deed royal sport-if you didn't happen to belong to either side. It began several months ago, even as far back as Washington, if not at Atlantic City, and culminated at Richfield Springs. There will perhaps never again in the history of the American Institute of Homeopathy be brought together so many prime causes of dissent and consent as at the recently adjourned sessions. The immediate battle raged for days preceding the actual materializing of the American Institute. Many of the attendants upon the independent organizations held over from their adjournment in order to take an active part in the

election battle. Men came as late as Thursday morning, just in time to cast their ballot, and disappeared again with the first train thereafter. Every conceivable measure was pressed into service to serve the end of the opponents. And thus laboring the Titanic host spent its waking hours-and there was no sleep from Monday to Thursday morning-until twelve of that day sounded from the village steeple. Then the ensanguined hosts threw down their battered arms, and again became the American Institute of Homeopathy. The seething camp of politicians, as by the touch of a magic wand, disappeared, and in its place arose the Brethren of Homeopathy. Then it was presently known that Dr. James C. Wood of Cleveland had been elected President by a very handsome majority, and Dr. Charles Gatchell of Chicago the General Secretary-not quite so handsomely attended with a majority vote, but enough, yes indeed, quite large enough, to bring him under the wire, a sure winner. And these are our new officers. Being good Americans, and, as well, good American Institute of Homeopathy members, we stand by the ballot, and welcome these gentlemen and physicians as and for our new chief officers for the ensuing year; and promise to do all in our editorial power to make their official work a success.

ONG before the Institute formally disbanded on Saturday afternoon, the acrimony of the campaign had measurably subsided, and saner methods of action and speech, and less of personal invective, had obtained. It would be an easy matter to prophesy backwards, and point out how this heated battle was lost-and won. But of what avail? Many, full many, have been the things done and undone, the words said and implied in the most recent past of the Institute life that could be held up to justifiable execration and deserved contumely. But, again, of what avail? There was as much thunder on the one political side as there was lightning on the other. The issues were well defined. There could be no doubt of that. No one was left long in doubt as to which side in the contest he must

take. Deplorable things were said and done in the heat of the campaign, as they always are in any political campaign. The American was in his element. He had friends to reward and enemies to punish. And he minced neither words nor actions looking to that end. The welfare of the Institute, nay, the

ends of the earth, lay in jeopardy. Both sides fought a "machine." After all, it was but that overmastering power of the fighting blood which inheres in every American, take him wherever you find him: that blood which fights his enemies, sometimes his kindred, nay, himself at times; that blood which made so famous the Blue and the Gray of our own dear land; but when the battle was ended the Blue and the Gray, like the brothers they are, and always have been, became again in actuality brothers once more, serving under the same Old Glory. There is no gingerbread-soldier about the American. There was no pretense about the American Institute membership in the battle just closed. It was give and take, and with a large

awaiting its grist in the hopper! It will forever destroy the American Institute. And why? If the movers of this plan had been really solicitous for the good of the Institute, and not so much for the specialism which each member of that committee represented, why did they propose to make an independent organization of each department; each such department electing its own President, Secretary, and other officers; taking care of its records; and then tendering its share of cost of printing their special Transactions in the American Institute Transactions? Under the proposed reorganization the Specialty Departments are THE Institute! For they leave but one section in that Institute and over which the President of that Institute has any control-namely the section in Materia Medica and Therapeutics! Everything else in the way of appointments of chairmen is cut away from Dr. Wood. The office of President is made as colorless as that of Governor of Ohio.

UT the graver peril is this: that the sections

No one knew absolutely at the closing of the polls on the eagles of which party victory would descend. But when the fighting was done, the brotherly feeling came back; and the erstwhile fierce combatants, who would not look at each other as they passed and repassed on the Earlington porch, or in the dining room, sat them down in snug, cool corners, above and below stairs, chatted about old times, rushed" the three-legged loving-cup, and recounted the camp scenes as true soldiers always do. They left Richfield Springs better and stronger men and better homeopaths than when they came.

