966 protests to the contrary notwithstanding. The better a practitioner has trained himself to administer to the immediate needs of the patient, the better physician he is." And again on the following page :-"" And now you know whom I consider the ideal, the true physician. It matters not to me what he prescribes to accomplish his immediate end, so long as he knows what he is prescribing. I don't care whether the drug which he employs is made in Germany or whether it is compounded in this country, whether it is patented and trade-marked or whether it is simply trade-marked. In this respect, all coons look alike to me. If he finds it convenient to prescribe or dispense a combination of known composition bearing a copyrighted name, that is simply his concern and nobody's else." Many "proprietary" medicines have their beginning in a physician's prescription — it has cured a certain case or series of cases, or has given certain definite results, and some live, progressive pharmacist has promoted it. Such is the case I know with "Gray's Glycerine Tonic Compound," manufactured according to the formula of Dr. Jno. P. Gray, so long at the head of the Utica (N. Y.) Hospital for the Insane. It was suggested to me in a consultation case by the late Dr. Jno. H. Callender, then Superintendent of the Tennessee State Hospital for the Insane, and at least a dozen years before it was copyrighted and put on the market by the Purdue-Frederick Co.; and the same I can say as to "Wayne's Diuretic Elixir," both of which have become wellnigh standard, as they and others of like invaluable therapeutical results should Farthermore, I can get decidedly more definite results from either of these and like preparations when made by a reliable manufacturing establishment having an interest in maintaining their effectiveness, than I did when I used them before they were copyrighted, as I did time and again, and had to rely on the average dispensing retail druggist for their compounding. If you question this statement, just write out the formula for Churchill's Syrup Hypophosphites, and have any one of half a dozen retail prescriptionists compound your prescription, and see how it will differ in many important features from Fellows', Robinson's, or the Syr. Roborans of Arthur Peter & Co. Bad as well as good proprietary medicines are put on the market, but I never knew one to have more than an ephemeral success when it did not possess real merit. Liberal advertising will do a great deal for a proprietary compound, and "you may fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." A compound that is harmful, or that will not sustain the claims made for it, will soon drop out; many are failures, but a few are successes, and will continue permanently or until something better comes to take their place. In conclusion, we will state that in our advertising pages will be found the advertisements of a number of reliable proprietary remedies, none of which will fail to sustain the claims made for them, and of the fifty advertising pages in the last number of the Journal of the American Medical Association before us (Nov. 18, 1905) we find the advertisements of "proprietary medicines" on at least a "baker's dozen," or 25 per cent. That some proprietaries are good, we know full well, and as with anything else under the heavens, on the earth, or beneath its surface, that we know or believe will relieve a patient's suffering or promote his recovery, we will use and continue to use, believing that the greatest danger will be found indicated in the following quotation from a recent address of Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington City: "It may be represented to the pharmacist that a product which is not that required in a given instance is described as being of the same quality and usefulness and as serving the same purpose, and therefore as being a wholly proper substitute therefor. Since it can be offered at a very much reduced price, and sold at the same price as the genuine article, if the pharmacist is convinced of the truth of the representations made to him, he may fall a victim to this temptation. The very moment that this happens, he commits a moral crime, which, although in itself perhaps not threatening seriously in every case the health or welfare of the community, opens the door to a series of offenses of the same kind, which may end in the total degradation of the character of the wares which he keeps." SOUTHERN SURGICAL AND GYNECOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION. THE Eighteenth Annual Session will be held in Louisville, Ky., Dec. 12, 13, and 14 inst. The following Preliminary Program has been sent out by the energetic Secretary, Dr. Wm. D. Haggard, of Nashville:Presidential Address. Lewis C. Bosher, M. D., Richmond. Grafting the Median Nerve into the Ulnar and Musculo Spiral into the Median. Dr. J. Shelton Horsley, Richmond. End Results in Appendicitis Operations. Dr. E. E. Balloch, Washington. Foreign Bodies in the Esophagus. Dr. Stuart McGuire, Richmond. Common Duct Obstructions. Dr. J. Wesley Long, Greensboro. My Experience with Downe's Electrothermic Angiotribe in Pelvic and Abdominal Surgery. Dr. J. Wesley Bovee, Washington. Scopolamine-Morphine-Chloroform Anesthesia. Dr. Horace J. Whit acre, Cincinnati. A Successful Case of Total Excision of the Larynx for Epithelioma. Dr. James E. Thompson, Galveston. Retroperitoneal Myomata of Uterine Origin. Dr. I. S. Stone, Wash ington. Vicious Circle after Gastro Enterostomy. Dr. John B. Deaver, Philadelphia. The Surgical Treatment of Floating Kidney; Post-operative Results. Dr. Floyd W. McRae, Atlanta. Two Cases of Vaginal Cesarean Section for Eclampsia, both Recovered. Dr. John F. Moran, Washington. The Diagnosis of Renal Calculus. Dr. Guy L. Hunner, Baltimore. Traumatism of the Ureter and Pelvis of the Kidney with Report of Cases. Dr. Rufus B. Hall, Cincinnati. Penetrating Wounds of the Abdomen with Report of Cases, including a Case of Traumatic Rupture of Congenital Cystic Kidney. Dr. C. E. Caldwell, Cincinnati. Fracture of Lower End of Femur; Operation Eight Months Afterward for its Correction. Dr. G. S. Brown, Birmingham. The Surgical Treatment of Cancer of the Head and Neck, with a Summary of 110 Cases. Dr. G. W. Crile, Cleveland. Varicose