a front put on it and lacings put in, or the child can be held in place by means of bandages. As the plaster bandages are rolled on, they should be nailed to

and more convenient to make than the wood cuirass. Extension in hip-joint disease is made to the foot-piece, and lateral extension by cutting away the side a little and putting in a staple (see Fig. 6), to which the bandage is tied.

The portable bed possesses nothing superior to the wire cuirass to recommend it, only its cheapness, costing, as it does, about three dollars; and then a skilled mechanic is not required; any practitioner would be equal to the task. This will enable the mother or nurse to carry the child about, and the hip-joint or spine is perfectly immobilized by fixation. (Figs 7 and 8.) In hip-joint disease the bed restricts the normal movements of the joint. The lateral extension, combined with the longitudinal,. makes traction upon the joint in a line corresponding to the axis of the neck of the femur. (Fig. 6.)

Fig. 6.

the edges of the board, thus making the board and plaster one. This bed will be found to fit better, be much lighter,

INCUBATION WITH A SOFT RUBBER TUBE.-Williams (Med. Record) asserts that the majority of deaths in diphtheria, within the first two days, occur in consequence of obstruction to respiration caused by the closure of the fauces from tumefaction of the tonsils and the uvula, the larynx remaining intact. He reports a case of this character in which he thinks he averted a fatal issue by the timely introduction of a soft rubber tube beyond the obstruction, leaving one end just at the larynx, and the other six inches outside of the mouth. The tube was in use for seventy hours. It was removed occasionally for cleansing and when food and medicine were given. The child made a good recovery.-The Polyclinic.

NEW ENGLAND

MEDICAL MONTHLY. William C. Wile, A. M., M. D., Editor.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS:

Published by

St. Louis, Mo. Portsmouth, N. H. Louisville, Ky.

AN AID TO THE NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL MONTHLY.

HROUGH THE editorial columns of

THROUGH

Evansville, Ind.
New York City.

Providence, R. I.

New Haven, Ct.

Henderson, Ky. Indianapolis, Ind.

No. 7 Delay Street.

WE

EDITORIAL.

EIGHT PAGES MORE. E HAVE decided to give the readers of the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL MONTHLY, eight pages more, which will make it fifty-six pages of good substantial practical reading matter each month. We are enabled to do this on account of the unprecedented popularity of the MONTHLY, as attested by its large subscription list. By the first of January, 1891, we expect to be able to announce that we have ten thousand bonified subscribers, with an advertising patronage of which any publication might be proud. A good criterion of the success of a periodical of any description, is when you see its advertising pages filled by good firms. It shows the shrewd business sense of the business man, to patronize only those papers from which he gets the best returns. We hope to again increase our space in a short time and make the MONTHLY the biggest as well as the best medical journal in the world.

able work and talk.

There is no medical journal published which garners the prescriptions of the great minds of the day and seeks to put together the various remedies used in different forms and varying combinations, that run through the current literature and make them into a permanent form.

In the editorial conduct of the MONTHLY, we have paid particular attention to this point, but on account of lack of space we have seen quantities of material go to waste, that ought to have a permanent record. The outcome of all this thought, is the new medical journal, THE PRESCRIPTION, which will be issued by the Danbury Medical Printing Co., on January first, of forty-eight pages, monthly, which will be devoted entirely to practical therapeutics. It will be filled with prescriptions and their therapeutic applications only. It will contain the latest from the minds of the medical profession of the world, who have become enthusiastic about this journal ever since its inception, and we have the promise of a large number of prescriptions

and therapeutic notes from the leading minds in the profession. Besides this it will have all of the cullings of the current literature of the time and will present in an attractive form many things which will be of value to the practical doctor for permanent preservation. Its name, THE PRESCRIPTION, is a happy inspiration and fully defines its value and work. It will be published monthly and will be printed on handsome paper with new type. Typographically, it will be one of the handsomest journals printed in the United States. We ask our readers to look over our advertising pages and see the offer of the publishers as to terms, premiums, etc. The publishers have on their books already over two thousand of the readers of the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL MONTHLY, and the first number is two months away.

IT

DR. MATHEWS ILLNESS.

T IS WITH sincere regret that we learn of the severe illness of Dr. J. M. Mathews, of Louisville, Ky.; a most esteemed member of the editorial staff of the NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL MONTHLY. Dr. Mathews, while operating upon a badly diseased rectum, accidently cut his finger, blood poisoning set in, jeopardizing his life. We are happy to announce that he is now out of danger and will soon be heard from again.

We extend to the genial, whole souled Doctor, the congratulations of the readers and editors of the MONTHLY, on his recovery.

on account of the large number of prominent medical men from all over the country who were present, the large number of excellent papers read at the different sessions, and the animated and instructive discussions following. The well known hospitality of the Kentucky doctors was extended in the most cordial manner and everything was done to make the guests feel at home. We hope to present to our readers some of the papers read. The next meeting is to be held at St. Louis, in October, 1891, and Dr. I. N. Love, the versatile editor of the Medical Mirror is the chairman of the committee of arrangements, which fact is alone sufficient to warrent us in saying that as far as his part of the work goes, it will be satisfactory. Dr. C. H. Hughes, the talented editor of the Alienist and Neurologist was elected President, a well deserved compliment.

PRICK THIS BUBBLE.

OR YEARS we have had the pity

FOR

ing spectacle of a man lionized above all his fellow kind, given the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, by France, thousands of dollars contributed for experiments, an institute liberally indowed; and though a layman, has treated, according to his reports, thousands of cases of rabies, during the past three or four years where statistics before this time show that there were hardly single cases.

