China, are notorious examples of conservative folly. The conservative is in a rut without the strength to get out. His eyes are fixed with a stony stare on the past; he worships the setting and not the rising sun. He is cocksure that all he does is right, for he has precedents for everything. You must run him down with an automobile before his dull and stubborn little mind can be convinced that such a machine is possible. And yet we often place this pigmy, this stunted and deformed thing, in important places, over better men, for no other reason than that he will oppose all innovations and is therefore "safe and sane," forgetting that where there is progress there must be advancement and change. The reasons are apparent why the average man becomes more conservative as he grows old. He has been years building up his systems of theology, politics, business and all the rest. Remove a foundation stone from one of his structures and he sees with helpless horror the whole castle totter. He has not the vitality and time to make repairs or build again. He would have to form new conceptions, correct old definitions, readjust his association of ideas, and change his habits of thought, which is impossible. His brain, like his muscles, acts slower and less certain. His memory and his special senses become treacherous. His conservatism is not the result of years of investigation, accumulated experiences and tested wisdom, but of ossification, atrophy and decay. nor the simplicity of His method. In nonc is embodied the principle of His healing power. From Jehovah, the Healer, Counselor, and Father of the fugitive band from Egypt, came the all-wisdom and power that effected each cure. We see him in many medical rôles, as teacher, as physician, as friend. No such intellect has searched the hearts and minds of men. Witness the probing of the loyalty of the new constituent, sick of earth, but not ready for heaven. “One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, * * * and come, take up the cross, and follow me. * * *And he went away grieved; for he had great possessions." Christ made no secret of his means of cure. With one hand clasped in the hand of the Father in heaven, and the other resting upon the head of some needy child of earth, a circuit was established through which ran endless love and perfect peace. Have you ever heard a tiny cripple sing, with heart and soul in the song, "I wish that His hand had been laid on my head, That His arms had been thrown around me!" Have we not all sent up this cry from deformed, childlike, inward lives? If not, we have neither realized the burning need of Christ's purifying touch, nor have we experienced as yet the transforming vigor that flows in with his cure. THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. In an age of scientific quiet, almost of sleep, says Robt. N. Wilson, in the Sunday School Times, appeared suddenly the greatest physician of history. No medical school gave Him professional birth; to Him none dares lay claim of parentage or nurture. No human influence nor training has before or since developed the naturalness, the directness, A TESTIMONIAL. Dear Sirs, With heartfelt. thanks to you My uncle caught a cold, he was I am his heir! W MEDICAL PHARMACY. HATEVER may be the opinions, pro and con, as to the desirability of the physician doing his own dispensing, no one, we think, will seriously question the basic proposition that fundamentally the dispensing of medicine is an integral part of the practice of medicine, and that even where the act of dispensing is performed by the pharmacist, the latter is, in so doing, the agent of the physician, delegated, for various reasons, to carry out the technique of this particular division of the doctor's function. This being the case, it is clear that a general knowledge of pharmacy should form a part of the doctor's professional equipment, whether he makes practical use of it or not. And it is with this consideration in mind that we aim, by means of this department, to keep the reader in touch with the progress of pharmacy as it applies to the practice of medicine. DISPENSING POISONS. The Lancet points out that while practitioners are not amenable to a pharmacy act, this fact in no way lessens the obligation of medical men who dispense to carry out the same methods of safety to the public as if that act was obligatory upon them. All poisons should be properly stored and bottled, and no poisonous preparations for external use should be issued to patients in any but proper poison bottles. But if the law imposes little "legal" responsibility on practitioners in the important matter of dispensing poisons, it imposes none in the more difficult and responsible duty of writing prescriptions. And while the medical man has direct responsibilities with regard to dispensing, he has also indirect ones of equal importance. He has to prescribe many poisons, and it is his duty to do so with all care and attention. Though there are traditional methods and forms for writing prescriptions, the former have become of late years