select those tissues for which it has an affinity. There is no difference between mixing and alternating medicines. If two are indicated by special symptoms, I believe it is better to mix than alternate them. This doctrine may shock Dr. Hawkes, but I "have the courage of my convictions," and I am not bound by fossil rules which only fetter the judgment.

I here declare my earnest belief that the axiom to which Drs. Hawkes, Lippe, Skinner, and others, pretend to follow, viz.: "The similar drug, the single remedy, and the minimum dose," has done more to injure our school than all the efforts of our enemies.

The first is an eternal and scientific truth, the two last are fallacies. They outrage science and common-sense, and I propose in a future number of the ERA to give my views more freely on this question. E. M. HALE.

65 TWENTY-SECOND STREET.

DIRECTORS OF PROVINGS, A. I. H.
H. R. ARNDT, M. D., E. M, HALE, M. D., E. A. FARRINGTON,
M. D., C. WESSELHOEFT, M. D., LEWIS SHERMAN,
A. W. WOODWARD, M. D., T. F. ALLEN, M. D.

OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN,

ANN ARBOR, MICH., Jan. 1, 1886. [ In view of the great importance of the work intrusted by the American Iustitute of Homœopathy to the Committee on Provings, it becomes the duty of the undersigned to call the attention of the profession at large to the importance of the work sought to be accomplished by this committee, and to the necessity of giving to it cordial support.

The organization of this standing committee was the outcome of the belief that the best interests of our school demand continuous and properly-directed work in materia medics, and above all in the proving of drugs.

It is sincerely hoped that the teachers of materia medica in our various colleges will during the winter make the thorough proving of some drug, under the direction of this Committee of the American Institute, by members of their class a part of the regular work of their chair. The attention of the bureaux of materia medica of the various state and other medical societies is called to this opportunity for doing original and permanently-valuable work in this direction. Medical practitioners, men or women, without serious inconvenience to themselves, can add valuable items to the general stock of knowledge from which they are drawing freely and constantly. Medical students, by taking a

share of this work, can thus gain a clearness of understanding of drug-action, and of the foundation upon which rests our entire system of therapeutics, which can be had by no other means.

To facilitate the work, the committee, upon application to Dr. A. W. Woodward, 130 South Ashland avenue, Chicago, Ill., will forward to prospective provers, free of cost, remedies of which provings are particularly desired, also printed rules and directions and blanks for daily records which reduce to a minimum the labor of conducting a prover's diary.

All the provings presented are carefully examined at the annual session of this committee. Full credit is given to each prover for the work done, and, unless otherwise directed, the name in full is included in the yearly report to the American Institute of Homœopathy.

The committee have concluded to offer the following prizes: A prize of $100 cash to the individual prover who furnishes the best complete proving of a drug under the direction of this committee, covering all the series described in the circular on "Rules for Drugproving." A prize consisting of a collection of text-books, chiefly on materia medica, presented by American publishers, reaching in pecuniary value a considerable amount, is offered to the class of college students furnishing the best proving of any drug under the same conditions. Such a collection would form a fitting nucleus for a medical college library, and since Messrs. F. E. Boericke, Gross and Delbridge, Otis Clapp & Son, A. L. Chatterton & Co., and others, have already expressed their readiness to contribute, this prize will be worthy of spirited rivalry. In behalf of the Committee,

H. R. ARNDT, Chairman,

Ann Arbor, Mich.

A. W. WOODWARD, Secretary, 130 S. Ashland Av., Chicago, Ill.

CORRECTION.-On page 206 of this number of the ERA, under the title of "Women in Medicine," the preposition "By" is an unwelcome intruder. The reader will understand that Caroline Brown Winslow is the subject of the sketch, and not its author. That part of the paper having already gone through the press, it becomes necessary to make the correction in this manner.

A CYCLOPÆDIA OF DRUG PATHOGENESY. Issued under the Auspices of the British Homœopathic Society and the American Institute of Homœopathy. Edited by RICHARD HUGHES, M. D., and J. P. DAKE, M. D. Parts I. and II. London and New York. 1885.

The publication of this cyclopædia marks an epoch in the history of Homœopathy. Not since the days of Hahnemann has so important a work been given to the medical world. Its scope is best indicated by the following quotations from the instructions under which it is being compiled:

2. Give a narrative of all provings, stating the symptoms in the order of their occurrence. 3. Give, in describing virulent drugs, such selected cases as may properly illustrate the various forms of poisoning by them. 4. Give the results of experiments on the lower animals. 5. Trace all versions to their originals, and verify, correct or reproduce therefrom, etc., etc.

