and find it right away. This is the best book we know of for that purpose. The diseases are arranged alphabetically; the symptomotology is terse and plain; the differential diagnosis explicit and the treatment of the best. It is to be well recommended.

PREFACE TO THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF HOMOEOPATHY. By Benhood W. James, A. M., M. D., LL.D.

The membership of the American Institute of Homœopathy, having grown to quite large proportions, and inasmuch as back numbers of the Transactions, except for the last few years, cannot now be obtained, I have thought it well to write up the history of the Institute, from its inception, making use of my own full set of volumes for reference and then publishing the history, for the benefit of the profession at large, as well as for the use of the present membership of the Institute and medical friends of the organization as well as all those who are interested in the progress and success of Homœopathy in this country. The work involved a vast amount of reading, but it has been my aim to cull the most interesting facts and thoughts of the active members of the Society as presented from year to year, and to show the arduous work of the founders, many of whom have now passed away, but whose doings in the noble cause of Homoeopathy stand recorded in the various volumes of the Society's Transactions.

It is intended to run this history in chapters through the Homoopathic Recorder, after which a few copies will be thrown together, into two volumes, the first covering the period of time from the inception of the Institute to about 1870, and the second volume covering the remaining years to date.

It is a work that gives a bird's eye view of the thoughts and labors of the members of one of the oldest and most influential societies of the new school of practice.

THE AUTHOR.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

In cases of nervous exhaustion, debility or other impoverished and depleted conditions resulting in lowered vitality, something more than a mere chalybeate tonic or other medicinal preparation is required to obtain a quick response to its administration. It is necessary that the agent selected shall have a highly nutritive value, in a form which is easily and rapidly assimilated, while at the same time exhibiting permanent tonic and reconstructive properties.

Alboferra is a new product of the laboratories of Otis Clapp & Son which they think meets the requirements enumerated above. The nutritive properties are represented by a concentrated extract of finely flavored juicy beef, rich in soluble albumen, and constitutes fifty per cent. of the preparation. Albumen is said by an eminent authority to be “the ́ most important single element of food," while another noted physician remarks that "whatever tends to increase the fatty and albuminoid materials in the system is worthy of attention in these (nervous) diseases." As the extract used in Alboferra contains upwards of twelve per cent. of soluble albumen, it will be recognized that it meets the requirements for a highly nutritive article.

The value of chalybeate tonics as reconstructives is universally recognized by the medical profession. Dr. Hugh Campbell, Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, states that iron "exercises a peculiar influence on the transformation of food into blood, and facilitates its conversion into brain and nerve tissue."

The nutritive ingredients of Alboferra are scientifically combined with an organic salt of iron, prepared by a new and improved process, which is free from the objections. exhibited by most iron preparations. It is soluble, easily assimilated and palatable, with no injurious effects upon the

organs of digestion. The combination of this form of iron with the beef-albumen is superior to albumenate of iron, being perfectly stable and not susceptible to decomposition under ordinary conditions, while it is much more palatable.

The addition of an aromatic stimulant makes of this preparation a superior nutrient cordial and reconstructive agent which may be used with much benefit, not only in ordinary cases of nervous exhaustion or debility, atonic dyspepsia, anæmia, chlorosis and the various neuralgias due to derangements of the nervous system, but also to all conditions dependent upon mal-nutrition or mal-assimilation following severe illnesses.

Messrs. Otis Clapp & Son believe that a trial of Alboferra will prove it to be not only a valuable nutritive and medicinal preparation but also an elegant pharmaceutical product pleasant to take and agreeable to sight and taste.

Price at retail, $1 per bottle. Price, to physicians, 75 cts. per bottle.

