Report to the Editorial Association of Homeopathic Med. Journals. 399

*REPORT TO THE EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION OF HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL JOURNALS, BY BUSHROD W. JAMES, A. M. M. D., Philadelphia Penn.

GENTLEMEN ---Last year this Society honored me, by a request to present at this meeting some suggestions as to the successful method of conducting medical journals, and especially those of the Homoeopathic School.

In response to your desire I have prepared the following thoughts :

Ist. The Supply and Demand." The success of a medical journal, as of any other business enterprise, is greatly influenced by a generally recognized business principle: namely that of the equilibrium of the Supply and Demand. Increasing prosperity requires that the demand be considerably in excess of the supply all the time. In applying this principle to Homœopathic journalism, we find a seeming disproportion between these two important factors of success, there being at present an excess of the supply. This is well illustrated by the fact that no journal is self-supporting on its subscription list alone. Our school, numbering about 10,000 members, is supplied with twenty-five or more journals, making an average of four hundred physicians to each one. It is true that some Homoeopathic physicians subscribe for all, or at least a majority of the journals published, but on the other hand many physicians do not subscribe for even one of the Homoeopathic journals, which fact leaves the average about as we first stated it.

2nd. Multiplication of Journals."-We have watched with interest the tendency toward an injudicious multiplication of journals covering the same ground of those already existing, which only serves to weaken the income of the whole list. Among the Homœopathic journals published, we believe there is but one (Homœopathic Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Pædology) that devotes itself to a specialty, while one other, the Clinique, largely devotes itself to clinical lectures, reports, and clinical medicine and surgery.

3rd. A Few Strong Journals.-We have often thought that a decided advantage, to all concerned, might be gained could several of our journals, that treat upon general medicine, merge themselves or throw their united talents, patronage, etc., into one or another of the existing publications, so that instead of having twenty-five struggling journals we should have, say, about half a dozen first class ones, established upon solid business principles that would be permanent in character, able to remunerate the services of their editors, business managers and contributors, and perhaps declare a dividend, probably somewhat diminutive, in favor of their owners. Such journals could command the best talent in their various departments, would be a credit to our school, and a decided improvement upon the present system or rather non-system Moreover such journals could afford to place their subscriptions at prices within the reach of all and the individual subscriber would then receive the best journals for the same outlay that the very ordinary ones now cost him.

64

4th. Present Status of Journals."-There is a demand, particularly in certain sections, for journals whose subscription fees do not exceed $2.00. This demand is supplied by a number of the smaller journals published at these and even lower prices. Of course it is natural to infer that their publisher can not afford to furnish such a quality of material and make up as is the case with double or more than double their price. However there is a field for both these classes of journals. The higher priced ones, as a rule, have their principal readers and subscribers among the deeper students of the school, and those who write original articles and who love to read original papers. The younger practitioners usnally encourage the cheaper publications on account of economy in outlay. All our journals have a common difficulty, to wit: a limited income. Some of them about pay expenses, others are losing enterprises, but how few, if any, are financially profitable to their owners? Were there fewer journals and the subscription list of each correspondingly enlarged, the lower priced journals could afford to supply better material; and the highest priced, the more costly material for a lower figure. 5th. "College Journals."-Among the smaller journals we find a branch of journalism that seems to be growing in popularity.

When a college feels its need of a representative organ, it undertakes to establish a new journal, thereby incurring a financial burden and adding to the number of such publications. We believe that each college might find an independent journal, willing to publish its news, items of interest, etc., and that this arrangement would prove a

* Read before the Journal Association, July 30th, at Saratoga.

mutual advantage to college and journal, and the college organs, and the student magazines be done away with for the general advantage of our school of medicine at large. 6th. Advertising Department."-Under the present order of things our journals are obliged to depend upon their advertising department as a source of income; not one of the Homoeopathic journals being able to support itself from its subscription list alone.

This subject has excited considerable interest of late, which is a hopeful sign, as it shows that the advertising pages are read, just what publishers and advertisers desire. We hold that the advertising department, which is a legitimate part of the journal, should be made a source of convenience and profit to both subscriber and advertiser. The ideal method in this direction would be that only reliable articles, such as the journal itself as well as the advertiser can recommend, should appear in its advertising pages.