This design, which is being carefully carried out by the able editors, must result in the production of a work of inestimable value to the student of pathogenesy, and thus greatly enrich our materia medica, which, in the growth of years, has become encumbered by a mass of extraneous matter which belongs to it about as much as a factory's smoke belongs to its foundation-stone.

Part II., which has just come from the publishers' hands, is, we think, an improvement on that which preceded. The narrative of provings and poisonings is exceedingly instructive, and of their reliability there can be no question. We shall look for the parts which are still to come with increased interest.

It has been many years since as great a service has been done to the science of medicine as that which will mark the completion of this work by Drs. Hughes and Dake, and the heartfelt gratitude of the profession will be but a slight return for their great labor. A COMPLETE

PRONOUNCING DIC

TIONARY. BY JOSEPH THOMAS, M.D., LL. D., author of Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology, Etc. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1886.

A professor in a certain medical college not far from Chicago used to say to his class: "Gentlemen, if you can afford to have but

one book in your library, let that book be a medical dictionary."

The latest candidate for favor in this line now lies on our desk. It begins with Ab-actus Ven-ter and ends with Zy-mot-ic, and between these two may be found every term with which the medical student need become acquainted in a life-time, and more than he will ever be able to master. Its faults, if it has any, we have not been able to discover. Its excellencies it would be difficult to fully enumerate. The most striking are these

three:

The pronunciation of each word is indi cated in such a manner that no one need err. The derivation of each word is given so that its original meaning may be easily traced. The definitions are full, clear and accurate.

The appendix contains a large amount of useful information. Here one may find instruction in prescription-writing, tables of doses, chemical symbols, metric weights and measures, and much more that goes to make full the measure of medical knowledge.

The publisher's work bears the closest inspection; the type is large and clear; the words are in a black letter which readily arrests the eye; the paper is good, and the binding is ditto, and it must be that "Thomas" Medical Dictionary" will become the future favorite.

MILK ANALYSIS AND INFANT FEEDING. A Practical Treatise on the Examinations of Milk, and Directions as to the Diet of Young Infants. By ARTHUR V. MEIGS, M. D. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1885.

The value of Dr. Meig's excellent treatise can best be appreciated by a statement of the chief points at which he has arrived. His investigations lead him to the conclusion that cow's milk contains considerable less casein than the amount with which it has been credited. All observers are pretty well agreed as to the amount of water, fat and ash, but there is a wide difference of opinion regarding the proportions of sugar and casein. Dr. Meigs maintains that the amount of the latter has, by all observers, been placed too high.

A careful study of the directions for preparing cow's milk for infant feeding, as here set forth, will enably physicians to give much more intelligent advice to mothers and nurses than they have heretofore been able to do.

PEOPLE YOU KNOW.

Dr. Mary Weeks Burnett is the able editor of the new Journal of Heredity.

Dr. G. E. Brown, of West Las Animas, Colo., has been appointed county physician.

Dr. R. W. Amidon will hereafter conduct The Medical Analectic.

Dr. H. M. Bascom, President of the Ill. Hom. Med. Association, is in the city.

Dr. Caine, of Stillwater, Minn., has been "doing the city" for a few days past.

Dr. Phil. Porter, of Detroit, takes editorial management of the Homœopathic Journal of Obstetrics.

Dr. Cleveland edits the Clinical Review," the new journal published at Cleveland, O. Salve!

Dr. Everitt Hasbrouck, of Brooklyn, is Secretary of the new American Obstetrical Society.

Dr. J. A. Campbell, of Joliet, has returned from a two months' attendance at the New York PostGraduate School.

Dr. A. E. Small, notwithstanding his 75 years, is still erect and active, and enjoys the distinction of not having an enemy in the world.

Dr. W. C. Bridge, of Elgin, Ill., has been elected valedictorian of the graduating class of 1886, of the Chicago Homoeopathic College.

Dr. R. N. Tooker has resigned his position on the staff of Cook County Hospital, and Dr. A. W. Woodward has been appointed to the vacancy.

Dr. T. Griswold Comstock says that for the past three years he has used silk-worm gut sutures in preference to silver wire, in plastic operations.

All will be glad to learn of the safe return of the venerable Dr. Samuel Lilienthal from his European trip, greatly improved in health and strength.

