QUACKS IN LOS ANGELES. DR. THERON A. WALES, of Elmira, New York, in an interesting paper, entitled "Observations on Southern California as a Resort for Pulmonary Invalids," says: I am reminded here to speak of a failing, examples of which were never wanting among the seekers for health on the Pacific slope-a failing of family physicians in regard to those patients whose lungs have exhibited tendencies to disease too obstinate to be successfully overcome. It is unpleasant to have patients die. It is painful to lose those who generally are more than patients, are warm and admiring friends; too often those whom we have welcomed at birth, have guided through the diseases of infancy, and have watched over as they developed into young men and women, only to see them fall victims of that arch-enemy, pulmonary phthisis. I fear that at times some of us have found it easy to evade the final struggle with the great destroyer by recommending the patient to try a "change of climate," and have added, to accelerate the departure, "that whatever change was made had better be made promptly." And so the poor sufferer, not infrequently a frail girl, is bundled off, it may be to California, because "John had heard that Andrew said that James had written home that Peter's wife's mother, since she went to Caifornia, has got strong and well, notwithstanding the fact that the doctor had said her lung-trouble would never be any better." No knowledge, mind you, of the diagnosis or exact condition of Peter's mother-in-law's lungs; no knowledge as to whether the cases are similar; no precise knowledge even of her own lungs, further than that the doctor said her lungs were "somewhat affected," and that she had better try a change of climate; no knowledge of the climate to which she is going; no knowledge of anything except that, whereas she now is failing, she has an expectation that the mighty climate of California is miraculously to restore her to health. And so, some day, travel-stained and weary, with perhaps a single companion, she is landed at a hotel on the Pacific coast, placed in a lonesome, sunless room, with no means of heating, in a climate where to sit in the shade is to take cold invariably, and literally left to herself. That night comes up a furious norther-for even on the much-lauded Pacific coast come up furious northers-and the unfortunate invalid wakes in the morning to shiver with cold in the finest climate the world ever saw. With insufficient clothing, because she was going to a warm country; with no fire; timid and unaccustomed to travel; unable to get anything without feeing the waiters; homesick and forlorn, what wonder she soon takes to her bed, sick and sorrowful? And even then, when she asks for a physician, ten to one but that the employé who sent to call one is in collusion with some humbug, and for a percentage places her in the hands of a quack. You can imagine the rest; I do not need to dwell. Some day her lifeless form is returned to sleep in the quiet churchyard of her native village. A victim of what? Of the California climate? By no means. I implicitly believe that the California climate, suitably selected, can do more than any other one thing for the relief of pulmonary sufferers. No, not a victim of the over-praised climate; but a victim first of the neglect or carelessness of the family physician to properly inform her or her friends of the exact physical condition, and to furnish proper instructions as to the surroundings most favorable for an ultimate recovery; whether in a moist or a dry air; whether near the sea or remote; and many other details which easily occur to you, but which I will not here take time to record; and, most of all, to have sent with her a careful diagnosis of the case, with a history of previous attacks, etc., for the guidance of any honest physician under whose care she may come. A victim also of that too general but fallacious belief of people that there exists somewhere, not a fountain, but a marvelous climate, which will cure universally every sick one who shall come to breathe its healthgiving air. A victim, furthermore, of those conscienceless, rapacious, predatory rascals who fatten upon the credulity of suffering humanity, and who throng in Southern California, and particularly in Los Angeles, as thickly as the gray wolves of the plains upon the heels of a wounded elk. These are but a few of my observations. Nevertheless, Southern California is the most excellent place yet found for the relief of those sufferers whose trouble is of a pulmonary character.-Philadelphia Medical Times. 146 Remedy in Phthisis.-Milk Diet for Catarrh of Stomach. A REMEDY IN PHTHISIS PULMONALIS. DR. WM. PORTER, of St. Louis says, in treating phthisis we need a remedy rich in diastase, albuminoids and phosphates, something to aid in digesting farinaceous food, that will also be a brain, nerve and muscle producer. In practice this hypothesis is sustained. A female patient at St. Luke's Hospital, aged 35, with phthisis, signs of deposit in left upper lobe, losing flesh for six months, poor appetite and night-sweats, began taking treatment March 13, 1880. She now weighs 121 lbs., eats well, no night-sweats, and the evidences of local disease are much less marked. Another case of phthisis: A gentleman from Alabama, with all the physical signs of phthisis, rapidly losing health and strength. His was the remarkable gain of 10 lbs., from six weeks treatment. These instances are sufficient for illustration, and are duplicated many times in the experience of physicians everywhere. There is a universal reluctance always to testify to results from medicinal preparations, but when, as in this case, the composition is fully known, and the Profession invited to investigate the manner of preparing it, there is no reason why the remedy should not receive general approbation, provided it be worthy. The remedy that fulfills all the above mentioned indications and the one used so successfully in these cases, was Maltine.Supplement to Braithwaite's Retrospect. MILK DIET FOR CATARRH OF STOMACH. MILK, and an exclusive milk diet, is also the most active curative means in chronic catarrh of the stomach, a disease which is almost always developed under the influence of alcoholic excesses. In this gastritis of the drunkard you observe two stages: in the first there is an exaggeration of the acid secretions of the stomach, producing pyrosis and cardialgea; in the second there is a cessation of the secretion of the gastric juice and production of mucus. This is the period of pituitous catarrh. In both periods you should employ no other dietetic regimen but milk, taking care always to add to the milk some alkaline water or bicarbonate of sodium.