in the form of a fluid extract or a tincture. Ecthol is said to be the most powerful antagonist of suppuration. According to Meyer this substance has a powerful effect in toxæmias. Parker, Webster, Snyder and Russell have shown that it is of great service in infectious diseases, in septic wounds, and in the bites of serpents, as well as in chronic catarrhs.-"N. Y. Medical Journal," March 15, 1902.

NEW LIGHT ON PHAGOCYTOSIS AND CHEMIOTAXIS.

The suggestion of the theory of phagocytosis by Sternberg, in 1881, and its enunciation and demonstration by Metschnikoff, in 1884, mark the beginning of an epoch in the history of medical science. The conclusion of the latter, "that in the property of the ameboid cells to include and destroy micro-organisms, the animal body possesses a formidable means of resistance and defense against these infectious agents," gave a new significance to the notion of a vis medicatrix natura, and the ability to recover from microbe infection, as well as the power of acquiring immunity, came to mean the ability of the devouring host of macrophags and microphags to subdue the horde of intruding germs. It was noticed that in some cases the leukocytes were active to ingest and digest microbes, while in other cases there was apparently no desire for a bacterial diet. To account for this behavior the theory of positive and negative chemiotaxis was formulated, and Metschnikoff asserted that leukocytes are powerfully attracted by many micro-organisms and as powerfully repelled by others. In the presence of negative chemiotaxis, being shunned by the phagocytes, the microbes propagate and bring about death. He pointed out the mutability of chemiotaxis, and called attention to the loss of resisting power following the transformation of positive into negative chemiotaxis, or acquiremnt of immunity by the reverse action. Then arose the theory of antitoxins of Behring and Kitasato (the alexins of Buchner, the defensive proteids, sozins and phylaxins of Hankin, etc.), which relegated phagocytosis and chemiotaxis to a back seat for a time; but now comes a countryman of Metschnikoff, Dr. Werigo, who concludes from his experiments on chicken cholera in rabbits "that in many diseases the specific micro-organisms possess a layer of dissolved bacterioprotein which stimulates the white blood-corpuscles and determines phagocytosis. In the latter stages of chicken cholera in rab

bits this layer fails to be produced, and as a result phagocytosis ceases. Immunity-conferring sera dissolve the bacterioproteins and thereby lead to the development of phagocytosis. Immunity is determined by phagocytosis. Antitoxic and bactericidal sera strengthen phagocytosis and only exceptionally act as independent agents." Thus we have chemiotaxis accounted for by the presence or absence of dissolved bacterioprotein, the action of antitoxins and the transformation of one form of chemiotaxis into the other elucidated and the theory of phagocytosis rehabilitated.— "American Medicine," April 26, 1902.

HE'LL BE HERE PRESENTLY.

From "The Chicago Daily News."

We mourned not his absence, we felt it a joy,
Though we knew he would come back some day.
It is likely he may not have meant to annoy
Or have thought he was much in the way.
For months we have missed him, but time's nearly up.
He will come and dwell with us once more,
He will sit at our board and will drink of our cup,
As he's sat and he's sipped oft before.

We tried to convince him his presence was not
By any means wanted, but he

Ignored all our snubs and, not caring a jot,
Continued with us to make free.

We put deadly poisonous stuff in his food,
We set subtle snares for his feet.

We smote him; but none of it did any good-
There was nothing would make him retreat.

There was nothing we owned that was sacred to him.
His faults they were hard to condone,

He fussed all about with a devilish vim

And he never would leave us alone.

He'd wake us at morning. From that moment on

Into every blamed thing would he pry.

We must put up the screens, now that Winter is gone,
To fool the pestiferous fly.

ATHLETICISM AND THE RHODES STANDARDS.

In designating the qualities which are to be accepted as qualifications in the young Americans awarded Oxford scholarships, the late Cecil Rhodes tells us more accurately than any biographer could what were his own standards of complete young manhood. That he could not himself attain them in early life may be attributed to the causes which interrupted his college course and carried him into unwilling exile, as the wild Tartar horse bore the helpless Mazeppa to a throne. First in the order of his preference he places scholarship and scholastic attainments. Second he places fondness for and success in athletic sports. Third he demands in the candidate the qualities which make up the character of an allround gentleman. Last he names high moral character, the instinct of leadership, and interest in his companions. On reflection he seems to have recognized that he had stated these qualities rather in the order of his preference than with regard to their relative values, for he suggests that out of a possible rating of 10 the first should count as 4, the second as 1, the third as 3, and the fourth as 2. This is more interesting than the mere cataloguing of qualities which any one would recognize as part of the make-up of a complete young man with large potentialities of usefulness and success.

