REPORT ON PROGRESS OF MEDICINE. J. E. LOVELAND, M.D., MIDDLETOWN. To know what is "Progress in Medicine" one must live years after the progress is made. A better title to this paper would be "A Few Brief Allusions to Some Recent Investigations." The year has certainly been an eventful one, and will probably mark a distinct step in the advance of medical science. ALCOHOL AS A DRUG. Perhaps there is no more typical sign of progress in medicine than the present attitude of many clinicians and pharmacologists toward alcohol as a drug, aside from its dietetics. Alcohol has always been regarded as a sheet anchor in many serious conditions and its position as a valuable medicinal agent seemed firmly established. But to-day we see alcohol taken down from its sacred niche and subjected to much close scrutiny and questioning by many of the best medical minds. At a meeting of the Suffolk (Mass.) District Medical Society in December last four papers were read by prominent members, on alcohol. Two of the readers seriously questioned the reliability of alcohol as a heart stimulant and were inclined to regard it as a depressant. cited such an authority as Kraeplin to the effect that alcohol in moderate amounts depresses all brain centers except certain motor centers which are stimulated for a time, but with a sum total of depression. One The other reader denied to alcohol its immunizing power in septic conditions and showed that animals succumbed more readily to such diseases as Rabies and Diphtheria when alcohol was exhibited. At a meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society to be held in a few weeks, among others the following papers on alcohol will be presented. I give the names of the readers and their subjects. Cushny, of Ann Arbor, considers "The Therapeutic Use of Alcohol as Determined by Our Knowledge of the Pharmacology of the Drug." Meltzner, of New York, "The Use of Alcohol in the Treatment of Acute Infectious Diseases, especially in Typhoid Pneumonia." (An explanation of the results obtained by its use in the light of our pharmacological knowledge of the drug). Evidence of the Antitoxic action, if any. Prof. Graham Lusk, "The Use of Alcohol as a Bracer, etc." Another title on the program was "The Medical Movement in Germany Against Alcohol," but the intended reader of this paper will not be able to present it. Discussions like the above together with sporadic articles seen now and then in the journals show the attitude of the medical mind toward alcohol the drug. What the final verdict will be, does not enter into our discussion. The fact to which we call attention is that progressing medicine is not only concerned with new thera peutic measures, but the long tried and much used old reliables must come up for re-examination. YELLOW FEVER AND MALARIA. Especially noteworthy is the definite establishment of the relationship of yellow fever and malaria to mosquitos. Major Gorgas, Health Officer of Havana, formerly a believer in the fomites theory, announces himself as converted to the theory of the Stegomyia mosquito. The Mosquito Commission of New Orleans report that the results of their investigations have borne out the theory that the Stegomyia fasciata is a means of infecting with the Bacillus icteroides of Sanarelli, although they have failed to locate this bacillus within the tissues of the mosquito. They further state that it is not disproven that the mosquito might carry the infection mechanically. Additional proof of the correctness of these theories regarding infection is the result obtained when the mosquito theory is put into practical operation. For instance, in Havana, where the old form of precautionary measures such as rigid quarantine of yellow fever patients and disinfection of clothing and fabrics has been laid aside and in place of this the mosquito and larvae are exterminated as far as possible or screened from patients, under this regime, we note that in January, 1902, there were no deaths in Havana from Yellow Fever, which is seven better than in January, 1901, and enormously better than the worst year, 1897, when 1,385 deaths were reported. Since 1889 there had been an average death-rate from the fever of 410.50, from April 1st to December 1st; last year, there were only five deaths in the same time. The general sanitary measures adopted since the American occupation had little effect in the years 1899 and 1900, but as soon as the mosquito was attacked, Yellow Fever suddenly ceased. Although Finlay in 1881 suggested the Stegomyia mosquito as a causative agent in Yellow Fever and has for twenty years urged this theory upon the profession in many articles and pamphlets, yet the suggestion has been ignored with the loss of eight thousand lives in this small part of the world alone, and the financial expense cannot be estimated. It is said that the discovery made is only excelled by that of Jenner and that in years to come it will stand in the same class as that great boon to mankind. In regard to the disinfecting of ships, it has been shown by Rosenau of the Marine Hospital Service, that |