heal, she sought relief after a time at a dispensary, where burnt alum or borax was applied for several weeks longer, the sore growing larger and harder all the time, and "kernels" appearing under the chin. When Dr. Robbins saw her, at this time, the girl had a well marked chancre of the lower lip, with hazelnut-sized induration, and accompanied by enlarged submaxillary glands. On inquiry as to the health of the family, he learned that an infant sister, of whom the patient was very fond, had for some little time past showed "fever blisters" on the commissure of the lips, and, on visiting the house, he found the child suffering with a small chancre of the commissure, together with a general maculo-papular eruption. He at once quarantined the victims of the disease, but too late, as the mother and two more children subsequently showed generalized syphilitic eruptions. The family remained under observation for several years, showing various early and late lesions from time to time.

ALUMNOL IN DERMATOLOGY.-Dr. J. A. Cantrell has ("Col. and Clin. Rec.") obtained satisfactory results from alumnol in acute vesicular eczema, erythema intertrigo; chronic seborrhoeic and moist eczema; non-specific ulcers; trichopytosis corporis; chromophytosis; and contagious impetigo. He employed the drug in powders, 25 per cent strength; ointments, 5 to 25 per cent strength; and as a solution in water, 25 per cent strength.

died suddenly during coitus after ejaculation The brain presented vascular dilatations in small patches over the different regions of the white substance of the brain, especially at the genu of the corpus callosum and at the circumference of the corona radiata and the internal capsule. The capillary vessels appeared to be gorged with blood, and there seemed to have been numerous minute hæmorrhages; but on careful examination of the vessels they were found not to be broken, and there was only extravasation of blood into the perivascular sheaths. The brain substance was neither lacerated nor softened. The same lesions were found in other portions of the encephalon; in the cerebellum, pons, medulla, and cervical cord. The importance of these appearances were alluded to in determining the cause of sudden death in medical legal examinations. From a hygienic point of view is pointed out the danger to which a man in particular exposes himself by having sexual intercourse immediately after eating, especially a copious meal.

SEXUAL PERVERSION.-Stefanowsky ("Alienist and Neurologist") gives the following points as demarcating pæderasty (often a vice) from uranism (a congenital defect):

2. The lust, manner of acting and acting is feminine and ing and feeling is masculine is accompanied with envy

and often coexists with nor

mal coitus.

3 The appearance is masculine. The tastes and habits are virile.

4

XANTHOMA MULTIPLEX.-Dr. L. Roberts ("Brit. Med. Jour.") states that in one case of xanthoma of the palms great improvement was effected in about four months by the use of a lotion of acid salicylici 3i, liq. epispastic xv, ol. ricini 3 i, ether acetici ad 3 viii. Then a pigment of salicylic acid 3i, chrysarobin 3 ss, castor oil 3 ss, and flexible collodion to 3 viii was used with still more improvement. months afterward the patient was seen again and all the lesions had gone from his palms. The remedies had no effect on the disease on the elbows and buttocks of the same patient. As Dr. G. T. Jackson points out that ("Amer. Medico-Surg. Bull.") inasmuch as xanthoma has been known to disappear spontaneously, it is questionable how much the means employed in treatment had to do with the cure, especially when the eight months hiatus is remembered.

COITUS DANGEROUS AFTER FULL MEALS. -Dr. J. Luys ("N. A. Practitioner") reports the case of a 27-year old who, after a copious meal,

7. Pæderasty is often a vice, sometimes a disease. It may be an expression of mental disorder, senile dementia, paretic dementia, epilepsy,

etc.

and hatred of women.

3. The external aspect is feminine as are the tastes, habits, and dress tendencies.

built virile men. 4. The subject adores well

5 The penchant is often pure. ideal, disinterested. Anal coitus is rare; masturbation especially buccal occurs.

6. Uranism is almost always accompanied by a more or less pronounced passivistic state.

7. Uranism is always a disease or an inversion. It is sometimes a symptom of degeneracy. It may be caused by disorders during embryonic life.

8. Uranism is absolutely outside the sphere of the will. Cure would appear impossibe if there be not complete exhaustion of all volupty by continued use of anaphrodisiacs.

