PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL WINSLOW ANDERSON, A. M., M. D., M. R. C. P. LOND., etc. W. F. SOUTHARD, A. M., M. D., Managing Editor. COLLABORATORS. U. F. BUCKLEY, B.A., M.D., L.R.C.P.Edin., etc. H. D'ARCY POWER, L.S.A.Eng., L.R.C.P., İre. P. C. REMONDINO, M.D. GEO. C. MACDONALD, M.D., F.R C.S.Ed. W. E. TAYLOR, M.D. W L. ADAMS, M.D. CARL C. HANSEN, M.D. GEORGE H. POWERS, A.M., M.D. C. A. RUGGLES, M.D. FRANK HOWARD PAYNE, M,D. A. W. MORTON, A.B., M.D. CHAS. E. JONES, A.B., M.D. F. F. KNORP, M.D. WM. J. JACKSON, Ph.G., M.D. F. W. HARBIS, M.D. WM. A. BRYANT, M.D., D.D.S, P. A. DUBOIS, Ph.G. WALTER F. LEWIS, D.D.S. A. SCHLOSS, M. D. FRED. W. LUX, M.D. H. N. ROWELL, M.D. CLARK L. ABBOTT, M.D. SOPHIE B. KOBICKE, M.D. LOLITA B DAY, M.D. ROBERT E. O'CONNELL, D.D.S. CHAS. W. MILLS, A.B, M.D., D.D.S. B. F. WILLIAMS M.D. WILLIAM BURFIEND, D.D.S. JOHN M. STOWELL, M.D. BERTHA WAGNER-STARK, M.D. J. H. SEYMOUR, M.D. CALVIN W. KNOWLES, D.D.S., M.D. CORYDON B. Root, M.D., D.D.S. J. LORAN PEASE, D.D.S. J. C. HENNESSEY, D.D.S. A. F. MERRIMAN, JR., D.D.S. S. L. STRICKLAND, D.D.S. The Editors are not responsible for the views of contributors. All matters relating to the editorial and business departments should be addressed to the PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, 1025 Sutter St., San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO, DECEMBER, 1903. Editorial. THE CLOSING YEAR. Every year brings forth new discoveries in the advancement of arts and sciences and improved methods of application. There is perhaps no other profession that has made such rapid strides as that of scientific medicine and surgery. It is not too much to say that the other two learned professions-law and theology-have not kept pace with scientific medicine. In law one might reasonably expect greater advancement in the matter of securing justice and equity and governing laws for the good of all. Has the legal profession progressed with the times? The interpretation of theology seems as diverse and difficult today as it was twenty years ago. Are the different dogmas any nearer the truth or unity than they have ever been? What has been done in scientific medicine and surgery? Very much. The causative factors of all epidemics, endemics and of most diseases have been discovered within recent years. Cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, and the so called bubonic plague, the great plague diseases of the last 2,000 years, that were formerly sent by Divine (?) decree to depopulate the wicked have now been thoroughly investigated and conquered. We know their causes and we know how to prevent them. The causes of consumption, pneumonia, diphtheria, and all the preventable diseases have been discovered, and it remains for the medical profession to educate the public sufficiently to make their prevention sure. The scientific physician has not only discovered the causes and prevention of most diseases but he has also discovered methods of treatment that ensure immunity from many contagious and infectious diseases. The medical man of to-day has at his disposal exact, scientific methods of investigating the origin, cause, prevention and cure of disease. Laboratory methods of research are multiplying. Clinical and microscopic analysis of physiologic and pathologic fluids and tissues renders diagnosis certain. The X-ray locates for us a bullet or a needle in the human body with exactness. A fracture or a dislocation is no longer a matter of the bonesetter's vague opinion. The Roentgen rays make it positive. Antiseptic surgery has made it possible for us to explore every organ and cavity in the body. To-day we sew up typhoidal ulcerations, when they perforate, and save the patient's life. This condition was almost certain death a few years ago. Thousands of lives are saved every year by performing appendectomies, herniotomies, cholecystotomies, cholecysenterostomies, intestinal anastomoses, nephrectomies, and scientific operations for tubal pregnancies. Less than twenty years ago the average of human life was only thirty-three years. To-day it is nearly forty years. What other profession can show such an advancement? THE AGES OF THE WORLD-IS THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THE PAPER AGE? The earliest Greeks divided the age of the world into five epochs: (1) At first the Saturnian, or golden age, when Saturn ruled this sub-lunar sphere. Then the people were free from taxes and moral restraint. They had neither ships nor weapons; wars nor soldiers. They did not even have labor unions to retard the progress of indus tries and civilization. The fertile fields needed no cultivation and perpetual spring blessed the earth. This corresponds, according to the Yugas of the Hindus, to Krita Yuga, which lasted 4,000 divine years, each of which was equal to 360 solar years, adding its "twilight "makes 1,728,000 solar years. A day and a night of Brahma embraced a period of 4,320,000,000. During this epoch men lived from 400 to 1,000 years. They were all giants. It was during this period that the God, Brahma, was born. (2) We next come to the silver age, which is like the silver-tongued orator in comparison with golden silence. This was an age of licentiousness and wickedness. The people began to be mercenary, jealous of rivals; even then, we are told, doctors quarreled--something quite unheard of to-day. For did not Apollo the "divine physician " slay Esculapius, his own son by a Grecian maiden, with a thunderbolt, for