Mr. Kipling and the Doctors is the title of an article in October 10th issue of The Spectator. It is a comment on an address delivered by the eminent litterateur to the students of Middlesex Hospital in praise of the doctors. Coming from such a source it is refreshing. It is said his words have been read by the public with delight and his auditors were thrilled with burning pride in their profession. The doctors and their patients divide the world into two classes; the non-combatants, the patients, eagerly watch the efforts, in their behalf, of those who were always in action, "always under fire against death." Mr. Kipling said that this fight for life was one of the most important things in the world. (The italics are ours.) Did but the public realize this, and governments in particular, with regard to tuberculosis and other diseases the doctors were fighting! They reported for duty at once in all times of flood, fire, famine, plague, pestilence, battle, murder and sudden death; they could pass through the most riotous crowds unmolested when they were known, or stop a ship in mid-ocean to perform an operation; houses were burnt up or pulled down on their order; they dared tell the world facts. Mr. Kipling says they are paid to tell the truth; Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once told a graduating class they might sometimes venture on lies as justifiable in the interests of their patients. Truly we doctors have a wide latitude. The writer in The Spectator goes on and elaborates Mr. Kipling's address. We are told we belong to the "privileged " and the "ruling" classes as well; that judges' sentences upon criminals, the whole machinery of state, great projects of reform, cabinet council deliberations very often hinge upon the judgments of the doctors. Men and women, rich and poor alike, obey his mandates. But we are later told that with all our powers the prizes to us are few. One thing, however, long known to the medical profession, startles the public -the highest death-rate of any profession in the world! And, indeed, each and every one has time and again heard the salutation: "You shouldn't get sick!" "You shouldn't catch cold!" The doctors run more risks of untimely death, defend people's homes from invisible foes, bring hope and sleep in the worst hours of pain, see life exactly as it is, daily risk their lives for others, run great chances with their families, keep patients' secrets, and do it all unconsciously of their own individual selves; yes, and as a body, often have to carry the sins of the black sheep in the flock. The profession, as a whole, will not fail to return its appreciative thanks to Mr. Kipling as well as to The Spectator. News Items BRITISH COLUMBIA continues an active campaign against tuberculosis. Two pamphlets have recently been issued to the teachers and school children of that Province. THE Montreal League for the Prevention of Tuberculosis will receive a donation of $50,000 from Lt.-Col. Burland of that city, on condition that the League will raise an endowment of $50,000 to provide for the support of the institution. MR. FRANK A. RUF, President and Treasurer of the Antikamnia Chemical Co., St. Louis, has recently been decorated by the Shah of Persia with the Imperial Order of the Lion and the Sun. Mr. Ruf is a collector of Persian textile art treasures. THE "American Woman," is the title of an article in The Spectator by Dr. Andrew MacPhail, editor of the University Magazine and the Montreal Medical Journal, which has attracted considerable attention in England and the United States. A CLEAN milk supply for Toronto is being agitated for on the part of the Academy of Medicine and those members of the Milk Commission of the Canadian Medical Association. At the meeting of the section on Public Health of the Academy, on the evening of the 20th of October, Dr. J. A. Amyot gave an address which included certified milk, inspected milk and tuberculosis and milk. Publishers' Department ANEMIA AND ITS RELATION TO CATARRHAL INFLAMMATION.— No disease is more common than chronic inflammation of the mucous membranes. Doubtless many causes contribute to the prevalence of this malady which spares neither the young nor the old, the rich nor the poor, the high nor the low. Prominent in its etiology, however, are sudden climatic changes, the breathing of bad or dust-laden air, bad hygiene in personal habits, and bad sanitary surroundings. These factors all singly or collectively tend to lower the vitality of the whole human organism, and as a consequence the cells throughout the body perform their various functions imperfectly, or not at all. The quality of the blood becomes very much lowered, with the result that tissues that have important work to perform, do not receive sufficient nourishment and so falter from actual incapacity. The red blood cells are reduced in numbers and the hemoglobin is likewise diminished. Because of the blood poverty the digestive process is