fineness. Mexican dollars are current still, but for less than their bullion value.

There were 192 vessels, of 102.532 tons, entered at the port of Santo Domingo in 1893; and in the previous year 129, of 147,347 tons, at Puerto Plata. The exports are coffee, mahogany, logwood, lignum vitæ, fustic, lancewood, cacao, sugar, honey, tobacco, and hides.

There is a railroad from Samana to La Vega, 71 miles, which is being extended to Santiago. The telegraph between Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo, 229 miles, with branches, connects with the French submarine cable. The post office in 1892 carried 323,662 internal and 205,

075 international letters.

Political Conspiracy. The disaffection with the President broke out in open revolt a few days after the execution of the Baez brothers, in December, 1893. This insurrection was put down after less than a fortnight's fighting. Heureaux still dreaded his enemies, however, and took every means to terrify them, causing the arrest and imprisonment of several prominent persons known to be hostile to him. He had spies everywhere, and permitted no foreigners to land without passports. During January and February, 1894, a dozen persons were reported to have been tried by court-martial and executed. One of these was Francisco Pidtado, whose brother, the Spanish consul, was unceremoniously banished. In July another plot to assassinate the President was scented by the secret agents, in consequence of which several men were arrested and Gen. Bobadilla was shot as the ringleader. The arrests led to another disturbance in the capital, which was quelled with the usual rigor.

Quarrel with France.-Before the last election President Heureaux, wishing to pay arrears of salary due the officials, contracted to borrow 200,000 francs from the Banque Dominicaine, a French corporation, on the security of treasury bonds at half their nominal value and at 15 per cent. interest. M. Marcenas, the head of the bank, who was a rival candidate for the presidency, refused to advance the money without the security of the stamp duties, which were already pledged elsewhere. Heureaux thereupon demanded the return of the bonds, having received an offer of the money from another bank. He appealed to the courts, which ordered the bank either to advance the money or to return the bonds. The bank disputed the impartiality of this judgment, whereupon Gen. Heureaux affixed the Government seals to the coffers of the bank. The French consul then intervened, and placed his seals over those of the Dominican Government. These seals were removed by order of the President. The French consul regarded this act a violation of international law and telegraphed to his Government, which sent 2 men-of-war to Dominican waters. Gen. Heureaux offered to deposit 200.000 francs in any other bank, but the proposition was not accepted, and diplomatic relations were broken off. SERO-THERAPY. In the decade preceding this bacteriology had developed a variety of experiments for antagonizing microbes by other microbes, or by their own kind, or by their autotoxic product attenuated, on the principle of vaccination for smallpox. Wanting success on this

line-the chief practical result of which is the tuberculin test for consumption germs in cattle the true direction of progress has been found in the present decade in the cultivation and reenforcement of the blood as the true citadel of life, in its perfection impregnable, as immemorial experience and modern science unitedly testify, to the assaults of infection, whether by microbes or by their toxic products. Two general methods of re-enforcing the blood against disease have been found effectual to degrees so promising as to announce a new medical epoch of unprecedented importance. Hæmatherapy, or treatment by blood (practically the blood of animals) is a comprehensive term for the system in both of its methods, but has been limited by usage to the application of robust animal blood, in its ordinary activity, to the maladies that result from debilitation or exhaustion of the vital fluid in man, such as anæmia, innutrition, debility, ulcers, and exsanguination from choleraic, traumatic, or post-partum hæmorrhage, but without excluding from view the probable efficacy of this natural, innocuous, and purely physiological agent in all cases, except possibly where epidemics of extraordinary virulence assault the unprepared system without warning. For these purposes ox blood of unimpaired vitality, purified of insoluble elements by a cold process and preserved permanently aseptic, is everywhere accessible to the physician.

