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The Pension bill graft goes to democrats as well as republicans; no party difference there.

If there's a River and Harbor bill, the democrats get their "divvy." They don't get as much as "the" party gets, but-there's no difference in " 'pork," which, mind you, is treated as graft.'

So with the other pork barrel, the Public Buildings bill. Toledo needs right now a Federal building, so do Atlanta and other places, but they can't have what they need till there's enuf money to go around to all the Congressmen of both parties who voted right. And they vote right here without any precise regard to party.

The Speaker put his Philippine bill thru only with the help of the democrats; and Rice, the last special interest "taken care of " by "Uncle Joe" Cannon in his free trade measure, was expected to win over enuf Southern protection democrats to overcome the insurgent high-tariff republicans. The party line there is as confused as that sentence.

And as for the Hepburn rate bill, everybody voted to pass that measure up to the Senate to be fixed. So there's no difference there.

And, taking the Senate, what's the difference between Aldrich, the republican leader, and Gorman, the democratic leader? Or between Clark, democrat, of Montana, and Wetmore, republican, of Rhode Island?

Bailey, of Texas, is a democrat, but he is not so much of a democrat as La Follette, a republican, of Wisconsin. And certainly Dolliver, republican, of Iowa, is at least as democratic as McLaurin, democrat, of Mississippi.

There are differences among these men, and these differences are political. They are broad enuf to build political parties on. But the old political parties are not built upon them. The new parties will have to be and, as a matter of fact, the new parties are being built upon them now, here as elsewhere, in the United States.

What are those differences? What is the line the President and Mr. Aldrich could not draw in words? What is the American issue?

Out in Chicago some twelve years ago a group of reformers undertook to clear the boodlers out of their council. The street railways, which needed the corrupt council in their business, were in politics, and they fought reform. The fight has been waging ever since. Municipal ownership" is the form the issue has taken out there, but the fight is really between the public service corporations and the people for the control of the government; and men divide according as they are for special interests or the common interest.

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In Cleveland the story is essentially the same. The form of the issue is "three-cent fares," but the fight, which has extended into the state, is between the railroads and other public service corporations on the one hand and the people on the other for representation in the government, and the voters are dividing as in Chicago.

In Wisconsin, Robert M. La Follette undertook to tax the railroads like any other property. They resisted. He taxed them. They were going to take it out of the people of the state by means of higher rates. He undertook to regulate rates.

SPECIAL INTERESTS VS. THe people.

The issue there was, as in Chicago and Cleveland, representativ government; the fight was between privileged business and the people, and the voters abandoned the old parties and took sides according as they were for the special interests or the common interests.

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Everett Colby, Mark Fagan, George L. Record, and their friends in Jersey are just beginning to tax the railroads. Their cry is equal taxation." But the people of Jersey are really fighting against the special interests for the control of their government in the common interest of all of them.

In Wisconsin the common-interest party calls itself republican, and it controls the republican organization, but the La Follette half-breed party contains many democrats. In Ohio the reformers call themselves democrats, but they won with republican votes.

In Jersey the republican party is the party used, but in the last election the voters paid no heed to old party lines. They were for themselves.

And so it has gone in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and elsewhere. Wherever the people have found a leader who would lead, they have crossed all party lines to follow, and they are forming a new party. For Folk (dem.) and Colby (rep.), John Weaver (rep.) and Tom Johnson (dem.), La Follette (rep.), and Dunne (dem.), all belong to one party.

Differ tho they may in ideas, in wisdom, in the slogans they have raised and the symbols they vote under, they all are fighting one fight, raising one issue. They are dividing old parties into new parties, and all that is needed to complete the realignment are national leaders to bring them together.

NEW LINES IN WASHINGTON.

And the same thing is happening here in the same way and from the same cause. When the President undertook to pass a rate regulation bill, he opened up that old crack which runs across the front of both the old parties.

That bill is called an attack on the railroads. It isn't. It may not be a wise bill, but it isn't unfair. Purporting to empower the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroad rates, it will do nothing of the sort.

