etc., are in great demand at swollen prices; ment offers to send certain formulas, three and the doctors living in sections that pro- for $1, or nine for $2. The American duce these things should prosper with the Medical Directory shows that Dr. Stevens people in those sections. Collier's says that was a member of the A. M. A. in 1909, and the war has blown much of the value out Polk's Medical Directory gives a long list of the cotton and into certain other prod- of the medical societies that he is a member ucts. But cotton will come back all right. of, and he has been president of some of Remember, brethren in the cotton dis- them. Why does he stoop to selling formutricts, we have faith in cotton and faith in las to his brother-doctors? He must know you. If you can't pay your subscription that it is the pride of every progressiv docthis year, all you need to do is to say so, tor to help his professional brethren as and we will extend credit to you until the much as he can, for that is the way in price of cotton does come back. You need which the profession of medicin has been not do without The World in the mean- built up. Every leader in the profession time. Your credit is good here. But you has become so by giving more to his fellowfellows of the wheat and corn districts, now workers than other doctors were able to is your time to pay well ahead. Remember, give. Every meeting of a medical society is $3 pays for four years in advance. And an occasion for the giving of information our fund for the continuation of the sub- to the profession; and he is greatest who scriptions to unfortunate brethren is just gives the most. Then why does this Caney about exhausted. Old age catches some doctor seek to sell formulas to his fellowdoctors in poverty; others are reduced by doctors? Do the members of his numerous illness or other misfortunes. We fre- societies know this? Any medical journal quently get letters from such as these say- will publish these formulas to the profesing that they will have to give up THE sion if Dr. Stevens will send them, proWORLD. Successful brethren, flush and vided the formulas are any good, and Dr. generous, send a few dollars extra occa- Stevens will get all the credit that may sionally to keep The World going to those belong to him for gathering and testing who are unfortunate thru no fault of their them. But the chances are that they are no own. And this is a far-reaching charity, better than those well known to the profor their favorit journal brings a greater fession, appearing in the public medical satisfaction to them than anything else of prints. . equal cost. I am askt again about the Charles Truax But we are getting off the subject. Let Company, of Chicago, and their proposius get our minds off the war, which is tion. Mr. Truax is well and favorably 3,000 miles away (but its effects reach us known to the medical profession. He makes here for both good and ill). We are still a business proposition. He wants your doing business at the old stand. Let us trade. He offers co-operation. I believe do it in a business way, and get business he is honest. He knows the profession results. The war is always on against dis and its needs so well that he ought to sucease; and also against inefficiency in busi- ceed in any undertaking based on his exness affairs; and also against fraud and perience. He does not invite you to invest dishonesty, as they assail you on every hand, in the stock of proprietaries that you are seeking to filch from you your hard-earned expected to prescribe to your patientssavings. that is, make your patients pay the drug gist for; but he proposes to sell to you your The Alkan Gas Company, a natural gas own supplies for which you pay your own company of Oklahoma City, wants to sell money. See the ethical difference? He Не stock to one of our Indiana brethren, and offers you the supplies and the stock is perhaps the circular letters have been sent thrown in as an extra. That is, you pay to doctors in other states. They want to for the supplies, and when you do that your raise capital to drill for gas in Kansas. stock costs you nothing. Now I do not Perhaps they think that doctors are the keep posted on the prices of pharmaceutieasiest marks in sight. cals. I do not know Mr. Truax's prices, and if I did I would not know, without An Iowa brother sends me a printed inquiry and comparison, if they are right. . postal card advertisement from Dr. T. A. You ought to know, as you buy frequently. Stevens, of Caney, Kan. The advertise- Now, if Mr. Truax's prices are right, his "cure proposition must be right; for I have no tution. At present sixty beds are occupied by doubt that his goods are right. The way wounded from Antwerp. The staff includes Sir William Osler, physician in chief; Dr. Donald I see it, it all hinges on the price of his Armour, surgeon in chief, and Drs. Frazier and goods. Wallace, assistants. Soldiers are now to be groupt in the French No one knows better than I do how hard army, for convenience of marching, according to the length from the great trochanter to the ground it is to keep one's mind