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etc., are in great demand at swollen prices; and the doctors living in sections that produce these things should prosper with the people in those sections. Collier's says that the war has blown much of the value out of the cotton and into certain other products. But cotton will come back all right.

Remember, brethren in the cotton districts, we have faith in cotton and faith in you. If you can't pay your subscription this year, all you need to do is to say so, and we will extend credit to you until the price of cotton does come back. You need not do without THE WORLD in the meantime. Your credit is good here. But you fellows of the wheat and corn districts, now is your time to pay well ahead. Remember, $3 pays for four years in advance. And our fund for the continuation of the subscriptions to unfortunate brethren is just about exhausted. Old age catches some doctors in poverty; others are reduced by illness or other misfortunes. We frequently get letters from such as these saying that they will have to give up THE WORLD. Successful brethren, flush and generous, send a few dollars extra occasionally to keep THE WORLD going to those who are unfortunate thru no fault of their own. And this is a far-reaching charity, for their favorit journal brings a greater satisfaction to them than anything else of equal cost.

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But we are getting off the subject. Let us get our minds off the war, which is 3,000 miles away (but its effects reach us here for both good and ill). We are still doing business at the old stand. Let us do it in a business way, and get business results. The war is always on against disease; and also against inefficiency in business affairs; and also against fraud and dishonesty, as they assail you on every hand, seeking to filch from you your hard-earned savings.

The Alkan Gas Company, a natural gas company of Oklahoma City, wants to sell stock to one of our Indiana brethren, and perhaps the circular letters have been sent to doctors in other states. They want to raise capital to drill for gas in Kansas. Perhaps they think that doctors are the easiest marks in sight.

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ment offers to send certain formulas, three for $1, or nine for $2. The American Medical Directory shows that Dr. Stevens was a member of the A. M. A. in 1909, and Polk's Medical Directory gives a long list of the medical societies that he is a member of, and he has been president of some of them. Why does he stoop to selling formulas to his brother-doctors? He must know that it is the pride of every progressiv doctor to help his professional brethren as much as he can, for that is the way in which the profession of medicin has been built up. Every leader in the profession has become so by giving more to his fellowworkers than other doctors were able to give. Every meeting of a medical society is an occasion for the giving of information to the profession; and he is greatest who gives the most. Then why does this Caney doctor seek to sell formulas to his fellowdoctors? Do the members of his numerous societies know this? Any medical journal will publish these formulas to the profession if Dr. Stevens will send them, provided the formulas are any good, and Dr. Stevens will get all the credit that may belong to him for gathering and testing them. But the chances are that they are no better than those well known to the profession, appearing in the public medical prints.

I am askt again about the Charles Truax Company, of Chicago, and their proposition. Mr. Truax is well and favorably known to the medical profession. He makes a business proposition. He wants your trade. He offers co-operation. I believe he is honest. He knows the profession and its needs so well that he ought to succeed in any undertaking based on his experience. He does not invite you to invest in the stock of proprietaries that you are expected to prescribe to your patientsthat is, make your patients pay the druggist for; but he proposes to sell to you your own supplies for which you pay your own money. See the ethical difference? He offers you the supplies and the stock is thrown in as an extra. That is, you pay for the supplies, and when you do that your stock costs you nothing. Now I do not keep posted on the prices of pharmaceuticals. I do not know Mr. Truax's prices, and if I did I would not know, without inquiry and comparison, if they are right. You ought to know, as you buy frequently. Now, if Mr. Truax's prices are right, his

proposition must be right; for I have no doubt that his goods are right. The way I see it, it all hinges on the price of his goods.

War and Finance.

