A SOLILOQUY ON A VERMIFORM APPENDIX. It is stated that fecal concretions are abnormal or pathological contents of the vermiform appendix, and it is further held that in abdominal operations the appendix should be removed if it shows any abnormal conditions, even though. no symptoms have arisen therefrom. The normal appendix should be allowed to remain. Extract from a recent medical paper:

I have got you where I want you, said the doctor with a smile,
To a vermiform appendix smooth and round,

And I've half a mind to slice you and to take you gently out.
Lest in after years you get to squirming round.

They have said that if you're normal we should leave you as you are,
But, I will say in truth, I have a doubt

If there ever was a brother of your very wormy kind
'That wasn't better far to have him out.

I am filled with the impression that a snaky thing like you
Would have no more of conscience than a snake,
And if I now should save you, I have no assurance that
In after years you wouldn't cause an ache.

I could trust a good round liver or nice and rosy spleen
In gratitude to keep himself in shape,

But, when I see your figure of a very wormy kind,

I'd bank no more upon you than the tape.

'Twas a worm that raised the trouble with old Adam years ago, And I take it to be true without a doubt

That people would be happy down in Eden to this day

If some one there had cast the wormlet out.

14

4

So, while you look quite healthy and seem well as you can be,
I think I will not trust the snaky kind,.
And in one little jiffy you will be meandering hence,
With just a little stumplet left behind,

-GEO. THOS PALMER.

VOL. XVI.

MARCH, 1903.

EDITORIAL.

No. 3.

MUSIC IN MEDICINE.

"In certain forms of disease, music, directed by trained knowledge, has passed the experimental stage as an adjunct to the art of the physician." So says a writer from the east after seeing the results of music in the Saint Luke's Hospital of New York. We are not disposed to deny the benefits to be obtained from music for the sick; but we do wonder if these newer factors are not hatched from the experimental stage a trifle under-done. We wonder if it would not be as well to place more credit and more honor upon "the experimental stage" and to regard serious consideration. and experimentation sufficiently creditable for the newer theories and ideas. As it is every new notion is announced at once "beyond the experimental stage" the moment it is given to the world. The report above quoted goes on to say that insomnia and melancholia gave way to the strains of "The Pilgrims' Chorus" from "Tannhauser" and then it is announced that the fever of malaria gave way

to some artistic effort. We can easily imagine the effect on the nervous organism, but we do not fully appreciate the manner in which the fragments of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's "Andante Canabile und Presto Agitato in H" grapples with the plasmodium malarlæ. It may be all right, and we hope it is. We can argue it out according to the Homeopathic theory of "similia similibus curantur," for we have had some music give us nervous prostration and chills; but we are not disciples of Hahnemann.

G. T. P.

The gracious lady who watches over the manners and morals of THE CLINIC deplores what she calls its tendency to discuss purely local issues. Possibly we have erred in that direction but where we have done so it was because the local issue stood as the outward and visible sign of general causes, affecting the profession at large. For instance, we do not for a moment suppose that our readers in general especially care whether or not Dr. Engals was elected county commissioner at a recent election, but the medical apathy that permitted such a result is not confined to Chicago. In another department reference is made to the unwiseness, to put it mildly, displayed in the selection of the advisory board by the Cook county commissioners. Every effort ought to have been made to retain the valuable services of the previous advisory board, which included among its members, Dr. H. T. Patrick, Dr. Frank Billings, and Miss Julia Lathrop. The strenuous efforts of Dr. Patrick to improve the condition of affairs at the County Poor House and Insane Asylum ought not to have been forgotten by the county commissioners. Possibly that was exactly what they wanted to forget, for his honest attempt to rectify long standing abuses precipitated a conflict with the machine. Fortunately Dr. Patrick remained in office long enough to succeed in placing a competent head nurse and an efficient medical man in charge of these respective departments. Then came an election and a new board of county commissioners without a physician among them, and as a result, Dr. Patrick and colleagues are sent out into the gloaming and a worthy and busy lot of business men substituted in their places. They are all honorable men but as they say down south, they "know no more about the medical needs of the county charities than a hog does of a ruffled shirt."

