fumes caused by wine or other liquors, promotes urine and women's terms, opens some people's bodies, makes the memory and fancy more quick, and people that drink it brisk. It agrees, when moderately taken, especially in cold weather, with old people; with such as are phlegmatic, and those who are fat and corpulent; but 'tis not so proper for bilious and melancholy persons. The use of coffee to excess is at least as pernicious as the moderate use of it is wholesome to many persons. Many persons that have been used to drink too much coffee become infirm and paralytic, as Willis and other physicians have observed.”

DANGER IN HOUSEHOLD PETS.

Dr. Martin Friedrich, of Cleveland, the expert in small-pox cases employed by the city, says that dogs and cats help spread the disease and that the sooner they are killed off the better it will be for the health of the people.

"I suppose I will be regarded as cruel and inhuman by advocating such a step as this," said Dr. Friedrich yesterday, "but the people will find that it must be done before we get rid of small-pox. This is especially true in the plague-stricken districts, where many people apparently care more for their dogs than for their children.

"Any one who has not seen how some of those people live can scarcely comprehend the danger from dogs and cats. They spread the disease more than human beings do. When a new case of small-pox is discovered, the victim is hurried off to a hospital, the other occupants of the house are vaccinated, and the house quarantined, but the dogs and cats are permitted to come and go as they choose.

"I recently discovered a case of small-pox on Canal Street, in a house in which several families were living. I did not attempt to count the number of children that were playing about the house and yard, all of them in filth. It would have been even more futile to have attempted to count the dogs and cats, and I must say they looked better fed than the children. The dogs were the children's pets. The children rolled in the dirt with them, kissed them and hugged them. The children had been exposed to small-pox. They were immediately vaccinated and kept under guard. The children, however, went to play with the neighboring dogs, and the neighboring dogs, in turn, were hugged and kissed by the children who owned them. Now, what chance is there to keep the disease from spreading under such circumstances?"

A NEW INSTITUTION FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH.

An enterprise of extraordinary value and promise which will do much to further preventive medicine in this country is initiated, by a corporation (Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research), with a gift of $200,000 from Mr. John D. Rockefeller. Its headquarters will be in New York City. The object of this new creation is to furnish facilities for original study of medical problems, bearing more especially on those questions whose answer should be of practical application in the prophylaxis and treatment of disease. Judging from what has thus far been published, it seems probable that particular emphasis will be laid upon the prophylactic side, which, after all, is the most logical aim of practical medical research; and, with this view in mind, it has already been suggested that one of the problems whose solution would for the present prove of even greater benefit to humanity than many other studies, is the relation of milk-supply to gastro-enteric maladies of children. Experiments will be made in the laboratories. of several leading universities, and one person will be sent to Europe to report upon the results of similar studies there.

But this represents only a similar feature of the plan in view. Definite problems will be taken up, and as the work develops, doubtless a permanent staff of competent workers will be organized, and a large field cultivated.

The board of management as at present constituted is as follows: President, William H. Welch, M. D., Baltimore; Vice-President, T. Mitchell Prudden, M. D., New York; Secretary, L. Emmett Holt, M. D., New York; Treasurer, C. A. Herter, M. D., New York; members, Theobald Smith, M. D., Boston; Simon Flexner, M. D., Philadelphia; H. M. Biggs, M. D., New York.

The potential value of an institution of this kind, and under such auspices, to medical science and to the interests of humanity can hardly be over-estimated.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE LAW.-We cannot see that there is any flaw in the argument from the New York "Times" that "if we make laws to protect the public against spurious butter, why not make or enforce laws against spurious doctors? A quack is not less dangerous because he takes the name of the Saviour to hide his ignorance and cover his homicides." Certainly a man it not allowed to sell gunpowder, dynamite and other explosives without a license; why should he, as a Christian or as a scientist, be permitted to distribute infection gratuitiously?-Buffalo "Commercial."

All correspondence and exchanges, and all publications for review, should be addressed to the Editor, Dr. A. N. Bell, 337 Clinton St eet, Brooklyn, N. Y.

