had succeeded in terrorizing Congress derstand a woman, and the amazing results into the belief that the women of the in the liquor votes rather strengthen that country were in favor of the exclusion of view. To be sure the women in favor beer from the soldier's club, and that any- of liquor might be expressing their ideas one who opposed them would be retired by votes, and those opposed might be stayfrom public life. A small section of the ing home, but there is no evidence of it, W. C. T. U.-a noisy, hysterical, un- though such was predicted. Another balanced section-were taken as represent- startling result is the realization that the ative of the vast majority of normal women who can use liquor without abusing women who never said anything in pub- it—the vast majority of them, by the way— lic, but who resented being grouped with have served notice that they do not propose Carrie Nation, and are now expressing to sacrifice their own comfort to keep their ideas by votes. As suffrage seems liquor from the few who do abuse it and to be spreading very rapidly in spite of are often not worth saving. This may be the criminal conduct of a few of the Eng- selfish, even cruel, but it seems to be a lish fanatics, our congressmen are facing fact and shows that we may confidently a curious dilemma. If they vote to restore expect them to do the unexpected. They beer to the canteen and thus deal a death have always done that, and yet the world. blow to the groggeries around army posts, moves on regardless. It will move on the and lessen the accompanying evils, they same after they get votes, unless we are are sure to receive some unbalanced woefully in error. Perhaps it may move a criticism from the extremists, but if they little better if they are able to check the do not restore beer, they are sure to be fanatics, for we hear less of unwise acts driven from public life in every place of the W. C. T. U. since their suicidal atwhere women have votes. The wide diftack on the army canteen. It seems as ferences of opinion which are being ex- though workers were going into other lines pressed as to the relative good and evil of activity antituberculosis, settlement of beer or no beer, make an outsider hesi- centers, and what not-whereas the W. C. tate as to which to advocate from a pure- T. U. was once the only outlet for restless ly sanitary side, or which plan offers the souls bursting to do good. Dickens showed fewer temptations to these soldiersus long ago that the Anglo-Saxon is not mostly mere boys. We are now merely happy unless he is interested in some socalling attention to the fact that the can- ciety for the abolition of something, someteen law was contrary to the wishes of where. It's in our blood. So why worry? the majority of men and women of certain places—probably of all the country-and The universality of tuberculosis is the is sure to be repealed if we can judge by legitimate conclusion from the most recent the character of the signers of the numerous petitions now being presented to Congress. Female Paradoxes Seem to be Normal. -We have long taken the stand that it is psychologically impossible for a man to un advances in the study of this infection. Children are born free of it, but begin to pick it up as soon as they begin to crawl. Tuberculin tests are said to prove that by six years of age practically every child is tuberculous, but the infection is received in such small doses that it really amounts to a perpetual vaccination, which makes everybody immune. It would probably be more accurate to say that every one becomes tolerant of the invader, rather than immune, for it is claimed that if post-mortem examinations are made with sufficient minuteness, one or more latent foci of infection will always be found. If children receive over doses before they have had time to acquire tolerance they invariably develop miliary tuberculosis, but the vast majority of them tolerate the invader and remain tubercular the rest of their lives. This is the reason why the infection is nearly always a local one. To be free of tuberculosis would be a disaster, for we would then have no resistance to the bacilli which may invade us in large numbers at any time. The cause of active tuberculosis must now be sought in something which destroys our tolerance, and permits our own lesions to develop. Chief among these causes are the acute infections. Measles and whooping cough have long been known as the starting points of tuberculosis, but now typhoid fever has been discovered to be the most potent of all the infections in this respect. Since attention has been called to it, certain investigators have expressed amazement at the frequency with which typhoid fever is found in the early history of consumptives. Pneumonia also is now. being recognized as a potent destroyer of our tolerance, it being a common starting point. In addition to these infections, anything else which lowers the general health, may thus interfere with that constant production of antibodies upon which our tolerance depends. We can definitely trace many cases to a long period of over work, alcoholic excesses, exposure to wet or adverse climatic conditions. Indeed anything which interferes with a perfect condition of health, may allow the spread of a focus of infection which we had carried around for a half century or more. Even senility itself may do this. Many men carry the pneumococcus in their mouths all their lives, only to be killed by it in the end, and we must now look upon the tubercle bacillus in the same light of a constant companion, harmless as long as we remain in good condition, but a malignant enemy the instant our guards are lowered. The harmlessness of the consumptive is evident if all these new speculations