D. M. GIBSON, M. D.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
WILLIS YOUNG, M. D.

J. H. MCCAUGHAN, M.D.

DR. SOLON ROBINSON BOYNTON.

On the Fourteenth of May, in his home in Sparta, Ill., there came to the end of his earthly labors a man who has done much in the time alloted to him; a man who soothed the troubled pathway of many of his fellow mortals and in the field of homeopathy made friends, patrons, firm adherents to the newer school of practice.

In the beginning of his career he settled in a community where others of like faith and practice had started, became discourged, faint-hearted at the tide of opposition and had ignominiously failed.

With Boynton there was no failing, he was a man of wide knowledge, rare judgment and had withal a tact that was never excelled and rarely equalled; hence, "He went, he saw, he conquered."

His progress was necessarily slow at first, but he soon demonstrated his faith by his success and in the face of fierce, bitter opposition, soon was the recognized leader and authority of the community in matters medical. At the time of his death he was surgeon for two railways and a member of several fraternal orders.

Quiet, unostentatious and modest, he was a friend to all who needed his services, and often when he needed rest he toiled among the rich and poor alike, giving as tender care where he knew there was no reward as where he was well paid. His patients loved him, they put absolute faith in his skill and judgment, nor was he ever untrue to the trust thus reposed in him.

But sorrow came. Dr. Boynton found that an incurable disease was creeping upon him, and all too late, he strove to make amends for overwork and worry. Though he knew his condition he did not repine, he was the same whole-souled gentleman, never complaining, ever hopeful unto the last, and when he found the end was near resigned himself to the will of God and said again and again, "God's way is best."

Dr. Boynton was 52 years of age and his professional work can be measured in a quarter of a century, as regards time, but his influence can never be fully realized; he opened up a new field and those who come after him have the benefit of his pioneer efforts. It was he who paved the way for homeopathy in the community in which he lived and made it popular; who demonstrated to so many people that the "mild power was the best," and it was his work and success that inspired the idea of practicing homeopathy in a dozen of the young men with whom he came in contact.

Well does the writer remember the encouragement he gave and the kind words which he urged to the efforts, so greatly needed at that time.

Of all the students whom his efforts sent into the medical field, none have been a discredit to his memory, and his son, his only child, into whose

hands he committed his work and practice, is proving himself an able scion of a noble father.

This son and the sorrowing widow have our most profound sympathy in the sad bereavement that has come upon them, their loss is an irreparable one; and as the years come and go there are many who with them will miss the kind face and skilful ministrations of him who in his last hours and with perfect resignation said again and again, "God's will is best."

INDEPENDENCE DAY DISASTERS.

The fourth of July, with its patriotic demonstrations, will soon be with us, and before our next issue the public press will have recorded the usual disasters which accompany the intemperate observance of that day.

If the Spirits of our Revolutionary Fathers could attend on that historic holiday, and see the manner in which the youth of our land commemorate it, they would no doubt feel that this heritage of patriotism was being sadly prostituted.

Once a year this question is forced on the attention of thinking people, and it seems each time more glaring in all its aspects, and more deserving of attention by our executive and judiciary.

Each year, after the full horror of the day's observance has been chronicled, there is a clamor from the public to be protected against itself, which feeling is soon lulled into obscurity, only to be awakened after the smoke of the next Glorious Fourth has cleared away. And so it goes from year to year with no remission in the dreadful march of calamity, except, perhaps, that each year human ingenuity devises some more dangerous and destructive means of celebration.

In our own city, regularly each year, the Chief of Police issues a "card," prohibiting the firing of giant crackers, blank cartridge pistols and revolvers, which edict is as regularly disregarded.

However, let it be said in his justification, that a custom so ancient and deeply rooted cannot be successfully combatted by the police alone, but its remedy must be sought higher up. Rigid laws, governing the manufacture and sale of such appliances should be made the basis of campaign against the evil.

The public press, which is a powerful factor for reform, can do much to control the situation.

It is pretty generally known by the profession at least, that the blank cartridge pistol is responsible for the vast majority of severe accidents, and is the agent which causes the greatest number of cases of tetanus. Not only should its sale to the small boy be rigidly forbidden, but penalty should be inflicted on any one who may purchase it for him. Let it be said, however, in extenuation of the follies of the small boy, that some of the most disastrous accidents we have seen were the result of carelessness of adults who ought to have known better.

The appalling loss of life directly resulting from the last year's celebration-466 deaths-if occurring at a single time and place, would have

aroused the nation. Add to this number almost 4,000 injuries of greater or less severity, and you have the full extent of the imbecilities of the modern Fourth of July celebration.

The evil is obvious, its remedy not so apparent. One of the most difficult tasks of legislation is the regulation of the foibles and frailties of the human being. Mankind often needs to be protected from himself, and this seems to be an instance of such necessity.

COLLEGE CHANGES.

It is with the deepest regret that we learn of the resignation of Prof. Jas. A. Campbell from the Board of Trustees of the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, the man who for the past eight years has been its president and who for thirty years has been an officer in some capacity and an indefatigable worker for the success of the institution.

Dr. Campbell's resignation is made necessary by circumstances over which he has no control but he will still maintain an active interest in the institution and its work. He will still demonstrate to its students in his clinic at the St. Louis Children's Hospital, the various operations upon the eye and ear and the treatment of the various diseases of the same.

Dr. Campbell has been a hard worker and a close instructor, an ardent teacher and matchless demonstrator in his clinical work; he had the good will and the best efforts of his class and always was a favorite lecturer.