9. Uranism as an innate moral deformity should never be pursued or punished by law.

HORNY GROWTH ON THE PENIS.-Bruce Clarke reports ("N. W. Lancet') the case of a man circumcised seven months before. Since that time a horny growth had formed on the

glans penis which now measured nearly two inches in length. The patient dated the growth from the time of the operation. The growth was probably the result of the implantation of epithelial cells at the time of the operation. In certain mammalia such growths are normally present and seem to subserve some purpose in reproduction.

NEUROLOGY AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE.

BRAIN CENTERS OF THE BLADDER.-Dr. I. Ott ("Med. Rec.") recently reported experiments on the cerebral centers of the bladder. Previous experimenters had noted that electrical stimulation to the corpora quadrigemina caused a contraction of the bladder. Dr. Ott found that, on cross section of the crura cerebri, a flow of urine followed; also that when the surface of the exposed crura was touched the bladder contracted. If small doses of atropine were administered he still got contraction, but failed to get any after large doses, e. g. grn. ij of atropine sulphate in an ordinary sized adult cat. used only mechanical stimulation. His conclusion was that the center or centers lie in the crura cerebri, the exact portion in the crura, however, having not yet been determined.

He

MENTAL FACTORS IN EPILEPSY.-Larrabee ("Med. and Surg. Rep.") calls attention to the frequent suspension of seizures of considerable period under certain mental influences. He mentions the case of a famous church-spire painter, who worked in Louisville, who was an epileptic, and yet could be seen any day suspended upon his airy platform 150 feet above ground. He never had a spell while aloft pursuing his work, but once back upon terra firma he would be seized with a fit. So marked is this feature that treatment by a new physician, especially if he be a celebrity, often secures a long immunity from the seizures. The knowledge of this fact should caution us against the belief in the full effectiveness of our therapeutic

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crease in the amount of acid eliminated during the twenty-four hours, diminution of urea and other soluble products, relative increase of incompletely oxydized nitrogenous products, very frequent appearance in the urine of abnormal substances, as free lactic acid and toxic leucomaines. These are precisely the characteristics of the urine of arthritics. From this he deduces three therapeutic indications: diminution of the quantity of food, administration of soda bicarbonate and treatment by static electricity. It has been the general rule to overfeed these patients, which is an error. The first effect of restriction of diet is emaciation, but they soon regain their equilibrium and are happier, more inclined to work and are stronger. Experience has confirmed this. The acidity of the urine requires the use of alkalies in slight doses, 4 to 7 grammes per diem of bicarbonate. Static electricity is the vital stimulant par excellence. It is superior to massage or hydrotherapy. A certain number of neurasthenics have proven rebellious to this method, but then neurasthenia is generally accompanied by dyspepsia, with a diminution of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. There appears to be a certain correlation between the acidity of the stomach and that of the urine; when the one decreases the other increases. Soda bicarbonate, in increasing the secretion of gastric juice and the amount of hydrochloric acid, relieves the dyspepsia and the urinary acidity at the same time.

FRONTAL LOBES.-Dr. L. Bianchi of Naples ("Med. Mirror"), in opposition to the views of Munck and Goltz (who think that intelligence has its seat throughout the gray matter of the cortex cerebri) from his experiments on monkeys and dogs, agrees with the belief of Hitzig in a special organ of intelligence seated in the frontal lobes. His experiments were made on the prefrontal lobes lying in front of the base of the frontal convolutions, not obnoxious to electrical stimulation. The extirpation of these lobes induced no disturbances of movements, touch, or smell, but the psychical function disorders: Excitement, restlessness, continual running about without purpose. Deficiency of curiosity and indifference to everything. Want of interest in companions in contrast with former lively interest in them. Diminution of sexual inclination. Great emotionalism, fear of noises and animals. Absence of discrimination and judgment. Desire to eat inordinately. Inability to distinguish objects formerly familiar.