The best friends of the Hepburn bill, as it passed the House, do not pretend that it will solve the railroad rate problem; the most that they claim for it is that it is a step forward," and the advocates of the effectiv regulation of rates want to amend the bill to make it do its work.

So, while the bill may be weak, it is not harsh. But it was a challenge to the power of the railroads in the national government, and they prepared to oppose its passage.

Public opinion put the bill thru the House, and the railroads hoped to avoid an open fight by "fooling" the President into accepting amendments. Everybody thought that they would succeed in this, but they didn't. The President saw the game.

When Senator Aldrich exprest his concern lest the bill was unconstitutional. the President is said to have answered: "Then why do you object to it?"

When Senator Knox offered an amendment to per fect the bill, and Attorney-General Moody reported that the Knox amendment did a little more than that, the President lost some faith in one of his most trusted advisers and Mr. Knox lost his temper. The fight

was on.

Further attempts were made toward a "reconcilia tion," and the President listened to them. But if we don't lead, others will. It certainly looks as if the fight would go on to the end, the fight that is waging in so many parts of the country.

REAL ISSUE, WHO SHALL RULE?

The apparent issue here is an accident; railroad rate regulation may not be central or essential, but neither is three-cent fare central or essential.

The particular issue does not matter, however; anything will do that brings the people (by "people," I mean all men, not alone the "down-trodden") in just conflict (not with the "rich," but) with the interests which corruptly rule this country.

"What do they represent?" That is the question we have always to ask, and when the fight was thrown out of the White House into the Interstate Commerce Committee of the Senate the answers came fast.

Elkins, Aldrich, Kean, Foraker, Crane, republicans, were for an amendment to appeal rate-making to the courts for delay, and two democrats, McLaurin and Foster, leaned that way. No old party line there.

Dolliver, Clapp, and Cullom, republicans, and Tillman, Carmack, and Newlands, democrats, were op posed to any emasculation. No old party line there. But there were new party lines, and Senator Aldrich indicated them. When it appeared that the bill must be reported out with a whole skin, he said that this (the republican President's) bill was a democratic bill; and it is. It is in "our interest," wherefore Aldrich said: "Let a democrat lead it thru the Senate," and

he named Senator Tillman, and the republicans voted the leadership to this democrat.

This incident was regarded as highly picturesque, because Tillman is no friend of the President. But it may turn out to be more than picturesque. Tillman is a democrat, but Theodore Roosevelt is a democrat. The President isn't an intellectual democrat, else he could not have advocated a Ship Subsidy bill.

But instinctivly "that man" is for that government which Lincoln said should not perish from the earth. Aldrich is not, nor Kean, nor Foraker.

They are conservativs"; Mr. Aldrich says so. They stand for business; Mr. Aldrich says so. These men honestly believe that anything that helps business is good, no matter how much it may hurt our national character as a people or the institution of our government, if it helps business, that thing must be right.

And there are many men in the Senate and in the House and in the Cabinet and in the country at large who are for "prosperity at any cost." But also there are a few men in the Senate and in the Cabinet and in the House, and in the country at large there are many men who hold that whatever hurts our manhood and our government, no matter how much it may help business, is bad.

These men think that the corruption of legislatures and courts is wrong, even if it is necessary. And these two groups of thinkers are lining up to fight in the nation as they are in the cities and states, and it is just possible that the fight over the rate bill, with Tillman, a democrat, and Roosevelt or some other republican leading one side, and Aldrich and his "democrats " on the other, may split both the parties wide open and show the state and city fighters who the new national leaders are of their new national parties.

Thus it is proven, as I have often said, that the plutocratic party has controlled both the republican and the democratic voters thru their political

machines. Isn't it time to break the machines?

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In a list of some "Peculiarities" of Antiphlogistine, its makers give the following: "It is well to remember that Antiphlogistine stands alone as a non-toxic, non-irritating abstractor of fluid exudates in superficial affections, and is the only remedy that through an inherent hygroscopic property will relieve deep-seated congestions by inducing superficial hyperæmia and that without irritation." If you do not know Antiphlogistine, see their adv. on page 13 and write for literature.

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REDDING, CAL.

