been accustomed to use in advertising for her servants so closely, including the proviso as to fees as a substitute for "state wages required," that we wonder she did not add "personal character indispensable," or specify the views as to alcohol and religion which she would prefer in her medical attendant. The answers received should be interesting.

NAPOLEON'S ECZEMA.

By EDMUND ANDREWS.

66

The Memoirs of the Empress Josephine state that Napoleon was tormented" with an eruption of the skin caught by seizing a rammer dropped by a dead artilleryman, who had scabies and was killed at the siege of Toulon. Bonaparte himself made the same statement to Surgeon Warden of the ship Bellerophon, on the voyage to St. Helena. He said that at this siege, near the beginning of his career, two of his gunners were killed, one of whom had the itch. He seized the fallen rammer and loaded the gun, and thereby took the disease, but he was properly treated and cured. The parasitic nature of the disease was not then known.

66

Several months later he developed a chronic eruption, doubtless eczema, which tormented" him at times throughout his entire life. He and all his surgeons, as well as Hereau, one of his family physicians, said, in accordance with the crude medical theories of that period, that the scabies had "receded" or "struck in," in consequence of exposure to storms, and produced his various diseases of the internal organs and also brought on his lifelong eczema.

The Empress' statement that his chronic eruption "tormented" him shows that it was not syphilis, since syphilitic eruptions do not itch. One of his physicians at St. Helena states that he found it necessary to make free use of prolonged hot baths. He rose very early in the morning and sat in the hot water, sometimes hours, while an attendant read a book to him, or his secretary wrote what he dictated. "He was continually reaching for the hot-water faucet," says the physician, to raise the temperature of the water. Often he had a large board tablet laid across the tub, and his breakfast served on it, while he continued to sit in the bath.

Dr. Hereau says the eruption mainly attacked the outer sides of his thighs.

This is perhaps the most prominent case known of severe pruritus treated by heat. Napoleon was a very self-willed patient. He probably found by his own experience that prolonged very hot baths in the morning relieved his distress for the rest of the day, and he is entitled to the priority of the discovery.

PIL 50

An Allopathic

Proving of Terebinthia.

[The following letter is taken from the British Medical Journal]:

In connection with the case recorded in the British Medical Journal of February 9, p. 340, under the above title, the following notes of an instance in which a large quantity of turpentine was taken without ill consequence following may prove of interest. In this instance, however, only a short period elapsed before the stomach was emptied.

On November 3, 1900, S. B., a woman, aged forty-six years, suffering from chronic melancholia with suicidal propensities, obtained access to a bottle containing half a pint of turpentine, the whole contents of which she swallowed. Fifteen minutes elapsed before medical aid was given, there being some doubt as to whether the turpentine had been swallowed or otherwise disposed of.

The

When the patient was seen nothing unusual was noticeable, except the presence of slight reddening of the fauces. odor of turpentine was not perceptible in the breath or on the clothes. An esophageal tube was at once passed, and on entering the stomach, most of the turpentine was expelled. Lavage with cold water was then employed for upwards of being much less pronounced than at first, but still very evihalf an hour, the smell of turpentine at the end of this time dent in the water. The patient was placed in bed rather exhausted, irritation of the larynx during the washing out of the stomach having caused much coughing. A few petechial spots on the forehead were present from the same cause.

Three-quarters of a pint of milk was left in the stomach and an ounce of castor oil was given.

An hour later the patient complained of slight uneasiness in the epigastrium. Beyond this, which passed away in the course of a few hours, there were no subjective symptoms. The urine was passed in natural quantity; there was no trace of albumin, and with the exception of the violet odor of the urine, which, gradually becoming less perceptible, remained, for some forty-eight hours, nothing abnormal was discovered.

Turpentine is said to be rapidly absorbed from the stomach. Looking at the severity of the symptoms produced by j to 3ij of the drug in Dr. Grapel's case, it may be assumed that in the case now recorded a very small quantity was absorbed by the stomach direct in a quarter of an hour, or had passed beyond the reach of the stomach tube, to be absorbed later.

In my case, in the absence of any indication from the state of the patient, and especially in the absence of any smell in the breath, and with the existing doubt as to whether turpentine had actually been taken, the stomach tube was, in the first instance, used not with a view so much to treatment as to diagnosis.

East Riding Asylum, Beverley.

F. S. Stanwell, M. B. Edin.

Similarity between Gaylord's
Cancer Germ and Vaccine Disease.

