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Nature, only too gratefully profiting by her lightest hint. A very great theologian once said that righteousness was only keeping in the current of Divine Providence. The corelative medical axiom might be that health is only keeping in step with nature. The old-fashioned doctor, called to a sick-bed, was wont to mount some hobby of theory, whose gallop too often ended by the patient's open grave. The new-fashioned doctor follows respectfully, on foot, the silent couriers of sign or symptom that nature sends out for his guidance. Instead of drastic dosing with purgatives for constipation, to-day's doctor orders free drinking of water; instead of perilous anodynes for outcrying nerves, he feeds them with the fats, their natural and toolong-denied foods, for which they were crying; instead of whip and chain for the mentally diseased, he gives them long rest, full nourishment, the books, the society, the out-door work which, as best suited to the individual case, shall restore with healing, gentle touch the lost balance. Instead of exhausting bleeding, in febrile conditions, continual and refreshing applications of cooling water and ice. Assiduous search to discover just where nature, through hereditary defect or otherwise, is unable quite to have her way, and to aid her, judiciously and gently in getting her way; this is the rational, the merciful tendency of modern medicine. To do this with the least expenditure of force, and along the simplest and most obvious lines, is to be the most progressive and the most certainly successful of practitioners. Not to scorn nature, but to keep in step with her, that is the secret of medical advance, to-day and forever.

MORAL REFORM MADE EASY, Surely to put it thus, is not to characterize too flatteringly a system that promises full moral reform, by easy and pleasant means, used quite unknown to the patient under treatment, and given without money and without price. This millennial state of things obtains — as we learn, through a recent issue of L' Union Homopathique,- in the city of Lyons, France; where, at the dispensary of Dr. Gallavardin, "Psychic Homoeopathy" cures - so reads the doctor's card, in the daily papers of Lyons,-"passions, vices, defects of charac

ter and of intelligence," on Monday mornings, from 9 to 1I o'clock, at No. 11 Rue de Plat.

We know of the gentleman named Pasteur, who by his original process cures our mad-dog-bites and insures us against hydrophobia; we know of a gentleman out West, who by another original process cures us of our taste for liquor and insures us against delirium tremens, - when we don't die of them, as one of his best advertised patients did, the other day. But the drawback in both these cases is that both these healers are mercenary enough to pocket a fat and pretty fee, before applying their process to our needs. But we have only to make the journey to Lyons, and Dr. Gallavardin will rid us forever of our tendencies to "libertinage, jealousy, envy, rage, revengefulness, gambling, selfishness, miserliness, lying, thieving, laziness and melancholy," - we quote, in literal translation, the doctor's own statement—and never charge us a sou!

Brethren, this is not a merry jest. It is a sorrowful, ridiculous fact; and it is one of the facts that help to explain why homœopathy's claim to being an exact, rational and scientific system of treating the sick, is, even to-day, in so many quarters laughed to scorn. Here is a so-called homoeopathic physician, who advertises, by homoeopathic medicines administered in high potencies, to cure nearly every purely moral evil to which human nature is liable. He announces that it is not necessary for the sufferer from jealousy, libertinage, lying, or the like, to apply for treatment in person: some friend or relative can state the case, and be furnished with the appropriate homœopathic remedy, which can be dropped into the patient's food or drink and swallowed, "unbeknownst": after which the tendency to gambling, jealousy or libertinage will speedily disappear. Dr. Gallavardin writes to the editor of L' Union Homœopathique that he looks upon this as a blessed means of propagating the truths of homœopathy.

Perhaps it is. But in contemplating the logical sequence of "psychic homoeopathy," one awful question makes us stand aghast. Do certain drugs cause libertinage, gambling, thieving, lying and jealousy? Naturally they must, or how, on the homœopathic principle can they cure them? Brethren, pause be

fore it is too late. The highest potencies may work their effects upon him who but sniffs at the bottle containing them, or holds the bottle in his hand. Is not the moral evident?

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"THE DISCOVERER OF WEAKNESSES:" tonian-sounding name ought to be bestowed, as a sub-title, on the strange malady which, for want of a more distinctive name, we call La Grippe. In itself seemingly harmless enough, -presenting scarcely more serious symptoms than those of the familiar "bad cold" which New-Englanders look upon as an unavoidable winter visitor-it seems gifted with diabolic power to recruit into the army of disease every physical weakness inherited or acquired, familiar or unsuspected, which lurks in the organism of its unhappy victim. Whether the weak link in the chain of corporeal being be situated in lungs or nerves, in kidneys or heart or brain, la grippe seems gifted to search it out and put just that added strain upon it that makes its weakness evident and perilous. The coming of la grippe is as the coming • of a sort of physical day of judgment; and he who can abide it, without unwelcome revelation as to where his weak points lie, has reason to congratulate himself on a happily balanced organism. Grippe as not a cause, but a discoverer of latent disease of many kinds, is an aspect of our recent and formidable epidemics which has not been sufficiently dealt with. It will bear and reward serious scientific investigation.