Mr. John B. Delbridge, of the firm of Gross & Delbridge, has returned from a two weeks' vacation, having visited Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Rochester, Buffalo, and other Eastern cities.

Dr. O. S. Runnels, President of the American Institute of Homoeopathy, has already sent letters to Chairmen of Bureaux, inquiring about the progress of their work, and calling for active effort, in order that the Saratoga meeting may be one of special interest and efficiency.

OBITUARY.

Prof. E. C. Franklin, M.D., of St. Louis, Mo., died of apoplexy Dec. 10th.

The eminent Prof. John C. Draper, M. D., of New York, died on the 20th ult.

Dr. E. A. Farrington, of Philadelphia, associate editor of the Hahnemannian Monthly, after a long illness, died at his home in that city on Dec. 17.

"No, they did not save the patient, but they saved the tumor."-Medical Record. (Extract from "Bless Thee, Bully Doctor.") Mrs. A. "I hear that the MacNaughtons are going to spend the winter in Paris." Mrs. B.-"Indeed! You surprise me! When were they bitten?"

That there are 203 homœopathic physicians in Chicago.

That there are 607 homoeopathic physicians in the State of Illinois.

That there are are 8,000 homoeopathic physicians in the United States.

That strabismus is not due to the presence of micro-cock-eye in the blood.

That there is no reliable method of controlling sex in generation.

That there is no good reason why literary men should have a monopoly of chronic dyspepsia.

That the average longevity of the race is greater than ever before in the world's history.

That Montreal has spent $120,000 in its efforts to stamp out the small-pox, and the end is not yet. That the patrons of homoeopathy pay more than half the taxes in the city of Chicago.

That the Illinois State Board of Health has been asked to take a back seat.

That it is useless to try to avoid the night air. What other kind of air is there at night?

That the price per grain of cocaine has fallen from 75 cents to 8 cents in a year.

That a Chicago doctor put his name to a deathcertificate in the space reserved for "cause of death." That a few drops of ethereal oil of sassafras will disguise the unpleasant odor of iodiform.

That in the last two months, in Milwaukee, five persons have died of the hydrophobia.

That there is a Homœopathic Dispensary at Ningpo, China.

That 3,372 patients were treated at Ward's Island Homœopathic Hospital last year.

That seventeen cases of poisoning fellowing the application of cocaine-solution to the eye have been recorded.

That the proper pronunciation of "Cocaine" is ko-ka-in, the middle syllable having the sound of ca in America.

That a company has been organized in Chicago for building a crematory, which will be soon begun and pushed rapidly to completion.

That in the last quarter of the year 1885 there were treated in the homoeopathic wards of Cook County Hospital 436 patients, with 31 deaths.

That the next meeting of the American Institute of Homœopathy will be the most largely attended known for many years.

That the mortality rate for last year at the Insane Asylum, Middleton, N. Y., was 5.5 per cent. The percentage of recoveries was 50.3 per cent.

That there are more mad dogs in winter than in summer. Search any file of old papers, and you will find this to be true.

That hand-grenade fixe-extinguishers contain a saturated solution of salt, ammonia, carbonate of soda, borax and carbonic acid.

That gonorrhoea and other infectious diseases may be communicated by the unchanged water of public baths.

That from March 4 to Nov. 9, 1885, in Spain, there were 274,208 cases of cholera reported, accompanied by 101,593 deaths.

That a man who was making a purchase in a drug store got hold of a vaccine quill and used it as a toothpick. It "took" all around his gums.

That a bill providing for the appointment of a commissioner of health of the United States has been introduced into the Senate.

That press dispatches confirmed by the Department of State, announce the increase of cholera in Japan.

That the bodily temperature may be rapidly lowered by the application of ice-bags to the large superficial veins of the neck.

That there are 120,000 practitioners of medicine, including non-graduates, in the United States. Every one of them should subscribe for THE MEDICAL ERA.

That there is as yet no indication that the International Medical Congress will meet in this country, owing to continued want of harmony in the ranks of the Regulars (regular bigots!)

That Lieut. Greely states that of his nineteen men who perished all but one were smokers, and that one the last to die. The seventeen survivors were non-smoking men.

That it is true, absolutely, that a woman near Lyons, France, gave birth to five children in one year!-triplets on the 2d of January, and twins on the 27th of December, following.

That the new library soon to be established in Chicago at a cost of $3,000,000 will contain one of the largest collections of medical books in the country.

