chlorid of gold and sodium, combined with some soothing and strengthening constituents. What the Dwight Treatment is. Afterward, hearing of the treatment being ad ministered at Dwight, he went there and investigated it. He found from the symptoms manifested by patients that they were taking essentially the same treatment as his own, tho he and the physician at Dwight had held no communication with each other. I do not know that either claims to have originated the use of chlorid of gold in the treatment of drunkenness At any rate Dr. Gray found the patients at Dwight exhibiting symptoms which were unmistakable as indicating the use of atropin, strychnia and the gold. The atropin causes the pupil of the eye to become dilated on the second or third day, with some dimness of vision and a little irregularity of the gait in walking. Some headache ensues, and the strychnia causes some twitching of the muscles. The chlorid of gold causes in a week or two an irritating red eruption to break out all over the body. When Dr. Gray receives a patient he sets into his room a bottle containing a pint of good whisky, instructing the patient that he can take all he wishes. He immediately commences and gives him four hypodermic injections each day, each containing one-tenth of a grain of the chlorid of gold and sodium and onefortieth of a grain of nitrate of strychnia, and gives a mixture to be taken by the mouth, containing the same with some atropin. The following is the exact prescription used by him, and I bave no doubt it is similar to that prescribed at Dwight. He sees the patients four times a day, and rapidly increases the gold and strychnia until the symptoms show that they are getting all they will bear. The first day the patient drinks pretty heavily of the whisky in his room. The second day he begins to lose his desire for it. By the evening of the third day or the morning of the fourth, he is totally sick of it, and will not take any more. The treatment is carried on from three to six weeks. Dr. Gray says he has treated some two hundred patients, but the difficulty of getting a correct history of many of them after they have left the institution makes it impossible to give exact statistics as to the permanency of cures. His impression is that about 70 per cent. are permanently cured. He has patients who had previously been to Dwight and relapst several times. There are seven or eight relapst graduates of Dwight now in the Washingtonian Home of this city for cure, and numerous others who have gone back to drink are scattered all over the country. Nevertheless, many remain permanently cured, and probably Dr. Gray's estimate of 70 per cent. is more nearly correct than the Dwight estimate of 95 per cent. The value of the so-called chlorid of gold treatment is this: It breaks off the patient from his desire for liquor. The powerful poisons given disturb the nerves profoundly, and, like a fit or an attack of some kinds of sickness, so change the condition of the nervous system that the desire for liquor is upset and completely abolisht. Release from the Habit. This breaks the tyranny of the habit, and enables the man to start on a career of total abstinence without feeling a distress from the absence of his stimulant. Many men, therefore, are able to resist future temptation and to permanently maintain their sobriety, but if they begin to tipple they will gradually overcome their repugnance and re-acquire the habit. Sufficient time has not elapst to show what particular class of drinking men will be benefited by the treatment. In all probability the periodical drunkards, accustomed to going on sprees at intervals of considerable time, will be found most liable to fall back into their old habits. Current Medical Thought. Capital and Humanitarianism. In Germany, where compulsory life insurance is in force, and where all in receipt of a wage below a certain amount are obliged to insure, sanitoriums for the treatment of tuberculosis have been establisht and maintained largely by the insurance companies, where they send their insured for treatment with a view to prolonging their lives, and thus postponing the day of paying the death claim. So successful has this undertaking been purely from a financial standpoint that the number of such sanitoriums has increast each year, that, while in 1895 there were only two of such institutions, there are at the present time in Germany over sixty.DR. E. J. BARRICK, of Toronto, in Phila. Mo. Med. Jour. This is a good way to put "the man above the dollar." Capital is cruel when its interest is served by cruelty. It is gratifying to see this instance of capital working in aid of humanity, even tho it be for the purpose of postponing the payment of a death benefit. Philippine Medical Supplies. The magnitude of the campaign in the Philippines is reflected in the following requisition for medical supplies, which included 540 items: 10,000,000 quinin tab lets; 7,500,000 grains of quinin in bulk; 20 tons of epsom salts; 5,000 bottles of paregoric; 3,000 bottles of iodoform; (this is suggestive of venereal diseases); 8,000 bottles of collodion; 5,000 bottles of chloroform; 2,500 tins of ether; 10,000 quarts of whisky, and 7,000 quarts of alcohol. There were also 600,000 compound cathartic pills; 1,000,000 tablets of strychnin; 1,600,000 tablets of salicylate of soda; 12,000 yards of mustard plaster; 3,000 yards of adhesive plaster; 50,000 yards of plain gauze; 5,000 yards of unbleacht muslin; 50,000 sterilized bandages; 96,000 roller bandages; 4,000 pounds of absorbent cotton. The order also included 5,000 pieces of each kind of crockery and cutlery necessary to equip hospital mess tables.