red to purple, and the carbuncle from being hard to the touch becomes soft and spongy. The slough may extend over a space of one to six inches or even more. It most frequently attacks the back of the neck and the shoulders, but may occasionally be found on various parts of the body. Under proper treatment the prognosis is favorable, and convalescence will take place as soon as the slough has time to soften and dissolve into pus. It will be complete when the cavities have filled up with granulations, which is generally accomplished very soon.

Apply freely, to the carbuncle and contiguous parts, cloths dipped into hot water. The hotter the water the better, provided that it will not scald. I prefer to have the water simmering on a slow fire, and to take the cloths out and then air them till I can hold them in my hand, and then make the application immediately. If the cloths are hot enough the patient will complain of the first applications, but afterward they become very soothing and he is anxious to have them very hot. This will subdue the inflammation rapidly and will be found far more potent than cold water. As soon as the relaxing influence of the hot water is thoroughly developed it will be found that the cake has ceased to extend. The color of the surface changes promptly to a lighter shade, and the carbuncle becomes softer and more yielding to the touch and much less painful. In five or six hours the acute inflammatory symptoms are sufficiently subdued, which will generally be the case. Recently I have considered the propriety of injecting boiling water into the sinuses, but have not tried it. I afterward apply to the whole surface a poultice of pulverized slippery-elm bark mixed with boiling water which contains some strong antiseptic, and bathed with laudanum. The patient will generally rest well for several hours. After this, continue to alternate the hot bathing and the poultices, till brought under perfect control. This will generally be accomplished in a few days. When the slough has thoroughly formed I make one or more incisions with a lancet, so as to allow a free exit of pus and serum. I also pass a probe in various directions to see that there is a perfect discharge from all parts; and if not, I use the lancet till every part can discharge itself freely.

With this course pursued I have never seen any extensive sloughing of the superficial tissues or any large cicatrices formed or any serious stiffening of the neck or other deformity result. Where fungous granulations obstruct the discharge it will sometimes be expedient to destroy them with mild caustic, but it will

be found best to preserve the integrity of the superficial surface as much as practicable. Stasis having been checked, no new sloughs are formed; and as soon as those that are already formed are disorganized and discharged, convalescence sets in and generally progresses rapidly to perfect recovery.

In every serious case of carbuncle there will be more or less grave constitutional symptoms, which will require the attention of the physician in charge; and much depends upon how thoroughly and perfectly the indications are fulfilled about the prompt success of the local treatment. If the tongue is heavily coated, and considerable febrile action, I arouse the glandular secretions as promptly as possible by a tolerably active alterative cathartic course, and at the same time administer quinia in doses sufficiently large to bring the patient decidedly under its constitutional influence. This is in order to give him the benefit of its febrifuge and antiseptic influence. In some instances it will be found advantageous, in addition to the above, to administer tincture of Veratrum or tincture of Gelsemium, for their febrifuge and sedative influence.

I have now given the outlines of what I know in the main to be a successful treatment of Anthrax, and I believe that all those who will test it will find it far preferable to extirpation by the knife or caustics, or the crucial incisions which have been so generally recommended and practiced in the past. My principal object in writing this article has been to give my testimony to the fact that the recuperative powers of nature are sufficient in this as well as most other diseases for the restoration of the patient, if the medical and a very little surgical treatment be given the patient in such a manner as to act in harmony with the physiological laws, and that when thus treated the disease is not very formidable. I have read in medical journals the treatment for carbuncle, wherein it was recommended to make a crucial incision downward upon the slough and to dissect it up with the flaps and to scrape it off and then to close the wound, which appeared to me to be unnecessary, irrational and barbarous, and I feel it my duty to enter my protest against such and all similar treatment.

PHOSPHORUS.

Phosphorus is a powerful general stimulant and nerve tonic, and is exceedingly efficacious in diseases that are attended with great lack of vitality. It bears a somewhat similar relation to the nervous system that iron does to the blood.

It is also an excellent tonic for strengthening the sexual appetite and for remedying sexual weakness. In the treatment of diseases arising from sexual abuse, such as involuntary seminal emission, phosphorus, when used with Salix Nigra Aments, is a most valuable remedy.

