ever conferred upon his fellows so great a blessing as he? You intimate that his discovery had been anticipated before him. Hippocrates (2,400 years ago) and Paracelsus dimly hinted at it, as Hahnemann quotes in his book, but in practical utility the comparison is about the same as between Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment and the perfected telephone of to-day. Hahnemann was master of eight languages, and had 2,000 books in his library. Through all these books ran the silver thread that one man cured a disease with a remedy, while another man caused symptoms like that disease with the same remedy. This thread he followed up, and by years of study and experiment with remedies perfected his system, which, as says the British Medical Review (allopathic), "comes before us now, not in the garb of a suppliant unknown and helpless, but as a conqueror, powerful, famous and triumphant." Any article on medical progress must be incomplete that slurs or leaves out homoopathy, for many of its teachings are now being modernized and enunciated in all the medical colleges, even though not as well "credited" as they should be. The newest medical literature is saturated with it, and all for the public good. The medicinemakers are vieing with each other to produce the handsomest and most accurately subdivided little doses, and solutions containing 1-10000 grain to the drop are confidently used to kill the dreaded germs of disease, where but a few years ago the crude drug itself was thought necessary. Verily, modern medicine does progress! Wm. B. Clarke, M. D., Indianapolis.

ASIATIC CHOLERA.

Dr. O. S. Sanders of Boston, brother of Dr. W. H. Sanders of this city, recently delivered an able lecture before a select

audience of gentlemen, on the all-absorbing subject of Cholera. In reference to its pre

vention and treatment the Doctor said: “I will only add that the logic of facts and the logic of theories unite in proving that no uniform treatment can be laid down for every case of this malignant disease. Still less is there a specific remedy. The best text-books are uncertain guides, and the physician must depend largely upon his own accurate observation of the prominent

symptoms in each case, and adapt his particular treatment to the leading pathological phenomena.

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As there exist grave reasons for expecting that cholera will make its appearance in Boston during the approaching summer, it behooves us all to stir ourselves and be on the alert to receive the foe. The cleanliness of the city may be safely left to the Board of Health, as its officers have, from the very first cholera alarm note, worked with a zeal which must have been assuring to every citizen; and that their efforts in the field of sanitation will be perseveringly continued, I think we may safely assume. Cleaning the public thoroughfares and private alley-ways, inspecting tenement houses, condemning unwholesome meats and vegetables, ensuring a pure milk supply, keeping a critical eye on the water we drink-these are all valuable means for preventing and controlling the possible epidemic, but they require something to be superadded.

"Disinfectants must be unsparingly used, and the best are chloride of lime, coal tar, carbolic acid and sulphate of iron, better known as copperas. Sinks and waterclosets should be liberally treated with these to commence with, and smaller quantities afterwards used twice a week. The use of camphor is an excellent safeguard according to the medical authorities at Naples, where persons who habitually took it in lump sugar were exempted from cholera attacks, and to carry the gum camphor in the pocket as a preventive. If you have the least suspicion of your drinking water put lactate acid in it, or boil it and filter it before using it. Better a little trouble than a great deal of pain.

"Now, if cholera were to break out among us to-morrow; if the poor were largely attacked, suddenly struck down in the streets, or stricken in their homes; how, let me ask, are we prepared to deal with such cases? Here is a man suddenly seized on Washington street. Where is the ambulance to be found in which to convey him? And, more important still, where is the place to which he is to be borne?

"In Paris a great deal of inconvenience was experienced and much risk incurred at the outbreak of the disease for want of suitable and ready means of conveying patients either from their homes, or when struck down away from home, to the hospital. But the Parisians were taught by experience, and ambulances were provided in

sufficient number, all having the appearance of private carriages, and stationed in different parts of the city. Do not we require something of the kind? Again, are we to carry patients stricken with cholera into the city hospital, or are we going to have temporary hospitals erected in three or four well-selected spots, to which patients could be removed and treated?

"Visiting committees, medical staffs, suitable nurses; are these to be organized and selected in anticipation, or is it to be' sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,' and no preparations are to be made until the enemy enters the city and forces us into action?"

CLIMATE AND INTELLECT.*

A great deal has been said about the effect of climate upon intellect, and not much of the effect of intellect upon climate; or, to be more exact, of the power in mental activity to resist or control climatic influences. Some philosophers have held that there is an occult sympathy between mind and matter, and that a great accumulation of mind upon one point-that is to say, the direction of a strong current of desire for or against some operation of naturewould be effective. For instance, if all the people in a wide district suffering under drought should unite in a common longing, a sincere mental struggle, for rain, that nature would feel the subtle influence through all its being, and rain would come. fortunately the experiment has never been tried, for common consent at any moment never has been attained there is always somebody who has hay out.