That more specialized hæmatherapy which is directed exclusively to the resistance of specific infections is called "sero-therapy," as being an artificial cultivation of the blood serum to the reenforcement of its natural immunitive powers in special directions, according to the particular variety of infection to be combated. Various species of animals were at first found to be naturally proof or "immune" against the attacks of particular species of microbes. In searching for the cause of this immunity, that it might be transferred to man, it was found to reside in their blood, as a protective substance or potency in the serum, which is bactericidal and also cytocidal to the blood cells, both red and white, of animals of other species. To this substance or potency is given the name alexin. Buchner and Vaughan independently concur in deriving this principle from the leucocytes or white cells of the blood, and Vaughan has demonstrated that it is contained in the nucleus of those cells, from which he has isolated a substance possessing its protective property, which has thence acquired the name of nuclein. By charging the blood of any animal with a specific microbe or its toxic products, and thus setting up an extraordinary contention between the poison and its natural antagonist in the blood of the animal-but only to such degree that the animal blood is sure of victory in the contest-it is found that the protective principle in the blood becomes progressively invigorated by the exercise, and at length to a prodigious degree. Its vigor is tested by a specific action in the blood of susceptible animals, which are quickly killed by it in sufficient quantity, probably by the joint action of the cytocidal power of the alexin, destroying whatever resistant force the blood of the victim might have possessed, and of the morbific products of the microbe which, though overcome by the immu

nized animal, were not wholly expelled from its blood. In the serum of this victorious animal has accumulated such bactericidal or antitoxic power that if it is thrown into conflict with the specific microbe or its toxines in the blood of a human subject affected therewith (but so adjusted in quantity and strength and so gradually applied as not to overtax but to stimulate the resistant capacity of the patient) its virtue is diffused throughout the natural circulation, the reactive power of the patient's blood is invigorated at once by the re-enforcement from without and by the conflict excited with the microbes or toxines of the disease, and as a result the patient comes to share the victory as well as the conflict of the immune animal with which he has been put into partnership. In the case of persons exposed to an infection but not as yet possessed by it, the same process becomes one of immunization against the threatened attack, although it is not yet found that such immunization is permanent or even very long continued. At all events, it almost infallibly defends against the present danger, and by its general application as prophylactic may yet expel and thenceforward keep at bay, like smallpox, the hosts of pestilence.

While tetanus and cholera were earlier heard of as objects of attack on this line, the great interest inspired by reports of unequivocal success has been centered, thus far, on the most usually formidable of the infections save tuberculosisdiphtheria. The success realized in combating this terrible infection has been universal, though not uniform, in the hospitals of the chief cities of the civilized world, the apparent reduction of mortality from actual attacks ranging from 10 per cent. to 80 per cent., while the prevented attacks must have been close to 100 per cent., wherever the prophylactic has been applied to families and neighborhoods exposed to the disease. In an exhaustive critical discussion of the treatment by the Berlin Medical Society, which was prolonged for several days, Prof. Virchow, the severest critic of the new bacteriological therapeutics, announced his hesitating experimentation with the serum and his unequivocal concession of its virtue from the following most significant tests, positive and negative, in the Kaiser-and-Kaiserin-Friedrich Hospital: Beginning in March, 1894, the cases of diphtheria were treated with Aronson's serum for eight weeks, when the supply suddenly gave out. The result had been recoveries, 54; deaths, 8. For the next seven weeks, when there was no serum, the deaths exceeded the recoveries 55 to 54. Hochst's serum was then obtained, and for the next six weeks the recoveries were 69, to 12 deaths. This experiment seems to have disposed of all doubt as to the beneficent power of sero-therapy in diphtheria at least.

The preparation of the serum is in three steps or stages: 1. The preparation of the original specific poison from a bouillon culture of the microbes which is filtered, tested to a standard of virulency on guinea pigs, and sealed up for preservation in darkness and fixed temperature. 2. The immunization of the animal that is to furnish the serum, preferably the horse, which stands the process better and yields more and stronger serum than any other. After testing

