it has given the world the news that medicine exists and is efficient in Colorado, and the West. It also deserves your support because it is really a good journal, one which will be worthwhile to you as to every other man who reads it. During the coming year its editors will offer you contributions from the pens of some of the leading writers of the country. That list is receiving almost daily additions. You may rest assured that you will be offered something good, frequently far above the average, in every issue of the Western Medical Times. You will not have to read many effusions from specialists who anticipate the reference of patients to them because of what they have said in their papers, that you may get to the meat of the nut, for the editors of that journal do not cater to any favored class, but to those writers who desire to help others as much as themselves and who write with the idea that you will be the one helped, both to greater knowledge and greater wealth. For greater knowledge means efficiency and that, in turn, leads to much wealth.

As ever, the Western Medical Times is published in Denver, Colorado, at 1839 Champa Street. Why not send its publishers a one dollar bill and tell them to send it to you? By so doing you will overcome any tendency to submerge independence under the flood of self-constituted criticism. Independence is something necessary. What would America be without it? Are you going to allow it to die in the ranks of medical journalism, that such journalism may become autocratic to the last degree? We fought for a world democracy. Why not for a medical democracy? Substantial support to the independent journals will assure you the latter. Do you want it sufficiently to support those journals?

CUTTING EXPENSES TO GET INTO BANKRUPT

CY QUICKER.

That word "normaley," whatever it may mean, has been appearing in current publications for some months. But we do not see business returning to normal,

or anything like it. Everybody seems to be cutting expenses, or "the corners, and nobody seems to have sufficient guts to say "We Will." Everybody seems to be tackling everything in sort of a halfhearted way. Those who say they want business are not going after it as they did before the war, for they are foreever saying, "discontinue our advertising for July and August," or for some other month or two. There was a time when everybody was advertising every month and then a demand was created for all sorts of commodities and the wheels, in general, were whirling. Practically everybody was at work-at least everybody who cared to work-and nobody was howling hard times or dodging his shadow. The bankruptcy court was not a very busy place during those days when everybody was using plenty of printer's ink, and that every month. But now, with that same printer's ink drying in the can and not on the presses or on paper, the referee in bankruptcy is one almighty busy gentleman.

We would like to know why it is that everybody does not want more business, and why it is that everybody does not go after that business, without interruption, as was the case ten years or so ago. We cannot have prosperity until every wheel in the country is turning or until every man who desires to work is back on the job. This cannot be done without more or less publicity, and that carried on without those one, two or three months interruptions. Just as sure as fate we are all headed toward bankruptcy. That is, unless we achieve some guts, and go out after business as we did before we all became so thoroughly scared. And really, there was never much to be scared about in the first place. Just because the banks called in the gold should not have scared anybody, for we still had paper which would buy just as much as would the hard money. Just because profiteering had a tendency to cease after the war should not have scared anybody, for things would have adjusted themselves and perhaps a dollar would have eventually been worth almost one hundred cents. With prices lowered a bit, there should be more busi

ness, for with such lowering a dollar should go farther and buy more.

It is just about time that every employer of labor should fill every place in his shop, for it is only by filling the places that there will be that "normalcy" about which we hear so much. If we do fill all those places everybody will have more or less money to spend and as everybody will be happy that money, or at least a part of it, will be spent. With that sepnding the bankruptcy courts will find themselves with less to do, for but few will become bankrupts. For business will be good.

Why forget Congress, the lack of gold in circulation, the tariff and a lot of other inconsequential things and get down to good, honest, hard work? If we do that, and quit cutting expenses, and go after the business, as we did a few short years ago, we will cease worrying and everybody will have some coin of the realm in his jeans. Let us quit being a pack of damn cowards!

