excitability of the nervous system which has its effect.-N. Y. Medical Journal.

The Fly As a Carrier of Epidemic Poliomyelitis.

Another serious charge is brought against our pertinacious foe, the housefly. Dr. Flexner and Dr. Clark, of the Rockefeller Institute, in a recent communication to the Journal of the American Medical Association, describe the experiments by which they proved that "flies contaminated with the virus of poliomyelitis harbor the virus in a living and infectious state for at least fortyeight hours." From this fact it seems very probable that the fly may be held accountable, in some degree at least, for the spread of this disease. Further experiments now in progress will throw more light on the subject, and it seems very unlikely that the fly will escape conviction on this new indictment. So the battle cry grows louder-Swat the Fly!

Treatment of Malignant Growths by Radium.

Moullin, in The London Medical Lancet, says that so far as our present knowledge is concerned with the small quantities that we have at our command, radium can only be relied upon, and that to a limited extent, in cases of malignant disease in which growth is slow and the degree of malignity relatively slight. On the other hand, it is of the greatest value in what may be called the pre-malignant stage that is to say, in removing growths which not infrequently become malignant as age advances, without an operation and what is very important, not merely for cosmetic, but for clinical reasons, without leaving much of a scar; and there is good reason to hope that if the small quantities we possess now are capable of dealing with growths of relatively mild malignancy, larger amounts, when we can get them, will prove equally successful in circumstances of greater difficulty.

The Fallacy of Warmed Ether Vapor.

In order to test the value of warming anesthetics during administration, M. G. Seelig, St. Louis (Interstate Medical Journal, September), carried out several experiments. An ordinary laboratory wash bottle was filled about half full with ether. By means of a rubber tube the outlet flow was carried to a lead pipe one meter long with one half centimeter lumen coiled up as a "worm." This lead worm was immersed in a beaker of boiling water. Fixed on the distal end of the lead coil was a

thick-walled rubber tube one meter long with small slits cut 10, 40 and 60 cm. from the end of the coil. Ether vapor was pumped through the coil by a bulb attached to the inlet tube of the flask, and its temperature measured at the various distances from the heated coil by a thermometer whose bulb projected into the rubber tube through the above-mentioned slits. The experiment was carried on at room temperature, 26.5° C. The ether vapor, as it emerged from the end of the tube, one meter from the site of heating measured from 26.9° C. to 28° C., depending on the rapidity of flow. Sixty cm. from the coil it measured 28.9° C. At a point 10 cm. from the coil it measured 30° C. In other words, despite the fact that the ether vapor was driven through a temperature approximating 100° C., it radiated its acquired heat so rapidly that at a distance of one meter from the source of heat it had practically assumed room temperature. Conversely the writer was able to show that chilled vapor likewise rapidly assumed room temperature. Finally a dog was tracheotomized and a thermometer inserted through the tracheal wound to the bronchial bifurcation. Administration of ether on a mask, even in large quantities, caused not the least variation in the reading of the thermometer. These results, says Seelig, are the only ones to be expected if one keeps in mind the laws of physics of gases, especially the fact that gases take and lose heat very rapidly. So there is no need to devise special warming apparatus for our anesthetizing vapors.

Salvarsan Milk.

Jesionek (Muench med. Wochenschr, 1911, No. 22). Early in the history of salvarsan it was noted that syphilitic infants, if nursed by syphilitic mothers who had received salvarsan treatment, showed a rapid disappearance of all manifestations of the disease. If directly injected with salvarsan, on the other hand, they often did. Ehrlich endeavored to explain this observation by assuming that, in the latter case, the rapid destruction of the parasites caused so great a production of their endotoxines that the child succumbed. In the former case, however, the antibodies produced, by the treatment, in the mother's blood, passed into her milk and caused a gradual cure of the infant's disease.

Recent observations by Jesionek speak strongly against this hypothesis. In the first place, chemical analysis of the milk of women recently treated with salvarsan invariably shows the presence of arsenic. It is therefore possible that the good effect

of such milk upon the syphilitic infant may be due to the arsenic rather than to the hypothetical antibodies. In the second place he reports two cases in which syphilitic infants nursed by recently injected syphilitic mothers showed extreme exacerbation of their lesions, justifying the inference that endotoxines from the maternal spirochæta had passed into the milk and so into the child. This method of treating infantile syphilis is therfore not free from danger. These considerations led Jesionek to try upon a suitable case the effect of feeding the child with milk from a goat that had recenly been injected with salvarsan. The effect was striking. Within a week the syphilitic lesions had nearly disappeared and twelve days after the beginning of the treatment no trace of the considerable syphilitic ulcerations was visible.

One swallow does not make a summer. Still in view of the facts that the milk of a syphilitic mother injected with salvarsan may be noxious, that the milk of human beings or animals injected with salvarsan contains arsenic in some unknown organic combination, and that such milk has been shown to exert a beneficial effect upon infantile syphilis, the method unquestionably deserves a trial. The technique is so simple as to be at anyone's command. A milk goat is given 0.6 grm. salvarsan intravenously (a cow correspondingly more), and the milk is fed to the syphilitic child. If further experience demonstrates the value of the method, such milk, fresh or concentrated, will doubtless become an article of commerce.

The Newer Heart Remedies.

By Wm. F. Boos and C. H. Lawrence, Jr., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. (Interstate Med. Journal, 1911, No. 6.)

