New Methods of Treating Phthisis. The Koch treatment with Parataloid," or "Tuberculin" (two names that have been snggested for the remedy), is still on trial, with conflicting reports as to its efficacy, even in any tubercular affection, and a very evident decline in its popularity. It will eventually find its level, when its uses will be well defined, and the proper methods of administration better understood than now.

In the meantime, the announcement of any cure for consumption has led many to be bolder than they otherwise would have been in publishing what they have previously thought to be cures for this disease, discovered and practiced by them in years past. This, of itself, will re

sult in a closer study of the disease, and a more accurate determination of the principles necessary to be followed in its treatment. That many cases of consumption of the lungs are cured every year we verily believe. The cicatrized pulmonary cavities found in the dissecting room would seem to sustain this belief. That there is any specific remedy or "sure cure" known to any member of the profession, however, we do not believe. Thus far we must proceed on the general and well-known principles of reducing inflammation, checking suppuration, combating the septic condition of the system and of the respiratory tract and stimulating the nutrition and vitality of the patient. The most successful man in this disease must be -not a narrow specialist, with a single remedy -but a first-class all round physician, with all therapeutic and hygienic resources at his command.

Public Sanitation.

We hope to see such a development of civilization in this country, sometime, that the

government will sustain a complete and thorough department of public sanitation. This department of the government should be a scientific body, liberally equipped for its important work, and should be so thoroughly organized that its authority and influence would extend to every nook and corner of the largest city, as well as to the remotest region of the sparsely settled districts. Its expense, even if liberally provided for, would be slight compared with its possible benefits.

The cost would not exceed that of the military department which we now sustain as a defense against a possible national insult or invasion; and yet the country loses more precious lives in a year from preventable diseases than would be lost on the field and in camp during a long and dreary war.

By all means let us exercise the same regard for the preservation of human life that we do in our police and fire departments for the pro

tection of personal rights and property. Much more might be said in favor of this question, but as it is being said almost every day in many public spirited addresses throughout the country, we only give it mention here to correctly define our position and set our readers to thinking.

Retributive Benevolence.

The Medical Record shows that, out of $47,310 contributed to the Hospital Saturday and Sunday fund in that city, over $30,000 was contributed by the churches alone, and about $500 by the saloons, bars, cafe's and various drinking places. This does not sustain the claim of drinkers that "Drinking is a convivial pastime, which warms the soul, expands the feelings and kindles sentiments of good fellowship and generosity." This discrepancy is all the more to be noted when we reflect that it is the work of the saloons mainly, and not that of the churches, that makes the existence of charitable hospitals necessary.

In this city we have, a separate hospital sustained by nearly every religious denomination, and by some denominations two or more. Now there is nothing in the exercises or devotions of the Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, Episcopal or other church which has a tendency to induce disease or to predispose to accident Yet there is not a single hospital established or sustained by the liquor interests, notwithstanding the fact that the places for the manufacture and sale of the stuff many times outnumber the churches and schools put together, that those who obtain their living by its sale are a multitude compared to the handful who obtain theirs by church work, and that the capital invested would buy the churches several times over, and the still more glaring fact that the work of the saloon has a constant and invariable tendency to produce disease, cause accidents, and induces the poverty which renders their victims unable to pay for the necessary treatment and care when sick.

Now, in the interest of humanity and the over-worked medical profession, we propose that the enterprising members of the liquor fraternity in this city take steps at once to establish a hospital where the victims of devotion to their shrine, whether the drinkers them

selves or their impoverished families, may have first-class treatment free of charge. An annual contribution of a thousand dollars from each of the manufacturers and wholesale dealers, and one hundred from each of the retailers, would be sufficient to maintain one of the most magnificent institutions in the world, allowing sufficient pay to the attending physicians and surgeons for their services. Yet this amount from each would not be a tithe of what they obtain from those same victims. Come, now,

ye jolly landlords, and chip in cheerfully and liberally.

Current Medical Thought.

The Old Family Doctor.

