rule, however, it publishes this morning the announcement of the Pasteur Laboratories' Rat Virus, in the hope that it may lead to the wise use of this virus throughout Central Kentucky, and may induce the readers of The Herald to inaugurate a campaign for the destruction of rats and mice. "It would save an annual loss of five millions of dollars to the farmers and grain men of Kentucky to exterminate the rats. Through that increase in the annual income of the citizens of the State there would be an added wealth of practically a hundred million dollars to the resources of the State. If every farmer, every housekeeper, every grain dealer, every livery stable keeper in the State would use a bottle of this virus within the same week, or even the same month, there would be a most excellent chance of exterminating the rats. "If there were sufficiently continuous use of the virus, and the rat-proofing of buildings in which grain is stored, and of all residences, it would not be long till in Kentucky the rat was an extinct creature, none appearing except those that came from other states brought in cargoes of grain, or along the railroads. "At one time the Queen & Crescent railroad inaugurated a rat killing campaign, induced to do so by the epidemic of the bubonic plague which was spread by rats in New Orleans. It would be well for every railroad to inaugurate such a campaign, educating those along its lines to destroy the rats and to rat proof their buildings. "It is estimated by the most conservative authorities that rats eat and destroy every year in the United States a hundred million dollars worth of grain and various forms of farm products. In addition to this they are a constant menace to the health of those in whose houses they live. Is it not worth while for the citizens of the United States to spend whatever is necessary to save that hundred millions of dollars a year and to remove that menace to their health? "If in addition to its other many advantages it could be advertised that Kentucky is free of rats, would it not be an inducement to immigrants to come to buy land? Could there be a better investment for the citizens of Kentucky to make than whatever amount is necessary to exterminate the rats that are here and prevent their coming by a never ceasing vigilance and by rat proofing the buildings." PATENT MEDICINES. The following very interesting editorial on Patent Medicines appeared in a recent issue of the Lexington Herald and will be read with interest by our practitioners: "In a very exhaustive and fair treatment of the subject, Wallace's Farmer tells its readers about patent medicines. Of more than passing interest is this statement: "Man, in his movement upward, passes through about four stages: first, the savage stage, in which he depends on the witch doctor or medicine man to cure him by magic. The second is that in which our grandfathers were, when they depended on herbs and roots which they gathered themselves, and the use of which, by long experience, they had found helpful in alleviating or preventing certain diseases. "We are now living in the third stagethe patent medicine age. The more civlized and enlightened portions of our people are gradually growing out of it, and learning that the best cure for disease is prevention. They are learning how to live so as to lessen disease by pure air, pure food, pure water and proper exercise. "The agricultural experiment stations are doing us good service by analyzing the various patent medicines, many of them advertised widely only a few years ago. They are telling us in plain language just what these medicines are made of.' "There is no doubt that the fraudulent part of the patent medicine business is either dead or dying. The people are coming to know more about disease, its causes and the proper treatments. Prevention is becoming a powerful- method in public health. Prevention is economic; it pays. With this fact thoroughly appreciated by the public, there will be less hold from medical mysteries, whether practiced by the patent medicine manufacturer or by the quack practitioner. There are many roots and herbs that will come back into medicine. The age of pills and tabloids and their hold upon the public is passing. Plants and their medicinal effect are to be reclassified and it will be found out as to their best form for medical effect. Serums, vaccination, and, finally correct living and sanitary protection are to take their place in preventive medicine. "A reform which takes active legislation to-day, is, frequently, to-morrow a common practice of the people.” ing from his room to his sleeping apartment, fell and when his family reached him, had expired. On the 21st day of last April, he had celebrated his 82nd birthday. Up to the day of his death, he was active as a young man. He had been the health officer of Adair county since 1878, having served longer continuously than any other similar official in the State. For many years he had been a regular attendant at the meetings of the State Medical Association. He loved his profession and honored it. He was a constant reader of the leading medical periodicals. He was a native of the county in which he practiced so long; was a devoted Christian and was ever ready with his presence and purse to do all he could in advancing the cause of Christianity. The JOURNAL honors itself in honoring the memory of Dr. Taylor and young physicians all over the State may well look to him as a model physician of the old school. THE LAW ABOUT SORE EYES IN The failure of a widwife in Louisville to use the proper preventive treatment for ophthalmia in the newborn, which is defined by the law enacted in 1914 as, "any inflammation, swelling and redness of either eye or of both eyes, either apart from or together with any unnatural discharge from the eye or eyes of babies" has been widely commented upon by the press, and the JOURNAL has been surprised to receive letters from a number of physicians who did not seem to understand this simple law. It is the duty of every physician and of every midwife, or when there is no physician or midwife in attendance, it is