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The Medical and Surgical Reporter.

A Journal Devoted to the Science of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery.

Published Monthly by the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, 226 Huron Street, Cleveland, O.

JAMES RICHEY HORNER, A. M., M. D., Editor.

HUDSON D. BISHOP, M. D., Managing Editor.

The Reporter solicits original articles, short clinical articles, society transactions and news items of interest to the profession. Reprints of original articles will be furnished authors at actual cost of paper and press-work, provided the order is received before the publication of the article. If authors will furnish us with names before their article is published, copies of the journal containing it, will be mailed free of charge (except to addresses in Cleveland) to the number of 100.

The subscription price of the Reporter is $1.00 per annum in advance. Single copies 10 cents. The Reporter has no free list. but sample copies will be given on request.

The Reporter is mailed on the 1st of each month. All matter for publication must be in the hands of the Editor by the 15th of the preceding month.

When a change of address is ordered, both the new and the old address must be given. The notice should be sent one week before the change is to take effect.

If a subscriber wishes his copy of the journal discontinued at the expiration of his subscription, notice to that effect should be sent. Otherwise it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is desired.

Remittances should be sent by Draft on New York, Express-Order, or Money-Order, payable to order of THE MEDICAL AND SURGICAL REPORTER. Cash should be sent in Registered Letter. Books for review, manuscripts for publication, and all communications to the Editor should be addressed to J. Richey Horner, M. D., 275 Prospect St., Cleveland, O. All other communications should be addressed

THE MEDICAL AND SURGICAL REPORTER,

762-4 Rose Building, Cleveland, Ohio.

Editorial

CLEVELAND—its waterR SUPPLY and its methOD OF
SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

Acting upon a suggestion which emanated from its Committee on Municipal Sanitation, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce has appointed a commission to investigate the water supply of the city and its system of sewers. We deem this a most important action, for while we are past danger of a continuance to any great extent at present, of typhoid and other infectious diseases, "we must prepare for war in times of peace"-and the proper consideration of this very important subject is sure to have good results in the future. The most important phase of the question is as to the advisability of continuing and completing the construction of the intercepting sewer rather than interrupting its progress and establishing a system for the purification of the water by either filtration or other approved methods.

As to the intercepting sewer, we might say that some years ago a commission, acting under the authority of the city of Cleveland, formulated a plan for the prevention of the deposit of sewage along

the lake shore. Under the system of sewers then, and indeed now, in use, all the sewage was deposited in the lake practically at the water's edge. To avoid this a plan was advised for the construction of a large sewer along the entire lake front-from the western to the eastern limit of the city. Into this sewer the sewage was to be directed and carried east and by a connecting conduit emptied into the lake a mile or more from shore. The theory was that the current of the lake being east, the sewage would be carried in that direction and away from the intake pipes of the water works system. For these several years this sewer has been under construction, and part of it, that draining the eastern part of the city, will be completed by next summer, Providence and politicians permitting. The middle section has not yet been started, while the western end is only partially completed.

As a part of the plan for the procuring of pure water for the city a water tunnel was designed to extend five miles or more out into the lake in a northwesterly direction, thus carrying the intake crib as far as possible west of the point where the sewage was to be deposited. This tunnel, as is known, has been completed and is now in use, proving very successful in furnishing the city with water many per cent. purer than was taken up from the old intake crib. During the past winter there have been reported in about three months something like one thousand cases of typhoid fever, the death rate being about eight per cent. This state of affairs gave rise to a very free discussion concerning the influence of the water in producing the fever and it was universally conceded that the water was responsible for practically all of the cases. Did space permit we might cite many reasons why this was true-in fact, the whole project of building the sewer and the water tunnel contains material for a most interesting book. Many foolish and even silly things have been done though the fundamental principle has never been successfully assailed. It is the proper thing to go out as far as possible into the lake for water-but why could a short cut not have been taken? To go directly from the old intake to the new is not more than onethird the length of the new tunnel and the work could have been done in less than one-third the time and at much less the expense in money, and probably lives. We might have been using pure water from miles out in the lake several years ago had the shorter course been taken.

But the most incomprehensible action of the commission was in planning to turn the sewage into the lake. Personally we had talked

and thought about the sewer for several years without a definite understanding as to just where it was to end-but when we learned that the sewage was to be emptied into the lake we were astounded. We could not understand how a commission of sane men could deliberately arrange to collect all the filth emanating from a city of half a million inhabitants and dump it into the lake which was the source of supply of the water used in the city. We care not if it be ten miles away or a hundred, it was absolutely criminal to even plan such a thing. No matter in what part of the lake this filth is deposited somebody is bound to suffer. The only reasonable way to dispose of it is through a plant constructed for that purpose, where by chemical agents or by fire the sewage is rendered harmless. That's the only way-there can be no other rational way-it must not be turned loose where it can do incalculable harm.

