A PAGE OF LITTLE THINGS. IN connection with the epidemic of "la grippe," it is well to diagnosticate between - DR. M. CAZIER, formerly of Burlingame, cases of influenza-phobia and influenza. Slight Kansas, is attending the polyclinic in New MRS. ELIZA C. FARNHAM has given $10,000 to the library fund of the New York academy of medicine, in memory of her deceased husband, Dr. Horace P. Farnham. DR PRIEST, of Concordia, Kas., honored us with a hand-shake and some good advice during the past month. The doctor is a good questioner and knows when he gets the prop er answer. DR. LEWIS H. SAYRE, a son of Dr. Lewis A. Sayre, was found dead on a sofa in the reception room of his father's house in New York, on January 3, 1890. Heart failure is attributed as the cause of death. DR. A. W. SELLARDS, of Scranton, called on the mast-fed editor of the JOURNAL in January. Scranton is an important coal mining town, and the winter thus far, the Doctor says, has not been favorable to collections, although the physician's work goes steadily on. PROF. VAN VOLKMAN, of Halle, died on Thursday, November 28, 1889, at Jena. The British Medical Journal says: "In Volkman, Halle has lost its chief medical attraction, the German army one of its foremost surgeons, and the art of surgery one of its most brilliant exponents. "THE Medical Library Association of Chicago has been formed, and will put up a building for club and library purposes for physicians of all schools." The millenium in disorders, which last year were designated by patients as a little cold in the head, stimulated by the accounts in the daily press, this year assumed the dignity of attacks of "la grippe." And the self-diagnostician who comes into our office announcing that he is billious, now proudly raises his head and states, "Doctor, I have an attack of this new disease, can you do anything for it?" W. D. B. FROM fashion, or for some better reason, many surgeons are changing from corrosive sublimate, carbolic acid and iodoform to cremedicine is approaching more rapidly than in olin. The American Druggist gives formulas theology. for it in pills, powders, unguents, solutions. and injections. DR. M. B. WARD, secretary of the Kansas Medical college, and professor of gynæcology, THE neatest, pleasantest and surest way to left Topeka January 2, 1890, to take special instructions in this branch in Philadelphia. act upon constipated bowels is by the glycerHe will visit, New York before his return. ine suppository. Those of Parke, Davis & Co. are thoroughly reliable. The doctor has been taking an unusual interest in dissecting this winter in the home school of instruction and thus preparing himself for the superior advantages which a special training requires. DR. KAROLINA WILDERSTROM, the first Swedish lady physician, has begun her practice at Stockholm. She will give free consultation to the poor. Medical Education. matter of equipment great improvements museums and The object of a medical education is to prepare a man to practice the healing art in the most satisfactory manner, and, inasmuch as the healing art appertains to the whole man, internal and unseen as well as external and apparent, mental as well as physical, it is commendation. Doubtless these will be imobvious that the broader minded a man is, the more comprehensive view will he take of his patient. And it is the broad-gauge men who ultimately outrank all others. How can one be successful in practice who sees in every case of fever merely an elevated temperature to be subdued by antipyretics and fails to perceive in one case an abscess requiring drainage, in another an overloaded and abused stomach calling for emesis or catharsis, and in a third an intermittent fever waiting for its specifics, quinine and arsenic!! proved upon, and that too in the not far distant future, but they suffice for present needs. But, turning to the methods of instruction we fail to see those evidences of nineteenth century progress which late scientific methods of research and recently invented forms of apparatus would lead us to expect. True, there is a change taking place, but it is slow and tried with much misgiving. The methods in vogue now are still too much like those employed by our ancestors. Two hundred years ago books, newspapers Again, he whose attention is absorbed by and periodicals were far less abundant the large wound he is dressing, may, in his endeavor to destroy all possibility of germ development render the wound aseptic, but salivate his patient. than at the present, hence a good reason existed for ministers of the gospel, preaching two or three sermons, each an hour long, on Sunday. But to-day, as expressed in a recent No disease or organ can be treated success number of the Forum, many in the pews are fully, medicinally or surgically, without taking as well versed in theology as the pulpit, and into consideration the patient as a whole, and his office now is to expound some single truth, the physician or surgeon whose comprehen- to drive home a single precept, which can sive mind embraces the whole complex much better be done in a clear concise twenty mechanism without ignoring details is the truly successful practitioner. Looking at the matter from this point of view it is evident that the physician who has prefaced his medical studies with a classical and scientific course, will in a few years, have the advantage of his competitor who started in practice three or four years earlier without such preliminary training. minute address than in an hour's labored preaching. Likewise in the medical schools. a change is needed. There is too much lecturing, too little recitation and personal work on the part of the student. Of the topics brought up in the average medical lecture hardly one a week has the personal stamp of the lecturer upon it. They are all gleaned from text books which the student is expected to read and