when she would "lose herself" the tumbler would fall to the bed. There would be no occasion for it again until the approach of another pain, when she would put the tumbler again to her nostrils. This is a safe and convenient way of numbing parturient pains. But the production of complete anesthesia for an operation is a different thing.-ED.]

Gastric Vertigo.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Gastric vertigo is a disorder that attacks a number of persons, mostly those of sedentary habits, professional people and brain workers. +

It is very often diagnosed as simply biliousness. It is a subject that has given me much concern, and I was quite a while arriving at a satisfactory diagnosis and the best plan of treatment. I conversed much with my fellow practitioners about the symptoms of this malady and read all the books and literature that I could find relative to the symptoms of the affection for a number of years back, but I could only get a scrap here and there. It main symptoms with most patients is a udden quivering and twitching of the eye balls, with gradual diminution of vision and dizziness, followed by a sense of fulness a the forehead. The patient at first generally gets more or less frightened, and whatever they are working at must be abandoned; because, between the loss of vision and nervousness, the patient is unfitted for anything for the time being./ If a remedy is not handy and the subject attempts to go on with whatever is occupying his mind, vomiting and severe head ache will soon supervene.

If the patient should happen to be walking, he becomes apprehensive lest he fall in the street or feels that something is going to happen to him-a stroke of paralysis, apoplexy, epilepsy, etc., are the usual thoughts that flash thru the mind.

It is very distressing and annoying when one first has these attacks, and it is calculated to make almost anyone lose his nerve, A disturbance of the circulation is noticed; a cold clammy sweat and a nervous tremor generally follow. Men generally stop and are quiet for a few minutes and then seek a remedy. Women often lose control of themselves, fall or faint from fright and frequently have convulsions and are prostrated for awhile. In making out a proper diagnosis, hystero-epilepsy, paralysis, epilepsy, liver, kidney and brain diseases and reflex disturbances are to be considered.

In these cases there seems to be a sudden interruption of the cerebro-spinal fluid. A slight constriction is often felt over the forehead and at the occiput.

Some have sudden severe headache with sick stomach. If constipation exists, the trouble is aggravated; but I have known the paroxysms to come on when the bowels were loose, but at that time most patients I noticed were suffering from liver torpidity or malaria. There is an intimate relationship between the brain and the liver and digestive apparatus, which is an interesting study Disturbances in the liver disorder the brain directly, as well as by the abnormal products which reach it thru the blood. Look at the disorders of toxemia. Dr. Hughlings Jackson holds that the liver, indeed each viscus, has its representative area in the brain just as much as the arm or leg is represented in a distinct and localized area

Some of the plain people sometimes diagnose this complaint as "blind staggers". similar to that of the equines,

In the treatment of gastric vertigo I have tried various remedies. I have found that remedies that act upon and unload the portal circle give the most speedy relief.

A heaping teaspoonful of epsom salts, dissolved in half a gobletful of strong lemonade, repeated every hour until free action from the bowels has taken place affords prompt relief.

If rapid purgative action is not desired, or is to be avoided, a seidlitz powder, repeated once or twice, sometimes affords relief. Thirty drops of aromatic spirits of ammonia added, hastens relief.

I have seen one or two ounces of good brandy or whisky relieve the trouble in a few minutes, but if it is continued it requires to be kept up with double doses and its remedial effects are finally lost; it then aggravates the trouble, besides is apt to foster the cultivation of a very bad habit the remedy finally causing more trouble than the disease itself.

Wines and liquors make the malady worse. In the case of a business man who could not leave his place I gave ten grains of blue mass, in pills, with two grains of powdered capsicum, followed by a pint of Apollinaris water. He was relieved in a half-hour, after which I gave him a course of medicine and he has not had any repetition of the trouble.

If these subjects are not medically treated they are very liable to become diseased and break down constitutionally. In most

have confidence; that the paroxysms are not dangerous, and will soon pass off.

These are cases where the power of mind over matter plays an important part. Tell them not to think of it, as recurrences are frequent if the system is not in good condition.

Outdoor exercise and trips to the seashore occasionally do good.

