WATER-SUPPLY AND TYPHOID FEVER.-Dr. Charles Smart, Sanitary News, has made some comparisons between the death-rate from typhoid fever in New Orleans, a city without sewerage but using pure rain-water as its water-supply, and Philadelphia, using hydrants. The condition of soil in New Orleans is much worse than in Philadelphia, yet in twenty years the death-rate from typhoid fever in New Orleans, per 1,000 population, has fallen from 65 in 1866 to 16 in 1885; the average for one decade was 41.3, and for the second 25.6. In Philadelphia the death-rate from typhoid fever, per 1,000, was 60 in 1866, and fluctuated between 41 in 1879 and 98 in 1876, while the average for the first decade was 55.8, and for the second decade it was 65.1, there being an increase of nearly 11 per 1000. These figures point to a contaminated water-supply as the principal medium of communicating this disease.

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A "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE" REME DY.--The following is the treatment for dyspepsia taken from a text-book issued by the President of the New York School of Primative and Practical Christian Science; it is printed verbatim, capitals and all, as it occurs there: "Prayer for a Dyspeptic: Holy Reality! We BELIEVE in thee that thou art EVERYWHERE present. We really believe it. Blessed

Reality, we do not pretend to believe, think that we believe, believe that we believe. WE BELIEVE. Believing that Thou art everywhere present, we believe that Thou art in this patient's stomach, in every fiber, in every cell, in every atom; that Thou art the sole, only Reality of that stomach. Heavenly, Holy Reality, we will not try to be such hypocrites and infidels as every day of our lives to affirm our faith in Thee and then immediately begin to tell how sick we are, forgetting that Thou art everything,

and that Thou art not sick, and, therefore, that nothing in this Universe was ever sick, is now sick, or can be sick. Forgive us our sins in that we have this day talked about our backaches, and that we told our neighbors that our food hurts us, that we mentioned to a visitor that there was a lump in our stomach, that we wasted our valuable time, which should have been spent in Thy service, is worrying for fear that our stomach should grow worse, in that we have disobeyed Thy blessed law in thinking that some kind of medicine would help us."

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"Lord help us to believe that ALL Evil is utterly unreal; that it is silly to be sick, absurd to be ailing, wicked to be wailing, atheism and denial of God to say 'I am sick.' Help us to stoutly affirm with our hand in Your hand, with our eye fixed on Thee, that we have no Dyspepsia, that we never had Dyspepsia, that we will never have Dyspepsia, that there is no such thing, that there never was any such thing, that there never will be such thing. Amen."

THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION. -Those who have wondered how the "Faith cure quacks and the "Christian scientists" accomplish such marvelous results may perhaps be able to understand it by reading an illustrative (and instructive) case related by the American Druggist. A short time since a man was taken to one of the Buffalo Hospitals, suffering intense pain. He informed the doctors that his home was down in the

country, and explained, as well as his bodily sufferings would permit, that he had swallowed his gold plate containing four teeth, while asleep.

From hour to hour he grew worse, and examinations failed to locate the swallowed article. When he had been in the hospital about four days it was decided that if relief did not come soon it would

be necessary to remove the foreign substance from his stomach with instruments. Finally the man's sufferings were lessened considerably, and as a test it was decided to give him a little piece of beefsteak. This was done, and the poor patient was writhing in agony as soon as he had swallowed a mouthful. His sufferings increased to such a degree that he said he knew he would die if the operation were not performed at once. He described minutely the sensations he had experienced as he felt the plate slipping down his throat. Then, placing his hand on his stomach, he groaned forth: "I feel it right here now, doctor." The physicians and nurses could hardly keep him in bed-he suffered so much. Preparations were now made for an operation, and just as the surgeon was about to commence, a telegram was placed in the patient's hand. He tore off the envelope and read aloud, as follows: Found teeth under bed. Come home." The suffering man got up, dressed, and paid his bill. On leaving the hospital this vic tim of an over-wrought imagination remarked that he could not for the life of him see what the doctors and nurses saw in his case to laugh at !