refer to in his after life, and how much better for him to study and recite upon them than to have them read off from manuscript. A general education at a scientific school or literary college widens a man's ideas and prepares him to treat patients, not diseases. In view then of the responsibilities necessarily assumed by every physician a thoroughly pre- Recitations would not relieve the instructor liminary education should be required by of his work, but they would enable him to every medical school as a sine qua non of ad- employ his time to better advantage by selectmission. Given this prerequisite and a willing the pith of the subject for fullest explaingness to do hard work in the line of medical nation while any original ideas could be givstudy on the part of the student, what should en in their proper connection. the medical school furnish? The ideal medi Lecturing induces note-taking, and because cal school exists only in the future. In the the student cannot discriminate between what is to be found in text books and what is origi- THE editor of the Journal of the National nal, he tries to take down everything and fail- Association of Railway Surgeons says: "We ing to digest the subject at the time it is cannot expect to bring out any new theory doubtful whether he ever will. Listening to and have old men accept it." What antiqualectures the feeling of personal responsibility rian has been hurting brother Stemen's corns? is easily lost for the lecture is addressed to the Some new theories are evolved by old men, class as a whole, and if the thread of the dis- as the action of Brown-Sequard's elixir, and course is lost there is always the consoling some old men accepted the Bergeon treatment. reflection, "I can read it up afterwards." But While minds trained to investigation by long. in the recitation this is not so, each one feels years of professional labor do sometimes err responsible, for each is liable to be called on in this direction, they rarely refuse to accept to recite and is impressed with the necessity a new theory unless it is too juvenile for exfor keeping the connection. perience, facts and science. Neither youth It is not strange that after hearing six lec- nor age are in themselves sinful, and there tures in one day, each of which required from must always be the new and the old. We four to six hours for its preparation, that the would commend to brother Stemen this quostudent should want two days' vacation to tation from Macaulay, who, in speaking of the digest the mass of facts. Clinical lectures are origin of the great English parties says: well supplanted in many instances by differen- "Everywhere there is a class of men who tial diagnosis made by professor and students, subject to each others criticism. But a certain amount of clinical lecturing is and will be desirable. cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and Laboratory work and dissection are taking forebodings. We find also everywhere another the position which their importance entitles class of men sanguine in hope, bold in specuthem to. Graded courses are being substitut- lation, always pressing forward, quick to dised for the hodge-podge of lectures to which cern the imperfections of whatever exists, disstudents of one two and three years standing in- posed to think lightly of the risks and incondiscriminately rushed through in former times. veniences which attend improvements, and Strange that this change was not made sooner disposed to give every change credit for being when it had been so long and so successfully in an improvement. But of both the best specivogue in other branches of learning, but the mens will be found not far from the common reform is still incomplete. Introduce the frontier. The extreme section of one class element of personal work, by interspersing consists of bigoted dotards; the extreme secrecitations and laboratory work, clinical tion of the other consists of shallow and reckquizzes and dissection and the student will re- less empirics." tire at night with a clearer mind, having fixed indelibly some few facts that will be of THE Leavenworth Medical Society met value to him so long as he continues in prac- January 8, at Dr. Bidwell's office. After some tice. He will require a ground work, a solid substratum on which to build his medical education. All that a three years' course can furnish is merely a beginning, and the longest most thoroughly active life cannot master the whole. Our duty is to construct a solid foundation and then build as much as our mental faculties will permit in the time spared from actual practice. W. D. BIDWELL, A. M., M. D. SUBSCRIBE for the JOURNAL. general discussion of "la grippe," in which the sentiment was expressed that if we have no epidemic influenza here, yet there is an epidemic influence with varying manifestation that is very noticeable. Dr. Carpenter read the paper of the evening on "A Case of Abortion," with exhibition of specimen. The fœtus, supposed to be six weeks' old, was most beautiful to behold, floating in a clear fluid, enclosed by a perfectly transparent pellicle. In the discussion of the case, Dr. Love stated that the action of black haw in As far as Completed. these cases was due to the sedative influence PROGRAM OF STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY, of the valereanic acid contained in it. Dr. Lane proposed that a pathological museum be opened in Leavenworth for the preservation of this and kindred specimens now scattered among the various offices in the city. Society adjourned to January 27. W. D. B., Secretary. An Eye Wash. A safe, cheap and good eye-wash is made by putting one drachm of the crystals of boracic acid into one pint of soft boiled water, keep in a cool place, and bathe the eyes with three or four tablespoonfulls of the medicated water, as hot as can be endured, three or four times a day, letting