in the book of Morgan. However, that does not cut any special figure in the story save as a basis of operations. The book plays about a character. who is inducted into realms within the center of the earth, where all the known laws of physics are suspended, and, indeed, in many places go to the exact contrary. It is a well-written book and is in the author's well-known, erudite style. It will hold the reader to the last chapter. We are given to understand that the proceeds of the sale of these books of Professor Lloyd's are being applied to building or the paying for a building for housing a free gift of a library from Professor Lloyd, and that the amount already received is almost sufficient to insure the full payment.

Globules.

-It is reported that forty thousand people die every year in Germany from cancer.

-Five millions of people are reported to have died in India within the last five years from famine and conditions induced thereby.

-In Porto Rico the illegitimate births are as many as the legimate. The death rate, in a recent observation, reached fifty-three per thousand in one month.

In operations on alcoholic subjects it is often necessary to watch the patient carefully, because delirium tremens may occur after any severe injury or operation, even in patients who have not touched alcohol for several weeks.

-A case of delirium tremens is reported, where a fatal result seemed imminent. The hot normal salt solution, nearly a quart in quantity, was introduced into the median cephalic vein, with immediately beneficial results and rapid recovery.

-There are about 2,500 hospitals and asylums in the United States. These give employment to 65,000 people and pay over $23,000,000 in salaries. These hospitals have 300,000 beds, are attended by 37,500 physicians, and treat over 1,000,000 patients during the year.

-The Round Table Club is forming in Cleveland, being a semi-social club composed of physicians whose object is, first, the getting together of the men; then, the advancement of mutual professional interests. It has been a long day since the professional brethren of Cleveland have been able to meet around the same table. The effort was honestly made to break down existing barriers, and bring about a better understanding among the profession. Opposition was of course expected in some

quarters; but ultimately the proper and best interests of all the profession will dominate, and the sectional strife and hatred be a thing of the past. Two meetings have already been held and much good feeling evinced.

-A doctor in Texas claims that immediate relief from the desire for whisky can be obtained by dropping a few drops of the tincture of cinchona on the root of the tongue. The common belief of the profession, a few years ago, was that the tincture of red cinchona was a specific to the whisky habit.

-In the use of cocaine by intraspinal injection, where anesthesia of the lower portion of the body and the lower limbs is desired, over one thousand cases are now reported. There has been one death, at least one case of septic poisoning, and many cases of violent sympathetic disturbance. In no case has there been any paralysis or subsequent degeneration of the nerve centers.

-The permanganate of potassium has, for some time past, been suggested as an immediate antidote to the influence of morphine and other organic poisons. A foreign writer recently suggests the permanganate of sodium as fully as effective as the potassium salt, and devoid of any poisonous properties in anything but enormous doses.

-The repeated use of chloroform as an anæsthetic in any one case is thought to exercise so depressing an effect on the heart that dilatation to a greater or less degree is almost sure to follow if the agent is persisted in. If this be true, the influence of a single administration of chloroform upon the heart will remain after the remedy is withdrawn and heart tonics are undoubtedly indicated.

He

-Dr. Cummings advocates the introduction the of small pieces of ice into the rectum in claims to have seen cases of morphine poisthe treatment of narcotic poisoning. oning quickly relieved where ice had been introduced, but as atropine and other measures were used at the same time it was difficult to attribute all of the benefits to the ice. He reports, in Merck's Archives, a case of chloral poisoning, and a case of asphyxia from coal gas, where prompt relief followed immediately upon the introduction of ice into the

rectum.

The American Homeopathist. ISSUED TWICE A MONTH. This journal is published for its subscribers only, and has no free list. Sample copies are never sent. Subscriptions are not discontinued until so ordered. A. L. CHATTERTON & CO., Publishers.

going, when, on getting there, they would likely find themselves in the middle of a hornet's nest of exceeding proportions, where everything else but the best interests of the homeopathic profession would be in the lead. Some of the sections were poorly attended mainly because the faithful homeopaths who usually attend and help to build up these sections preferred to stay at home, while the unpolitical politicians came under pledge, voted, and-went home again. For of course this latter is the chief obligation resting upon anyone in membership with the great American Institute of Homeopathy. There were any number of members within the radius of a hundred miles of Richfield who would not come, for they believed the field would be one of politics, and not of homeopathy. Cleveland, as usual, and all Ohio, as also usual, sent to Richfield those, mainly, who had a political ax to grind. The success of the medical meetings of the Institute and of the prosperity of homeopathy formed but little part in their plans in going to New York State.