Un

But this, at least, we can say, that it is safer to have the desire of the general mind in the right direction. Now two of the vulgar notions of this latitude are that we need "bracing up," and that snow is a useful product, consequently that the more severe cold weather we have and the more

snow, the better off we are. And people go on believing this to their deaths every year. As to snow, there is a sentimental notion of its beauty as well as of its utility. And a good deal can be said for it from an artistic point of view. But we are not placed in this stern world merely to indulge our sensuousness. We are put here to make the most of our powers, in view of a hereafter; and long life is a duty, besides

* Extract from an article by Charles Dudley Warner, in Harper's Magazine for April, 1885.

being, in the Old Testament view, a reward of virtue. It is probably necessary to have snow at the poles in order to keep the poles cool, and insure a proper circulation and change of air round the globe, which all physicians and sanitarians (who have escaped the prevailing disease of germiphobia) suppose to be the origin of the evil in impure earth. It is by every one accepted that where there is no decomposition there is no fever, and that the most unhealthy marshes, pestilent with fevers, may be rendered quite innocuous by drainage and by drying the soil.

The public at large have been very much. misguided by the word "germs." If it were true that germs constitute the contagium of disease, then it devolves on the germ theorists to explain the escape of any one individual from such an all-pervading contagium. In the air we breathe, in all that we eat and drink, and touch and lie on, we are continually exposed to the reception of germs. Bacteria and various germs have been detected on all parts of the surface of the body, and of the mucous passages open to the air. They are found in myriads on the tongue and in the tartar of the teeth, in the nose and throat, and all through the alimentary canal, into which myriads are poured with our food and drink. In short, the whole of the higher organisms are interpenetrated perpetually with the germs of much disturbance of health. the lower fungi, and these develop without · The very ubiquity of germs is the most telling argument against the theory which attributes infectious diseases to the action of such

germ-life. "The origin of these diseases is," as Dr. Drysdale says, "hidden in the night of time," and although we may circumscribe the area of their operation, we can never hope to divest communities of them as long as man is a social animal.

In dealing with a question of so much public importance, I have been, in the language of Dr. Letheby, "anxious that none of the facts should be perverted, and that no hasty or ingenious hypothesis, without solid foundation, should take possession of the public mind. In the conduct of inquiries like this, there should be a calm, a full and a candid examination of all the facts.

We should endeavor to study the phenomena in a philosophical spirit, and apply to them the tests of sound induction. Rash opinions, badly asserted and tenaciously held, though they may force themselves on public attention, rarely lead to useful re

sults; and while they have their hold on the popular mind, they seriously hinder the progress of real knowledge."

CORRESPONDENCE.

tioners, it was thought but just that they should have a majority on these Boards. Our physicians did not think deeply enough to see that this placed the supervision of some of our most vital interests in their hands; that a refusal to allow us equal representation embodied a suspicion of us

NEW YORK.

We are in receipt of the following letter from Dr. Couch, of Fredonia, N. Y., which is of such general interest that we give it to our readers, omitting only the opening portion which is purely personal.

* * * As a member of the Committee on Legislation in this State (New York) I have been brought very emphatically to the realization of this truth. [The insidious and patronizing nature of Old School concessions.-EDS.]

One of the "insidious" operations is the procurement of our acceptance of minority representation on Public Boards.

Years ago, when we were graciously accorded a minority representation on the National Board of Health, I presume most of us thought-I know I did that the cruel war would soon be over; that there was but " one more river to cross" before we reached the haven of rest. What shallowpated fools! Out of that organization sprang the various "State Boards," with or without minority representation according to locality; and these State Boards, backed by the National Medical Association and the several State societies, are now moving Heaven and Earth to erect "State Boards of Medical Examiners." On these they propose to allow minority representation by our School when they cannot help themselves. In this State they would take six and allow us one-with a proviso that the majority shall rule. Now, running all through the organization of these "Boards" is the intent to unify the profession in advance of the acknowledgment of the homœopathic law and the perfection of homoeopathic therapeutics. It was wonderfully cunning and diplomatic, and the joke upon us is that we were unwittinglybeing made accessories before the fact to such a result. In this State they actually inveigled some of our societies into an endorsement of their scheme, on account of its prima facie fairness.