No one knows better than I do how hard it is to keep one's mind off the war and give normal attention to our usual work. But it is entirely legitimate to "trim our sails," financially, to whatever conditions the war may bring. Both public and private finances have kept up wonderfully well in this country during these war times. Of course, it is not our war, but any considerable war affects the whole world now. But we do not know how long our finances will bear the strain. There may be a break any time in the next few weeks, or in the next six months. Make yourself as strong, financially, as you can, and keep strong. Collect all the money you can, and keep it in bank. You do not know how badly you may need it, and you do not know what opportunities real opportunities may come to you, if you are ready to take them on. So be protected against calamity, and be ready for opportunity. Don't be led to believe that some far-away fake is a real opportunity. I mean an opportunity to buy something of which you know; as real estate or local bank stock, when somebody needs the money and must sell. If the opportunity does not come (and I hope it will not, for it would have to come thru the misfortune of someone else), you will feel good when you have gone thru the war period without financial mishap, and with money in bank.

THE MEDICAL MONTH.

Philadelphia's water front has a rat-killing campaign under way since June, so as to keep out the plague.

A retired French-Canadian doctor has promist $50,000 toward the cost of equipping a FrenchCanadian regiment for war services.

Under an adverse court ruling general distribution of nominal quantities of opium and cannabis indica and their derivativs is still permitted in New York City.

Four surgeons, 15 trained nurses and 10 motor ambulances, with medical supplies and clothing for 3,000 men, women and children, make up the field hospital unit in Northern France taken over from the U. S. A. by Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney.

Surgeon-General Whitehead, in command of the eastern district, in behalf of the War Office, inspected the Queen's Canadian War Hospital, in London, October 14th. The Anglo-Canadian Committee has raised $85,000 for the equipment of the insti

tution. At present sixty beds are occupied by wounded from Antwerp. The staff includes Sir William Osler, physician in chief; Dr. Donald Armour, surgeon in chief, and Drs. Frazier and Wallace, assistants.

Soldiers are now to be groupt in the French army, for convenience of marching, according to the length from the great trochanter to the ground instead of height, as formerly.

Up to October 24th, it is reported that the medical corps of the German army has lost 74 officers dead from wounds, 37 have been wounded, 13 are missing, 8 have died from disease and 3 are In the medical branch of the

prisoners of war.

Austria-Hungary service, 8 officers have been killed, 25 wounded, 1 is missing and 25 are incapacitated by reason of illness.

Absinthe and other cordials cannot be sold in shops in France while war lasts, a prohibition that may become permanent. England also asks her troops to abstain from alcoholics, and so the nodrink movement spreads.

The seal of official disapproval has been placed upon the tuberculosis "cure" brought to this country in 1913 by Dr. Frederich F. Friedmann, of Berlin. The announcement was made at Washington, November 6th, by the United States Public Health Service in making public an abstract of the report of its investigations in hospitals and laboratories where tests of the Friedmann cultures were made. The report also says that the bacteria used for injection by Doctor Friedmann show that the germ is different from varieties of tubercle bacilli known at the present time and that their injection into smaller animals rendered the subject more susceptible to tubercular infection instead of more resistant, as was claimed.

The American Red Cross has used up its $325,000 relief fund and asks the public for much more.

Colleagues of Switzerland's renowned sanitarian, Dr. Schmidt, lately celebrated his twenty-fifth year of national service with a public banquet and other observances.

The Associated Press wires from Amsterdam, October 24th, that a medical journal published there gives statistics concerning the losses sustained by the German military medical staff during the present war, comparing them with the casualties in this same branch of the service in the war of 1870. Of the medical staff in 1870 a total of 66 men died. During the present war the staff has already lost 74 killed.

The death is announced, September 16, 1914, at St. Louis, Mo., of Jesse Mercer Battle, president of Battle & Co., Chemists' Corporation, of that city, long engaged in making noted popular remedies.