That the death-rate from scarlet fever and diphtheria in Detroit was greatly reduced following the burning of large quantities of sulphur in the manholes of the sewers.

That the metric system of weights and measures is rapidly losing ground. The fact that the misplacement of a single dot will turn a comparatively harmless dose of medicine into a deadly poison, bears strongly against it.

That the Supreme Court of Iowa has decided that a hotel-keeper who receives guests, knowing that there is a contagious disease in the house, is liable for damages to any guest who may contract the disease.

That the water drank by Philadelphians, owing to the presence of cemeteries near the river, is a product of the rainfall into the Schuylkill mixed with a large proportion of the distillate of the bones of their ancestors.

That the faith-cure mania is so rampant abroad that the Stockholm authorities were recently compelled to interfere to prevent the over-crowding of a "Hotel Zion," and one inn-keeper advertises rooms to rent at a moderate price, "where one may be alone with God."

That every one who sees this copy of THE MEDICAL EBA should subscribe for it now!

THE MEDICAL ERA.

PROSPECTUS FOR 1886.

As in the past, THE MEDICAL ERA will continue to represent the true interests of homoeopathy. It believes that the system of medicine founded upon similia is the widest in its application, the most efficient and beneficent ever known to man.

In its admiration for, and fealty to, Samuel Hahnemann that great and good man to whom the world owes so much it will yield

to no one.

While it believes that the last ninety years have but served to demonstrate over, and over again, the surpassing value of the system of therapeutics which homœopathy represents, it does not believe that the science of medicine, as a whole, has been at a standstill.

It will aim to give everything in the most concise and readable form. Beginning with the next number it will present carefully-made gleanings from the entire field of medical literature of the world, classified under their proper headings.

Original papers from the pens of our ablest writers will appear from month to month.

While all serious matters will receive serious consideration, at the same time frequent demands will be made upon that excellent work, "Twain's Humor-al Pathology."

No news items or personal notices which are of interest to the profession will be permitted to escape.

Its subscription price will remain at the sum of $2.00. The books are now open.

FOR SALE AT A SECRIFICE-The Vienna Rupture Institute, of St. Louis. This institute is chartered and incorporated by the State; is well established and will yield a fortune. Il health cause of selling. Address F. T. Smyth, M. D., 1105 Olive street, St. Louis, Mo.

SPECIAL NOTICES.

The Homœopathic Journal of Obstetrics will hereafter be issued as a bi-monthly at $4 a year.

An English philosopher contends that a thoroughbred fox terrier has the intellectual development of a child two years old.

"Do you rectify mistakes here?" asked a gentleman as he stepped into a State street drug store.

"Yes, sir! we do if the patient is still alive," replied the urbane clerk.

We print an edition of 5,000 copies of the present number of the MEDICAL ERA. It will be sent to many physicians who are not subscribers, with the hope that upon careful examination they will send us their subscriptions for the year 1886.

Listerine seems to be rapidly taking the place of the offensive carbolic acid and of some of the more

dangerous disinfectants. The odor of thymol is quite agreeable to many, and not unpleasant to any, while its deodorizing qualities are most superior.

Dr. Tooker's address before the Illinois State Homœopathic Society last May, entitled "Homœopathy and its Relation to the Germ Theory," has been translated into the Spanish language and appears in full in the "El Criterio Medico" for October, 1885.

The Physician's Visiting List for 1886, by P. Blackiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, is on our table. It needs no words of praise from us. The present edition is an improvement on all former ones. The price is as follows: For 25 patients weekly, $1; for 50 patients, $1.25, and for 75 patients, $1.50.

It is certain that Bismarck's physician is no fool. It is related that when first presented the prince was sick, and peevishly declined to answer questions. "As you like," said the doctor, "then send for a veterinary surgeon, as such practitioners treat their patients without asking them any questions.

The British Medical Journal states that the Baron de Lenval, of Nice, has offered a prize of $600 to the person who shall invent an easily portable instrument for improving the hearing. Only completed instruments are received, and they must be sent in before December 31, 1887. The prize will be awarded in September, 1888, at Brussels.

Attention is called in German medical journals to the fact that, so far back as 1849, the usefulness of inoculation with rabies poison, as an antidote and preventive against the effects of bites by mad dogs, was discussed in Jahr's Klinischen Anweisungen, in the articles on "Poisoning" and "Dog Rabies." Constantine Hering, a physician, then living in Philadelphia, is there mentioned as having actually made use of this remedy.