A warm bath should be taken once a week. An occasional Turkish bath does good; the massage, the flesh brush, and the cleansing improve the circulation, and the activity of the liver and kidneys; "constructive and destructive metamorphosis" are promoted, as Bartholow might

say:

Undergarments and socks containing wool (75 per cent. in winter, and 10 to 25 per cent during spring and fall) should be worn. Red?" they will ask you, but white or gray does better, because during perspiration the red color comes out and soils the linen.

I have known a sudden change in the weather from warm to cool or damp, and also sudden colds, to bring on a paroxysm; hence the importance of wearing wool, because cotton, which composes the largest percentum of undergarments, no matter how thick when they become damp or moist with perspiration, they stay damp. Wool dries on the body, and there is more comfort in wearing it when the wearer gets used to it and if the skin is clean, there ought not to be any discomfort.

I could give an interesting history of a number of cases that I have treated, but it would take up too much space. I will say that, to be sure that I was correct in my diagnosis in a few cases, I took them to one of the ablest physicians, Prof. J. M. DaCosta, and the diagnosis was verified and suggestions made.

Camden, N. J. G. W. HENRY, M. D.

Therapeutic Suggestion.

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-On March 3, 1898, a Mr. Max, aged 55, came to me for treatment for what had been called rheumatism. He stated that he had been ailing for about three years; had not seen a perfectly well day in all that time. He had taken many kinds of medicine, from different doctors, and had used a variety of internal and external remedies on his own account, such as had been recommended to him by friends, He was very lame in his right hip and leg, and frequently suffered almost intolerable pain, sometimes in the hip, at other times

in the leg just above the knee, and occasionally in other parts of the leg. His appetite was poor, nutrition greatly impaired, bowels constipated. He was restless at night, despondent and miserable.

Upon examination I found that he was suffering from a complication of sciatica and muscular rheumatism. He had been suffering for so long that he was pretty nearly worn out. He was easily tired by physical exertion, and he felt and expressed himself as tho he was a confirmed invalid. He had nursed the notion that his age was against his recovery. He had taken so much medicine that he had grown sick of it. He had tried electricity also, and it seemed as tho everything had been done for him in the way of ordinary means that could be done, and all without any permanent good results. He was greatly disheartened, on the very verge of despair; and he was not much inclined to make any further efforts in the way of medical treatment. He looked the picture of distress.

It was very hard for me to keep from expressing sympathy for him, but I did not do this. To the contrary, seeing that he still had some desire to get well, always a good foundation to build upon, I ventured to present therapeutic suggestions to him. I knew he was a materialist in the extreme, well read in general literature and orthodox science, but absolutely uninformed upon everything pertaining to mental science and therapeutic suggestion. He was sitting in a chair, in my office, his eyes turned toward the floor, apparently in a deep study. He looked as if ready to say, "What in the world shall I do? Is it possible that nothing can be done for me? Must I go

on thru life suffering in this way?"

As I looked at him I suddenly arose to my feet and said: "Mr. Max, if you will take my advice, and will agree to follow a course of treatment that I propose to give you, I can cure you. Your disease is curable. Your age has nothing to do with it, and I can cure you.

He looked up at me with an expression of surprise, hesitated for a moment and then said, "Well, doctor, what do you propose to do?"

I replied, "I will treat you with therapeutic suggestion. I am using this method of treatment in a great many cases with the very happiest results, and I feel certain that I can relieve your pains at once, and finally cure you completely, if you will take this treatment."

He inquired, "Please, doctor, explain to

me what you mean by therapeutic suggestion. What is it? I am not acquainted with it in any way, for no physician that I have heretofore consulted ever mentioned it to me."

"Mr. Max, by suggestion in the treatment of disease, we mean the presentation of thoughts to our patients in a manner and under conditions that will result in producing the functional and organic changes necessary to restore conditions of health. The best condition under which to present these thoughts in your case is what we call a hypnotic condition; a condition of quiet, hypnotic sleep, a perfectly receptive condition."

"Oh," he exclaimed, "you mean to hypnotize me, eh? Well, I never could be hypnotized. It was tried on me many times, years ago, and nobody could ever hypnotize me."

"Ah!" said I. "But, Mr. Max, if you will consent to take this treatment, I can hypnotize you in one minute, and I am just as certain that I can cure you by suggestion, after placing you in a receptive condition, as I am that I am living."