AN

66

MONG the business transacted-or rather proposed, and, in effect, transacted-because proposed and put into the hopper by the successful majority, for next session, when it will be transacted with a whoop and a hurrah-was the Runnels' proposition to return the independent sections to the Institute; to wipe out the present sections of a similar name and intent; to unite them again with the American Institute of Homeopathy; and so remove from it all danger of immediate or ultimate disintegration. On one morning of the early sessions a palpably burlesque resolution was introduced calling for the formation of an independent section, The General Practitioner's Society, with officers, obligations, duties, fees, times of down-sitting and uprising, and so forth. Runnels' proposition was the outcome of that resolution, as was previously well understood it would be. But, alas, for the honesty of intent of the Runnels' Resolution, if carried into execution as proposed, and as now

to select their own time and place when to sit and have their love-feasts, provided only that they shall begin with the regular Institute date and shall not fail to properly curt'sy to the Institute at stated times. After that, each section may meet at any time, at any place, sit as long as it wants to, irrespective of every other section. So that the old, old complaint will be heard, that the Double O.'s & L. fellows have no audience because the Gynecology fellows have taken away the best timber. The Obstetric fellows and fellowesses will "kick " because Materia Medica is set for the same hour. And so on. And so forth. Do we not all remember this old plaint so many, many, many times sounded in our ears? And now we offer deliberately to go back to that ancient vomit, and hope to overcome the difficulty by equally deliberately declaring that our section is the section; that we will take the best time and place we can lay our hands on, and the devil take all the rest,-if he wants them,—especially the Materia Medica folks. What do we care! If these gentlemen, Specialists and Members of the Institute, had had any time to look over the last programme, they might have seen that there was an abundance of time for each section; and more could have been had, ii needed, for there were spare hours to burn. What the American Institute should object to, and most decidedly, is the attempt to let any one section run the whole. The departments now recognized as quasi-independent-and which in themselves were so many slaps in the face of the Mother Institute-could easily be reorganized under the present Institute plan, and abundant

time given for their deliberations. Nay, it might even be agreed to let each department sit as long and as fast and as hard as it pleased, if that also pleased the rest of the Institute best. But to make that department absolutely and arbitrarily independent of the Institute in the selection and election of its officers, and its dictation to the Institute as to what part or all of its proceedings MUST be printed,-because forsooth they offer to pay their pro rata of the expense,is only another and far more dangerous project for absolutely destroying the American Institute. Has not the American Medical Association had this plan in trial for years; and has it not come to such notable grief that it is again tinkering with its by-laws in the hope to amend this most grievous fault and thus bring the membership once more together as a whole? Let the Runnels Committee forget its specialism in dealing with this dangerous question, and work from the standpoint of mere membership in the American Institute.

NOTHER matter of business has been shoved into this same hopper, and, unless carefully watched, will be pushed through next year-because, if the same forces are present at Cleveland as were at Richfield Springs, and unless our new President takes a firm and patriotic hold on his gavel, everything this year and next year proposed will go with a musical swing and a dull thud. And this has reference to a resolution or amendment offered by the only Bushrod James, to increase the salary of the Recording Secretary. A little boy had a new ten-cent piece in his breeches-pocket, and it burned, and it burned, and it burned, until he took it out and spent it. The Institute, under the extraordinary effort and stress made for a large meeting at Richfield Springs, has been enabled to add several extra dollars to its exchequer. Now we will emulate the Denver act, and give it away to our friends! For to the Victors belong the Spoils! But let us think this matter over a bit. If the Runnels' Reorganization becomes a fact and a law, as it doubtlessly will under the "if" several times hereinbefore stated, then each department of medicine and specialty of the Institute will elect its own President, Vice Presidents, Secretary, General and Recording Secretary, and other officers; it will take care of its own stenographer; prepare its own record; and when completed will hand that to the General Secretary of American Institute, with the command that that be printed, in its entirety, and not submitted to a Publication Committee which, on this or that specialty, doesn't know beans when the bag is open. Will the best friend of the proposed increase of salary of the

officer referred to-to wit: Bushrod James, and his suggestor and abettor-then say why that Recording Secretary should have additional pay, when his actual services will now be reduced to the hiring of One stenographer for the One remaining American Institute Section: that of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and a watchingout for the General Sessions? Why, look you, Bushrod James & Co., some economically inclined Institute member, some watchdog of its treasury, with a proper second, might, and with much real truth too, say that the newly elected able and active General Secretary, Dr. Gatchell, could just as easily do that part of it, and so cut out the subsidiary office entirely; thereby not only not adding several hundred "plunks" to the tax duplicate of the American Institute, but in reality cut out a very large and appreciable amount entirely. Under the Runnels' Reorganization there will be no longer any need for a Recording Secretary of the American Institute of Homeopathy.