Some of the older ones of us are like good old Dr. Kittridge, who had lived right among sick folks for five and thirty years, and had a library of five and thirty volumes bound up in his head at the end of that time. He knew the bigger part of all the families in a dozen miles of him-those that have the way of liv ing through everything, and the other set that have the trick of dying without any sort of reason for it. He knew the years when the fevers and dysenteries were in earnest, and when they were only making believe. He knew the folks that think they are dying as soon as they're sick, and those that never find out they're sick until they're dead. There are things he doesn't know, for they came in after his day, and he is very glad to send for those who do know them when he is at fault. But he knows the people in his neighborhood as all the science in the world can't know them, unless it takes time about it, and sees them grow up and grow old, and how the wear and tear of life comes to them.-From the address of Pres. J. C. Sexton, M.D.,

Let the Belief Extend.

There is a belief existing among a goodly number of our colored citizens, and some few of the white ones also, that medicine bought on credit will not have a good effect. They will contract a bill for anything in the drug store except for a prescription, or medciine of any kind; these they invariably insist on paying cash for. "No suh, I pays cash fer dem pills, er day doan do de ole ooman ary miter good," said a colored brother to the druggist

where he had his account.-Indiana Pharm.

It would be a good idea to invest the prescription with the same mysterious idea.

A National University for Scientific Research. In the address of Dr. Frank S. Billings before the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, in Oct., 1890, we find the following brilliant paragraph:

"The idea is grand from every point of view, could we but have a National University, where

every branch of original research and study would be conducted on the highest and most exact principles of scientific investigation; where the truth alone would be sought and taught utterly regardless of the idols it demolished, or the ideas santified by usage, which it crushed to the ground; where the poorest youths of the land, male or female, having the genius for and the hunger to acquire scientific knowledge, could have the freest opportunity, regardless of expense, and where bigotry and intolerance of any and every kind would be absolutely certain of being barred out; where religion would be studied in the spirit of its twin-sister, original research, and where the theological devil could never work in his discordant horns. Could we have such an institution of education and general research as that, its value to the country could not well be estimated. Personally, however, I have a dread of the very name university. Not only in this country, but in England, that name suggests a theological suspicion, and to have that influence control, or even enter a national institution of education or research, would be absoulutely certain to damn its influence and advancement for an indefinite number of years; but, could we have such an institution on the German plan, every scientist, every broad and humanitarian mind in this country, every honest physician should, and probably would, gladly advocate its erection and organization."

Benefits of Public Sanitation.

IN a carefully prepared paper, read before the Sanitary Convention at Vicksburg, the proceedings of which are published, Dr. Baker gave official statistics and evidence which he summarized as follows:

"The record of the great saving of human life and health in Michigan in recent years is one to which, it seems to me, the state and local boards of health in Michigan can justly 'point with pride.' It is a record of the saving of over one hundred lives per year from small-pox, four hundred lives per year saved from death by scarlet fever, and nearly six hundred lives per year saved from death by diphtheria-an aggregate of eleven hundred lives per year, or three lives per day, saved from these three diseases. This is a record which we ask to have examined, and which we are

willing to have compared with that of the man who made two blades of grass grow where only one grew before.'"-Times and Register.

A CORRESPONDENT in the Toledo Med. and Surg. Rep. objects to the practice of many bombastic doctors of placing after their names

signed to their articles in the medical press

"not only their professional titles, but also the names of medical societies to which they have belonged, and the names of those societies of which they are members; the official positions in these societies that they have occupied, or which they at present hold; the political offices that they fill, or to which they have been elected; the business positions which they have secured; the names of hospitals that they visit; the names of medical colleges in which they are professors, lecturers or assistants, and many other such titles."

He truthfully adds that such an array of titles in no degree adds to the value of the advertising and is undignified. We heartily paper, but that it savors of unprofessional

concur in his views.

Alcohol.

PROFESSOR E. L. YOUMANS says that alcohol is specifically and to all intents and purposes a cerebral poison. It seizes with its disorganizing energy upon the brain, that mysterious part whose steady and undisturbed action holds man in true and responsible relations with his family, with society, and with God; and it is this fearful fact that gives to government and society their tremendous interest in the question.-Dixie Doctor.

The Sex of Infants.