"Well," said he, "I will come to see you to-morrow evening, bringing a friend with me, and I will let you try what you can do, for I feel that if you cannot relieve me I am beyond help. I have tried nearly everything else, and all to no purpose.

Mr. Max was on hand promptly at 8 o'clock the next evening, accompanied by his friend, an intelligent gentleman of about twenty-four. Without any ceremony, I asked him to take the reclining chair, which he did at once. Before I had time to say anything further to him, he said, "Now, doctor, I want to know if, after you hypnotize me and I go away from your office, you will have any power over me?"

I replied, "No; you will go away from here feeling comparatively well, and all my personal influence upon you will end with your treatment here in this office."

"All right, then; go ahead," he replied. While yet in the waking state, as he lay in the chair, I made, substantially, this speech to him: "Mr. Max, you have been sick a long time. Ordinary means have failed to give you permanent relief, and yet your disease is, absolutely, a curable one, and your age has nothing to do with it. The cause of your disease is intrinsic; that is, you did not get it from outside influences. It is the result of a misdirection of the forces within your body. The forces

controlling the functional activities of your body have been diverted from their proper course, and perverted conditions have thus obtained. Your disease is not the result of any medicine you have taken, and you require no medicine to relieve and cure you. I can engage the same forces to remove your disease that were instrumental in exciting it. In order to do this, as I told you yesterday, we place you in what we call a receptive condition; a quiet, hypnotic sleep; a state in which you not only hear all I say, but you accept it as being absolutely true, and positively realize, mentally and physically, every change in sensation and condition suggested to you. Not that you are led to believe things that are untrue; but, to the contrary, you are in a state of mind where you realize the truths we state to you, and you are not disposed to dispute them, but accept them and profit from them.

"Now, just let yourself go, and try to feel as though you were going to drop through the chair. Let every muscle of Let every muscle of your body relax; make yourself perfectly passive, submissive and quiet; and fix your gaze directly upon the ends of my fingers, which I hold over your face, above your eyes. Look steadily at the ends of my fingers, and as you do so and as I move them a little closer to your eyes, you will soon feel a peculiar, easy, sleepy feeling coming all over your body. Your eyes will feel tired, the lids heavy, and you will want to close them. Look steadily. Your eyes are already getting tired, the lids are getting heavy, heavy, heavy. Your eyes are closing, closing, closing; the lids are heavy, heavy, heavy-sleepy, sleepy, sleepy-closed, asleep, asleep soundly asleep from head to foot."

As the eyelids appeared heavy I approached his face with my fingers, lowered and raised my hand a little, finally passed my fingers down lightly over his forehead, and he was sound asleep.

I now made this suggestion to him: "You are now sound asleep from head to foot. Every nerve and muscle of your body is perfectly quiet, and as still as the chair. Your heart is beating regularly, respiration easy and free, and every function of the body is in harmony one with another. All the nervous forces in your body are now perfectly equalized. There is no concentration anywhere, no excitement; all is tranquil, peaceful and quiet. You are now beginning a course of treatment that will relieve you at once, and

finally cure you. Your age is no hindrance to a cure. You are already feeling better; the pains are going away, and you feel perfectly easy, comfortable and quiet. You are getting well now; not simply because we say so, but because the forces in your body, which, under misdirection, were caused to excite disease and pain, are now properly engaged to remove all obstructions, relieve all pain and bring every function of your body into perfect harmony one with another.

"You will now sleep well at night. When you retire to-night you will say to yourself, I will sleep well to-night,' and you will have a good night, sleep well, and rise in the morning feeling refreshed and invigorated. You will eat breakfast with a relish, digest what you eat. The stomach will appropriate it, and the food you take will go to make good blood and good flesh; this will invigorate the heart; it will beat vigorously, circulate the blood to all parts of the body, and build up your strength in every way. Your liver will act well and secrete bile plentifully; this will stimulate the bowels, and they will move regularly without medicine; this will relieve all abdominal congestion, make your stomach and head feel better, and clear your system of all effete material. Your kidneys will act well, your stomach will act well, the liver will act well, the skin will act well, all the excretions are free, the blood is cleansed of all uric and lactic acid, rheumatic pains cannot continue, they cannot continue; they are already going away, going away, gone; no pain in the hip, no pain in the leg, perfectly easy, warm and quiet; comfortable and warm; perfectly comfortable, easy and quiet from head to foot."

