Dr. Henry R. Harrower, who is at present editing the Medical Standard, and whose practical articles on various aspects of laboratory diagnosis and preventive medicine are by this time well known to readers of the better class of medical journals, will be the editor of this new undertaking, and has enlisted in his aid several men of scientific substance and literary power, including Drs. C. S. Neiswanger and Noble M. Eberhart of Chicago, Curran Pope of Louisville, and Albert Abrams of San Francisco, all of whom are well known to our readers. The first number will contain contributions, among others, from Drs. Louis Faugeres Bishop of New York, T. D. Crothers of Hartford, Conn., and H. C. Wells, of Fort Wayne, Ind.

Editors and contributions, of course, do not make a journal, any more than hosts and a spread table make a banquet. The banquet needs guests, and the Journal needs subscribers and readers. But in each case the character of the management and the quality of the things served constitute a powerful factor in the invitation to partake. Moreover, there is a need of just such a journal as this of Dr. Harrower's, to deal comprehensively and sanely with physiologic therapeutics. Magazines there are a plenty which run to one extreme and the other on the various modes of drugless therapy, but none that gives impartial and well-balanced attention to them all-and to drugs, too, where they are physiologic. This is what the new journal is going to attempt. We cordially recommend our readers to invest a dollar in a year's subscription. Send it at once to The American Journal of Physiologic Therapeutics, 72 E. Madison Street, Chicago, Ill.

IN real life, the villain can be pretty mean without a sneer and a black mustache.

Vibration in Painful Menstruation.

The steady application of mechanical vibration over the seat of the pain for five to ten minutes, will always relieve those forms of dysmenorrhea characterized by severe "cramps" during the onset of the flow, and ceasing when it is well-established. The treatment not only has a sedative effect on the nerve fibers, but also produces muscular relaxation.

Importance of Polarity.

In employing the galvanic current the beginner must not lose sight of the fact that this current is a chemical current, and that polarity is everything. He should certainly keep in mind the action of the positive and negative poles.

The positive pole is acid, sedative, constricts blood vessels and thereby lessens hemorrhage. Oxygen is found at this pole, and the scar it makes is hard and firm. It is an acid caustic.

The negative pole is just the opposite. Here hydrogen is found; it is alkaline, increases sensitiveness, and dilates blood vessels, thereby increasing bleeding. It is an alkaline caustic, but the scar is soft and pliable.

Popularizing High Frequency Cur. rents.

The therapeutic value of high-frequency currents was quickly appreciated by the profession, but nothing has done. so much to popularize them as the construction of efficient but moderate-priced portable outfits.

These coils range in price from $25.00 to $150.00, and are consequently within. the reach of every practitioner. The smaller ones are suitable for exciting the glass vacuum electrodes, while some of the larger give a very satisfactory highfrequency X-ray for treatment purposes and the radiography of extremities. The local

application of high-frequency sparks or effleuve, increases determination of blood to a part, liberates ozone, is germicidal, and if a sharp spark is used, has a cauterizing or destructive effect. They are especially useful in skin diseases, neuralgias, diseases of the prostate, leucorrhea, endometritis and other catarrhal conditions, etc.

The small coils connect directly to the lamp socket, and do not require special skill on the part of the operator to achieve generally satisfactory results.

Light Energy in the Treatment of
Disease.

J. F. Wallace, in the Monthly Cyclopedia and Medical Bulletin, October 1909, cites the experiments of Finsen, Deherain, Siemans, Prausnitz and others showing the effects of light upon animal and vegetable life.

He says, "Dieudonne found that peroxide of hydrogen was formed when water was exposed to the action of the arc lamp or sunlight. Bactericidal property of light is only possible when in the presence of oxygen. This has been proved by the experiments of Tizzoni and Gattani. They found that the long-continued action of sunlight upon the tetanus bacillus in the presence of oxy

gen destroyed the bacillus, also rendering inert its toxines. These experiments were confirmed by Cellis and Fermis. Finsen and Dreyer have shown that vaccines are destroyed by ultra-violet light. This destructive power has been proved by Finsen and others to be due to the chemical action of the actinic rays. To this property we owe the oxidizing process upon silver salts in photography. Finsen, in his experiments, proved that sunburn was due to this influence. He painted a black circle around his arm, and after three hours' exposure to the rays of the sun an intense erythema developed, leaving the part protected by the ring unaffected. When the erythema had subsided he removed the paint, and again exposed the arm to the light. After the same length of time, the area occupied by the ring became intensely inflamed, but the surface previously acted upon by the sun was unaffected, having been protected by the coat of tan or pigment.

"That all the frequencies of the spectrum are of special value therapeutically does not admit of question, but in the writer's experience the combined rays from the arc lamp, or high-power incandescent light, are much more satisfactory in treating functional or pathological conditions than the use of filtered light."