From a statistical study over 200 families (over 1,000 infants) it results that when the sex of a first child is known, one can determine in advance what will be the sex of infants subsequently born, and how a choice may be made. The first child having been conceived in a menstrual period, which we shall designate as No. 1, if it be a boy, all infants conceived, for example, in the 11th, 13th, 15th, 105th, etc., menstrual period following, will be boys; while all conceived in the 12th, 16th, 106th, etc., after the first conception will be girls.-Deputy, in L'Annee Med. de Caen.— Progress.

NEARLY all cases of acute mania in females are associated with amenorrhea.

Prevention of Scarlet Fever. In a paper read before the American Pædiatric Society, and published in the Archives of Padiatrics, December, 1890, p. 921, Dr. J. Lewis Smith calls attention to the chief means of preventing the spread of the contagion of scarlet fever.

He calls attention to the fact that as the area of contagiousness of this disease extends but a few feet from the patient, isolation is very effective - more effective than with measles and pertussis. But this small area of contagiousness of scarlet fever is more than overbalanced by the tenacity with which the poison adheres to clothing and apartments. He cites examples of how the disease may be carried upon the clothes of physicians, nurses, washerwomen and school children, by books, toys, letters, etc.

He then takes up the question of afterdisinfection, and shows that the usual method by burning sulphur is inefficient. He believes that to prevent the spread of scarlet fever, as well as diphtheria, we must not depend upon the after disinfection, but should employ disinfection throughout the whole course of the disease, both in the room and upon the patient. He recommends for the disinfection of the room the following mixture, to be evaporated in a basin with water:

He

He also recommends washing the mouth and fauces frequently with a two-grain-to-thepint solution of corrosive sublimate. advises, in addition, constant ventilation of the room by an open window. The cautious physician in attending scarlet fever will always bear in mind the possibility that his person or clothing may become infected, and be the means of carrying the poison to other children, and he will not go directly from such a patient to a child with another sickness, or a midwifery case, without first washing his hands, hair and face in an antiseptic solution, and changing his outer apparel. He is of the opinion that although the means employed by health boards for domiciliary disinfection are inadequate, it is the duty of attending physicians to see that they are carried out, and to suggest such other means as his judgment may deem proper.-Brooklyn Med Journal.

Resume of Medical Practice Acts in the Different States.

ALABAMA.-Examination and endorsement of diploma by a County Medical Society. Violation of law, $100 fine. Passed February 9, 1887.

ARIZONA.-Register diploma with county recorder. No examination.

ARKANSAS.-Five years' practice in State. Registration of diploma, or examination by State Board of Examiners.

CALIFORNIA.-Registration of diploma after endorsement by the State Board of either of the schools. After 1890-91, three sessions of six months each in separate years.

COLORADO.-Endorsement of diploma or examination by State Board of Examiners. After July 1, 1893, three years' study, including three sessions of at least twenty weeks each in different college years.

CONNECTICUT.-No law, except against advertising itinerant physicians.

DAKOTA.-Endorsement of diploma or examination by board. After 1891, three sessions required.

DELAWARE.-Eight years' practice in State. Registration and license by county clerk.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.-Endorsement of diploma or examination by State Medical

Board.

FLORIDA.-Endorsement of diploma or examination by either State Board of Examiners. The Homeopathic Board, which meets semiannually, will endorse eclectic diplomas.

GEORGIA.-Register diploma before Clerk of Superior Court.

IDAHO.-Record diploma at county seat. ILLINOIS.-Endorsement of diploma for registration or examination by State Board. Preliminary entrance examination required, or equivalent. After 1890-91, four years' study, and three sessions of at least twenty weeks each.

INDIANA.-Registration of diploma before county clerk.

INDIAN TERRITORY.-Examination or registration before different boards in each Indian nation.

IOWA.-Endorsement of diploma or examination and registration by State Board of Medical examiners. After 1890-91, four years, reading and three sessions of six months each in different years.

KANSAS.-Certificate issued by either of the three State societies.

KENTUCKY.-Registration and endorsement of diploma by Secretary of State Board of Health, or ten years' practice.

LOUISIANA.-Recording

diploma before county clerk or justice of the peace after endorsement of same by State Board, which is