been but few, but they were all great menAristotle, Pliny, John Ray, Linnaeus and Asa Gray. It is interesting to observe that three of these five botanists were physicians, and two of these physicians were the greatest scientists of their respective centuries. But the greatness of these men was not manifested alone in botany, they were naturalists and pioneers in the field of zoology as well. Had they been living at the time of the birth of bacteriology, it is doubtful if it ever would have departed from botany. But the parting came. Bacteriology has grown towards humanity, and has become of infinite, practical, every-day usefulness to mankind. Botany is still the aloof, genteel, aesthetic science. For the bacteriologist the suffering and dying beckon on. For the botanist the flowers in the meadows nod their heads, the pine trees sing softly their lullabies, and the breezes of summer bear upon their wings the odors of the wayside vines. Items. THE SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE OF MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY IN SUITS FOR ALLEGED MALPRACTICE has been well illustrated in a verdict for the defense in a suit brought against Dr. A. C. Loper, of Greenport, N. Y. This action was to recover $25,000 for alleged malpractice in the treatment of a complicated fracture of the elbow. The defendant is a member of the State Society, and was represented by Mr. James Taylor Lewis, the counsel of the Society. The case was vigorously prosecuted, and has attracted much attention. Since it has become known that members of the State Society are defended, free of cost, in these cases, actions of this sort are becoming less frequent, and are usually dropped as soon as it is discovered that the defendant has the Medical Society of the State of New York behind him and is involved in no expense for his defense. THE MEDICAL LIBRARY OF THE LATE WILLARD PARKER, containing over 4,000 volumes, has been donated by his son, Dr. Willard Parker, of New York, to the Library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings. COLON BACILLUS IN BUFFALO WATER. The Commissioner of Health of Buffalo has announced the finding of the colon bacillus in the city's drinking water. He urges that all water used for drinking purposes be boiled, and makes a plea for a filtration plant. TRACHOMA IN THE NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The number of cases of trachoma in the public schools of New York City is steadily increasing. It is stated that one-quarter of all the school children in Brooklyn are afflicted with the disease. The number of cases is so large that the hospitals are unable to meet the demands of the situation, and, although the Health Department is doing all that is possible, the situa tion will soon be a serious one unless new hospitals are promptly established for the proper treatment of these cases. THE CITY OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, has shown what can be done to preserve children under five years of age. Dr. George W. Goler, the Health Officer whose labors in the the interest of clean milk for that municipality have attracted wide attention, presents the following significant figures involving children of this age: Total deaths, 18881896, were 6,629; total deaths, 1897-1905, were 4,403; total deaths, July and August, during first period, 2,005; total deaths, July and August, during second period, 1,000. THE SUPPRESSION OF ILLEGAL PRACTICE IN ORANGE COUNTY.-Through the efforts of Dr. L. R. Pierce, of the Orange County Medical Society, a medical pretender who has practiced unmolested for many years, and who has even signed a certificate of death, has been indicted. and placed in jail in Newbugh for practicing medicine without license or qualifications. This offender belongs to the cult of charlatans who give medicine and electricity, but evade the law. by not charging for the medicine. NEW YORK SKIN AND CANCER HOSPITAL.— The governors of the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, Second Avenue, corner 19th Street, announce that Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley will give an eighth series of "Clinical Lectures on Diseases of the Skin" in the out-patient hall of the hospital on Wednesday afternoons, commencing November 7, 1906, at 4.15 o'clock. The course will be free to the medical profession. THE MANHATTAN EYE, EAR AND THROAT HOSPITAL opened its new hospital building at Sixty-fourth Street, between Second and Third Avenues, New York, and held an opening reception on October 13. HARVEY SOCIETY LECTURES.