising Journal of the American Medical Association will have less need for THE MEDICAL WORLD than one who does not receive the Association Journal. But no true journalist, with the good of each individual doctor and the profession at

large at heart, will allow his private and personal interests to swerve him from his journalistic duties and obligations. It is better that the true interests of the profession be served than that THE MEDICAL WORLD or its Editor should prosper. If the practise of medicin is an unselfish profession, then medical journalism should also be an unselfish profession. His work is narrow and temporary who works for self and selfish interests.

If the evolution of the medical profession should demand or involve the death of THE MEDICAL WORLD and the financial discomfiture of its Editor, the Editor of this publication will nevertheless work for the evolution of the medical profession.

So I say again, and emphatically: Get and read the Principles of Ethics; join the organized ranks of medical workers; and if, by virtue of belonging to medical societies, the literature of such societies should crowd THE MEDICAL WORLD from your table, I will bid you a cordial adieu, conscious of having workt for the highest good of yourself and of your and my (our) profession.

However, this is not a valedictory, for I have no doubt that there is yet much work for THE MEDICAL WORLD to do for the profession, and it will proceed to do it with the same courage and disregard to consequences to itself that has characterized it in the past.

The Treatment of Acute Rheumatism. We have no new drug nor any wonderful discovery to herald in this connection, but we believe the method of administration of the drugs in common use may well be reviewed with profit. Practically but two classes of drugs need be discust in this connection, for the overwhelming majority of the profession the world over have narrowed their treatment down to these two classes: i. e., the salicylates and the alkalies. Within the last two or three years, the unanimity of such decision is surprising; practicians of all schools in all countries, and practically all the great hospitals of Europe and America being united in their views and practise. The greater number of these experienced observers adhere to the belief that in the salicylates lies the greatest virtue, but a considerable class assert their belief in the theory that the alkalies have an influence in obviating cardiac complications and in shortening convalescence not possest by the salicylates.

There is no potent objection to the alkalies on the part of those pinning their faith to the salicylates, and recent observers of note express the belief that the alkalies (in some cases, at least) have power to ward off complications

and shorten convalescence, tho being devoid of influence upon fever curve or pain. It is admitted by those who use the alkalies most, that the salicylates have a definit pain relieving power which the alkalies cannot induce. We know that the salicylates have no power to prevent relapse, while it is possible that the alkalies, temporarily, may have such action. Such consensus of opinion would suggest a combination of the two great lines of drugs in the medication of all grave cases.

Differences, however, as to mode of administration and as to choice of salt are notable. Most of those employing the salicylates prefer the sodium salt, perhaps more from force of habit than from any valid reason. Many of the users of the alkalies prefer the potassium salt, but this practise is not unanimous, by any means. Wood (University Medical Magazine, January, 1895) favored the ammonium salicylate for reasons which we believe well taken: i. e., (1) It is freely soluble. (2) It is rapidly absorbed. (3) It speedily produces the characteristic action of the salicylates when administered in sufficient amount. (4) It is less depressing than are the other salts. The point where many have failed in the use of the salicylates is that they have not given enuf of the drug at the outset. Two or three grains, even given hourly, will not do in grave cases. You must get the effect of the salicylate at the very outset, and it often takes 120 grains in the 24 hours to do this. The total daily amount is more important than is the method of administration, or the size and frequency of the dose. We prefer giving 10 grains every two hours until we have a pronounced effect upon the pain, then less frequently, unless an exacerbation is threatened. Many practicians employ 15 and 20 grains, until they get the effect. Quite a number of able clinicians stop the salicylates as soon as the pain is controled, but it has been our practise to continue the drug in progressivly lessening amounts for a considerable time. If one gives it too long or in too great quantity, it will cause profuse sweating and aggravate the inevitable anemia. Then, too, one must expect to occasionally meet, in susceptible patients, such untoward symptoms as severe vomiting, vertigo, aggravated tinnitus aurium, even actual deafness, epistaxis, and in rare cases activ delirium. We believe, in some susceptible cases, such symptoms can be controled, and yet the effect of the drug be obtained quite as readily, by administering it per rectum. And, if the gravity of the case demand heavy dosage for many hours, one should not forget to add a few 20 grain doses of sodium bromid.