arrested, nutritive material is neither digested nor absorbed, and a general state of inanition ensues. It is not surprising under these circumstances, therefore, that chronic inflammation of the mucous membranes is produced. These highly organized structures with very important duties to perform, naturally suffer from insufficient nutritional support, and the phenomena of catarrh follow as a logical result. Perversion and degeneration of the cells in turn takes place, and more or less permanent changes are produced in the identity and function of the tissues. Appropriate treatment should consist primarily in correcting or eliminating all contributing factors of a bad hygienic or insanitary character. The individual should be placed under the most favorable conditions possible and every effort made to readjust the personal regime. Local conditions of the nose, throat, the vagina, or any other part, should be made as nearly normal as possible by suitable local applications or necessary operative procedures. Then attention should be directed immediately to improving the quality of the blood, and thus increase the general vitality. For this purpose vigorous tonics and hematics are desirable, and Pepto-Mangan (Gude) will be found especially useful. Through the agency of this eligible preparation, the blood is rapidly improved, the organs and tissues become properly nourished and accordingly resume their different functions. Digestion and assimilation are stimulated and restored to normal activity, and the various cells and organs start up just as would a factory after a period of idleness. In fact, Pepto-Mangan (Gude) supplies the necessary elements that are needed to establish the harmonious working of the whole organism. When this result is achieved, the catarrhal condition is decreased to a minimum and distressing symptoms are banished, a consummation that is highly gratifying to every afflicted patient, and every earnest practitioner. THE IMPORTANCE OF LECITHIN to the organism is demonstrated by its thorough distribution throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and its value as a therapeutic agent is being appreciated more fully day by day, as experimental work progresses and opens up new fields for its usefulness. Lecithin has been given with satisfactory effects in anemia, rachitis, tuberculosis, diabetes, and in nervous breakdown, and recent reports show that much is to be expected of it in syphilis and locomotor ataxia. In the latter ailment, pains were alleviated and other signs disappeared, and one author comes to the conclusion that the loss of lecithin due to syphilitic toxin might bring on general paralysis and phthisis. Lecithin in its best form is furnished under the name Lecithol (Armour), a palatable emulsion, containing one grain of pure lecithin to the drachm. Lecithol is superior to the hypophosphites, glycerophosphates and other inorganic combinations, which are not converted into lecithin in the system and which are excreted as phosphates. WHERE THERE IS A BURNING sensation when urinating, sanmetto in teaspoonful doses three or four times a day usually gives relief. If the urine is alkaline, ammonium benzoate in connection with sanmetto will prove helpful, and citrate of potash when the urine is acid. THE VARIETIES OF DYSMENORRHOEA.-In an article on Dysmenorrhoea, Solomon Henry Secoy, M.D., of Jeffersonville, Ind.,. refers especially to its causes and treatment, and offers some valuable suggestions as follows: "I am in the habit of regarding dysmenorrhoea as capable of division into three varieties. They are the neuralgic, the obstructive, and the membranous. The neuralgic form is a pure neuralgia, and its subjects, in all cases, will give a history upon which we can base its cause. These patients will tell us that never, prior to the attacks which they have recently undergone, have they had dysmenorrhoea. It is caused generally by malaria and other influences which tend to lower the general health. The treatment of dysmenorrhoea very naturally comprises such remedies and procedures as will correct the cause, and the administration of anodynes to relieve the pain. In the neuralgic form we must correct the cause. If that be malaria, quinine must be given. In most cases where the neuralgic form is presented, there is anemia, and no relief will be secured till this factor is overcome. Iron in some available form must, therefore, be given. During the period of menstruation the administration of antikamnia and codeine tablets For COUGHS and THROAT IRRITATION PINOCODEINE "FROSST" Each fluid drachm contains:-Codeine phosphate gr. combined As a routine expectorant, it is the same reliable product STOPS COUGHING, ALLAYS IRRITATION,' ATIO ASSISTS EXPECTORATION Perfectly safe with patients of any age. For GRADUAL or SUDDEN HEART FAILURE Elixir Digitalin Co. “Frosst” Each fluid drachm contains :-Digitalin 1-100 gr. The original product that has created the demand for this CHARLES E. FROSST & CO. 1 |