the health of the animal with tuberculin, etc., a small trial injection of the toxine is administered and the effects noted and modified by treatment if necessary in the course of a few days' observation. The injections are continued once a week or oftener, according to the time of recovery from immediate effects, for nearly ninety days, the dose being steadily increased until at last it is perhaps five hundred times as strong as at first, and the system has become insensible to its effects beyond the local inflammation at the puncture. When this condition is reached, and not before, the blood becomes rich in the antitoxine. 3. The withdrawal and preparation of the serum. The blood of the horse, to the amount of 6 or 8 litres at a bleeding, is withdrawn from the jugular vein into sterilized bottles with all antiseptic precautions, allowed to coagulate, and placed in an ice chest for twenty-four hours, when the serum will have separated, and is then transferred through a pipette to proper receptacles for use. The administration of the serum to the patient is generally similar to that of any other subcutaneous injection. The locality preferred for injection is generally the side. It is advised that whenever the physician suspects a case of diphtheria he should immediately inject a dose of 20 cubic centimetres and give to all those exposed to the possible infection a protective dose of 5 cubic centimetres. These doses are for children, but for subjects as old as fifteen years they are duplicated on the other side at the same time. The only risk incurred is said to be that of giving rise to slight urticaria or nettle rash. There remain, however, as in all cases of disease and modes of treatment, elements of uncertainty and variation due to possible complications in the constitution or health of the patient, which keep room always for skillful discrimination. In a few cases quite serious trouble has been reported following the treatment, though nothing so serious as death by diphtheria or death from the after effects of the treatment. It is obvious that much is yet to be learned respecting the best use of the remedy and the net result after all consequences are known. There are not wanting conservative critics who assert that disorders of the kidneys, joints, and other seats of chronic disease are sure to follow such a vigorous interference with the routine of Nature. The more enthusiastic friends of the treatment are equally sure that no such thing is to be feared in view of present experience, although it must be admitted that the time has yet been short for adequate observation. The following is the chronology of the recent discoveries in diphtheria and its sero-therapeutic treatment:

1883, the diphtheritic bacillus discovered by Klebs in the false membrane.

1884, the bacillus isolated and proved upon animals as to the false membrane, by Loeffler, whence known as the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus.

1888, proving of the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus completed as to the diphtheritic paralysis, by Roux and Yersin. Continuing their investigations, they discovered later the diphtheritic toxine produced by the bacillus and proved it, as to the paralysis, etc., the same as with the microbe. The German bacteriologists proceeded from these data in experiments by inoculation of animals for immunity under the lead of Karl Fraenckel and

Behring. The latter, in conjunction with Kitasato, developed the principle of sero-therapy in application to diphtheria and tetanus. The manufacture of the antitoxine serum has been carried on under Roux in the Pasteur Institute by Behring, Aronson, and others in Germany, among the pioneers; but it is now in full operation under medical authorities in many institutions endowed for the purpose in different cities of Europe and America, so that it can not be long before the antidote will be as accessible and familiar to the medical profession as the vaccine virus or the hæmatherapeutic " bovinine."

SERVIA, a monarchy in southeastern Europe. The Constitution of Jan. 3, 1889, abolished the prerogative of nominating members to the legislative body, which is called the Skupshtina. There are 134 members, 1 to 4,500 of population, elected by the direct suffrage of all male citizens who have paid the annual poll tax. The reigning King is Alexander I, born Aug. 14, 1876, who succeeded to the throne on March 9, 1889, after the abdication of King Milan, his father. On April 13, 1893, by a coup d'état, he abolished the regency to which the executive power had been intrusted pending his minority, and assumed all the royal prerogatives. The ministry, at the beginning of 1894, was composed as follows: Minister of War, Gen. S. Gruich, who assumed the premiership after the death of Dr. L. Dakich in December, 1893; Minister of Foreign Affairs, A. Nikolich; Minister of Finance, Dr. M. Vuich; Minister of Public Works, S. Stankovich; Minister of the Interior, S. Milosavlievich: Minister of Justice, P. Maximovich; Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, M. Miloshevich; Minister of Public Instruction and Worship, M. Wesnich.

Area and Population. The area of Servia is 19,050 square miles. The population in the beginning of 1893 was computed to be 2,250,712, of which number 1,156,408 were males and 1,094,304 females. The number of marriages in 1893 was 23,679; of births, 95,232; of deaths, 66,568; excess of births, 28,664. Belgrade, the capital, had 54,249 inhabitants in 1890.

