me for information on the subject, stating that he had cancer of the tongue. I sent him the article which Dr. Taylor had forwarded me, advising him that the California doctor could tell him more than I had ever thought possible. Dr. Teller immediately went to San Diego and had this brother to give trial treatment. I received a letter from Dr. Teller three or four months later, saying his tongue was at that time seemingly well and he stated at that time that tho Dr. Thayer had many thousands of cases to his credit, he never before had used it on a tongue. S. W. BRASFIELD, M.D.

Humboldt, Tenn.

Sunstroke with Great Hyperpyrexia. EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-I report herewith a case of sunstroke with extreme hyperpyrexia. Recovery followed the use of ice pack and ether to control the convulsions.

On July 11, 1911, Charles Tomalchitis, employed at the Catskill Cement Works and whose occupation was to remove the hot clinkers thru a tunnel to a shed, left his work at 6 p. m. and walkt a distance of one mile. On his arrival home was taken with convulsions. I was immediately sent for, and on examination found him unconscious and the temperature by axilla 108.5° F. I ordered him packt in ice. This was done by wrapping a sheet around him and filling in with chopt ice, there being no bathtub or any such convenience in the house, as it was a Polish boarding place. I gave him ether most of the night to control the convulsions, and at 7 a. m. removed the ice, when the temperature was 100°. At 8 a. m. he recovered consciousness, and made an uninterrupted recovery. I used this treatment in one other case in the New York State Reformatory, with the same good result.

RUDOLPH F. DIEDLING, M.D.

Saugerties, N. Y.

Dr. J. M. Doe, Physician and Surgeon, Office Hours, So and So.

Now, do we mean to be a surgeon the same as a practician? From the above it seems so. Yet how many doctors have carried this out? Now, if the M.D. is to hold his prestige, he must be what he pretends to be. When we give our surgery to some one else, we lose the good opinion the people may have entertained of us. We are only halfway men when we balk or decline from operations. I do hope that any young man who receives the title of M.D. and passes successfully before the State Board of Medical Examiners will be a whole physician and not a halfway man.

We do not think the skill required to do much of the surgery of to-day is as great as that demanded to guide serious cases of pneumonia, typhoid fever, diphtheria and any other cases. Yet we work away, and the surgeon who operates for appendicitis, gallstones, renal calculi, obstructed hernia, or ovariotomy in the eyes of the laity is a bigger gun, and deserves all the honor he can get from doctors and all the money he can bleed from the patient and his friends.

Now let us act the part of the surgeon. He not only wishes to pose as a surgeon, but he expects to be called as consultant in our medical cases and get a big fee, all because he can do a little surgery. There is no apparent reason why this man should not be a good consultant; but is he? My experience with these men is, for the most part, negativ. They do not do me any good or the patient either.

The general practician to-day usually does a lot of surgery that is as difficult to perform as-and with his surroundings more so than many of the operations we read of. What practician has not used the forceps, both the high and low operation? What about version? What of prolapse of the funis; the repair of perineums, lacerated os, curetments? These are usually done in our country work without help. Now, the same pluck, energy, etc., will make a surgeon of anyone who will do all the operations usually found in his practise.

Dr. Fairbanks seems to think that any man who attends his four years' work may graduate. Now, that is a question. He may at some of the weak colleges. But suppose he does: Can he stand the State Board and receive a license to practise medicin?

As for the man who graduates and re

ceives license to practise who is in every sense an immoral man, that has but little to do with his success. Character and reputation are distinct. Many of the socalled religious people in communities will call this man if he suits them in his practise, with no difference if he has three wives and a dozen concubines hanging to his coat, and half drunk all the time. This I am sorry to say, but I can recall a number of such cases in the quarter of a century I have practised. If you have the goods to deliver and can do so, character sometimes cuts no figure.