off the war and instead of height, as formerly. give normal attention to our usual work. Up to October 24th, it is reported that the But it is entirely legitimate to "trim our medical corps of the German army has lost 74 sails,” financially, to whatever conditions officers dead from wounds, 37 have been wounded, the war may bring. Both public and pri 13 are missing, 8 have died from disease and 3 are prisoners of war. In the medical branch of the vate finances have kept up wonderfully Austria-Hungary service, 8 officers have been well in this country during these war times. killed, 25 wounded, 1 is missing and 25 are inOf course, it is not our war, but any con- capacitated by reason of illness. siderable war affects the whole world now. Absinthe and other cordials cannot be sold in But we do not know how long our finances shops in France while war lasts, a prohibition that will bear the strain. There may be a break may become permanent. England also asks her troops to abstain from alcoholics, and so the noany time in the next few weeks, or in the drink movement spreads. next six months. Make yourself as strong, The seal of official disapproval has been placed financially, as you can, and keep strong. upon the tuberculosis brought to this Collect all the money you can, and keep it country in 1913 by Dr. Frederich F. Friedmann, of in bank. You do not know how badly you Berlin. The announcement was made at Washing ton, November 6th, by the United States Public may need it, and you do not know what Health Service in making public an abstract of the opportunities - real opportunities - may report of its investigations in hospitals and labora tories where tests of the Friedmann cultures were come to you, if you are ready to take them made. on. So be protected against calamity, and The report also says that the bacteria used for injection by Doctor Friedmann show be ready for opportunity. Don't be led to that the germ is different from varieties of believe that some far-away fake is a real tubercle bacilli known at the present time and that opportunity. I mean an opportunity to buy subject more susceptible to tubercular infection their injection into smaller animals rendered the something of which you know; as real instead of more resistant, as was claimed. estate or local bank stock, when somebody The American Red Cross has used up its $325,000 needs the money and must sell. If the relief fund and asks the public for much more. opportunity does not come (and I hope it Colleagues of Switzerland's renowned sanitarian, will not, for it would have to come thru the Dr. Schmidt, lately celebrated his twenty-fifth misfortune of someone else), you will feel year of national service with a public banquet and other observances. good when you have gone thru the war The Associated Press wires from Amsterdam, period without financial mishap, and with October 24th, that a medical journal published there money in bank. gives statistics concerning the losses sustained by the German military medical staff during the present war, comparing them with the casualties THE MEDICAL MONTH. in this same branch of the service in the war of 1870. Of the medical staff in 1870 a total of 66 Philadelphia's water front has a rat-killing cam men died. During the present war the staff has paign under way since June, so as to keep out the already lost 74 killed. plague. The death is announced, September 16, 1914, A retired French-Canadian doctor has promist at St. Louis, Mo., of Jesse Mercer Battle, president $50,000 toward the cost of equipping a French of Battle & Co., Chemists' Corporation, of that Canadian regiment for war services. city, long engaged in making noted popular remedies. Under an adverse court ruling general distribu There are in San Francisco over 1,328 hotels and tion of nominal quantities of opium and cannabis indica and their derivativs is still permitted in rooming houses which, with 600 apartment houses, New York City. represents a total of over 90,000 rooms with accom modations for nearly 200,000 guests at any one Four surgeons, 15 trained nurses and 10 motor time. In process of construction there are over 150 ambulances, with medical supplies and clothing for hotels and apartment houses that will be completed 3,000 men, women and children, make up the field before the Exposition opens, giving nearly 15,000 hospital unit in Northern France taken over from rooms more, and in addition there are thousands of the U. S. A. by Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney. flats and rooms obtainable in private residences. Surgeon-General Whitehead, in command of the With the purpose of making it as easy as possible eastern district, in behalf of the War Office, inspected for prospectiv visitors to secure accommodations the Queen's Canadian War Hospital, in London, at guaranteed rates the hotel men of the city have October 14th. The Anglo-Canadian Committee incorporated the San Franscico Hotel Bureau with has raised $85,000 for the equipment of the insti- a membership of over 350 hotels, rooming and apartment houses representing over 50,000 rooms. Guaranteed