COLLEGE OF AUTO DOCTORS. 1960. (Formerly the Chicago Veterinary College,) Spring Announcement The spring quarter, 1960, of the College of Auto Doctors of Chicago, will open March 3d. Students desiring to enter at this time must register during the two days preceding. Special attention is directed to the following features. Credit will be allowed for work done in manual training schools, machine shops and electric plants. The fee for entrance does not cover medical attendance incidental to the gasoline department. Students in the gasoline department must make a deposit, to protect the college against loss should they leave without notice. year. The course in monkey-wrenches has been extended to take in a full A series of lectures on "The Use and Abuse of Profanity as Applied to Autos" commences with this quarter. The chair of balkiness: Electro, aero and gaso, has been enlarged to meet the increased interest. Among the topics for discussion during the year are: Care of the Tire; Consumption in Gas Autos; Braking a Fractious Auto; Insanity in the Auto, Its Symptoms and Remedy; Hot Boxes and Other Fevers; Cracking of the Dashboard, etc. Ten hours a week of practical anatomy and seven of dissection are required of every student. Students are expected to be able to name readily and accurately place each of the 1.609 parts of an ordinary auto. The junk shops of the city are open for inspection by our students. Much valuable information is to be gained by frequently visiting them. The college has made arrangements with the park police, whereby a plentiful supply of material for clinics is constantly turned over to it. -Oklahoma Medical-News Journal.. TRAUMATISM AS A POSSIBLE CAUSE OF CANCER. Dr. W. B. Coley, well known on account of his work with sarcoma has prepared a very exhaustive article upon injury as a causative factor in cancer. This article appeared in the April and in the May numbers of the Annals of Surgery. His conclusions are accordingly valuable. They are as follows: A careful study of the evidence here presented, based upon over 1200 personal observations, justifies, I believe, the following conclusions: I. Local trauma of any kind, from chronic irritation to a single local contusion, is not infrequently the direct exciting cause of malignant tumors of all types. 2. That a single local injury may cause a carcinoma as well as a sarcoma, is no longer open to speculation. The cases that I have submitted fulfil all the conditions necessary to establish a definite causal relationship between a single trauma and the development of a cancer. 3. This relationship in no way depends upon our ability to offer a scientific explanation of it; nor does it depend upon the acceptance of any one of the various hypotheses as to the etiology of cancer. It can be equally well explained whether we accept the extrinsic or intrinsic origin of malignant tumors. DEACONESS HOSPITAL FOR CONCORD, MASS. A generous donation of land and money has been made for erection of a Deaconess Hospital at Concord, Mass. This hospital is now in process of erection and promises to be one that will serve a very useful purpose to a number of towns in its immediate vicinity. It is to be of semifireproof construction and will contain an operating room, administration offices, dining-room and nurses' home, in addition to the usual wards. A FINE RECORD.-A certain medical student obtained an entrance scholarship at University College and completed his medical training there, taking his M.B., B.S. of London in November, 1910. In January, 1911, he entered for the competitive entrance examination for the Indian Medical Service, and was placed second on the list. After taking the special course of instruction at the Royal Army Medical College, he was placed first in the final pass-out examination with the following distinctions: I. Herbert Memorial prize of £20 for highest aggregate of marks in all subjects. 2. 3. 4. First prize in Hygiene, Parkes Memorial, bronze medal. First prize in Tropical Medicine, bronze medal. First Montefiore prize for Military Surgery, gold medal and £21. 5. First prize for Military Medical Administration, bronze medal and This is indeed a fine record, and it will give pleasure to the heart of every homoeopathist to know that the record is that of the son of Dr.Speirs Alexander. It will cause no surprise to any who know our distinguished colleague that he should have a brilliant son, but the record is so exceptional that we must call attention to it. We understand that Dr. Alexander, Jr., is convinced of the validity of the homoeopathic doctrine, and we can only regret that he has chosen a sphere of activity so far away as India. -The Homœopathic World. SEX HYGIENE.