Now, let every member of the good old WORLD family try to be a physician and surgeon, and not a halfway man. Many of our country homes can be made aseptic, and the bacteria do not abound in proportion to what is found in many of the socalled well-managed hospitals. Many of us can rush our cases to hospitals which we are friendly to, but let the practiciansurgeon go with his case and operate and hold his prestige.

We all enjoy the Business Talks in THE WORLD. J. L. SAMMONS, M.D. Calis, W. Va.

Prophylaxis and Treatment of Venereal Dis

eases in the United States Army.

EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-The question of venereal diseases is one of great moment in the army and navy. Venereal diseases have always in time of peace caused the greatest sick list of all disease. The time lost to the military service by sufferers with this class of diseases is far greater than from any other one disease.

Treated in the Hospitals.

There are a few points in which venereal diseases in the army differ from those of civil life, which accounts for the apparent excess and importance of the conditions. In the first place, "single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints." In the second place, the soldier loses nothing by going into the hospital, which is quite the contrary of civil life. So you find him in the hospital when under like circumstances out of the service he would be about, working for his food and shelter.

Again, he can scarcely avoid going into the hospital, for every ten days or two weeks there is a "venereal inspection" of the command, in which every man is examined by a medical officer and any evi

dence of venereal disease means that he is ordered to report to the hospital next morning for treatment at "sick call"-and he goes!

All cases of gonorrhea are held in the hospital until the discharge has wholly ceast and are generally kept in bed for from five to fifteen days, occasionally longer, but rarely less than a week. The argyrol treatment is, on the whole, the one most used.

Syphilis and 606.

Syphilitics are detained in the hospital so long as they show any activ lesion. At the Presidio General Hospital they are using 606 freely. It has been used upward of 100 times. Very accurate records are kept, not only while the man is in the hospital, but after he has returned to duty. Wasserman tests are carried out on every man with a penile sore or on any others suspected of having syphilis. The test is applied every two weeks while undergoing treatment with 606. The opinion there seems to be that 606 is a valuable acquisition, a new therapeutic agent of worth, but not the miraculous agent it was once supposed to be. They have seen decided relapses after its use.

In conclusion, venereal diseases have far greater stress laid on them in the army than the average civilian layman or physician can afford to give them. All cases are treated in hospital and many for long periods of time. All soldiers are examined periodically and the diseased report to hospital for treatment.

Prophylactic Treatment.

Assuming that men will expose themselves to infection, various prophylactic measures have been used with more or less success generally speaking, with a great deal of success. The K package has been used with markt decrease in the number of cases, and at Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands, a 30% calomel ointment and 5% argyrol solution were used, with gratifying results, altho the men did not report to the hospital for the prophylactic treatment until the morning after exposure to infection.

Army venereal statistics have been very high, not only because there has, of course, been much disease, but also because that disease has actually been shown on official paper and the men stretcht on government beds, but present-day statistics will show that the venereal diseases in the army are appreciably decreasing. U. S. A. Philadelphia.

Gonorrhea vs. Continence.

I

EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-Dr. S. M. Benner, on page 335 of MEDICAL WORLD of August, asks what is the remedy to save boys and men from catching gonorrhea. I think, as he, that we should have legislation requiring all applicants for marriage to be passed upon as to their physical and mental condition by a board of doctors. think this is easily practical and supremely necessary. But the Doctor says: "Must we teach our boys to consort with clean young girls and women before marriage that is, to practise fornication, or are we to teach masturbation as better * * *"" The Doctor finishes his article with the remark: "I think we are waking a little."

Now, my kindly thought is to agree with the Doctor and many good men like him who have given his proposition no further or deeper thought; only I would emphasize his word "little.' I believe when fully awake we shall find that being virtuous and continent hurts the young man's health just

about the same as it hurts his sister's. I have never seen or heard of a young man ever having had any smallest physical infirmity from being sexually pure.

