And

His output is not like the writers of fiction, such as Dumas, Balzac, Dickens, Ainsworth, Cooper, Bulwer Lytton, Scott or any of the modern novelists." that is the truest of all the true things that Clark Bell, Esq., and the MedicoLegal Journal have ever said.

We may be over-imaginative, but we can almost see the shadowy form of Charles Dickens writhing in its sarcophagus and can hear the bones of Walter Scott pounding indignantly on the walls of his tomb at this literary comparison of Mr. Bell's. But peace be to these departed ones! Mr. Bell has said that the output of Elbert Hubbard is NOT like unto theirs, which, parenthetically, is like saying that a hard-boiled egg is not like the deep blue sea.

That Mr. Bell is quite correct when he says that Elbert Hubbard is unique needs no discussion, and the most strikingly unique thing about him is manifested in this extract from his letter to Mr. Bell:

"I was born June 19, 1856, at Bloomington, Illinois. My father is now ninetyone years old, my mother eighty-two. My father is slow, judicial, kindly, generous, affectionate and absolutely without any business capacity; my mother is nervous, rapid, systematic, orderly, industrious, economical. I resemble her in my mental makeup much more than I do my father.

*

*

*

"In the way of achievement, the 'Message to Garcia,' written in an hour and reprinted twenty-five million times or more and translated into nine different languages, probably exceeds any literary feat ever performed. * * * Next to this, however, is my 'Little Journey to the Home of James Oliver.' The Oliver people have used two million five hundred thousand of these Little Journeys, paying me something over one hundred thousand dollars for them. They are sending them to every farmer in the United States. I believe this is the largest sale of literary pishmince that has ever been put out by an author in America."

And we will bet you a "Little Journey to Europe" against a back-number of the Philistine that the most unique thing about Elbert Hubbard is NOT modesty. And we venture that the word "modesty" is somewhat peeved to be used in this paragraph.

Speaking of literary pishmince, doesn't it seem to you that the present-day conception of optimism is closely akin to cheerful idiocy? When we write our dictionary and come to the word "optimism," we are going to define it as "a great mass of verbal piffle and twiddle." We were born with a good liver and, although we have not treated it particularly well, it can still be coaxed back to good behavior by a neat bait of blue mass. Hence, we are always as amiable and cheerful as anyone of human intelligence can be with a slim pocketbook and a generous collection of debts.

Cheerful as we may be, every time we read the public prints, we are bombarded

with a bunch of puerile admonitions from a flock of amateur optimists. A word or phrase is taken up, twisted and played with and is not permitted to rest until every amateur joysmith in the country has taken a crack at it.

"Think sunshine," murmurs one brilliant disciple of cheerfulness. "Don't stand in your own shadow," says another intellectual wonder-without stopping to consider that he is advising you not to perform an absolute impossibility. "Don't have your wishbone where your backbone ought to be" simpers another word juggler, in apparent confidence that he has said something clever. One distinguished literary light, whose name we have now forgotten, gurgles thus: "Smile and the world smiles with you; weep and you weep alone." Wonderful, isn't it, that any one human intellect could have conIceived that idea?

But if we have cause to smile, why in the name of Peace and Concord do we care whether the world smiles or not? And if we are inclined to weep, isn't it quite as well to sob it out in the privacy of our own chamber rather than to smear the collars of a long-suffering public with our tears?

One rapture breeder admonishes us to "Keep smiling." We like smiles-we enjoy them in others and we employ them ourselves-but the chronic and habitual wearer of an innocuous smile is an abomination to the flesh. No less excuse than strychnine poisoning is acceptable from the man with a perpetual grin.

No man of reasonable intelligence and human feeling can be forever cheerful and bubbling with joy. If he keeps his troubles to himself, he is conducting himself nobly. Hence this twiddle and piffle of amateur and professional optimists accomplish nothing and are all very irritating to the man who finds himself reading such tankwash-of course, through mistake.

John Ruskin eulogized the house-fly as free, independent, brave and exceedingly cheerful; but, admitting these things. through courtesy to Mr. Ruskin, the fly is nevertheless a pestiferous little brute, and one which we can spare without a sense of privation. And in this, like unto the fly, is the little chronic felicity grinder with his hand-made sillygrams of joy.

We are not irritable. We have merely been reading a little book-"A Treasury of Glad Thoughts-Starch to Stiffen the Backbone." Glad thoughts, written for hire by a grouch and put up in capsule form, always did upset our stomach, and, reaching, as we have, an age when we begin to lose the suppleness of youth, we feel no yearning for starch or anything else to add to the rigidity of our spine.

