This issue of the Medical Herald is being mailed to all the subscribers to the Medical Fortnightly and Laboratory News which was merged with the Herald on January 1st, and they will continue to receive this magazine until the time for which they have paid has expired. Those who have paid up for both journals will be entitled to receive the Herald for two years from the date of payment. This rule will apply on all club subscriptions as well. Our readers will note that the subscription has not been advanced by reason of the consolidation, our ambition being to make the Herald the best one dollar medical journal in America! You can help us by remitting a dollar for 1920, and speaking a good word for us when you write to our advertising

patrons.

Annual Banquet of the Buchanan
County Medical Society

Nearly 100 members of this society dined at Hotel Robidoux, St. Joseph, on the evening of January 7th. Col. J E. Binnie, president of the Jackson County Medical Society, was the special guest of the evening, and he gave an interesting

talk on his experiences in the evacuation hospitals overseas. Col. Binnie was very free in his criticism of the "red tape" which hampered the medical department in its work. "There is one thing that we learned very thoroughly over there," he says, "and that is the value of teamwork." Dr. Binnie expressed his disapproval of the practice of erecting monumental hospitals. He is in favor of hospitals for the common people, adequate to their means, not so pretentious, but clean, well managed and efficient.

Dr. A. B. McGlothlan, the retiring president, in reviewing the work of the year, mentioned the clinics now being held at three hospitals as a most excellent feature, and hoped they would be continued.

Dr. L. J. Dandurant, the president-elect, spoke for a united profession and was earnest in his appeal for co-operation to make this year the best in the history of the society.

Dr. A. L. Gray, the poet laureate of the society, presented a lyric on the "Big Five," which he compared to the old time "Scalpel Six," and his hits at the various members of the local profession were very timely and amusing.

"After-dinner Speaking"

a New Disease?

In the Atlantic Monthly for October, Burgess Johnson of the English Department of Vassar, writes entertainingly on this subject, and declares his modesty by expressing his doubt as to whether after-dinner speaking is a disease by using the interrogation point. But though he starts out gingerly as if he were treading on ground that was not his proper sphere, he soon enters bravely into the subject and affirms that all after-dinner speakers, who talk for a considerable length of time, who are oblivious to the impatience of their audience, as illustrated in shuffling of feet, yawns of unusual dimensions, and the shoving of plates aside, or the constant toying with knives, forks, and spoons, are practicing autohypnosis, or rather are the victims of it, on account of their being afflicted with hys

teria.

This is a most important, as well as an alarming subject, and we would urge that a committee be appointed by the Buchanan County Medical Society to investigate, with a view to providing proper sanitarium care for those members in whom the disease has developed.

Doctor, if you receive a copy of the Medical Herald and are not a subscriber, please take it as a cordial invitation to remit a dollar and receive our magazine for the year 1920. Turn to advertising page 68 and note the feast of "Good Things To Come" in the early issues of the Medical Herald.

This organization, in conjunction with the American College of Physicians, meets at Chicago February 23 to 26, 1920.

The sessions will comprise daily clinical and laboratory demonstrations in many of Chicago's leading hospitals and teaching institutions. There will be several evening gatherings. These will be addressed by men eminent in American medicine. One of the evening meetings will embrace the Fourth Annual Convocation of the American College of Physicians.

Ethical physicians of the United States and Canada who are interested in the advancement of what is best in clinical and scientific medicine

and its affiliated sciences are cordially invited to attend all sessions of the American Congress on Internal Medicine. The gatherings will be of great practical and scientific worth.

Hotel accommodations must be spoken for at once. Detailed information with regards headquarters, hotels, clinics, scientific demonstrations, etc., may be secured by addressing Dr. Frank Smithies, Secretary-General, 1002 North Dearborn St., Chicago, Illinois.

Cardiorenal Disease

Dr. G. M. Niles, Atlanta, Ga. (Journal A. M. A., Dec 27, 1919), says that all practitioners of medicine, particularly those specializing in gastroenterology, have patients with so-called "cardiorenal insufficiency," who complain of indigestion, distressing flatulence, epigastric fullness after eating and general digestive discomfort. The valvular lesions may be varied. There may be arrhythemia, myocardinal inefficiency or tumultous heart action. The urine may be loaded with albumin and show casts or it may be fairly normal. Without going into the question of actual cardiac and renal pathology in these cases, Niles rather discusses the methods employed for steadying the heart, aiding compensation, allowing physical space in the thoracic and abdominal region and lightening the work of the kidneys. As a cardiac "steadier" plus a diuretic, he has, perhaps, more faith in the infusion of digitalis than in any other preparation of the drug, and

combines with it a saline, varying according to the apparent needs, if the bowels tend to be loose, which is seldom the case. He gives prescriptions for relieving the gas in the stomach which embarrasses the heart action, consisting of spirits of anise, zinc phenolsulphonate and magma magnesia. In many of the uncompensated cases there is frequent dyspnea, for which he prescribes aromatic spirit of ammonia and elixir of ammonia valerianate, equal parts, 11⁄2 ounces, a teaspoonful of which can be given in water every fifteen minutes. Dietetic restrictions and regulations are most important, and Niles offers a suggestive diet list, in which sweets and fats are avoided. It does not promote a gain in weight, but a slight loss is not prejudicial. These practical suggestions, Niles says, may not be possible to enforce in all cases, and some patients may be rebellious even when they are followed, but he thinks they will be generally helpful.