the duty of the head of the family or of a trained nurse, if there be one, to report any case of ophthalmia within six hours to the city health officer, if the case shall have occurred in a city, or if the case occurred outside the city, to the county board of health. And it is also the duty of every physician to report each case of trachoma diagnosed by him within five days after such diagnosis to the health officer. And any physician, midwife, nurse or head of family failing to make the report required by this law shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars, and persistent failure or refusal on the part of a physician, midwife, or nurse to make such report or to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of such disease shall be a proper ground for the revocation of the license to pratcice, after due notice. and hearing, as provided by law. It is important for the physicians of the State to know that no defense could be made against a suit for malpractice if a case of gonorrheal ophthalmia should occur in a baby in which the prophylactic recommended by the State Board of Health had not been used. The law requires that the proper preventive methods shall be adopted. The State Board of Health has passed a rule declaring that the proper preventive method in this State shall be the instillation of two drops of a two percent solution of nitrate of silver in each eye. This precaution will practically always prevent ophthalmia. If it fail, protect yourself and your patient from blindness by instituting prompt and proper treatment and making an immediate report to your health officer. If the family for any reason fails or refuses to submit to proper treatment, telephone or telegraph the State Board of Health and immediate steps wil be taken to protect the baby's eyes. We trust no Kentucky physician will be found derelict in this new duty required by law. Your county health officer can advise you in regard to a dropper in which you can carry the nitrate of silver solution in your obstetrical bag always ready for action. ILL EFFECTS OF OUTDOOR SLEEPING. A far fetched editorial under the above title appears in the November issue of the ordinarily excellent Journal of the Indiana State Medical Association. The author is evidently an otolaryngologist, and hitches the cart before the horse in a manner that would be amusing if it were not apt to be misinterpreted by a careless reader. If he had headed his editorial "The Danger of Illy Ventillated and Overheated Rooms in the Daytime," it would have been valuable; for the most serious cause of catarrhal inflammation of the upper respiratory tract is the over-heated and under ventilated offices and living rooms in the daytime. People are beginning to realize the importance of proper ventilation at night, but we have not emphasized sufficiently the importance of proper ventilation in the daytime. It is very rare that a room in which healthy human beings are rooming and working should be heated above 70 degrees and arrangements should always be made for frequent renewal of the air, but while inaugurating a campaign to secure this, let us not give up nor cause people nor doctors to have less confidence in the importance of open air sleeping at night. No one should expose themselves to raw and penetrating winds without a screen between them and the wind, but every well person as well as sick ones should arrange to get plenty of fresh air both day and night. A MEDICAL DICTIONARY. Every practicing physician needs a medical dictionary. The JOURNAL has been making a careful study of dictionaries recently with a view to being able to recommend to the practitioners of the State one which would actually render them the necessary service with the lowest investment of money. We find the American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, by Dorland, published by the W. B. Saunders Company of Philadelphia, to easily lead in practical value and low price. It is new and complete and contains elaborate tables. This is the eighth revision of this work. It contains 1,135 pages with 331 illustrations, of which 119 are in colors. Our readers will be interested in knowing that it contains 1,500 more terms than the next preceding edition. With a flexible, leather cover it costs $4.50; and with the same cover and thumb index, costs $5.00. The splendid work of the Saunders Company in getting out this practical Dictionary should be recognized by the profession, and every doctor will find it of immense value in his work. "MAY WE COUNT ON YOUR ASSIST ANCE?" The Indiana Medical Journal says: "When an exploiter places on the market a nostrum of no intrinsic value (excepting the bottle and cork) for which he claims virtues which it does not possess .. he robs the purchaser of his money and health, thereby becoming a thief of the most despicable order. Any medical journal printing the fraudulent claims contained in nostrum advertisements is an accessory to this act of thievery and the subscriber to such journals voluntarily assumes the position of an accomplice.' "A Brooklyn physician writes us," says "Cast your eye over the enclosed advertisements [from the Therapeutic Gazette] and then wonder at the nerve in asking subscriptions from the profession.' Almost the same mail brought us a similar protest accompanied by advertisements from the New York Medical Record, these differing from those in the Therapeutic Gazette in degree but not in kind. Another New York physician sent a collection of advertisements from the New York Medical Journal. Some of the advertisements sent us are of the rankest frauds, neither better nor worse than the fraudulent 'patent medicine advertisements appearing in lay periodicals-in fact, some are of 'patent medicines' which many of the better lay magazines will not admit to their advertising pages. We hope that our correspendents have expressed their views on the subject to the and what, doctor, may 'count on your assistance?' Is it the quack and the nostrum manufacturer? Do you want to be an accomplice in what the New York State Journal of Medicine terms an act of thievery'? Do you wish