In the [Indps.] Sun, of May 14, was an interesting account of the discovery of the germ of cancer at the New York State laboratory, at Buffalo, but the most interesting point was left out, and that is that the germ was found to be not only animal in character, but identical with that of vaccine, an unexpected corroboration of my original claim of four years ago, that vaccination causes cancer. Drs. Harvey H. Gaylord and Roswell Park made the discovery, and Dr. Gaylord's 35-page descriptive and illustrated article, a report to the New York legislature, may be found in the May issue of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences. He says: "The organisms can be detected in the blood, and comform closely in appearance to the bodies found in the blood after

vaccination." He also cities Dr. Gorrini's claim that the cancer bodies and the vaccine bodies are the same in appearance, details his tests, and verifies the statement. He calls attention to Funck's article on the cultivation of the vaccine organism (Brit. Med. Jour., February, 1901), and says: “We repeated his experiment and found that the organism of vaccinia, while undergoing development, shows the same phases we had already noted in the organisms observed in the fresh scrapings of cancer, the peritoneal fluid and the blood of cancer patients." Other illustrations could be given from Dr. Gaylord's report, and also from Dr. Park's essay (in Medical Record, May 18.)-W. B. Clarke, M. D.

Book Reviews.

Regional Leaders. By E. B. Nash, M. D. Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. 1901.

This is another of the famous Nash series.

And everything issuing from this author is good, old-fashioned homeopathy. There is never anything of doubtful paternity to be found in any page emanating from the Nash pen. In the present book the characteristics with which the profession is familiar, from having "boned" them at college, are placed in page form, with the name of the remedy in a column in the margin. In order not to have to turn over the page, to see the name of the remedy, or in some other way hide the name of the remedy, a clever little device has been added in the form of a bit of aluminum, just the width of the column, thus covering the names of the remedies and rendering the characteristic reading a test of memory. The book is handsomely gotten up as to type, arrangement, and binding, and makes a pretty little handbook or pocketbook.

Pocket Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Comprising the Characteristic and Cardinal Symptoms of All Remedies. By William Boericke, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the Hahnemann Hospital College of San Francisco: Author of a Compend of the Principles of Homeopathy; Associate Author of the "Twelve Tissue Remedies,' etc., etc. San Francisco : Boericke & Runyon Co. 1901.

There can never be too many homeopathic materia medica text-books, especially when they come to us from so eminent a student, teacher, and practitioner as is this Boericke, who is already well known and famous for his many other ultra-homeopathic books. This little book is marvelously compact, considering that it carries all the remedies with which the well-read homeopath is familiar-certainly as to name, though not always, or but rarely, with all the alleged virtues. In the very brief compass of half a page this author gives the most important points of each of all the remedies, and the rest thereupon becomes easy. We are reminded to say now, what we have frequently said before, that these little text-books are not to be con

sidered as books from which to study a remedy. They are more in the nature of an encyclopedia, which teaches by suggestion rather than from the volume of matter contained. Having studied arum, for instance, and then not used arum for a year or more, the points of the remedy will, in great part, fall out of the memory; but a reference to one of these splendid books instantly, by association and suggestion, recalls the larger study, and thus our memory is kept alive. No one for a moment supposes that Dr. Boericke intends to put this book in the market as a substitute for the larger and more necessary study of the remedies, as we all need at one time in our lives to study and assimilate the remedies of our profession; it is merely in the light of an assistant, to recall the knowledge we have somewhere stowed away about our clothes; also to suggest to the busy man where he may find the remedy which he was not taught while at school; and so look it up and study it. The first few sentences under each remedy are worth alone the price of the book. They are range-finders. After that the minute selection of the remedy becomes measurably easier. Needless to add that we admire the little pocketbook, and recommend it to our readers and to all good homeopaths everywhere.

A Manual of Homeopathic Materia Medica. By J. C. Fahnestock, A. M., M. D. Published by the author at Piqua, Ohio.

1901.

Dr. Fahnestock makes no claim to any originality of matter; he is frank enough to say that it is merely what to him has seemed a better way of getting at the remedies most frequently in use. In his Preface he speaks of this, and thus puts the reader at his ease. The book is printed upon but one side of the page, leaving one page blank-that opposite the printed page; thus giving room for additions picked out of actual practice. The remedies selected are the prime favorites of homeopathic prescribers, and are put in such condensed, but withal practical, form that they readily recall to the practitioner the salient points of the whole remedy. This book is a little handbook, and makes a fine companion piece to other homeopathic text-books now found upon the working shelf.

Diseases of the Intestines. By Dr. I. Boas, Specialist for Gastro-Intestinal Diseases in Berlin. Authorized Translation from the First German Edition, with Special Additions. By Seymour Basch, M. D., New York City. With 47 Illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1901.

