take up a reduction of flesh as a basis on which to work benefit for your patient.ED.] Chronic Bowel Trouble in Child.-Remedy for Eczema. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-I have a male child fifteen months old, whose bowels have never been normal; it never had a normal action from its bowels during the whole period of its life. I have given it all manner of bowel remedies, such as the sulfocarbolates, Mulford's cholera infantum preparation, and Spurlock, Neal & Co.'s ucalypto, mentho, thymo, and W. R. Warner's diarrhea tablets, and bismuth sub-nit., and hydrastis and many other remedies too numerous to mention. All the time the child has seemed to grow and to do very well. I thought probably its mother's milk was causing the trouble, and had her to take it from the breast, but with no improvement in the condition of the child. Now, some one please give the cause and treatment, and I will be more than a thousand times obliged. If Dr. Atwood, of N. Woodbury, Conn., will use ichthyol and vaselin equal parts, in his eczema and skin diseases, I don't think that he will need the old Wilson salve. Try it, Brother, and be convinced. [The cause of the child's trouble is, of course, gastro-intestinal indigestion, and your efforts must be directed more to finding a food which it can digest than to giving drugs. Naturally the condition is now at chronic one, and will yield but stubbornly. Our space will not permit our going exhaustivly into the subject of infant feeding, but if you will purchase any of the good modern works on pediatrics, you will find it fully discust. You will do more harm than good by astringent and anti-diarrhea "remedies." If you would flush the bowels thoroly with castor oil, and deny all food except albumin water for a few days, you will be convinced of the truth of our statement, and at such a time drugs such as you have used might prove beneficial; but they will never do any permanent good with the gastro-intestinal canal filled with a putrefying, irritating, fermenting mass.-Ed.] Eczema of Fingers. Editor MEDICAL WORLD:-For three years I have been a patient (?) sufferer with eczema. Location, index and middle fingers on both hands; does not extend beyond primary point of eruption. Becomes worse about every two to three weeks, then gradually subsides, but never entirely well. First I will have intense itching; close inspection will show, deep into the skin, small watery points from size of pin's point to pin's head. Within three or four days they will reach the surface, causing elevation Will over every vesicle seen beneath surface. now become sore (sometimes painful, but not always). Within ten days from itching period, skin will become dry and scaly, desquamating in large flakes first, later forming bran-like scales. Skin becomes hard; almost unable to bend fingers. Large deep fissures form, which will bleed on slight motion. Treatment has been everything I have ever heard or read of, with the same result: every three or four weeks breaking out anew. Am now taking X-ray treatment every second day. Also using ointment of ammoniated mercury, acid salicylic, oil tobacco, in vaselin and lanolin locally. Taking red sulfid of arsenic, onefifth grain, t. i. d. If you or others can give me a treatment that will prove helpful, I will be under everlasting obligations to you or them. East St. Louis, Ill. G. O. HULICK, M. D. [It may be a very difficult thing to obtain permanent relief so long as you give your hands the treatment that is ordinarily accorded the hands of a general practician. If you can keep from putting your hands. in water for a considerable period, you will do much toward a cure. Cleanliness can be provided for, partially, by the use of rubber gloves when handling anything that will soil the hands, and by washing them in warmed glycerin. Examin the urin and feces for acidity, and if this is found to be present, take a course of antilithic medicins. Arsenic should not have been used early in the disease, tho it may be permissible now. We believe you can obtain a cure by persistent use of simple local remedies. When the premonitory symptoms of an attack appear, dress all affected parts with oxid of zinc ointment, cover with oiled silk or tissue, and over this apply a bandage. We believe this will cure you. Absolute exclusion of air and light is imperativ, and redressing once in 24 to 36 hours is sufficient.