Inversely it is also true that uncontrolled sexual appetite has caused all the disasters the Doctor speaks of, and more; and perhaps second only to indulgence in alcohol. The Doctor broacht this subject in noble impulse and speaks truly that we doctors should dispose of these questions for the public in true and scientific ways; but he went far wrong from the truths we must lead in and teach when he sought to discover a victim among sisters and daughters, worthy or unworthy-I mean unfortunate -to satisfy the sexual lust of a man. When man (or woman) is satisfied he lusts the

more.

One gratification but prepares the unsatisfied soil for other indulgences. for other indulgences. There is no pent-up-ness in man that must be satisfied and relieved; for that sexual appetite creates the very meat it feeds upon. The sexually abstemious man has less sexual impulse to overcome than has the man who indulges. It quiets him for a day or two only and then the second state is worse than the first. It would indeed have been a great and unhappy criss-cross in the eternal fitness of things if man should needs be gratified but no victim meet for his gratification were provided. If there are necessary evils, I do not believe that sexual intercourse is one of them.

In fact, there is much evidence in Nature,

in plant and insect life, that sexual coming together and the begetting of kind is sacrificial on the part of parent. The drone bee dies when he has impregnated his queen. Plant life dies in the act and process of propagating itself.

The testicular extract from bulls and goats is used as a medicin to restore weakened sexual functions. It is considered by scientifically minded physicians that the secretion of the testis is most vitalizing. It appears so in the stallion before he has lost it all to be tamed into a work horse. So I see no reason or evidence that a man need spend himself sexually because he lets his mind run that way (ah! there is the rub!) and has the carnal animal desire to indulge the illicit and because he is built that way for kinder and nobler reasons than that he should act upon any other natural impulse because it is a natural impulse. Some ancient fathers have said that man is begotten in sin and iniquity and prone to do evil. They even speak of total depravity and the

Adamic nature.

Anyway it must be reasonable, since man is not perfect by nature, that man's impulses of body and mind and temper are not to be given right of way and be made the rule of conduct and society. And it is indeed time and our duty to teach our youths these truths. Atlanta, Ga.

E. C. CARTLEDGE, M.D.

Advice for Patients on Sexual Matters.

EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-I was pleased with an article written by Dr. S. M. Benner, Richmond, Cal., in August WORLD, page 335. I am very much interested in such men. I have no time for the preacher who is ever ready to condemn and yet too timid to think and offer an escape. Dr. Benner meets the proposition squarely and asks what we are to do. Maybe I can help someone by giving my line of talk with people that seek advice on sexual matters, which follows:

Now, my dear friend, you are despondent over a matter we all have to deal with and conquer. It is a fight that cannot be won and disposed of in one day of your life, but you will become so used to fighting that you would be disappointed should you not meet your foe some day.

Be not discouraged when you have exciting dreams. Those are the sequels of a day thought. By your conscious thought you have directed energy in that channel and caused the secretion to be generated for use in that way, and the stimulation not being sufficient it has left the seminal vesicles engorged, and they bring about the dream for relief. So there is your strongest argument for prostitution; if you don't get relief it relieves

itself. If you don't think it there, it is not there. You can best keep from thinking it there by thinking of something else.

We all have more energy than we can use on ourselves. Do not idle it in a strange country. You cannot live a life of celibacy with your body and prostitute with your mind. Your sexual organs should be under control. If you don't succeed the first time, try harder next day.

If you have a wife and children to support these hard times, the social vice don't bother you much. The man without a wife and children has a harder time paying his social debt. Centralia, Ill.

S. E. PEDEN, M.D.

County Laboratories and Hospitals. EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-I believe the national government appropriates more money to preserve and protect the health of its animals than it does for the health of its people. The government should not be criticized for this state of affairs, for, in a measure, the acts of the government represent the will of the people. Besides, the animals cannot speak for themselves, and they are supposed not to be endowed with the intelligence of human beings. Moreover, the government presumes that its citizens are capable of looking after their own health. In this, however, the government is wrong. Man is essentially an animal and especially so in regard to his health. He is careless and imprudent and very ignorant of the elements which go to make good health and longevity.

