y case, but have had in across a

roaring in or glonothe patient ly. I sent

✓. Then I
ich might
medy that
is I gave,

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hthalmia.

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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.)

Bellis.

Dr. Dewey has an interesting article on bellis perennis in the Medical Century, in which he cites the following remarks, supplied to him by Dr. Burnett, to whom mainly we owe the remedy: "Bellis acts very much like arnica, even to the production of contingent erysipelas. It causes feeling of being very tired, prover wanting to lie down. It acts on exudates, swellings, and stases, and hence in a fagged womb its action is very satisfactory; indeed, in the discomforts of pregnancy and of varicose veins, patients are commonly loud in its praise. In the giddiness of elderly people (cerebral stasis) it.acts well and does permanent good; likewise, and particularly, in fag from masturbation; in old laborers, especially gardeners, it is a princely remedy. Its action in the ill-effects of taking cold drinks when one is hot is now well known. It is a grand friend to commercial travelers, and in railway spine it has not any equal, so far as my knowledge reaches. I think stasis lies at the bottom of all these ailments. It should not be given at night, for it is apt to cause the patient to wake too early in the morning-a symptom which, occurring idiopathically, it will often, in higher dilutions, cure."

Helleborus Niger-Black Hellebore.

The Eclectic Med. Journal says this old remedy has fallen into disuse, and it may be disrepute with some practitioners, and we believe principally because they did not use it properly. No doubt it was given in much too large doses, and poisonous rather than medicinal effects followed, or if you prefer it, physiological effects followed large doses. They were disagreeable head symptoms, emesis, spasms, heart failure, hypercatharsis, cold sweats, death, and the undertaker. It is certainly a remedy with some force, or it would not produce these effects, and the point necessary to its becoming valuable is first, what is the medicinal dose. Five drops of the specific medicine to four ounces of water, and a teaspoonful of the mixture given every hour or two, will act kindly, produce good effects and

not ill.

Helleborus certainly has some cerebro-spinal influence, and it also affects the sympathetic to a degree. Its heart effect is not much unlike

that of digitalis. Upon nervous manifestations it has a very material or decided influence. It is a remedy of no mean value in hysteria and hypochondria, and in mania as well as in epilepsy, apoplexy, etc. It has been praised as a remedy for dropsy. Relief in this instance does not come through its hydragogue effect upon the bowels, but rather through increased heart action, and consequently diuretic effect.

Dr. Goss credited hellebore with having a specific action upon the genito-urinary organs of both male and female. He highly recommended the small dose as an emmenagogue-a remedy for functional amenorrhoea. He declared that it would overcome some cases of sterility in the female, and act as a bracer upon the male; that it would relieve or cure impotence in man when due to atony or excess. If it will reach all cases of this kind, we can soon get rich, and at the same time get rid easily of a mob of impotent ingrates.

Ipecacuanha.

This drug has been commended in the morphia habit. An interesting case of the kind is reported in which it was of signal service. Eupatorium Perfoliatum.

The Eclectic Med. Journal's specific indication for this remedy is sluggishness. No organ seems to be doing good work. The kidneys are not acting freely, the pulse is frequent and full, its beats are not distinct; there is pain in the head, in the bones, everywhere. The skin is more or less moist, but it is soggy, lifeless. Boneset increases skin action-tones it up; it promotes the function of the kidneys and strengthens the circulatory current. In fact, it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which gives new life to all of the vegetative functions of the body.

Bearing this in mind, eupatorium perfoliatum is frequently a remedy par excellence in rheumatism, the bone pains of syphilis, in remittent and intermittent fevers, and sometimes in ty phoid fever. In fact, its administration should be considered in every case of acute or chronic inflammation in which the pulse is full and soft, and almost waveless or indistinct.

The action of boneset upon the sympathetic makes it an excellent remedy in many cases of convalescence. It helps them climb the hill to a complete recovery. For the same reason it is a very efficient remedy in some cases of atonic dyspepsia and so-called general debility. It should not be overlooked in the treatment of any disease where mild stimulation is needed. It will frequently lessen the cough of measles, pneumonia, relieve asthma, and it has a great

reputation with the profession and the laity as a beneficent agent in colds with fever, pain in the bones, etc., in catarrh, and in la grippe.