-ED.] Features of the Secret Nostrum Evil. [Excerpts from two long articles in the Ladies' Home Journal for January.] The main value of these testimonials, however -the only value that they have to the public-is that these distinguished men and women had actually used the "medicin" they indorsed, and spoke of it from such actual use-this fact rarely, if ever, entered into the transaction. Sometimes the formality is gone thru of sending a dozen bottles of a "patent medicin" to the distinguished man so as to cover the phrase "I have your medicin in my house"; or, as did the Governor of a Western state, send out for a bottle of the "medicin," and take a single dose of it then and there as a sop to his conscience. But the public accept these "testimonials" in a different spirit, as they have a right to do-as they are led to believe, in fact-in the belief that these men and I now turned my attention to some of the names and addresses given in "patent-medicin" advertisements of persons unknown to fame, but who were represented as being either helpt or cured of some ailment by the particular nostrum indorsed. The first was that of a woman who, I found, on looking up the street and number given, did not exist. As a matter of fact, there was no such number in the street. The whole thing was purely fictitious: the "indorsement," name and number of house purely a lie made out of whole cloth. The second was that of a woman who told me she had never used the "medicin" she was advertised to indorse, but that a man had called on her, offered to have a dozen photographs of her taken at the best gallery in her city, and she could have them all free of charge if she would sign the letter and let her photograph be printed. She did, and she got the photographs, but she had never had the ailment spoken of in the advertisement, and had never tasted a drop of the "medicin." The next I found to be a relativ of one of the owners of the "patent medicin" which she had indorsed. When I askt her if she had ever used the number of bottles spoken of in the advertisement she said, with a smile, "No, thank you. I know what is in it!" Another woman thought the whole thing a joke. Of a conceited nature, she had signed the testimonial for five dollars, but had never tasted the "medicin." She had weighed fully two hundred pounds for years past, yet in the advertisement she was represented as having weighed only one hundred pounds a year ago and now weighed two hundred pounds-entirely due to the "medicin"! Still another had actually taken the "medicin": she was in pain, she said, when she began to take it; the "medicin" soothed her. "So long as I take it I am all right," she said; "but when I drop it the pain comes back. So you see what a wonderful medicin it is!" I saw clearly! I had a bottle analyzed, and the woman examined by a leading physician. The "medicin" contained morphin, and the woman had become a morphin fiend! They buy letters from one "patent-medicin" concern and sell them, or rent them and re-rent them to others. One of these concerns has over seven million letters. "There are five million chronic sick and incurable in the United States," Isaid a broker, "and I've got letters from one million of them right there in that building"pointing to his storage warehouse. "To be sure, they've all tried one remedy or more; but that's all right, they'll keep on trying new remedies till they die. Buy or rent a few thousand of those letters from me at a few dollars a thousand, tackle 'em with a new proposition-something new, with a new name-jolly 'cm along a little, and they'll come up with the money for a new treatment." One of these letter-brokers assured me he could give me "choice lots" of "medical female letters"! Another sent me a list of hundreds of thousands of letters which he had-all from women-and one glance at the names of the "patent-medicin" concerns which had sold these letters to this broker showed the absurdity and the criminal falsehood of their declaration that "your letters are treated by us in sacred confidence." This business of letter-brokerage, this traffic in women's letters, is perfectly well known and understood in "patent-medicin" and quack doctor circles. The first essential of a "patentmedicin" or quack doctor business is to have on its books as large a list as possible of the chronic sick and incurables in the country; and the letterbroker offers the easiest way of getting them. Further along, these figures concerning classified lists are given: 55,000 female complaint letters. Why They Lost Their Homes. The daughters thought it beneath them to work for a living, but were bound to dress well. They drew their money out of the savings bank to put into some "wildcat" scheme, and lost it. They did not do business in a business way because they were dealing with relativs or friends. They did not know that giving full power of attorney to an agent or lawyer put their property at his mercy. They put off payments on everything possible because it would be so much easier to pay tomorrow than to-day. They signed important papers without reading them or knowing their contents, just because they were asked to do so. The extravagance of children who had not been trained to economize or to take care of their pennies swamped the home. Through lack of honest ambition and a disposition to interpret too literally the text, "Take no thought for the morrow." The mania to make an appearance beyond their means caused them to mortgage their property and ended in bankruptcy. They feared that the people with whom they had dealings would think them suspicious if they asked them for a receipt for money. When the shoe began to pinch, they "really did not see where they could retrench." Habit had made luxuries seem necessaries. They ran accounts at the stores instead of paying cash, did not realize how rapidly bills were running up and never knew how they stood.