TO PRESERVE VOLATILE OILS. A correspondent of the Physicians' Drug News inquires: "What can one do to preserve the volatile or essential oils? I use quite a number of these and have trouble in preserving them. It seems to me I have read somewhere how to keep and preserve them and that the addition of some alcohol entered into the process. You know they smell like turpentine and become rank after a few months. Oil of lemon is very prone to do this."

Our contemporary replies that volatile oils are best preserved in small, darkcolored bottles, tightly corked and kept in a cool place. It is, of course, important that the oil, when purchased, is fresh and has been properly preserved. It is also important that the bottles be opened as infrequently as possible and left open as little as possible, as the oils deteriorate rapidly upon exposure to the air.

If volatile oils are mixed with an equal volume of alcohol and preserved as suggested above, they will keep much better.

TIME THERMOMETERS.

Almost all the clinical thermometers that one buys nowadays are time thermometers; that is to say, they are described as being "half-minute thermometers," or "one-minute thermometers," which means, in a general way, that they will register the temperature into which they are introduced in the length of time specified. And if the thermometer is an honest one, this is true. But it must not therefore be blindly taken for granted that such thermometers will, within the time mentioned, register the correct temperature of the body. If the thermometer were the only factor to be considered, it might; but we must take into account the conditions pertaining to the body itself, and these are very variable.

The mouth, for instance, where the temperature is most commonly taken, is susceptible to all sorts of external influences, and its temperature requires a little time to adjust itself to that of the body-a minute or two, say, after taking a cold breath, and as much as a quarter

of an hour after drinking a cup of hot coffee or tea. Even the armpit gets chilled a little when the arm is raised to insert the thermometer, and must be allowed a few moments to overcome this handicap. Really, about the only place. where these external factors do not enter into the process is in the rectum, and a rectal temperature is hence the only one which registers itself accurately in the stipulated period of the time thermometer. In taking oral and axillary temperatures, a little extra time, depending on circumstances, must be allowed, over and above the specified time of the thermometer. Even the weather makes a difference, all thermometers being a trifle slower in cold weather and nearer their stipulated time in hot weather.

CARROT SOUP FOR INFANTS. For infants suffering from acute or chronic intestinal disturbances, E. Moro, in Muenchner Med. Woch., highly recommends a soup prepared as follows: Five hundred grams of carrots are peeled, mashed and boiled out with water, until 375 grams remain. The mass is then rubbed through a very fine sieve and added together with 6 gm. of salt to 1 liter of broth. This soup was given to infants from two weeks to six months old with the best results. In acute cases the vomiting and diarrhea will cease in from one to three days, and the fever and general symptoms of marasmus will rapidly disappear. In the chronic affection and in infants suffering from atrophy the result is no less prompt, and a rapid gain in weight can be noted. The stools are soft, very copious, and yellow or reddish-yellow. One of the most pronounced results following feeding with carrot soup is retention of water within the system of the infant.

THERAPEUTIC DISREGARD OF THE

LAWS OF GRAVITY.

R. Blondel, in Gazette Médicale Belge, mentions, among other ways in which the attraction of gravitation is disregarded in medical measures, that patients generally put on an elastic stocking like an ordinary stocking, after they have left the bed and the blood has had a chance to settle in the limb. How few physicians, he remarks, think of advising the patient to put on the stocking before arising, and not until after the limb has been held vertically for a time to allow the blood to leave it, the expulsion of the blood being promoted by gentle kneading downward and the stocking being drawn on by another's hands, if possible. Abdominal bands should also, he says, be applied while the patient reclines, the individual merely lifting the pelvis from the plane of the bed to permit the band to be passed beneath the body. If corsets were put on also in this way, much would be gained. He also warns that after operations the pelvis should not be lowered too abruptly from the Trendelenburg position.

THE BANANA AND THE CHILD. These are the days of the banana, and they are also the days of infantile diarrhea, and the doctor will be frequently asked to express an opinion as to the wholesomeness or otherwise of this much-used fruit. The banana is more commonly given to the child because it is cheap, easy to prepare, and is considered good food. The use of the banana should be restricted to children six years and older. This is because of the manner of eating; the child does not masticate, but simply breaks off a piece and swallows it. The muscles of the stomach are not sufficiently developed to enable it to break up this mass and mix it with the digestive juices. Older infants and young children may be given bananas if they are first pressed through a fruit sieve.