THE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF MEDICINE held its fifty-third session October 12 at "The Saratoga." Among those present were Drs. Harriet C. B. Alexander, Bacon, Bannister, Brower, Sanger Brown, Carey, Coolidge, Cuthbertson, Dickermann, Evans, Gehrmann, Gradle, Kiernan, Lagorio, Leahy, G. F. Lydston, J. A. Lydston, Moyer, Rumpf, Talbot, H. M. Thomas, Verity, Watkins, and Casey A. Wood. After the usual banquet Dr. Cuthbertson was elected chairman and the minutes were adopted. Dr. Sanger Brown opened a discusssion on epilepsy, dealing with its semeiology, Dr. Moyer dealt with its forensic aspects, Dr. T. J. Watkins with its utero-ovarian relations, Dr. Gradle with its relations to ophthalmology, Dr. E. T. Dickermann with its laryngological aspects, Dr. Talbot with its oral relations, and Dr. H. M. Thomas with its rhinological aspects, Dr. J. B. Bacon discussed the relations of the rectum to epilepsy, Dr. W. A. Evans dealt with the autointoxication aspects, and Dr. G. Frank Lydston with the surgical questions involved. Treatment of epilepsy was discussed from the moral standpoint by Dr. Bannister, colony standpoint by Dr. Alexander, inoculation standpoint by Dr. Lagorio and from the medicinal standpoint by Dr. Brower. In the general discussion Drs. Casey A. Wood and Kiernan took part. On motion of Dr. Kiernan a committee of seven (consisting of Drs. Harriet C. B. Alexander, Lagorio, G. Frank Lydston, Brower, Sanger Brown, Moyer, and Baum) was appointed to co-operate with other societies in securing a state colony for epileptics in Illinois. On motion of Dr. Verity a committee of five (consisting of Drs. Verity, Coolidge, Brower, Moyer, and Talbot) was appointed to confer with the present probate judge as to his future action on medical fees and report his decision to the academy directors. The committee was also instructed to bring the matter before the other medical societies. The committee on Dr. Carl Beck having reported favorably he was elected to fellowship. Dr. A. H. Ferguson applied for fellowship, and his application was referred to Drs. G. F. Lydston, Sanger Brown, and Rumpf. The Academy then adjourned until November 9, when Dr. G. Frank Lydston will read a paper on "Early Neuroses in Syphilis" and C. S. Hallberg one on "Tablet Triturates."

AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION.-The following officers were elected for the ensuing year President, Dr. William Bailey of Louis

THE OHIO R. R. SURGEONS elected officers as follows:

President, Dr. W. L. Buechner, Youngstown, surgeon for the Erie lines; first vice-president, Dr. James F. Heady, Glendale, C., H. & D.; second vice-president, Dr. A. T. Quinn, Wilmington, B. & O. S. W.; secretary and treasurer, Dr. C. H. Merz, Sandusky, C., S. & H.; member of the executive committee for three years, Dr. B. M. Ricketts, Cincinnati, C., P. & V.

THE AMERICAN ELECTRO-THERAPEUTIC ASSOCIATION elected the following officers:

President, Dr. William L. Jackson, Boston; vice-presidents, Dr. A. S. Baily, Atlantic City, N. J., and Dr. F. A. Gardner, Washington, D. C.; secretary, Dr. Clara Gary, Boston; treasurer, Dr. J. B. Garrison, New York. Dr. W. H. King and Dr. M. D. Youngman were elected to act with the officers as an executive committee.

OBSTETRIC SURGERY.-The F. A. Davis Company of Philadelphia, Pa., will soon issue a work with this title, by Dr. Egbert H. Grandin and George W. Jarman of the New York Maternity Hospital. The work is prepared from a teaching standpoint, and is illustrated by numerous photographic plates and woodcuts. Net price of the volume $2.50 in extra cloth. A companion volume on pregnancy, normal labor, and the physiological and pathological puerperium is in active preparation by the same authors.

MACROBIOTIC.*-Had this book been written other than as a boom for certain hahnemaniac preparations it could not but be regarded as the production of an "up-to-date" paranoiac as witness the following extracts:

"If

"The origin of all internal diseases is 'a diminished electric force.' "The first cause of this is insufficient oxygenation of the blood and secondly lack of iron, lime, and sulphur.' "Excess of urea gives rise to ammonium carbonate and cyanide in the blood, producing nerve paralysis and blood putrescence, the distant results being anæmia, chlorosis, and dyscrasias." "The liberation of ammonia from the stagnating blood or urea may result in catarrhal affections." "What a luminous significance is there in this with respect to the children's catarrh called 'diphtheria." Herr Koch were acquainted with these chemical facts, namely, that from ammonia compounds and consequently from our blood, through the effect of electro-chemical reactions, prussic acid and water may be produced, as is actually the case in the 'cyanosis' and 'hydropsy', the 'Siamese twins' of pathology, he would cease to regard the bacilli, that as decomposition products of blood have the character of poisonous cyanogen compounds, as the causes of diseases, but rather as the result of diseases, and would then abandon his extraordinary system of pathology. . . Hitherto Herr Koch appears still to have regarded the bacilli as living creatures.. Herr Koch speaks of a change of substance in the bacilli, although they have neither intestines, mouth, anus, urethra, or any other organ, for they are nothing but the finest crystalline needles.