-Med. Review. Post-partum Hemorrhage. One of the later methods of treating postpartum hemorrhage is to carry directly into the uterine cavity a piece of lint or gauze saturated with turpentine. In a recent issue of the Pacific Medical Journal, cent issue of the Pacific Medical Journal, two severe cases are described as having been treated in this way, with instant relief of the hemorrhage. It is claimed that turpentine has a local stimulating action, favoring contraction of the muscles of the uterus. Med. Review. Palatable Quinin Mixture for Children. Having had occasion to prescribe quinin repeatedly for young children, and being dissatisfied with the combination with syrupus yerba santa, I have made a number of experiments with a view to obtaining a pleasant and acceptable quinin preparation which could be continuously administered to children without their objection. I give below the details for the preparation of a "child's quinin mixture" which I find not only to be readily taken by children but also serviceable as a bribe to be given after unpleasant medicins, such as stronger solutions of quinin. The mixture is designed as a tonic and malarial prophylactic for children living in malarious sections. It will serve for active medication in acute cases of malarial disease in children of three years or younger by giving the larger dose at hourly in tervals. I find that children literally cry for it, and that it has frequently served as an excellent bribe, to be given immediately after a sim Treatment of Inebriety. Dr. T. D. Crothers, who is an authority on inebriety, in an article upon the above subject in the Medical Council, arrives at the following conclusions: 1. Alcohol is becoming, more and more prominent as a recognized factor in the causation of disease, and in the prognosis and treatment. 2. The disease of inebriety has become so well establisht, that its practical recognition and treatment by the family physician should follow in all cases. 3. The inebriate is literally both poisoned and starved, and common sense principles should apply. There is no mystery and no doubt of results, if the means are used. 4. The possibility of cure is establisht by facts beyond question. The obstacles are, failure of early recognition and the use of unsuitable, quackish means. 5. The Gold and other cures are only the application of common remedies, which every physicians should use with greater success. 6. Every case can be restored, and many permanently cured, by the intelligent cooperation of the family and asylum phy 3 sicians. Both home and asylum treatment are found invaluable in most instances. 7. The successful cure and prevention of inebriety is a medical problem, the solution of which will open up a new field' of practice that promises as great possibilities as any other department of medi cin. The Physician's Probation. O, the long and dreary waiting! Plunged his hands in empty pockets- Hardly from his scanty earnings Fell and could not rise from weakness-- O, the quack's cheap-bought successes! All around the sick are dying, Let them suffer. -A Doctor's Wife, in Med. Standard. The Results of Sexual Excess; or Continence; Sexual Misinformation and Quack Literature. MR. CHAIRMAN:-Since an erotic discussion of this sort savors somewhat of the experience meeting, I wish to announce that the remarks I may make are based not altogether upon experience, but also to some extent upon observation. "There is a sucker born every minute" is an aphorism variously credited to P. T. Barnum, Lydia Pinkham, Robt. E. Burke and other noted confidence operators. Some of these suckers escape a world of misery by early death; others attain maturity and reach the conclusion that the material side of life is in large measure a confidence game, in which the greatest financial prizes are acquired by those who can skim nearest the penitentiary without falling in. Prominent among confidence operators are those whb, disguised as physicians, abuse the con ence of the young, which abuse is made possible by the failure of parents to give their children the needful information concerning sexual matters. Children are brought up with absolutely no knowledge on this subject. All of us become, sooner or later, parents or guardians of children who we know must follow essentially the paths we ourselves trod; they must meet essentially the same difficulties, temptations and trials that we experienced. We know that their lives, like ours, will be given up to the pursuit of means for the gratification of the two appetites which are euphoniously designated hunger and love. We take great pains in the education of the young to prepare them for the gratification of hunger; we teach them trades and professions; we teach them the accumulation and the retention of worldly goods; but almost without exception, so far as I have been able to observe, we neglect to instruct them in any measure upon that equally-important topic which we may call love. The results of such neglect on the part of parents and guardians are embodied