Of all stubborn ailments that one can recall eczema is certainly not the least. Every doctor, if only a single year in practice, has been called to meet it, at times to conquer it, but more often to claim no particular success, if indeed not acknowledging complete failure to deal with it. There are remedies, plenty of them, recommended in the standard texts. But taken as they come, they can scarcely be accredited with anything like consistency of action or certainty of results. The prescriber, therefore, is forced to cast about, so to speak, for some

satisfactory remedy, to try one after another, to experiment with many, hoping all the while for success in the case in hand. A remedy-combination of value, according to users, is that offered by the Chicago Pharmacal Co., under the name of Zematol. This is an ointment for topical application. It is said to relieve the itching which so frequently is one of the troublesome symptoms of this skin affection, and in indolent cases to stimulate healing.

OUR OVERPRODUCTION: What Of It. And What's Coming Of It, By W. V. Marshall. 30 pages. Paper, price 15 cents net. New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company.

With this country filled with unemployed, its natural domestic markets far below normal in purchasing power and with stocks piled the proverbial mile high" at this time, this book proves of more than passing interest. For it gives us some idea of what may happen if an improvement does not take place, and that in the near future. The supposed foreign markets cannot buy our goods without jeopardizing their own interests, nor can the unemployed of this country make a market within our own boundaries. Marshall very clearly shows the stone wall against which we are up and suggests cures for the existing conditions, the majority of which are due to overproduction by the profiteers.

While this is not a medical book, all physicians are more or less interested in things economic and the doctor is not infrequently called upon for opinions other than medicalsometimes economic-so that this book will add to his store of knowledge and enable him to answer questions logically.

CLINICS OF GEORGE W. CRILE, M.D., and Associates at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. The Thyroid Gland. Octavo of 228 pages, with 106 illustrations. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1922. Cloth. $5.00 net.

It is apparent, from a reading of the introduction of this book, that the Cleveland Clinic is about to make some very valuable additions to our surgical literature, for we are advised that this work on the thyroid gland, by Crile and his associates is the first of a series of clinical volumes. Knowing Crile as we do, we feel that we may assure our readers that something attractive will be forthcoming, and this first volume of those promised is, to say the least, attractive and for various reasons. Primarily, Crile has gone into the subject with his usual painstaking manner and while he does not elaim that the work now before us is a textbook or even a monograph on the subject under discussion, we know that he has not spoken without being reasonably sure of his foundation.

This book is based wholly upon clinical observation, with the possible exception of the general introductory remarks on the thyroid. The observations of Crile and his associates have brought forward many new ideas as to both the cause and treatment of goiter, as well as to the prevention of the condition through prophylaxis. In addition, this work upholds some theories which had been previously advanced and had been the basis for some faultfinding. As with cancer, Crile finds that goiter is not a local disease, per se, and that likewise its treatment is not necessarily purely local, and numerous reasons are given to substantiate the truth thereof.

While this is neither a text-book nor a monograph, according to the authors, it is a work which will go a long way toward giving us a better and more thorough understanding of the thyroid, both in health and disease and as goiter is apparently on the increase it behooves us to read everything upon the subject, and this is a something we cannot afford to overlook, for it comes from a recognized authority, one who mingles commonsense with other things in his work. It goes without saying that in the matter of treatment, as well as with other things connected with the subject, the authors have endeavored not to overlook anything of value.

PRACTICAL INFANT FEEDING. By Lewis Webb Hill, M.D., Junior Assistant Physician to the Children's Hospital, Boston: Assistant in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School. Octavo

of 483 pages, illustrated. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1922. Cloth $5.00 net.

some.

The author, in his preface makes this opening remark: "I have tried to write a book on infant feeding which will be practical without being superficial, scientific without being tire After reading the book we have concluded that he has not only endeavored, but has succeeded in giving us a conmmonsense work, one which, while scientific, really simplifies the matter of infant feed, so that all of us may have a far clearer idea of the subject.

One thing which he brings forward with emphasis is that we should base all feeding upon a knowledge of metabolism in the normal and abnormal babies and that there should be a real reason for the exhibition of this or that food. Following this assertion he gives us an idea of what such metabolism consists.