It is not permissible to hold the view that bacilli increase by way of reproduction like as a cow brings forth a calf. To suppose this is sheer nonsense. The rapid way in which they increase is to be explained by the impulse towards electrolytic decomposition which has been given in a similar way to that in which a single piece of glowing coal suffices to occasion the chemical decomposition of a whole barrel of gun powder into sulphurous acid, carbonic acid, cyanogen, and nitrogen."

*Macrobiotic; or, Our Diseases and Our Remedies. For practical physicians and people of culture. By Julius Hensel. Physiological Chemist. Translated by Professor Louis H. Tatel of Urbana University, Ohio; from the second revised German Edition. Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1894.

The vagaries of hahnemania, it is evident from this volume, are assuming new guises under the teachings of Schuessler of whose "tissue remedies" notion this is an expansion. How will the Kochian hahnemaniac enthusiasts like Gentry defend themselves against this broadside?

ZOLA'S "LOURDES"* will be read by the physician with special interest, since it deals with a mediæval "faith cure." The following extract from the preface gives an excellent idea of the scope of the book, of the value of the translation, and of the author's style:

In 1891 I happened to be traveling for pleasure with my wife in the Basque country and by the Pyrenees, and being in the neighborhood of Lourdes, included it in my tour. I spent fifteen days there, and was greatly struck by what I saw. It then occurred to me that there was material here for just the sort of novel that I like to write-a novel in which great crowds can be shown in motion-a novel the subject of which stirred up my philosophical ideas.

It was too late then to study the question, for I had visited Lourdes late in September, and so had missed seeing the best pilgrimage, which takes place in August, under the direction of the Pères de la Miséricorde of the Rue de l'Assomption in Paris-the national pilgrimage, as it is called. These fathers are very active, enterprising men, and have made a great success of this annual national pilgrimage. Under their direction 30,000 pilgrims are transported to Lourdes, including over a thousand sick persons.

So in the following year I went in August and saw a national pilgrimage, and followed it during the three days in which it lasts, in addition to the two days given to traveling. After its departure I stayed on ten or twelve days, working up the subject in every detail. My book is the story of such a national pilgrimage, and is, accordingly, the story of five days. It is divided into five parts, each of which parts is limited to one day.

There are from ninety to one hundred characters in the story: sick persons, pilgrims, priests, nuns, hospitallers, nurses, and peasants; and the book shows Lourdes under every aspect. There are the piscinas, the processions, the grotto, the churches at night, the people in the streets. It is, in one word, Lourdes in its entirety. In this canvas is worked out a very delicate central intrigue, as in "Dr. Pascal," and around this are many little stories or subsidiary plots. There is the story of the sick person who gets well, of the person who is not cured, and so on. The philosophical idea which pervades the whole book is the idea of human suffering, the exhibition of the desperate and despairing sufferers who, abandoned by science and by man, address themselves to a higher power in the hope of relief: as where parents have a dearly

*Lourdes. By Emile Zola. Translated by E. A.Vizetelly. Chicago: F. Tennyson Neely. 1894.

loved daughter dying of consumption, who has been given up, and for whom nothing remains but death.

A sudden hope, however, breaks in upon them: "Supposing that after all there should be a power greater than that of man, higher than that of science." They will haste to try this last chance of safety. It is the instinctive hankering after the lie which creates human credulity.

