3. Complete exclusion of meat from the dietary, limitation to white meats, and an exclusive milk diet are alike dangerous, all tending to break down cardiac compensation.

4. During the inactive periods of the disease the patient should receive three pints of milk, two eggs, and from five to ten ounces of meat daily.

5. Enormous quantities of water are decidedly harmful. Under ordinary circumstances the patient should consume about four pints of liquid per day, and in cases of threatened heart break-down the quantity can be further decreased with advantage.

6. Dropsy of renal origin can be more or less successfully combatted by withdrawal of sodium chloride from the dietary.

7. Meals should be small in quantity and frequent rather than large in quantity and infrequent.

8. Acute exacerbations in the course of chronic nephritis demand the same severe dietetic limitation as do cases of ordinary acute nephritis.

9. Systematic blood examinations, by revealing evidences of symptomatic anemia, will serve to warn the physician against the maintenance of too severe dietetic restrictions.

PERNICIOUS ANEMIA CURED.-Although pernicious anæmia is such a notoriously variable disease in its blood picture, yet the case reported by Chace in the January Post-Graduate seems to have been so much improved at least as to resume his usual occupation.

Blood examination on admission, Nov. 8.

Hæmoglobin.
Erythrocytes.
Leucocytes

55% 1,068,000 4,500

Marked poikilocytosis with a number of megaloblasts and normoblasts and a few karyokinetic figures. The proportion of megaloblasts to normobasts was about three to one.

The patient was so low that death was expected at any time, but under treatment recovery took place. This treatment was daily high enteroclvces of a litre of normal saline and hyperdermoclyces of 300 cc. of .9 per cent saline solution in the pectoral region twice a day for three days. Fowler's solution, five drops, three times a day, was given. The diet consisted of beef juice, scraped beef sandwiches, bread cereals, custard broth, egg-nogs, lemon, albumin water, and after the first week given vegetables. Blood examination one year later showed the following results:

Hæmoglobin
Erythrocytes.
Leucocytes

85% 4,320,000 5,200

The red cells were perfectly normal in size and shape, and repeated examinations failed to show any normoblasts or megaloblasts.

As to the completeness of the recovery, Chace says the blood count, the patient's feelings, and his appearance will dispel all doubts.

AVENA SATIVA IN INSOMNIA.-One of the most unpleasant evils that human flesh is heir to is undoubtedly insomnia. The restless tossing to and fro, the weary expectancy of the sleep and rest that never come, while the clock strikes the hours and half-hours in one long monotony-these have more than once made persons distracted, and even driven them to find relief in suicide. Many have been the remedies suggested-from the mental counting of a certain number of sheep crossing a certain river, to the various sleeping-draughts and potions.

The former reminds me of a man-a victim of insomnia-who had been advised by a friend of his to mentally count an imaginary 10,000 sheep crossing a stream as a certain cure for his complaint. On meeting him the following day, he asked him how he had slept the night before. "Not a wink!" replied the victim of insomnia. "Why didn't you carry out my suggestion, and count those 10,000 sheep?" asked his friend. "So I did," replied the other; "but it was time to get up before I had finished counting them!" As a safe and reliable remedy, I can with confidence, and from personal experience, recommend the taking of 5-minim doses of avena sativa in a winglassful of water before retiring. In fact, I have on several occasions myself been a sufferer from the complaint, and have had to get up at one or two in the morning to take a dose of the above

named medicine before I could obtain a much-needed rest in sleep. In one casethat of a young lady who was much troubled with insomnia-it acted like a charm. She had been dosed with narcotics and other so-called remedies without effecting a cure, but a short course of avena sativa sent all her symptoms of insomnia to flight. In the case of patients chronically affected with insomnia, it is well to take the medicine three times daily, the last dose, at bedtime, being taken in hot or tepid water.-Kopp, Homeopathic World, Jan., 1906.

PERSONAL AND GENERAL ITEMS.

DR. and MRS. J. A. BALCOM of Lynn returned recently from a short summer visit in Vermont.

DR. HORACE PACKARD has returned from his summer vacation in the Rocky Mountains and reports a very enjoyable time.

DR. O. R. CHADWELL of Jamaica Plain has been spending a week in the Massachusetts Homœopathic Hospital on account of sickness.•

DURING the month of August Dr. D. W. Wells enjoyed a well-earned vacation, returning to his office on Wednesdays from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M.

DRS. N. M. WOOD and E. E. ALLEN are taking their vacation during the month of September in Nova Scotia. Dr. and Mrs. George R. Southwick, Dr. Eliza Taylor Ransom, and Dr. and Mrs. W. H. Watters have enjoyed a pleasant outing at the Cottage Park Hotel, Winthrop, Mass.

EDINBURGH MEDICAL JOURNAL.-This old and well-known journal has recently been taken over by a representative body of the Edinburgh School of Medicine, thereby insuring a continuation of its honorable past record.

