spicule of glass upon the surfaces. Small pellets of cotton,—especially gun-cotton, or small pieces of sponge, on a probe or in a forceps serve well to apply the solution, but these should not be dipped into the supply bottle, because they leave a portion of their decomposed material in the bottle to damage the remainder of the solution, the solution being almost as destructive to cotton and sponge as it is to neoplasms. The round smooth end of a glass rod is perhaps the best means of application, and if the surfaces be well dried beforehand the application of a small quantity can be nicely limited and controlled. And by the application of small quantities at intervals of say 24 hours, thin and limited exfoliation of diseased tissue may be repeated to any desired depth, and the healthy surrounding parts be subjected to the least practicable destruction or irritation. Solutions of chromic acid are very powerful disinfectants and deodorizers even when quite dilute; but like those of permanganate of potassium they discolor everything so badly as to obstruct and limit their use to cases wherein other means fail. Chromic acid stains the skin and clothing very badly, and the stains are often almost indelible. Indeed, a very good indelible ink for marking linen is made from chromic acid. Diluted hydrochloric acid, in the proportion of about one part to two of water, is the best thing known to the writer for removing these stains, but it will only remove them easily when they are recent and not too deep. ACIDUM CITRICUM. CITRIC ACID. 3 6 5 7.1 H ̧C ̧н ̧O,.H2O; 210.—3HO, C12H, O11.2 HO; 210. 2 5 Colorless, right-rhombic prisms, not deliquescent except in moist air, efflorescent in warm air, odorless, having an agreeable, purely acid taste and an acid reaction. Soluble in 0.75 part of water and in 1 part of alcohol at 15° C. (59° F.); in 0.5 part of boiling water, in 0.5 part of boiling alcohol, and in 48 parts of ether. It is nearly insoluble in absolute ether, chloroform, benzol and benzin. When heated to 100 C. (212° F.), the Acid melts and gradually loses 8.6 per cent. of its weight. At a higher temperature it emits inflammable vapors, chars, and is finally dissipated without leaving more than 0.05 per cent. of ash. On adding an aqueous solution of the Acid to an excess of lime-water, the mixture remains clear until boiled, when a white precipitate separates, which is nearly all redissolved on cooling. If 1 part of the Acid be dissolved in 2 parts of water and treated with a solution of 1 part of acetate of potassium in 2 parts of water, the mixture should remain clear after the addition of an equal volume of alcohol (tartaric and oxalic acids). If 1 Gm. of Citric Acid be dissolved, without heat, in 10 C. c. of a cold, saturated solution of bichromate of potassium, no darkening of the liquid should be observed within five minutes (abs. of 1 per cent. or more of tartaric acid). An aqueous solution of the Acid should not be darkened nor be precipitated by hydrosulphuric acid (lead and copper). If the crystals have left, on ignition, some ash (see above), this ash should not turn blue by treatment with a few drops of water of ammonia (copper), nor should the further addition of one drop of test-solution of sulphide of ammonium cause any black coloration (lead, copper and iron). 10 C. c. of a concentrated solution should show no precipitate within five minutes after the addition of 1 C. c. of testsolution of chloride of barium with excess of hydrochloric acid (sulphuric acid). To neutralize 3.5 Gm. of Citric Acid should require 50 C.c. of the volumetric solution of soda. Preparation Syrupus Acidi Citrici. One or two points in the above description and tests are intended to be left to the common intelligence of those who apply them, and yet perhaps they may sometimes escape notice. In testing Citric Acid it is important to powder two or three ounces or more of it together, and to take care that this be not taken from the surface of the package, because large and pure crystals are commonly on the surface, while the smaller fragments, and those most liable to be impure, are by transportation shaken into the middle or lower portions of the package. Any one or two single crystals taken from any part of a package are pretty sure to be good, whether the average of the package be so or not. In dissolving 1 gramme of citric acid in 10 c.c. of cold saturated solution of bichromate of potassium it is essential to have the acid in fine powder, otherwise the time required for the solution interferes with the time stated for the test. Darkening of the liquid very soon takes place, no matter how pure the acid. The very best citric acid of the market, and of a quality entirely unexceptionable, will at times, if not always, show a discoloration and even a scanty precipitate by hydrosulphuric acid. But if the acid be good that precipitate is iron, and not either lead or copper. Even should it be a mixture of the three, and yet be in so