A VISIT TO THE LLOYD LIBRARY-BEST.

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cured, since spaying does not arrest the development of the less useful parts, as castration does in males."

According to Prof. Shaw it seems that castration of males has considerable more influence on them in any way than the spaying of females has on them.

Mental influence and its relation to crime and the prevention of crime deserves more study. For all things that tend to add to the happiness and welfare of the human race should receive due attention, no matter what the subject is.

A VISIT TO THE LLOYD LIBRARY.

WILLIAM P. BEST, M. D. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.

Did you ever get away from home and find out how narrow you had become; how little you really know of the vast world of physical activity and the still more vast world of thought?

Can you realize what the world is doing if you never go beyond the narrow limits of your own business, or get out of yourself and mingle your thoughts with the best of the world, both past and present?

We hear of great accomplishments, read of foreign lands, and know something of a few of the world's great men. But what an inspiration we lose if we never see or meet any of the famous men who aid in shaping the policies of the world, if we never see any of the marvelous structures, bridges, buildings and powerful vessels, the crowning attainment of human energy, engineering and skill. How impotent the potential that lies wrapped or bound up within one, until by precept or association one is aroused to the vastness of existing actualities and is made to hunger for further development by seeing or mingling with great men or having personal knowledge of their accomplishments.

Our conception of most things is broadened, our understanding enlightened, and our appreciation heightened by contact with things we have been told of or about which we have read.

I am but trying to depict to you the result, to myself, of a recent visit. Many times and in various places, from many pens. and people, have I read of and heard of the Lloyd Library. But not until it was visited had I any adequate conception of this most wonderful collection of books, the like of which is elsewhere un

known, it being unique, in the world. I went to Cincinnati for the purpose of studying a special subject in this wonderful library. Here I found books, old and new, of every tongue and every land. Volumes that speak the thoughts of men on medicines and allied sciences, from physic to alchemy, from the dawn of book lore down through the long centuries to the present day.

What a monument to the energy, spirit, and unselfishness of man! More than two dozen thousand volumes of books and pamphlets; the arrangement and care of this vast collection of works; the building to accommodate the tomes and their readers; the librarian to classify, care for, and seek the never-ending additions to this already extensive and incomparable collection of books, is the priceless and princely gift of the Lloyds to posterity in general and to Eclectics in particular.

We might ask why should such a collection of knowledge be the property of men whose life history is in the perfected product of their laboratories-their medicines?

"It is and was necessary." Why! do you ask me, Why necessary? Because to make our Eclectic medicines the best in the world, required not only that John Uri Lloyd sacrifice the flattering prospects that fortune so alluringly held before him, not only that he willingly and knowingly chose scientific and social ostracism, accept abuse where he might enjoy commendation and praise, and hard work in place of the ease and comfort of a vast fortune, but that he devote never ending research to perfect our remedies. That all this was done, we know. That our medicines are the best in the world we also know, and this, too, our enemies and rivals now admit.

The entire structure of specific medication would long since have been a hopeless, shapeless mass instead of a developing and prospering science had he spared either pains or expense in investigation, that he might build better than the best the world had known. To do this the Lloyd Library became one of the necessary factors. "He, while his companions slept, was toiling upward in the night."

To this library come now men of culture from all over the world to study. Men of every clime, having heard of the Lloyd Library, seek it for knowledge. Its doors are open to all seekers after knowledge and lovers of science, and they may use its treasures without money and without price.

Its value is being widely recognized and is such as to make it and its owners the constant objects of solicitation and flattering offers of positions and emoluments.

Still it stands there as unpretentious, yet as valuable to Eclectics as its founders have long proven themselves to be. It is of inestimable value to the world in general and to Eclectics in particular. I would ask the representatives of Eclectics to make a pilgrimage to the city of Cincinnati, if you have no other object, than to visit and study in this library, which has cost us nothing, but to us of all people is most valuable.

You will find books of great antiquity, isolated and not to be duplicated in the world. Volumes of priceless value await your inspection and to further your erudition.

It is but justice to yourselves that you see, investigate and comprehend this the most unique gift to science that the world has ever known.

While I was engaged in busy reading and searching for thoughts on an abstruse subject, visitors from Brooklyn, N. Y., asked permission to see and look through this attractive library, saying they had heard of it at home, and came to visit and learn more of it. And this is of daily occurrence. If it is of so much value to others, of how much greater value is it to us? If other branches of science want it, and indeed they do, shall we keep our eyes closed to such a fountain or storehouse of knowledge?

"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” If it is worth having, if mental and scientific truth and freedom are worth having, they are worth the getting.

So with the Lloyd Library. The truth is there, worth a long and many repeated journeys to obtain it. Your search can not be better rewarded than by a pilgrimage to this wonderful collection of books.