to assist in the promotion of Bell-Ans, Sal Hepatica, Campho-Phenique, Angier’s Emulsion, Bromidia, Tongaline, Sanatogen, Sanmetto, Kutnow's Powder, Phenalgin, Micajah's Wafers, Ammonol, Chionia, Formamint, Anedemin, Neurosine, Pasadyne, etc.? If solend your support to the medical journals that advertise them. If, however, it is the public -your own patients-that may 'count on your assistance,' then your course is equally clear refuse to accept from the mail, subscribe for, contribute to, or in any way countenance the journals that help to keep alive quackery and fraud-and let the publishers know why! The result will soon be evident. Do not, however, stop with this negative measure; it is equally important to sustain those journals which. without the backing of professional organization, have cleaned up their advertising pages and freed themselves from the blighting influence of the nostrum evil." SCIENTIFIC EDITORIALS. FUSS AND FEATHERS IN ANESTHESIA. The tendency of the past few years to bring into use an imposing array of mechanical apparatus, of paraphernalia elaborate and complicated for anesthesia administration, is now happily waning. True, certain methods of induction and of administration require mechanical apparatus, but the individual behind such apparatus is the all-important factor. For the successful administration of nitrous-oxide-oxygen, for example an instrument designed for this purpose is necessary; but such instruments have become less complicated in the past two or three years. And better work is done with this agent now than ever before, in, of course, cases properly selected for its use. The use of the word "automatic" as applied by the inventors or manufacturers to some instruments and apparatus for use in anesthesia administration, rather conveys the idea that the machine, straped or attached to the patient and started going, will then perform the human function of administering an anesthetic throughout. That the dosage of any agent can be nicely regulated, that gas can be conducted to the patient at a known pressure; that ether can be vaporized at a distance from the patient; this vapor warmed, and delivered at a pressure of so many millimeters of mercury-through a face mask for ordinary breathing, or through pharyngeal tubes or intra-tracheal tube, we know; but we also know that the human mind is fallible, and hence of necessity any of its products are fallible, and the apparatus which is "automatic" should be closely watched, for behind the equipment, and of most importance for safe and efficient anesthesia is the judgment, experience and ability of the anesthetist. Merely another case of the "Man Behind the Gun." No better resume of the present status of anesthesia has appeared than the article of Bevan of Chicago in the Journal A. M. A., issue of October 23rd. While most anesthetists will take issue with him in some of his conclusions, yet yet his sound conservatism throughout, and his evident preference for the greatest simplicity of equipment and technique that is compatible with good work and safe work, is reassuring and shows, as many other things now show the tendency of the pendulum to swing the other way. What this special work has needed of late years is a Joseph Price in its ranks, a really big man to discourage the use of a multitudinous array of machinery the principle use of which seems to be to "make it hard," and to impress the laity. It is not that we believe that many special methods of anesthetization have not a field of use, but that methods which have been tried and found worthy in hundreds of thousands of cases should not be ruthlessly discarded for others because the latter have a spectacular flash, and may impress our gallery that we are "right up to date." "Be not the first by whom the new is tried, Nor yet the last to cast the old aside." W. H. LONG ORIGINAL ARTICLES A STUDY OF THE SECRETIONS OF By W. E. GARY, Louisville. Eclampsia has heretofore proven to be a baffling subject to all investigators and has become known as the Disease of Theories, because of the number of theories advanced as to its cause. Practically all authorities are agreed that eclampsia is caused by an auto-intoxication or toxemia, giving rise to albuminuria, oedema, dizziness, headache, convulsions, etc. A majority further agreed that this toxemia is brought about by the accumulation of toxines manufactured by the foetus or placenta. Our present day treatment consists of emptying the uterus of its contents and elimination of the toxines by purgation, sweating, venesection, injection of saline solution, etc. According to Edgar, eighteen per cent of cases occur post-partum and forty per cent are not benefitted by emptying the uterus, making a total of fifty-eight per cent, which is conclusive proof in the mind of the writer that the foetus has nothing to do with the immediate cause whatsoever. When I saw a case of milk-fever in a cow the first time about seven years ago, I noticed the similarity of eclampsia, and have been watching all cases of milk-fever I have come in contact with since, collecting all the history I could get, in about eighty cases all told. In February, 1912, Healy and Kastle issued a bulletin on parturient paresis (milk-fever) and eclampsia: and the Internal Secretion of the Mammae as a Factor in the Onset of Labor. Their experiments consisted of injecting pregnant guinea pigs with colostrum from a cow suffering with milk-fever, and in later experiments from normal cows, producing abortion, hepatic and kidney lesions similar to the lesions found in these organs in eclampsia. Their conclusions that there was manufactured a substance by the mammary gland as an internal secretion to produce labor, and that this hormone or toxine was the cause of milk-fever or eclampsia, might explain the cause of milk-fever. which only occurs after parturition, but does not explain in the mind. of the writer the cause of eclampsia. Eclampsia occurs before parturition in a majority of cases, and often before full-term, even at the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. It does not seem possible that the mammae |