Given as above, we do not think many practicians will find the salicylates disappointing.

We admit, in threatening cases, we have not had the courage to rely upon alkalies, alone. Don't forget to have all rheumatism patients drink plenty of pure water; "plenty" means from two to four quarts every 24 hours.

A Method of Shortening the Quarantine in Diphtheria.

ever.

The quarantine period in diphtheria is commonly distressing because the children are infectious for a long period after all symptoms have disappeared, and after they feel as well as All that is necessary to shorten this period is to secure a disappearance of the Klebs Loeffler bacillus from the secretions of the nose and throat. Recently French observers have been experimenting along this line, and it is now announced that by means of dried serum the germs may be banisht from the secretions of the throat within a period averaging six days subsequent to the disappearance of the

membrane.

The dried serum is prepared with gum in cachets, and directions are given that one cachet be slowly dissolved in the mouth every hour. It is important that it is not quickly chewed and swallowed, but that it be dissolved slowly, so that the effect be maintained as long a time as possible. In case of involvement of the nasal passages, the dried serum may be insufflated.

No possible harm can follow the trial of the plan, and as it cannot provoke error in the bacteriological test, we can see no objection to it, and there is certainly much to commend it.

Need of Caution in the Use of the X-ray.

As with every new thing in medicin, the use of the x-ray has been "overdone," or at least done injudiciously and without sufficient investigation. General practicians all over the world have not hesitated to use the ray in every imaginable and demonstrable form of malady.

The first untoward results were manifested by severe burns and x-ray dermatitis, and for a long time this was supposed to be an ineradicable drawback to the treatment. No expert operator now deliberately allows his patient to be burned. Then epilation was noted in many instances, and this feature is yet to be positivly eliminated. Other objectionable symptoms have been frequently noted, such as brittleness of the hair, dry and thin skin, loss in weight, vasomotor and digestiv symptoms, nausea, and general neurasthenia. These symptoms developt in patient and operator alike and impartially. Lately numerous cases of necrospermia and azoospermia have been reported in both physicians and patients, and this even in

those exposed but few times and for short intervals.

These results are sufficient to prove the x-ray far from an inoccuous plaything, and it is now the duty of every operator to learn all the dangers that may beset both himself and the patient. One can easily imagin the sterility induced by the x-ray as figuring in suits for damages in much the same manner and with the same detrimental effect to the agent and to the operator that the burns and dermatitis produced formerly. There is no doubt that this sterility is produced by the x-ray, and in many cases by a very light dosage. Whether or not the effect will pass away in time, or whether it may be permanent, has not been settled. Some cases have recovered, and others of like duration are still impotent.

Every patient exposed to the rays should be protected by lead plates or by lead screens fitted with adjustable openings thru which the rays may pass in treatment. Every operator should employ some artificial aid in adjustment and manipulation of his tube.

Even if the x-ray cause no actual baleful effect, the indications for its use should be clear, distinct, and thoroly understood; and it should not be employed ignorantly nor without due study of the case and of probable results. Under existing conditions, it is frequently employed when we have much better methods of treatment. Some x-ray operators have forgotten the fact that we have the arsenic paste and the knife strongly indicated in some epitheliomas. Grosse, of San Francisco, says: "I believe it almost criminal that cancers of the lip with beginning glandular involvement should be so treated (i. e., with the ray). "Epithelioma is to my mind much too frequently treated by this means." Many cases of hypertrichosis, lupus vulgaris, and erythematosus, acne vulgaris, alopecia areata, and psoriasis, do better under treatment other than by the x-ray.