This well printed and bound book, from this popular printing house, contains 560 pages 8vo, and is filled from cover page to cover page with matter with which the American profession is

but little acquainted. Not to say, of course, that our physicians are not familiar with the subjectmatter of intestinal diseases, but (as far as our knowledge goes) this division of the subject is not often treated alone. It is usually combined with some of the many forms of rectal treatments, or with diseases of the upper end of this tract. Here, however, the important anatomical branch is given individual hearing and study; and right well has Dr. Boas accomplished his task. In view of the present-day prevalence of appendicitis, stenosis of the bowels, and the other many forms of intestinal trouble, it is most necessary to be "up" on this subject. Such reading as we have been able to do in this handsome and clearly stated volume-clear in that the author's meaning is nowhere obscured by the translator's lack of familiarity both with the English and the German-has increased our respect for both author and translator, and our belief that the conjoined work has been very well done. The author gladly and frankly admits that the American profession has made many strides in the same specialty as that sought to be shown in this treatise; still he begs to state that, having made a specialty of this matter for many years, with his many years of practice along this line and special opportunities for observation and experience, he may fairly claim much new matter; all of which he has included in this book. There are many illustrations which help to explain the anatomical and pathological points with great fidelity and clearness. Our surgical readers will find much to interest them in Chapter XIX.— Typhlitis, Perityphlitis (Appendicitis)." We take pleasure in recommending this book to our readers.

The Composite Man as Comprehended in Fourteen Anatomical Impersonations. By E. H. Pratt, A. M., M. D., LL. D., Professor of Orificial Surgery in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College; Attending Surgeon to the Cook County Hospital; Member of the American Institute of Homeopathy, The Illinois State Homeopathic Association; Honorary Member of the Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota State Homeopathic Institutes; and Editor of the Journal of Orificial Surgery. Illustrations by Dr. Frederick H. Williams. Chicago. 1901.

This is a second edition, though in reality it is a newer and vastly more improved edition of the first edition so recently put upon the market. The illustrations accompanying this second edition are most graphic and fine and convey a good idea of the central thought of Dr. Pratt in this novel work. This series of Impersonations, as we formerly wrote, ran through the pages of the Orificial Journal, and at that time drew great attention. And from the fact that the newer book has issued so shortly upon the heels of the first edition (which was put into the profession as a feeler), we are led to believe that it has

proven the success we dared to prophesy. Those who have known Dr. Pratt know his comprehensive grasp of any subject he undertakes. And this latest series of studies, growing out of his famous Sympathetic Nerve discoveries, is fitted and filled with the same form of thoroughness and originality which has marked everything taken up by this master spirit and good homeopath. The fourteen Impersonations here represented are the Bony, Muscular, Arterial, Venous, Lymphatic, Skin, Connective Tissue, Cerebro-Spinal, Tubular, Sympathetic, Organic, Conscious, Sub-conscious, and Composite Man. From which array of topics it goes almost without saying that the reader will be entertained as well as instructed; and that he will rise from his study filled with a number of new ideas. We highly commend the study of these Impersonations to all homeopaths. It falls in with much that we have tried to teach as professor and editor in regard to the selection of the homeopathic prescription; and we still believe that the homeopathic student will find that a good knowledge of these several "men" will aid materially in selecting the remedy.

King's American Dispensatory. New Edition. Entirely Rewritten and Enlarged. By Harvey W. Felter, M. D., Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, O., etc., and John Uri Lloyd, Ph. M., Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati, O., etc. Two-volume edition, royal 8vo, containing together 2284 pages, including complete Indices. Cloth, $4.50 per volume, postpaid. Sheep, $5.00 per volume, post-paid. The Ohio Valley Company, Publishers, Cincinnati, O.

This is the second volume of this very excellent work by these two men, each eminent in his particular domain. We can but repeat our commendations written upon reviewing the first volume. We find many excellent things in this book in its two volumes, and suggestions which will serve the homeopath as well as the eclectic. The book is a companion volume to the first volume, is well printed and bound, and makes a handy dictionary of remedies to have close at the elbow.

Globules.

-What is vesicaria communis, anyway?

-The St. Louis Homeopathic Medical Society has decided to make some aggressive move toward obtaining a proportionate control of the St. Louis Hospital Dispensaries and City Insane Asylum. A committee has been appointed to look after this matter in order to be able to go after the proper city authorities. This committee solicits information from other cities where the

homeopathic system of practice has been successfully employed in public institutions. Dr. G. A. Mellies, 2839 Cass Avenue, St. Louis, will be glad to hear from the craft.

-A splendid location for a Homeopathic Physician, information of which can be obtained by addressing Lock Box 244, Uhrichsville, Ohio, or by addressing Dr. Thomas M. Stewart, Secretary of Pulte Medical College, 704 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio.

-The Homeopathic Recorder man keeps on referring to a "Million Dollar President." Wonder what he is after? Have we any official in medicine who is commanding so enormous a salary as this? If we have he ought to be thrown out of the profession of medicine or pharmaceutics, for he is too rich to be either a doctor or a pharmaceutist.

