Dr. D. McLean now read a paper on the half hours which he can save from the "Clinical Observations with Practical De- day's turmoil, and looking out upon the ductions," especially designed for the aid of noblest of rivers and the fairest of scenery, the general practitioner. he thinks out the great work of his career. The attendance upon the meeting was Every year adds a few pages to the book, good, but less so than last year. Other and each decade shows that he may yet hope papers than those mentioned were read by to see his masterpiece completed." We have title and referred to the Publication Com- reproduced this little story to show that in mittee with instructions to publish. The spirit of the meeting was excellent; not a ripple disturbed the even flow of cordial good will every where manifested. The Detroit Lancet. LEARTUS CONNOR, A. M., M. D., EDITOR. IN The Country Doctor. one case at least a country doctor has obtained enough stimulus of fellowship and has found time to pursue studies, investigations, etc., far beyond most of those more favorably situated. With doctors, as with other men, quite as much depends upon the man as upon his opportunities. The master architect will build a comely monument of imperfect materials. So the man of large brain, large heart, vigorous body and earnest desire to raise himself in the scale of being, and to lift others with him, will find the means to attain his ends anywhere and under almost any circumstances. Such an one has no time to waste in grumbling about his lack of fellowship, or of opportunity, or even of time. The great want in the proessi on is not of men, but such men as love the profession, and show their love by doing with all their powers the work placed upon them. When a medical student, we were impressed by a remark of a shrewd observer of medical men. He said that he had never yet heard of or seen a polished diamond lying unnoticed for hours upon the pavement along which crowds were constantly passing. Nor had he ever known a doctor fitted for and trained to superior work but that he was readily picked up by those who desired such work performed. Very often have we recalled the remark, and never have we had occasion to take exception to its truthful N the "Annals of the Anatomical and Surgical Society" we find the following story: "Some fifty miles from New York city there lives a country doctor, whose gig has rattled over the stones and plowed through the mud of the vicinage for more than a quarter of a century. He still toils day and night at the vocation in which he has grown gray; he will never grow old He started poor; probably he is not yet rich in worldly pelf. Yet the success of his life is such as would satisfy the reasonable ambition of any man. The visitor knocking at his door will be welcomed by a broadshouldered, genial scholar, who takes his guest to his heart, when he gives him his hand and opens wide to him the portals of a mansion where simplicity vies with elegance and all domestic graces flourish in a Christian household. To have developed such a home were success enough for any man. But yonder is another and larger building. It is the fire-proof library and laboratory where ness. Neither polished diamonds nor skilled this man proves to the world, after a fashion workers lie loose ready to be appropriated of his own, that a country doctor has no by simply picking. Long and diligent search time for scientific purposes, no stimulus, no is usually required in order to find the one or fellowship. Here are thousands of rare and the other. Hundreds are needed just now by priceless volumes collected and arranged the medical profession. Those who desire to and mastered by this country doctor. How rise will heed the suggestion, will utilize to could he have found the time for all this? the utmost their available resources for selfBut this is not all. Up stairs, in a spacious culture and self-growth. Neither the city nor hall, cabinet after cabinet is filled with col- the country will help those who will not help lections of shells, of skeletons, of patho. themselves. Nor is it probable that those łogical specimens-thousands and thousands who neglect opportunity in the country will of objects of scientific interest, grouped, improve it in the city. Stop grumbling, studied and remembered by this country friends, one and all, and go to work. Do doctor. But this is only the by-play of his not forget that the best work done in this life. Year after year he sits at his desk in world has no relation to dollars and cents. "A Straw Editorial Indicating the Direction from a pharmaceutical college or have passed of the Wind." At the last meeting of the Michigan State Medical Society, held May 12th and 13th, Dr. E. P. Christian, of Wyandotte, offered the following, which was unanimously adopted: WHEREAS, The Michigan State Medical Society views with gratification the evidences that its labors for a more elevated standard of medical education have not been without reward, in the fact that all the medical schools of this State have made a preliminary examination and a three term graded course of study requisites for graduation; therefore Resolved, That we, the members of the Michigan State Medical Society, pledge ourselves, individually and collectively, to support only such schools as require for admission a preliminary examination, and for graduation at least a three term graded course of lectures in three years of study, and that we will use our influence to prevent students from attending any college with an inferior standard of preparation and graduation. It will be observed that the elements of education here endorsed are