We would not belittle the wonderful results achieved by the intelligent use of this agent in the hands of those who have given the matter comprehensiv study, and who have had enuf experience in its use to insure a mature and competent judgment; but we certainly decry its indiscriminate employment by those who have not devoted more than a modicum of consideration to the subject, and who have no regard to accurate dosage or ultimate effects. Every practician intending to use the x-ray in treatment should post himself thoroly by reading the best and latest literature, and fortify himself and his treatment by moving cautiously in every case, and even then make certain to use every safeguard about the person of his patient and himself.

Hurrah for Courageous Journalism !

The present is a notable time in periodical literature. McClure's Magazine has thoroly exposed the Standard Oil Company and John D. Rockefeller; Everybody's Magazine has exposed the methods of "frenzied finance; the Ladies' Home Journal has exposed many of the secret nostrum methods, and Collier's Weekly is now engaged in a still greater war against the drug evils. Pages 16, 17 and 18 of Collier's for December 2 are devoted to "The Subtil Poisons," exposing chiefly the acetanilid mixtures, chief among which are "orangeine," antikamnia and bromo-seltzer; and the opium bearing soothing syrups, chief among which is Mrs. Winslow's; and the cocain bearing catarrh cures, chief among which is Birney's. This issue is well worth its price (10 cents) to any physician (address Collier's, 416 W. 13th street, New York City). THE MEDICAL WORLD, several years ago set the example in courageous journalism by exposing fake mining companies, collection agencies, and many other shady things that no one seemed to have courage enuf to tell the truth about. gratified to have thus done a great and much needed service to the profession, and we are also gratified that the above mentioned very worthy publications have adopted a similar policy, and are thus doing a great and much needed service to the public at large. Hurrah for courageous journalism!

We are

How can the editor of any medical journal read the exposé of antikamnia above mentioned and print the advertisement of antikamnia in his advertising pages? The profession should ask every medical editor if he has read the article above referred to, and then ask why he carries the antikamnia advertisement. Will you write to the editors of all the medical journals you take about this matter?

Sink-holes for the Savings of Doctors.

All kinds of speculation and investment schemes still come to me, either directly from the exploiters, or from the "brethren " The first one I open as a text for these lines reads "8 percent guaranteed." Well, what is the guarantee worth? John Smith, the shoe-string peddler, might say that he would "guarantee" 8 percent on $10,000,000; but it would mean a very different thing if "Uncle Sam" would say it. I remember, when a small boy, I saw a young, half-clad but optimistic colored fellow working a game of chance or skill on circus day; it consisted of throwing rings at pins; and a series of prizes was offered. His cry was, "come right up; here's the place to make your fortune in a half an hour!" Where was the "fortune" to come from? Perhaps that negro never even saw a $5 bill. Some of

the seekers after fortune are as short sighted as the players of this ring game. They depend on blatant promises, but they never look to see what is behind the promises.

There is an air of solidity and safety about the word "bond." Many who will not touch stock will buy bonds. So some slick schemers issue bonds on stock? That catches the bondites, who do not realize that they might as well buy stock as to buy bonds with only stock behind them, or with only the same property behind them that is behind the stock. There are many schemers after the savings of the people, and many of the people are anxious to let their savings go. The "flotation" of the stock or bonds of a big corporation on Wall street means the exchange of the stock or bonds of said company for the good, solid dollars of the people. If the people knew the safe and permanent value of their dollars, and the uncertain and shadowy value of the securities offered, they would keep their dollars. But the trouble is that Wall street purchasers (speculators) usually expect to sell later for more dollars than they gave. Sometimes they succeed in doing this, and sometimes they don't; but the securities are finally loaded on the public, in exchange for good dollars. If there were no easy public to unload vast securities on, not so many of these securities would be manufactured; or if the schemers were held strictly responsible for the money taken, being forced to either make their promises good or return the money, many a Wall street fortune would shrink to nothing. That's just the kind of a law we need, and it should be vigorously inforced. If the President's plan of National incorporation of all corporations doing an inter-state business (advocated by our Corporation book which came out a year or two ago) were realized, the general government could control absolutely this stock and bond business (few corporations are confined to a single state), and then responsibility could be inforced. The rascals who set traps for the public, advertise glowingly, and by their control of the newspapers work up a sentiment for the corporation (as in the case of the Steel (steal) Trust, Amalgamated Copper, etc.), and load their securities on the public, would be more chary about this sort of business if they were compelled to stand behind every dollar put into the stock by the public. President Roosevelt used to say that publicity would cure the evils in trusts and corporations. Publicity is a good thing as far as it goes, and it does some good; but we have had publicity galore, and many of the evils persist. Responsibility, strictly inforced, with the penitentiary for those who squander the money intrusted to them by the public, would finish the cure. Then the