Our Laws and Our Practice

The young man who contemplates medicine as a career must finish the high school, have two school and at least two years as an interne in a years at least in college, four years at a medical hospital. He may devote a year or two more in special work. When he arrives to practice his profession in one of the cities in the Missouri Valley his head is crowded with a knowledge of pathology and a dozen of other ologies, all up to date, he finds the public has been educated to ders for a practice, by a not inconsiderable herd a greater or larger extent by the numerous bidof drugless healers whose offices are crowded with patients, real or imaginary sick.. The writer finds almost every week pamphlets and brochures entering into detail in regard to the eminent ability of this representative of the cult who claims to cure everything.

A so called state journal devoted to osteopathy, published at St. Joseph, Mo., "SuperHealth," for instance, claims that the cures of influenza by their school of treatment, in the late epidemic, was 100 per cent. A lot of similar statements are found and explained to the gullible public. It says that the soldier can now get the benefit of osteopathic treatment, which, is inferred, was kept from him while in the army by the jealous allopath in control. Of course. the regular profession doesn't accept the title of path of any kind, as we are not limited by any pathy and we can practice, using treatment in any way indicated by our knowledge of the pathological condition present.

But here is the point. While writing there is before us the Chiropractic Health Herald, distributed apparently to every residence in the city, bidding for trade. It is full of explanation and

every medical man knows about the credulity of the average person, particularly if they are to carry on an investigation of their own. The A. M. A. and the medical high brows could learn a valuable lesson, not much in medical education, but in getting practice from the public, if they wish to let the doctor make a living. A physician of a medical equipment much inferior to that stated in the beginning of this article, would at least represent rational medicine. Why should every practicing physician have such an elaborate education, while those he meets in daily competition do not? The drugless healer is an aggressive getter of business and all he wants is a fair field. He does not rely on dignity, but he tells the public directly what he can do. Then we have a disorganized medical profession. While we are teaching sanitation, hygiene and right living, the drugless healer takes advantage of the credulous and those who believe something should be done about treating their bodies, their real or imaginary ills, by the psychotherapy of the peculiar cult he represents. We make our living by treating sick people. All this should be food for reflection for our ultra medical high brows, who wish to put the regular doctor in as high an atmosphere as the H. C. L.

Opprobrium Medicorum.

St. Louis' Low Death Rate

The death rate in St. Louis for 1919 was the

lowest since the records of the Health Depart

ment were started in 1867. The number of deaths compiled for the year was 10,249, which is at the rate of 12.5 per 1000 of population, the Health Department estimating the population of the city. now to be 820,000. The lowest previous rate was 13.3 in 1915. The death rate in 1867 was 29.7, 6,538 in a population of 220,000 dying in that year. The number of births for the year 1919 was 13.570. This was 1,060 fewer than in 1918, when the total was 14,630.

New Use

of X-Rays

X-rays have a new use, says the London Times. Instead of being used almost entirely for examination of the human body, they are now to be used in inspecting lumber and steel. One use may be a method of distinguishing between different metal alloys, since metals vary in their resistance to the rays. This use would be limited. by depth, the rays penetrating only about four inches into ordinary steel, and less into special alloys. The most obvious use is the examination of metal castings to find defects such as blowholes.

Kansas City's Professional Men to Have New Building

Plans calling for the erection of a building for professional men exclusively have been indorsed by the Kansas City Dental society and the Jackbe 14 stories high and have 600 offices for physison County Medical society. The building is to cians, dentists and other professional men. The location selected is the corner of Eleventh and Oak streets.

Honors for Dr.

Franklin H. Martin

The title of Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George was conferred upon Dr. Franklin H. Martin by the Prince of Wales in the Belmont House, Washington, on Thursday, November 13, 1919, in the presence of the members of the cabinet, the diplomatic corps, etc.

"Moore" Power for Your Car-The Moore Auxiliary Transmission for the Ford car is the last word in efficiency. It makes your car the equal of any high-priced car on the road. Send for booklet and price. Address The TractorTrain Co., 1439 Myrtle St., Los Angeles, Calif. Do it today. (See adv. in this issue.)

Typhus Exterminated in Serbia-The fiveyear campaign which American Red Cross doctors and nurses have been waging against typhus in Serbia has ended victoriously. The recent report of the Serbian Commission states that there are but sixty-five cases in the country, two-thirds of these being in Belgrade where the Red Cross operates a hospital for typhus cases only.

We call attention to an announcement in this issue by Dr. Frank Blackmarr, of Chicago, placing his facilities for radium treatment at the disposition of the physicians of the Missouri Valley. Dr. Blackmarr is an acknowledged expert in the line of electro-therapy, and x-ray, and we commend him to our readers who may be in need of his services.

Mr. W. T. Brennaaun, formerly the Kansas City representative of Horlick's Malted Milk, called at the Herald office recently, en route to the factory at Racine, Wisconsin. Mr. B. is now the Pacific Coast "Horlick" man, with headquarters in Los Angeles. He is genuinely enthusiastic regarding California and its wonderful climate, and has found, he says, just one other theme upon which he can divide his enthusiasm with Horlick's malted milk.

Fluid extract of cota bark, three drops in a spoonful of water, three or four times a day, or after passage, is almost a specific for diarrhea of children.