multiply will be obeyed because of an inherent quality that becomes a dominant passion, and this dominant passion often turns to vice. Reform is rampant and the world is almost writhing in labor to bring forth millennial conditions. Science and philosophy are in a race for the goal. Religion, weighed down by the past, or tied like Gulliver, by little ropes of man's twisting, seemingly lags. Our flounderings and zigzag progress prove an irregular following of a real leader. From the beginning of the records of our race, there is evidence that since his creation man has shown a spiritual quality, and this through all history has been demonstrated to be able to dominate all other qualities. Over 1900 years ago, a leader appeared who showed the way. His leadership has been followed enough to prove His worth, but how utterly we have failed of our possibilities! Poor human nature, asserting itself now in one direction and now in another, mistakes its own impulses for guides. Man, by nature, is devout; and not until that spiritual quality, the constant recognition of a Higher Power, and an Infinite Good, dominates us and controls us, shall we reach the good we seek. Tolstoi, in his last message, said: "The hope of the race lies in the improvement of the individual." Nothing will hold a man except self-control and nothing can dominate a man, so that all his efforts will be in the right direction, but a true and a real religion. What we must teach ourselves and our children is self-control; what we need for a sure and steady progress is to return to the old truth: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." The Question of Balance. ANSEL G. Cook, M.D., HARTFORD. Orthopedic surgery is the broadest specialty in the world; so broad that some people do not even consider it a specialty. There are practitioners, a small number, who regard the orthopedist as the most useful man in the community, while certain others regard him as an unmitigated nuisance. He makes shoes and braces, and yet he is not a mechanic; he performs surgical operations and yet he is not a surgeon; he prescribes medicines and yet he is not a physician; he talks more or less learnedly about pathology and yet he is not a pathologist; he is eternally butting in and mixing himself up with all the regular cut and dried specialties, and yet he is not an accredited member of any of them. He is apparently a medical Jack-of-all-trades, but with this difference; Jack is willing to take orders and do as he is told and is a useful member of society, while the orthopedist always maintains opinions of his own and invariably shows a strong disposition to do what he considers his own work, himself, and in his own way. Question. How did he come to be what he is, why is he endured, and what does he do to justify his existence? Let me try to answer. Endeavor to preserve an unprejudiced mind and listen to his side of the story. The orthopedic surgeon of to-day is the logical successor of the natural bone-setter of yesterday. The late Hugh Owen Thomas of Liverpool, England, was not a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, but you all know who and what he was. The modern orthopedist has equipped himself with a medical education and is therefore tolerated by the medical profession. The natural bone-setter of yesterday had no professional standing and survived only because he did, and the community recognized that he did, things that the community wanted done; things that the regular practitioners either could not, would not, or at all events, did not do. The relative proportion of bonesetters to the rest of the profession has never been large, and probably never will be. The work requires a certain amount of mechanical skill, is distasteful to most practitioners, and is comparatively unremunerative. General surgeons and general practitioners desiring to retain entire control of their patients have repeatedly sought to eliminate the bone-setter, by forming alliances with blacksmiths, instrument-makers, corsetieres, etc., or have taken to prescribing ready-made apparatus, and to using ready-made splints. On the whole, this arrangement has not proved satisfactory. There was no lack of ability on the part of the surgeon. The bone was set or the operation done with skill, but the tedious drudgery of the after-treatment bothered him. He disliked to fuss with braces, fit shoes and bandage with plaster of Paris. He was busy, his mind was on other things, and he was sorely tempted to give the after-treatment of the fracture to the junior house surgeon, to send the club-foot to an instrument-maker with orders to fit a brace, and to turn the spinal curvature over to the ministrations of a plausible young woman who had assured him that she was a graduate of something or other and could cure curvature of the spine by a highly scientific combination of massage, electricity, and gymnastic exercises. All of these people acted under doctors' orders, none of them took any responsibility, and when the case ended in disaster, the doctor who recommended them was invariably held accountable for whatever they did or did not do and his reputation suffered accordingly. Men seldom seek to become orthopedic surgeons of their own accord; they develop an aptitude for the work, and it is thrust upon them until everything else is crowded out. The bone-setter is not even allowed to choose his own work or set his own limitations. All this is done for him very specifically and very definitely, by the laity. If he is a bonesetter, he must do bone-setting in all its branches, including broken bones, all troubles with bones or joints, muscles or |