Veins and Ulcers of the Leg. Dr. Robert Carothers, Cincinnati. Goitre and its Surgical Treatment. Dr. C. H. Mayo, Rochester. The Radical Cure of Femoral Hernia. Dr. W. B. Coley, New York. Observations on Late Lesions of Syphilis. Dr. W. E. Parker, Hot Springs. Treatment of Impotency by Resection of the Vena Dorsalis Penis. Dr. G. Frank Lydston, Chicago. Complete Tear Operations and After Treatment. Dr. Howard A. Kelley, Baltimore. Two Unusual Cases of Surgical Affections of the Biliary Ways Dr. Joseph Ransohoff, Cincinnati. An Operation for Large Rectocele. Dr. George H. Noble, Atlanta. Lamincetomy with a Report of a Case. Dr. R. E. Fort, Nashville. Overlapping the Fascia in the Closure of Wounds of the Abdominal Wall. Dr. Charles P. Noble, Philadelphia. The Treatment of Aneurism. Dr. F. W. Parham, New Orleans. The Results of Dudley's Operation in Anteflexion of the Uterus. Dr. C. Jeff Miller, New Orleans. Chronic Endocervicitis, a New Method of Treatment with New Instruments. Dr. Daniel O. Craig, Boston. Some of the Uses of Pelvic Massage. Dr. Joseph Taber Johnson, Washington. Recent Progress in the Surgery of the Vascular System. Dr. R. Matas, New Orleans. Gall Stones in the Hepatic Duct. Dr. William D. Haggard, Nashville. The headquarters of the Association will be at the Seelbach Hotel. Dr. W. O. Roberts, of Louisville, is the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements. Railroad rates at one and one third. Get certificates at starting point. THE AFTERMATH OF YELLOW FEVER.-The citizens of Memphis have presented Dr. Heber Jones with a check for $10,000 for his splendid services in improving the health conditions of the city, and in keeping the yellow fever out of Memphis this year. Dr. Jones has proved himself the most valuable health officer that any Southern city perhaps has ever had. As President of the Board of Health he sacrificed a large practice and devoted himself conscientiously and exclusively to the public service. He was fortunate in having no restrictions placed on him. He was given free swing, and he has never allowed any political considerations to interfere with him in the discharge of his duty, and the city administration has never sought to hamper him in any way. Dr. Jones kept the fever out in 1898. He also kept it out this year in spite of the efforts made in some quarters to nullify the quarantine he established. We congratulate Dr. Jones, and we congratulate Memphis, in that her action is more to be commended than New Orleans, whose citizens spent more than $250,000 to get Yellow Jack out after he had got in. THE PAUL F. EVE MEDICAL SOCIETY of the medical department of the University of Tennessee re-organized with the election of the following officers: President, H. C. Eckhart, D. D. S.; Vice-President, A. W. Hale; Recording Secretary, O. S. Tenly; Corresponding Secretary, G. M. Saliba, D. D. S.; Treasurer, S. P. Booth; Critic, E. E. Reisman. The aim of the society has been and still remains to stimulate in the members a devotion to medical organization. All members of the student bodies of the Medical and Dental Departments of the University of Tennessee are eligible to membership. The society meets bi-monthly for the reading and discussion of papers and essays on medical subjects. The enrollment at the first meeting, October 21, was over forty, and this number will be largely increased during the winter. At the second meeting, held November 4, the followng papers were read and discussed: "Inflammation and its Relation in Infection," by G. W. Hale; "Typhoid Fever and its Complications," by J. R. Rickman, this latter discussed by Bush, Goolsby, and Smoot; "Embryology up to Placental Formation," discussed by Bush and Saliba. " The next meeting was held November 18, and papers were read by H. Rodgers, on 'Mercury, Its Physiological Action and Therapeutics; " "Anatomy of the Eye and Physiology of Vision," by E. A. Jones. In the discussion of the first paper its action on syphilis was considered, also the latest observation of the mechanical action by the fineness of its globules, and that it never combines in the system, but is merely taken in, absorbed and is eliminated as mercury; also intramuscular injection of the drug. THE RUTHERFORD COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY met at the offices of Drs. Murfree, Murfreesboro, Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 1, 1905, with Dr. E. H. Jones presiding. Dr. J. B. Murfree, Sr., read a most excellent essay on the subject of "Appendicitis," which was thoroughly discussed by the members present. Dr. S. C. Grigg presented a very practical paper on the subject of Abortion," which elicited much discussion. The following members were in attendance at this meeting, viz.: Drs. S. H. Wood, G. W. Crosthwaite, J. P. Lyon, D. C. Huff, S. C. Grigg, J. B. Murfree, Sr., J. B. Murfree, Jr., E. H. Jones, President, and Rufus Pitts, Secretary. INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS FOR 1906. THE Committee in charge of the International Medical Congress, which will be held in Lisbon from April 19 to 26, 1906, has written asking for the contribution of papers on the following medico-legal subjects, and saying that as yet no titles of communications touching on any of these subjects have been received from this country:— The Signs of Virginity and of Defloration in Medico-Legal Relations. The Value of Bacteriological Examination of Vulvo-Vaginal Discharges in the Determination of Venereal Contagion. The Signs of Death by Drowning. Ecchymoses in Legal Medicine. Spontaneous and Criminal Abortions from a Medico-Legal Point of View. Medico-Legal Investigation of Blood Stains. The Relations Between the Seat of Cerebral Contusions and the Point of Application of the Agent which Produced Them. Epilepsy in Legal Medicine. The Induction of Abortion, When is it Permissible? The Value of Legal Medicine in the Study of Criminal law. The Best Legislation for the Protection of the "Medical Secret" (the Obligation Imposed upon Physicians to Treat as Inviolable all Information Concerning Patients Obtained while in the Discharge of their Professional Duties). The Effects of the Civil and Penal Law Toward the Newborn Living Infant. Distinction Between the Natural Openings in the Hymen and Tears of this Membrane. |