E

THE INSTITUTE'S DEAD.

IGHTEEN members of the American Institute of Homeopathy passed over the Great Divide last year, including Henry M. Smith. It is now becoming more and more improbable that any distinctive memorial service for our dead will ever again be held. And such a pity that Henry Smith had to pass out of the memory of the Institute, which he loved, and which he did so much to build and sustain, without even a passing eulogy from those who were too busy with the election and other far more exceeding and important things of this world,

to give even a dozen lines to his memory, and for those who had ceased from their labors and are at rest. But a turn will come in this present tide of affairs in the American Institute. It will not always be dominated by the policy of politics and the seeking for office. Other and nobler aims will again at no distant day be in the ascendant. Do we prophesy truly?

Materia Medica Miscellany.

Conducted by J. WILFORD ALLEN, M. D., 110 West 12th Street, New York.

References in this department are made by number. (See issues of January 1st or December 15th each year.)

Verbascum in Neuralgia.

Erastus E. Case, M. D., in Medical Advance, gives the case of a black-haired widow, aged thirty-six, who had long been over-worked, sewing, and her life made miserable by neuralgia.

The following were the symptoms: Tearing, stitching pain about the left ear, downward and inward for the most part; numbness of the outer ear; dullness of hearing in left (painful) ear; sensation of heavy pressure on the vertex; shivers run up the back and left side with the pain; irritable and despondent.

January 1, 1900.-One powder verbascum thapsus, I m, taken in four doses three hours interval, cured.

Silica in Occipital Neuralgia.

A. L. Blackwood: Mr. L., aged forty-five years, for the past ten years had been suffering from a constant pain extending from the nape of the neck up behind the right ear. It was throbbing in character, relieved by pressure and wrapping the head up warmly, but returned at once if the wraps were removed. One dose of silica 200, each night for three nights, was the prescription. In two weeks the patient reported himself free from pain for the first time in ten

often noticed in schoolgirls-a remedy that has not been proven by any female, at least not to my knowledge. (What a great work is left here. for the ladies.) The remedy in question being ceanothus. I refer to leucorrhoea, a sequence of a condition, with other symptoms which had led me to give this remedy.

The patient is weak, anæmic; dragging pains in the back; pain in region of spleen; can scarcely wear corset-its pressure aggravates the pain; loss of appetite; pale, flabby tongue, with a general weakness.

The leucorrhoea generally is of a light color, and the patient always complains that it makes her so weak. Headache frequently attends the above symptoms.

When you administer this remedy, give one dose of the potency selected, and let it act as long as it will; then, if required, repeat, but use a higher potency. In the intervals give placebo.

I certainly have been greatly pleased with this treatment in a number of cases. If cases could be treated early, and with the properly selected remedy, and using the high art in medicine,— that is, its mode of administration,-we would see a great deal less of gross pathology. Kali Permanganate for Spasmodic Croup.

Dr. Sleght of Newark, N. J.: 22 About six years ago announced to some fellow-practitioners that, after using permanganate of potash successfully for spasmodic croup for some months, he felt certain it could be relied upon as a sure cure. Many who have since used it on his recommendation have testified to its efficacy. He says: I began using it in cases of laryngismus stridulus, after observing its effects upon a case of diphtheria involving the windpipe, and have never known it to fail to bring speedy, complete, and gentle relief to the croup paroxysms. Administer by dissolving just enough to give a cherry red color to a glass of water-and oneeighth of a grain is enough for this-giving one teaspoonful every five or ten minutes.

Before the fifth dose the crowing has ceased and the child sleeps; no vomiting; no two-hour session with lime salts, spongia or kali bich., with a sleepy doctor on one side the crib and an anxious mother on the other. The fact that the remedy is often curative in laryngeal diphtheria is an additional reason for its use, as there is often room for doubt about the diagnosis.