This would be a guarantee to subscribers that they might patronize the firms represented in the journal with safety and satisfaction, and this would also be an inducement to first class business houses to advertise in those journals alone whose readers are most apt to read their advertisements and order goods and trade with them; for advertising is merely an investment upon the part of the advertiser, he expecting to gain an increase of popularity and business thereby, and consequently is willing to pay most for space in that journal whose standing, appearance, circulation, etc, is the best.

ITEMS.

-In England over seventeen thousand people died last year with

scarlet fever.

-It is said that milk charged with carbonic acid will keep an indefinite length of time.

-It is said that compression of the abdominal aorta will arrest postpartum hemorrhage.

-The Norosti, a Russian journal, announces the death, in the almshouse, of a man aged 122 years, who had been an inmate since 1818.

-Americ application

-Damp of the Trento

diphtheria

to

pr

medical degrees can now be registered in England; each ich registration will be decided upon its own merits. which are suddenly heated are ascribed by Dr. Hunt W Jersey, board of health to be a frequent cause of

-Mrs. De Buffington says her husband suffered from suffusion into the plural, but the doctors drew off the water with an exasperator, and now he is incandescent.

-A number of remarkably fine portraits of well-known amateur athletes in motion, illustrates Dr. Sargent's article in the November Scribner's on "The Physical Characteristics of Athletes.

-For Sale. A yearly practice of $2000, cash, in a town of 4000, population. Will be sold cheap to the right man, with house and lot if wanted Address, P. O. Box 273, Ballston, N. Y.

A chance seldom offered. Fifteen hundred dollars will buy the stock, fixtures and good will of a Homoeopathic Pharmacy in central location in New York City. Established over three years. Expenses light. Party understanding business sure to succeed. Address, H.T. A., care of N. T. Bradley, 45 Water street, New York City.

-The way to sleep, says a scientist, is to think of nothing. But Dr. Hammond asserts this is a mistake, and says that the way to sleep is to think it is time to get up.

-The Curio is a new monthly publication likely to prove of interest to collectors of rare books, indeed rarities of any kind are included within the scope of the publication covers. Publisher, R. W. Wright, New York.

-Intoxicating liquors appear to be very extensively used for “medicinal" purposes in Lewiston, Me. A "drug store there was raided the other day, and the stock was found to consist wholly of whisky, wine, beer and gin.

-By a recent decision of the supreme court of Washington, self-killing by a lunatic is to be regarded by law as accidental death, and therefore a policy of life insurance is not vitiated, as the party does not commit suicide.

-Chiari, of Florence, closes the vagina for prolapse of uterus after the menopause is past. He does this by a plastic operation which unites the vaginal walls throughout their whole extent. The operation appears. to be perfectly successful.

-It is stated that the advertising or sale of patent medicines (secret or proprietary preparations) has been absolutely prohibited in the German capital, and sixty-one of them have been publicly denounced on account of disclosures made by chemical analysis.

-The Russian army has two thousand eight hundred and eight surgeons and three thousand and forty-five medical men. As the strength of the Russian army on a peace footing is eight hundred thousan this gives every three hundred men a physician.

men

: found in the s on this suban centres this

-A valuable addition to current medical literat just established Journal of Morphology Although ject have existed for many years in nearly all the ] is the first venture in America and is deserving of sco ort.

-Did the believer in faith cures miss an opportunity? A young man in Philadelphia was hurt at the locomotive works and two physicians said his leg was broken. After he had been in bed a week another doctor was called who said the limb was not fractured, and the young man at once got up and walked without difficulty.

-A Scotch surgeon reports one hundred and fifty-two operations on the eye without instance of inflammatory or suppurative complication, and attributes this immunity to his invariable practice of bathing the eye with a solution of corrosive sublimate from one in five thousand to one in two thousand previous to each operation.

-The article on Physical Training, which Dr. Sargent contributes to Scribner's for November, is fully illustrated from instantaneous photographs of experts in the various branches of athletics, including the portraits of sprinters, long distance runners, wrestlers, foot-ball, and base-ball players who have won enviable records at Harvard and Yale in recent years.

-The Union Medicale, Paris, states that a recent ministerial decree restricts the right to dispense homoeopathic preparations to those homœopathic practitioners who really observe the method of dilutions laid down by the homoeopathic school. The object of the ordinance is to put a stop to the abuse by which, under the guise of homœopathic preparations, all sorts of remedies have been given to patients by certain physicians.