M. P. H.

IS LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICINE A DANGEROUS THING?

Some days ago Dr. Kuflewski, of Chicago, made a protest before the public school board against the teaching of those things in our schools tending toward the promulgation of medical knowledge; but as Dr. Kuflewski calls it, "lessons on the effects of drugs and narcotics." These teachings of physiology, hygiene and allied lines in the public schools are productive of unquestioned benefit, the value of such education passing through the child into the homes and making these homes better and more healthful, and it is to be hoped that Dr., Kuflewski has no desire to discontinue such instruction. We are unable to understand why he should desire to alter the methods of teaching at all except in one particular. Knowledge even a smattering of knowledge-is better than ignorance, and the knowledge of the effect of drugs and narcotics is of some value. The great trouble is that this subject is handled in school text books with so much exaggeration, if not real falsehood, that the later discovery of the unnecessary deception works detrimentally upon the whole fabric of such education. A mere glance at the sections on coffee, tea and tobacco in such a school text causes one to regret that over-zealousness has caused such false writings; but instead of destroying the whole institution as Kuflewski would do, we would rebuild the teachings on a firm foundation. G. T. P.

Politeness forbids that we should say exactly what we think about the W. C. T. U. sisters who have been waging a war against the presence in the White House of Watts' beautiful painting of "Love and Life." Swift said that a "nice man" was one of nasty ideas, and the worst of these performances is that they bring inevitable criticism upon an organization which is attempting a noble work. Hence it is with genuine satisfaction that we publish Lady Henry Somerset's note in regard to the matter:

"As president of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union," continues Lady Henry, "I feel that it should be made clear that the objections raised by a few women are not held by the majority of the great temperance society, which realizes that that allegorical picture has in it nothing but tender, beautiful teaching, with the purity of treatment and intention which marks all that great master's work."

THE STUDY OF PEDIATRICS AND ITS RELATION TO THE

GENERAL MEDICAL EDUCATION.

Notes on a Lecture before the Chicago Medical Society.

BY THOMAS MORGAN ROTCH, M. D.,

PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS IN THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF HARVARD

UNIVERSITY.

At the invitation of the Chicago Pediatric Society, now a section of the Chicago Medical Society, the Professor of Pediatrics of Harvard University delivered this address before the general meeting of the Medical Society.

"In no way do we learn a subject so well," said Dr. Rotch, "As in teaching it to others; in coming in contact with the bright student minds, and especially is this true in such an institution as Harvard University where all of the medical students have attained the degree of bachelor of arts before beginning the medical course.

"I have been associated with the teaching body at Harvard for twenty-five years and in that time I have seen the subject of pediatrics taught first merely as a part of the course of internal medicine, covered by a few lectures during that course, then pediatrics was made as elective, a choice as against gynecology and finally it became a part of the regular course and now it has become a department with its own professorship, on a par in dignity with any other branch.

"It has always been difficult to secure recognition for this branch on account of the opposition by the other departments.

"The progress of pediatrics as an educational factor in general medical education had also been impeded by the fact that it is usually inefficiently taught, with a course of study occupying too short a time and with men in charge who, while very capable and well trained in general medicine, are practically unschooled and untrained in the peculiarities of the diseases of childhood. Then too, pediatrics is still taught in many educational institutions as a part of the branches of obstetrics or gynecology.

"Some one has said that one chair should be able to teach the clinical medicine of all ages of life, but when we consider the vast amount of time that is required to master the subject of the diseases of adult life and that an almost equal amount of time would be required to master the knowledge of the diseases of childhood or of old age, we appreciate that such a plan would of necessity fail. The strides of all branches in advancement are so rapid that he who would