URETHRAL CALCULUS.-The literature of this subject is conspicuous for its meagerness. L. J. Mager, M. D., Professer of Minor Surgery in Gross Medical College, discusses the subject in the Denver Medical Times. In substance he says that calculi are found either in the membranous or prostatic urethra. Stones may be removed in various ways. If no stricture is present, and the calculi are not encysted, the patient should be instructed to violently eject his urine holding the glans penis firmly, after allowing the first few drops to pass; this will dilate the urethra and upon releasing the head of the

penis the stone may be thrown out with the urine. Another method is to pass a sound of large calibre down to the stone, then order the patient to strain, when the stone will often follow the sound which has distended the urethra. Pushing the stone into the bladder is spoken of, but not practicable. Failing in these measures, an attempt may be made to remove with the urethral alligator-jawed forceps, which will probably be fruitless if the stone is encysted, or, if of large size and rough, will tear the mucous membrane. External perineal urethrotomy will be found to be the most satisfactory method. to be pursued in most cases. A lithotomy staff will be the best guide, although a silver catheter or sound may be passed down till the point strikes the calculus, when it can be held by a trusted assistant and the stone cut down upon and removed with forceps. The after treatment is as for any open wound. The urine should be rendered as bland as possible by the administration of large draughts of barley water, the wound kept clean and nutritious food given. Dr. Magee reports a case in which he removed a calculus, encysted, which measured one and one-half inches in circumference.

A FEE BILL IN KANSAS CITY.The Jackson County Medical Society, at a late session, appointed a committee to arrange a fee bill, something similar to the one formerly originated by the defunct Kansas City Medical Society. Such a movement is not commendable; fee bills are intrinsically wrong, they savor too much of trades unions. Every physician ought to be left to obtain for his services whatever he thinks they are worth or as near it as he can induce his patients to come. Prof. Waugh, of Philadelphia, has spoken well of this point when he says: "Lawyers and preachers never enter into agree

ments to equalize their incomes, or salaries, and it physicians do so, it is apt to be regarded by the community as a combination to extort higher fees than would be other wise paid. In fact, physicians promulgate this view when they explain or excuse a disputed bill by referring to the list; or, when they say that they ought to have more, according to our fee-bill." Fee bills are also inconvenient in cases of suits at law, because, instead of being interpreted as an average rate, they are taken by the court as establishing the usual and maximum charge in the locality where they are in force. Therefore, they satisfy neither the prosperous and prominent, nor the poor and struggling practitioner. In fact, the first principle of professional propriety is violated by a list of fixed charges. The physician's fee is, or should be, an honorarium, the value of which is determined by the ability of the pa tient to make such a pecuniary acknowledgment. Every physician must determine for himself what the amount of his fees must be, in order to make his patients properly appreciate his services. Since

it is the general rule that things are valued at what they cost, it is necessary, in order to have proper respect paid to a physician's advise, that it should be paid for. It is not well to have the reputation of being either a cheap or poor physician."

TREATMENT OF STRICTURE.-Dr. F. S. Watson, in a paper in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, reaches the conclusion that (1) all strictures anterior to five inches are best treated by internal urethrotomy, Otis's operation offering the most enduring results. (2) Divulsion as an operation for stricture should be rejected. (3) Dilatation, where practicable, should be employed in strictures deeper than five inches. (4) For

stricture deeper than five inches. not suitable for dilatation, external urethrotomy should be selected and not reserved for an emergency operation only -Permanent cures by gradual dilation are not to be expected, only six cases out of one hundred thus treated showing evidence of cnre, and these were of recent formation and wide calibre. The mortality from urethrotomy is about five per cent. while that of external urethrotomy (based on a calculation of more than one thousand cases) since the days of aseptic surgery is, at the highest, eight per cent. Of all procedures internal urethrotomy alone gives immunity for any great number of years, and is, therefore, always to be preferred when practicable.

TREATMENT OF WINTER ITCH.-Dr. J. W. Foster, of Kansas City, writes to the New York Medical Record that he has been universally successful in the treatment of winter itch (prurigo hyemalis), popularly known as "the scratches," "Texas mange," "prairie itch," etc. His plan of treatment is a local application of

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Misce et tungt. Sig. To be well rubbed in at bed-time. The first application must always be preceded with a warm scrub bath, and a suit of underclothing worn that the stain. will not affect. This ointment is to be put on three nights in succession when a good warm sponge bath must be taken. In a few days the skin will peel off and the affected parts or surface become quite tender, but this disappears in a few days. Ten drops of Donovan's solution is to be taken three times a day and in from ten to fourteen days the most inveterate case will usually yield. If not then cured the procedure may be repeated.