prominent among them the good results attendant on the WeirMitchell system of rest, massage, and forced feeding, of which Dr. Paine has made as thorough test as circumstances have permitted.

Concerning epilepsy we have the sad verdict, as tragic as honest, * "No medicines have any effect in curing or imEvery means has proved

proving these incurable cases.

valueless."

The report on the treatment of inebriates is unusually rich in details of great interest. We quote a few paragraphs from it.

The question of the care of inebriates has been much discussed in this State for many years. A step toward hospital care of this class was made in 1885, when they were first sent to the hospitals for the insane, by methods similar to those required for the insane, but excluding criminals from its operation. As the law was effective at the time of opening this hospital, there has been no time without some of these patients. It appears evident that a long residence was anticipated by those who framed this law, and, at first, an attempt was made to carry out that intention. There was no rule established, but indivídual judgment was exercised in each case. Some were allowed to leave in a few weeks or months, and others were detained for a longer time. It proved impossible, however, to convince inebriates that a detention of one or two years in an insane hospital was a kindness to them. They made constant comparisons of themselves with others, and some became turbulent. As discharge appeared to them to follow more quickly upon frequent protestation of penitence and good resolutions, backed up by the entreaties — compulsory in some cases — of members of their families, the physicians were beset in every way, and in and out of season, for their liberation. For the protection of the insane, the turbulent were allowed to leave, and a rule established for all future admissions. First admissions were to stay three months, second admissions, six months, and third admissions one year. After some years' operation of this rule I know of no reason for changing it.

Three months for the first commitment is quite long enough to break up the habit of daily drinking, and to give a man an opportunity to see his wrong-doing in its proper aspect,-if he has any manhood left. Whether he has learned a lesson - and all claim they have by that time -can only be proved by trial. He then goes home on a furlough, generally, of sixty days, to be returned to the hos pital in case of failure. He also is well aware of the rule requiring his stay to be six months if returned, and this is an additional incentive to good behavior. Indeed, the doubling of time with successive commitments is so much dreaded that some old offenders, when recommitted have learned to avoid its enforcement by going to other hospitals, when their stay here would naturally be for a long time.

Some form of work or employment has been required of all inebriates; some have worked all day, and some have had a parole in the afternoons as a result of satisfactory work during the forenoons. During the spring months a group of painters composed of inebriates, but directed by an employé, painted the ceiling and walls of nearly every ward in the hospital. Some have been constantly employed either on the farm or in other departments.

Another experiment was tried during the first two years, of occasionally employing inebriates at regular wages, in order that, when leaving, they could have money enough to board for a time while seeking employment, or to take tools and clothing out of pawn. This was a failure, as the money proved to be a temptation at the start; and the hospital was criticised for employing persons known to be intemperate.

As a result of nearly five years' observation and of a total amounting now to 168 persons, I have come to the following conclusions, using the word inebriety broadly to cover dipsomania and habitual drunkenness :

I. That in a very few cases inebriety is a disease. It is then an inheritance, and appears as dipsomania. Moreover, in some if not all of these cases, it would never have been recognized as dipsomania, if the person had not become accustomed to soothing the occasional nervous irritability or restlessness with liquor.

2. That in nearly all cases inebriety is a vice until a late stage.

3. That inebriety becomes a disease in nearly all who persist in the improper use of alcohol.

before disease is established

4. That inebriety is curable in the stage of vice - by means which prevents indulgence in alcohol; i. e., moral means, prohibition, or removal of the individuals from temptation.

5. That the stay in a hospital should be three months for the first commitment, and the time doubled upon each subsequent admission.

6. That inebriates should work, out-of-door employment being preferable. 7. That the surroundings and living should be arranged for each individual in proportion to his labor.

8. That the often-expressed fear that they will become insane from association with the insane is groundless.

9. That they should not be kept with the insane, but by themselves, although that plan also has its own disadvantages.

10.

That paroles should be given, placing them upon honor until they prove untrustworthy.

II. That religious influences increase the probability of reform from inebriety. 12. That so-called specific medical treatment has been valueless in a number of our cases, and I have yet to meet an inebriate who has been cured by it.

The last statement takes on great significance in view of the recent stir over a certain so-called "specific" medication for inebriates.

We warmly concur in Dr. Paine's attitude, consistently maintained for many years, that it is very much more helpful and more tonic treatment for the average inebriate to look upon him as committing a wilful and avoidable misdemeanor, rather than as being the irresponsible and picturesquely pathetic victim of heredity or uncontrollable appetite. Humanitarianism now-a

days goes to queer extremes, and fatalism is as much a fad in matters philanthropic as is theosophy in matters religious. Virile good sense and sound old-fashioned Christian morality such as speak in Dr. Paine's utterances on this subject, are as rare as refreshing.

"LIGHT FOODS VS. HEARTY FOODS" form the subject of an original and suggestive lecture by Dr. Kellogg, quoted in a recent issue of the Therapeutic Gazette. "Things are seldom what they seem," will soon have to become the motto in the hygienic world, where, according to Dr. Kellogg, it is the light foods that are heavy, and the heavy foods that are light; as it long ago was accepted in those other branches of knowledge where the first lesson of the learner is to unlearn appearances, since the earth does not stand still, and the sun does not set. Here are a few of Dr. Kellogg's entertaining facts and deductions :

Charts made up from the best authorities on foods - Dr. Letheby, Dr. Parkes, Dr. Wilson and others - show that the grains and the leguminous seeds have a nutritive value varying from 84 to 87 per cent., say an average of 85 per cent. Rice, with its 87 per cent., is the most nourishing of all. Contrast with these lean beef and lean mutton, which have only 28 per cent. of nutriment, popular opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. In other words, a pound of rice, of corn-meal, of beans or peas, equals in value three pounds of beef or mutton and four pounds of fish. In point of digestibility the grains and legumes take less time than meat. It is clear, then, that if one is to eat for strength, he must choose the grains and leguminous seeds. The strong, hard-working people of the world are not beef-eaters. Although roast beef and John Bull are associate terms, yet the English peasants, the laborers, do not eat much meat.