too much neglected and the latter too much abbreviated. As an example, if an unusually large dose of some drug is ordered it should be indicated by adding "(sic)" in brackets or by a footnote. It would undoubtedly be better if some uniform practice in this respect were adopted, and no better method could be employed than a short footnote. The dispenser may not be able to communicate with the physician-he may not even know the latter's name. Many prescriptions are only signed with initials, and have no address stating where the prescriber lives. Both these omissions ought to be avoided; all prescriptions should, in our opinion, be signed in full and the address of the signer given, unless the paper bears the patient's address, when, of course, the prescriber can be readily traced. COMBINING OILS AND MAGNESIA. Magnesia may be mixed with castor oil in such a manner as to form a powder having the unmodified properties of these substances. The powder contains 50% of oil and is stable, odorless, tasteless, easy to administer and well tolerated by patients. The therapeutic efficacy is the same as an equal amount of pure castor oil and magnesia. The use of magnesia to transform certain liquids into solids or semi-solids is not new. The United States Pharmacopoeia of 1890 contains a preparation of copaiba in which the desired consistency is obtained by the addition of calcined magnesia and water. By increasing the proportion of magnesia a powder may be obtained. With glycerin, sugar and starch, magnesia forms a solid mass which may be pulverized. In this case there is a chemical combination. In the case of magnesia and castor oil it is a simple mixture, no chemical changes occurring. Neither glycerin nor fatty acids may be found in the mixture. By exhausting with ether one may recover 96% to 98% of the oil. The difference is due to the presence of a little magnesium soap which is formed by a combination of the magnesia with the free fatty acid of the oil. The mixture of the magnesia and the castor oil is very intimate. It may be treated with either heat or cold without separating the elements. DRUG HABITS. Sir Morell Mackenzie thinks doctors form the largest number of victims of the drug habit, and is also afraid that doctors themselves are one of the chief causes of drug taking. "They order a patient some sedative which, in the particular instance, does him a great deal of good. The next time he is ill the patient uses the same prescription, and it may make him feel better, although, as a matter of fact, it is doing him harm. The patient is not a fit person to decide as to what he should take, but the consequence is that henceforward he uses that prescription whenever he does not feel quite up to the mark, and, as a result, he acquires the drug habit." To end this misuse of a prescription, the writer would not allow a chemist to make up a prescription except on the day on which. it was written, or on the day following, and in order to prevent its being taken from chemist to chemist he would make every chemist stamp a prescription as "made up," and there should be no repetition without a doctor's order. Need ELECTRO-THERAPY. EDITED BY NOBLE M. EBERHART, A. M., M. D. 72 MADISON STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. Professor and Head of Department of Electro-Therapy, Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery; Surgeon and Radio-Therapist to Frances Willard Hospital; Professor of High Fre quency and Vibration, Illinois School of Electro-Therapeutics, Chicago. [We include under electro-therapy, the application of all electrically operated devices used in the treatment of disease.] DON'T BUY "CHEAP" OUTFITS. The proverbial expensiveness of cheap goods applies, of course, to all kinds of articles and all departments of work. But if there be one place where it might be supposed to hold more importance than anywhere else, it is in the physician's case and kit. Surely he, of all men, can not afford to work with any but the very best tools, at any pricenot that he should allow himself to be mulcted, but he can not afford to cut expense at the cost of quality and trustworthiness. Yet even among physicians -for that they are only men after all— the temptation to be penny wise and pound foolish is sometimes too strong for their better judgment, and they pick up "bargains" in the way of instruments and appliances, advertised with very attractive display, and "guaranteed" as equal to similar types of goods costing five times the amount, only to find (perhaps at some critical moment) that, like Hodge's razors, they were made to be sold. Perhaps in no line of medico-surgical goods is this foolish habit practiced as in electro-therapeutic appliances. The complexity of the apparatuses, and the inexperience of the average physician on the subject, renders him an easy prey to such deception, and too often he spends good money on a cheap and worthless outfit which would have gone a good ways toward buying a little more expensive, but reliable article. To be sure, as stated, we do not desire our