profession wouldn't be bothered so much with those who wish to sell oil stocks, mining stocks, plantation stocks, etc. By the way, no doctor who has put money into such stocks has come forward to say that he has gotten his money back, out of the enterprise, tho I have publisht an urgent invitation several times. Are we to infer that all such things offered to the medical profession are sink-holes for money? Maybe the money never got further than the schemer's pockets. This is quite likely. Why will doctors throw their money away in this way, when they can keep it safely in bank, or loan it out at good interest on real estate security in their own community? Don't listen to fairy promises of profit. Look to security first.

Here is a quotation from an address delivered before the Technical Society of the School of Mines, at Golden, Colo.:

"In one city, which I will not name, a promoting concern by a combination of circumstances were re

cently driven into such a corner, by a big daily news

paper, that they had no recourse but to allow an examination of their books by an outside public accountant. The concern had organized and floated seven 'wild cat' companies based on the merest 'prospects' in out of the way, speculativ districts. As a result of the examination of their books by the public accountant he showed that the total receipts from the sale of stock in such seven mining companies was $166,805, out of which only $23,237 had been spent for labor and supplies, $20,578 had been spent for superintendents' traveling expenses (including the promoters) and no less than $114,714 had been pocketed by the promoters for commission and for sale of promotion stock, leaving aggregate cash on hand for the seven companies $2,276 only."

Fortune hunting, even when successful, is a bad business, any way. Today a pauper, tomorrow a millionaire, and next day a pauper again! Not impossible; these things have occurred time and again in the mining districts of the west, in the oil regions, and on Wall street. Where these things are possible, a craze siezes the community; everybody is affected ; the foundations upon which reason and morals are based are undermined; the old and true standards are swept away, and moral fiber is worn to tatters. Better stick to the old way. Better work for every dollar, and then guard its safety; thus climbing to comfort and competence (not wealth) for yourself and family, and preserve and hand down to succeeding generations the old tried and true standards of our fathers; standards of industrious honesty and moral rectitude that have made the world what it is, and that will preserve the best there is in civilization as long as they are adhered to.

With these standards firmly planted in our daily life, we can receive telegrams like this: "Shot No. 9 yesterday; 500 barrels of oil the first 24 hours"; or "Struck a new rich vein today; assays $1000 per ton," etc., together with urgent appeals to take stock before it

rises, without reaching for our pocketbook. Also, we know that no corporation is anxious to get rid of its stock at less than its real value; and that if it would pay better to sell their oil or ore than to sell stock, they would begin selling oil or ore and quit selling stock, which they would keep for its real value. But the craze of the schemers is to exchange bad stock for good dollars. Corporations which are really making big money out of their legitimate business, and have no reason to load their stock on the public, usually keep still about it.

An Instance.

I present a concrete instance of "how it is done," from the Philadelphia Ledger for this morning (Dec. 20). The difference between these people and many similar ones is that these people got caught, and were brought to the bar of justice.

SIX MONTHS FOR MINING SWINDLER. THOUSANDS OF POOR PERSONS BOUGHT STOCK NOT WORTH A CENT A BUSHEL.

