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Ontario into the same condition. Americans do just as well in the medical profession as do their cousins, and if they labor under more disadvantages, much more credit is due them.

2. Yes, it is right to confer the doctorate on dentists and vets-that is, if it is proper to confer the doctorate on any profession at all. Originally, the title meant preceptorate, and it was especially in demand for bishops and priests, and also college professors. Master meant nearly the same thing, but was applied to literary and art preceptors. Even now a priest is not made bishop without receiving a doctorate. There were many grades among priests and lawyers, but not so many among physicians; so that the titles of those grades adhered to the former, and the doctorate to the latter. It is true there were three classes of medical men: physicians, surgeons and apothecaries, and all practised medicine. In Britain these titles are in common use, but when people are in a great hurry, they sputter out the term "doctor." The Editor's remarks on this subject are very sensible indeed, and his sentiments are also mine. The term as now used is, at best, a misnomer, and philologically it would appertain more to a school ma'm than to a medical man. Its present application among the public is a matter of fate and uttterly beyond our control.

3. It would appear that the limiting of the licensing power to State Boards is preferable to the loose way that here and there prevails, but not according to the Ontario methods, as Quercus suggests. There is disagreeableness enuf already, even in the model States, such as Illinois and New York. An independent man has nowhere to go except to the woods! Regular medicine does not seem to exist, except in the individual, and corporate bodies are bound together on fads, medical, sectarian and political. Even osteopathy shows the symptoms. Quercus wants to silence osteopathy. That is not right. Let osteopaths have free way, as long as they mind their own business. This ungovernable hankering for interfering with and controlling somebody else is the curse of the land on both sides of our great boundary line. I have no acquaintance with any osteopaths; I have seen some of their writings, and it seems to me that, if they had the power, they would follow the rule of the others, and stamp around and persecute.

4. Having never advertised at all, I have a right to a say on advertising. Let them advertise if they wish. If they can cure hernia and goiter I am willing they should, and follow what methods they choose in making it known, provided they mind their own business.

5. For a person to write the name of his alma mater every time he supplies a few lines to the medical press, is to my view too puerile for an American. The two best medical writers of the present age in America have no titles at all, and I sometimes think I would exchange all my titles for their ease and facility in producing instructive themes. If it is necessary to find out a physician's career, Polk's Register can be found almost everywhere.

6. Diploma mills, so called, were the legitimate outcome of medical college rivalry, as well as of sectarianism. I do not think the grievance was nearly as bad as supposed. The different sects and colleges were trying to outdo one another and swamp one another by sheer force of numbers, and in their breathless anxiety they dragged into their drills a great number of persons who were not born for such destiny. The nuisance has greatly abated of late, and that by reason of such candidates getting their eyes open.

7. I do not believe that there are as many Universities in this country as Quercus tells us. Many are extinct for want of support. We cannot control their number. J. G. A. DAVIES, A.M., M.D. Canaseraga, N. Y.

In reply to "Vermonter," Aug. WORLD, page 338, Dr. W. F. Ball, of Mantua, O., recommends the following prescription:

Fl. ext. of green berries of saw palmetto .

oz. ij Fl. ext. of green stigmata maydis. . oz. j Fl. ext. ignatia amara. Fl. ext. salix nigra..

dr. i

oz. j

Add port wine (in which has been dissolved one dram of soluble citrate of iron) to make. . . . . . oz. viij Mix. Write: A teaspoonful with each meal and before retiring.

The chief element in this, he says, is the tincture of green saw palmetto berries. The ripe berries will not do. The tincture of the green berries is green in color, and will, he says, "increase the size of the mammary glands and ovaries, and give tone to the pelvic organs."

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Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-Can you or some of your readers inform the brethren? as to the plant "Holarrhena Antidygendinica," which Buchanan & Co., of 24 E. Fourth St., N. Y., claim as the basis of their "Tincture of Kurchicine" ("highly ozonized") and which they say is designed to supersede veratrum, aconite and jaborandi in the treatment of fevers and inflammation" and more especially where malaria is present. They are also exploiting it as the remedy to overcome the alcohol, opium and tobacco habits. Please publish the enclosed. Some laymen have got hold of the stuff and are pretending to cure cases named, with such success as you might guess. They diminish dose all right, but when the final wrench comes they need medical treatment.