three: (a) A preliminary education; (b) three courses of lectures; (c) the logical grading of the lectures and studies. It is worthy of note that all the medical schools of Michigan have publicly committed themselves to the enforcing of the above requirements. At this moment we cannot recall a State containing two or more regular medical colleges of which the same can be truthfully said. But unless we are mistaken, the time is not far distant when all the respectable schools of every State will require at least as much as this, and many of them still more. New Medical Laws in Iowa. At its last session the Legislature of Iowa passed a law establishing a State Board of Health, and a law regulating the practice of pharmacy and the sale of medicines and poisons. The Board of Health contains seven physicians and two other members. Its duties are to look after the sanitary condition of the State, make scientific investigations, and obtain the satisfactory registration of sta tistics. an examination before the commissioners. Itinerant venders of medicine must pay an annual license fee of one hundred dollars. Respecting the pharmacy law, we are impressed with the belief that the Iowa Legislature have "put the cart before the horse." It has no care what fool or knave prescribes medicines if only he who follows the fool's direction be a learned, skillful and honest pharmacist. As the physician is freed from all restrictions as to the vending of drugs, etc., will not the law be the means of introducing the whole tribe of pharmacists into the ranks of medical practitioners? Perhaps they are already there, in fact, and the new law will only induce them to honestly state the fact. Concerning the first law we unhesitatingly approve of its general scope, and we trust that such members of the Board may be selected as will have a fitness for the great work, and exhibit an enthusiasm and energy which will make it more successful in Iowa than in any State in which such Board has hitherto been established. Memoranda. Dr. Sharpey, the distinguished London anatomist, died at his residence in London, æt. 78. Harvard medical school has established an elective course of four years. It is said, also, that the preliminary examination will hereafter be more thorough. It is said that over ninety-eight tons of quinine are annually consumed, the value of which is not far from twelve millions of dollars. Mr. Broca has discovered that a negro skeleton alone presents the proportions and outline similar to those of the statue of Apollo Belvidere. This statue has in fact thoroughly negro limbs. The Alumni Association of Jefferson Medical College proposes to discipline such of its members as manufacture and vend patent or proprietary medicines. Dr. C. W. Stevens, of St. Louis, says that no man can be in the true sense a physician unless he is trustworthy in the treatment of the whole range of diseases that afflict the human body. The law pertaining to pharmacy, etc., provides for the formation of a Board of Commissioners of Pharmacy. This board is to register all the pharmacists of the State, and see that none but these and physicians dispense medicines. Hereafter those only can Starling Medical College has increased its. dispense medicines who either have a diploma lecture fees to $75.00. Dr. Wm. Goodell thinks that laceration of It is stated that diphtheria has had not the cervix uteri is due to too much interfer-less than forty thousand victims in Austria ence, as by the premature rupture of the during the past few months. bag of water by the forceps, and by efforts to push the upper lip of the os over the child's head. In a couple of able editorials in the Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner, Dr. N. S. Davis argues that the abuses of medical Schüppel believes that all tubercular pro- charities are inherent in their very organizacesses are caused by bacteria. Cohnheim tion. Nor can the abuses be corrected withbelieves that they are due to infection. out abolishing the charities. This, he seems The Archiv. of Comparative Med. and to think, would be the best course for all Surgery states that under the law the New concerned. Then each doctor would have York County Medical Society has been forced his own poor to look after, and the colleges to admit to membership persons coming from would look after so much as was needful for irregular schools. A writer in the Medical their clinical teaching We incline to this Record says that others of the same stamp view of the case. are about to be admitted. Is it not clear that unless physicians look after the laws relating to the profession, those laws will look after them? The Chicago Medical Gazette favors the adoption by county societies of a resolution like the following: "Resolved, That no member of this society will call in consulta List of graduates: College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, 117; Chicago Med-tion any physician or surgeon who is known to give gratuitous treatment for clinical purical College, 37; Jefferson Medical College, 195; Medical Department, University of poses to undeserving patients." We agree Pennsylvania, 111; Evansville Medical Col- to the above if the words "clinical purlege, 5. Mr. Jackson S. Schultz, a merchant of New York city, states that the loss in money to that city, between 1822 and 1840, on account of errors in quarantine, originating with the epidemic of yellow fever in 1822, was at least $100,000,000. Further, the feel poses " be left out. The point of complaint is not in the purpose for which such treatment is made, but in the fact that "gratuitous treatment" is given to the undeserving. It is well