F. S. Pusey, of Germantown, one of the promoters of a $3,000,000 mining scheme, in which thousands of poor persons invested their savings, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment yesterday by Judge Davis. He had been convicted of swindling A. S. Moore, of New York, out of $4,000. The jury took only ten minutes to decide that he was guilty.

The concern with which Pusey is connected is known as the North Platte Mining and Copper Smelting Company of Wyoming. William R. Brown, secretary and treasurer of the company, is under indictment in Boston. A fugitiv warrant will be issued to-day for A. L. Seymour, of Orange, N. J., a partner of Pusey. Seymour fled to Nova Scotia when the exposé came. The company is in the hands of a receiver.

GOOD NAMES IN THE DIRECTORATE,

Much of the history of the mining scheme was rehearsed in Judge Davis's court. Witnesses swore that Pusey and Seymour organized the company, and, to give it tone and standing, gave a certain number of shares of stock to several well-known Boston business men. These men allowed themselves to appear as officers and directors of the company. Joshua Sears was made president; John Curtin, vice-president, and Colonel William R. Brown, secretary and treasurer. The directors were Curtin, Sears, Edwin Cass, Louis F. Wood and Gustavus A. Damon. All are of Boston except Wood, who is a resident of Arlington, Mass.

FLOATING THE STOCK.

Three years ago the company began to float its stock. Owing to the prominence of the Boston officials, most of the stock was sold in Boston, although many Philadelphians were among the investors. The country was flooded with literature, telling of the company's property in Downey Park, War Bonnet Mountain, Wyoming. The policy of the concern was dictated by Pusey and Seymour, its originators, who, however, did not let their names figure in the prospectuses. They had an office in the Drexel Building.

Among those who sought to obtain the company's stock was A. S. Moore, of New York. He communicated with Colonel Brown, and was directed to see Pusey. He came here, and after a long interview with Pusey, was convinced that the scheme was good. He invested $4,000.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS

Short articles of practical help to the profession are solicited for this department.

Articles accepted must be contributed to this journal only. The editors are not responsible for views expressed by contributors. Copy must be received on or before the twelfth of the month, for publication in the issue for the next month. We decline responsibility for the safety of unused manuscript. It can usually be returned if request and postage for return are received with manuscript; but we cannot agree to always do so. Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.-RUSKIN, REFLECT

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Sudden Death in Labor.

RECORD

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-About 3 p. m. December 4th of this year I was hurriedly called by phone to assist Dr. Huber of this place in a case of childbirth. On arrival at the residence of the patient I was informed by the Doctor that he had been summoned about an hour before by the husband to attend his wife, who, he said, had been in labor for sometime and was not getting along right, but gave him no definit information about the case. When Dr. H. got there, he said, he found that the woman had been delivered of the child, but the husband's mother told him that the afterbirth had not been delivered. The old woman had been in charge of the case, and she said she had taken care of many cases before, but this one had gotten beyond her skill. On examination of the patient by Dr. H. he found an arm protruding into the vagina, and informed the family that a twin was yet to be born. On attempting to deliver the babe the Doctor found that it was wedged into the pelvis so tightly that he must administer an anesthetic, and proceeded to do so, but on account of the nervousness and apprehension of the woman he had to call in help. On my arrival and getting the above account from the Doctor, we proceeded to deliver, the Doctor giving the anesthetic, ether, and I to try to turn the child. I found the child wedged into the pelvis as described by the Doctor. After working for more than an hour a foot was secured and the delivery accomplisht. Before succeeding in getting hold of a foot the woman's condition became serious, the Doctor announcing that the pulse was failing, and before I had succeeded in delivering the body Dr. Huber commenced to get ready a hypodermic of strychnin and injected it into the patient's arm. She continued to fail in spite of more stimulants of ammonia, nitroglycerin, digitalis, camphor, &c. She began to raise and lower the lower limbs, and to toss the arms, roll from side to side, and would not