Outnumbering us, as they do, in practi

them, and that consent to such minority representation not only endorsed the justness of their distribution, but made us measurably responsible for such Boards, without the least power to direct or control them. You remember the old adage: "Volenti non fit injuria."

When I came fully to realize where we were drifting under this specious regime, it caused me a very profound inspiration. Then came the wonderment why it had not been sooner perceived. The president of our State Board of Health, upon which we have one representative, belongs to medical societies which forbid him to meet that homoeopathic colleague in consultation. This shows that their official association comes from the virtue of necessity. There is no more professional respect or love for that irregular "gentleman" than when the old code was adopted. The lion and the lamb lie down together and the laity and many of our School are rejoiced at the spectacle; but alas! for the lamb in the end! So, too, of the Medical Colleges in the State; we have one, they twelve. The announcements of all of the latter give public notice that the lectures given in the former will not be considered at all as equivalent to one of the courses essential to graduation. Also, that they will not recognize a homœopathic practitioner as a preceptor in medicine. This is the " manner of love bestowed upon us." But, fortunately, our eyes are at last open, and this cunning diplomacy is ended in the State of New York. The licensing of the graduates of our Colleges will not be committed to their tender mercies. We will have separate Boards or none. Of that due notice may be taken. Would that the whole matter of minority representation by our School" could be wiped out. That is impossible. But hereafter we must stand squarely for our rights. The numbers, wealth and intelligence of our clientelle demand it. Justice to ourselves and the cause which we represent demands it. When the Old School stops its discriminations; when it abolishes its menaces; when it discontinues its plagiarisms; when, in short, it has learned to do justly, love

66

mercy and walk humbly before God," the unification of the Schools will be an easy and a proper thing, if, indeed, it will not be un fait accompli.

Pardon this infliction, and believe me
Very sincerely yours,

ASA S. COUCH.

IS IT HOMEOPATHY?

TO THE EDITOR MEDICAL ERA:

Dear Sir-Not having enjoyed the advantages of a medical education from a Homoopathic standpoint, and compelled to grope my way, as it were, out of the darkness of old school traditions into the light of the Homœopathic law of therapeutics, it is not to be wondered at if I shall exhibit a degree of ignorance in reference to some matters which may be settled beyond dispute among my wiser and more favored brethren. It is therefore with some hesitation that I venture to ask, if it be possible that so learned and accomplished a Homœopath as Dr. Hempel, may have strayed from the correct principles of Homœopathy, in his discussion of the use of remedies in accordance with their "primary and secondary action"? Vide Introduction to Hempel & Arndt's Materia Medica, page 30. I read there that: "If we are called upon to prescribe for a group of symptoms corresponding with the primary action of a drug, we give larger doses than we should do, if we had to prescribe for a group of symptoms corresponding with the secondary action, or organic reaction."

In the preceding paragraph, I read: "Opium cures diarrhoea as well as constipation, excessive wakefulness as well as drowsiness and stupor." I italicise cures.

It strikes me that either I do not yet comprehend Homœopathy, that it is something different from what I have come to regard it, or else that there is something out of joint in this teaching.

Without prolonging this inquiry by a discussion or a presentation of principles that must be familiar to all well educated Homœopathic physicians, I would simply ask the question, are such suggestions as these Homœopathic? Is not the whole series of symptoms in any case, "organic reaction" and all, referable to the pathogenetic effects of a certain drug? If so, are we not governed, and rightly to be governed in the selection and exhibition of any remedy in accordance with the Homœopathic law, by this totality of manifestation? and

should we not attack the disease with the proper remedy at one stage, upon precisely the same principles as at another? I do not of course refer to or include in this, such complications and variations as may spring from new or separate pathological causes; nor do I refer to diseases which exhibit progressive pathological conditions, which at each stage necessarily require different remedies. Yours, seeking light, W. E. HATHAWAY.

BOOK REVIEWS.

HOW TO SEE WITH THE MICROSCOPE, ETC. By J. EDWARDS SMITH, M.D. Second Edition. Illustrated. Chicago: DUNCAN BROTHERS. 1885. through a second edition, and has been enThis admirable work has just now passed larged and improved.

There is probably no one in our own school, if there be in any other, who knows so well how to see and what to see with the

In this

microscope as Prof. Smith. He is acknowledged an expert the world over. work he tells everybody interested in the subject what everybody wants to know— how to select a good instrument and all of its accessories and paraphernalia. He gives you all of the good points that must be known to the learner before he can get solidly and satisfactorily to work.