known that such gratuitous treatment is not uncommon in the practice of a considerable number of doctors. It is ex pected that by thus placing certain persons under obligation to them they will repay it ing among merchants was such that if there were any danger of falling back upon those old practices they would be willing to main-by sending patients to their doctor and other tain a State and a National Board of Health for the purpose of promulgating correct views regarding public sanitation. Prof. R. C. Kedzie, M. D., president of the Michigan State Board of Health, at its late meeting was elected president of the Sanitary Council of the Mississippi Valley. wise "blowing his horn." Let it be laid down as a law, bearing upon all alike, that no person who is able to pay shall be treated free, and we shall have reached the root of the trouble. The Medical Department of the Michigan University announces a three years' course, but permits students to graduate after taking Prof. T. G. Thomas stated at the annual only two courses, an intervening year having dinner of the Alumni Association of the been spent with a preceptor. We had hoped College of Physicians and Surgeons of New that it would require three full courses of all York, that in the coming year the regular graduates hereafter. Practically it thus lecture session would be extended to seven ranks with the two-term schools in its remonths. quirements. It says to students, we require "The Kentucky Court of Appeals has de-a three years' course in college, but if you cided that it is not a punishable offense in desire we will give you permission to stay at that State to produce, with the consent of home with your preceptor during one of the the mother, an abortion prior to the time years. During the first of these two years when she becomes quick with child."-Ohio | you must attend certain lectures, and during Med. Record. Kentucky must be the para- the last year you must give "strict attenddise of abortionists. ance." Deutschmann's recent experiments seem to show that abnormal osmotic currents between the lens and the aqueous humor play an important part in the production of cat aract. Prof. Broca, the distinguished anthropologist, has been made life Senator of France. Dr. Chas. E. Michel (Trans. Missouri Med. Association, 1879,) says that "he is firmly convinced that of the cases terminating unfavorably, at least one-half, if not more, are directly chargeable to the ordinary medication of the practitioner and ophthalmologist, or the abominable tampering of quacks." Archives of Laryngology is the title of a new quarterly. It is edited by Dr. Louis Elsberg, and published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Price, $3 per year; pages, 100. This is the first journal devoted to a specialty in medicine published in the English language, in so far as we are aware. It is designed to meet the increasing needs of specialists in laryngology. It is well edited and handsomely published. ization could so long have borne up under the great and anxious work that he has done. I regret to say that his health is not good, and that he is often compelled to leave his hard work and the rigorous climate of Edinburgh and seek recreation in the more congenial climate of the south of France." WAS WASHINGTON BLED TO DEATH?-I seems that Dr. James Jackson, of Boston, has made a "thorough and comprehensive study" of "the last sickness of Gen. Wash ington." In a quotation from Dr. J. M. Coner's remarks on this subject, the Pacific Med. and Surg. Journal says that the disease of which the "Father of his Country" died was acute laryngitis, a rare disease and one admitting of but little delay in its treatment. The attending physicians of Gen. Washington did bleed him, but followed the practice of the best London practitioners of that period. The only thing that seems not to have been done in the case to prolong life is laryngo-tracheotomy. But at that early day in medicine such an operation would have been considered extra hazardous, possibly worse than the disease. Editor's Book Table. The Books Noticed in these Pages are for Sale by E. B. SMITH & CO., Detroit, Mich. Wood's Library of Standard Authors.* In the American Journal of Obstetrics, Dr. Sims gives the following description of Thomas Keith, the great ovariotomist: "He is fifty-two years old, six feet high, slender, and slightly stoop-shouldered. He wears a full brown beard, and his fine large head is covered with a profusion of long, silken, golden auburn hair, which hangs down behind gently over his coat collar. His forehead is broad and prominent, his nose is long and straight, slightly aquiline, beautifully us, it is but fair to say that they are handsymmetrical, and strongly indicative of some, inside and out, paper, type, press-work character. He has large, deep blue eyes, full and binding are all first-class. The work on of benevolence and gentleness, and he has a venereal diseases, if placed in the market in sweet musical voice. He is as modest as a the usual manner, would sell for nearly as woman, and of a character altogether lovely. He is quick in action, walks rapidly, as if he were trying to catch up with his great head, which is always in advance of his slender body. As he descends from his carriage he hurries across the sidewalk and runs up the steps and has the door open before any of his followers are near him. He has such power of concentration that his mind is always intent on the object of its pursuit and he hastens to accomplish it. His whole soul is wrapped up in his work, and after he has performed a difficult operation he eats and sleeps but little till he knows that his