-The second annual course of lectures under the auspices of the Harvey Society of New York City will be given in the lecture hall of the Academy of Medicine on Saturday evenings at 8.30. The first lecture will be given on October 20. The lectures will be open to the public and all who may be interested are invited to attend. The following program has been arranged: Oct. 20: Prof. A. E. Wright, London, "Theraapeutic Inoculation with Bacterial Vaccines." Nov. 3: Prof. C. A. Herter, New York, "The Common Bacterial Infections of the Digestive Tract and the Intoxications Arising from Them." Nov. 17: Prof. W. T. Porter, Boston, "Vasomotor Reflexes." Dec. 1 Prof. T. G. Adami, Montreal, "The Myelins and Potential Fluid Crystals of the Body." Dec. 15: Dr. S. T. Meltzer, New York, "The Factors of Safety in Animal Structure and Animal Economy." Jan. 12: Prof. F. G. Benedict, Middletown, Conn., "Metabolism During Fasting." Jan. 26: Prof. E. B. Wilson, New York, "Recent Studies of Heredity." Feb. 9: Prof. G. S. Huntington, New York, "The Genetic Interpretation of Variations in the Genitourinary Tract." Feb. 23: Prof. W. T. Councilman, Boston, "The Relation of Certain Leucocytes to Infectious Diseases." March 9: Prof. Friedrich Müller, Munich, “Neuroses of the Heart." SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF SANITARY OFFICERS OF THE STATE of New York was held at Syracuse on October 24, 25 and 26. This meeting was addressed by a number of prominent men. Among the subjects discussed were meat inspection, adulteration of foods, the sanatorium treatment of tuberculosis, and water purification. Among the notable contributions were papers by J. L. Heffron on personal hygiene in the prevention of tuberculosis, by H. D. Pease on fumigation for the destruction of insects, by S. A. Knopf on the home treatment of tuberculosis, and by Herman M. Biggs on municipal hospitals for the tuberculous. DR. HORATIO C. WOOD, on account of ill health, has resigned from the chair of materia medica, pharmacology and therapeutics in the University of Pennsylvania. He has held the chair for forty. years. His resignation was accepted, and he was unanimously elected emeritus professor. VACCINATION IN PENNSYLVANIA.-In Pennsylvania vaccination is not compulsory. Attorney-General recently declared that parents cannot be compelled to have their children vaccinated. The teachers in the public school must not admit unvaccinated children, but when these children are refused admission to the school, their parents cannot be fined for keeping them out of school. TYPHOID FEVER IN WASHINGTON, D. C.-In Washington, D. C., there is an epidemic of typhoid fever. The state of affairs is rather surprising inasmuch as this epidemic occurs immediately after the completion of a new $3,000,000 filtration plant, the purpose of which is to supply the city with unpolluted water. It is believed by Dr. McGruder that the infection is due to a contaminated milk supply, but the district health officer, Dr. Woodward, states that this is most improbable, as the entire supply of milk shipped to the District of Columbia is regularly and systematically inspected by officers of the Health Department. It is important to learn the source of the present epidemic. THE CANTEEN QUESTION.-Lieutenant-General H. C. Corbin, U. S. A., in his annual report, published on September 13, emphasizes the dangers, both physical and moral, to the soldier who is forced to seek his enjoyment and recreation in the evil resorts which always abound in the vicinity of an army post. This is alone due to the fact that he is deprived of opportunity for social relaxation within the barracks. It is another evidence of the poor judgment of those through whose mistaken efforts the army canteen was abolished. BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT M. O'REILLY, Surgeon General of the U. S. Army for the past four years, has been reappointed to the same office by order of President Roosevelt. A NEW HOSPITAL IN WATERBURY, CONN.-A site has been purchased for a new hospital in Waterbury, Conn. The sum of $31,000 has been raised for the erection of this institution, which will be under the management of the Roman Catholic Church. TYPHUS FEVER ON A TRANSATLANTIC STEAMER. -A steerage passenger on the steamship "Cretic" died of typhus fever on a recent voyage toward America. The ship was held at quarantine; all passengers were thoroughly examined. and those in the steerage were detained. PRIZES FOR NURSING MOTHERS.-The City of Leipsic, Germany, has decided to give prizes in money to mothers who nurse their infants. These prizes are intended to compensate for any pecuniary loss which may be sustained because of the time spent in nursing their children, to encourage mothers in the moral obligation to the child, and to decrease the morbidity among infants. FOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.