SANITARIAN, JULY, 1901.

THE AMERICAN CONGRESS OF TUBERCULOSIS.

CLARK BELL, Esq., LL. D., whose portrait embellishes the opposite page, the founder of the New York Medico-Legal Society, editor and proprietor of the "Medico-Legal Journal," and the projector of the American Congress of Tuberculosis, is no stranger to the older readers of THE SANITARIAN, for during the early years. of the Medico-Legal Society, some twenty years ago, THE SANITARIAN published its proceedings, to which Mr. Bell, as the leading spirit of the organization, was a frequent contributor. And under his leadership the Society was not long in so extending its field of view as to recognize the need of a distinctive journal for its proceedings. This need Mr. Bell was the first to perceive and to establish. And he has conducted it with such characteristic vigor and pioneership in the discussion of medico-legal questions and reformatory measures in medical jurisprudence as to have enlisted the co-operation of both professions insomuch in this regard as to have brought about the most signal co-operative effort for the prevention of tuberculosis ever before effected in this country.

The congress was too late in the month, May 15-17th, for more than the publication of the presidential address, and the address of welcome by Clark Bell, Esq., president of the Medico-Legal Society, the projector of the congress, and the names of the officers, in our June number.

The congress was extensively representative. It was constituted of accredited delegates by the Governors, State and local medical societies of almost every State and Territory of the United States, Mexico, Canada, the South American nationalities and severai European, for the most part of physicians, but some foreign consuls, here resident, designated by their respective governments, and other distinguished men of affairs, together with the lawyers and others of the Medico-Legal Society. In all, nearly two hundred, about half of whom were present, and a number of those who could not be contributed papers. The papers and discussions were of wide range, as contemplated in the plan of the congress from the outset.

Based upon accepted knowledge that tuberculosis is a contagious and preventable disease, the medical profession of all countries were invited to contribute papers to be read in their behalf

by a committee selected for that purpose, in case of the inability of the authors to attend, and to enable those who could not hope or expect to be present to participate in the work and usefulness of the body.

As the questions to be discussed involved remedial legislation, legislators, lawyers, judges and all publicists who take an interest in the subject, "The Prevention of Tuberculosis," as announced, yet the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal" of May 23d, while recognizing the announcement, imputed and implied an additional purpose to suit its self-satisfied knowledge and asperse the proceedings: "It cannot be said, however, that the cause of scientific medicine was advanced to any appreciable extent by the meeting"-or undertaken. "No discrimination, whatever, seems to have been shown in the selection of papers, so that the time of the convention was largely taken up by cranks and by those with axes to grind in the shape of self-lauded special methods of treatment."

That this aspersion may be the more evident, attention is invited to a partial list of the papers, with the names of their authors, in the order of presentation, appended; and to some of the papers read, on other pages. More will follow hereafter.

H. D. Holton, M. D., Secretary of the State Board of Health of Vermont, on taking the chair at the opening of the afternoon session of the first day, made a brief address. He thanked the congress for the honor conferred by selecting him to preside over the deliberations, and said:

"You are here for a great philanthropic purpose. Tuberculosis for a long period stood at the head as a cause of mortality, and is only second now, in some localities, to pneumonia. It is for you, in connection with the Medico-Legal Society of New York, to consider what legislation can properly be asked for that will prevent its spread, and to discuss other means of arresting its progress. Without further delay we will proceed with the work of the congress."

On motion, the congress proceeded to the reading of papers as named on the programme :

Clark Bell, Esq., LL. D., of New York, read a paper on "Tuberculosis and Legislation."

Paper by ex-Judge Abram H. Dailey, of Brooklyn, "Medical Legislation from a Legal Standpoint."

Dr. C. F. Ulrich, of Wheeling, W. Va., "Suggestions for the Prevention of Tuberculosis from Personal Observation."

Louis J. Rosenbergh, Esq., of Detroit, "Legal Action to Prevent the Spread of Tuberculosis."