BIRTH-RATE IN ENGLAND.-During the year 1905, the birth-rate in England and Wales was the lowest on record, it being 27.2 per thousand, which is .7 lower than the rate for 1904, and considerably less than the average for the past ten

years.

HOSPITAL FOR PATIENTS IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.-The United States Treasury Department has selected the German Hospital of Philadelphia to furnish professional services to government employees in that city. A uniform rate of $1 per day will be charged, the hospital providing for burial of deceased patients at $15 each.

A "College of Physicians and Surgeons of Little Rock" has recently been incorporated in Arkansas. The purpose is to conduct a school for the teaching of medicine, surgery, pharmacy and denistry, to establish a hospital and to open a training school for nurses.

FUMIGATION. According to the Illinois State Board of Health the most satisfactory disinfectant is the addition of one pint of a 40 per cent aqueous solution of formaldahyde to 34 ounces of potassium permanganate for every 1,000 cubic feet of air space. The room must be practically air-tight and the gas generated allowed to remain for at least twelve hours.

CHANGES IN COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE.-It has been decided by the authorities of the Cooper Medical College to transfer the work of the first two years of the department of medicine and industry to the buildings of the University of California, in Berkeley. This will give greater facilities in the present college building for the expansion of clinical and practical work for the upper classes.

THE Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania announces its forty-third session to be held in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia on Sept. 6, 7, and 8. As this is the week immediately preceding the meeting of the International Homœopathic Congress, a large number of those who are journeying toward Atlantic City can, and probably will, be able to attend the State Society meeting with much profit.

WE were pleased to have the opportunity of renewing our friendship with Dr. F. V. Wooldridge of Pittsburg, Pa. The Doctor is at present pathologist for the Pittsburg Homoeopathic Hospital, as well as busily engaged in a lucrative private practice. In his work he is ably assisted by his wife, Dr. Abbott-Wooldridge, also of Boston University. Mrs. Wooldridge is planning to spend several months with her family in Andover.

A REASONABLE INFERENCE.-A lady and her little daughter were walking through a fashionable street when they came to a portion strewn with straw, so as to deaden the noise of vehicles passing a certain house. "What's that for, ma?" said the child, to which the mother replied: "The lady who lives in that house has had a little baby girl sent her." The child thought a moment, looked at the quantity of straw, and said: "Awfully well packed, wasn't she, ma?"Alumni Report, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

TEST FOR FORMALIN IN MILK.-The health department of Chicago claims the following to be a satisfactory and very delicate test for the presence of formalin in milk or cream: Into the bottom of a wineglass filled with the fluid to be examined is poured a quantity of concentrated sulphuric acid. The appearance of a purple violet colored ring above the sulphuric acid indicates the presence of formalin. Quantities as small as one in five thousand are said to be thus demonstrated.

CLEVELAND HOMEOPATHIC Medical CollegE.-Dr. G. J. Jones, who has for some years held the position of Dean of the Cleveland Homoeopathic Medical College, has recently resigned. The successor, as announced, is Dr. George S. Quay, nose and throat specialist. By the retirement of Dr. Miller, Dr. Kimmel assumes the joint office of secretary and treasurer, for which position his wellknown administrative abilities ably qualify him.

THE Quarterly Journal of Inebriety appears in its summer issue in an enlarged and very attractive form. Among the leading articles are: The Relation of Alcohol to Tuberculosis, by Dr. J. W. Grosvenor; The Alcohol Cult by Dr. Madden; Comparison of the Effects of Alcohol and Opium, by W. H. Park; and The Physiological Action of Tea as a Beverage, by Sir Lander Brinton. These and several other articles contain an amount of material which should prove of both interest and value to all.

COST OF GLORIOUS FOURTH.-Fifty-one lives thrown away and 4,551 celebrants maimed or injured, some of them fatally, is the record of this year's "glorious Fourth," as compiled by correspondents of the Tribune up to an early hour on the sixth. The loss of life almost equals that of last year, when 59 persons were killed, while every record for the number of injured was broken. Almost one thousand more were in hospitals or swathed in bandages than on the day following the holiday last year. That the death list will continue to increase for several days is indicated by a large number of dispatches recording injuries believed to be fatal, the deadly toy pistol was responsible for a big percentage of the injuries and six of the dead. How many of the injured are infected with the germ of tetanus cannot be estimated.-American Medicine.

DR. SOPHRONIA FLETCHER, the oldest woman college graduate in New England and the first woman physician in Boston, died in Cambridge, July 20th.

Dr. Fletcher was born in New Hampshire in 1806, and entered the Boston Female Medical College (now merged with Boston University School of Medicine), and was one of the five members who graduated in the first class in 1854. Later she was Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Mt. Holyoke College. During

the later years of her life she retired from active practice and resided with her neice, Dr. Leonora Lathe, on Austin Street, Cambridge.

EARLY HOMEOPATHY IN PROVIDENCE.-In a paper of reminiscences presented by Dr. J. W. C. Ely in the Providence Medical Journal, we find the following recognition by a member of the dominant school of the early influence of homeopathy in Rhode Island.

