A section of the walls of our national capitol is decked with a painting depicting long lines of emigrant trains wending their way from the far east, over the mountains, down the valleys, across the plains, up the steep western summits, whence is seen the smooth Pacifie with its beautiful fringe of green shores; from that last high peak, the advance leader of the train looks back exultingly to tell the glad news and inspirit the coming line. The limitless expanse, the boundless resources, the rich scenery, the manly forms struggling against all difficulties, the cheerful, encouraged and courageous faces, representing all ages and nations with all the varied equipments of the train, are the groupings that, at a glance, foreshadow the foundation and rise of the coming empire. Around the margin of this picture are inscribed these significant sentences: "Westward the star of empire takes its way." "No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, But the whole boundless continent is ours." "The spirit grows in its allotted spaces; the mind is narrowed in a narrow sphere." These sentences assert the great truth, that the wide expanse of a continent, with the grand scenery of its mountains and its cataracts, its broad plains and its deep rivers, its rich mines and its dark forests, inspire and determine grand results in the nation's growth and progress. If, then, the scenes into which we are thrown and the objects upon which we spend our mental force will react upon our powers, influence the development and growth of our minds and character, how favoring the fortune of those who are born to so propitious surroundings. Can any calling in life, present a wider field or more tempting object to call out all the resources of the highest intellect, or the enthusiasm of the warmest heart, than the boundless range of sciences included in the legitimate circle of medicine? Let us accept the heritage and the labor offered to us, and each, in his place, occupy and cultivate and bring to the great storehouse the results of his toils; and what may we not expect as the rich product. Even the minute contribution of the coral insect, at last lifts the island surface, with its foundations far down in ocean depths, above the waves, in time, to be decked with verdure and bear rich fruits. If our labors individually seem small, yet their grand aggregate will litt the profession to an eminence that will solve all the problems of reform and progress. Surgical Applications of Carbolic Acid. BY P. S. CONNOR, M. D., CINCINNATI, OHIO. Respecting the "Surgical Applications of Carbolic Acid," much has been said and written, yet the real value of the agent and its modes of action are by no means well established. They only can do much towards determining the therapeutical importance of an assumed remedy, whose hospital positions enable them to contrast large numbers of cases similarly circumstanced, except in the single item of the use or non-use of such remedial agent. The limited experience that every one must have, who is only in ordinary private practice, renders any expressed opinion, based solely on such experience, an opinion carrying with it but little weight. Particularly must this be true when the solution of the therapeutical problem proposed necessitates an experimental seriatam elimination of a number of factors, that their non-essential character may be fully established. Any article of the Materia Medica that is used for everything, if it is not wholly inert, must have a definite limited range of therapeutic applicability, and with reference to such article, all experimentation and reasoning should be directed towards the accurate determination of what it can do and in what manner its effects are produced. Carbolic Acid enjoys an "extraordinary reputation," that, as Gubler has well said, "is less due to its proper value, which, however, is very real, than to the simultaneous efforts of certain of its admirers." It is not my purpose to specify in detail the several affections in which it has been employed, |