-A number of cabinets containing dressing materials and other appliances which may be of use in emergency. have been placed in prominent places in the streets of Leicester, England. These cabinets are locked, but in case of emergency they can be opened by breaking the glass door in the same way that some fire alarm boxes are opened. The installation of such a system in all large cities would be for the public good. THE BIRTH RATE IN PARIS steadily continues to decrease. There have been fewer children born this year than last in every district of the city save two, and this includes one district in which the population is increasing at the rate of three thousand every year. KILLED BY ANIMALS IN INDIA.-Statistics, published in India, show that in the year 1904. there were killed in that country by snakes and wild beasts 24,034 persons; 21,880 by snake bites and 1,195 by tigers and leopards; the remainder by other wild animals. THE NEW AMERICAN HOSPITAL IN CONSTANTINOPLE, recently established by Dr. Carrington of New York City, was burned to the ground. on the evening of its opening. The loss was It is $10,000, partly covered by insurance. proposed by the directors to rebuild at once. Medical Society of the State of The Committee on Scientific Work announces that members, desiring to present papers at the next meeting of the State Society, which will be held the last week in January, 1907, are requested to communicate with the Chairman, Dr. L. H. Neuman, 194 State Street, Albany, N. Y. November, 1906 Progress of Medicine. PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. EDITED BY HENRY L. ELSNER, M.D., DE LANCEY ROCHESTER, M.D., EDWIN H. SHEPARD, M.D., Instructor in Clinical Microscopy, Syracuse University. THE SALT-FREE DIET IN EPILEPSY. has, however, succeeded in obtaining from the tubercle bacilli a toxin differing from Koch's tuberculin, and this he calls "tulase." Its preparation, which is very complicated, consists in treatment of the bacilli with chloral. Intravenous and subcutaneous injections, as well as introduction into the stomach of the tulase, produce at once, as Behring asserts, anti-tuberculous immunity and hypersensibility to Koch's tuberculin. Behring calls attention to the fact that it was four years after antidiphtheritic serum was discovered before the remedy was placed at the dis Italian physicians have made a study of the posal of practitioners. It cannot yet be stated influence of the salt-free diet and the reduced salt diet in the treatment of epilepsy. Their conclusions, quoted in the Practitioner, are to the effect that the salt-free diet notably diminishes in all epileptics the number and violence of attacks; in some cases they were kept away for months. The reduced salt diet only diminishes the number of fits. To reduce their violence and number to any extent it was only necessary to give, at the same time, small doses of bromide. In the milder forms of epilepsy the salt-free diet is sufficient to diminish and even to suppress the disease for a long time, but in the more severe forms bromides must be given as well. A saltfree diet by itself or in combination with bromides, even when kept up for some years, does not produce on the patients any disturbance of the general condition, either of body or mind.-Revue de Therapeutique Medico-Chirurgicale, June 15, 1906. THE IMMUNIZATION TREATMENT OF TUBERCULOSIS. In Marburg on August 14, Prof. Von Behring delivered to a party of eminent French physicians an address on the immunizing treatment as applied to tuberculosis in which, though he does not describe his new treatment, he does, however, indicate the scientific theory upon which it is founded. He enumerates the three methods of immunization. First is that by vaccination, in which inoculation is made by organisms, the virulence of which is attenuated. The second method is not carried out by the living virus, but by the toxin produced by the virus. It is upon this method that the tuberculin treatment of Koch is founded. The third manner of immunizing is serum-therapeutic immunization, such as is applied in the antitoxin treatment of diphtheria. The second method, which Behring calls "mithridatization" he distinguishes as "active immunization," and the serum-therapeutic method as "passive immunization." The serum-therapeutic method is shorter and less dangerous than "active immunization," but in treating tuberculosis at present there is little indication of success in this direction. Active immunization, Behring believes, must therefore necessarily be the preferable method of treatment for tuberculosis. Behring's treatment is based upon the same method of immunization as that of Koch. He exactly when the new "mithridatic" remedy against tuberculosis will have been sufficiently tested clinically to give to practitioners.