NURSES OF THE NATION, 2000 STRONG, GATHER AT JOINT CONVENTION IN SEATTLE. (Abstracted from "The Modern Hospital," August, 1922.) The biennial convention of the American Nurses Association and the National Organization of Public Health Nursing, together with the annual convention of the National League of Nursing Education was held at Seattle, Washington, June 26th to July 1st.

Developments during the past two years, included the Nurses' Relief Fund, which has aided forty nurses. Pledges to increase the principal were received from state associations, alumnæ and individuals. The Robb Memorial and McIsaac Scholarship Funds are receiving an increasing number of applicants for scholarships.

The American Nurses Memorial Fund, which was established in memory of the nurses, who died in service amounted to $53,000. This was used to establish the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing, Bordeaux, France, and dedicated May 12th of this year.

National Nursing Headquarters has been established at 370 Seventh Avenue, New York City.

Ten thousand dollars has been subscribed towards the erection of a statue on the grounds of the Red Cross Building, Washington, D. C., in memory of Miss Jane A. Delano, to be known as the Delano Memorial. Approximately forty thousand dollars will be required in addition to the sum already collected.

A report of the Committee on Nursing Education from the Rockefeller Foundation was entitled "A Recent Study of the Education of the Nurse." Paper and discussions were of interest, which offered suggestions for the training of supplementary workers to assist nurses. The private duty section considered "hourly nursing," the private duty

nurse as an educator in venereal diseases, and the prevailing tendency towards commercialism, which should be counteracted.

The classification and inspection of schools of nursing, and necessity for additional instruction in psychiatric nursing, parlimentary practice in the curriculum, and professional ethics, were subjects for discussion.

THE PRIVATE DUTY NURSE. (Abstracted from "The American Journal of Nursing," August, 1922.)

An impression that the field of private duty nursing is on a somewhat lower plane than institutional or Public Health work, seems to be in the minds of many young women, who are about to complete their courses of training. These nurses are viewing private nursing from a wrong or a prejudiced standpoint. The star that inspired and guided Florence Nightingale has been lost sight of, in the newer and more extensive opportunities, which have developed.

The solution of many of our present day problems lies within the field of private duty nurses. In order that the profession may progress, complete co-operation in all branches of nursing must be established. It is a common tendency to let well enough alone, when the blazing of a trail day by day proves equal or no more difficult than previously. A monotonous uniformity leads to the danger brink of the "abdominable rut."

Nursing was rooted in a noble instinct, founded in the alleviation of human pain and need. It offers an opportunity to the self effacing disposition, also the type of young woman with a desire for self expression. Personal contact with various patients under various circumstances and conditions will develop the power of understanding, the tact, self reliance, and self sacrifice, with the as

surance that the patient is but a fellow creature in pain.

One of the greatest enemies of the institutional worker is mechanism. The private duty nurse is face to face with difficulties, which tend to rouse rather than discourage one. She cannot afford to lower the torch that has been entrusted to us. Those who need care may call her. She is sometimes found where "the dust and din are thickest."

In this way can the true value of the private nurse be realized.

CONFERENCE OF TRAINING SCHOOL DI

RECTORS IN PRAGUE. (Abstracted from "The American Journal of Nursing,' August, 1922.)

At a recent conference of directors of nurses training schools held in Prague, many of the subjects discussed at the National League of Nursing Education in this country were presented by representatives of various European Countries. The wheels of progress are moving in the nursing activities of the Old World.

The possibility of a standard curriculum for schools in different countries was suggested.

"THE FOUR HUNDRED" OF THE BOSTON DISPENSARY HEALTH CLINIC. (Abstracted from "The Modern Hospital," August, 1922.)

"The four hundred" of the diagnostic clinic are the first four hundred, who came for examination. Of this number 320 were presumably well, but reported for physical examination as a health precaution. 316 of them were found to have physical defects requiring treatment, not including eye, ear, nose or throat troubles. One half of them admitted that their methods of living were not conductive to good health while thirty per cent had sypmtoms indicating an immediate tendency to organic disease.

The clinic is conducted for wage earners, who are sick, or desire to prevent any physical disorder. The fee for complete physical examination is $5.00. No treatment is given.

SALVARSAN AND ELEPHANTIASIS. We have information from a distance and

from private sources that salvarsan has been and is being used in the treatment of elephantiasis. In every case of elephantiasis men who do not know that disease are sure to try salvarsan or some such thing. This has been condemned as very bad practice indeed, because it seems to increase the activity of the embryos and causes a multiplication of their numbers. Salvarsan has been well tried out in elephantiasis and its use has been condemned. It follows that fortunately elephantiasis is rare, otherwise we should have many malpractice suits in which the jury could do nothing, except award heavy damages. Although this has come to us from private sources we feel that it should be generally known.

