of the patients, or that in another the probate judge performs the function of the alienist?

"It is superfluous to point out again the long-since recognized impropriety of entrusting the diagnosis of a disease to a jury of laymen. Slowly but surely this anachronism will disappear, though it still survives in some of our greatest centers, notably in Chicago. Our purpose is to call attention to the fact that during the first few days, so critical in cases of acute mental disorder, the treatment of the patient is distinctly non-medical and is precisely that accorded to a felon. The public and the profession at large consider the patient as magically transferred to the asylum, which we now call a hospital, without at all realizing the terrifying experiences often undergone in the comparatively brief period between removal from home and arrival at the hospital. Consider the effect on a delicate, refined woman in the early stage of melancholia, suddenly thrust for a night into a jail or the cell of a police station. Such an experience would infallibly exacerbate the malady, and might even make all the difference between a favorable and an unfavorable outcome.

"In the small cities and in the country communities the treatment of patients is even more primitive than in the large towns. A patient is often brought many miles in an open wagon to the county seat, and placed in the county jail for varying periods before an examination is held. Jailers or sheriffs with the best will in the world are of course unfitted to give the care which insane patients need. We were lately told by a member of a State Board of Charities of a visit to a jail where many insane were received. The sheriff felt much aggrieved because he had been threatened with suit by the relatives of a patient who had been placed in the jail in a state of great excitement, and who had seriously injured his hands by beating against the bars of his cell door. When the sheriff's attention was called to good leather muff and wristers hanging in the office, whose use would have prevented the whole trouble, he said contemptuously: 'O! them things; they've been there since before I came, but I've never touched 'em.'

"It is a relief to turn to instances of excellent management in some of the cities from which we have replies. Three cities seem to have nothing of the police method in their manner of dealing with the insane. These are New York, St. Louis and Baltimore. In the city of New York patients may be detained for examination as to their mental condition in but one place, the pavilion at Bellevue Hospital. Three examiners in lunacy are employed by the city of New York. They are physicians, holding their positions under the civil-service law. These examiners are stationed at Bellevue Hospital, and the patients are under their care pending commitment. Following an order for commitment, the state hospital authorities are notified, and they send trained nurses to ac

company patients from the pavilion to the institution. Women patients are always accompanied by women nurses.

"In Baltimore the procedure is very simple. The hospitals being in the suburbs of the city, the process of commitment need occupy but a few hours. Two physicians visit the patient in his home, and on their recommendation the Board of Charities makes out the commitment papers and notifies the hospital to send its ambulance, and, if necessary, a female attendant to convey the patient to the institution.

"St. Louis uses the observation ward at the City Hospital for the detention of patients previous to examination. On the certificate of two physicians, patients may be committed to the asylum. They are conveyed in a city ambulance, and attendants are sent from the hospital to accompany them. Doubtless there are other towns where the treatment of the insane has been divorced from the care of criminals. At any rate, the instances we have cited are cheering. We commend to county and district medical and State societies an inquiry into the actual conditions surrounding the care of the insane pending commitment in their respective communities." - Editorial in Jour. Am. Med. Ass'n., Jan. 21, 1905. The above editorial from The Jour. of the Am. Med. Ass'n., is reproduced in full as being most timely and of greatest importance. While recent advances in medical science have shown a marked improvement in the treatment of those who are so unfortunate as to be the subjects of mental disease, in this particular, there is something yet to be accomplished that ought not to require the special devotion of a Howard or a Dix. That we may emphasize this most timely "leading editorial" from the leading medical journal of America, we give in connection therewith the following recent occurrence, the facts of which can be most thoroughly authenticated:—

About 6 p. m., Dec. 24th., ult., a physician of this city was called by telephone to meet one of his patrons at the police station. Wending his way there through the crowded thoroughfares, the glare of Roman candles and the noisy fire-cracker filling the air, he found a young man about 23 or 24 years of age, occupying the first cell or cage, and surrounded by a number of the "night detail" who were assembled preparatory to going on duty. The "cops" were surrounding the cell or cage, peering through the bars, similar to a group of country "gabies" around the cage of a wild beast from the jungles of Asia or Africa.

The following history of the case was elicited: The young man had been working on a farm in Illinois for some four years past, and had returned to his father's house in this county on the preceding Tuesday. On Wednesday his father noticed that the young man had taken a pistol from the mantel, which he had placed there for the purpose of shooting a dog that had been raiding his meat-house. He told his son that he must not

take the pistol, as the law here was quite strict, and that it might get him into trouble if he was found with it on his person.

The next day the young man, who had seemed to be rather peculiar or queer" to his family, went to Mt. Juliet to visit relatives. He returned to the city Saturday afternoon, and was found at the Terminal Station talking incoherently and gesticulating in a peculiar manner. He was arrested and sent in the patrol wagon to the police station, and the pistol, unloaded, his father having removed the cartridges when he took it from him on the preceding Wednesday, was found on his person, and a charge of "disorderly conduct and carrying a pistol" registered against him. His relative and the physician were told that he would have to remain under arrest and in confinement until he could appear before the City Judge at sometime in the following week. Not owning real estate in the city, being unable to give bond for his appearance, and recognizing that a bare cell in our police station, so similar to the cage of a wild beast, with only a plank on which to lie, with the possibility of adjoining cages being filled before morning with the drunk and disorderly incident to the hilarious time, and his relative being a personal friend of the jailer in charge of the county jail, as the best thing that could be done under the circumstances, they went to a magistrate and on the statement of the relative and the physician, a mittimus was made out committing the unfortunate to the county jail as insane, where he could be retained until the usual procedures could be gone through with to send him to the Hospital for the Insane. However, the authorities in charge at the police station refused to recognize the authority of the civil magistrate. The result was - the following day being Sunday as well as Christmas day, and Monday being observed as a holiday in this particular locality, that it was not until Wednesday that this unfortunate could receive that care and treatment which he so much needed for an attack of acute insanity, and not that of a criminal.