-The News Letter of the alumni of the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, which is issued quarterly, appears upon our table. Dr. T. E. Costain, secretary of the Alumni Association, is the editor; and judging from the "totality" presented he has undoubtedly found his proper place. Our friend, Dr. Harvey B. Dale, is president of the Alumni Association for the next year.

-Father of the Institute Chase, with that highpriest's breastplate dangling from his watchguard, when he went on the stage on the evening of the opening of the Institute, was loudly applauded by the audience. The Institute loves Father Chase, and suffers no opportunity to pass in which to do him honor. May he live many years to enjoy the love of his multitude of friends.

"The

Stringtown-on-the-Pike" author, John Uri Lloyd, says in a recent communication to us, that because of the financial returns coming from the sale of that book and of "Etidorpha," the scientific library in which he and his confrères are concerned is being rapidly evolved. The present building is now filled, and plans are being drawn to erect a new four-story library to be completed in the fall. This library is free to the public, and is to be donated intact to education.

-The semi-annual meeting of the New York State Society will be held in Buffalo commencing Tuesday, September 25, and comprising three half-day sessions, beginning at 10 A. M. The hotel quarters will be Statler's Hotel, Elmwood Avenue, adjoining Exposition grounds. All cars either direct or by transfer pass the hotel. Satisfactory accommodations can be secured upon application, and fair promises for the comfort of every guest is made. Special rates for

the Society have been secured, varying from $2 to $3 a day, which includes room and two meals. All rooms are designed for two persons, and the rate stated is for each of two persons occupying one room. Accommodations are also offered upon the European plan, with their rooms from $1 to $3 per day.

arranged a programme of entertainment for those The physicians of Western New York have in attendance, which will take place Wednesday afternoon on Exposition grounds. Dr. De Witt Wilcox is the secretary, and to him all inquiries should be addressed. With the facilities for reaching Buffalo, the reduced railroad rates, the beautiful Exposition, and, to use the secretary's unique announcement, "a thrilling and mysterious entertainment promised," there should be a large attendance.

-The fire of July 16 in Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati was due to crossed electric light wires in one of the laboratories. The damage done was covered by insurance, and repairs to building, apparatus, instruments, and equipment will be complete in ample time for the opening of Pulte on October 2.

-Dr. D. M. Gibson, editor of the Clinical Reporter, St. Louis, has been elected registrar of the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, vice Dr. L. C. McElwee resigned. We congratulate both Dr. Gibson, and his college-the latter our alma mater. After reading some recent literature mailed with a large and free hand by a medical pharmacy with alluring side-lines, we concluded that the former registrar was too busy with his various offices and honors to long care to retain the very workful and uneventful one of registrar of the medical college-which does not recommend Combination Tablets, nor people who recommend them.

-A number of conductors were telling stories. Said one: "My train had always reached Lebanon just after an express train, but the schedule was changed so as to bring my train into the station first. A voluble Pennsylvania Dutch woman was a regular passenger on market days, as my train stopped at her station, while the express whizzed by. The first evening that I ran my train in ahead of the express she was much astonished and delighted. She rushed up to me and exclaimed, in the high key and peculiar dialect of that region:

"Vy, you're early of late; you're first at last; you used to be behind before.'

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.

FROM

ROM being at first a straightforward ad.-if the use of an ad. in so nefarious a business may by any courtesy be designated straightforward-there presently came a change over the spirit of its dream, and the same contemptible company of swindlers took on the innocent form of celery-growers, tobacco-merchants, musicdealers, et id genus omne, recommending these hell-wares; doing this as commercial firms moved by a high philanthropic motive, who had no interest in the dope beyond the fact of personal use and success. After repeated showing up of this corporation of swindlers, that they were simply one of numberless similar or congener firms throughout the U. S.,-dealing in sexual pills, magnetic belts, organ enlargers, abortioninducers, conception-preventives, and the like, they have measurably disappeared from the Cleveland press, and may have gone to the bowwows generally. And glad we are of the death!

OW the profession of medicine is like to

NOW

have a repetition of a similar process of advertising, and in a way which baffles all present known defense. Some addled-egg in the medical profession, who advertises himself in membership with the Cleveland Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association, has become advance-decoy for a mining company, and tearfully, pathetically, in a printed circular letter appeals to his "brethren" to put of their hardearned gains in this corporation, and so become quickly rich and independent.

This week there follows a circular letter on the letterhead of a printing house, referring to the fact that the soft-yolk doctor had importuned this printing house to write us, in order to induce. us (and other unsuspecting, "easy" lambs) to engage in this wonderful hole in the side of a far Western mountain.

to this advertised Well-Spring-of-Life in Michigan for a free sample "brick," and thus, by first trying, be ultimately convinced of the necessity for buying the rejuvenating elixir.

former wonderment why this soft-yolk doctor hunted us up in our obscure parish practice, spelled our name correctly, and became so interested in our financial welfare,-for in these