are correct. The ten per cent of the community who lose their tolerance, cannot possibly injure the other ninty per cent., and that is the reason why so few who nurse the tuberculous become consumptive. It seems ridiculous to object to the presence of a sanatorium, especially since the objectors themselves are tubercular, and may become active cases at any time. Moreover this calamity is actually warded off in the vicinity of sanatoriums through the dissemination of knowledge of proper ways of living. Fear of the consumptive is absurd if all the world is tubercular. The new idea is, that every one gets his infection in childhood and never in adult life. The early and repeated infections are really vaccinations which save us from miliary tuberculosis later. Were it not for this tolerance the localized infections of adults, who lose some of their tolerance, would be impossible. The discovery of the tubercle bacillus in the consumptive, before it was found in the healthy, was disastrous in one sense of the word, for it created the impression that the infection was always contracted in adult life immediately prior to the time. symptoms of activation appeared. We have actually taught the world to believe that the consumptive is a dreadful danger to the rest of us, and made his life miserable. An enormous amount of unnecessary disinfection has been done, and restrictions are placed around harmless cases. The few bacilli of the recognized cases are negligible in comparison with the myriads spread by the unrecognizable. Indeed the whole plan of the anti-tuberculosis crusade must now be reorganized. The prevention of consumption is now boiled down to the means of keeping in good health, and the avoidance of causes of bad health. Prevention is no longer the avoidance of infection, for we are infected already. General sanitation becomes infinitely more important than ever, for we now see why an improvement of the water supply and reduction of the number of typhoids, also reduces the number of consumptives. Fewer people have their latent tuberculosis stimulated into activity by a mild typhoid infection, than before the water supply was improved. We frequently hear young, healthy men state that the simple life may be necessary for consumptives but is too slow for the healthy. If we can convince every one that he is tubercular and may become consumptive if he draws too greatly on his physiological bank account, the antituberculosis crusade will be doing effective work. There is no question, then, but that we now have a most effective weapon in our fight against alcoholic overindulgence, and every other intemperate habit. The very fact that nine people out of every ten are able to keep their tuberculosis latent, in spite of all the adversities of life, certainly warrants us in asserting that the tenth man could have done likewise. The outlook for prevention is much brighter, therefore, than ever before. Our students of tuberculosis must now go into the history of their cases in greater detail, and let us know exactly what broke down. each man's tolerance. The problem of racial immunity is still unsolved. The children and adults of the lower races which have never been brought into contact with tuberculosis, do not seem to be able to acquire tolerance by the method of the white baby. A tiny dose whose only effect on a civilized child is to immunize it against a bigger dose, will promptly destroy the savage child. When the adult savage is infected, the disease is virulent in the extreme. The only explanation so far given, is to the effect that the civilized races were once like the savage, but that the crowding together, which began with civilization, eliminated those who were unable to establish a tolerance, the fittest for survival being those who could take care of small doses. The process was very slow as people were scattered, and there were few chances of infection. The evolution This ex proceeded by very slow steps. planation is unsatisfactory, as it fails to explain how some infants acquired this ability to tolerate the first dose, but it must suffice until we have a better one. The important point for our present purpose, is the fact that we now have the ability, and that we do get vaccinated and become tolerant. It is certainly a relief to know that we need no longer dread the consumptive, as we are all tubercular ourselves. It is a still greater relief to know that our concealed lesions are absolutely harmless, if we behave ourselves. Let us now place sanitation on a still higher pedestal, with a view of preventing every infection which might start our tuberculosis into activity. The problem of place infection now appears in a much clearer light. The consump tive has not received his infection from any house or sleeping apartment, but acquired it in childhood from some living carrier. "Consumption houses" which have been noted for the large number of inmates stricken, must now be considered as causing these, by reducing one's health through faulty construction or poor ventilation. Of course no one wants to sleep with a consumptive, or in a bed recently occupied by one-nor do we approve of indiscriminate expectoration. All these things are evil in other ways even if we do not get infection thereby. Place infection has disappeared from the field of practical sanitation. The wonderful improvement in prisons is not due to the removal of infection from new prisoners, but to the greater care given to the individual in order to prevent his tuberculosis becoming active, and to cure him, should he develop symptoms. There is a possibility that an adult might receive from a tuberculous companion, too large a dose for his degree of immunity. In fact we know that miliary tuberculosis