HOMEOPATHY IN THE TRANSVAAL.-The Boers who live scattered over the high plateau of the republics, as also the foreign farmers, are almost without exception faithful and obedient adherents of the Hahnemanian curative method. On every farm the Boer keeps in readiness a larger or smaller collection of homoeopathic domestic remedies as a refuge in cases of disease in his family. Arnica and preparations of eucalyptus occupy a leading place in their medicine-boxes. They are seldom without a vade macum of homoeopathic practice for men and animals, written in Dutch. The general stores in the leading centres of the various districts of both the republics have of late taken to keeping homœopathic family medicine chests on hand, with 60-150 remedies in a polished wooden case, fluctuating in price from 50 to 75 dollars. These are largely of British or American make, but the qual ity of these preparations does not always agree with their noisy advertisements seen in all railroad depots in excellently executed posters. The makers of these medicines save in the

preparation of their remedies the large sums they waste for advertisements. The more intelligent people, therefore, buy in preference medicine boxes of responsible pharmacists.

The preachers of the Dutch Reformed Churches always. have on hand such medicine chests and also separate medicines. So, when the Boers of the district gather together to celebrate the holy communion or for other festivals, frequently coming sixty miles or more on horseback or in their wellknown wagons drawn by eighteen oxen, they never fail to replete their collection of homœopathic medicines. The medicines most sought after are remedies for snake bites and for the cure of rheumatism. The leaves of eucalyptus globules are pressed out to secure their oil, which is considered infallible in its antiseptic effects in wounds; while a powerful specific is prepared from the fat of the Iguana, a gigantic lizard ; this is used, e.g., in rubbing the hips of parturient women.

The monastery of the trappists, situated at Mariann Hill, has also lent itself to the dissemination of homoeopathic remedies; the Jesuit fathers in Johannesburg, as also the Marists in Rustenburgh, possess extensive homoeopathic medicine. chests, which they dispense also to the citizens of these towns. -The Indian Homeopathic Review.

PARANOIA. The term "paranoia" covers a wide range of mental conditions, some of them variably classified under special names, but all more or less similar and probably arising from the same diseased condition. We describe it as intellectual (or reasoning) monomania; primary or chronic form of insanity arising from various causes, including the results of acute disease, and marked by hallucinations and delusions, which are systematized, ie, exhibit a logical connection and sequence, so that a patient from his perverted ideas, in which he firmly believes, draws logical and coherent inferences. This is one of the most difficult forms of insanity with which we have to deal, as upon all subjects except the hallucinations and delusions the patient may reason with clearness and logical accuracy and appear per

fectly sane. Brought before a jury the intelligence displayed in logical reasoning and correct answers to questions may convey the impression of perfect sanity, and yet within twenty-four hours, under the influence of a fixed delusion or an hallucination, may be guilty of any crime, even murder. In the history of the Reformation a case is given where a man said to his brother, "Jack, put your head on that log and close your eyes." With one blow of the axe the head was severed. When asked why he killed his brother, his reply was, "In obedience to the voice of God, coming to me direct from the sky." A patient in the Middletown insane hospital appeared so perfectly sane as to deceive an eminent lawyer, who said he should take steps to liberate him; but when requested to ask the patient a question about his wife, and being told she was an adulteress and had cohabited with the Archangel Gabriel, he changed his mind. The records of the case showed that, acting under this delusion, he had attempted to kill his wife. This paranoiac condition may last for years, but sooner or later the whole brain becomes involved and the patient more or less demented.-Medical Times.

HOMOEOPATHIC SOCIETIES AND COLLEGES. Of learned and scientific societies our school is abundantly supplied. We have 28 national societies and two sectional societies of which the Missouri Valley is one. There are 33 state societies and 94 local societies. There are 42 medical clubs therein and three miscellaneous associations. We have 87 general and 68 special homoeopathic hospitals and institutions with a ca pacity of 12,688 beds.

Besides there are 55 homœopathic dispensaries where, during the preceding year, over 606,000 prescriptions were given to 223,000 patients.

There are 21 homoeopathic medical colleges and an alumni numbering 12,329. Also there are published in the United. States 28 medical journals. These statistics are collected under the auspices of the Institute and are authentic. One may marvel at the increase of the school, and until these figures