I will admit that I came across some instances of real cure. Many cases of nervous disorders have undoubtedly been cured, and there have also been other cases which may perhaps be attributed to errors of diagnosis on the part of doctors who attend the patients so cured. Often a patient is described by his doctor as suffering from consumption. He goes to Lourdes and is cured. However, the probability is that the doctor made a mistake. In my own case I was at one time suffering from a violent pain in my chest, which presented all the symptoms of angina pectoris, a mortal malady. It was nothing of the sort; indigestion, doubtless, and, as such, curable. Remember that most of the sick persons who go to Lourdes come from the country, and that the country doctors are not usually men of either great skill or great experience. But all doctors mistake symptoms. Put three doctors together to discuss a case, and in nine cases out of ten they will disagree in their diagnosis. Look at the quantities of tumors, swellings, and sores which cannot be properly classified. These cures are based on the ignorance of the medical profession. The sick claim to believe that they suffer from such and such a desperate malady, whereas it is from some other malady that they are suffering. And so the legend forms itself. And, of course, there must be cures out of so large a number of cases. Nature often cures without medical aid. Certainly, many of the workings of nature are wonderful, but they are not supernatural. The Lourdes miracles can neither be proved nor denied. The miracle is based on human ignorance. And so the doctor who lives at Lourdes, and who is commissioned to register the cures and to tabulate the miracles, has a very careless time of it. A person comes, and gets cured. He has but to get three doctors together to examine the case. They will disagree as to what was the disease from which the patient suffered, and the only explanation left that will be acceptable to the public, with its hankering after the lie, is that a miracle has been vouchsafed.

I interviewed a number of people at Lourdes, and could not find one who would declare that he had witnessed a miracle. All the cases which I describe in my book are real cases, in which I have only changed the names of the persons concerned. In none of these instances was I able to discover any real proof for or against the miraculous nature of the cure. Thus, in the case of Clementine Trouve, who figures in my story as Sophie-the patient who, after suffering for a long time from a horrid open sore on her foot, was suddenly cured, according to current report, by bathing her foot in the piscina, where the bandages fell off, and her foot was entirely restored to a healthy condition. I investigated that case thoroughly. I was told that there were three or four ladies living in Lourdes who could guarantee the facts as stated by little Clementine.

I looked up those ladies. The first said no, she could not vouch for anything. She had seen nothing. I had better consult somebody else. The next answered in the same way, and nowhere was I able to find any corroboration of the girl's story. Yet the little girl did not look like a liar, andI believe that she was fully convinced of the miraculous nature of her cure. It is the "facts" which themselves lie.

Lourdes, the grotto, the cures, the miracles are indeed the creation of the need of the lie, that necessity for credulity which is a characteristic of human nature. At first when the little Bernadette came with her strange story of what she had witnessed everybody was against her. The prefect of the department, the bishop, the clergy objected to her story. But Lourdes grew up in spite of all opposition just as the Christian religion did, because suffering humanity in its despair must cling to something, must have some hope; and, on the other hand, because humanity thirsts after illusions. In a word it is the story of the foundation of all religions.

The story, while realistically vivid in its portrayals, is free from the "sexual realism" which has made Zola so objectionable to many. It is excellently issued by the publisher and for many reasons eminently merits perusal by physicians.

BREAD FROM STONES.*-The "Western Druggist" says with equal truth and humor anent this wild exploitation of antique fancies in modern paranoiac guise:

Our

The author of this brochure, although not so indicated in the title page, is the author of "Macrobiotic," hence the reader is not disappointed when looking for a continuation of bizarre views. All previous notions on fertilizing soils are condemned in toto; all our theories are based on false premises; the use of phosphates, nitrates, ammonium and potassium salts, etc., is worse than useless, and manure and guano not alone that but filthy. artificial fertilizing methods have led to unhealthy crops, if abundant; are the cause of parasitic infection; produce unwholesome food. Lacking in proper normal constituents our present foods are deficient, and hence directly are the cause of the degeneracy of the human race as well as of our domestic animals. only natural and logically correct fertilizer is natural rock, such as quartz, porphyry, granite, gneiss, etc., all reduced to fine powder and "mixed scientifically by a competent person." "Fertilizing with stone-meal will in future give us normal and healthy crops and fodder," and eradicate the diseases flesh now is heir to.

The

MANTON'S EMBRYOLOGICAL SYLLABUS.-Is an excellent condensation of embryology for the use of physicians in connection with the study of obstetrics and gynecology. It is terse, clear, exact and well worth purchase and perusal.

Bread from Stones. A New and Rational System of Land Fertilization and Physical Regeneration. Translated rom the German. Philadelphia: A. J. Tafel. 1894. +Syllabus of Lectures on Human Embryology. By Walter Porter Manton, M. D. Philadelphia: The F. A. Davis Co. 1894.