A NEW MERCURIAL. The Old World gave us Salvarsan. The New World has us Mercurosal. Salvarsan is given placed directly into the vein; Mercurosal may be also. Never until now has the medical profession had a mercurial preparation that could be administered intravenously, by the mere introduction of the needle into the vein and the customary technique, without the practical certainty of obliterating the vein. In Mercurosal, the new P. D. & Co. mercurial, the molecular form of the mercury compound is such that it has no irritating effect upon the delicate tissues of the venous walls; at the same time, characteristic mercurial effects upon the spirochetes are secured by the intravenous administration of this compound. One physician reports having made twenty-seven consecutive injections into the vein in a space not more than half an inch in extent, without any ill effect upon the blood-vessel. The chemical synthesis of Mercurosal must be regarded as a triumph over difficulties as great as those which had to be over-come in the development of Salvarsan; and its accomplishment is what the profession has long been looking for, notwithstanding the acknowledged value of the arsenical compound. Both Salvarsan and Mercurosal are needed. The manufacturers, Parke, Davis & Co., have a booklet on the subject which they offer to physicians.

or

THE QUESTION WAS ASKED, a short time ago, at a medical meeting. "Are we honest to ourselves and to our patients?" Which means to say that the Medical Profession has been more less justly criticised for its tendency, in the attempt to be consservative-to lean so far backward as to overlook many means, more or less practical, for the relief of patients In his attempt to be conservative, the doctor becomes skeptical, doubting the truth of statements that he does not take time to analyze, he denies off hand, the possibility that this or that product offered him can or does produce the effects claimed for it. He doubts, and doubting, condemns or ignores. It it, of course, well to be conservatively scientific. It is, on the other hand, unfortunate for the patients, at least, for the doctor to become ultra-scientific. True it is, he may lose faith in certain drugs, but that is no reason why he should become a therapeutic nihilist and profess disbelief is all drugs. Take Dionol for instance. This product is drugless. To describe how and why Dionol acts, one must delve deeper into the study of physiological and pathological electricity than the average doctor finds time or inclination to do. The phenomena attending what we understand as local inflammation are well recognized, but the underlying cause that produces the classic pain, heat, redness and swelling has only recently been satisfactorily explained. It cannot be denied that a great part of our use of drugs for medicinal agents is empirical. The successful doctor is not inclined to split hairs over the possible "this or that" of drug action. He wants results. Consequently, if he belongs to the successful element of the Profession, he is inclined to use that which brings him results even though he cannot always explain the how or why of its action. In other words, he exemplifies the old saying that "The proof of the pudding is the eating thereof." The doctor who uses Dionol cannot deny its action. He has to admit its efficiency. He finds in the treatment

of local inflammation that he can get results from Dionol unobtainable otherwise. He uses Dionol, therefore. Unfortunately, those remain a large number of doubting Thomases" who doubt Dionol action and effect, simply and solely because they have not tested the preparation clinically. To all such there is an easy opportunity to join the increasingly large number of physicians who have become steady Dionol users. Adequest adressed to the Dionol Company, Detroit, Michigan, will bring literature, case records, etc., that will prove well worth reading. Try Dionol.

THE IRON POOR" PATIENT. With the advent of modern food chemistry and the intensive study of nutritive values, as measured in calories, vitamines, etc.,it has become more or less the therapeutic fashion to neglect some of the older facts, long established by both scientific and empiric practice. One of these is the necessity of providing a sufficient quantity of iron to maintain the normal supply of this essential metal in the organism; many patients are "iron poor" because of a faulty diet, but the point we especially desire to make is the lack of ferruginous element in milk, which food is notoriously deficient in same. The typhoid patient, or the convalescent from any long continued fever who has been nourished principally or exclusively upon milk, emerges from his illness with a very low iron reserve in the blood and tissues. The quickest and best method of overcoming this deficiency is to administer this essential metal medicinally, in easily absorbable and promptly assimilable form. Gude's Pepto-Mangan satisfactorily meets the requirement, whether it be given in liquid or tablet form. Gude's Peto-Mangan is now available in tablet form, and constitutes a cleanly and convenient method of administration. Samples and literature are obtainable from the manufacturers, M. J. Breitenbach Co., New York.