-So much is written at the present time both in medical and in lay periodicals concerning the problem of sex education that one scarcely knows what the desirable course is to follow. Some are strongly in favor of it, others are strongly opposed. At a recent conference of Women's Clubs, held in the City of Boston, Dr. Richard Cabot is reported to have expressed his opinions as follows: "In connection with the tremendous problem of sex hygiene, we are in danger of seizing upon a panacea that will do us more harm than good -the teaching of sex hygiene in the schools. Although doctors and parents should know about these matters, they shouldn't spin that knowledge out to children. The temptation to do this as a preventive measure is great, but the process is not wise. I don't believe in teaching maternity through natural history, and sex hygiene through biology. It is the ìnfluence of pure personalities whom we meet that keeps us straight, not fear nor knowledge. Hygiene has no word to say why people should behave themselves. It is obviously the field of the educator and moralist. We often believe that disease is the result of sin. There's nothing in it. "Whether people who misbehave shall contract disease depends on the money, cleverness or luck of the individual. The sin isn't different, whether you suffer for it or not. There is no good science behind the idea that hygiene can guide us in this matter. It is bad morals to reason so. "If you lie, you may get insomnia thinking about it, and insomnia hurts the health. Don't steal or you may get into jail, and jails are unsanitary and so injurious to the constitution. These things are no sillier than to say 'behave yourself or you may suffer for your misdemeanors.' "We must not go too hastily about this business. It requires careful deliberation. The problem is as old as humanity. There's no reason to think we are worse off than humanity has ever been before. Indeed, there is some reason for thinking we are better off." Dr. Cabot is well-known for frankly stating what seems to him to be right and justice, irrespective of whether it agrees or disagrees with the prevalent opinion. He holds such a position as to justify his opinions along these lines to be held worthy of much consideration. PRIMITIVE OBSTETRICS.-L. Weinstock reports a very unusual case of obstetrics in the journal of the American Medical Association of March. It is as follows: On Jan. 1, 1911, at 1.30 P.M. I was called to a negress, iii-para, age 22, unmarried, a domestic in a boarding house who had given birth to a boy at 3.30 A.M. of the same day under the following circumstances: Thinking herself pregnant for but seven months, she had made no arrangements for the birth of this child, as she had had twins about a year and a half ago, both children dying soon after birth. On Dec. 31, 1910 at 11 P.M. while alone in the house, she experienced a sudden pain in the abdomen which made her "double up." and she thought it was simply cramp. In a short time pains began again. It soon passed off, and she suspected that they were labor pains. After four and a half hours a boy was born. She waited until the placenta was born, and with scissors cut the cord about six inches from the umbilicus, and did not tie the cord which was still attached to the child. Washing herself as well as she could, and wrapping the child up in a blanket, she went to sleep. Next morning at 6.30 A.M. she rose, dressed, prepared breakfast for the family, did her other work, and then told her mistress what had happened early in the morning. She then wrapped all her bloody linen around the placenta, placed the bundle in a suit case, wrapped the child in some blankets, and went home on foot, a distance of six squares. Reaching home, which by the way was the home of the father, she went to bed and called me. Examination. —I found the patient to be fairly well-developed young woman, of apparent good health. Temperature was 98.6 F., pulse 65, respiration 18. Vaginal examination showed a slight median tear of the perineum but the uterus was in normal condition following delivery. She was given a uterine douche. The child was fully developed, about eight pounds in weight, and showed no marks or deformities. After giving the child a bath, I tied the cord about one and a half inches from the umbilicus, and cut off the rest. This procedure was, I think, not absolutely necessary, as the cord was absolutely bloodless, but was done for sake of precaution. Subsequent History. The mother never had a temperature above 98.8 F., or a pulse rate above 70 during her six days in bed. She got out of the bed on Jan. 6, 1911, and went back to her position. The child is doing well, and seems in no way concerned as to the attention he received when he entered this world. TRACING A FISTULA.-Dr. Jerome Lynch of New York has contributed a paper to the Medical Record describing his method of following the course of fistulæ. His method seems to be promising and his routine is accordingly described: The tracer I have used for the past eight years (but have not before published) is a mixture of peroxide of hydrogen and a saturated solution of methylene blue. We have demonstrated time and time again the value of this method as a means of diagnosis, and of its almost unvarying reliability in those very complicated fistulous tracts where the communication between two fistule was so narrow as to make it impossible for any probe to pass, no matter how fine, especially when the angle between the transverse and longitudinal fistulous tracts was very acute. This, to my mind, is the simplest and the most reliable method of following the ramifications of the tract so far devised. The peroxide of hydrogen will carry the methylene blue into the finest ramifications of the tract, the methylene blue stains the tract, and when the surgeon comes to operate it is a