in the success of the innumerable socalled specialists-quacks-who grow rich upon the savings and the fears of their ignorant victims. It is quite unnecessary for me to go into details, because every physician and lay an is familiar with the extent of this evil; one cannot pick up a paper, even a religious journal, without seeing in some form the advertisements of these confidence operators. We recognize, the evil; we have made, thru official channels various attempts to abolish it, to abridge it, but thus far with very little success. The proper way to save our youths from the clutches of these sharpers is to give them that knowledge which is the power of protection. The other part of the topic assigned to me is "the results of sexual excess or continence." These terms are relative, and I would make a sharp distinction between the sexes in this matter of sexual relations. It is a fact we sometimes ignore, or perhaps it is never prominently brought before our minds, that the female is the type of the race; that the male is simply an accessory, an adjunct. We prove that not by any discussion as to the relative abilities, mental and physical, of the male and female, but by the development of our species from those that preceded ourselves. It is a fact, you know, that among the earliest unisexular animals, the female far exceeds the male, both in size and in capacity; among some of the early forms the male is simply a parasite on the body of the female, because unable to earn his own living. In some of the small animals the female, after having been fertilized by the male, devours him, her only way of persuading him to contribute to the support of his family. The queen bee, too, is much superior in every way to the male (drone), and after she has been fertilized the drones are stung to death by the working bees. The queen apparently considers it more economical to make some new cheap males the following spring than to board the old ones thru the winter. As we trace the development of species upward in our direction, we see very evidently that the female is the type. The male gradually approximates more closely to her standing, but, nevertheless, not even in our species, does he rank with her in the more important and essential parts of our nature. He exceeds her in size and strength; he has better weapons of offense and defense, and, as a result, he is of material assistance in the care of the young, and she is enabled to devote more time and attention to the rearing of offspring. But all the higher qualities exhibit better development in woman than in man, and are evidently the result of her physiological functions and in discussing sexual matters we must draw a sharp line of demarkation between the female and male. Continence, in the sense of absolute abstention from sexual gratification, is something that I, at least, have never seen in men. I do not mean to say that it does not exist; it is very likely that there are men who are absolutely continent, but they are relatively few. Man has been defined, you know, as the masturbating animal; tho he is not the only animal that resorts to self-abuse. The habit of masturbation is begun, in the majority of cases, innocently; be that as it may, very few boys attain their majority without having at some time practist that act. Having thus indulged, it is impossible for them to remain or be absolutely continent. A boy may, of course, and does, as a rule, discontinue that habit; he may, and often does, refrain from illicit sexual indulgences, and for social and financial reasons he abstains from marriage; but he is not continent in the true sense of that term. His sexua desires are constantly alert, and whether gratified or not, they exert a distinct influence on his anatomy and physiology, Real continence is certainly possible in human beings; we see it in our sisters, our sweethearts; we see a majority of the girls who have enjoyed the protection and the affection of parents grow to maturity, and even go to the marriage altar, quite ignorant of the grosser sexual feelings. But it is quite otherwise with the male. Could he follow that same plan, I am sure he, like his sister, would be entirely free from harm. Continence, in the sense of mere abstention from actual sexual contact while the individual is tormented by sexual desires, is pathological; I have seen plain instances. Sexual excess also is a relative term,even among males. It is absolutely impossible to say what is normal for a man in that line any more than to say what is normal in the consumption of food; and those of us who frequently have to advise people suffering, or who believe themselves suffering, from sexual disease, hear stories that certainly seem remarkable as to the amount of sexual indulgence that men allow themselves, even in the sacred relations of marriage. I remember being greatly astounded when an elderly man, in the confidence of patient to physician, told me that he was sixtyfour years old and his wife sixty; that they had been married forty years, and during that time had averaged one sexual congress each night. Of course, this is hearsay evidence, but under the circumstances I could not doubt his statement and believe he was telling the truth. Now, if we should take that as a standard, very few people would be guilty of sexual excess. However, we must measure sexual excess