-Medical Council. I regard THE MEDICAL WORLD as the cleanest, soundest, and safest journal that comes to my desk. All the journals that I read have good things in them, but many of the editors have "axes to grind," and 'tis hard to tell when you are reading truths. Mt. Juliet, Tenn. D. P. OLDHAM. Examination for Position as Interne in New York State Institutions. Open for Men or Women, Salary Usually $600, with Maintenance. Sent by Grace M. Norris, M.D., South Columbia, N. Y. Part I-Three hours, a.m., April 8, 1905. 1. Locate the valves of the heart on the surface of the chest. 2. Give the origin and distribution of the glossopharyngeal nerve, Mention the viscera in the epigastric region. 3. 4. What influences affect the secretion of sweat. 5 Describe hemoglobin, and the chemical method of determining the percentage in the blood. 6. Name the tracts of the spinal cord. State which are afferent and which efferent. 7. What is chloral, and what are its physiological effects? 8. What is formaldehyde, and what are its uses? 9. Name the preparations of silver used in medicin, and their therapeutical uses. 10. Describe the tubercle bacillus, and method of examination. Part II-p m., three hours. 1. Describe follicular tonsillitis, and give the differentiated diag nosis. 2. Describe the symptoms and methods of diagnosis in epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis. 3. Give a brief description of acromegaly. 4. Give symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver. 5. Give symptoms and treatment of reducible hernia. 6. Give differential diagnosis between pregnancy of fourth month and uterin fibroid. 7. Give the differential diagnosis and methods of treatment of epithelioma of the face. 8. What are the varieties of inflammations of the vulva? "Graft" Defined-Reply to Dr. D. L. Howell, Dover, Tenn. DEAR DOCTOR TAYLOR-THE MEDICAL WORLD of January, 1906, page 88, contains your definition of "graft;" and because your definition is unsatisfactory to me, and out of accord with the authorities, I state my opinion and quote the authorities, to wit: MY DEFINITION. Graft is the gift of a special and unusual advantage to a particular person, or class of persons, by an official or semi-official, with a fraudulent intent of inducing an unwarranted and. wrongful result, immoral in every instance, and, if acted upon, and the public or an individual be thereby injured, is illegal. The "unjust steward" was both a grafter and a "boodler," and he and his confederates were amenable to both civil and criminal law, as then in force in Rome. I am of the opinion the word is derived from graft, as used in agriculture. DEFINITION OF GOV. FOLK, OF MISSOURI, (who, excepting President Roosevelt, is the grandest man of the age). "The boodler sells his official vote or buys official acts contrary to law. He is a grafter, but a grafter is not necessarily a boodler. Grafting may or may not be unlawful. It is either a special privilege exercised contrary to law, or one that the law itself may give. Special privileges are grafts, and should be hateful to all good citizens." This definition, among others, will appear in the revised edition of "The Standard Dictionary," now in course of completion by Funk & Wagnalls Company, of New York City. "GRAFT," ITS DICTIONARY DEFINITION. "An irregular or unlawful means of support: a steal or swindle."-Latest edition "Standard Dictionary," page 2135. Bloomfield, Mo. ANDREW W. HUNT, M. D. Ichthyol ointment, a dram to the ounce, is serviceable in frost-bites. What is "Graft?"' DEAR DR. TAYLOR:-In January WORLD you ask for a definition of "graft.' The N. Y. Herald of January 4 contains inclosed clipping, which I believe explains the term fairly well. In political circles in New York (and probably elsewhere) the term "honest graft" is frequently used. This refers to opportunities to make money afforded thru some "inside" information obtained thru public position. Thus the commissioner of public works or streets, when some new streets are to be laid out, can quickly inform his relativs and friends of the exact location of the proposed improvement, and these individuals, by purchasing land thus affected and subsequently selling it after the improvements are fully planned or executed, reap a profit, which is called "honest graft." This in contradistinction to common graft, where the public is deliberately defrauded, but in such manner that the thief cannot be apprehended. Thus our insurance magnates have been in several instances exposed as common "grafters," using the money of policy holders to enrich themselves and at the same time escaping the meshes of the law, Your which the ordinary thief cannot evade. friend, Dr. Lawrence, is, in a certain sense, a refined "grafter," using as he does a so-called medical journal to push his medical proprietary articles thru cleverly written medical items and articles. W. H. DIEFFENBACH, M.D. Broadway and 56th St., New York City. GRAFT? WHY, WHAT'S THAT? WORD.