-The new local anesthetic, sternocarpine, is still on trial, and in the face of the frequent disappointments which have followed the better acquaintance with drugs which promised much at the outset, it will be well not to be too enthusiastic this time. One of the most promising features of this drug is that it appears to be an excellent mydriatic, far superior to cocaine in this respect.

-A French investigator, M. Quinquaud, has recently studied the influence of cold and hot baths upon the respiratory and nutritive processes. His conclusion is, that under the influence of cold baths more oxygen is absorbed and more carbonic acid is expelled. At the same time, more air passes through the lungs. Hot baths act in a similar manner, but in a less marked degree.

--Spartein is now being tried in Russia, and it is said, with a good record. It appears, as a "heart slower," to be less powerful, although more rapid in action, than digitalis, and therefore much below the potentiality of strophanthus. There has just been discovered another cardiac" glucoside, the properties of which are said to be "very promising." The name is to be Nemophylline, it having been extracted from the young leaves and buds of the Nemophylla insignis.

-INEQUALITY OF PUPILS IN HEALTHY PERSONS.--From an examination of one hundred and thirty-four healthy recruits, Dr. G. S. Ivanoff, of Kirilov, came (Vratch, No. vii., 1887, p. 162) to the following con1. Equal or symmetrical pupils, as well as equal or symmetrical halves of the face, are met with but very seldom, the former only in nine per cent. of the persons examined, and the latter only in 2.2 per cent. 2. The inequality or asymmetry is probably dependent upon an asymmetrical development of the cerebral hemisphere. 3. In 54.5 per cent. of persons, the left pupil, and in 73.9 per cent. the left side of the face, is larger than the right one.

-THE DIETETIC TREATMENT OF OBESITY.-A contributor to the "Union médicale" credits M. Dujardin-Beaumetz with the following dietary for the reduction of obesity: Breakfast at 8 o'clock.-Two ounces of cold meat, an ounce of bread, eight ounces of weak tea without sugar. Luncheon at noon.-Two ounces of bread, four ounces of meat or stew or two eggs, four ounces of fresh vegetables, half an ounce of cheese, fruit ad libitum. Dinner at 7 o'clock.-No soup, two ounces of bread, four ounces of meat or stew, four ounces of fresh vegetables, salad, half an ounce of cheese, fruit ad libitum. In conjunction with this course, purgatives should be taken rather frequently, either mineral waters, pills, or powders, and the subject should take exercise in proportion to his strength, and employ massage.-N. Y. Med. Jour.

THE

AMERICAN HOMEOPATHIST.

VOL. XIII. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 1, 1887.

No. 12.

In a recent number of the Lyon Medicale, Dr. Paul Bernard discusses in connection with a case of precocious menstruation, followed by cancer of the uterus, the question of the etiological relation between precocious menstruation and cancerous diseases of the uterus. The general conclusion is that there is no causal relation between inflammatory and cancerous diseases of the uterus. "We do not find that alterations of menstruation or other uterine disease has been observed more often in patients affected with uterine cancer," although it may often be found in the case of patients whose menstruation has been precocious and abundant.

* **

The bacterial theory of the origin of disease, the "bug theory" as it has been derisively called, has thus far failed to materialize to any advantage, either in the treatment of disease or in explaining the source of infection. Whether the bacteria present in morbid conditions of the system are the cause of that condition or merely an effect is still an open question. If a cause, it would seem that any means which would tend to their prevention or their destruction would cure or prevent the development of such condition, but the antiseptic treatment of disease is very far from being a conspicuous success. The contagious diseases, and even those whose contagious nature is yet disputed, are as intractable as ever to treatment. Phthisis pulmonalis, which upon the discovery of the tubercle bacillus was to disappear under antiseptic treatment, still numbers its victims by the thousand. Nor, upon the other hand, is the evidence any stronger in favor of the bacillus as a cause of disease. If these bodies are produced only from similar pre-existing bodies, the fact of the occurrence of the conditions in which these bacteria are present apart from any similar condition, as when a case of typhoid fever or diphtheria springs up de novo, is unexplainable.

* **

It may be, and often is, denied that any of the contagious diseases are developed without direct or indirect connection with another case