rates, from $1.00 per day upward, are thus assured. Support of especial hospitals in the belligerent European countries is a feature of present-day life in the U. S. A. An appeal to the Iowa State Board of Health for aid has been made from New Liberty, Scott County, where thirty-five cases of trichina are reported. The new $500,000 Baptist Hospital at Atlanta, Ga., is to have five units of one hundred beds each. The Wiener klinische Wochenschrift states that all students matriculating at the University, of Vienna are required now to take out an accident insurance policy for which they pay about 13 cents (50 heller) for the semester. The medical department of the California National Guard has been divided into a medical and a hospital corps. Every prisoner entering the state penitentiary at Joliet, Ill., after January 9th must undergo a psychopathic examination, in accordance with a system inaugurated by Warden E. M. Allen. Four alienists constitute the psychopathic institute and the convicts will be grouped under intellectual classification instead of being segregated according to nationality, color or physical characteristics. Surgeons who recall how inefficient were the amateur nurses in our own recent wars will appreciate the action of European surgical authorities who insist that only trained nurses can serve at the front, The number of applicants for admission to Johns Hopkins University Medical Department was much larger at the beginning of the present session than previously. More students turned away than were accepted-not on account of their lack of technical entrance qualifications, but because of a lack of room. The enrollment of students is limited to ninety in each class. Students, physicians included, from all countries of the Allies are now excluded from German universities. Dr. Caroline Hedger has been askt to go to Rotterdam, Holland, taking with her antityphoid vaccine sufficient for 10,000 Belgian refugees in Holland, where typhoid fever has already appeared. The Chicago Woman's Club has already contributed $300 toward Dr. Hedger's fund. The antityphoid vaccine has been offered free. Santa Monica, Cal., now requires that its mayor shall be a physician. Pollution of the Great Lakes and tributary rivers is becoming a serious menace to health, according to the annual report at Washington, December 18th, of Surgeon General Rupert Blue, of the Public Health Service. He points out that about 16,000,000 passengers are carried each year over the Great Lakes, and that more than 1,600 vessels use these waters. “It becomes apparent, therefore,” Dr. Blue declares, "that these inland ves play an important role in the maintenance of the high typhoid fever rate in the United States." An ever-growing list of American physicians route to humanely attended the European war sufferers includes no osteopaths or Christian Scientists. This ilk selfishly prefers safer quarters. The medical history of Missouri and St. Louis was shown in a recent loan exhibit at the St. Louis Medical History Club. A life-size portrait of Dr. Samuel Claggett Chew, dean of Baltimore physicians, former president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, member of the board of regents of the Maryland University for more than forty years, and one of the best-known medical men in the country, was presented to the faculty November 19th by the medical profession of Maryland. Germany's newest university, that at Frankfurt am Main, was lately opened with elaborate ceremonies. Paul Ehrlich is one of the twenty professors in the medical faculty. M. Georges Lecomte, president of the Société des gens de lettres, recently presented to the American ambassador most hearty thanks for the remarkable work of the American hospital in Paris. “The admirable attentions lavisht by eminent American physicians and surgeons,” said M. Lecomte, "and the devotion of the whole American colony has filled our society with enthusiasm and gratitude." The Allies prepared for 17% of wounded and sick; the Germans for 20%. Because of the new weapons and missiles the disabled amount to 35%. Here is seen why their medical service has failed in the early stages of the war. "Don't, when acting as a sickroom nurse, tell your patient about suicides, murders, sudden deaths, divorce cases and the harrowing details of surgical operations you have witnest,” said Dr. Wilmer Krusen, of the Temple University medical faculty, Philadelphia, to the nurses of the Samaritan Hospital, in the course of a talk on "Appropriate Literature for the Sickroom." "Read a pleasant story to the patient instead. Read to the sick person, but avoid yellow journals and lurid literature. Don't read things that are too gloomy or too exciting. Don't read serial stories, for the patient may be restless and sleepless after you have finisht the instalment." Dickens, Mark Twain and Frank R. Stockton were mentioned as the writers whose works could be used to advantage. In tuberculosis treatment New York last year led the states in the expenditures, with more than $5,000,000. Pennsylvania, second for four years, gave way to Illinois, which