-"AKIN TO SKINNING, EXPLAINS MR. MARKS. [Special dispatch to the Herald.] ALBANY, N. Y., Wednesday.-When Senator Marks today introduced a bill to prevent graft" in the insurance and railroad companies and other corporations, Lieutenant-Governor Bruce and the senate leaders were in doubt as to which committee it should be referred. STATE SENATE ENCOUNTERS NEW " "The trouble is," Senator Brackett said, "the senator is incorporating in our legislation a word that has grown up on the street. We don't know what he means." "Grafting," Senator Marks replied, "is akin to skinning. In its ordinary acceptation it means the permanent joining of one body to another In these days of high finance it means the unlawful taking of money and joining it to the person of the taker. In other words, 'grafting is the dress suit term for what we recognize in plain clothes as robbery and larceny." Lieutenant-Governor Bruce referred the bill to the Codes OUR MONTHLY TALK. An Honest and Modest Patriot. I have, for several days past, been watching with concern the reports from the sick bed of Marshall Field, the great Chicago merchant, ill with pneumonia in New York City; and I was very sorry to learn that he died yesterday afternoon (January 16). The reason that I was specially interested in the health and welfare of this man is that he was the only multimillionaire, in this greatest country of multimillionaires, who made a report of his property for taxation at all commensurate with his real holdings. It is a proud distinction, in this country of tax-dodging multimillionaires, to be a multimillionaire with an honest tax return; and Marshall Field deserved that distinction; and I have held him in high esteem and admiration ever since I knew it. Several months ago I tried, thru correspondence, to get the facts from the tax authorities in Chicago, in order to write the matter up for a "Talk," under some such head as, "A Multimillionaire Who Pays Just and Honest Taxes;" but the Chicago authorities naturally felt a delicacy about giving out the details of Mr. Field's assessment for publication, and from this distance I had not yet succeeded in getting the facts upon which to base comment. Now that he is dead, any indelicacy in giving such facts to the public is removed, and I quote from this morning's Philadelphia Ledger: Altho there are larger estates in the country, Mr. Field was in 1905 the largest individual taxpayer in the United States. He paid more than $500,000 in Cook County taxes alone. He paid taxes on $40,000,000 worth of Chicago property, of which $30,000,000 was in real estate. I understand that he never sought reduction of assessments, and never was guilty of tax evasion. It is a pity that there is occasion to make special mention of such a matter as this, but tax dishonesty among multimillionaires is so universal that this case of honesty in that respect seems to stand entirely alone; so the difference makes it necessary for us to either crown Mr. Field as a specially honest and patriotic citizen, or condemn the rest of our multimillionaires as dishonest and unpatriotic. Which shall we do? There are thousands of citizens not blessed with millions who pay honest taxes; but, unless many millions come to a particularly dishonest set, it seems that the accumulation of many millions breeds a canker or dry rot in the nerve center where honesty in located. One would think that the richer a man is, the more able he should be to pay his taxes, and the more willing he should be to pay his taxes; but it doesn't seem to work out that way in actual life. The assessments of our multimillionaires are ridicuously small. For example, Russell Sage, worth from 25 to 50 millions, and who recently loaned nearly $20,000,000 to take advantage of the exceedingly high rates of interest then current (nearly 100%), has applied for a reduction of assessment, the New York City assessor having placed his assessment at $2,000,000! And These facts give rise to this question: What shall we do with our multimillionaires? these facts suggest the answer: Tax them. Mr. Field was different from most of our other multimillionaires in another respect: He won his great wealth in the open field of competition, without special advantage granted by law. Most of the other great fortunes of this country were won thru or by means of railroads, street car lines, gas companies, water companies, financial corporations, as banks, trust companies, etc., industrial corporations, including the trusts, etc., all