readers to be "soaked" on their electroherapeutic outfits. Nor do our remarks eglect the consideration that occasion ally a reliable firm is able, by the application of some new principle, to reduce the cost of certain appliances very materially. In these instances, however, the matter is always fully explained, and no false claims made. But we do most emphatically warn our readers who may contemplate purchasing this kind of outfit that electro-therapeutic machines are not made or sold for a song, and that cheap appliances-we mean cheap in comparison with the market values-that are sold as equal to those put out by reputable houses at safe prices, are always really "cheap." CONVINCING LIGHT THERAPY. One of the most convincing instances of the real efficacy of light therapy which ever came under our notice was that of a case of nervous hysterical shock in a woman. The patient, who had recently become a mother, had lost her infant almost as soon as it was born, and was in a pitiful state of uncontrollable grief almost amounting to mania, which lasted several hours. All other measures failing, the attendant physician, himself a skeptic in such matters, as a last resort called for a therapeutic lamp. Without any co-operation on the part of the patient, or even her acquiescence-she was too wild to take any mental part in the proceeding at all-so that the psychic element can be ruled entirely out, the blue rays were allowed to play upon her. Nothing else was said or done. Within ten minutes the woman was quietly sleeping; she awoke some hours later, calm and resigned, and did not suffer any recurrence of the nervous storm that had previously threatened her reason. Such instances-for the truth of which the writer vouches-ought to silence all dispute concerning the therapeutic value of solar rays, and to discount all foolish talk about their "sheerly psychic" virtue. VIBRATION IN LUMBAGO. In treating lumbago with vibration a point to be borne in mind is that inhibition or numbing of the nerves is the object in view. Therefore, a long percussion stroke should be used with deep pressure to the dorsal and lumbar centers in the spine, holding the applicator on each until complete inhibition results which may require anywhere from one or two up to five minutes. Follow this with a thorough vibro-massage of the lumbar muscles, using the brush or soft rubber applicator and preferably the rotary or lateral strokes; this should be kept up long enough to have a sedative action. X-RAY AND HIGH FREQUENCY IN ACNE. The X-ray has proved unusually successful in acne, curing many cases resisting ordinary measures. A few points should be kept in mind in treating this. disease. Short treatments are preferable not only on account of the danger of producing burns, but because long applications finally change the epithelial elements into connective tissue and the contraction of this leaves fine wrinkles over the face, which are essentially as bad as the acne. Treatments of say five to seven minutes' duration will produce results without taking any serious chances. If a longer time is required to cure, the patients are amply repaid by feeling that they are not running any risk. Deep lancing of pustules, usually considered necessary, is objectionable, because of the fine scars resulting. The . high frequency spark from the vacuum tube is almost as effective as the X-ray in acne, and five minutes X-ray followed by three or four minutes high frequency makes an excellent combination treatment. For the pustules that are forming, a sharp spark for ten to thirty seconds from the high frequency tube will usually abort them. Do not forget that the use of electricity does not prevent you from employing other treatment at the same time. HIGH FREQUENCY CURRENTS IN GRAY HAIR. In the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, November, 1909, I contributed an article calling attention to my accidental discovery of the value of highfrequency currents in restoring the color to gray hair. The following paragraphs. give the gist of the article: "I was treating a woman whose hai was falling out very rapidly, employing both high-frequency current and vibration. Her hair was very black, but sprinkled over her head were three or four dozen gray hairs which were especially conspicuous by contrast. She asked me if it would do any harm to pull out the white hairs, and I told her that as long as she was losing so much hair, anyway, she might as well pull out the objectionable gray ones. "After about two months of treatment the hair had practically ceased falling out, and I noticed that there were scarcely any gray hairs. I thought she had been pulling them out, and said so. When she replied that she had been afraid to do this despite my permission, I said to her that the treatment must be restoring the color, and proceeded to investigate. The finding of a few hairs white at the upper end and dark for a varying distance next the scalp convinced me absolutely that my surmise was correct. From that time on I have employed high-frequency currents in all of |