Gentlemen:-I would not take ten times the cost of Noitol and be without it. It is, without exception, the finest application I have ever used in Eczema. Yours truly, F. P. MITCHELL, M.D. See adv. on page 26.

Messrs. Strong, Cobb & Co. recommend thier Echitone in chronic eczematous conditions, in all pus forming cellular inflammations, boils, old ulcers, and all conditions caused by a blood dyscrasia or a depraved condition of the body fluids. See adv. on page 32.

In addition to their full line of nebulizers, the Globe Mfg. Co. call our attention to an electric air pump they have put on the market. They claim for it automatic action on either direct or alternating current; adaptation to pressure or vacuum; high pressure and large capacity in proportion to power consumed; air filter, with special claim for compactness and durability. We advise users of [Continued on page 22.]

Antiseptic Sphenoids

ANTISEPTIC. ASTRINGENT.

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McCOY, HOWE CO.

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Elements of Homoeopathy

196 pages; Cloth, $1.00. Postage, 5 cents

A complete course in Homoeopathy, giving history, theory, dosage, pharmacy, materia medica and practice.

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THE PATTEE COUCH CHAIR

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BARNETT-PATTEE CO., Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

THOROUGH PREPARATION FOR

All State Board

Medical Examinations

Instruction Personally or by Correspondence

As time is an important factor, I give as much attention to showing what NOT to read as what should be carefully studied.

Physicians removing from one State to another can obtain valuable assistance, and save much time, trouble and money. Address

DR. R. J. E. SCOTT, Demilt Dispensary 28d Street and Second Avenue New York City

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Circulation: April, 1906, 35,571.

THE MEDICAL WORLD

The knowledge that a man can use is the only real knowledge; the only knowledge that has life and growth in it and converts itself into practical power. The rest hangs like dust about the brain, or dries like raindrops off the stones.-FROude.

The Medical World

C. F. TAYLOR, M D., Editor and Publisher
A. L. RUSSELL, M.D., Assistant Editor

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The Study of Mental Diseases.

Language is a growth rather than a creation. The growth of our vocabulary is seen in the vast increase in the size of our dictionaries during the past century. This growth is not only in amount, but among other elements of growth the written forms of words are becoming simpler and more uniform. For example, compare English spelling of a century or two centuries ago with that of to-day! It is our duty to encourage and advance the movement toward simple, uniform and rational spelling. See the recommendations of the Philological Society of London, and of the American Philological Association, and list of amended spellings publisht in the Century Dictionary (following the letter z) and also in the Standard Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary, and other authoritativ works on language. The tendency is to drop silent letters in some of the most flagrant instances, as ugh from though, etc., change ed to t in most places where so pronounced (where it does not affect the preceding sound), etc.

The National Educational Association, consisting of ten thousand teachers, recommends the following:

"At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Educational Association held in Washington, D. C., July 7, 1898, the action of the Department of Superintendence was approved, and the list of words with simplified spelling adopted for use in all publications of the National Educational Association as follows:

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"You are invited to extend notice of this action and to join in securing the general adoption of the suggested amendments.IRVING SHEPARD, Secretary."

We feel it a duty to recognize the above tendency, and to adopt it in a reasonable degree. We are also disposed to add enuf (enough) to the above list, and to conservativly adopt the following rule recommended by the American Philological Association: in such words as definite," "infinite," Drop final "e "favorite," etc.. when the preceding vowel is short. Thus, spell opposit," "preterit," "hypocrit," "requisit." etc. When the preceding vowel is long, as in "polite,' finite,' "unite." etc., retain present forms unchanged.

We simply wish to do our duty in aiding to simplify and rationalize our universal instrument-language.

MAY, 1906.