A

VERY nasty snarl has already developed.. The place-of-meeting was the practical fighting-ground of the whole session. Effort upon effort was made to arrange this matter so that no future Executive Committee could ever again subvert the expressed will of the Institute: in convention assembled. It was postponed from one day to another on a special order. When it came up at last, after suggestions and suggestions, after wary sparring and parliamentary rapiering, it resolved itself into a pronounced wish that, because of the abundant and apparent success of the present session in a watering-place, away from the attractions and distractions of a large, hot city-with a possible bear-garden adjacent, the Institute go not to a city-George Peck even trying to make it strong by qualifying with the word "large." Dr. Kinne, Dr. Cowperthwaite, Dr. Peck, Dr. Allen, and a number of those present and participating in this debate understood the motion as several times amended, and eventually substituted and again changed to be, That the Institute leave the choice of the next place of meeting to the incoming Executive Committee and that no city be selected. Thus the motion was put, and so the vote was taken. This, too, was the understanding of President Norton, who presided and put the motion; and he was wonderfully astonished to learn, within a half-dozen hours after the adjournment, that the party in power would next year take the Institute to Cleveland, where it was needed! The snarl was undoubtedly precipitated and intensified by the several motions of Bushrod James, who insisted upon considering the present motion as a con

tinuation of the motion made on a preceding day-at which time it was the intention, then and there, and at that very moment, to carry the place of meeting, while the large audience was in attendance. At that time, several places, Cleveland among others, had been placed in nomination; but because of the absence of certain deeply interested people who were necessarily engaged in other far more important matters, it was deemed best not to take action, but to make "the selection of a place of meeting" the Special Order for the day and hour subsequently specified.. And there stands the snarl. Make the best of it, gentlemen. President Norton insists, and so do the mover and seconders, that the motion as carried was that no large city, nor indeed any city, but the rather a wateringplace or springs should be selected by the incoming Executive Committee. We greatly fear that the incoming Executive Committee has shouldered itself with as serious a problem as the last Executive Committee had to confront. The question is by no means settled. And it will grow larger and more formidable as the days glide swiftly by. The membership at Richfield Springs were amply entertained-they were satisfied in every particular: hotel, vaudeville, and railways; and enjoyed the immunity from distracting side-shows and hot-brick sidewalks and cribbed, cabined, and confined opera-houses and public halls. Now to again undo the will of the people will be a dangerous experiment.

Sit

O far as the Hotel Earlington was concerned, it would have been difficult to have selected a better place as and for our caravansary. For a day or two after the great mass of the Institute poured in there was a bit of confusion; but quickly, under the able direction of Mr. Earle, and the competent executive ability of his aids, order was brought out of chaos, and thereafter no more trouble was found. The table was uniformly excellent; the service quick and intelligent; and in every way the hotel personnel was fine. The entertainment provided by the Hotel Earlington was ample and choice. There were hops and progressive-euchre parties and private dinners; and outside the hotel other modes of passing the hours for those who were not actively engaged in politics or Institute matters. The vaudeville performance was interesting, and greatly enjoyed. The railway bringing this large horde of people was the Lackawanna in especial, which put special cars on for those who wanted to reach the Springs quicker than by the ordinary route. It seemed a little difficult to find the proper road; but when once disentangled from the wooden-headed cross-roads agent

with his abracadabra of a railway guide, it was the plainest of plain kind of sailing. From the West, and especially from Cleveland, the Nickel Plate lived up to its former well-earned reputation as a prompt, efficient, and well-equipped railway. We heard no complaint, except that of excessive heat, for which we are free to say we do not hold Mr. Horner, the general passenger agent, and his assistants, responsible.

THE

*

HE Memorial Service was feelingly conducted by Dr. Kinne, and he always does so, with the pro tem. Necrologist, Dr. Cowperthwaite. Dr. Walton delivered an impressive oration, with the somewhat novel innovation of introducing funny points, producing much laughter. But that is Walton. Dr. Bailey produced an elaborate and ornate paper in honor of our dead. A lady singer did well until she gave us that good old hymn, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" to rag-time, or what sounded like it. And poor Henry Smith, who but the year before conducted these services, who loved this work, he, of the indefatigable purpose, the tender sympathy, and noble heart, he was dismissed with a line in the Necrologist's report! The dead-oh, well, the dead are dead! On with the dance-or, rather, with the election!