It is written in plain English without It is well illustrated, and we verbiage. know of no work so full of necessary knowledge for the student in microscopy as this. We recommend it without reservation or qualification.

DECLINE OF MANHOOD. By A. E.

SMALL, A.M., M.D. Chicago: DUNCAN
BROTHERS. 1885. $1.00.

This work, revised and enlarged, comes to the profession, having back of it and in it the experience and mature judgment of a man who has for many long years labored and observed in the field of practical medicine.

The author's name alone bespeaks for it a careful reading, but the work has an intrinsic worth which will, beyond question, win for itself a large acquaintance.

It is not written in the sensational style which characterizes so much that is read upon this subject, but rather abounds with good, sober sense, and is, to our mind, well adapted to a large circulation among the

It

laity, where it might do its best work as a warning to parents and a consequent instrument of good to the youth of the land. is a work to be read and loaned, and is sure to result in profit to all who peruse.

THE BABY: HOW TO KEEP IT WELL.

By J. B. DUNHAM, M.D. GROSS & DELBRIDGE. Chicago. 1885. 75 cents. The mission of this valuable work is not to occupy a place in the libraries of physicians, and to be perused by them alone. It is dedicated to "The Mothers of America," The Mothers of America,"

and in their hands it may and must reap its hundred-fold harvest. "This little work is intended as a practical guide in the preservation of the health of infants and children, and also as an aid toward the development of the best types of humanity physically, intellectually and morally."

It would be an act of genuine philanthropy to send this book abroad as a gift to many mothers, and we gladly put our stamp of hearty indorsement upon it, trusting that it will find a large reading, and feeling sure that it contains plain truths valueless never.

Iodine in the Nascent State in Uterine Catarrh. The treatment of catarrh of the cervical canal is often tedious and unsatisfactory, and hence we take pleasure in mentiong a new and apparently quite rational method of meeting this affection. Dr. Brondel, in Revue medico-chirurgicale des maladies des femmes, mentions a case of sterility resulting from cervical catarrh, and the successful treatment of the disorder, and states that iodine is the only remedy which gives satisfactory results. He considers that the best way of using the medicine is in its nascent state, as advised by Cheron. The method is as follows: Add two drachms and a half of iodide of potassium and fifteen grains of iodate of potassium to two ounces of water; then, by means of a rod wrapped with cotton dipped in the solution, apply it to the cervical canal; following this application by that of a solution of citric acid, two drachms and a half in two ounces of water, similarly made. The citric acid solution immediately liberates iodine, and the latter in its nascent state is thus in immediate contact with the diseased part.-Phila. Med. News, May 16th.

Electric Light for Purposes of Examination. Dr. Baker spoke at the Obst. Soc., Boston, of the great advantage of the electric light over reflected light in the examination of the urethra. The apparatus consisted of an incandescent burner contained in a glass bulb and connected with a suitable battery. The apparatus was strapped upon the forehead and was capable of shedding a flood of light into the urethra; the result was gratifying in the extreme. The only disadvantage was that of expense. -Boston M. and S. Jour.

Cocaine in Chordee. A correspondent writes: "I have had two cases recently of chordee, accompanying gonorrhoea, which have yielded easily to the soothing influence of an injection of hydrochlorate of cocaine. In the first case I had exhausted almost everything in my efforts to relieve. It was one of those obstinate cases with which we meet sometimes, and which seem to defy all treatment. I gave this man an injection of ten drops of a four-per-cent. solution, mixed with thirty drops of water. After this injection was introduced, I worked it along the urethral canal until the mucous surfaces were bathed in the solution. I then allowed it to remain several minutes. From this time out I had no further trouble with either the chordee or

the patient. The second case yielded a like result."-New Eng. Med. Mo.

Some Other Uses for Cocaine.-When you have a fissure to treat, first dampen it and the surfaces about with cocaine. If you treat a fistula, touch well the external openings with cocaine. If you treat a hemorrhoid, touch the sack with cocaine, and the entrance of the needle will hardly be felt. If you vaccinate a child or infant, don't fail to dampen the place to be scarified with cocaine. If you must lance an abscess, boil or carbuncle, dampen the line the lance will pursue; don't forget it. If you have a case of vaginismus, make a cerate of cosmoline and a few drops of cocaine; use two or three times daily. In all these little matters use cocaine, and your patients will thank God that he made it, and you for having the good sense to use it, and will exhibit their gratitude by paying their bill more cheerfully and promptly.― Luther J. Ingersoll, M.D., Denver, Colo.