"Mr.

I went on with this kind of a talk for ten minutes, repeating, in substance, the above formula. Now I said to him, Max, you are sound asleep. Do you feel easy and quiet?" "Perfectly," he replies. "Well, sir, you hear all I say, do you not?" "I do." "Well, now, I want you to listen to me. You have heard all I have said, and you will remember it. You cannot forget it. I now want to say to you that you are getting well, and will continue to improve every minute till you make a complete recovery. You have begun living on a new plane of life. You have started upward in the scale of health, and every day you come here you will take a fresh start. The forces within your body, which, under perverted conditions,

caused your disease, are now engaged to remove all obstructions, equalize all the nervous forces, relieve all pain, and restore every function of your body to healthy conditions.

"This is the way it is done: You have two minds, an objective mind and a subjective mind. With your objective mind you know you can control all the voluntary functions of your body. You can say to your hand, open, and it opens. You say You say to your eyes, close, and they close. You say to your feet, walk, and you go on; but you cannot say with your objective mind to your heart, beat slower or beat faster, and realize that it obeys you. You cannot say to your stomach, digest better; to your liver, act more vigorously; tell your bowels to move every day, and hope to realize the wished for results. No.

"But let me tell you that your subjective mind has full and absolute control over all these silent forces and functions of your body. It beats your heart, makes your stomach digest, makes your liver act and your bowels move. Furthermore, this subjective mind is amenable to suggestion, and when we say to it, while you are in a receptive condition, "Make the heart beat faster," it actually beats faster. When we suggest to the subjective mind to make the stomach digest well, make the liver more active, make the bowels move regularly, increase the functional activity of the kidneys, and relieve pain anywhere in the body, all while you are in a receptive condition, it absolutely does our bidding.

"Now, to illustrate this, listen to me. You had pain in your hip and leg. It is now all gone, gone, perfectly easy and quiet, is it not?".

"Yes, it is perfectly easy now," he replied.

"Certainly! Every function of your body, and all your sensations are under the absolute control of your subjective mind. Listen again. Your eyes are now closed, closed, stuck fast, under the absolute control of your subjective mind, while you are in a subjective condition. You can't open them, because I suggest to your subjective mind that you cannot open them. Try it, but you cannot open them, you cannot open them; closed, closed, under the complete control of your subjective mind, because I suggest that it is so. open them? Try it."

Can you

He tried with all his might; stretched the lids, wrinkled his forehead, but utterly failed to open them, and said, "No, I

cannot open them, doctor; cannot open them."

"Now you see the subjective mind has control. That is just the way it controls all your unconscious functions, and, under its influence, all the forces of your body are engaged to relieve and cure your disease. You are already better, getting well, feel well from head to foot. Now, you are perfectly easy and quiet, free from all pain, and when you wake up and leave this office you will feel good; feel refreshed, invigorated, encouraged. You will go home feeling better in every way; go away feeling better than when you came. You will walk better, sleep well to-night, the bowels will move in the morning. You will eat well, digest well, better in every way, and better every day, better every day, and feeling well from head to foot. Now, when I count five you may open your eyes and wake up. One, two, three, four, five. Open your eyes.

wake up. Do you feel easy now?" "Perfectly."

"No pain in your hip and leg now, eh?"

"None at all."

"Now you are getting well. Come every day."

He did come every day, and I gave him, in substance, the same suggestions every day, and as he gained in every way and the pain all left him, I used his improved conditions to verify my statements, and he was perfectly well in five weeks; sleeping well, eating well, digesting well, every function of the body in perfect harmony one with another, free from all pain, and well from head to foot.

In two days after he commenced the treatment his doubts and fears were all gone, faith and hope had taken their place, and he was able to realize the truths we told him; never doubted us for one moment, and he improved rapidly without intermission. GEO. C. PITZER, M.D. 3955 West Belle Place, St. Louis, Mo.

HHHH

Circumcision or Dilatation. Which? How?

Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-It is an old adage that "misfortunes never come singly." Something of this "following after" often obtains in medical practice. Ailments frequently come in groups. Today you have a case the like of which you have not seen perhaps in months or years; to-morrow and within a few days, comes a succession of similar cases. At one time