The author does not stick closely to any of the various "schools" of infant feeding, but bases his ideas upon his clinical, plus laboratory findings. In other words, he gives us a practical, logical and commonsense idea of the matter, and in such a style that no matter how mediocre our ideas may be we are enabled to understand what he is endeavoring to convey. He surely is "scientific without being tiresome," and "practical without being superficial.''

This is a book which every practitioner will do well to study, for the general man will find it of as great value as will the specialist. We believe, after giving it our attention, that this work will become and remain one of our standard references, one upon which we may depend.

SURGICAL AND MECHANICAL TREATMENT OF PERIPHERAL NERVES. By Byron Stookey, M.D., Associate in Neurology, Columbia University; Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. With a chapter on Nerve Degeneration and Regeneration by G. Carl Huber, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, University of Michigan. Octavo volume of 475 pages with 217 illustrations, 8 in colors and 20 charts. Philadelphia and London: W. B. Saunders Company, 1922. Cloth, $10.00 net.

In this book the author advances an idea that probably has rarely occurred to any of us, that the peripheral nerves, as are the muscles, tendons or other structures, are not really independent portions of the organism, but that they are closely associated with the central nervous system and that, because of this, their surgery

The author says that many places where the insane and delinquents are separated from society in general are really all that the word asylum implies and are not really hospitals. For the matter of cure of the insane in such places is apparently a matter of secondary importance. It pleases us to read that the author removes the usual restraints from the insane and we believe that his idea, in this connection, is right, for a sane individual is liable to become demented if placed under restraint. Nor is there anything humane about the straight jacket or iron bars.

It is interesting to know that focal infections are now being considered as possible direct causes, in some instances of defective delinquency and insanity. Why not? It is just as possible that an infection may interfere with the biochemistry of the brain cell, as with any other cell of the body.

It is rather pleasing to note that this author takes the alimentary tract into consideration as a possible point of focal infection. We have hunted high and low, during the past three or four years, for any reference to dilation of the cecum as a possible focus of general infection and until this book came into our hands we have been without any accepted authoritative information directly bearing upon this point. We have known for some time that there was such a thing as a dilated cecum and that until the dilation was overcome many ills existed, but when we have advanced such an idea to others we have been smiled at, at the very least. But Cotton admits that the dilated cecum may and does act as a focus of infection in many instances and that it may apparently be the cause of insanity and defective delinquency. We are given pleasure by this admission and now we pray that other authorities will follow in the footsteps of this author and that many patients may be relieved, not only from insanity but many other ills, through the proper repair of this portion of the bowel.

All in all this is a book of more than passing interest and we wish that space allowed us to make many quotations there from.

THE HEALTHY CHILD FROM TWO TO SEVEN, A Handbook for Parents, Nurses and Workers for Child Welfare, Containing The Fundamental Principles of Nutrition and Physical Care, including Sections on Child Nature, Training and Education, and Safeguarding the Nervous System during the Preschool Years. By Francis Hamilton Maccarty, M.D., Assistant Professor of Diseases of Children, Boston University. 235 pages. Cloth, price $1.50 net, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.

As the sub-title implies, this is more a book for the parent, the nurse or the welfare worker than for the doctor, per se. And it is a something which could well be placed in the hands of every father and mother in the land, for were its precepts followed, even though not to the absolute letter, we might find ourselves possessed of a sturdier race and the child would have at least half a chance to come out of its early formative period in far better physical and nervous state than is usually the rule. It is very apparent that the author does not approve of the "rush to the city," for he says, and rather emphatically that the crowded urban centers do not give the young child any great chance to even be normal, even though that child may have the pleasures of the parks and may get a little natural sunshine in one way or another. And he decries the modern apartment house, as a real home for the child, in no uncertain terms.

The author goes into detail as to how the child should be reared, what food he should have, and why, and how they should be prepared; what his rest and exercise should belikewise why; his growth, play training, and edication. Considerable attention is given to prophylaxis of one sort or another and if the advice of the author be followed we will see fewer nervous children, or those of lowered physical resistence. This is a book which, if the physician can afford the expense, should be presented to everyone of his families in which there are children. He should at least suggest that it come into the possession of such of his patrons.