The average person never thinks his health is in jeopardy until some pain in his economy suggests the fact to him. Often this suggestion comes too late. Many will not appeal to expert help on the first warning, for various reasons. Among them is the expense incurred. There are other facts which could be mentioned in this connection, but the main fact to be considered is how best in a public way to protect the health of every community.

The Three Things Needful. There are three things which every county in every state of the Union should have,—namely, first, a competent pathologist and diagnostician. Second, a few properly equipt rooms or an inexpensiv home to take care of emergency cases. Third, a competent surgeon in attendance. The importance of these come in the order mentioned. The equipment and salaries paid should be provided by the national government, the state or the county. I think it would be best under the control of the national government or state.

To consider these separately: The duties of the pathologist would be to analyze the blood, all the fluids and excreta of the human body, and all diseased tissues of the body when sent by the attending physician, so as to render an accurate and early diagnosis. To him all the physicians of the county could appeal without cost in the very incipiency of any malady. Second, the apartment or home set aside for these emergency cases could be made effectiv, yet inexpensiv. Third, the surgeon could be ready to relieve the practician and the patient when necessary for any immediate surgical interference.

The health of any community equipt as above stated, together with its capable corps of practising physicians, would have about all the protection from diseases possible at the present time. Most diseases which destroy human life can be cured or prevented if taken in time.

The average life of a human being valued in dollars and cents is equal to $5,000. At this rate a half-dozen deaths annually in any county would more than equip and sustain the above outfit. Let us think along these lines for the sake of our own health and happiness and for the good of posterity. In this or some similar plan is a great saving of distress, suffering and death, as well of dollars and cents.

CHARLES M. WATSON, M.D.

Florence, Ala.

[The plan of having a county laboratory and hospital is excellent and advisable, and physicians would do well to recommend the establishment of such, but it seems too much of a task for the national government to undertake. Certainly it has no facilities at present to begin the work. Probably it would be better for each county to establish and maintain its own on a self-supporting basis, for, as the Doctor says, the saving of life would render the investment a paying proposition. The practising physicians save lives, however, but every facility toward quick diagnosis and cure would represent a saving in money to the patient.

The state of Pennsylvania has establisht state laboratories, the hospital facilities not being included in the present arrangement. We quote the following from the Pennsylvania Health Bulletin, publisht by the State Department of Health, February, 1911:

The state of Pennsylvania has come to the aid of the physician in his daily work to a greater degree than any other state in the Union and

Until

possibly than any country in the world. the establishment of the laboratories of the State Department of Health in 1906, the practician in the country and the small town was at a serious disadvantage as compared with his city colleague in the matter of diagnosis as aided by chemic and bacteriologic tests. Comparativly few were able to maintain well-equipt laboratories of their own, and fewer still possest the necessary knowledge and were sufficiently trained to be able on the moment to make tests of this kind. In the year mentioned the department of health was furnisht a laboratory building at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and was enabled to offer to all physicians of the state practising outside of municipalities having laboratories for the same purpose laboratory facilities for the diagnosis of certain morbid conditions and the detection of obscure sources of disease, and announced publicly to the profession its readiness to make examinations in the following suspected conditions:

Tuberculosis: An examination of sputum, pus, exudates, feces and urin for the presence of tubercle bacilli. Attention was called to the fact that in probably no other affection does recovery as well as the safety of the patient's associates depend to so great a degree upon a correct and early diagnosis, and also that, on the other hand, "the examination of the sputum in chronic pulconditions simulating tuberculosis will often clear up the diagnosis of, for example, unresolved pneumonia, bronchitis of non-tuberculous nature and various degrees of atelectasis."

monary

Typhoid fever: An examination of the blood by the Widal test and an examination of the urin for Ehrlich's diazo reaction.

Malaria: An examination of the blood for the presence of the malarial plasmodium.

Dysentery: An examination of the feces for the presence of dysentery bacilli or the amoeba dysenteriæ.