by effects; and it is certain a good many men suffer from the effects of sexual excess, even tho they indulge far less than the man I have mentioned. The result of sexual excess, as we see them in the male, are comprised in chronic inflammation of the prostate and of the seminal vesicles; and doubtless that particular part of the prostate which is most affected is the verumontanum. There, we know, are contained nerve endings thru which the sexual excitement is perceived, and that, we know, is the part of the urethra which shows atrophy in cases of impotence. It is possible, however, for us to confuse the results of sexual excess with the results of disease. I remember a case 'of impotence referred to me by a neurologist; an examination of the urine made at once showed a large amount of sugar. And there is another disease which is far more frequently the cause of symptoms that we commonly ascribe to sexual excess than is diabetes, and that is gonorrhea. We know that gonorrhea is the cause of at least three-fourths of the failures of sexual power in those cases with which we have to deal. Infection of the prostatic urethra and of the seminal vesicles results in such changes in the nerve endings in those parts that the sexual apparatus refuses to work in the normal way. In examining patients complaining of sexual impotence, we can often directly trace that condition to an attack of gonorrhea; so that it is quite likely that we are in the habit of abscribing to sexual excess the results of disease, particularly of chronic inflammation of the prostate and of the seminal vesicles, which result so often from gonorrhea.-Dr.Wm. T. Belfield, before the Physicians' Club, of Chicago. Reported by the Chicago Clinic. Collective Reports on Glycerinized Vaccine Lymph. The recent widespread epidemic of smallpox in the United States has necessitated general vaccination which has afforded excellent opportunities to determine the exact actual and comparative value of glycerinized vaccine. For the past ten months I have been collecting reports from various infected districts in an effort to ascertain not only the actual value of glycerinized vaccine as a protective against small-pox but its relative value compared with vaccine points, quills, crusts, and the older methods of producing vaccination. Other objects to be determined were (1) the value of glycerinized vaccine as a preventive of small-pox; (2) the proportion of successful "takes" in both primary and secondary vaccinations; (3) the relative frequency of complications, such as diffuse inflammation of the vaccinated area-cellulitis, lymphangeitis, lymphadenitis, ulcerations, abscesses, etc.-which so often follow the use of vaccine points. The methods of inquiry adopted in this investigation were by circular-letter and personal inquiry, by large numbers of physicians throughout the country. In a certain number of cases where wholesale vaccination was practised, as for instance by health authorities, exact figures could not, for various reasons, be obtained. However, in such instances. the reports were conservative and were none the less illustrative and convincing. In Baltimore, where for several months there has been a number of cases of smallpox, there were employed by the health authorities and physicians in private practice considerable over 100,000 tubes of glycerinized vaccine. Those vaccinated were periodically observed until the suċcess or failure of the vaccination was determined. In not a single instance did small-pox occur in a person vaccinated with glycerinized lymph. Conservative estimate places the number of successful takes as 95 per cent. in primary cases. The vesicles in most instances were typical and uncomplicated with staphylococcic and streptococcic infection. The number of excessively sore arms did not exceed one per cent. of the total number vaccinated. In Minneapolis, in one series of 3,045 vaccinations with glycerinized lymph there. were 29 failures, all of which were in secondary cases, i. e., those who had been previously vaccinated. In the same city' a second series of 3,875 vaccinations resulted in four failures in primary cases and in fifty-one failures in secondary cases. All the data collected from Minneapolis show a proportion of 95 per cent. successful "takes" in primary cases and 75 per cent. in secondary cases. Cleveland records show that widespread vaccination was practised. Both glycerinized vaccine and points were employed at the beginning until results proved the vast superiority of the glycerinized lymph when points were almost entirely abandoned. In one series of 20,000 cases vaccinated with the glycerinized product, there was an average of over 90 per cent. successful takes. Septic complications were almost entirely absent. In Richmond, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, Va., no accurate records were kept of results obtained, but in these three cities there were employed about 120,000 tubes of glycerinized lymph. Extensive inquiry concerning results obtained, place the successful takes over 90 per cent. In these cities the superiority of the glycerinized lymph over the points, in producing successful vaccinations and avoiding septic complications, were everywhere noted. The experience of the health authorities and physicians in private practice in Norfolk is particularly valuable. At the be |