ground formations for the express purpose of locating waters which will be available for use by means of wells. In certain parts of the country, as upon the plains and in the more arid West, these guides to the underground waters will be of the greatest service, not only to the farming population, but to the towns and cities which are in need of a municipal water supply. Maps of portions of North and South Dakota, Wyoming and other sections of the Great Plains area will soon be published which will contain this new feature. The Geologic Folio embracing the country adjacent to the city of Washington, and of the section about Pueblo and Spanish Peaks, Colorado, were among the first to exhibit the water lines.

the doctors wear the air of concealing. They should forget the fact that their not very remote predecessors dabbled with what they imagined was the supernatural. Medicine is a great and noble art, and better men than the majority of its practitioners do not exist, but they have some antiquated ideas about professional ethics and dignity, and their belief that the modern. public could not understand their work is a delusion. The modern public could not do that work, to be sure, but it has a perfect right to know as much about it as it chooses to learn, and the less mystery is made of it, the less will be the suspicion to which Dr. Smith referred.

MYSTERY AND MEDICINE.

DR. A. H. SMITH, says the N. Y. Times, was exactly right when he said, in discussing before the Academy of Medicine the element of suspicion which enters into the feeling of laymen toward physicians: "The science of medicine is not in touch with the public at large because the profession has kept the public in ignorance of its work as much as possible." There is, of course, no such thing as a race of doctors, but they form a very close corporation, and every member of it shows what looks strangely like an instinctive desire to perpetuate the mystery which increased the dignity of the profession in days when it had little except mystery with which to command respect. They write extremely simple prescriptions in the fragments of a dead language intermixed with cabalistic signs, they resent lay criticism, and even lay description, of their work, and as much as they can they keep up the silly pretense that the opinions of followers of the same "school" never differ. Yet those of us who occasionally get hold of the medical journals and other literature of the profession have little difficulty in understanding what we read, and we look in vain for the big secrets which

FAME AND MEDICINE.

NOT a single physician has a place in the Hall of Fame of the New York University. When the trustees selected names to place in the muster roll of men entitled to a niche in the American Pantheon, not one member of the medical profession was considered. worthy of a place. Thus does mankind delight to honor those who, of all men, do most for its good! Another striking illustration of the limited character of medical fame is afforded by "a list of the most prominent men and women who have lived in the nineteenth century," lately published by Truth. Though the word "prominent" is used in the widest possible sense, being applied to such very minor constellations as "Peter Pindar" and Abraham Hayward, it appears not to be sufficiently elastic to inIclude more than two or three members of the medical profession. The list includes numerous poetasters, fiddlers and buffoons, singing men and singing women; but we do not find in it the names of Hunter, Cooper, Lister, Simpson, Claude Bernard, or Helmholtz; the moral of which is that those who, like the American gentleman in "Martin Chuzzlewit," "aspirate for fame," will do well not to choose medicine as a sphere for the exercise of their genius. From this point of view it is better to be a mountebank or a dancer than a doctor.-Ex.

FOR the rational modification of cow's milk, the approximate composition of ordinary milk must first be ascertained and then what is needed in addition to this for the infant's nutrition. At different periods of its life the child will need varying amounts of certain ingredients. The simplest method of preparing these modifications seems to be to take the milk, as it can be ordinarily obtained by a city family. In ordinary bottled milk the cream rises to the top and enables us to recognize what proportion of fatty material is contained in the food, as it is prepared for the infant. During the first few months of life the ordinary infant should receive about one-half milk and one-half cream. This can be best obtained by taking the upper third of the bottle of milk as it is ordinarily supplied by city dairies. During the second period of the baby's life, that is, from about three to nine. months, an increase of the proteids is needed with about the same amount of fat, though proportionately to the whole of the food taken by the infant this represents a decrease in the fats. For this the upper half of the bottle of milk should be employed. After the ninth month the baby can be fed with the whole milk. As the baby grows the quantity of food given should be increased. This can be done by increasing the amount given at each feeding without any other modification than that suggested for the different periods. It is often true that delicate children are kept on too low a diet of proteids, because of too great dilution of the milk.

STANDARD FOOD FORMULA.

THE food of an infant should not be ordered on general principles according to its age or weight. The digestive condition of the infant is much more important as regards the regulation of the quantity and quality of food that it should take than any

not be abused. Needless to say it should not be fed every time that it cries. The first symptom of digestive disturbances should be carefully looked for and precautions taken at once to prevent their becoming inveterate in the slightest degree. As soon as fretfulness and sleeplessness assert themselves something should be done immediately to avoid the digestive disturbance that threatens. The first food prescription given an infant should be considered experimental rather than definite. It is much easier to give too much than too little food. Begin with low percentages of all the ingredients and raise these as it seems necessary rather than the opposite course. An excess of fat especially is liable to disturb the infant's digestion and bring on the train of symptoms which may lead irretrievably to the obstinate indigestion that precedes marasmic conditions.

DEVITALIZED AIR; TOXÆMIA, A PRIME CAUSE OF TUBERCULOSIS.

