THE WORLD'S FAIR OF 1904 AT ST. LOUIS

Will eclipse all other International events, and Missouri will shine as the brilliant star in the American firmament.

Issued Tenth and wenty-fifth of Every Month by the Fortnightly Press Co.

APR 7 1904 5

UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION OF

FRANK PARSONS NORBURY, M. D. AND PHOS. A. HOPKINS, M. D.

BB

Secretary: CHARLES WOOD FASSETT, M. D.

A COSMOPOLITAN BIWEEKLY FOR THE GENERAL PRACTITIONER

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Volume XXIII

JANUARY TENTH

Number 1

Editorial Department.

THE modern hospital as found in almost every city in the United States of 10,000 inhabitants and more, is the great index of advancing civilization.

The Influence of the Modern Hospital.

It has not been many years since the idea of hospital care was not accepted in the smaller cities, and even in the larger ones there was a tendency to abhor private care in the great hospitals. With the growth of scientific medicine and surgery when the needs of proper care demanded skilled nursing and facilities. in keeping with the importance of the cases under treatment, then the hospital became a necessity and the opprobrium about hospital care began to depart, until today the private individual looks upon the hospital "as a necessity," and is a willing contributor to its maintenance. Hospital organization has been brought up to a high degree of efficiency by the evolution of systematized management, consequently today mismanagement is the exception, where in former years it was the rule. Faulty organization has been overcome largely by the unity of purpose manifested in the co-operative efforts of National and local associations, to make possible thorough and systematized management.

The modern hospital is not necessarily a charitable organization, although its purposes are beneficent. It is a business proposition founded to meet the needs of those seeking service which it has to sell. It is not eventually a money-making institution, although it asks remuneration from some source for its services. Free service under systemized instpection, exists for those unable to pay, but back of such service stands either public or private benevolence. This idea is in keeping with the modern trend of charities, which aims to overcome pauperism, imposition on good nature, by imparting the fact that reasonable pay is demanded for service rendered. The growth of the hospital has improved conditions of civilization, local and general; it is a christianizing influence, a wholesome imparter of self-government, of law and order, and wherever located when under proper management will bear fruit for the public good.

No Breakfast
Cure.

THE American people seem to be following in the footsteps of the Germans, of whom Mark Twain speaks in his famous satire on the innumerable cures to be found in that enlightened country. We NOW have a modified "appetite cure" known as the "No-breakfast cure, " which seems to be bordering upon the line of a fad. The "No-Breakfast Club' will soon be a feature of every up-to-date club-ridden community. Dewey in his book advocating the "No breakfast cure" has taken himself seriously in his endeavor to spread the gospel of "no breakfast;" his book seems to meet with favor, for it is now read by the smart set (who set the pace), and seem to be encouraging the growth of the idea. Some very serious women of the literary set, some earnest women of the church circle set, and some melancholy dyspeptics of the omnipresent set, have joined the ranks, and are now giving testimonials, showing "that by going without breakfast three times" one was able to lay off a liver pad; another cease to wear electric insoles, and a third able to sleep on her back, all because, without breakfast, dinner "was an ecstacy of delight;" hunger in fact was on time at high-noon, waiting for the gates to open, and in the grand rush, the surging gastric juice played a medley on the heart strings.

This was according to Dewey, for he says, "There is to be that hunger that makes the best, plainest food an ecstacy of relish. Hunger only comes to those who wait for it." Mark Twain can say that is true; he knows from his experience with the appetite cure. Dewey seems to have gone up against the same game, and doubtless he found hunger waiting for the portcullis to fall, when the porter called, "Dinner is now ready in the dining-car. Doubtless it made a five-dollar-bill look like thirty cents, when the order was checked up.

Dewey's gospel will be accepted by the colonels, because he says, "No drink should be taken except in response to actual thirst." Whoever saw a colonel who was not thirsty. But now, for the facts of the new gospel Dewey says "food in excess is the motive power in the culture of disease. Hence, to achieve the highest ideals in the intellectual, the social and the business world "for the display of the highest possibilities of reason and judgment and cheer," no breakfast-an empty stomach is the condition, and a night of sleep the power," that makes the world move like greased lightning.

Somehow Dewey seems to have forgotten the joyous hours of the matinee, which come after luncheon; the high intellectual feasts at the woman's club, which are generally due after luncheon, or have it as a running mate. Dewey never has enjoyed the post prandial eloquence at the banquet and the initiation night, feasts when the goat, the camel and the elk vie with each other for honors. Nor has he hied himself to the picnic and feasted amid nature's halls, where good cheer, mirth, red ants and the neighbor's pigs seem to reign supreme.

Dewey evidently wrote his book after years of struggling with the innate tendency of not being happy until he gets what he wants he wanted stock in a cereal food company-not securing it, he has tried to make