Calcarea Carbonica.

5

Dr. O. S. Hains says: Frank Kraft, droll, epigrammatic, and audacious, has pictured the calcarea patient in the Medical Century for July, and we like his vivid portrait, yet cannot understand why he should say, "I have tried for some time to picture to myself a grown-up man to be a calcarea carbonica patient. But I have failed." We cannot believe that it is mainly women and children who fall within the special scope and influence of this remedy. How about the "rheumatisms" and "gastric disorders " in men, which we so often find indicate calcarea, and not rhus, "nor nux," nor puls. after all. Dr. Kraft says: "The calcarea carb. patient is a chronic sufferer; he is one of that unfortunate class who are endowed with a heritage of sin and corruption. There are but few of the most commonly known ailments dipping into heredity, like consumption, cancer, scrofula, and the like, that do not, at some point along the line of degeneracy, find their similar in calcarea. As children, they are cold and clammy; illy-nourished, usually bottle babies, and most frequently condensed-milk bottle babies. They are slow in everything; slow in teething, in walking, in talking. They may be mamma's big, bouncing, fat and chubby girl, weighing thus and ever so much, but the blight of lime-less-ness is over it all. Although fat and fluffy and unwieldy, it lacks life; its cheeks are never red; its eyes are dull and fishy, and often sore; it is prone to snuffles, to sore ears, to bowel troubles; in short, to all the effects of malnutrition. It is a poor feeder; that is, it eats ravenously at times, but its stomach lacks assimilative power. The little or the large abdomen is turned up like the bottom of a saucer, and filled with gases. It is not a crying baby, but rather a peevish, fretful child. When its teeth do come, they early show signs of decay and deformity. There is much sweat about the head and feet. This child has large eyes, large nose, large ears, large hands and feet, large fingers and large joints. Its skin is the color of pie crust. It is the direct opposite of the phosphorus child, which is fine and refined, delicate, and as smooth as silk. The grown-up woman calcarea patient has that cellary, dank, damp basement-like odor about the hair that is very noticeable."

In connection with this résumé of the calcarea patient, the author narrates a most interesting case of a scrofulous child, which rather tends to prove how much homeopathy can sometimes do towards removing the handicap placed by heredity upon these infantile wrecks.

THIRTY REMEDIES OR MORE.

GEO. M. OCKFORD, M. D., RIDGEWOOD, N. J. I have always been an admirer of the fearless manner in which the AMERICAN HOMEOPATHIST handles the questions of the day, and generally I agree with its views. A recent article, however, does not suit me. The article in question virtually says that in general practice a case containing thirty remedies will meet all requirements. To my mind, an advice to place reliance upon any thirty remedies of our materia medica would be like equipping a carpenter with a saw, hammer, and square, and telling him he was equipped for all work. He might build a barn, but certainly nothing more elaborate. I never go out with less than fifty remedies in my case, and even with this number I fail to carry all I need. My stock remedies are embraced in the following list:

Aconite, apis mel., arnica, arsenicum, baptisia, belladonna, bryomia, calc. carb., cantharides, causticum, chamomilla, chelidonium, china, cimicifuga, colocynthis, dulcamara, gelsemium, hydrastis, hyoscyamus, ipecacuanha, iris versicolor, kali carb., kali bichrom., kali. phos., lachesis, lycopodium, hepar sulph., mercur. vivus, merc. corr., merc. biniod., magnesia phos., natrum mur., nux vomica, phytolacca, pulsatilla, rhus tox., secale cor., sepia, sulphur, tart. em., veratrum, glonoine, sanguinaria, aloe, capsicum, drosera, kalmia, spigelia, echinacea, antim. crud., santonine, cuprum met., ignatia.

