WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW Published Monthly by WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW COMPANY, Omaha, Nebr. Per Annum, $2.00. The WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW is the Journal of the Wyoming State Medical Society and is sent by order of the Society to each of its members. OFFICERS: Dr. A. G. HAMILTON, Thermopolis. President DR, NEIL DAVID NELSON, Shoshoni, Treasurer DR. W. H. ROBERTS, Cheyenne, Secretary All matter for publication in this section should be sent to FRED W. PHIFER, M. D., Editor, Wheatland, Wyo. COLLABORATORS-SUBJECT TO REVISION. Pestal, Joseph, Douglas; Keith, M. C.; Casper; Marshall, T. E., Sheridan; Nelson, N. D.; Shoshoni; Wicks, J. L., Evanston; Wiseman, Letitia, Cheyenne; Young, J. H., Rock Springs. Vol. XVII. CHEYENNE, WYO., SEPTEMBER, 1912. ABSTRACTS. Eradication of Typhoid Fever. No. 9 McLaughlin (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal) presents tables that show a startling contrast between the death rate from typhoid fever in Europe and in the United States. In one of these the death rate in fifteen large Northern European cities is shown to range from 1.3 to 5.6 per 100,000 of population, while that of the fifteen largest American cities ranges between 8.8 and 58.7 per 100,000. To attain the low rates for typhoid fever which are reported for the northern European cities seems to be an ideal difficult of accomplishment in America, yet he thinks there is no reason why we should not accomplish it and go even farther toward the complete eradication of the disease. Theoretically the eradication of typhoid fever is possible by the ideal execution of two measures, safe disposal of human excreta, and disinfection of the hands of those who handle the food and drink of others. The former is far from being attained, but is an ideal toward which we may aspire, although much education in personal hygiene is necessary before we may hope that the individual carrier will protect others voluntarily by disinfecting his hands at the proper time. Much of the typhoid fever is preventable by the installation of a safe water supply. This is shown by a comparison of twenty-two large American cities with good water supply, with twelve in which the water supply is of a doubtful character. The elimination of impure milk is another means of prevention. After these factors have been eliminated there remains the "residual" typhoid, in which the greatest factor is the more or less direct transference of the germs from the fresh feces or urine of one person to the alimentary canal of another. The fly is a factor in this transference, especially in the country, the fingers and food are others. The moral duty of the physician to report cases promtply, as distinguished from the legal duty, is pointed out, as well as the fact that he should make a much wider use of the clinical laboratory as a routine procedure, especially in atypical cases. The householder needs to be taught the danger inherent in the excreta of the sick. Hospitalization should be insisted on when there is inability to understand, or failure to carry out the precautions directed. Educational effort must be made to obtain control of typhoid carriers. McLaughlin urges that a campaign of education in regard to the eradication of typhoid fever should be entered into; that it should be systematically planned and should press into service every possible agency, the press, clergymen, settlement workers, and school teachers taking a prominent part, to impress two primary facts: 1. Contamination of food or drink by careless fingers may be equivalent to homicide; 2, such dire results can be avoided by careful cleansing of the hands and fingernails after using the toilet and before handling food and drink. Such a campaign of education would reduce not only the prevalence of typhoid fever, but also of bacillary dysentery, diarrhea, and enteritis of children. Use of Ipecac to Abort Typhoid Fever. William Lawrence Frazier, Mountain Home, Idaho (Medical Record), presents the histories of six cases of typhoid fever in which he made use of ipecac to abort the disease. The drug was given in capsules coated with salol to prevent their dissolving in the stomach and causing vomiting. The ipecac was given for six successive days beginning with thirty grains, and decreasing five grains each day until the dose was ten grains. The author believes that the disease was aborted, by means of this treatment. A JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY Published Monthly by Western Medical Review Company, Omaha, Neb. Per Annum, $2.00. The Western Medical Review is the journal of the Nebraska State Medical Association and is sent by order of the Association to each of its members. Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice of Omaha, Nebraska, under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Vol. XVII. Von Mansfelde, A. S.. Ashland H. Gifford, M. D. Owen, F. S. Stokes, A. C. Somers, A. B. Schalek, Alfred Sumney, H. C. Poynter, C. W. M., Lincoln OMAHA, NEB., OCTOBER, 1912. No. 10 The Menace of Wood Alcohol. The wide-spread discussion which followed the series of deaths in Berlin as a consequence of the drinking of liquors contaminated with wood alcohol has again attracted attention to its poisonous character. There has been considerable difference of opinion as to whether the poisonous effect of this substance is actually due to the alcohol itself or to some impurities, which are almost invariably present in all except the most refined products. There is a scarcity of facts regarding the actual behavior of wood alcohol in the animal body, so that the underlying causes of its extremely poisonous character are by no means clearly understood. With respect to ordinary grain alcohol, the component of our alcoholic beverages, the facts are better understood. Ordinary alcohol is, when taken in moderate quantities, rapidly burned up in the body. This fact has been demonstrated by numerous experiments. With wood alcohol, however, the case seems to be different, according to the recent investigations in the Institute for the Fermentation Industries at Berlin. It has been shown that when wood alcohol is administered to animals it may not be eliminated completely even at the end of two days. The repeated ingestion of considerable doses of wood alcohol may lead to a dangerous accumulation thereof in the body. This factor has heretofore not been duly appreciated. These subtle dangers associated with the use of wood alcohol deserve wide-spread notice because of the increased danger of its unsuspected entrance as an adulterant of the cheaper grades of distilled liquors and certain medical products. The insatiable demand for cheap liquors among certain of the degraded classes, says the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the difficulty with which the admixture of the inexpensive wood alcohol is detected provide a constant temptation to the unscrupulous dealer and a menace to the health of certain classes. However objectionable adulteration may be on general principles, it becomes far worse when some subtle danger is harbored therein. Social Life of the Medical Student. Much attention has been given in recent years to the educational qualifications of the medical student and much has been written regarding the best methods of instilling into him the required amount of medical knowledge, but practically nothing has been said or done regarding his social life during the long four years of his medical course. The plea of Dr. J. Collins Warren for suitable dormitories and other provisions for the student's social life therefore is worthy of careful thought. Says Dr. Warren: "The medical student, unlike the college undergraduate, is drawn toward the great centers of population and, therefore, unable to enjoy those advantages which time is constantly showing are of so much importance to the moral as well as the physical make-up of the member of the academic community. The medical student is usually tucked away in some Latin quarter, or its equivalent, situated in that part of the city where a great hospital usually finds its home. He has to live in unfavorable surroundings, and his means often do not permit him to indulge in more luxurious quarters than a hall bedroom." Thus, as a rule he is in insanitary surroundings and often exposed to contagious diseases. "And it is this particular class of young men to whom the learned faculty preach about the laws of health." With the hard work required to master the course laid down by the average medical college, it is clear that much depends on the student's surroundings, his habits, his food, his recreation and his companions. Nevertheless, along these lines the medical student, often for the first time away from home influences and in a large city, is left mercilessly to shift for himself. So while millions of dollars are being spent on architecturally beautiful buildings and on marvelously equipped laboratories, is it not time that more attention be paid to the social and physical welfare of those for whose training so much has been expended? The student needs a medical training, surely; but of what value is that training if he leaves the institution a physical or moral wreck? Along with the progress being made in other phases of medical education the social aspect of the medical student's life should also receive some attention. For the Suppression of Tuberculosis: A Program for Local and State Organizations. By J. W. PETTIT, M. D., Ottawa, Ill. The fact that tuberculosis is preventable and curable is leading civilization to a far greater activity toward its suppression, which to be effective needs wise direction. The mortality from tuberculosis in the United States approaches 200,000 annually, one-eleventh of all deaths and onethird of all that occur between the ages of fifteen and forty, the |