making the dead come to life! This is the Treta Yuga of the Hindus, and lasted 3,000 divine years, or 1,296,000 years. Men then lived an average of 300 years, and vice began to creep into the world after the gallant Adam was cajoled by Eve into participating in the feast of apples in the garden of Paradise. (3) The bronze age was inaugurated with violent savagery and war-like conflicts. During this age, or the Dwapara Yuga, which lasted 2,000 divine years or 864,000 solar years, men lived only 200 years, because of the increase of wickedness. (4) Is the heroic age, which seemed to inaugurate a better state of things. Gods descended from heaven and made it possible for mortal woman to bear god-like children. The great god Esculapius was the son of Apollo, the great Jehovah or sun-god, and a Grecian maiden. Achilles himself had a divine father. This epoch corresponds to the Kali Yuga, which lasted for 1,000 divine. years, or 432,000 solar years, during which time the average life of mortals decreased to 50 years on this earth, on account of its increased wickedness. (5) The iron age became possible when the Gods of the Universe instilled reason and justice and honor into their offspring. A decade ago the average span of human life was but 33 years. Now we are nearing an average of 40 years by all mankind born by woman. We may attribute this to the physician and his increased learning. According to the late Professor Joseph LeConte, a Californian, an American, and one of the greatest philosophers of the age, the native tribes of America were still in the stone age, when this country was discovered in 1492. This epoch includes the eolithic, paleolithic and neolithic periods, and antedates the bronze age of the ancient Greeks. From the time of the iron age we make a subdivision which may be denominated the steel age. From the steel age we may make another subdivision, that of the steam age, and latterly we may make a third subdivision, or that of the electrical age, but undoubtedly the period of to-day is the paper age. The Egyptians, 2,000 years before Christ, made use of the leaf of the papyrus as a means of preserving and communicating written thought. The Chinese originated the paper of to-day over 1,800 years ago, but not until to-day has paper assumed its present enormous proportions. Composition of paper: Nearly everything enters into the composition of paper. Over 150 kinds of grasses are made into paper, over 50 kinds of bark are worked up into paper pulp. Forests are being transformed into paper, so are banana skins, pea vines, clover, hay straw, weeds, bean stalks, hop plants, husks and stems of corn; all kinds of moss, thistles, thistle down, tobacco stock, cacti, hair, fur, wool, and asbestos. Even saw dust is utilized for the manufacture of paper. We have cotton paper, flax paper, paper from linen, mulberry leaves, bark and wood, pitch, rags, rice, and paper cloth and clothes. One New York paper alone uses 150 tons daily. To produce this amount 16,000 acres of spruce are annually turned into the maw of paper. Paper enters into more shapes and is the material out of which more numerous and diverse articles are fashioned than perhaps any other substance with which human ingenuity has to deal. Out of it are manufactured houses for man to live in, clothes for man to wear, to say nothing of buttons, collars, cuffs, tapestry, boats, carpets, cups, dishes, furniture, flower-pots, pails, tubs, barrels, leadpencil wrappers, combs, frames, and bank paper and treasury notes. The mortal remains of man even are tenderly and sacredly placed away in mother earth in impregnable paper coffins. Boards are made of paper, drainage pipes, conduits for underground wires, and hundreds of articles in daily use. SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. At a meeting held December, 1903, the following officers and standing committees were elected: President, J. Rosenstirn; First Vice-President, E. M. Bixby; Second Vice-President, H. B. Reynolds; Secretary, W. F. Barbat; Assistant Secretary, H. E. Alderson; Treasurer, F. R. Dray; Librarian, W. I. Terry. Trustees.-H. Gibbons, Jr., W. W. Kerr and L. L. Dorr. Committee on Admissions.-S. J. Hunkin, W. B. F. Wakefield, A. W. Morton, J. W. Shiels and A. H. Taylor. Committee on Ethics.-P. K. Brown, E. Rixford, H. D'Arcy Power, D. A. Stapler and R. D. Cohn. Committee on Finance.-E. L. Wemple, A. B. McKee and M. Krotoszyner Committee on Library.-W. I. Terry, C. M. Cooper and C. Quinan. Executive Committee.-L. W. Allen, G. E. Ebright and H. Brunn. Committee on Public Health.-H. A. L. Ryfkogel, J. M. Williamson, E. S. Merritt and W. A. Martin. Delegates to State Society.-F. B. Carpenter, G. B. Somers, G. G. Levison, A. B. Grosse, J. A. Black, E. G. Frisbie, W. F. Southard and L. A. Kengla. Alternate Delegates.-F. G. Burrows, K. Pischel, J. M. Moss, M. O. Austin, H. C. Moffitt, Mary Halton, J. G. McChesney, R. L. Rigdon, L. Newmark, H. B. A. Kugeler, George Goodfellow, M. E. Kibbe, G. M. Barrett, G. L. Eaton, W. R. P. Clark and C. H. Rosenthal. Thirteenth Annual Meeting California Northern District Medical Society. California Northern District Medical Society held its Thirteenth Annual Meeting at Sacramento, November 10, 1903. The officers of the organization are: President, E. W. Hanlon, Marysville; First Vice-President, H. W. Taggart, Stockton; Second Vice-President, F. B. Sutliff, Sacramento; Third Vice-President, J. T. Harris, Gridley; Secretary, E. E. Stone, Napa; Treasurer, O. Stansbury, |