In no other department of medicin is the great majority of general practicians so deficient and so negligent and so absolutely ignorant, as in the domain of mental affections. There is ample cause for this carelessness, in the nature of the instruction imparted in this branch by even the medical schools recognized as belonging to the better class, and which are continually prating in their prospectuses of their thoroness and completeness of instruction in all branches, when it is considered that many of the profession attend schools of admittedly inferior standards, and that such schools make no

No. 5

pretense, even, of imparting instruction in psychiatry, the lack of interest in the matter is explainable. The average practician has never been taught anything about mental diseases, and consequently he does not know anything about them; he has never had his interest aroused in them by even a glimmer of instruction, and hence he does not want to know anything about them. He has a vague conception, based upon impressions he has imbibed during his attendance upon lectures, and upon the fact that the faculty of his school either ignored them completely or slurred over what instruction they gave, that such diseases are difficult to under

stand and are intricate, profound, and confusing in study. He is aware that his brother practicians are as densely ignorant as he is himself, and he is content to remain in darkness. One of the greatest legal farces ever perpetrated is the average examination of the average commission in lunacy, as appointed by court for the declaration of the insanity and consequent incarceration of a given patient. The two physicians and the one layman constituting the "commission" know as little about the matter of insanity as they would about how to go about extracting aluminum from the clay bank along the road. The subject of inquiry, if he knows that such a commission is to visit him, and that upon their decision rest his hopes of liberty or his certainty of imprisonment, has good cause to become worried enuf to show it, or to make an answer or two answers not as lucid as might be expected: when, presto, the decision is made that he is insane. Our asylums are filled with just such cases; criminal records teem with the evidence that many such commissions have perpetrated a great wrong. How many patients, slightly worried, deprest, or in a temporary melancholy state because of some great grief or loss, are plunged into hopeless insanity because of their brutal examination and incarceration at a time when their enfeebled minds could not endure another annoyance?

These are matters which all thoughtful men recognize, and which are sufficiently reprehensible to make all conscientious men take a greater interest than they have formerly done. An erroneous impression maintains regarding the difficulty in mastering the principles and practise of psychiatrics. While it is true that many of the principles of the practise are based solely upon theories, and that the great majority of the rules and the diagnoses are essentially empirical, and that every case has intricacies and complications, it is also true that well defined laws are known whereby the interested investigator may sift the extraneous symptoms from the essential manifestations until he arrives at a diagnosis which is commonly correct. The subject is not as difficult as are many other branches of medicin, and it is a special field which will easily and well repay the time and study devoted to it. The books upon this obscure field of medicin are not numerous, but they are comprehensiv and practical, and are within the reach of every practician. While

cases are not numerous in general practise, the principles of the study can be mastered without patients being at hand, and many matters connected with it may be cleared up in a satisfactory manner, simply by a study of the text books upon the subject. It is the duty of every practician to know something of the commoner mental aberrations and diseases, and no man should assume the responsibility of complicity in the incarceration of a fellow man on grounds of insanity, while he himself is absolutely ignorant of the valid symptoms and signs of the condition.

.

Brief Points on the Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever in Children.

It is more difficult to make a satisfactory diagnosis of typhoid fever in a child than

in the adult. The Widal test and the diazo reaction are not available until late in the

disease, and are not so certain as in the adult. The extreme cerebral congestion which arises at times, aids, too, in obscuring the diagnosis.

Perhaps the most important factor to make search for is the absence of leucocytosis. Meningitis, either tubercular or non-tubercular, is the only disease with which the experienced clinician is apt to confound typhoid fever in a child. In typhoid, leucocytosis is absent, while in meningitis it is usually present, especially if the process be to any degree purulent. E. S. Wood has called attention, also, to the fact that in meningitis the chlorids of the urin diminish rapidly; heating the urin precipitates the phosfates readily, and the amount of indoxyl is increast: the diametrically opposit is the case in typhoid fever.

Exact Prescribing.

There is a growing tendency, fostered by specialists and professors in medical schools, when writing upon a given subject, to skim over the therapeutic phase of the subject. After long dissertations upon a given disease, rheumatism for instance, they sum the whole salicylates are indicated." treatment in the too terse phrase: "The salicylates are indicated." While they themselves may be familiar with all the salicylates in all their fine points of difference, we are certain that the mass of the profession are not. To most of them, such an expression would simply mean sodium salicylate, because they are ignorant of the fact that there are other salicylates possessing features distinct from those of the sodium salt.

We are aware that to surgery is conceded

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