THE CHILD'S APPETITE. The healthy child, furnished with fresh air and sunlight, who has not been pampered but accustomed to a plain diet with moderate variations, does not need to be tempted to eat. So says The Healthy Home. If food is temporarily repugnant, we should respect this protest of nature. The digestive powers of a child, like those of an adult, are below par during excessively hot weather, or at the onset of fever or any acute indisposition. Such a child is as much entitled to be put on light diet as the adult, and it should be borne in mind that undiluted milk or even the child's usua! modification of milk is not necessarily light diet for that individual child, but that further dilution is called for.

WHAT IS HARD WATER?

The Healthy Home asks and answers this question with its customary good sense and helpfulness. Hard water contains a considerable amount of lime and magnesium salts and sometimes iron in solution. Waters which contain bicarbonate of lime can be softened by boiling. When such water is boiled some of the carbonic acid is thrown off and insoluble carbonate of lime is formed. This falls to the bottom of the kettle, leaving the water soft.

No one should drink hard water regularly if it is possible to avoid it. Its effect is to cause hardening of the arteries and premature old age, in addition to certain digestive troubles. It is sometimes accused of being the cause of kidney colic or stone in the bladder.

If the water is hard because it contains sulphate of lime it can not be made soft by boiling because the sulphate will not precipitate. Such water is bad for cooking, as peas and other vegetables will not soften in it properly. It will not make good tea and coffee. It is hard to wash in because it requires several times as much soap to make a good lather.

NURSING IN MUSCULAR RHEUMA

TISM.

The care of a patient suffering from this exquisitely painful disease is a matter of great nicety. The Lancet advises that during the very painful stage as complete rest as possible of the affected muscles must be enforced, but later on exercises of the muscles are of great benefit. Either light dumb-bells or Indian clubs of from one to two pounds in weight should be employed, and such movements are to be performed as will bring the affected muscles into action. The exercises should be performed on arising in the morning and should not occupy more than from ten to fifteen minutes. After the exercises a cold or tepid bath should be taken and the skin be briskly rubbed with a rough towel.

HOME-MADE BREAD.

The preparation of a good, wholesome bread for the convalescent, and for that matter for the family in general, is often an important problem to which it is fitting that the physician should pay some, personal attention. The ordinary cook. books, unfortunately, do not take much account of the nutrient and hygienic qualities of the bread which they describe. We therefore take this opportunity of giving to our readers, for use in their own families, and to be recommended to their clients, a well-attested recipe for an exceedingly wholesome, nourishing and toothsome bread, simple to make and easy to digest:

"In a large earthenware basin mix 31⁄2 pounds of white flour with a like quantity of whole meal, adding two tablespoonfuls of salt. Dissolve in another basin 2 ounces of German yeast in a small quantity of cold water; add 3 pints of warm (not hot) water, and pour the whole into the midst of the flour-mixture. Knead thoroughly; it will be ready when the dough does not stick to the

hands. On no account add more water even if at first there does not appear to be enough moisture. It will come right in a few minutes. Next cover the dough with a cloth and set it near the fire for three hours to rise. At the end of that time make up the loaves (the quantity mentioned produces five), put them in greased tins, and set them to rise for another 15 minutes. The baking, in a mederate oven, takes 134 hours.

COOKING EGGS FOR THE SICK.

The Nursing Times admonishes that in cooking eggs in any form, great care must be taken not to harden the albumin. To boil an egg it should be placed in cold water and brought to the boil, and lifted from the water as soon as it begins to boil. Yolk and white will be equally lightly set, whereas if the egg is placed in boiling water and kept there for the usual time, the yolk is lightly set, but the white is hard and indigestible. Poached eggs are good for invalid fare, since they can be lifted from the boiling water as soon as they are lightly set. The addition of a tablespoonful of vinegar to the pan of boiling water tends to retard the coagulation of the albumin.

MAKING BOILED WATER PALATA

BLE.

Many times, especially at this time of year, the physician feels compelled to order that the drinking water in the house be boiled before using, since it is unsafe to use it otherwise; but boiled water seems so flat and tasteless that people are apt to dislike it exceedingly.

If such water, after it is boiled, is cooled in a refrigerator and then shaken up in a bottle half filled, it will be aerated, or filled with air, and will have the fine, fresh, sparkling appearance of water newly drawn from the well.