FOR CHRONIC DISEASES. NERVOUS PROSTRATION AND GREAT DEBILITY. The subjoined report in the case of a young lady in Minneapolis, Minn., shows how quickly Compound Oxygen acts upon the nervous centers and gives a new vitality to the whole nervous system: "It is now six weeks," writes the mother of our patient, "since our daughter began taking your Home Treatment, and we can truly say that it has done more for her during this time than any other medicine could have done. "She was suffering from severe nervous prostration and great debility of the whole system, which had only been aggravated for two months previous by using medicines harsh for the stomach, causing much gastric irritation. "We truly feel more than gratified with the result of the Compound Oxygen, and wish her to continue its use until she is relieved from some of the standing difficulties she has had from a young girl. She is now able to be around the house, can eat any easily digested food with moderation, and, as a rule, sleeps much better nights.... She has been troubled with chronic constipation from a child. The Oxygen has given more relief to her than any other remedy ever tried." In this case, as in many others where there is a diseased and highly sensitive nervous organization, a seeming aggravation of symptoms occurred on first using the Oxygen, showing its quick penetration and active force. "Her symptoms," says the report, "were worse for a while, and she was more nervous and very sensitive to the effect of the Oxygen on inhaling, but she can now take it regularly without difficulty." "NO FAITH IN IT." It is but natural that physicians who know little or nothing of Compound Oxygen should class it with the nostrums of the day, and when inquired of in regard to it, answer that they have "no faith in it." It rarely happens, however, that a change of opinion does not take place whenever they can be induced to give it a trial, as in the case mentioned below, which we take from the letter of one of our patients in Shelby County, Ind.: "When we moved here the physician of this place, Dr was treating a woman for consumption, and of course I knew that he was only helping her into the grave. So I took him your treatise on Compound Oxygen and insisted that he try it, but he had no faith in it. After two or three months, I concluded to advise the woman herself to use it, even if it was stepping in ahead of our M. D. So, as soon as I told the lady about it, she wanted me to send for a Treatment. But when the physician heard of it he insisted on sending for it himself. The woman improved from the commencement of its use. Since then the doctor has used it in several other cases with gratifying results." "BOUNDLESS GRATITUDE." Writing from Crockett's Depot, Va, in March last, a patient says: "Your chronic grumbler is still living, but he does not come to-day as a grumbler, but with boundless gratitude to the Eternal for directing me to you, his agent, and eternal thanks to you for your kindness. . . . With all the terrible weather we have been experiencing, I am better." DROPSY. A patient in Texarkana, Ark., in writing for a new supply of Oxygen, makes the following report of the effects of our Treatment in a case of dropsy. She says: "I divided my last supply of Oxygen with a sick child, who had the dropsy, and who also had heart-disease from his birth. When I began using the Oxygen with him it seemed as hopeless a case as I ever saw. He is now able to be up and walk about the house. The dropsy is all gone, and I would have great hopes of his entire recovery if it were not for the heart-disThose who saw him when I began to treat him say it is more like bringing the dead to life than anything they ever witnessed. ease. "HAVEN'T WORDS TO EXPRESS MY HAPPINESS." So writes a gentleman from Minersville, Pa., a year after using our Treatment: "By referring to your Record," he says, "you will see that I ordered your Home Treatment about a year ago. I followed your instructions in every particular, and am happy to say that I feel better now than I ever remember feeling; in fact, am well. Only one thing troubles me, and that is raising of phlegm on taking a slight cold. Digestion almost perfect; can eat anything. So much for my case. I can say no more. I haven't words to express my happiness. I can only thank you." There are many of our patients who would be able to make as good a report as this if they were as careful as the writer of the above in following our instructions "in every particular." BRONCHIAL TROUBLE. A gentleman in Warren, Pa., who had a Treatment last fall, sent for another in April last. In ordering it he wrote: "For the past two or three years I have been troubled more or less with inflammation of the bronchial tubes. and I think also from some form of dyspepsia, causing a depressed feeling in the chest, especially so late in the day after eating and becoming tired. Last fall I thought I would be obliged to leave my business. My brother sent for an Oxygen Treatment, and by using it I received so much benefit that I have been attending to business all winter. I am to-day comfortably well, although I still have a little inflammation in my chest at times. I have recommended it to several of my friends who are unwell, and am going to continue its use myself." "CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW THANKFUL I AM." A patient in Bridgeport, Ind., says: "It is almost a year since I wrote you, but had I not been feeling exceedingly well you would have been bothered frequently with my letters. It is a year the 15th of March since I received my last Treatment, and I bave yet about an eighth left, and when my lungs get to feeling bad I inhale a time or two and then I am all right. I can not tell you how thankful I am to you for the relief and health you have given me. Why, when I think of the person you undertook to cure and then of my present self, I can scarcely believe myself to be that person." Our Treatise on Compound Oxygen is sent free of charge. It contains a history of the discovery, nature, and action of this new remedy, and a record of many of the remarkable results which have so far attended its use. DEPOSITORY IN NEW YORK.