Parasitic intestinal diseases: An examination of feces for the presence of characteristic parasites or their ova. Morbid growths: An examination of sections of tumors or the products of the infectious granulomata, obtained either during life or at postmortem.

Pathologic fluids: An examination to determin the specific organism.

Three separate outfits were at the same time prepared for taking specimens and careful instructions formulated and distributed showing how this should be done.

Since November, 1906, when the laboratory first got into working orders there were examined and reported on 17,912 specimens of water used for drinking purposes, giving in each instance the bacterial count and the bacillus coli communis determination; 23,810 sputum examinations, with very few exceptions made for the purpose of diagnosing tuberculosis; 650 specimens of pathologic growths, including carcinomatous and other tumors either removed by operation or at the autopsy; 371 specimens of pathologic fluids, including pus, peritoneal fluids and the like; 722 specimens of urin, including bacteriologic examinations (for typhoid fever, tuberculosis and special infection), diazo and some routine urinalyses for the tuberculosis dispensaries; 214 malarial blood examinations; 1,949 Widal blood examinations for determining the diagnosis of typhoid fever; 220 specimens of feces, including tubercle bacilli, parasites, typhoid bacilli and pieces of tissue; and 2,957 miscellaneous specimens, including specimens of diphtheritic membranes, making a total of 48,760 examinations. It has given prompt expert opinions on suspected cases of smallpox and other infectious diseases whenever called upon. Thru its tuberculosis sanatoria and dispensaries it has distributed 2,564,056 quarts of milk and 336,889 dozen eggs to poor patients.

There are 650 stations for free diphtheria antitoxin, and 58 stations for free antitetanic serum. The department also furnishes instructions for the sanitary precautions to be exercised by those in care of persons suffering from the various communicable diseases. These are designed for distribution in the families of patients, for the instruction of parents and nurses and are furnished free of expense.

By this arrangement only the hospital for emergency surgery remains to be instituted, which could well be done by the counties. -ED.]

Homeopathy Still Growing.

EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-I am not a pessimist, by any means; I don't believe "all men are liars,' that the "world is growing worse" and that "the devil has a half hitch on us with a downhill pull." I believe there are more good men and more good medical journals to-day than ever before. I believe all these good men and all these good journals are honest in their work, and are doing all in their power to uplift the human family. That THE MEDICAL WORLD stands in the foremost rank not one of the "family" will deny. But since it is guided by human hands, it must err. That it has committed a grievous mistake on page 315, August WORLD, everyone that knows cannot deny. Years ago the same statement was made that "homeopathy was on the wane, and in twenty-five years more would be known only in history." To-day there are more homeopaths than was ever known in the history of the world. Its beneficent influence is felt in nearly every nation on globe. Far-away China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, India and even Africa are blest with "sugar-pill doctors," Norway being the only nation on earth forbidding its practise. Sweden tried to "stamp it out," but we have a "red-hot number" there that will not be downed, even tho "Simon says so.

the

No, my good Dr. Taylor, you are honestly mistaken. Homeopathy is not on the wane, but getting a better foothold every day. We are guided by an eternal truth that will live on and on, and some day will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. You have taken many mongrels from our ranks, but not one Simon-pure Hahnemannian, and you never will. There is only one way to get him, and that is to prove there is no law of cure. Every genuin homeopath is ready to surrender his diploma, will give you every right he has to practise medicin when you deliver the goods. Now, if your school wants to do a deed that will redound to the good of humanity, appoint your committee, investigate, "put homeopathy to the test and report failures to the world." We are ready and more than anxious to help you. G. F. THORNHILL, M.D. Paris, Texas.

Boys at Wil.

race-suicide

EDITOR MEDICAL WORLD:-The problem would be solvd to quite a degre if another problem could be solvd, to wit; controling sex at wil. U no a larj number ov wimen hoo would be quite willing to ad to their larj families if sure that it would be a boy, and many a father regrets that the family name iz to di out with him. It iz a disgrace to siens that the secret haz not bin discuverd. I du not remember the different theoriz that hav bin brot forward,