-Dujardin-Beaumetz in Therapeutic Gazette. THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRACTITIONER. A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND ALLIED SCIENCES. Communications are invited from physicians everywhere, especially from physicians of the Pacific Coast, and more especially from physicians of Southern California and Arizona. Address EDITORS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PRACTITIONER, No. 237 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, Cal. Subscription Price, per annum, $1.50. We have no Advertising Agents. All Contracts must be made directly with us. SPACE. One Page. ADVERTISING RATES: Address all Business Communications to 9 Months. $50 00 STOLL & THAYER, Publishers Southern California Practitioner, 12 Months. $60.00 3 South Spring Street, Los Angeles. The Southern California Practitioner-Its Special Work. THE PRACTITIONER, while devoting itself to the discussion of all matters pertaining to the science of medicine and surgery, has mapped out for itself one particular field as its specialty, viz.: The careful investigation of the climatic peculiarities and climatic laws of Southern California, and of that great inland plateau which embraces Arizona, New Mexico, and the elevated portion of the Mexican interior; the effects which these climatic peculiarities may have upon race types, race development, and race diseases; the local changes which, through human agency-such as irrigation, drainage, cultivation, planting or clearing of timber-may be produced in climate; the question of race habits of food, drink, and manner of life; the physiological and pathological effects of the crossing of bloods where noticed; and all of these questions as affecting the Anglo-Teuton in taking up his race abode in this, to him, new climatic belt. It is a new, a broad and a heretofore-unworked field, and many of the questions will require generations, rather than years, for their solution, yet the PRACTITIONER hopes to add somewhat to the stock of human knowledge in this direction, and to help toward the solution of these problems; and it will aim to base its investigations upon a solid substructure of facts and carefully-compiled scientific observations, rather than upon the more glittering, but less fruitful, basis of mere speculation. It will, also, endeavor to present the salient features of various sections of this now widely-known climatic belt, so that physicians throughout the Eastern States and abroad, who may be recommending a change of climate to invalids, or persons of delicate constitution, may have accurate information upon which to base a selection. EDITORIAL. INSANITY OR DEVILTRY—WHICH ? JUST about once in so long a time, if not oftener, John Doe and Richard Roe are found in the hands of the law, charged with some offense against the peace of the commonwealth. It may be that John and Richard have only been upon that periodical spree, and under its exhilarating influence were filled with an ambitious desire to paint the town red, as the idiom of the day rather tersely and picturesquely terms it. And so, as the average taste of community in the matter of colors does not accord with that of John and Richard, the restraining hand of the law is placed upon them, and they enrich the public purse by some few ducats, or in default and in lieu thereof languish for a period in seclusion, and community only says, John and Richard, you should have behaved yourselves. It may be, however, that the hour of their necessity was upon them, and John and Richard, instead of painting the town red, lacked the wherewithal for the prosecution of that laudable ambition, and so sought to replenish their purse by ways which the remainder of community persist in calling "crooked." May be John and Richard tapped a till, or burglariously cracked a bank vault, or, if of a rural turn of mind, borrowed some farmer's horse in the still hours of the darkness, and forgot to return it by daylight. And again the harsh hand of the law lays its grasp upon them, and John and Richard, after interviewing twelve good men and true, don the peculiar uniform of the State, and for a few years do some honest work. And again community wastes no sympathy, but says to the delectable twain, You should have behaved yourselves. You knew what you were doing, and must take the consequences. But, suppose John and Richard, instead of forfeiting the sympathy of community by untimely festive hilarity, or by cracking a vault, or borrowing some countryman's horse without the owner's permission, take it into their heads to kill some one. It may be that John, instead of a safe, takes it upon him, because of some difference of opinion, to crack a neighbor's skull, or with knife or revolver lets daylight through some poor fellow's vitals; or Richard decides that some fond, foolish girl, who has loved him not wisely but only too well for her own good, has lived long enough, and so chokes the breath out of her battered body. Now the current turns. It becomes an awful thing to launch a human being into eternity from the gallows. (They don't have so much to say about the ghastly corpse, with daylight shining through its gaping wounds, or the poor helpless girl with scared eye-balls starting from their sockets, under the murderous grip of the tightening fingers that clasp about her throat.) And now bouquets begin to find their way into the prison cell, sent by tender-hearted |