very simple thing to follow it. This method given a trial will be found especially valuable to the man who operates in such a case only occasionally, and would obviate many failures that undoubtedly result from overlooking some ramification of the fistulous tract or neglecting to find the internal opening. THE NEW ENGLAND VOL. XLVI AUGUST, 1911 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. LABORATORY CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOMOEOPATHY. No. 8 Instructor in Physical Diagnosis, and Director of Clinical Laboratory of Homœopathic Hospital, University of Michigan The sub-physiological dose and the qualitative non-specificity of remedies are two propositions biological science has just recently begun to corroborate. By a sub-physiological dose I mean that amount of any variety of poison which will fall short of producing symptoms. The dynamic action, if you please, or the homoeopathic action, provided the subject in which it is introduced already has some disease to combat. By the qualitative non-specificity of remedies I refer to the theory that pathological states will respond in a measure to remedies which are not their perfect similimum. In other words, if your differentiation of a remedy falls even into a certain similimum group, it is possible for it to have some action, although its efficiency may fall short of that resulting, when one selects the particular member of that group which has individual and not generic characteristics. Of the many biological reactions, both of practical import and purely scientific, one feature has been pre-eminent, viz:— their absolute specificity. To illustrate:-cholera vibrios injected into a susceptible animal produces substances in the serum of that animal which subsequently protect against doses many times the size of the initial one. These substances have been styled amboceptors, immune bodies, or more familiarly antibodies. In this particular instance, these anti-bodies protect the animal by dissolving the cholera vibrios. This reaction occurs either in the body of the animal or in a test-tube Similarly susceptible animals injected with ricin, the active principle of the castor-bean, produced substances which protected against five thousand times the initial dose. In this instance the anti-ricin does not dissolve the ricin but simply neutralizes it. And so, human red blood cells, when injected into a rabbit produce anti-bodies which dissolve out the hemoglobin and pro duce lysis in the agent which gave rise to their production, that is, the human red cells. This particular form of anti-body is called, hemolysin. Until recently it has been held that the anti-body of cholera would protect against cholera and against no other bacterium; that anti-ricin would protect against ricin and no other poison; that hemolysin would protect against red blood cells and against no other cell, etc. That is, They Are Specific. It is obvious if such is absolutely the case, it would be rather difficult to parallel the action of homoeopathic remedies to their different antigens. I must ask you to pardon my slight diversion when I state emphatically that the object of my paper is not to conform every biological experiment and every good therapeutic thing to the Law of Similars. because there are other laws of cure, in the same sense in which Similia is a law, and only the obsessed individual can cling exclusively to Similia. An abridgment of some recent work by Dr. Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, will illustrate the qualitative nonspecificity of poisons. Guinea pigs were injected sub-cutaneously with suspensions of the living bacilli-prodigiosis and subtilis. The initial dose was O. 1 cc which was increased by O.1 cc at each injection and repeated every half hour during a period of from 10 to 15 hours. These animals developed a serum which protected against three or four fatal doses of either cholera or typhoid. Of course the animals developed a much higher immunity to cholera or typhoid when these organisms served as antigen, just as a remedy which is practically a perfect similimum will be more efficient than one obtained from a group whose individuals have much in common. The work of Moxter in Lysin's serves to accentuate this point. By injections of tracheal epithelium of the ox into a rabbit, he produced that form of anti-body known as epitheliolysin. The anti-bodies in this serum dissolved readily the epithelial cells which gave rise to them,—but in addition it showed distinctly hemolytic tendencies, in that, when added to red blood cells of the rabbit, hemolysis occurred. However it showed a selective affinity for its specific antigen, for when a mixture of red cells and epithelial cells were subjected to this epitheliolytic serum, lysis occurred, first in the epithelial cells; then if any immune bodies remained in the serum, hemolysis was noted, otherwise not. dose. To proceed to my second proposition, the sub-physiological Exclusive of diagnostic purposes, tuberculin should not be used in doses which will produce any known reaction, except the positive phase of the tuberculo-opsonic index. Diminution of dosage has been rapidly progressive since the advent of opsonic therapy. First the obliteration of the negative phase, both clini |