There are in San Francisco over 1,328 hotels and rooming houses which, with 600 apartment houses, represents a total of over 90,000 rooms with accommodations for nearly 200,000 guests at any one time. In process of construction there are over 150 hotels and apartment houses that will be completed before the Exposition opens, giving nearly 15,000 rooms more, and in addition there are thousands of flats and rooms obtainable in private residences. With the purpose of making it as easy as possible for prospectiv visitors to secure accommodations at guaranteed rates the hotel men of the city have incorporated the San Franscico Hotel Bureau with 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 were 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 vessels play an important rôle in the maintenance of the high typhoid fever rate in the United States."

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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.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS

Short articles of practical help to the profession are solicited for this department. Articles to be accepted must be contributed to this journal only. The editors are not responsible for views exprest by contributors.

Copy must be received on or before the twelfth of the month for publication in the issue for the next month. We decline responsibility for the safety of unused manuscript. It can usually be returned if request and postage for return are received with manuscript; but we cannot agree to always do so. Certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest pos sible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will cer tainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.— RUSKIN.

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EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-With the passage of the Harrison antinarcotic bill there will now be a very decided check on those employing opium and coca and their various products. That this is right cannot be questioned, as it has been a known fact that too many of these products, and more particularly morphin, have been employed in the past.

Using Drugs That Are Indicated.

That morphin is indicated at times is beyond question, but that it should be invariably employed, in the face of an indication for an antispasmodic, is not rational, more especially when those of us who have given much study to the question of applied therapeutics know that there are other agents which better meet such indications.

It is to be admitted that morphin will act, and that quickly, to overcome spasm, but that is not an absolutely valid reason why it should be invariably employed. We all know that, in addition to the effect mentioned, morphin acts to inhibit practically all of the excretory functions, and consequently produces a secondary condition, that of toxemia, and I believe that this last condition is more to blame for the morphin habit than is the drug itself. It is the "bite" of the toxins and not the desire for the drug that usually calls for a requirement of the latter in the fiend.

As the Harrison bill, or rather law, will undoubtedly to a considerable extent limit the use of the opium products, we must look elsewhere for our antispasmodics, and I believe, as we study the question, we will wonder why it is that we have not taken the matter up long since and employed the less dangerous, but more effectiv, agents.

The Antispasmodic Drugs.

Among the antispasmodics we find the following plant drugs: Belladonna, with its alkaloid atropin; cannabis indica, with its concentrations; conium, with its alkaloid coniin; stavesacre and larkspur, with their alkaloid delphinin; dioscorea, with its concentrations; gelsemium, with its alkaloid gelseminin; henbane, with its alkaloids hyoscin and hyoscyamin; lobelia and the alkaloid lobelin; bryonia and the glucosid bryonin; macrotys; rhus tox, and its concentrations; solanum and its alkaloid solanin; valerian and the valerates; cramp bark (viburnum opulus) and its concentrations. To these may be added the coal tars, several of which are employed either for their narcotic effect or to overcome spasm accompanied by pain.

Belladonna and Atropin.

While belladonna and atropin may not be accepted as true antispasmodics, they do act to overcome such conditions, and more especially of the abdominal viscera thru the determination of the blood from congested areas to the surfaces, thus relieving many painful conditions as well as does morphin or other opium products, and without the sequela which so frequently follow the latter agents. In fact, if we study this drug carefully, we will see that it is of use in many of the internal painful spasms. Unatropin are not prone to produce habit, even like opium and her products, belladonna and tho employed over a considerable period. I cannot, within these few pages alloted me, in any measure cover the many indications for atropin, as they are legion. If the drug is given thoro study it will be found that it will succeed morphin in numerous instances. Cannabis Indica.

While cannabis has not been employed extensivly, it is a drug carrying more or less. worth. In the older forms this agent was unsatisfactory, because of the fact that it seemed impossible to get two lots of any product of the drug exactly alike, with the consequence that the matter of dependence therein was low. A concentrate is now offered, of the combined principles of the drug, which it is claimed is more nearly exact in effect and action. Combined with atropin, cannabis is of use in pain caused or accompanied by spasm in gastralgia, neuralgia, gastric ulcer, gastric cancer, in irritation of the urinary organs, cystitis, gonorrhea, gleet and chordee, and alternated

with gelseminin and pusht to full effect in the treatment and relief of metrorrhagia, menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. Cannabis is also of use in the insomnia of neurasthenia.