After giving a general review of the various preparations of digitalis and strophanthin, suited for intravenous and subeutaneous use, the authors refer to digipuratum in ampoules. The solution of digipuratum was employed both subcutaneously and intravenously with good results. No local irritation of any kind was observed. The effect was sometimes apparent within an hour; more often within several hours. In some cases one cubic centimeter was injected twice in one day and usually one or two injections were sufficient to prepare the patient for oral medication.

Before giving strophanthin or digipuratum intravenously or the latter subcutaneously one must carefully determine if digitalis has already been administered so as to avoid heart block.

If the patient has already had digitalis it is best to wait twentyfour hours before injecting digipuratum into the veins, except as a last resort. The subcutaneous administration of digipuratum will prove a safe method to accomplish rapid compensation.

AFTER KANSAS "QUACKS."

Dr. H. A. Dykes, secretary of the state board of medical examination and registration, is closing a successful campaign to drive from practice in Kansas all mental scientists, magnetic healers, chiropractors and others not licensed under Kansas law to practice medicine, surgery or healing in the state. His report, made to the board here today, shows correspondence with dozens of this class of practitioners who announce that they have given up the fight and will leave the state immediately, requesting that no prosecutions be instituted against them under the new law, the enactment of which the medical board procured at the last session of the legislature. The chiropractors particularly have been resisting the efforts of the medical board to drive them out of the state, until the conviction of one of their number in the district court of Smith county, before Judge Pickler, last month. The prosecution was conducted by Judge Frank L. Martin of Hutchinson, representing the board, and the chiropractor was subjected to a heavy penalty. This conviction seems to have convinced most of the unlicensed practitioners that it would be useless for them to longer resist the law and, according to Doctor Dyke's report, they are all leaving Kansas. While the new law is stringent and may, in some instances, work to the detriment of wirthy pnactitioness, the board holds that worthy practitioners can, with little effort, get within the law, and that the quacks and humbugs will all be driven out. -Topeka News-Press.

Every man stamps his value on himself.

The price we challenge for ourselves is given us.

Man is made great or little by his own will.-Schiller.

Good habits are not made on holidays, nor Christian character at the new year. The workshop of character is everyday life. The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is lost or won.-Babcock.

"You'll be six years old tomorrow, Richard," said mother, "and I wish to give you a nice birthday treat. Tell me what you would like above everything else?"

"Well, ma," said Richard thoughtfully, "just buy me two pounds of that eighty-cent candy an' invite that Susie Engel in to watch me eat it."-N. Y. Herald.

You will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults; still less of others' faults; in every person that comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that, rejoice in it; and, as you can, try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.-Ruskin.

Children are frequently an improvement over their parents, particularily the parents who tell their offspring that ihildren should be seen and not heard.

Cultivate the habit of constant action. Try one day during whiih you actually use every moment and see how much more you get done and how much easier it all was.

Dr. H. R. Gunderman is a new physician at Ohiowa, Neb.

Dr. Ayers of Syracuse, Neb., has removed to Sargent, Neb.

Dr. George Buol of Randolph, Neb., has removed to Ravenna, Neb. Drs. Calbreath and Bamford of Hastings have dissolved partnership. Dr. J. H. Smithheisler of Creighton, Neb., has removed to Huron, Kan. Dr. W. H. Blakemore of Atlanta, Neb., has removed to Sheridan, Mo. Dr. P. E. Plumb of Gothenburg, is recovering from a protracted illness. Dr. W. F. Reynolds of York, Neb., is spending the winter in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. J. F. James of Oak, Neb., died in a hospital at Lincoln, Neb., September 20th.

Dr. R. S. Hart of Omaha, has taken up the practice of Dr. Corbin of Schuyler, Neb.

Dr. E. H. Smith of Omaha, has purchased a residence and located permanently at Sheridan, Wyo.

Dr. John Loosbrock, a recent graduate of Creighton Medical College, has located at Petersburg, Neb.

Dr. E. C. Evans of Loup City, Neb., is going about on crutches, the result of being kicked by a horse.

Dr. Thos. R. Ward of Omaha, died suddenly at the breakfast table September 10, at the age of 64 years.

The board of education of South Omaha, has decided to have medical inspection of the schools in that city.

Dr. B. R. Jones of Bayard, Neb., has removed to Lincoln, where he will be associated in practice with Dr. Ramey.

Dr. Vallier of Ord, Neb., was married about the middle of September, to Miss Laura Quillin of Grand Island, Neb.

Dr. L. C. Marshall of Wisner, Neb., has removed to Big Timber, Mont., where his will engage in practice of medicine.

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Truelson of Omaha, left the early part of October for Tampa, Florida, to spend the winter months.

Dr. George Byers of Snyder, Neb., who was seriously injured in an automobile accident, is home and recovering from his illness.

Dr. John T. Hay, superintendent of the Hospital for Insane at Lincoln, died after a short illness, September 28th, at the age of 65.

Dr. Chas. Lieber and Miss Sadie Johnson of Omaha, were married early in September, at the home of the groom's parents near Richfield.

Dr. J. J. Pickett, a pioneer physician of Custer Co., died at his home in Broken Bow, September 15, after a lingering illness of many months.

Dr. B. I. Mills and Miss Della M. Chamberlain, both of Maywood, Neb., were married September 29th, at the home of Dr. Ramey of Lincoln.

Dr. John B. Chapin, for fifty-seven years superintendent of the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane, in Philadelphia, has resigned.

Dr. Elmer Kaye Smith of Chadron, Neb., has sold his practice to Dr. R. S. Cutler of Crawford, and will spend some months in Germany, doing postgraduate work.

Dr. Theodore C. Janeway has been elected a member of the board of scientific directors of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, vice Dr. Christian A. Herter, deceased.