some of the fluid get into the affected eye each time. The above is applicable in almost every case of inflammation of the conjunctiva, acute, subacute or chronic. Lucky Kansas. First-Address by the president, C. C. Green, M. D., Topeka. Second-" Some Human Parasites," by W. D. Bidwell, M. D., Leavenworth. Third-"Crime, Its Physiology and Pathogenesis, and what Medical Men can do for its Prevention," by R. E. McVey, M. D., Topeka. Fourth-"Ununited Fractures and their Treatment," by K. F. Purdy, M. D., Wichita. Fifth-"Dilatation of the Cervical Canal for the Permanent cure of Dysmenorrhoea and Sterility with cases," by F. F. Dickman, M. D., Fort Scott. Sixth-"The Relation of Formative Matter to Disease," by J. S. Foote, M. D., Wichita. Seventh-"The Management of Surgical Injuries of the Abdomen," by A. H. Cordier, M. D., of McPherson. Eighth-" Pott's Fracture," by L. J. Lyman, M. D., of Manhattan. Ninth-" Recent Advances in OphthalmoloCompetent Russian physicians assert that gy," by D. F. Longenecker, M. D., Emporia. the sunflower seed is an excellent substitute These papers have been promised upon perfor quinine. A crude' tincture of the flowers sonal solicitation by the secretary and can be of the common sunflower (helianthus annuus) depended upon. Others have been written to made by filling a flask with the dry or fresh but have not had time to answer. There will flowers and stems finely cut, covering them be time for volunteer papers, reports of cases, with vodka (aqua vitæ) and leaving the tight- ctc. There will probably be no difficulty in ly corked flask in the sunshine or in a warm securing rates for transportation; the railroad place two or three days. It is used for malarial facilities to Salina are good. Hotel accommofever by the Russian, Persian and Turkish peasantry. The dose is a wine glass full three times a day. St. Louis Med. and Surg. Jour. dations ample-one hotel can accommodate Owing to sickness the final proof sheets of the last number of the JOURNAL were not corrected by the editorial committee. Errors occur in several of the reports which were not in the original papers. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE. THE out-door treatment for consumptives is the most rational. The patient should live out-doors. The Chamber-Pot. Needed Pension Legislation. The chamber-pot used by a woman during In a circular letter issued by the surgeonconfinement may be a means of infection, and general of the G. A. R., Dr. Horace P. Porter, should be rendered aseptic before use. P. J. he calls attention to some of the glaring deR., in a letter to the Southern Medical Record ficiencies in the pension laws, and clearly calls attention to this point by relating a story points out the improvements needed if justice of Prof. T. Gailord Thomas. Dr. Thomas is done those who "preserved us a nation." said: "A few years ago I was summoned to He says: "Whenever a war disability disthe country to attend a lady who was suffer- qualifies an honorably discharged ex-soldier ing from puerperal septicæmia. There was for withstanding the inroads of an acute disno apparent cause for this condition as far as ease, or disables him for or prevents him from, her attending physician could ascertain. avoiding a fatal accident, or incapacitates him Everything had been conducted with due re- for withstanding the shock of a necessary surgard to antisepsis, yet here was the fact of an gical procedure, or whenever under any cirinfection staring him in the face. I made cumstances a war disability becomes the overpersonal investigations, and noticed a closet balancing or determining factor in the causaadjoining the sick chamber. I examined it tion of his death, the war disability should be and found it to be one of those old fashioned credited with the killing, and it should be so pan-closets or 'whitened sepulchers,' fair stated in the death certificate." This is simwithout and foul within. This was the solution of the whole mystery. The patient had been in the habit of going to this closet during her illness, and at each effort of defecation the genitals had soaked up, so to speak, the foul exhalations from this chamber of horrors.'' Moral: The commode should be aseptic. Northeastern Kansas Medical Society HORTON, KANS., Dec. 16, 1889. DEAR DOCTOR:-The above society will welcome you at its next session at Holton, Kansas, March 4, 1890. Session opens at 10 o'clock, a. m. ple justice, and the wonder is that this defect has not been rectified long ago. Dr. Porter also calls attention to the fact "that the pension bureau is, considering the medical questions involved, out of all proportion in the hands of men who saw no service in the war for the union." The surgeon-general asks that efforts be made to have "early publication of a large number of volumes of the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion." That a medical man has served in the war for the union should be a claim the government should recognize, in distributing such valuable records as the "Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion." The circular calls attention to the necessity of more careful examinations of applicants for pen All regular physicians in Northeastern Kan- sions, especially of the heart. Many soldiers sas are earnestly requested to attend. PROGRAMME. Erysipelas-Dr. Linley, Atchison. L. REYNOLDS, M. D. Secretary. have some form of heart disease who have not known it, and are drawing a small pension for piles or some other disability, when the chief cause of their disability is a weak heart. Justice to the old soldier demands that a record of all disabilities should be made whether stated on his application or not. These are strictly medical questions, and should be of interest to the profession. CHEWING GUM is an elegant habit. How attractive its victims appear, especially when they chew" with their mouths open. We |