patient is out of danger. I only wonder how a man of such high-strung, delicate nervous organ much as is asked for the entire four volumes. It is prepared for the practical use of the general practitioner. Hence, theoretical and mooted points are only slightly dwelt upon. Relatively, only a few remedies are exhibited, but these are put in such a form as to produce the best results. As hitherto, the *(1) THE VENEREAL DISEASES, including stricture of the male urethra, by E. L. Keyes, M. D. (2) A HANDBOOK OF PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS, comprising the throat, thorax and abdomen, by Dr. Paul Guttmann. Translated from the third German edition by Alex. Mapier, M. D. cal Practice, by Alfred Poulet, M. D.; two vols. Each of these four volumes contains about 300 pages, is well illustrated, well bound, on excellent paper. Price for the entire set of 12, for 1880, $15. Sold only by subscription. author stoutly upholds the distinctions be- ous horror of nastiness; to the medical tween the initial lesion of true syphilis student, a simple sequence of chancre, secon are cut. men. and chancroid, and maintains that the chan- daries and tertiaries, easily cured, the first croid cannot be derived from the products and second by mercury, the last by "potash” of either early or late syphilitic lesions. He as he puts it, and to the earnest student a opposes the teachings of those who claim to mine of increasing interest, always yielding prevent syphilis by excising the initial le- new treasures to honest toil, full of pleasant sion, on the ground that something more surprises, comforting by the sense of power than induration in a sore is necessary in or- a knowledge of its truths convey, and going der to prove it to be a syphilitic chancre. far to create in the physician respect for the Again, he opposes the new school of urethral art he practices and a certain amount of bepathology, that claims that all variations in lief in the specific action of drugs." From the calibre of the urethra constitute strictures facts which he presents, the author concludes fit for cutting, and that all the ills of the that finally syphilis will become uniformly genito-urinary passages may be accounted acclimated all over the world; that it will for by the existence of these undulations and diminish in severity as it increases in extent usually be made to disappear when the latter and, perhaps, at last may exhaust its viruHe objects to this new school that lence entirely. Certainly the syphilis of the its pathology and treatment are narrow and present day is not the syphilis we read of in tend to encourage routine practice in the the past. It can be recognized as the same young, to the detriment of a careful study disease; all the features are there, but much of each case. Of modern thought concern- of the sting has gone out of it. Occasional ing syphilis the author says, "That from 1494 cases of malignant syphilis and bad types of to the present day syphilis has been a subject disease still appear to remind us of what the of peculiar interest to all classes of medical poison can do and the damaging blight which It enters the domain of every branch the inherited taint often inflicts upon its inof pathology. A close acquaintance with it nocent victim attests the continued virulence is claimed by the physician, the surgeon, the of the malady. In a majority of cases, howspecialist in nearly all branches. Miles of ever, in reasonably healthy persons, the type pages have been written about it, and yet all of the disease as encountered at the present is not known. Every year adds to our exact day is mild; it can be controlled to a great knowledge and brings new symptoms and extent by treatment; thousands of individunew growths of morbid phenomena into the als pass through it unharmed in tissue, in fold of syphilis, that were not there before. feature, in function, to reach a green old age Nearly all the important questions in syphi- and die of natural causes, leaving behind lis are still in dispute among high authorities. them healthy offspring who know not the Is the poison single or double-capable of sins of their fathers." producing only one or of yielding two dis- We are not sure that even the profession eases? Is it peculiar to man, or may animals is prepared to indorse the following, viz: also be affected? What secretions will trans-" Bad malaria, or dyspepsia, or rheumatism, mit the disease, and what secretions are in- or eczema, or psoriasis, or a number of other nocuous? Is it curable, or not? What treat- maladies, are infinitely worse than ordinary ment is best? All these and many more syphilis, far harder to manage, and much important questions are not finally settled to more likely to relapse. The danger and the the satisfaction of the profession at large. severity of common syphilis is much overThe question of syphilis of the nervous sys-rated by the profession as well as by the tem has been probably nearly solved of late years, and the lesions of inherited syphilis. are in a fair way to be clearly comprehended; but the whole question of hereditary transmission from the father is involved in un public." "In When may a syphilitic man marry? a general way it may be safely said that a man should not marry until at least three speakable doubt, the facts on both sides and at least one year has elapsed since the good years lie between him and his chancre, being about equally strong." disappearance of the last symptom which "To the quack, syphilis is a glorious har- can be ascribed to syphilis. Also, it is wise vest; to the unprofessional mind, a mysteri-, for a man not to marry until he has passed |