Prof. Locke recommends this potent remedial agent as being of great service in cases of chronic nephritis, and for all irritable conditions of the kidney and bladder where the urine is visibly affected. He uses from ten to thirty drops of the first decimal dilution in four ounces of water, and gives the patient a teaspoonful of the dilution every three hours.

He also recommends it for certain respiratory disorders, more particularly in chronic pneumonia. When attended with secretion. of mucous, pus and blood; also when the sufferer is threatened with phthisis. Its use in such cases has saved many lives.

Phosphorus has also a very marked influence on the glandular system, being an excellent preventive of the enlargement of the glands; nor is it less effective as a remedy for fatty organic degeneration, whether of the heart, brain, liver or spinal cord, while for any functional derangement of this latter organ, it is quite superior to strychnin.

In many troubles, too, of a nervous character-more especially when attended with pain-such as long standing cases of neuralgia, that have resisted other methods of treatment, phosphorus is a most excellent remedy and as a stimulant its influence is remarkable.

In cases of this nature I use the following formula :

Medicate the large Homeopathic sugar disks with this tincture, giving them as required. This method will be found much more convenient than giving the remedy in solution.

I am strongly inclined to think that we have not sufficiently appreciated the drug-phosphorus-and applied it to the many conditions to which it is most certainly curative.-Eclectic Review.

A colored woman in Chattanooga gave birth to two black children and a white one at a single birth.

Society Reports.

ILLINOIS STATE ECLECTIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

All loyal Eclectic physicians are expected to attend the next meeting of the Illinois State Eclectic Medical Society, to be held in Springfield, Ill., May 20th and 21st, 1903.

An excellent programme has been prepared and papers upon modern subjects will be read which will be of great value to every physician in attendance. A special train will be run from Chicago, and all who intend to go are requested to send their names and addresses to the secretary without delay, as arrangements must be made to accommodate the large number of physicians who expect. to attend the meeting. ARTHUR H. READING, M. D.,

6600 JACKSON AVENUE, CHICAGO.

Secretary.

NATIONAL ECLECTIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

In the preparation we are making for the annual meeting of the Association, which will be held in Indianapolis on the 9th, 10th and 11th of June, we are greatly encouraged by the very prompt replies that have been made in most cases to all of our correspondence.

The

The section officers have been especially fortunate in securing a large list of papers from writers whose names are sufficient assurance that the papers will be of the very best quality. sections of Medicine, Therapeutics, Surgery and Gynecology are especially full already, and yet they will be open to additions until the 10th of April.

We urge upon every member of the Association to be with us this year and contribute to the programme something that will be of practical character.

There are several matters to be brought up which will be of very great interest. The efforts that are being made to consolidate the school are being responded to so cordially by physicians in every state and territory that the report in this particular will be an unusually favorable one. The union of the secretaries of the state societies in this work has been a very fortunate move on the part of the Association and will certainly result in the greatest good;

first, to the state society, which is very important, and secondly to the Association.

Let there be earnestness, zeal and unanimity this year and we are assured that the National Association will advance more rapidly than in many previous years.

We ask the united co-operation of every member of the Association and every staunch Eclectic. We are endeavoring to secure the addition of two hundred new members to the Association this year. J. D. MCCANN, M. D., President.

FINLEY ELLINGWOOD, M. D., Recording Secretary.

Correspondence.

ECLECTIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA.

OAKLAND, CAL., FEBRUARY 6th, 1903. Finley Ellingwood, M. D., Sec'y National Eclectic Medical Association.

MY DEAR DOCTOR : -I have this day received per express a package of the circulars of which you recently wrote me.

I am much pleased with what is being done by the National along organization lines and think that much good will certainly come from your most earnest efforts for the good of the principles of Eclecticism.

In regard to your annual address I will say that I can send out at least 300, and will be pleased if you can send that number. I think that every Eclectic in these United States should have the chance to read and thoroughly digest that address, as I think that it is the greatest exponent of Eclecticism and the true status of existing conditions which has been published.

I shall endeavor to get the greatest amount of good possible from this matter furnished me for distribution in this State, and I expect it will be the means of bringing the Eclectics of the State in closer relationship than ever before.

Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain,

Most fraternally yours,

BEN STETSON, Secretary.

We ask in another place, and repeat the request here, that every subscriber send us a statement of some agent that he uses for some exact condition, and always expects good results.