We do not deny the great good Pasteur has done to humanity, and especially to France, his native country, by his discoveries. But now institutes a la Pasteur are being located in all of the big cities of this and every country and the cases of hydrophobia multiply as fast as the nervous impression gains credence

with the public that an institute has been established to cure it. We see the N. Y. daily papers filled with sensational reports of the cases at the institute (?) there and the record of the number of cases recovered are already published in them.

Is it not time that this folly was put a stop to?

The few cases that occur throughout the world are not worth all this fuss and feathers and this great outlay of money, not to say the waste of printer's ink by the daily papers.

There are thousands of children that die every year from diarrhoea, dysentery, diphtheria, and a host of preventable and curable diseases which ought to be helped and need to be helped. The few cases of rabies have thousands of dollars heaped on them while the thousands of cases of preventable diseases are left to die for want of a few simple remedies, of proper food, proper nursing, and hospitals for their treatment. Let us have a rest for a little while about rabies and Pasteurism and do a little helpful work in a different direction and in a field which has a good soil, and which will give a decent return for the labor and money expended. In a recent number of the Medical Standard, Dr. Frank S. Billings, a man who has done work in Bacteriology, that neither he nor his countrymen need be ashamed of, writes as follows, which we most heartily endorsed.

"The world owes an unpayable debt to Louis Pasteur, for to him is due, more than to any one else, the reopening of the field of experimental preventive inoculation, and in directions never before thought possible of offering any pratical advantages. But even he has not touched upon the most important work, which is

the prevention of the non-recurrent diseases of child life, most especially scarlet fever, which is to-day the greatest scourge that threatens humanity in civilized countries. Pasteur is an explorer in an almost unknown sea of investigation. The 'Gates' are still but 'Ajar.' They are not yet open. Many others are trying to enter. Some few can glance over the threshold but the haven of success is yet a long way off.

While I do not accept the results of Pasteur's anti-rabies inoculation, I most cheerfully credit him with his earnest endeavors and the instructive value of his success in anthrax, hen-cholera and rouget in the hog. It may be well for me to state why I do not believe in Pasteur's method of preventing rabies. First: There is not a particle of evidence to be found in the long historical record of this disease that it is non-recurrent in character. Not a single case of natural recovery in man or beast has ever been reported where the history of its origin was undoubted and the phenomena presented unquestionable. Hence we have no natural foundation to warrent the hypothetical possibility of preventive inoculation.

Second: Pasteur's statistics are not honest. Not one of those Newark children was ever bitten by a mad-dog. Two were left at home, and nine or ten dogs known to have been bitten by the suspected dog were kept confined over three months. Nothing ever happened to them. While the dog was 'mad' enough, he was not 'rabid.' He did not seek to bite any one or thing, but did bite those in his way while running. It was a case of simple frenzy from an unknown cause. Dogs are often attacked thus, without rabies having anything to do with it. Pasteur still keeps those chil

dren in his statistics, though he has been fully informed as to the true nature of the case.

Third: Pasteurism in connection with rabies has become a regular mania in certain parts of Europe, especially France, and rabies or hydrophobia bears a direct relation thereto. This is easily to be seen by glancing at the statistics of rabies in Prussia for a series of years. Viz: 1876-7, 0; 1877-8, 6; 1878-9, 2; 1879-80, 8; 1880-1, 10; 1881-2, 6; 1882-3, 4; 1883-4, 1; 1884-5, 0; 18856, 2; 1886-7, 1.

All suspected or rabid dogs in Berlin are brought to the veterinary school. This includes every dog complained of as having bitten a human being. Of this number, rabies has actually resulted: 1878-9, in 5; 1879-80, 1; 1880-1, 11; 1881-2, 3; 1882-3, 1; and none since then up to June 23d, 1889, when I received my report. In the whole German Empire there were but five cases of hydrophobia reported in man in 1886, and but four in 1887. From 1886 to 1888 there were four cases of hydrophobia reported in Prussia, and in 1886-7, only nine in all, in Germany.

person think that there is this vast difference in the prevalence of rabies in human beings between France and Germany? If so, I am not one of them. If so, no more striking example of the inefficiency of the French government exists, in comparison to Germany, in its veterinary police service and guardianship of the public health.

For three years in Nebraska, I vainly tried to obtain possession of an actually rabid dog, and while a vast number of dogs were reported to have been bitten by such, not one would go rabid for me, after it had been so bitten. I do not deny the disease. I simply deny its prevalence to any such degree as Pasteur's statistics seem to show. I simply can not believe them.

To show how unreflectingly even educated writers will quote such statistics, the following is taken from the Times and Register, of Philadelphia, of April 12th, 1889: 'At the Bacteriological Laboratory, in Cuba, 306 persons have been treated by the 'double intensive' plan. Of these, only two died after going through the full course; a mortality of 1.63%. All these cases were bitten by dogs proved experimentally and clinically to be rabid, or at any rate, suspect. That the operations were conducted with due conservatism, is indicated by the fact that only 306 were inoculated out of 700 applicants. The opposition to Pasteur, if it still exists, has dwindled down to an infinitesimal point.' Even in these cases, not one case was known beyond question to have been bitten by an actually rabid dog, for it is admitted that, 'at any rate, they were 'suspects' only.' And yet, the editor says: 'the opposition to Pasteur, if it still exists, has dwindled down to an infinitesimal point.' '306' persons