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practically joined the old school or European party, if they will receive such a renegade.

This is the medical shibboleth; and it is utterly ridiculous for any member of the European party in medicine to claim liberality or comprehensive Eclecticism for his party, in the face of the fact that, whoever in that party dares to claim or exercise professional freedom, is promptly ejected from their ranks, no matter what his merits. The discipline is so sternly enforced that even Dr. Gross, at the head of the profession, says, that he would not dare to extend professional courtesy to one not under the yoke of the "code."

The expulsion of Dr. Gardner and of Dr. Bliss for being on friendly terms with homoeopathic physicians, attracted the public attention and censure over ten years ago. Public sentiment everywhere condemns this conspiracy. Sir Wm. Hamilton denounced the Scotch colleges for refusing degrees to graduates who believed in homœopathy, saying, "An Edinburgh graduate may now be ignorant, unable to spell his mother tongue, but he must not be a proficient, professing to think for himself." The British parliament thought as Sir Wm. Hamilton did, and compelled the colleges to give up this proscriptive policy as to their degrees. Archbishop Whately very justly condemned this policy of the schools as a narrow minded trades union. So it was regarded by Horace Greeley, and so it is regarded by the public whenever the question is fairly brought before them. The more we discuss this question, the more the public sympathize with us by learning our true position; for the old school barbarism still stands like the caste systems of India and Egypt; and it is but a few days since I met a thoroughly educated and highly capable graduate of the New York University, who informed me that he had suffered some professional injury by having his name excluded from the Medical Register, because he maintained friendly relations with homoeopathic physicians.

This system of proscription is the despotic system of the old world. Eclectic freedom is the American system; and it is the grandest movement in medicine since the days of Hippocrates, for it emancipates genius and stimulates every species of medical progress.

EDITORIAL NOTES AND SELECTIONS.

The first article in the present number of the MEDICAL ECLECTIC is one of great interest and importance to the profession. It is from the facile pen of Dr. Mulhall, a resident of St. Louis, who devotes his talents especially to diseases of the throat and eye. Dr. Mulhall is a graduate of the St. Louis College, and one of the few Americans who has some distinction in Europe; his career there has been remarkable for its successes. Upon leaving America, he went directly to Dublin, and entered the Ledwich School of Medicine. After two years spent in the university and prominent hospitals, he successfully passed the Royal College of Surgeons, and received his degree from that seat of learning. Leaving for London, he successfully competed for, and received the appointment of medical assistant to the London Hospital, the largest general hospital in the United Kingdom. His advantages, thus gained, are inestimable, for his wards numbered eighty beds under his immediate care. His usefulness in this great hospital was only terminated owing to his having served all the time allowable. With the sound knowledge that an earnest student gains through the practical English profession, he went to Paris and entered the Charti and St. Louis Hospitals, with attendance upon the private clinics of Fauvel, Maurel, De Wecker, Laudolt, Lallier, Panas and others. After a year spent in studying the specialities of the eye, throat and skin, he returned to London to receive the appointment to the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Chest-a most prominent position, and one eagerly sought for. Two years constant attendance upon an immense number of patients made Dr. Mulhall one of the features of the institution, and gained for him the hearty recognition of the staff. Having exhausted France and England, he went for a few years' study to Vienna, and entered the General Hospital. Herr Schröetter, hearing of his arrival, gave him a complimentary seat in his throat clinic-a distinction which had never before been granted. Dr. Mulhall's stay in Vienna developed greatly his almost perfect knowledge of these diseases connected with his specialty. Returning to London, he began private. practice, and was soon surrounded by warm friends and eager

patients, brought within his influence by his genial manner and great proficiency in his profession. After many years spent abroad, he had all an American's yearning for home, and returned to establish himself in his native city. Though Dr. Mulhall does not belong to the school which this journal is an exponent of, he is a man who thinks for himself, and his vast experience has raised him from the mire of intolerance, as it does every man of education. Ignorance and bigotry have ever gone hand in hand, and this feeling is perpetuated by the older men in the profession. But education, by its powers of discrimination, levels all creeds, and selects what judgment dictates. Go to any of the university towns of Europe, where you find the educated Americans studying, and their liberality would make the upholders of the code quake to think that they were so badly (?) represented. My privilege, as editor, has never been so dear as upon this occasion, when I have this brief opportunity to introduce my old friend and camarade to the Eclectic profession. R. S. N., JR.

ADVANCES IN MATERIA MEDICA.