In rating fondness for and excellence in athletic sports as the least of the qualifications sought in a young man to be fitted for a career of conspicuous value to humanity, Mr. Rhodes reflected the best scholastic thought of his time. He knew too well the value of a sound body and vigorous health to characterize as "flanneled fools" and "muddied oafs" those who have a wholesome love of vigorous physical exercise; but one who had earned his degrees as his were earned, by leaving behind him the opportunity to win great wealth and attain vast power while he patiently completed the interrupted studies of his earlier years, realized as few could that the chief end of man is not to excel at football or cricket, and that during the precious years of youth play should be properly subordinated to the more serious purposes of collegiate training.

There is a reaction in England against the overdoing of college and university athletics to which "The London Times" has given the powerful support of its editorial approval. In a recent

discussion of this subject it took the ground that to permit a young man to devote himself chiefly to training for interscholastic and intercollegiate "events" at the time when what he most needs is mental training and discipline to fit him for the serious business of life is to waste precious opportunities without present or ultimate compensation. "It is impossible," says "The Times," "to shut one's eyes to the fact that from an educational, if not from a national, point of view, the thing is vastly overdone." Its effect is to unfit young men for the careers to which their mental endowment and social advantages would warrant them in aspiring. A great many fine specimens of the human animal may be the product of this system, but even in this respect its value has been over-estimated. Cause and effect are often transposed to the confusion of the seeker after a basis for safe generalizations. The fact that only young men with a superior physical endowment excel in athletics sufficiently accounts for the fact that those who excel in athletics are usually fine specimens of physical manhood.

That there is also a reaction in progress in this country against the fad of academic and collegiate athleticism is indicated by the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find young men of the kind wanted who are willing to "go in" for athletics seriously enough to satisfy the professional trainers of school and college teams. The difficulty is, perhaps, due rather to parental prohibition than to youthful disinclination. When it becomes an impossibility, it may occur to the Faculties of these institutions to consider whether the surplus energies of young men ambitious to excel cannot be directed into other and more productive channels. "New York Times."

HENRY DUNANT.

THE FOUNDER OF THE RED CROSS SOCIETY.

The Royal Academy of Sweden has awarded Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross Society, a sum of 104,000 francs. This sum was one of the Nobel prizes to be awarded to those who have rendered the greatest services to humanity. The "Magasin Pittoresque" gives the following sketch of M. Dunant and his work:

M. Henri Dunant was born in Geneva the 8th of May, 1828. was of French ancestry, his family having sought refuge in Gen

eva at the time of the religious persecutions following the Reformation. From his youth he had been interested in charitable works. Before devoting himself to those wounded in war, he devoted himself to the poor, the disinherited, the oppressed. Already his mind was occupied with questions of universal harmony and fraternity among nations as well as among individuals; his broad and benevolent spirit already soared above distinctions of

race.

It was upon the battle-field of Solferino and in the charnelhouse of Castiglione that the idea of the Red Cross Society germinated. At Solferino, in 1859, Dunant was the sad witness of the sufferings which the wounded endured, while lying for days upon the ground deprived of all succor. Aided by a few highsouled women, he organized a corps of relief in the little town of Castiglione, binding up the wounds of the men with his own hands, working indefatigably among these men devoured with fever and suffering all kinds of torture.

"The gentleman in white," as Dunant was called by the wounded, because on account of the heat he was clad in white linen, carried away with him from these scenes of desolation the thought that devoted volunteers, skilled in the management of litters and possessing some knowledge of nursing, well organized and disciplined, and enjoying likewise with the hospitals and supplies an absolute neutrality, might be of inestimable service in the wars of the future. Dunant believed that this result might be accomplished if the various nations would adopt the same signal of recognizance, a sacred standard that should insure absolute. immunity to all those beneath its folds. Such is the origin of the white flag with the red cross, to-day adopted by almost all civilized countries. The blood of the wounded at Solferino caused to germinate the seeds of pity and generosity.

Upon his return to Geneva, Dunant wrote a "Souvenir of Solferino," in which he laid bare all the horrors of war. The book made an immense sensation, and was immediately translated into several different languages. If he had his detractors, he had on the other hand warm defenders. The French Minister of War at this time, M. Randon, did not hide his hostility to Dunant, and cried: "What business have these civilians to meddle with what does not concern them?" But MacMahon, Leboeuf, and Canrobert, and later Napoleon, ranged themselves on the side of Dunant, and Victor Hugo wrote to the author of Solferino: "You are enlisting humanity and serving the cause of liberty. I applaud