spent about $2,325,000, Pennsylvania's outlay being about $214,000 less. Massachusetts was fourth and Colorado fifth, expending approximately $1,533,000 and $838,000, respectivly. For Red Cross motor ambulances the London Times raised $2,000,000. At the meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, October 29th to 31st, a resolution was adopted that the board would accept for registration without examination in Louisiana all applicants from California who can comply with the rules governing reciprocity. The U. S. A. regulars had the lowest hospital record to date in the past year, typhoid fever being virtually stampt out. Alcoholism and malaria are also greatly diminisht, even tho tropical service was far greater than usual. were a en month. are received with ac ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS The Antispasmodic Drugs. Short articles of practical help to the profession are Among the antispasmodics we find the solicited for this department. following plant drugs: Belladonna, with its Articles to be accepted must be contributed to this jour- alkaloid atropin; cannabis indica, with its nal only. The editors are not responsible for views exprest by contributors. concentrations; conium, with its alkaloid Copy must be received on or before the twelfth of the month for publication in the issue for the next coniin; stavesacre and larkspur, with their We decline responsibility for the safety of alkaloid delphinin; dioscorea, with its conunused manuscript. It can usually be returned if request and postage for return centrations; gelsemium, with its alkaloid manuscript; but we cannot agree to always do so. gelseminin; henbane, with its alkaloids Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest pas. hyoscin and hyoscyamin; lobelia and the sible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will cer. alkaloid lobelin; bryonia and the glucosid tainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a down. bryonin; macrotys; rhus tox, and its conright fact may be told in a plain way, and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.- centrations; solanum and its alkaloid solaRUSKIN. nin ; valerian and the valerates; cramp bark READ REFLECT COMPARE RECORD (viburnum opulus) and its concentrations. The Future of Narcotics and Anti To these may be added the coal tars, several spasmodics. of which are employed either for their narEDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:—With the pas cotic effect or to overcome spasm sage of the Harrison antinarcotic bill there companied by pain. will now be a very decided check on those Belladonna and Atropin. employing opium and coca and their vari- While belladonna and atropin may not ous products. That this is right cannot be be accepted as true antispasmodics, they do questioned, as it has been a known fact act to overcome such conditions, and more that too many of these products, and more especially of the abdominal viscera thru the particularly morphin, have been employed determination of the blood from congested in the past. areas to the surfaces, thus relieving many Using Drugs That Are Indicated. painful conditions as well as does morphin or other opium products, and without the That morphin is indicated at times is beyond question, but that it should be in sequelæ which so frequently follow the lat ter agents. In fact, if we study this drug variably employed, in the face of an indication for an antispasmodic, is not rational , carefully, we will see that it is of use in many of the internal painful spasms. Unmore especially when those of us who have given much study to the question of applied atropin are not prone to produce habit, even like opium and her products, belladonna and therapeutics know that there are other tho employed over a considerable period. agents which better meet such indications. It is to be admitted that morphin will I cannot, within these few pages alloted me, act, and that quickly, to overcome spasm, in any measure cover the many indications but that is not an absolutely valid reason for atropin, as they are legion. If the drug why it should be invariably employed. We will succeed morphin in numerous instances. is given thoro study it will be found that it all know that, in addition to the effect mentioned, morphin acts to inhibit practically Cannabis Indica. all of the excretory functions, and conse- While cannabis has not been employed exquently produces a secondary condition, that tensivly, it is a drug carrying more or less of toxemia, and I believe that this last con- worth. In the older forms this agent was dition is more to blame for the morphin unsatisfactory, because of the fact that it habit than is the drug itself. It is the seemed impossible to get two lots of any "bite” of the toxins and not the desire for product of the drug exactly alike, with the the drug that usually calls for a require- consequence that the matter of dependence ment of the latter in the fiend. therein was low. A concentrate is now ofAs the Harrison bill, or rather law, will fered, of the combined principles of the undoubtedly to a considerable