THUJA OCCIDENTALIS.*

J. T. MCCLANAHAN, M. D., BOONEVILLE, Mo.

Arbor Vitæ, or false white cedar as it is called from its resemblance to white cedar, is indigenous to this country. This evergreen grows wild in various parts of the United States, but most abundantly in the Northern States.

The bark, leaves and twigs are the parts employed, and they impart their medicinal properties to both water and alcohol. They have a pleasant benzoinic odor when bruised, and an aromatic, pun

*Reprinted from National Transactions.

gent, bitter taste. An aromatic, pungent, yellowish-green, essential oil is also produced by distillation. Other principles are found in the crude drug, but are not essential to my purpose at this time.

The aborigines made decoctions of the leaves and soft shoots, which they administered to those suffering from colds, coughs, intermittent and remittent fevers, blood diseases, etc. Poultices of the leaves were also used for swollen and painful joints, abscesses, inflammatory rheumatism, and kindred diseases. An ointment made with lard, or other fats, is useful for the relief of painful affections by anointing the parts.

About thirty years ago, Prof. A. J. Howe began to experiment with thuja, confining his investigations, largely, to its external application. He used it, with splendid results, in cases of hydrocele, condylomata, warts, excrescences, fissures, hemorrhoids and various. forms of ulcers and ulcerations.

To his provings, and writings, we are greatly indebted for what we know about this splendid remedy today.

Internally thuja is an excellent remedy to give tone to mucous membranes. It is a remedy for relaxation and debility, but never for inflamed conditions. It influences, specifically, the urinary apparatus, and is useful in chronic diarrhoea, and chronic troubles of the prostate gland. Weakness and pain in back and loins, murky offensive urine-containing deposits, or casts are indications for thuja. In catarrhal conditions of the bladder and bowels, and other troubles of these organs, I have given thuja by mouth and injection with excellent results. For the destruction of warts, in full strength applied with a brush, or if large enough, inject at the base of the tumor. Nævi, and other tumors, containing fluid or fibrous material, may be completely removed with hypodermic injections of Lloyd's specific thuja. I have effectually destroyed several nævi. Recently a mother brought her babe of six months to me; there was a large red tumor the size of a walnut, at the angle of the mouth, with outward filaments at the base. I injected deeply, at the base, forty drops of pure tincture, being careful-by moving the point of the syringe-to penetrate every part of the tumor. No other treatment was necessary.

My experience with thuja, in the treatment of hydrocele has been very satisfactory, and in no instance have I had to make more than two treatments; I always empty the sack thoroughly, and then throw in two to four drachms of the tincture with an equal quantity of warm water. The pain, and subsequent inflammation, has gen

erally been insignificant and in no case severe enough to require opiates, or additional treatment. The hydrocele has been cured in every instance.

It is said to cure cancer in the early stages but will not in the latter as I have demonstrated; it is a good and useful local application for the foul discharges of uterine and other malignant ulcers, stops the discharge and disinfects the parts wonderfully.

I have also used it as an injection in the non-inflammatory stage of gonorrhoea, and in two or three instances, when everything else has failed-it promptly did effective work.

In all cases

As a hæmostatic, thuja has taken a front rank. where a hæmostatic is applicable it will be found prompt in action. In the smaller incised wounds, that are sometimes persistent in bleeding, the pure tincture will be found very valuable. In severe. hemorrhages of the nose, and in the minor operations upon the eye and nose, I use thuja liberally. In umbilical hemorrhage, hemorrhage of the gums, and that which follows the extraction of teeth it can be used advantageously.

The pure tincture, introduced by means of hollow suppositories, will relieve ulcerated and bleeding piles, if not too highly inflamed. I have relieved the itching of anal fissures where all other remedies had failed; also that terrible, and itching eczema, so often met with around the genitals and thighs.

I have found thuja cerate very beneficial in treating old sores, ulcers, salt rheum and tetter; in one case of ichthyosis, of the extremities, by thoroughly anointing the parts once a day, the patient was relieved of the itching and extreme harshness, and I believe will, if used a year or two longer, eventually be cured of this, supposed, incurable malady. Thuja combined with collodion, I to 10, I use in abrasions of the skin, and chaps, and cracks about the fingers and hands; if combined in equal parts it will be found of great benefit for corns, warts, vegetations, etc., effectually curing them in a short time.

The oil of thuja combined with liquid vaseline, in proportion to suit the case and condition, I use in the form of a spray in the nose, throat and ears. Hypertrophied turbinated bodies, tumefied, thickened schneiderian and mucous membranes, cezena and catarrhal conditions, polypoid conditions, ulcerated and granular conditions. of fauces and throat, all of these are benefited by this preparation. I have likewise used thuja in otorrhoea and catarrhal conditions of the auditory canal. Sometimes I need the influence of a mild esch