Within the last year or two, the contributions to the list of materia medica have been large. Among these novelties, a few possess valuable therapeutic properties, while the greater portion are mere novelties or old remedies revived, which will be classed as worthless as soon as they cease to pay the unscrupulous advertiser who recommends them to the over credulous of our profession and to the public, by the most exaggerated statements of their wonderful virtues. To burden this paper with an enumeration of them, in our judgment, would be foreign to the subject. True advance is shown only after the agents suggested have been duly investigated by trustworthy and intelligent seekers after truth, and have been found efficacious in disease. Of such, I will briefly allude to.

Araroba, or goa powder, a Brazilian product, which came to the attention of the medical world through its efficacy in the Portuguese colonies, in Africa and Asia-places noted for the inveterate character of many loathsome skin diseases-as a remedy particularly for psoriasis. It has been examined chemically by

Professor Attfield. He discovered its active principle to be crysophanic acid. The crude powder, as well as its active constituent, are now well endorsed as valuable medicinal agents, and the range of its usefulness much extended.

It is interesting to observe that our common yellow dockrumex-that has enjoyed a certain amount of reputation among domestic remedies as a remedy for cutaneous diseases, such as ringworm, itch, etc., is found to be rich in this same crysophanic acid. A hint is here given to our country practitioners to utilize this indigenous plant in their practice.

Thymol-obtained from oil of thyme-has become a popular antiseptic and disinfectant. Perhaps no greater praise has been awarded to it than that arising from the fact that it is one of the few new remedies that meets with approbation in the pages of the National Dispensatory, last edition. As a remedy, it has the advantages over carbolic acid in its not being irritating or corrosive to the tissues of the body, and in possessing an agreeable odor; and it is said to be not inferior to it in its disinfecting property. These advantages entitle it to a place in our materia medica. An ointment of it (30 grains to the ounce) is recommended as a substitute for the obnoxious tar ointment, in all cases where the latter may be efficacious.

Ethylates of sodium and potassium, recommended by Dr. Benj. W. Richardson, of London, appear to be valuable caustic agents. In the year 1870, Dr. Richardson, at a meeting of the Medical Society of London, read a paper on this subject; and again, in the London Lancet (American edition), July, 1879, he calls the subject to the notice of the wider circle of medical practitioners.

Sodium alcohol, or sodium athylate, is prepared by simply treating absolute alcohol with metallic sodium. As thus obtained it is in the form of a thick, white product. It is a most convenient caustic. Laid on dry parts of the body, it is comparatively inert; but so soon as the parts to which it may be applied give up a little moisture, its caustic action can be observed. Its action may be developed so gradually as to be hardly perceptible, or increased, by the intelligent use of it, to the most potent caustic effect.

The sodium salt is recommended more particularly for general use from its being a milder caustic than the potassium salt.

For

practical use, it is recommended for destroying morbid growths that are not favorable for excision by the knife. It may be used either externally or by injection into the morbid tissues. When the pain is felt to too great a degree, or when its caustic action is too pronounced, it may be quickly checked by a few drops of chloroform, which decompose it into an inert chloride salt and an ether.

Dr. Richardson has used these ethylates repeatedly in his practice, with much success, and recommends them chiefly in three forms of disease, viz. : Cutaneous nævus, lupus, and malignant ulcer. The remarks of Dr. Lauder Brunton, before the Medical Society of London, and published in the Lancet, January, 1879, are very interesting in the report of several cases of nævi, treated most satisfactorily with this remedy.

(The following notes on the two new myotics, eserine and pilocarpin, and on the new mydriatic, duboisine, are kindly contributed by Dr. Joseph A. White, of Richmond.)

Eserine is one of the alkaloids of the calabar bean (physostigma venenosum), and was first introduced into opthalmic practice by Prof. Lagueur, of Strasbourg, in 1875. It is most commonly used in the form of a neutral salt-the sulphate of eserine. A one per cent. solution (about four grs. to the ounce of water), if dropped into the eye, produces contraction of the pupil, spasms of the ciliary muscle, shortening of the range of vision, and a decrease of the radius of corneal curvature. It is, therefore, a myotic, and its local effects are antagonistic to atropine and duboisine. Although it sometimes irritates the conjunctiva, I do not think it ever produces any constitutional symptoms.

As a local application, it has been used in corneal ulceration, more especially in the peripheral forms with tendency to perforation, in abscess of the cornea, in corneal suppuration following cataract extraction, in keratocomus, in commencing sympathetic irritation, in paresis of the accommodation, and in some forms of glaucoma, with very favorable results.

In keratitis, it has not developed any specific action, and in glaucoma has disappointed the expectations that were at first formed of it as a curative means in this affection. In the acute form, it has, in some few cases, seemed to arrest the disease; in the

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