ACCORDING to the New York Med. Journal, Dr. Charles E. Denison believes that toxæmia arises from stagnant unventilated air existing in the lungs themselves. It is not necessary to show that ventilation, though ample outside the body, may be very deficient within the lungs, because of disuse from insufficient exercise. The force of the argument increases as we go inward with the analysis of the air. The vitiated and fermenting combination of the unrenewed pulmonary air, increased by body. heat, the outcoming carbonic acid, and the poisonous tissue detritus, is simply a tenfold intensification of devitalized air outside that body in an unventilated room. The living tissue that will stand this and not deteriorate must indeed be in prime condition. This devitalization, due to lack of ventilation, leads to the pale face, sallow skin, weak pulse, cold hands and feet, and

sluggish bowels; the feeble powers of digestion, assimilation, and nerve energyall of them proofs of flagging vitality. This lethargy is due to enfeebled and poisoned blood-corpuscles, and to a probable self-infection, but especially to deprivation of food for the blood-i. e., of oxygen from the air. In addition, the dead air, which marked deficiency of ventilation implies, compels inactivity and limited use of the lungs, and this, in turn, means the gradual clogging of out-of-the-way air-cells with the products of combustion. In this manner, carbonic-acid poisoning and a species of self-infection are more or less permanently established. The destructive influence of sunlight upon the tubercle bacillus is now generally admitted. If, in addition, the contention of Fränkel, that this bacillus is a facultative anaerobic germ, is sustained, then the assertion of a predisposing cause in defective ventilation is strengthened by the existence of favora ble conditions furnished for such germination in the warm unventilated lung.

PROTEIDS OF MILK.

THE estimation of the lactalbumen of milk does not give the total proteids. The amount of the two principal elements which enter into the proteids, namely, the lactalbumen and the caseinogen, varies at different periods of life and under changing circumstances. There is nearly always an increase of lactalbumen in infant's food demanded by the increasing age of the infant. This lactalbumen may be obtained very readily and in a suitable form from whey. The caseinogen may be obtained from milk.

With an emulsion, the ingredients and the amounts of which have been properly col lected for a given case, there is no need to add cereals. Pasteurization of such an emulsion when made from fresh, clean materials is needed only if the emulsion is to be sent to a distance. After Pasteurization the material will stand transportation for long distances and yet remain sterile. Samples have been sent from the laboratory in Boston to Vienna and have arrived fresh. The doing away with Pasteurization removes certain objections that militate against the use of heat-prepared foods.

FORMALIN IN GLYCERIN.

A. C. JORDAN (Lancet) has found that by combining formalin with glycerin the irritating nature of the drug and the pain which it causes may be prevented. He uses a mixture of 1 to 4 per cent. It is best prepared fresh. Applied to the throat with a brush, a single application can be depended upon to kill every micro-organism with which it comes in contact. In follicular tonsillitis formalin in glycerin (2 to 4 per cent.) is a specific if used before there is deep collection of pus. After a single thorough application the temperature falls to normal within a few hours and remains normal. The application is usually attended by a little soreness, lasting only a few hours. Formalin in glycerin is useful in all parasitic skin diseases, especially in tinea tonsurans. The whole area is cleansed by soft soap and water, and a 4 per cent. solution of formalin in glycerin is applied.

ated as comprising the chemistry of the animal body. The human ovum is a spherical protoplasmic cell 0.2 mm. (1/127 inch) in diameter, a nucleus and cytoplasm. Its composition probably is vitellin, nuclein, albumin, lecithin, fats, carbohydrates and inorganic salts. Again, these latter organic products represent the total organic elements comprising the chemistry of the animal body. The blood is a tissue composed of cells and a fluid intercellular substance. Unlike other tissues it does not possess the pronounced independence of growing by cell multiplication or performing special local functions. It is rather a subservient to the other tissues, as its production occurs in specific organs and its integrity is dependent upon general systemic metabolism, and the condition of other fixed tissues. Blood has a double relation to the tissues as a source of food supply and as a means of removing the waste products of their functional activity. The histological structure of the blood cells alters whenever an insufficient supply of organic elements is furnished the organism or whenever imperfect metabolism takes place. The chemistry of the blood, according to Schmidt, is as follows: Cl.... K.O.

1.75 3.091

0.470

0.061

1.355

undetermined,

According to this authentic analysis we find it to comprise all the elements necessary for living matter excepting Fluorin, of which the blood holds but a minimum quantity, and which, on account of its volatility, evidently escaped during analytical process. Regarding the formation of blood during early embryonic life we learn that the red corpuscles first make their appearance in the mesoblastic columns which go to the formation of the vascular channels. The mesoblastic columns are solid masses of cells in the midst of which nucleated forms are found. At the beginning these forms contain no coloring substance, but later they

become pigmented with hemoglobin. Thus nucleated hemoglobin-containing corpuscles are formed. The physiological function of the red blood corpuscle consists of absorbing oxygen in the lungs and its transportation to the tissues, and through this the subserviency of these little cells to the other cells and tissues of the body is demonstrated. The chemical composition of the red corpuscle varies little from that of the blood in its entity. Deficiency or over sufficient supply of any of the organic elements required for cell life will cause abnormalities or degeneration or isotonicity of the red corpuscles. The white blood corpuscles (leucocytes) differ from the red corpuscles, first, through their histological structure, and, secondly, their physiological action and chemical consistency. Their origin as far as known is the lymphatic glands and lymphoid structures. There are many varieties of leucocytes and the incessant study of these interesting cells within the last few years has caused rapid advances and a better interest in the study and work of hematology. Galland was the first anatomist to demonstrate that all varieties of leucocytes were only different developing stages of one and the same element. Uskoff later reported three specific developing stages of the leucocytes: first, the lymphocytes; second, mononuclear leucocytes, and third, old cells representing the polynuclear form. All leucocytes differ widely as regards size, shape, nucleus, etc. We will observe them to swell up and burst, and pour out a plasmic granular mass appearing in active molecular vibration. The divided parts of the nucleus make their exit through a breach in the cell wall surrounded by closely attached blastema. These little cells rapidly turn into perfect cells, with a nucleus and nucleolus, causing rejuvenation and increase in the number of leucocytes. The leucocytes perform their various functions first by taking up the converted proteids (peptones), which are delivered to the blood by the absorbents after digestion is completed. By means of osmotic process the basis of all physical action in the organism, these proteids are