My practice is to use this remedy for the paroxysm of crowing only-and to depend upon acon., hepar, spongia, kali bich., etc., to subdue the laryngitis or other causes, as it has seemed that the sphere of influence" of kali perm. is limited to this condition.

THE ARTIFICIAL FEEDING OF SICK BABIES.*

By ROBERT N. TOOKER, M. D., Chicago.

A fairly reasonable construction of this subject would open up the whole field of baby feeding by artificial methods or foods. As a primary proposition it may be said that all foods excepting breast milk are alien foods to the newly born-unnatural, artificial.

Human infants are intended by nature to nurse and be nourished by the human mother. If this mother is young and healthy, and the child is well born, there need be no open question about infantile diet, either in health or sickness, during babyhood, or at least during the first year of life.

It is no exaggeration to say that seventy-five per cent. of sick babies are sick because they are not properly fed. In this estimate I leave out the poorly born, the poorly housed, and the victims of acute infectious diseases.

I propose only to consider such cases as would properly come under the care of the physicians because of some aberration of digestion.

The baby is sick; it does not grow; it is not happy. Our therapeutic remedies are impotent unless we can secure adequate nourishment.

Every day, and everywhere, we meet cases in which the cure of our case depends not so much on drugs as on food. The baby needs food that it can assimilate and make blood, flesh, and bones out of. It does not matter so much what medicine we give, or in what potency. What the sick baby needs is not belladonna, but blood; not arsenicum, but assimilation; not stramonium, but strength; not a prescription according to some accepted formula, but simply food regardless of formula.

And here our trouble begins, and it comes when we endeavor to provide a substitute for natural food, and try to imitate nature by artificial means.

That science has done much in this direction must be confessed. But it must also be admitted that science, with all its vaunted triumphs, has not as yet completely solved the problem.

That efforts in this direction have been made with industry is evidenced by the fact that there are over fifty commercial foods now on the market, each striving for supremacy.

If this spirit of commercialism had not so pervaded everything, even to the baby's diet, the question would be greatly simplified; but when so many foods are presented for our choice we are liable to be lost in a maze of bewildering doubt. This is especially true if we believe the manufacturer's statement that his particular food

*Section in Pedology, Am. Inst. of Hom:, 1901.

is a perfect counterpart of mother's milk; that its chemical constituents are identical with it, as evidenced by the accompanying comparative analysis.

One of the leading heresies of the day is the belief in substitution. There is not a greater fallacy extant than that taught by the modern chemist, that whatever is alike in chemical equivalents is coequal in food value.

We are constantly being deceived in practice by therapeutical drugs produced by synthesis that are by no means as reliable as the corresponding drug obtained in the natural way.

Salicylic acid when produced from coal-tar may be exactly like salicylic acid derived from wintergreen, but it does not act the same, and will not yield the same results when given to a patient suffering from rheumatism or gout.

cisely alike in their chemical analyses, and yet Illuminating gas and attar of roses are precisely alike in their chemical analyses, and yet they are very different in their utility.

When we come to the feeding of babies, whether sick or well, the fact confronts us that there is no such thing as a perfect substitute for the food fresh from a human breast. Art has not yet succeeded in the attempt. All substitutes are but feeble imitations, and oftentimes abortive failures.

MODIFIED MILK.

The cow's milk is essentially different from human milk and requires dilution, or rather modification, has long been apparent to all intelligent persons the world over. The reasons for this are too well known to be dwelt upon here. But I wish to emphasize the statement that the best, if not the only successful attempt to effect this modification by scientific methods, was by Von Leibig and by those who follow his method as a commercial enterprise. Mellin's Food, so called, comes nearer to Von Leibig's idea than any other with which I am familiar; but Mellin's Food must be given with fresh milk, according to directions, to be successful as a baby food. It cannot be mixed with condensed milk, nor added to desiccated beef without destroying its efficacy as a substitute for mother's milk.

The fact cannot be stated too forcibly that in the preparation of all baby foods the milk should be heated to body temperature only. It should not be boiled nor sterilized, nor Pasteurized, but good fresh milk from a healthy herd of cows must be given in its raw or uncooked state.