COMMUNICATIONS.

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REFLEX DISTURBANCE ARISING FROM THE OCULAR MUSCLES, WITH CURE.

BY JOHN H. PAYNE, M.D., BOSTON.

[Read before the Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society.]

I have here a case to report that came under my observation and treatment, that illustrates the profound disturbance of the general nervous system, that may follow a want of harmony in the action of the ocular muscles. It is only a single case, but one in which the immediate results of treatment were so pronounced as to leave no doubt of the source of the disturbance. A young business man of this city, age, 26, called upon me

by advice of his physician, on March 4, 1889, for an examination of his eyes relative to relief from intense occipital headaches. Their inception dated some years back, while studying for admission to college. He subsequently received a sunstroke that disabled him for a time. Of late his headaches have increased rapidly in frequency and intensity; and an inability to use the eyes for even a few moments, without inducing a mistiness of vision and an uncomfortable pain at occiput has driven him to consult me. He has been under the care of a homœopathic physician who has given him gels. during these attacks with but doubtful relief. His symptoms now are, a general feeling of nervousness and apprehension. Feels that he will lose his mind. His memory is defective. He can not read a short paragraph in the newspaper and remember the first portion of it when he has reached the last. There is also a lack of comprehension. He sees the words but cannot understand their meaning. The act of reading becomes purely mechanical. He will read the passages over several times and will not then comprehend their meaning. Associated with this is a mistiness. of vision, a throbbing sensation in the eyes, a desire to strain. them open, and a dull aching at occiput. Has to carry the book away from him at arm's length, and to incline the head to one side in his efforts to see clearly. Soon will follow a numbness of the occiput gradually creeping into the mouth and all over him, and a loss of memory for words and events. These symptoms will continue long after he has ceased to use his eyes. He describes this feeling as if one portion of his brain were paralyzed, and that he could comprehend names and events from one side and not from the other. For instance, he will get into a carriage to be driven to his home, and will be unable to remember his street and number. When the name is suggested to him he will not recognize it. He knows that he wishes to reach his home, and will say that he "wishes to be driven to —,” and then his memory will become confused. Likewise for past events; on reaching home, perhaps the inquiry will be made, "Where have you been?" "On whom have you been calling?" He cannot answer in full. "I have been calling on and there his memory will cease. "Was it a man?" "No." "A woman?" "No." "On whom then?" "On the other kind of a man.' (Meaning a woman.)

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This symptom seems to be described in a measure by the term "amnesic aphasia," which has been defined as "an incapacity for the recollection of words, although the idea is present and the articulation is at the service of the word," and is supposed to be caused by pathological lesions of the frontal lobes. During these attacks he retains the power of locomotion, but

feels as if on stilts, with a numbness and puffed feeling of the soles of the feet, similar to that described by a person who has taken an overdose of laudanum. His heart beats irregularly and there follows a terrific blinding occipital headache. Has now from two to three attacks a week.

To recapitulate, his prominent symptoms are, speech difficult, memory defective, movements uncertain with numbness of extremities, irregular heart action, occipital headache and asthenopia.

An examination of the eyes revealed the following condition: refraction normal, left eye tending above the other 1° (left hyperphoria), a divergence of the eyes of 1° for distance, and 2° in accommodation (exophoria). Under the influence of the proper correction by prisms he rapidly developed a left hyperphoria of 31°, and an exophoria of 10° in accommodation. On March 20th, I performed a Stevens terotomy on the left superior rectus, bringing the left eye down to within 4° of level, which I subsequently entirely corrected by a similar operation on the inferior rectus of the right eye. He had then remaining his exophoria, for the correction of which I operated (Stevens method) on the rectus externus of the right eye. Since the correction of the hyperphonia, he has experienced complete relief from all headaches and confusion, and is able to use his eyes freely by natural and artificial lights without the least inconvenience, and without the necessity of wearing glasses. He reports to me, a year after the operation, that he is still perfectly well. During the time of treatment that I have described, he took no medicine or drug of any kind.

A UNIQUE CASE OF MALARIA.

BY G. H. WILKINS, M.D., PALMER, MASS.

[Read before the Worcester County Homœopathic Medical Society.]

The patient is a photographer, aged about fifty-five years. I was first called to see him Aug. 5, '91, and found him suffering from severe neuralgic pain in the region of the spleen. There were no objective symptoms. I prescribed spigelia 3x.

During the afternoon the pain gradually subsided, and he passed a comfortable night.

Aug. 6th. He had another severe attack of pain, of same character, and at the same hour, 9 A.M. I prescribed colocynth 3x. The pain subsided and again he passed a comfortable night.

Aug. 7th. Again he was attacked with the pain, at 9 A.M., this time with a feeling of coldness lasting half an hour. It was very clearly a case of malaria. I prescribed quinine 6 gr.

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