We were glad to see that the Board of Health at their April meeting have grappled the question and are going to have sewage disposal plants as soon as they can be erected. At least so they say, and we hope in all earnestness that they mean what they say. The question is a serious one-more serious than any other now being discussed in the city. We say again-this filth should not be allowed to continue in existence-collect it and destroy it.

About filtration? Now don't be in a hurry about that. There are plenty of reasons why filtration must wait and the reasons are good sensible ones, too. Not to attempt to name them in order of importance, we might call attention to a few. No one is absolutely sure, or even reasonably sure, that filtration is the best means of purifying water. There are some drawbacks to its use, whether the chemical or the sand filter is used. Even if cities where such methods are used should show a lower death rate in typhoid fever and should have less cases reported, there are other things to be taken into consideration in looking for a cause for the absence of the disease. General sanitary conditions have something to do with the production of disease. Don't fail to read the article in this number on Filtration by Capt. Beardsley, of the City Water Works. His paper rather argues for filtration, but you can find in it a number of points which indicate that even he is not quite as decided about the excellence of filtration as he would like to be.

Recently electricity has been used to purify water, and who knows but that the next half decade is going to show such a decided increase in the ways in which we may use electricity that purification of water may be found to be one of the ways.

The sewage question should first be settled-then, if found necessary, a filtration plant can be built. It is altogether likely that the water may be found so much improved that nothing more will be needed for a few years. In fact, only to-day we saw a notice from the Superintendent of the water works that the water is now coming from the new intake and is of sufficient purity as to make boiling unnecessary. That statement may be taken cum grano salis, but there is foundation for a belief that we are not likely for many years to be confronted with such a complicated series of circumstances as faced the city the past winter. The most emphatic need is to dispose of the sewage in a safe, rational, sanitary way.

T. Y. KINNE.

At his home in Patterson, N. J., March 4th, occurred the death of this splendid, genial, warm-hearted man.

Institute members who have attended the meetings during the past twenty or more years will remember him, for he was one of the most active men on the floor. He was a born tactician and diplomatistthough always using those qualities in the best interests of the Institute. Our first personal knowledge of him was at the Atlantic City meeting-the International Congress, when Richard Hughes came over bringing the greetings of his English brethren. Dr. Kinne was then President of the Institute, and Dr. Talbot of the Congress. In our office hangs the group

[graphic]

picture taken at the time-with Kinne, Hughes and Talbot sitting on chairs in the front of the group. All three have passed to their reward and the world of Homeopathy is the richer for their work and their memory, the poorer for their loss.

Dr. Kinne was a pure homeopathist. You remember he was chair

man of the Bureau of Homeopathy last year at Boston. Look in your Transactions at the splendid report he made. It was the work of an enthusiast, honest and pure in his enthusiasm. It can well stand as a lasting memento of the man, -the last work he did for the Institute. We shall miss him at Niagara Falls. There will be a vacancy hard to fill; in fact, there will never be in the Institute another Kinne.

Materia Medica Notes

PULSATILLA.

This is one of our best remedies in the treatment of phlyctenular conjunctivitis, especially when the pustules are confined to the conjunctiva. It is indicated in persons, especially amenorrhoeic females, of a mild temperament and fair complexion, and is also very suitable to this class of ailments occurring in the negro. When pain in the ear, otorrhoea and other aural symptoms accompany the eye disorder, this remedy would be suggested to our minds. The dread of light is often absent or quite moderate, and the redness varies. The lachrymation is not acrid, but more abundant in the open air, while the other discharges are generally profuse, thick, white or yellow and bland. The pains vary greatly, but are more often a pressing, stinging character. The lids may be swollen, are not excoriated, but very subject to styes. The eyes feel worse on getting warm from exercise or in a heated room and generally in the evening, but are ameliorated in the open air and by cold applications. The concomitant symptoms of stomach derangement, amenorrhoea, etc., must be taken into consideration.-Eye, Ear and Throat Journal.

THERAPEUTICS.

Zincum has its clonus, constricted throat, long drawn out contractions, without the tonicity of Strychnia, Belladonna or Cicuta.

Gelsemium's spasms are milder than Belladonna's and much of the same type, with cerebral congestion, mild delirium and sluggishness of onset and decline.

Belladonna's are fiercer spasms, coming quickly and with violence.-Fisher.

Stramonium.-Nowhere else does the rage of Stramonium stand out so prominently as in puerperal mania.

I have seen the parturient fight and scream and curse and swear

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