A few years ago, however, the attempt was made to separate the milk into its constituent elements and reunite them in such proportions as would more nearly approach the relative percentages found in human milk. To effect this

result the milk of the cow was put through a centrifugal machine and the cream separated from the milk. Then the sugar and the casein were disassociated, and the busy doctor was expected to write a prescription stating the exact amount of fat, nitrogenous matters, and salts, such as he thought would answer the requirements of the particular baby he had in mind. The chemist in his laboratory was supposed to rehabilitate these dissected elements and make a milk "just like mother used to make." But it never worked, and it never will work, because it is purely theoretical, and is founded on a fallacy, and the fallacy is so bald and so apparent that it is astonishing that scientific men should ever have indorsed it. It presumes that nature is always and everywhere duplicating her products according to fixed and immutable laws.

The fact is that a nursing infant never gets two meals that are exactly alike, because the milk varies during every nursing.

The milk that has been long in the breast is not so good as that freshly secreted, and that of the early morning is better than that later in the day. True, the variations are not great, but they exist, as every physiologist knows. The laboratory milk is fixed immutably. It is inflexible, and unless prepared specially for each. feeding and varied while being taken it is contrary to nature.

I am not alone in this opinion of laboratory or, as it is sometimes called, "percentage feeding." Dr. Louis Fischer, in his recent work (1901) on "Infant Feeding," says (page 109): "The sentiments expressed at the last meeting of the Academy of Medicine by Dr. A. Jacobi coincide with my views. My experience has been that children fed on laboratory milk have been backward in their development after its use for a long time. When first used children suffered with severe constipation; later a distinct atony of the stomach and bowels was seen, and finally rickets developed. Such children always looked pale, were anæmic, and their flesh was flabby. As these cases were among the wealthy, with the best possible hygienic surroundings and careful nursing, the cause could only be looked for in the method of feeding. The percentage method of feeding has always appeared to me plausible in theory, but it cannot be applied in practice. It is a fact well known to chemists, that once an emulsion of milk is broken up by centrifuging or other mechanical process, as in separating the top-milk from the skim-milk, we cannot have again as homogeneous an emulsion as prior to this breaking up of the same.

And, moreover, we add to the trouble when we in addition seek to improve the quality of the milk by subjecting it to the process of sterilization."

Dr. Cheadle, a London authority on dietetics, expresses similar views.

The more we meddle with fresh cow's milk, except to dilute it, the more we injure it. The natural food of an infant is not boiled, sterilized, nor Pasteurized.

In the artificial feeding of infants, we must follow nature as closely as we can. The attempt to destroy hypothetical germs by problematical (i. e., laboratory) methods has thus far been a failure, and we are just getting to know the reason why.

The most recent experiments bearing on this question show that raw foods are far preferable to foods which are cooked or sterilized. Thus Richet and Hérecourt announced at the meeting of the Paris Société de Biologie, January 2, 1900, that they inoculated a number of dogs with tuberculosis more than six months previous. One-third were fed with ordinary food, and all died in three or four weeks; another set with cooked meat, with about the same results; while the third group was fed exclusively on raw meat, and all these latter have survived to date and are in good health. These experiments were made on 328 dogs, so that there was a good opportunity to judge of the results.

The conclusion is almost inevitable that cooked meat, cooked bouillon, and cooked milk form a culture medium for pathogenic germs, while raw-meat juice kills them. This conclusion is in accord with the experiments of Dr. Freudenreich, by which he claims to prove that fresh raw milk possesses remarkable germicidal properties.

He has demonstrated that the bacillus of cholera, when put into fresh cow's milk, dies in an hour; the bacillus of typhoid fever in less than twenty-four hours; while other germs die much quicker than when put into cooked foods. It is also stated that milk which has been heated to a temperature of 131° loses all germicidal properties.

We must, I think, conclude that the ultrascientific treatment of cow's milk by heat over and above the normal body heat has been a mistake; that raw milk and raw meat juice are preferable to similar foods in wholly or partially cooked state.

With this prolonged and perhaps tedious introduction, let us consider the artificial feeding of sick babies.

If the baby's condition indicates that previous feeding is at fault, we must correct this fault as a primary proposition.

It may be that the food has been too strong; if so, we must thin it. If the feedings have been too frequent we must prolong the intervals and give water at alternate feedings.

If milk is passed in curds we must stop feed