WE

JE take to ourselves a good deal of credit -that was all there was left for us to take; everything else had been theretofore previously taken for taking this meeting away from Niagara Falls. It had been so often and so dolorously prophesied that no meeting could be held in that away-from-civilization, uphill, inland village; that the members would not go to such a place; that they wanted the exhilaration and excitement of a circus and a bear-garden to enliven the perfunctory proceedings of the Institute. Hence the meeting at Richfield Springs must needs prove a failure. But it was not a failure. There was life there of the very liveliest kind. The blood circulated as it had not done for more than a twelvemonth preceding. There was a large and enthusiastic turn-out of members and their better-halves. We believe there was some circus and also some bear-dancing and fireworks before the close of the sessions. Hence we again dare to question whether a meeting at Niagara Falls would have been nearly as productive of a good meeting as this has proven. The postalcard vote, after all, proved the true voice of the Institute. And yet how that remnant host, on the last morning of the sessions, shied at the proposition to submit a certain question to the

postal-card method! Not by several jug-fulls, said these apprehensive and fairly frenzied people. The seventeen hundred and odd members of the Institute who did not attend have no rights in that Institute, except to pay annually five dollars, and browse in the printed eloquence of the thirty or forty who speak each year, in every section, detailing much concerning their own exceeding greatness and technique. A man. who will not take a two-weeks' vacation in his very busiest time, spend fifty or sixty dollars to go to a distant point to listen to the forensic abilities of shop-worn talkers and moth-balled Professors, has no rights in this homeopathic Institute. He should be rigorously excluded from the emoluments all and singular of this Institute the election of officers, the placing of the next meeting, and all o' that, and all o' that.

He should be permitted nothing except the privilege of paying annually and with exceeding great dispatch his five dollars. And perhaps he will continue so to do. Perhaps, also, not. Who can tell? Sir?

ND the poor Executive Committee which did what it could to make the Richfield Springs meeting a success was permitted to go out of office without so much as a thank you, darn you! But they must have smiled almost audibly when the powers now in the saddle put everything again in the hands of the Executive Committee -that same power which in the recent past had been so perniciously wielded. It was, after all, merely the other fellow's ox which was being gored. And the Executive Committee is all right. But we will see. They have undertaken

tacitly, and perhaps with actual expression of purpose, the straightening out of a number of vexing problems which may, before the advent of another session of the Institute cause some very large and horny excrescences to develop on the inside of that tinsel crown. It will take some marvelously good sailing this coming twelvemonth to steer clear of the breakers that lie hidden in the raging main of the American Institute. It behooves every good American Institute member to help, to his best endeavor, the officers who have charge of the great ship. We must throw overboard all personal feeling. The Captain has been chosen, and it lies with us, our fortunes, nay, our very lives, that that good ship shall safely ride the tempestuous sea and reach its haven safe and sure-in security and peace. The war is over. The battle won. Off with the war paint. The swords are beaten into reaping hooks. The habiliments of peace once

more bedeck the Genius of the American Institute of Homeopathy. And it was good to have been at Richfield Springs.

PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA.*

By H. F. BIGGAR, M. D., Cleveland, Ohio.

The report of a rare clinical case may possibly prove of interest to the profession and at the same time instructive, not because of its infrequency of occurrence, but on account of its unusually formidable character and successful termination.

A gentleman, aged seventy-five, of a very vigorous constitution and free from any inherited or acquired taint, in early life had endured many hardships, was very industrious in his business, and had accumulated great wealth. Of late years he was leading a life of enjoyment, spending his summers and winters in the fashionable resorts

of Europe or America. His health was usually most excellent, except for occasional attacks of gout. During this last January he had an attack. of la grippe, which ended in bronchial pneumonia. A few days after recovery from this there followed acute gastritis and catarrhal appendicitis. Three weeks after this last attack he had gout, complicated with inflammatory rheumatism. During the severity of the rheumatic attack signs of purpura hemorrhagica began to develop; appearing first upon the genitals, then the thighs, then the body, face, forehead, scalp, eyelids, and the mucous surfaces of the mouth, tongue, larynx, nose, and throat. The spots at first were quite small and of a bright red color. In twenty-four or thirty-six hours they became larger, some the size of a ten-cent piece and others as large as a silver dollar, which first turned purple, then changed to a dark redThose on dish-brown, and finally became black. the chest and forehead coalesced; the former covering a space as large as the two hands, and the

latter the entire forehead. The swollen and disfigured face presented an unsightly and unusual appearance. The tongue and throat were so swollen and ulcerated that even breathing was accompanied with such distress that tracheotomy was contemplated. It was almost impossible for the patient to swallow even milk. This was a pronounced case of morbus masculosus of Werthof. My experience with this desperate type of disease was limited to only three cases, the two former being of a much milder form.

The case was of much interest to other physicians than myself. At Lakeside Hospital my confrères of the old school regarded the case not only as very anomalous, but hopeless, though many suggestions were offered from their standpoint in respect to the treatment.

A myocarditic complication made us very anxattendance ious, necessitating constant for

* Presented to the Homeopathic Med. Soc. of Ohio, 1901.