Conium and Coniin.

Conium and the alkaloid coniin are of use when we have spasm due to spinal irritation, and is indicated in whooping cough, tetanus, convulsions, strychnin poisoning and in neuralgias of nerves arising from the cord. As conium seems to have a se

lectiv action on the pulmonary apparatus, it is of use in asthma, hiccough, aphagia, spasmodic bronchitis and laryngitis; in fact, in all of the hyperesthetic and spasmodic conditions of the lower air passages and organs. Coniin has also been employed with benefit in chorea. Being more or less uncertain of effect, coniin should not be pusht too hard, and its effects should be watcht closely. Delphinin.

Delphinin is an anticonvulsant, rather than a true antispasmodic, and acts thru the central nervous system. It is indicated in spermatorrhea, prostatorrhea, certain forms of incontinence and vesical irritability, but should not be employed in the presence of acute inflammation. If employed early in sciatica, it usually gives prompt relief, and has been found useful in hysteria and chorea.

Dioscorea.

Dioscorea is a drug which should be employed with greater frequency, and especially in spasmodic painful conditions of the abdominal and pelvic viscera, where it exerts a remarkably good influence. It is especially indicated in hepatic and intestinal colics. Not only does it act as an antispasmodic, but in addition reduces the arterial tension and slows the heart.

Gelsemium.

Gelsemium is another agent which fell into disrepute because of its uncertainty. This was due to the fact that the drug carried two activ principles diametrically opposed, one to the other. One of these principles is markedly antispasmodic, while the other has an effect similar to that of strychnin. In the whole plant products, standardized according to the percentage of combined alkaloids, either might be in the ascendency, consequently the irrational action and effect of such products. With the isolation of the antispasmodic principle,

gelseminin, the drug is again becoming popular, and especially in spinal irritations and in those instances where there is an excess of blood being carried to the cerebrospinal centers. It is indicated in every case where there is hyperemia of either the cord or brain. The eclectics give us, as specific indication for exhibition of gelsemium, red face, bright eyes with pupils contracted, increast heat of head, combined with restlessness and increast excitability. It is indicated in neuralgia, dysmenorrhea, gastro-intestinal inflammation, pains due to nervous tension, sciatica and many other painful conditions in which morphin has hitherto been employed. In addition to being an antispasmodic, gelseminin acts to reduce fever. This agent can be employed hypodermically and very frequently, by this mode, may be employed as Gelseminin substitute for morphin. should be given more thoro study, as it has many possibilities.

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Hyoscyamus.

Henbane will probably, with her two alkaloids, hyoscyamin and hyoscin, become more popular than ever with the subsidence in the general use of morphin and other opium products. Practically everything that is possible from morphin is likewise possible from hyoscyamin and hyoscin and without the danger of habit formation. Hyoscyamin meets practically all of the indications of morphin and as it acts quickly, as a rule, when exhibited by the mouth, there is little indication for its employment hypodermically, altho it may be administered by the latter route. Unlike morphin, hyoscyamin does not lock up the secretions, but rather favors their increase, and consequently is not followed by a toxic condition, other than that possibly arising from the drug itself. I have employed hyoscyamin almost exclusivly to cover morphin indications for more than half a decade, and it has never failed me. I have also found that it may be exhibited over a considerable time without the least desire for the drug after its withdrawal. In hyoscin, the other alkaloid of henbane, we probably have our most powerful hypnotic and sedativ anodyne. In insomnia hyoscin produces slumber of normal character, and does it quickly. Like its sister alkaloid, hyoscin does not interfere with elimination. It is indicated in all cases of motor excitation and is frequently employed to overcome the excitement and to secure sleep after the with

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