small a proportion as to produce only a darkening by the test, the metals will, not be present in hurtful quantity. The test is, therefore, hypercritical. There are often, if not generally, traces of sulphuric acid present in the best obtainable Citric Acid, and although this is permissible by the Pharmacopoeia, yet still its test is hypercritical and will reject all the acids of the market, if rigidly applied. The final quantitative saturation test is a very good and useful one, and under ordinary circumstances is of itself conclusive. When the acid is dry and of good quality it will overstand this test by the amount of sulphuric acid present. GALLICUM, GALLIC ACID,-this The next acid, -the ACIDUM writer knows very little about. very clear and full, the description especially so. Is it derogatory to the professional character of a physician to advertise his art and skill, and his results, for gain, as other artisans do; or to hold patents on surgical instruments and medicines, -as he does on his books by the copyright,—as other artisans do for pecuniary profit; or to consult with his antagonistic competitors, rivals and opponents, either for or without a money consideration, or entirely from motives of liberality and humanity? And, if it be derogatory, is it so as a mere matter of individual good or bad taste, which should be left entirely, free to individual conviction,—and which can be wisely and safely left so,-or is it derogatory because it violates a moral principle and derogates a moral law, which, as a common law of general application and force, should and must control dissenting individuals even to the denial of individual claims to freedom of action? And, if it be derogatory because it detracts from, damages or annuls a moral law, is it necessary or wise to formulate or express in language the derogation; or is the law so universally known and followed, as the rule of conduct in the profession, that it is puerile and humiliating to have it expressed and recorded as a moral statute? Such are the main points under discussion, and it may possibly assist in their settlement to look at them from a point of view not yet assumed in the controversy except by natural inference. There is an idea,-perhaps a law,-by and through which all human relations are governed. In the very limited conception of Infinite Wisdom and Intelligence that can be reached by the highest degree of human intelligence, the ultimate thought is "the greatest good to the greatest number." This is the elementary basis and foundation of all law. It is equally the source of the Decalogue and the Golden Rule, and of all systems of religion and philosophy. Though never attained, nor fully understood, all moral and civil government is based upon it, and in the aggregate merely expresses the progress made in human affairs in reaching toward it. Through it the Creator has always ruled all creatures, and from it men derive their right and power to rule man. It makes right and wrong, truth and error, justice and injustice, and thus calls into existence the conscience, or a moral consciousness. It limits the liberty of the individual, if it does not deprive him of all individual liberty of action, by prescribing what he may not do. With what he may think, as a mere emotion of his individual nature, it may have little to do. But when any emotion passes into action and comes to affect others either as a moral or physical force, then individual liberty is virtually at an end, for it must yield to whatever stage of progress the time may have made toward "the greatest good of the greatest number." With some such line of thought let each physician scrutinize the issues of this controversy. First, the greatest good to the greatest number in the world,-in his country,-in the community immediately around him; and secondly, the greatest good to the greatest number in his profession. A large majority of physicians will probably find that it is by no means for the greatest good of the greatest number either in the community or in his profession that he should advertise his own or others' opinions of his knowledge or skill, or of their results, as other artisans may or may not do. That he cannot hold patents to gain money by exclusive proprietorship or monopoly of appliances which are exclusively or directly applicable to the relief of human suffering; while he may hold a copyright on a book which indirectly relieves human suffering by spreading his knowledge for the general good, of how he has found, or how he believes relief may be attained. The patent seeks to secure to him the exclusive proprietorship of his intelligence, experience and skill. The copyright seeks to spread as widely as possible the results of his intelligence, experience and skill, that they may do the greatest good to the greatest number, and the moral quality of the pecuniary gain in the two cases is easily discriminated. They will also probably find that the liberality and humanity |