-Dr. John Turner, 862 Broadway, who has charge of our Depository in New York city, will fill orders for the Compound Oxygen Treatment, and may be consulted by letter or in person. DEPOSITORY ON PACIFIC COAST.-H. E. Mathews, 606 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California, will fill orders for the Compound Oxygen Treatment on Pacific Coast. FRAUDS AND IMITATIONS.-Let it be clearly understood that Compound Oxygen is only made and dispensed by the undersigned. Any substance made elsewhere, and called Compound Oxygen, is spurious and worthless, and those who buy it simply throw away their money, as they will in the end discover. Drs. STARKEY & PALEN, G. R. STARKEY, A. M., M. D. G. E. PALEN, Ph. B., M. D. 1109 & 1111 Girard St. (between Chestnut and Market), PHILADELPHIA, PA. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. NOVEMBER, 1883. "THE GREEK QUESTION."* BY JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE, PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN HARVARD COLLEGE. THE HE question whether the college faculty ought to continue to insist on a limited study of the ancient Greek language, as an essential prerequisite of receiving the A. B. degree, has been under consideration at Cambridge for a long time; and, since the opinions of those with whom I naturally sympathize have been so greatly misrepresented in the desultory discussion which has followed Mr. Adams's Phi Beta Kappa oration, I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on the "Greek question." This question is by no means a new one. For the last ten years it has been under discussion at most, if not at all, of the great universities of the world; and, among others, the University of Berlin, which stands in the very front rank, has already conceded to what we may call the new culture all that can reasonably be asked. Let me begin by asserting that the responsible advocates of an expansion of the old academic system do not wish in the least degree to diminish the study of the Greek language, the Greek literature, or the Greek art. On the contrary, they wish to encourage such studies by every legitimate means. For myself I believe that the old classical culture is the best culture yet known for the literary professions; and among the literary professions I include both law and divinity. Fifty years ago I should have said that it was the only culture worthy of the recognition of a university. But we live in the present, not in the past, and a half-century has wholly changed the relations of human * Remarks made at the dinner of the Harvard Club of Rhode Island, Newport, August 25, 1883. VOL. XXIV.- -1 knowledge. Regard the change with favor or disfavor, as you please, the fact remains that the natural sciences have become the chief factors of our modern civilization; and-which is the important point in this connection-they have given rise to new professions which more and more every year are opening occupations to our educated men. The professions of the chemist, of the mining engineer, and of the electrician, which have entirely grown up during the lifetime of many here present, are just as "learned" as the older professions, and are recognized as such by every university. Moreover, the old profession of medicine, which, when, as formerly, wholly ruled by authority or traditions, might have been classed with the literary professions, has come to rest on a purely scientific basis. In a word, the distinction between the literary and the scientific professions has become definite and wide, and can no longer be ignored in our systems of education. Now, while they would accord to their classical associates the right to decide what is the best culture for a literary calling, the scientific experts claim an equal right to decide what is the best culture for a scientific calling. Ever since the revival of Greek learning in Europe the literary scholars have been working out an admirable system of education. In this system most of us have been trained. I would pay it all honor, and I would here bear my testimony to the acknowledged facts that in no departments of our own university have the methods of teaching been so much improved during the last few years as in the classical. I should resist as firmly as my classical colleagues any attempt to emasculate the well-tried methods of literary culture, and I have no sympathy whatever with the opinion that the study of the modern languages as polite accomplishments can in any degree take the place of the critical study of the great languages of antiquity. To compare German literature with the Greek, or, what is worse, French literature with the Latin, as means of culture, implies, as it seems to me, a forgetfulness of the true spirit of literary culture. But literature and science are very different things, and "what is one man's meat may be another man's poison," and the scientific teachers claim the right to direct the training of their own men. It is not their aim to educate men to clothe thought in beautiful and suggestive language, to weave argument into correct and persuasive forms, or to kindle enthusiasm by eloquence. But it is their object to prepare men to unravel the mysteries of the universe, to probe the secrets of disease, to direct the forces of nature, and to develop the resources of this earth. These last aims may be less spiritual, lower on your arbitrary intellectual scale, if you please, than the first; but they are none the less legitimate aims which society demands of educated men and all we claim is that the astronomers, the physicists, the chemists, the biologists, the physicians, and the engineers, who have shown that they are able to answer these demands of society, |