extent limit drug, which it is claimed is more nearly the use of the opium products, we must exact in effect and action. Combined with look elsewhere for our antispasmodics, and atropin, cannabis is of use in pain caused I believe, as we study the question, we will or accompanied by spasm in gastralgia, neuwonder why it is that we have not taken ralgia, gastric ulcer, gastric cancer, in irrithe matter up long since and employed the tation of the urinary organs, cystitis, gonless dangerous, but more effectiv, agents. orrhea, gleet and chordee, and alternated with gelseminin and pusht to full effect in gelseminin, the drug is again becoming the treatment and relief of metrorrhagia, popular, and especially in spinal irritations menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. Cannabis and in those instances where there is an is also of use in the insomnia of neuras- excess of blood being carried to the cerethenia. brospinal centers. It is indicated in every Coniuin and Coniin. case where there is hyperemia of either the Conium and the alkaloid coniin are of cord or brain. The eclectics give us, as use when we have spasm due to spinal irri- specific indication for exhibition of geltation, and is indicated in whooping cough, semium, red face, bright eyes with pupils tetanus, convulsions, strychnin poisoning contracted, increast heat of head, comand in neuralgias of nerves arising from bined with restlessness and increast excitthe cord. As conium seems to have a se- ability. It is indicated in neuralgia, dyslectiv action on the pulmonary apparatus, menorrhea, gastro-intestinal inflammation, it is of use in asthma, hiccough, aphagia, pains due to nervous tension, sciatica and spasmodic bronchitis and laryngitis; in fact, many other painful conditions in which in all of the hyperesthetic and spasmodic morphin has hitherto been employed. In conditions of the lower air passages and addition to being an antispasmodic, gelsemorgans. Coniin has also been employed inin acts to reduce fever. This agent can with benefit in chorea. Being more or less be employed hypodermically and very freuncertain of effect, coniin should not be quently, by this mode, may be employed as pusht too hard, and its effects should be a substitute for morphin. Gelseminin watcht closely. should be given more thoro study, as it Delphinin. has many possibilities. Delphinin is an anticonvulsant, rather Hyoscyamus. than a true antispasmodic, and acts thru the Henbane will probably, with her two alkacentral nervous system. It is indicated in loids, hyoscyamin and hyoscin, become more spermatorrhea, prostatorrhea, certain forms popular than ever with the subsidence in of incontinence and vesical irritability, but the general use of morphin and other opium should not be employed in the presence of products. Practically everything that is acute inflammation. If employed early in possible from morphin is likewise possible sciatica, it usually gives prompt relief, and from hyoscyamin and hyoscin and without has been found useful in hysteria and the danger of habit formation. Hyoscyamin chorea. meets practically all of the indications of Dioscorea. morphin and as it acts quickly, as a rule, Dioscorea is a drug which should be em when exhibited by the mouth, there is litployed with greater frequency, and espe tle indication for its employment hypodercially in spasmodic painful conditions of mically, altho it may be administered by the abdominal and pelvic viscera, where it the latter route. Unlike morphin, hyoscyaexerts a remarkably good influence. It is min does not lock up the secretions, but especially indicated in hepatic and intestinal rather favors their increase, and consecolics. Not only does it act as an anti- quently is not followed by a toxic condispasmodic, but in addition reduces the tion, other than that possibly arising from arterial tension and slows the heart. the drug itself. I have employed hyoscya min almost exclusivly to cover morphin inGelsemium. dications for more than half a decade, and Gelsemium is another agent which fell it has never failed me. I have also found into disrepute because of its uncertainty. that it may be exhibited over a considerable This was due to the fact that the drug car- time without the least desire for the drug ried two activ principles diametrically op- after its withdrawal. In hyoscin, the other posed, one to the other. One of these prin- alkaloid of henbane, we probably have our ciples is markedly antispasmodic, while the most powerful hypnotic and sedativ anoother has an effect similar to that of strych- dyne. In insomnia hyoscin produces slumnin. In the whole plant products, standard- ber of normal character, and does it quickly. ized according to the percentage of com Like its sister alkaloid, hyoscin does not bined alkaloids, either might be in the interfere with elimination. It is indicated ascendency, consequently the irrational in all cases of motor excitation and is freaction and effect of such products. With quently employed to overcome the excitethe isolation of the antispasmodic principle, ment and to secure sleep after the with |