Finances.-The budget for 1894 makes the receipts from direct taxation 20,544,600 dinars or francs; from customs, 6,000,000 dinars; from excise, 4,082,000 dinars; from law courts, 2,360,000 dinars; from monopolies, 15.940,000 dinars; from domains, railroads, telegraphs, posts, etc., 3,479,000 dinars; from state railroads, 5,500,000 dinars; from educational and sanitary service funds, 600,000 dinars; from various other sources, 5,250,000 dinars; total ordinary revenue, 63,755,600 dinars. The total expenditure was reckoned at 63,623,868 dinars, the chief items being 21,691,530 dinars for the public debt, 12, 465,000 dinars for the army, and 4,885,055 dinars for public works. The civil list is 1,200,000 dinars. The capital of the public debt on Jan. 1, 1894, was 340,692,542 dinars, of which 154,485,000 dinars represent railroad loans.

Commerce. The imports in 1893 were valued at 40,923,000 dinars and the exports at 48.911,000 dinars. The trade with Austria amounted to 23,756,000 dinars on the side of imports and 43,196,000 dinars on the export side. Of the total exports, 21,713,000 dinars were orchard and farm products and 20,624,000 dinars animals and animal produce.

Communications.-The railroads in the beginning of 1894 had a length of 337 miles. Their cost was 90,810,708 dinars. The post office in 1893 forwarded 9,991,000 domestic, 5,811,000 foreign, and 1,458,000 transit letters, newspapers, etc. The telegraphs had in 1893 a length of 1,916 miles, with 4,072 miles of wire. The postal and telegraph receipts for 1893 were 1,067,485 dinars, and expenses 1,401,199 dinars. The number of dispatches wired in 1893 was 923,412, of which 778,944 were paid internal and 109,493 international messages.

The Army. The law of 1889 makes military service obligatory for one year in the active army and nine years in the reserve. The budgetary strength of the army in 1893, exclusive of the staffs and superior officers, was: Infantry, 358 officers and 7,160 men; cavalry, 42 officers and 1,191 men; artillery, 148 officers and 2,589 men ; engineers, 28 officers and 999 men; train, 2 officers and 65 men; sanitary service, 2 officers and 108 men; total, 580 officers and 12,112 men, with 2,773 horses and 206 field guns. The war strength of the regular army is 105,575 men of all ranks; the total war effective, 337,323 men.

Constitutional Crisis.-The Cabinet that the young King appointed after he dismissed the Regents represented the Radical party, which embraces the independent peasant proprietors, who form 90 per cent. of the voting population. This party, which is extremely democratic in its theories of domestic politics and strongly proRussian in foreign politics, opposing the Progressives that were favored by King Milan and the Austrian associations that he cultivated under their influence, began to clamor, after the death of Dr. Dokich removed his restraining authority, for the realization of the Radical programme, which aims at cutting down the expenses of the General Government to the minimum and the replacement of the standing army by a militia capable of defending the political liberties of the people from domestic usurpers, as well as from foreign foes. They demanded that arms should be furnished to the militiamen in their houses, and made preparations to legislate to that effect. The King set himself firmly against this scheme, but he could not resist the demands for a sweeping reduction in taxation, for this had been promised. But instead of this new taxes were required, and these the Radical Government would find it impossible to collect, even if they should be decreed by the Skupshtina. Ex-King Milan, to whom his son appealed for counsel and help, arrived in Belgrade on Jan. 21, 1894, and on the same day Gen. Gruich placed the resignation of the Cabinet in the hands of the King on the ground that the presence of Milan was unconstitutional and contrary to the compact that he had made with the country upon abdicating. M. Vesnich had already resigned the portfolio of Public Instruction some days previous.

The Radical press attacked the ex-King violently with immunity, the Constitution granting free scope to newspaper strictures, unless applied to the reigning monarch. The elder Obrenovich thereupon induced his son to issue a ukase restoring him to the honors of a reigning king; but this strategem proved futile because the press prosecutions that were begun were thrown