Dr. A. H. Schott succeeds him as President of the Board of Trustees of the College. He brings to the new position a world of experience, a strong desire to see the cause of homeopathy grow and prosper and the determination to do things when they need doing.

Dr. Schott has been in the faculty for a great many years and is well acquainted with all its workings and familiar with all its needs.

The entire personnel of the officers is not yet fully made up, as we go to press, but will be published in our next issue.

LITERARY DISSIPATION.

In the high pressure educational system of the present day, where the youth of our country literally sprint through high school and college, too little attention is paid to the cultivation of a taste for the better class of literature, under the caption "Psychic Diet," an editorial in a recent number of the Journal American Medical Association, discusses "Yellow Literature" from the standpoint of its mental effect on the young, and cites the opinion of a German physician, Dr. Laquer, who ascribes the reading of exciting literature as one of the potent causes of psychic instability, lack of will power and abnormal self-analysis. He interdicts the theatre and concert during school life, and oddly it seems classes music as being the cause of much over emotional development.

There is little question however of the justice of his arraignment of emotional literature, and its effect on the young. The tons upon tons of light literature that is annually published is testimony enough of the avidity

with which it is purchased and read, and this too by those who are of school age and whose minds are in the formative period of development.

A glance at the Public Libary shelves shows them to be groaning under the weight of much literature whose only excuse for existence is their value as a commercial asset. At our own City Library a box system of espionage is in vogue whose purpose is to prevent the issuance of books which have been censored by its board. However there is a large volume of literature of an emotional nature issued without restriction, whose unhealthy moral tone and mawkish unnatural sentiment tends to awaken in the young, a train of thought along other than strictly moral lines. A dozen such books we could name whose literary standing, has allowed them to pass uncensored, yet whose sensual portrayal of incidents in a pseudo-moral plot cannot but develop ideas that should best remain dormant until later years. The excessive perusal of such literature becomes a sort of dissipation, and actually lessens the receptivity of the mind for useful knowledge and instead of becoming a store house for the solid facts of life, the mind develops a morbid desire for the constant and repeated stimulation furnished by exciting

romance.

The ultimate effect of such a course is a greater or less degree of mental and moral degeneracy, and the awakening of neuropathic tendencies whose effects operate profoundly on the future life of the individual.

The inveterate reader of exciting romance constantly lives in an unnatural atmosphere. He imagines himself a part of the world of romance, and unconsciously fits himself into the impossible yet attractive situations depicted therein. He develops the ego to an inordinate degree; becomes introspective, dissatisfied and utterly unfit for the hard practical duties of life. It seems rational that parents and teachers exercise equal care in watching over the mental and physical health, and the period of greatest watchfulness should be during the early school years.

Puerperal sepsis is a surgical condition. Treat it as such from the beginning and the patient's chances for recovery are good. Remember that the puerperium begins at labor and continues until the uterus has regained its normal size; a period of about six weeks. A chill, or elevation of the temperature above 100 F. during this period is in all probability due to sepsis. At once give quinine in 10-grain doses as a diagnostic agent.

If in 24 hours or less the temperature is not normal, irrigate the uterus with at least five gallons of normal saline solution. This failing to bring the temperature to normal in four hours, currette thoroughly, pack the uterus with iodoform gauze and open the posterior cul de sac and drain with iodoform gauze, according to Pryor's method.

All these measures should be made with surgical cleanliness and by a skilled hand. Whenever possible the patient should be removed to a hospital. Above all don't delay.

Y.

According to Coley, 4 per cent of herniotomies performed without protecting the operator's hands with rubber gloves, suppurate as against 11⁄2 per cent when the hands are so covered.

Dr. E. V. Dickey of Dallas, Texas, passed through St. Louis on his way to Kenosha, Wis. He will return shortly for a three weeks' visit to the Fair.

Dr. Herbert H. Judd of Chicago, has been in St. Louis visiting the World's Fair.

Dr. Robert Lilleman's father, August H. Lilleman, died at his home in St. Louis, May 14th, 1904, in his 67th year.

There was once a young lady named Luleux,

Who had a bad case of tic-doloureux;

To her doctor she fleux

In a terrible steux.

Now, wouldn't such a Limerick jar yeux ?

-Patrick Limerick.

The emergency hospital at the World's Fair grounds cares for from 60 to 100 patients every 24 hours.

Dr. Perry C. Williams, who was summoned to St. Louis several weeks ago to care for one of his patients,, suffering with appendicitis, has just returned to his home in Texarkana. His patient is convalescent and accompanies

him home.

Doctors T. Griswold Comstock, D. M. Gibson and Willis Young were appointed delegates to the American Institute, by President Seidlitz of the St. Louis Hom. Med. Society.

Murphy's method of preparing the surgeons' hands for operation is as follows: Scrub for 5 to 7 minutes with spirits of green soap (5 per cent) and running hot water. Three minutes washing in alcohol. Dry thoroughly and pour over the hands a four per cent solution of gutta percha in benzine. Allow this to dry without rubbing. The coating is very thin and will resist water and antiseptic solution. It is very easily removed by benzine. Its advantages over rubber gloves are perfect fit, cannot be torn, less interference with tactile sensation. Besides it causes a temporary cessation of perspiration of the skin which it covers and prevents the rubbing off of epithelia into the wound.

The skin surface to be operated is prepared by five minutes scrubbing with five per cent Spts. Sap. Vir. then washing with ether followed by alcohol and is finally swabbed with the benzine rubber solution.