That list ought to cover most every case, but it does not. Within the past week I have had to go outside of it several times. I ran across a case where the chief complaint was roaring in the left ear. I might have given china or glononine, but a study of the condition of the patient showed asarum europ. to be the remedy. I sent it, and two doses relieved it completely. Then I struck a case of abdominal soreness which might have indicated belladonna, but the remedy that covered it better was ptelia trifol. This I gave, and the improvement was rapid and cure complete. I saw a child suffering with ophthalmia. I might have given sulphur, calcarea, or hepar, but baryta iod. was indicated and did good work. None of my stock remedies fitted a cough coming on after the first sleep, which Arabia rac. cured. Then another cough patient received. manganum, because the cough ceased on lying down and, in the morning, he raised quantities of thick purulent matter. So it goes all along the line. Odd remedies are frequently needed, and our best results are obtained by such prescriptions. Intermittent ocular neuralgia was relieved by cedron, asthma by arsenicum iodide,

lumbago by oxalic acid, all occurring in general visting practice.

The trouble is in relying on too few remedies in the disposition to use antikamnia or other coal tar product, which might relieve pain, but not better than an indicated remedy. The student of materia medica will find a mine of therapeutic wealth in neglected remedies, and the more of these he has within his grasp the better he will be equipped to fight the demon of disease.

THE PHYSICIAN'S DUTY IN TREATING SCARLET FEVER.

BY E. D. BERGEN, M. D., FRANKFORT, IND.

When you have diagnosed a case of scarlet fever it is your duty to isolate the patient. The room should be large, well ventilated, plenty of sunlight, and a temperature of about seventy degrees. Remove all unnecessary articles, and it is best to use rugs on the floor in place of carpet. The patient should lay between sheets on a mattress bed.

Keep a vessel in the room, containing a disinfectant, to receive the discharges from the kidneys and bowels, which should be immediately removed from the room.

The patient should have a daily bath in warm water with a little carbolic acid in the same. All of the patient's clothing and sheets should be changed each morning and boiled in carbolized

water.

The room should be sprayed and the floor sprinkled with a disinfectant two or three times a day.

As to treatment: If any of the family have been exposed to the disease he or she should be given a preventive, and if in summer, kept out of doors as much as possible.

The patient should be given the indicated remedies, and in cases where the fever is high, 104° or 105°, the external use of tepid water should be used. I prefer the frequent bathing of the body with a cloth wrung out of tepid water. A cold cloth on the head and little pieces of ice held in the mouth will give your patient much relief.

The kidneys should be watched and the urine examined daily. If any albumin is found, use one of the following remedies: Apis, arsenicum, mercurius cor., or apocynum can. If any oedema occurs, the urine scant, and if there is constipation, give a decoction of apocynum can., teaspoon to a tablespoonful every two hours; when better, every four hours. In small children use only one-half teaspoonful, and, if necessary, increase

the dose. Also keep the patient in bed with sufficient covering to keep up a gentle perspiration. In complications of the throat use necessary remedies, local sprays and gargles as needed.

For the itching and burning of the skin use carbolized vaseline.

During the course of the disease you should keep the patient quiet and nourished well, using good liquid food, milk, beef tea, and any of the good nourishing soups.

During desquamation give the patient a good warm bath night and morning. After each bath rub the body well with carbolized vaseline. When your patient is all through this stage give a hot bath and change all of the clothing. Always dress warm during convalescence.

Now you are ready to disinfect the room. Place the mattress on two chairs and hang everything about the room so the disinfectant can get to it. Then sprinkle the floor with alta. Close all windows and doors and use formalde

hyde or burn sulphur, if you prefer. Let the room be closed for twenty-four hours, then open all windows and doors and air thoroughly. The clothing and other articles, that can be, should be boiled in carbolized water. The mattress, bedclothing, rugs, etc., should be aired for three or four days. The floors and wood work should be washed in carbolized water and the walls repapered.

The physician, when visiting a case of scarlet fever, should wear a linen duster, leaving it there and putting it on each time in making his call. Then take a drive in the open air before visiting any other patient. Also washing his hands, face. and hair in some disinfectant.

SECOND-CLASS MAIL MATTER.