Only a short time ago, a somewhat similar case came under my own personal observation, in which it was necessary to hold another unfortunate suffering from mental disease in the county jail for an entire week, and while the jail is somewhat preferable to the police station, neither is suitable for the care of those suffering from mental disease. Granted, that the public should be protected from the individual, yet the individual has rights that should not be overlooked even though the public should be protected. This can be done without injury to the individual, but as our laws and police regulations now stand, the individual may suffer irreparable injury at the hands of stupid and overzealous policemen. We have on more than one occasion seen unfortunates temporarily or possibly permanently suffering from mental alienation treated with far less consideration than criminals. Is this just — nay, is it HUMANE?

At a subsequent time we may go more into this important subject, but for the present we refrain from farther comment, fully believing that the article quoted affords occasion for careful thought and thorough consideration.

A SUBSTITUTOR CONVICTED.- Kress & Owen vs. Cruttenden. On the 8th day of December, Police Magistrate Denison, in the Police Court, registered a conviction against Thos. Cruttenden, Jr., who keeps two drug stores in Toronto, one at the corner of Howard and Sherbourne Streets, and the other at the corner of Gerrard and Sherbourne Streets, for infringement of the trade mark, duly registered in Canada, owned by Kress and Owen Co., 210 Fulton Street, New York, "Glyco-Thymoline." The evidence conclusively showed that the defendant had put up a preparation under the name of "Glyco-Thymol," in bottles almost identical to those of Kress & Owen Co., and with labels worded verbatim et literatim to those of the original manufacturers. The magistrate in registering the conviction, gave the defendant's solicitor, who hinted at an appeal, to understand that if he entertained that idea he would not only fine but imprison his client as the law provided. The case was adjourned for a week, at the end of which time Cruttenden, through his solicitor, gave an undertaking that he would stop all manufacture of Glyco-Thymol and destroy all labels, bottles, etc., connected with the sale of that preparation. The firm of Kress & Owen Co., are deserving of congratulation over the results of this case. They had every reason for prosecuting Cruttenden, as it was nothing short of dishonest and entirely contrary to the law, that he should stoop to such practices and try to rob a firm who, by strictly ethical advertising (solely to the profession), and the expenditure of about $175,000 per annum, have secured a large sale of Glyco-Thymoline, a preparation found valuable in catarrhal conditions of the mucous membrane.- Canadian Journal of Medicine & Surgery Editorial, January, 1905.

THE RESPIRATORY LINK.- The truth of the old adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" is forcibly illustrated in medicine. The constitution of a patient may in most of its relations be normal; yet the chain of health is impaired by one function which is the seat of more or less constantly recurring disturbances.

The most frequent form of this weak physiologic link that confronts the physician is that manifested by the patient who, with the advent of winter, suffers from repeated congestions and inflammations of the respiratory organs. It may be that at all other times of the year the individual is, as far as indications go, in a good state of general health; it is, however, more commonly the case that the skilled diagnostician is able to

recognize an impairment of constitutional vigor, which is in reality the cause of the respiratory disturbances. Present-day scientific teaching emphasizes that it is unwise to treat these patients with expectorants, cough syrups and respiratory sedatives; these latter remedies are at the best but palliative and do not reach the cause of the disturbance. It is more rational to endeavor to strengthen this weak respiratory link by restoring its integrity, and the proper way to do this is by treatment directed to the real causative factor, which is an atonic condition of the system.

The experience of many years has taught that these constantly recurring respiratory disturbances may nearly always be prevented or at least reduced in frequency and severity if Gray's Glycerine Tonic Comp. is administered throughout the winter. If, however, this precaution has not been observed and the patient is already suffering from his regular winter cough and bronchial or pulmonary distress, treatment with Gray's Tonic is still the most efficient.

The manner of the action of the remedy in these cases is two-fold: first of all it overcomes malnutrition by stimulating the torpid nutritive functions to assume normal activity; as a consequence the patient's constitutional vigor is strengthened and incidentally the relaxed atonic condition of the respiratory mucous membrane is eradicated.

The second effect of Gray's Tonic in these cases is upon the local disturbances of the respiratory mucous membrane-it has a direct antiphlogistic and tonic influence upon the disordered circulation; it thereby relieves engorgement and restores tone to the relaxed blood vessels.

Gray's Tonic is to be preferred in the management of these acute and chronic respiratory conditions, because it gives the patient relief from the very start and if persisted in, overcomes the condition completely. It strengthens not only the weak respiratory link but also the entire chain of constitutional vigor.

ADVANCED METHOD OF REMOVING GERMS AND DUST FROM RAILWAY CARS.-The management of the Central Railroad of New Jersey has made another step of advancement through the recent installation of a system of car cleaning which has the universal approval of the health authorities along its line, and as it is practically the first transportation company to adopt it, the method may be of interest to our readers.

The old method of car cleaning with a whisk here and a dash there with a broom or duster, was not only unsanitary, but unsatisfactory, for the reason that it had the effect largely of removing dust and dirt from one section, and depositing it elsewhere; but under the new method, which is termed the "Vacuum Sweeping System," the dirt and dust is drawn from the car by suction through a pipe, and is gone forever. The New Jersey Central has erected an immense vacuum plant in its