-British Medical Journal, Sept. 8, 1906. NON-SUPPURATIVE MYOSITIS IN TYPHOID. A case of non-purulent myositis accompanying typhoid fever is reported by Michalke, of Breslau. Purulent myositis in typhoid has been frequently observed, but the non-purulent type is indeed rare. This patient in the third week of the disease was seized with chills, the temperature suddenly increasing. The muscles of the left leg swelled considerably, and became very tender to touch or to move. This condition gradually subsided, to recur in almost a similar manner a week later in the other leg. With convalescence the condition entirely disappeared.-Medizinsche Klink, Aug. 20, 1906. ON THE CAUSES OF ARTERIAL HYPER- Theories as to the causes of arterial hypertension are numerous, and several are generally regarded as quite attractive and reasonable. Whatever other influences there may be which cause persistent hypertension there seems no doubt in any mind but that kidney disease is most active as a causative agent. A recent article in La Semaine Medicale, by an eminent French authority, Dr. L. Ambard, takes an extreme view, and permanent hypertension, according to him, results almost without exception from renal causes. The admitted exceptions are diabetes and Graves' disease, but in the latter the state of the blood pressure is not constant. Hypertension of renal origin, he says, may be divided into reducible and irreducible forms. The first occurs in subacute and acute attacks of nephritis, and runs parallel with the amount of œdema and albuminuria. The irreducible form is met with in atrophic nephritis, and is only temporarily reducible by such means as bleeding or the production of acute cedema. He recognizes also a mixed type corresponding to a mixed condition of the renal lesion. In the reducible form of hypertension the removal of the chlorides from the diet is only followed by a slow fall in the blood pressure proceeding proportionately to the disappearance of the œdema. and albuminuria, while in the mixed form it never reduces the pressure to the normal level, and, finally, in the atrophic form it is absolutely without influence. The high arterial tension in so far as it is caused by the contracted kidney, in the opinion of Dr. Ambard, results from the resistance which the circulation meets with in the kidneys. He attributes this resistance, not to destruction of capillary area, but to the loss of the glomerules which, according to recent researches, are so many little renal hearts playing an important part in carrying on the renal circulation.-British Medical Journal, Sept. 8, 1906. ADDISON'S DISEASE. A. Randall Short, writing concerning blood pressure and pigmentation in Addison's disease, draws the following conclusions: 1. The symptoms of Addison's disease are due to vasomotor paralysis. This is due to the absence from the blood of adrenalin, the normal excitant of the sympathetic nerve ending. 2. The pigmentation is due to vascular relaxation of the skin, causing exaggerated functional activity of the pigment cells. 3. The most promising line of treatment, on theoretical grounds, is the administration of vasoconstrictors of prolonged action. Digitalin has given good results in one case.-Lancet, Aug. 4, 1906. THE CAUSES OF APPENDICITIS. W. J. Tyson regards constipation as the most important feature to be considered in the prevention of appendicitis. Other etiological factors of importance from the preventative standpoint are septic processes in the mouth, overeating, too hasty eating, or improper food, alcoholism, weakened abdominal muscles, and improper posture during defecation.-Lancet, Dec. 23, 1905. ECZEMA DUE TO TOOTH POWDER. Galewsky, of Dresden, in treating eczema of the lips or cheeks caused by tooth powders or tooth washes, has often had good results by simply prescribing a tooth powder or wash without peppermint oil, which is the most frequent offender. Other irritating substances in individual cases have been found to be soap, formaldehyde, oil of turpentine, tincture of arnica, and even, perhaps, salol. Some patients are obliged to use only a simple powder, such as chalk. When the source of irritation is removed the eczema always heals rapidly.