A sharp-penned correspondent calls attention to the advertising medium of Peruna under the form of a monthly medical journal entitled "Medical Talk," and asks that something explositive be said, which, however, we do not care to say. For what is the use? St. Louis is chock-full of the same trade journals masking as "second-class matter" and, therefore, traveling in the mails at pound rates. There seems to be no way to reach these advertising-sheets, unless it be to get "after" the medical man who lends himself to so palpable a fraud as "editing" a patent or proprietary medicine advertising monthly and degrading his professional walk and work. But it is not a far cry from the patentmedicine and combination-tablet "journal" to the "journals" fostered, feathered, and fed by medical colleges, dispensaries, and hospitals. Indeed, there are but few truly independent med

ical journals in our (sectarian) school. And of what avail is it to be editor of a sheet, when the college padlock is securely fastened on the editorial inkstand, or the hospital gag is inextricably thrust in the editorial teeth? When the college or hospital or dispensary or sanitarium or pharmacy pays the printing bill and finds it cheap advertising even then, it is small wonder that the annual subscription is put at a nominal rate of fifty cents, or as "high" as one dollar, and that twelve thousand physicians receive the "journal" every month! Is there not already evident a reaction against the bulky mass of paper which reaches the metropolitan readers. every Sunday morning as and for their morning paper? Is it not become a fact that the Sunday paper is the least newsy and most trashy of the whole week? Some of the alleged medical journals are built on the same model of bulk of paper and lack of news. They are filled with hash and rehash. The scissors and the paste-pot are in the ascendant; or more than half the space is given over to answering burning questions concerning sexual frigidity, impotence, gonorrhea, and leucorrhea; in each instance rubbing in some patent medicine largely advertised in that issue, if, indeed, the "dope" be not owned by the journal. This is not to say that these conglomerations and combinations are not interesting; for the reverse is most frequently true. They are like the old-time " patent insides" of the country weekly, which, being prepared by a well-routined syndicate, selected from the whole world's literature the most choice and interesting tidbits. But when it came to saying or printing anything original it spent itself in referring to the extra fine "punkin" which Squire Weazelfoot recently laid on our sanctum table, or expatiating upon the size of the party given in honor of Belle Maynice Carolyn Goosefoot's christening. These fifty-cent and dollar "journals" are interesting, comic, and instructive in a general way: but they sustain the same relation to true magazine or journal ability that the sixty-page Sunday newspaper holds to the Philistine: bulk against brain.

THE PRESIDENT'S CASE.

BY GEORGE M. OCKFORD, M. D.

There is one point in the President's case that it seems to me has been lost sight of in discussing the cause of death. Now, anyone who has studied gunshot wounds of the abdomen knows. that in cases where the ball, after passing through the abdomen, came in close proximity to the spinal column, a fatal result ensued very quickly,

while those with transverse wounds lived longer and even recovered. How can we account for this difference? Probably because in the rapidly fatal cases, the sympathetic nerve became injured. Now take the President's case. The ball passed through the stomach, struck the left kidney, and then was buried in the muscles of the back. Buried in these same muscles are ganglia of the sympathetic nerve. If one of those was injured we could account for all the subsequent phenomena. A degenerative process would take off the controlling power of the sympathetic and allow the pulse to run in a rapid manner-like a machine with the fly wheel off. The same lack of nerve force would account for the lack of reparative power in the wounds. The subsequent degeneration of the wounded nerve would be sufficient to cause death. Of course, the lack of nerve force may have been due partially to the strain of official life, but to me it does seem that this lack of nerve force was the most prominent feature of the case.

Injuries of the sympathetic nerve are the most severe lesions that we meet in practice, and even slight affections of its ganglia may cause death. This has been proven post-mortem in cases of neuritis, where the only thing that could account for sudden death was a congested condition of a sympathetic ganglion.

EXPERIENCES OF A SUCCESSFUL GENERAL PRACTITIONER AS DETAILED BY HIMSELF. When I began the practice of medicine I entertained some high ideas respecting professional ethics. Such were not the result particularly of my medical college training, for, in so far as my memory serves me, very little was ever said on that subject within the walls of my alma mater. The term of service there was too short to admit of much indulgence in the fanciful. Practically, if not theoretically, it appears to be taken for granted that if a man was an honest gentleman, dissertation in that line were superfluous, and if he was not he could never be made such in the limited time at command.

When I settled in my chosen village I called on the two older practitioners and meekly informed them of my designs. The more prominent and busier of the two received me with apparent graciousness, and immediately proceeded to impress me with the fact that he was lord of the manor, so to speak, and that it was a piece of presumption on my part to attempt to settle within the confines of his territory. My expression of a hope that he might find it a pleasure to aid me on occasion was met with an evasion. I soon learned that his public estimate of the new