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constitutional disturbances, as headache and loss of appetite. The attack subsides in a few days and she feels quite well until another such attack comes on. Family history is very good. Circulatory and respiratory systems are normal; mucous membrane somewhat paler than normal; menstrual function, normal; bowels inclined to constipation. I prescribed pil laxatonic, and instructed her to call at my office when one of the attacks described occurred. On July 15th, she presented herself with both cheeks swollen, of a purple color and hard on palpation. Line of demarcation between diseased and healthy skin was well markt; temperature 100.4° F.; pulse, 108. Prescribed a calomel purge and mild febrifuge mixture and covered skin with powdered starch. I have no doubt but that this is a case of facial erysipelas. I would be very grateful for any treatment which would prevent the recurrence of such attacks. Nova Scotia, Canada.

J. M.

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Prof. Schenk's Method a Failure.

A short time ago Prof. Schenk, of Vienna, promulgated his method of determining the sex of any given conception by modifying the nutrition of the mother. At that

The

time we stated in these columns that it would not prove reliable. Now the professor is suffering deep disgrace in his own country and thruout Europe on account of the signal failure of his method. senate of the University of Vienna investigated his claims and his methods of obtaining patients and past a vote of severe censure. Many of his aristocratic patients are clamoring against the deception practised upon them. Yet his theory, while not by any means perfect, is in the line of scientific truth.-Medical Council.

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very short duration are sufficient to arrest the most inveterate discharges." The absence of mineral astringents and caustics, tho not expressly stated, is intimated in the circular which accompanies the preparation. This preparation comes in an oval flint-glass bottle with white embossed paper wrapper, covered with small green prints of monograms of G. C., and with a cut of the matico plant in green on the label. The bottle contains five fluid ounces of an aromatic liquid, having a light bluish tint. Examination shows it to contain copper sulfate in solution, in amounts not far from of a grain to the fluid ounce. It is difficult to say just what plant has contributed the odor. Certain it is, however, that it is not due to the matico pure and simple. The matico, if it contained any of it, has undergone a considerable change of physical and sensible properties. The odor is somewhat suggestive of a rose-water which has stood a long time and undergone decomposition. A satisfactory and valuable substitute for it could be made by distilling about one-half to one fluid dram of fluid extract of eucalyptus globulus, with water sufficient to obtain five fluid ounces of distillate, and then in this dissolve four grains of sulfate of copper.-New Idea.

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.70 gr. fl. dr.

Oil of thyme....

1 fl. dr.

Take of

Oil of turpentine.

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Franklin oil (black oil, lubricat

Fern root.

Worm-seed

-New Idea.

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SAPONACEOUS

ing oil) sufficient to make.... 2 fl. oz.

BROWN'S CAMPHORATED

DENTINE.

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Honey to form an electuary.

.1 oz.

oz.

oz.

.1 dr.

.1 dr.

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Pour into a bottle and add :

Oil of juniper

Oil of cloves..

Mix by shaking.

.15 parts. 4 parts.

It is used as a dressing for ulcers, boils, wounds, etc.

MITCHELL'S EYE SALVE,

"A certain, safe, and effectual remedy for sore, weak and inflamed eyes. Prepared only by E. Taylor, chemical works, Rochester, N.Y.”

This preparation consists of a small quantity of oxid of mercury, and a considerable quantity of oxid of zinc, disseminated thru a fatty base, seemingly lard, stiffened with a little white wax. We offer the following as an efficient substitute: Saxolin, snow white ..350 gr. White wax... 130 gr. 45 gr. 5 gr. 10 drops.

Oxid of zinc

Oxid of mercury

Oil of lavender.

Melt the white wax and saxolin together, and stir constantly while cooling. As soon as the mass begins to solidify incorporate the oxids and oil of lavender.-New Idea.