-Muenchener medizinische Wochenschrift, July 10, 1906. THE TREATMENT OF HÆMOPTYSIS. In the treatment of hæmoptysis, Lawrason Brown, resident physician at the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium at Saranac Lake, suggests that the blood pressure be frequently observed, that morphine be used when necessary to quiet the patient and so equalize the blood pressure; that sodium nitrite be used when necessary to reduce the blood pressure, and that in a case of sudden hæmoptysis amyl nitrite be administered at once when possible to produce a sudden fall of blood pressure and aid in at least a temporary cessation of the hemorrhage-American Journal of the Medical Sciences, August, 1906. PHOSPHATIC URINE. Phosphatic urine is discussed by Dr. Samuel Gee who says that nothing is more easy than to render the urine alkaline by the use of drugs, but to make neutral or alkaline urine acid, by drugs or diet, is difficult or even impossible, Urine of deficient acidity, and, therefore, turbid with earthy phosphates is, fortunately, a condition which is temporary, and does the patient no harm where there are no other signs of disease. It is a mistake that such a patient is passing an excess of phosphoric acid unless repeated volumetric analysis has proven that this is so. These persons tend to become hypochondriac when their attention has been drawn to the state of their urine.-St. Bartholomew's Hospital Journal, April, 1906. THE DIAGNOSTIC VALUE OF OCCULT BLOOD IN THE FECES. Friedenwald and Rosenthal, of Baltimore, have made some interesting observations on the significance of the so-called occult hemorrhages in the diagnosis of ulcer and carcinoma of the stomach, following out the work of Boas who first showed that by detecting minute quantities of blood in the gastric contents and feces, important diagnostic data may be gained. A very minute quantity of blood may be detected by the Weber guaiac test or the Klunge aloin test. Repeated investigation has shown that, with a diet free from meat for a short period, occult bleedings are never found in any functional disturbance of the stomach; atony, chronic gastritis, achylia gastrica, hyperacidity or hypersecretion. On the other hand, occult bleedings are irregularly found with ulcer of the stomach, benign pyloric stenosis and spasm of the pylorus, and are constantly found when cancer of the stomach is present. The constant absence of evidences of occult bleedings in the feces is therefore evidence against the existence of cancer. The authors present a case where this fact proves of value. A male, 64 years of age, presented himself for examination after having had gastric disturbances for three months. During this period he had lost 24 pounds in weight; he had nausea, occasional vomiting; pressure, pain and distention of his stomach. On palpation no tumor could be detected. Examination of his gastric contents presented an absence of free hydrochloric acid and a low total acidity. Frequent examination of the stools showed an absence of occult blood. The possibility of the existence of a cancer of his stomach was held in mind, but the continued absence of occult blood pointed clearly to the fact that this view was not tenable. Subsequent history of the case proved this, for after a period of a few months the patient had entirely regained his health.New York Medical Journal, August 11, 1906. November, 1906 Fig. 1. The aspiration apparatus: a, hollow rubber cushion; b, distended rubber bag; c, stop-cock; d, glass observation tube. (Cut by courtesy of D. Appleton & Co.) clearly. The end of the drainage tube, projecting from beneath the hollow rubber cushion, is passed into the empyemic cavity a proper distance, and the cushion (a) is placed in contact with the wall of the thorax in such a manner as to command equally the area surrounding the opening into the pleural cavity. The nozzle of an ordinary six ounce syringe is then inserted into the distal end of the tube (fig. 2) and the fluid withdrawn, followed finally by sufficient exhaustion of the air to cause the rubber cushion to fit closely enough to the chest wall to prevent the passage of air beneath it into the pleural cavity. stop-cock is then closed (fig. 3), the syringe removed, and the nozzle of the rubber bag while fully collapsed is inserted firmly into the open end of the tube, thus establishing aspiration so The ་་་་་་་ Fig. 3.-Collapsible rubber bag applied; thumb-screw turned; and bag in action. Glass segment shown. (Cut by courtesy of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics.) be tinged with blood. Fig. 4 shows the dressing complete. It is not always easy to adjust the apparatus to the chest wall so as to maintain an active vacuum for a considerable length of time. The use of adhesive plaster, of rubber tissue applied with chloroform at the borders, of wet absorbent |