"In 1846 homœopathy had acquired a very strong following in Providence. Very many of the most intelligent and wealthy families employed physicians of this school, and who of this learned gathering with their present knowledge could blame them when we consider the large doses of nauseous drugs given at that time, calomel and jalap, black draught, emetics, cathartics, tartar of emetic, large bleedings and blisters."

HOMEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS.-The offcers of the society for the coming year are as follows:

President, Robert F. Hovey, M.D., Springfield; First Vice-President, E. P. Bixby, M.D., Barre; Second Vice-President, H. C. Cheney, M.D., Palmer; Secretary and Treasurer, Jas. B. Comins, M.D., 6 Maple Street, Springfield. Censors: O. W. Roberts, M.D., Springfield; Geo. Rhoads, M.D., Springfield; S. E. Fletcher, M.D., Chicopee. The next meeting will be held Sept. 19th. Subject: Materia Medica and Practice, Chairman, E. W. Capen, M.D., Monson.

AMERICAN ONCOLOGIC HOSPITAL.-The first annual report of the American Oncologic Hospital gives a very adequate idea of the objects of the institution and the methods that aim to attain those objects. According to the present report, "the need of a separate hospital for the treatment of cancer lies primarily in the fact of the alarming ratio of increase in the numbers of sufferers from this malady and the obligation thus placed upon this society to make redoubled efforts to stay its progress and care for those affected. During the year there have been treated 106 house patients, of which number 45 were discharged without manifest evidence of disease and 12 in an improved condition. The various methods of treatment include surgical procedures, thermo-cautery, Roentgen rays, cataphoric sterilization and Finsen rays. The expenditures exceed the receipts by $11,000, $10,000 of which deficiency is met by appropriations and donations.

DR. EDWIN H. WOLCOTT of Rochester, N. Y., has recently been appointed director of the division of Contagious Diseases of the State Health Department. In his department are twenty medical experts, and his territory includes all parts of the state except Yonkers, Albany, and Buffalo.

Dr. Wolcott is one of the well-known physicians in New York. He was educated at the Geneseo Normal School and at New York Homœopathic Medical College, graduating from the latter institution in 1881. He was for two terms a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners. He has been president of the New York State Homœopathic Association and president of the Monroe County Homeopathic Society.

Dr. Wolcott is president of the Board of Managers of the Gowanda State Hospital for the Insane, having been appointed by Gov. Levi P. Morton in 1896. and reappointed by every successive Governor since. He is at the head of the maternity department of the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital and a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute for Drug Proving.

Congratulations are due Dr. Wolcott on this new honor and responsibility which have come to him.

There is a good opportunity for some doctor to rent the office of the late Dr. Henry R. Brown of Leominster. Apply to Mrs. H. R. Brown, 51 Pearl Street, Leominster, Mass.

FOR SALE $4000 practice for sale in one of California's delightful valleys. Collections, 95% No opposition. Reason for selling, wish to devote year to post-graduate study and practice a specialty. Full information by writing M. S. Keliher, M. D., Lompoc, Calif.

MEDICAL GAZETTE

VOL. XLI

OCTOBER, 1906

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS

No. 10

A NOTE ON THE ESSENTIALS OF A HOMEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA.*

BY JOHN HENRY CLARKE, M. D., PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH HOMEOPATHIC SOCIETY.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW HOMEOPATHS,-We are informed by explorers who have visited the Astral Plane that vision in that interesting region is a very different thing from what it is with us— that there the observer sees not only the outsides of things, as we do here, but the interior as well, and all around them, all at once. The consequence is, that unless a visitor who is first introduced into it has been properly prepared, and has his head screwed on very tightly, he is in great danger of losing it in the multiplicity and complexity of the things that crowd on his observation. Now, I cannot answer for the Astral Plane, never having consciously been there myself; but I can answer for the sort of mental shock that comes over one who has been brought up an allopath when he is suddenly plunged into the Plane of Homoeopathic Ideas. An entirely new world of therapeutic notions is opened to the view, and it requires no little self-control to keep one's balance under the shock. But this balance is the first essential that we should not lose; for if we do we are apt to become uncomfortable creatures of the amphibian type, which, according to the celebrated definition of the schoolboy, is "an animal which cannot live in the water and dies on dry land."

The neophyte entering the homœopathic fold finds many things presented to his view which look something like things he has met before under the same names, and yet are very different. He has been acquainted, in his unregenerate days, with words called "materia medicas," and on his introduction to homœopathy he finds "materia medicas" still. He opens one-Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, let us say and what does he find? A nonsensical list of isolated symptoms collected from goodness knows where! The shock of this discovery is so great that many turn on their heels at once and make precipitate flight for their allopathic fatherland. These have my deepest sympathy and none of my censure. If they cannot stand the attenuated atmosphere of the homoeopathic heights, it is far better for them to continue to dwell on their native plains.

Read before the International Homoeopathic Congress.