THE MEDICAL WORLD The knowledge that a man can use is the only real knowledge; the only knowledge that has life and growth in it and converts itself into practical power. The rest hangs like dust about the brain, or dries like raindrops off the stones.-FROUDE. primitiv stage of our art. He must give The Medical World place to the man who studies the pathologic SUBSCRIPTION RATES: To any part of the United States or Mexico, ONE DOLLAR per year, or FOUR YEARS for THREE DOLLARS in advance; to Canada ONE DOLLAR AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS per year, or FOUR YEARS for FOUR DOLLARS in advance; to England and the British Colonies, FIVE SHILLINGS SIX PENCE per year; to other foreign countries in the Postal Union, the equivalent of 5s. 6d. Postage free. Single copies, current issue, TEN CENTS; previous issues, from TEN to TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. These rates are due in advance. HOW TO REMIT: For their own protection we advise that our patrons remit in a safe way, such as by postal money order, express order, check, draft, or registered mail. Currency sent by ordinary mail usually reaches its destination safely, but money so sent must be at the risk of the sender. We cannot always supply back numbers. Should a num ber fail to reach a subscriber, we will supply another, if notified before the end of the month. Notify us promptly of any change of address, mentioning both old and new addresses. If you want your subscription stopt at expiration of the time paid for, kindly notify us, as in the absence of such notice we will understand that it is the subscriber's pleasure that the subscription be continued and we will act accordingly. Pay no money to agents unless publisher's receipt is given. ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO "THE MEDICAL WORLD" 1520 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pa. No. 1 When John B. Murphy makes a statement it is sure to be received with the respect due its author. When the great Chicago surgeon announces that the day of the internist is at hand, it behooves us all to consider the meaning of its annunciator. To us it is evident that Dr. Murphy refuses to be bound by the laws of inanimate mechanics. To him the human body is somewhat more than a piece of machinery. A wonderful machine it is, too, whose intricacy, whose adaptability we are just beginning to comprehend; but a machine endowed with vitality, with passions, emotions, volition. The surgeon who takes out a calculus and imagins he has cured the disease and restored health, represents an early and processes leading to the formation of the calculus, and the means of reversing them. This means an ever-increasing impetus to the study of physiology. The anatomist has done his work; the histologist has revealed the innermost secrets of our mechanism. The most promising student at our colleges has been he who, neglecting all else, devoted himself to mastering his anatomy. But Now, the dead and embalmed subject of the dissecting room must give place to the living, breathing, sentient human being endowed with life, with senses and sentiment, passions and appetites, needs and the will to secure their fulfilment. Of the ancient Buddhistic concept of man, we have mastered the first, the material, Rupa. above Rupa rise Jiva, Linga, Kama, Manas, Buddha, until we contemplate in Atmi that emanation from the divine that illuminates and gives meaning to the soul, the Ego. We shift from the dissecting room to the physiologic laboratory and to the clinic rooms. We study men alive and in health, until we are ready to recognize any diverOur conception gence from the standard. of the rôle of the physician is illustrated by a story told by the late Peter D. Kyser. While contemplating a case in which he was profoundly interested, he fell asleep. In a dream he saw the patient, as if his body were transparent. All the processes of life were unveiled to his view-the blood coursed thru the vessels, the glands elaborated their secretions, the lungs interchanged the gases, the nerves flashed their messages to the brain centers and received back its commands. In one part of the mechanism there was a derangement, and the sleeper noted that this was not the disorder he had diagnosed. He awoke, and imprest by the dream he hastened to the bedside of his patient, and found he had been mistaken and that his dream-diagnosis was correct. How many of us have so consummate a knowledge of human physiology that we could dream such a dream? That we could |