The author believes light-starvation is frequently the cause of crime and mental deterioration. "I have seen the vicious child at the age of three years or older become in the course of a few weeks a normal child under the physiological influence of light. Also the mentally abnormal child assume the faculties of a healthy mind."

Light "improves the chemistry of the blood stream, increasing the hemoglobulin and thereby aiding cell nutrition.

"There are few diseases or pathological conditions in which light energy does not have a beneficial reaction. Certain skin affections that have resisted

the usual treatment have been cured by light. Forms of acne that are so refractory to treatment have responded to the arc lamp. The affections that have received the happiest results are: Acne, acne rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, alopecia, lichen planus and all pustular conditions, including abcesses, carbuncles, boils and leg ulcers; even lupus and epithelioma have responded to the light.

"In anemia, light is nature's remedy. The atoms of oxygen combine with the iron when the patient is exposed to the ultra-violet frequencies. Winternitz has demonstrated that there is an increased percentage of hemoglobin after each. bath.

"Both the arc and the incandescent lamp do well in rheumatism. The electric light cabinets are better adapted for treating this disease. Friedlander found that these cabinets give superior results to the Turkish or Russian baths. Crothers reported great benefit in a thousand cases of toxic neurosis treated with electric baths; he claims that the rays greatly increase elimination and diaphoresis. without depressing the heart."

[The author reports eighteen cases showing the successful results of the clinical application of light.-ED.]

X-Ray in Tuberculosis of Glands and Skin.

R. H. Boggs in the New York Medical Journal, February 19, 1910, says: "The results in tuberculous adenitis, especially the cervical variety, deserve a great deal more attention and serious consideration than they have been given by most physicians and surgeons. The cosmetic results are better, the end results more permanent than after any other treatment. The Roentgen rays appear to have a constitutional as well as a local effect, thus rendering recurrence less common.

"When a chain of lymphatic glands. are rayed intensely, they undergo a fibrous degeneration and almost an en

tire obliteration without seriously influencing the surrounding tissue, if the radiation is properly administered. If the glands are diseased the reaction of the epithelial cell is much quicker and more marked. Since diseased cells are less resistant to the rays than the normal, it can readily be seen that the same amount of radiation which will destroy diseased cells will often stimulate the surrounding healthy tissue.

"Tuberculous adenitis, for the purpose of description, may be divided into three classes:

"1. Where the glands are only slightly enlarged it is often a question. whether they are tuberculous or not. Such cases are frequently observed after typhoid fever, measles or other infectious diseases. The child is greatly emaciated, the glands keep enlarging, and the patient is referred for Roentgen treatment after the disease has resisted medical treatment. This class of adenitis should certainly be treated by X-ray without interference, because every one of these patients can be cured by proper Roentgen treatment. After the first twelve or fifteen treatments, the local disease not only begins to improve but the patient gains in health and weight, often from five to twenty pounds. If, when the patient is referred for Roentgen treatment, there is a suppurating gland it should be incised.

This

does not interfere with the X-radiation, and treatment should be begun the next day if possible. A question is frequently asked, 'Should suppurating glands be treated by X-ray?' By all means, as soon as possible, in order to check the disease and thus lessen the chance of a general infection.

"2. Cases in which the glands are of large size, and in the past have resisted the ordinary treatment. My rule has been in the past to ray these cases intensely, and usually at the end of three or four months the glands have undergone a degeneration, are freely movable

and are usually only about one-fourth the size when treatment was begun. If at this stage the glands are removed and a pathological examination made very little tuberculous tissue is seen.

"3. In the treatment of over twentyfive cases of recurrence following operation, it has been my experience that it is usually necessary to begin X-ray treatment a little more guardedly, as a dermatitis is much easier produced. Most of these patients when they were referred had rise in temperature and were poorly nourished. The first improvement noticed in nearly every case was that the patient gained in weight and general health.

"Cutaneous tuberculosis includes all the lesions which are due to the activity of the tubercle bacilli, regardless of the variety of the disease. All the varieties rest upon the same histological basis and the modifications in their development produce the different clinical pictures, probably modified by the condition of the patient, the resistance of the patient, and other factors.

"Tuberculosis of the skin has been conveniently divided into the following: (1) Lupus vulgaris, (2) tuberculosis. verrucosa, (3) scrofuloderma, (4) tuberculosis orificialis.

"Lupus vulgaris is a chronic cellular new growth, due to the invasion of the skin by the tubercle bacilli, characterized by soft reddish brown tubercles and infiltrated patches, usually terminating in ulceration or scarring.

"Tuberculosis verrucosa usually occurs on the back of the hands and the feet.

"Scrofuloderma is applied to suppurating lesions, occurring around the sites of sinuses, which connect with underlying tuberculous glands or with other tuberculous foci.

"When the disease is constitutional as well as local, additional treatment is always necessary. It would be useless to direct a principal treatment of a local lesion when the disease is constitutional.