MOREHEAD'S MAGNETIC PLASTER

ceived about 300 letters, and got rough estimates of the results of the injections in about 3,300 cases. Mitchell commenced with a mixture of one part of carbolic acid to two parts of olive oil, but he gradually varied from his first method, and at length, as I am informed, he partly abandoned the injections and adopted the plan of tearing the interior of the piles to pieces by angular needles set in bandles. He probably met some of the dangerous accidents which have occurred in the injection practice and changed to the needles on that account. His disciples, however, persisted, and in their hands the injections were varied in numerous ways. One of the itin erants wrote us that he had tested "every caustic in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms," but that he came back to the carbolic acid as the best, "and the stronger the better." The excipients generally used were oil, glycerin or alcohol, to which water was sometimes added. Carbolie acid was generally, but not always, the active ingredient, and the strength varied from twenty to one hundred per cent. We were disappointed on the whole in the results. Altho there were many beautiful cures, thirteen deaths were reported to us out of about 3,301 cases, besides a large number of dangerous abscesses, sloughings, and in some cases prolonged and terrible pain, or

Is said to be composed of tar and extract of desperate shock, the latter being probably from belladonna, of each equal parts.

MITCHELL'S SYSTEM OF TREATMENT OF PILES.

In the year 1871, there lived in the village of Clinton, Illinois, a young physician named Mitchell. His practice was small, and afforded him superabundant leisure, which he employed in devising a new treatment for piles. Being a good thinker, he soon conceived the idea of treating hemorrhoids by the hypodermic injection of a mixture of olive oil and carbolic acid.

Having tried his plan upon an old farmer of the neighborhood, he accomplisht a triumphant cure. The old farmer was delighted and garrulous, and the young doctor was needy but ambitious, and the two made a sort of co-partnership, the old farmer attending to the advertising while the young doctor received the patients and punctured their piles and their pockets with his hypodermic syringe. Kowledge of their methods spread. Certain itinerants began to sell the secret to others, pledging them to secrecy in turn, and binding each to practice only in the district for which he had "purchast the right." Two men in Chicago are said to have paid $3,000 for the exclusive secret “right” to a certain portion of Illinois, including their city. Flocks of itinerants bought the secret of each other, and traverst the country in every direction until their hand-bills fluttered on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. In the year 1876 one of the quacks revealed to us his method, and by taking measures adapted to the purpose, we found that his information was correct. We then entered into correspondence with a considerable number of the itinerants, some of whom seemed willing to make a clean' breast. We also communicated with a large number of regular physicians who had observed the practice of the itinerants, and in some cases had made use of the method themselves. In the course of this investigation we re

embolism. In a number of cases very dangerous hemorrhages occurred, presumed to be from the spasmodic grip of the sphincter bursting the thin walls of a pile, squeezing out the clot, and letting loose the floodgates of the hemorrhoidal veins, which, above the verge, have no valves.

The itinerants varied greatly the strength of the fluids used. The weak solutions acted more mildly than the others, but they often failed of cure. The strong preparations almost always cured the piles, but they produced a multitude of cases of abscesses and sloughings. The Michigan itinerant above mentioned states that he preferred positive results, and always sought to cause the piles to suppurate or mortify, and to that end he "preferred_carbolic acid, and the stronger the better." Some of them use the acid at a strength of only three per cent. and others as high as ninety-five per cent. Regular physicians were for a number of years wholly at a loss to account for the success which these itinerants obtained. Our own discovery of the secret resulted partly from the indiscretion of a "specialist," who exemplified the saying, in vino veritas, and partly from the information obtained by a Chicago druggist, who furnisht the same man and others their solutions. We publisht the knowledge thus obtained simultaneously in five prominent medical journals, and as a result were shortly in receipt of hundreds of letters from persons of all classes, with reports of thousands of cases, and the results, both good and bad, of the method. The sale of "rights" ceast quickly. The sums paid for exclusive rights, in a limited district, were from $1,000 to $1,500. -Andrews's Rectal and Anal Surgery.

OLIVE BRANCH.

Olive Branch consists of powdered jequirity made into suppositories, with cocoa butter or white wax.-Boston Journal of Health.

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