Some articles of diet are very nourishing and yet their food value is small for the reason that they are exceedingly difficult of digestion. Pork, for instance, has a nutritive value of 61 per cent., but it requires five hours and fifteen minutes for digestion. It literally "sticks by the ribs," as the lumberman declares. Rice, with its nutritive value of 87 per cent., only requires one hour for digestion. It thus represents a very high nutritive value, combined with ease of digestion, giving it first rank as a food. The oyster is very much over-rated as an article of food, According to Payen, its nutritive value is less than 20 per cent., and yet it requires three and a half hours for digestion. So that which is ordinarily termed a “light diet" is, after all, the most strengthening, and so-called "hearty foods" are simply those which are difficult of digestion. The digestive organs need time to rest between their tasks, and if over-taxed by being continually called upon to struggle with food difficult of digestion, especially if taken at frequent and irregular inter

vals, there will be a break-down some day, when the only recourse will be a "light diet."

With the rapid increase of the human race, the time must soon come when, as a rule, man must eat such food as he can get most easily and with the least expense. England is, even now, drawing upon the world for her beef, and when America becomes densely populated, where will the beef come from for either country? M. de Lesseps was led to a consideration of this question by observing that the laborers upon the Suez canal were vegetarians. According to his figures, it requires forty times as much land to produce a given value of food in the secondhand form of beef as it does to produce an equivalent amount of corn. Thus the large area of land required to raise beef makes it necessary in any densely popu. lated country that the majority of the inhabitants shall be vegetarians. I am quite confident that a twentieth-century bill of fare will be largely composed of fruits, grain and eggs, and that meat will appear in a very small way indeed. It will be the part of wisdom and economy that this shall be so.

COMMUNICATIONS.

:0:

A SPIDER bite.

BY ALFRED M. DUFFIELD, M.D., HUNTSVILLE, ALA.

On Aug. 28th, at 8.30 A.M., I was called to Mr. B. W———, a robust young man about twenty-two years of age, who had been bitten by a spider, on the dorsum of the penis, just behind the corona, and over one of the large veins. The poison was immediately conducted throughout the system, leaving but very little swelling at point of lesion. It had happened at 7 A.M., and I found him suffering the most agonizing pain and cramps; this aspect reminding one forcibly of bilious colic, which by the way, an allopath, who had been called in at the same time, really thought it was, and insisted on a soap-suds enema and mustardwater emetic, and wanted to give him morphine, but I drew the line there. I had given a dose of nat. mur. 12x. and alternated mag. phos. 6x with it to relieve the cramps, and requested time for my remedies to have a fair chance to act before any opiates were given. There were two old-school brethren there by that time and they both thought he ought to have morphine, but as I had the right of way, I insisted in a quiet manner that they should wait awhile to see the effect of the magnesia phos. which very soon eased the cramping pain and enabled him to keep quiet a few moments longer at a time. The organ was in a state of erection when bitten, but when I saw it was in a semierectile state, and very little evidence of the bite was present. I applied aqua ammonia when I first arrived, but it gave only temporary relief.

The abdomen was as hard as a board and the spine very sen

sitive to touch in the lumbar region. The patient complained of all the pain being in his back and neck. His eyes were partly closed and the cornea was almost insensible to touch. The temperature at 10.30 A.M. was 97°, pulse intermittent and very feeble; the pain spasmodic and of long duration with very short intervals. The jaws were partially set, the patient not being able to articulate freely, and he afterwards could remember only part of the condition he had been in.

The knight of the syringe, who had kindly voluntered to remain and see the case through, took advantage of my absence and passed a catheter, and not finding any urine, alarmed the family and started after me, and informed me that I would have to give a dose of calomel to unlock the secretions, as there was suppression of the urine. I smiled and thanked him, and informed him that he wouldn't get any calomel if I knew it. He didn't; but was able to pass his urine at 4.30 P.M., unassisted, thanks to the continued use of the magnesia phos. and natrum

As adjuvants I used hot-water fomentations to the abdomen and rubbed his spine with ice, and at the earnest request of the old-school brethren, I was induced to inject a few minims. of arom. spts. of ammonia over his spine, which I have been regretting ever since, as it took several weeks for the ulcers that followed to heal. That night his temperature began to rise and I prescribed ferric phosphate 6x, once an hour.

Aug. 29th, patient slept well all night. The pain left, gradually working downwards and leaving by his feet. Gave a hot blanket pack in the afternoon which put him to sleep, and he rested quietly over an hour without waking, then took him out and gave a towel bath and rubbing, and put him to bed again. Gave ferric phos. and kali mur. every hour alternately.

Aug. 30th. Improvement continuing very rapidly, continued

same treatment.

Sept. 1. The patient came to my office, having walked six blocks, and was able to look after himself with the aid of a little more kali muriaticum 6x, which he continued for several days.

THREE CLOVES IN THE LARYNX.

BY D. G. WOODVINE, M.D., BOSTON.

The following case came under my observation during the past summer, and I invited Helen S. Childs, M.D., of Jamaica. Plain, the physician in charge of the case, to write its history, thinking that it might be of special interest to the profession in these days when so many different substances have accidentally been lodged in the larynx, or bronchus, with varying results.