in children is almost invariably contracted from close contact with a consumptive in the advanced stages. Consequently the tubercular are dangerous, but only by close contact, such as sleeping in the same bed. Even that sometimes fails to transmit the disease. Otherwise the consumptive is harmless and an infection in adult life is exceedingly rare. The return of tuberculin to favor is one of the amazing changes caused by the recent studies of tuberculosis. We are informed that more than half the sanatoriums of continental Europe are now using it in minute doses measured by the millionth of a milligram as a unit. They claim the cure is quicker, more lasting and with fewer relapses. The original mistake was in giving it in such large doses that it merely added to the toxemia of the patient and hastened his death. It is now claimed that the minute dose stimulates the production of antibodies. This seems to confirm the new theory that we all acquire immunity by minute and repeated infections in childhood. It may explain the remarkable results of carefully regulated exercises which release autogenous toxin, and it fully explains the cures following a change from a sedentary to an active occupation. Of course outdoor life must be given the main credit, but the cures seem quicker and more permanent than in the cases of men who give up all occupation. At least these are the claims made in England a few years ago. It does seem that we have made another step forward in the prevention and cure of tuberculosis, and a big step too. The lesson to be drawn, is that we must avoid doing anything to a man, sick or well, which will break down the defences he has been laboriously erecting all during his life against his own tuberculosis. Football injuries seem to be almost as bad as ever. Up to November 23, there were ten killed and 27 seriously injured, as compared to 14 killed and 43 injured in 1910, and 14 killed and 67 injured in 1911. The reduction of casualties is being loudly proclaimed by enthusiasts as proof that the game is not as black as it is painted, and that its brutalities are really being eliminated. Only ten young promising men have been killed! How many of the 27 injured are ruined for life may never be known, but it is significant that three deaths this year have resulted from the injuries of last year. Hundreds of thousands of spectators have been amused at the expense of ten lives. Ten young men were sacrificed to please a cheering crowd, and yet we loath the bull-fight as brutal. It is certainly evident that the game needs more reforming. Only ten deaths! True sport is never fatal to anyone, but beneficial to all. The mystery of seasickness seems to be as far from explanation as ever, in spite of innumerable theories. Dr. E. Schepel mann, a former physician in the North German Lloyd service, has quite recently published a very respectable monograph on the subject (die See Krankheit, Walter Rothschild, Berlin and Leipzig), and with characteristic German thoroughness. The work is one of the very few contributions to medicine from the mercantile marine, and would be notable for that fact alone. His bibliography is quite extensive as the literature is enormous. Unfortunately he has felt moved to add another theory. which, though quite complicated, is considered by experts to be as unsatisfactory. as all its predecessors. Those who contend that it is a reflex acting through the eyes are not able to explain why the blind are made ill, and the favorite theory of a disturbance of the semi-circular canals is equally objectionable because of the failure of special devices for retaining a horizontal position. The other theories range from cerebral concussion to mechanical disturbance of abdominal viscera, due to up and down motions. An amazingly large number of remedies have been proposed, mostly of dangerous nervines to stimulate or depress and their occasional success has led others to believe the cause purely psychic and to try suggestion with equal success. The cures by any drug seem to be about as numerous as those who get well spontaneously. Indeed, nothing is any more sensible than Erasmus Darwin's suggestion to become accustomed to motion by swinging violently in a hammock or swing a certain period every day for a week or so before embarkations. Brandy to the point of intoxication works as well as anything else, but upon sobering up, the seasickness returns to complicate the Katzenbe considered something of a joke, but as jammer. For awhile yet, the symptom will it may contribute to a fatal ending for an invalid whose nutrition is important, the need of temporary relief may be vital. It has recently been observed that a person immersed in a salt water bath on a badly rolling ship, loses all sense of the ship's motion. The boat seems to be steady and only the water to move. Perhaps in desperate cases such a bath might give relief for some hours and perhaps effect a We suggest it to physicians who ocean voyages. Everything else cure. make fails. Dr. Wiley's Successor. For some time. past conjecture has been rife concerning the probable successor of Dr. Wiley. Dr. Doolittle has been performing the duties of the position temporarily since Dr. Wiley's resignation with a degree of activity and thoroughness that has not only belied the unkind prophesies the punsters have been prone to make on his name, but has led to the rather general expectation that his appointment would sooner or later be made permanent. Some little surprise was felt, therefore, when the announcement was given out that the President had appointed Dr. Carl L. Alsberg as chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture. Dr. Alsberg was a comparatively unknown man to the people generally, but on |