chicine and a lithium salt, and external application of a salicylic acid ointment the pains entirely disappeared within four or five. days. We reiterate, it is well to bear in mind that two, three and even more distinct cases may coexist in the same individual. And it is bad policy as soon as we have discovered one disease to jump at conclusions and assume that all the patient's symptoms are due to that one disease. Appendicitis and Poor Tooth Brushes. The tooth brush has become a necessity to the civilized human being, but when we use tooth brushes we should be sure to use good ones. Bad tooth brushes not only irritate the gums, but the loose bristles may cause trouble by lodging in the larynx, trachea, or they may cause irritation in the gastro-intestinal canal. Apparently they may even sometimes be the cause of appendicitis. Dr. Cornelius A. Griffiths states (Brit. Med. Jour., Jan. 2, 1909) that he operated on a girl aged 10 for recurrent attacks of pain in the appendical region, and removed from the appendix a tooth brush bristle. He also states that outside of fecal concretions this is the only foreign body that he has ever found in an appendix. Truth-Telling by Physicians. That the physician must use the greatest tact in telling a patient his exact condition, that he should always rather err on the side of hopefulness and optimism, is a proposition that we have always maintained. In a contribution to a recent issue of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, a physician signing himself Veritas discusses the subject, and we excerpt from his article the salient points. In these days, he writes, when ultra-frankness of speech on the part of the physician advising his patient has become a popular cult, we may well pause and consider some of the effects of such conduct on the patient and his relatives. Two queries arise in the mind of the conscientious physician about to inform his patient as to diagnosis and prognosis. First, Is my finding the exact truth? Second, Is the patient's best interest served by imparting to him my knowledge? A concrete example has been furnished lately by the case of a large man, some forty years of age, who was the victim of gradually extending paralysis of the extremities due to syphilis of the nervous system. He had reached a condition of almost absolute helplessness, sitting and lying day and night in one chair. After his physician, a man in good standing in the profession, had made his examination, he informed the wife that her husband. had gummata at the base of the brain and could not possibly live more than two years and a half. Two years, three years passed, and the patient was in the same condition. Meanwhile the wife had labored beyond her strength and had impaired her health in the attempt to make her husband's last days comfortable, for the family had slender means and there were two children to support. The next physician, a man of large practice, told the wife that she need not be surprised at any time to find her husband dead. Still he did not die but, on the contrary, improved a little. After six years he was seen by a young neurologist, not long out of the school. He made the same diagnosis, gummata of the brain, and in addition told the wife that it was useless to do anything for the patient because the nerve trunks were degenerated and could not be restored to function. So he went on his way, having uttered the truth as he saw it. Absolutely no assistance, no hope, given to the hard-working, devoted wife to meet and carry on her arduous and omnipresent duties-the care of a helpless invalid from day to day with no assistance from a bank account. The wife states that the regular physicians were every one wrong in their prognoses. At this stage comes the osteopath with a hopeful spirit, skillful massage and plausible explanations. After his ministrations, and at the end of the eighth year, the patient. can walk a little, his general health is perfect and he is much less of a burden to himself and to his family. How many human beings are benefited by a full knowledge of their physical condition? A few rare souls can know and face the music. Fortunately not many patients having advanced cancer ask for a diagnosis. Why should the physician take away what hope they have? Small wonder that mental healing and Christian Science, with their shadowy diagnoses and hopeful and helpful outlook flourish in the community. Truly, the truth-teller is the enfant terrible of medicine, and wide is the trail of havoc he leaves behind him. The Marriage of First Cousins. Dr. Arthur Todd-White is strongly opposed to the marriage of first cousins. His grounds, given in the British Med. Journal (Jan. 2, 1909) are as follows: (1) Every family has some slight defect in some one or other direction-it may be a slight defect in sight or hearing or mental capacity, so slight that it does not show, but it is there: in the event of cousins marrying, the children would get a double dose, and then what in the parents would not be noticed becomes in the offspring a serious defect. (2) I have never in my life come across a family of five or six children whose parents were first cousins where all the children were good specimens of the The most common defect in my experience is blindness. it may be unusual, but I have never come across a person born blind whose parents were not cousins. If cousins marry they may have one or two healthy children, but I am absolutely convinced that they will not go on to five or six without some grievous defect appearing in one or other of the children. race. Of course, there are exceptions. Charles Darwin was the child of parents who were first cousins. But, nevertheless, the opposition that is generally manifested to the marriage of first cousins has good grounds and is fully justified. Darwin: The Saint of Science. [Written for the Centenary Anniversary of Charles Darwin's Birth.] By VICTOR ROBINSON. "It is probably as you say-I have done an enormous amount of work. And this was only possible thru the devotion of my wife, who, ignoring every idea of pleasure and comfort for herself, arranged in a thousand ways to give me joy and rest, peace and most valuable inspiration and assistance. If I occasionally lost faith in myself she most certainly never did. Only two hours a day could I work, and these to her were sacred. She guarded me as a mother guards her babe, and I look back now and see how hopelessly undone I should have been without her." CHARLES DARWIN. Eons ago, when the Megatherium and the Dinatherium fought, and the huge tusks of the Mastodon and the Mammoth clashed, and gigantic reptiles crawled on their bellies over the face of the earth, and the yell and howl of Cretaceous creatures resounded thru the primitive jungle,-the world was savage. Later, an ape-like being grasped a hanging branch, and raised itself to an upright position, and peered into the primeval forest. This was the immediate ancestor of Man,-but the world was savage still. In the Tertiary epoch, for the first time appeared an animal that walked erect, and used a tool, and wore a garment. This was lordly Man himself,-but the world was savage yet. Since that distant day, species have evolved into different forms; sea has turned into land and earth become water; mountains have crumbled into dust, and the lowest valleys have become the highest hills; customs have prevailed and perished; races have lived and died; religions have come and gone; empires have risen and fallen; one system has replaced another, which in its turn has given way to a later,—and now we are veneered with culture and varnished with civilization, but scratch us, and you will find us savage still. The lower instincts of the lower beasts survive in us. We, too, worship the primitive law of force. We do not bite with the pointed tooth, nor rend asunder with sharpened claw, but our navies ride at anchor, and at a moment's notice a million murderous guns will belch forth the stuff that makes a child an orphan. We, too, are hunting and being hunted in a World of War. |