enjoying more or less monopoly and advantage by the favor of the law; Andrew Carnegie's millions were won under the protecting wing of a high tariff; it is well known how the railroads built up Standard Oil and tore down its competitors. Mr. Field was a merchant, in the open field of competition, where energy, judgment and enterprise had to be depended upon. His guiding principles were as follows: Never speculate. Never borrow, nor mortgage property. Buy for cash, and sell on short time and narrow margins. Sell same grade of goods at less prices than competitors. Hold customers to a strict meeting of their obligations. It is a pity that we have lost a man who had qualities that brought him many millions without unfair advantages over his contemporaries and competitors, and who was honest enuf to pay just taxes on his great wealth. However, I hope his death will inspire other multimillionaires to also pay honest and just taxes, or inspire our people to compel multimillionaires to do so. Express Companies and the People. I intended to "talk" a little on our domination by express companies-that is, how the express companies prevent us from extending and modernizing our postal service as the postal service of other countries has been extended and modernized. But, opportunely, a letter came to me from Mr. James L. Cowles, Secretary of the Postal Progress League, inclosing a circular, which presents important facts on the subject, so I will draw largely on Mr. Cowles' circular instead of "talking" much myself. In the first place, let us look at the following facts and compare them: In the United States, a postal package is limited to 4 lbs. weight, and the cost (if not printed matter) is one cent per oz.-16 cents per pound; hence 32 cents for a 2 lb. package, 48 cents for 3 lbs., and 64 cents for 4 lbs. Keep this in mind while we look at the following: Great Britain: Weight limit, eleven pounds. One pound, 6 cents; two pounds, 8 cents; three pounds, 10 cents; four pounds, 12 cents; eleven pounds, 24 cents. Rates insure to $5; 4 cents registry fee insures to $25. France: Seven-pound parcels, 12 cents; elevenpound parcel, 16 cents; twenty-two pound parcel, 25 cents. Germany, including Austria-Hungary: Eleven pounds up to 46 miles, 6 cents; greater distances, 12 cents. If the following reprint of parts of Mr. Cowles' circular is too fine for your eyes, have some younger member of your family read it to you. It will be a good thing for the younger member. THE UNITED STATES PARCELS POST. IN 1874, THE BEST; IN 1906, AMONG THE POOREST IN THE WORLD.-UNITED STATES PARCELS POST TAX IN 1906 100 PERCENT HIGHER THAN IN 1874. In 1872 the United States Parcels Post-third-class matter was extended to twelve-ounce parcels of general merchandise and four-pound parcels of books at the common rate, cent for each two ounces. In 1874 the weight limit of all matter handled by the United States Parcels Post was fixed at four pounds, with the common rate of 1872, 1 cent per each two ounces-ONE-HALF THE GENERAL MERCHANDISE RATE OF TODAY. The year 1874 saw the highest culmination of the United States Parcels Post. In 1875 the substitution of the word "ounce" for the phrase "two ounces" in the law determining the parcels rate, increast the parcels post tax 100 percent, from 8 to 16 cents per pound. An amendment to the postal appropriation bill of July 12, 1876, relieved the powerful publishing interests from the 100 percent increase in the tax on their merchandise -books, etc.-by reducing the rate on book parcels to that of 1872 and 1874. The Congress of 1879 found third-class matter divided into books, circulars, etc., taxed 1 cent per each two ounces and "general merchandise" taxed 100 percent higher, with so little difference in character, however, in many cases, as to make it practically impossible to determin which tax should be applied. A reversion to the old law of 1874, with its common rate-1 cent per each two ounces-would have solved this difficulty with benefit to the public and the Post-office, but not to the satisfaction of the express companies. Congress, therefore, confirmed the then existing confusion by styling books, etc., third-class matter and other kinds of merchandise, fourth-class matter. This, however, left the seedsmen and farmers subject to a 100 percent increase on seeds, scions, bulbs, etc., over the old law of 1872 and 1874, and seedsmen and farmers have votes. It therefore happened that in 1888 scions, seeds, bulbs, etc., were given the old third-class rate, in cases where they were not intended for use as food. And this is the condition of things to which the voters of the United States have been subjected for the last seventeen years: "SEC. 2. This Act shall take effect immediately upon the approval thereof." This proposition was so simple, the arguments persistently repeated by the Post-office Department in its favor were SO unanswerable, the benefits that would accrue at once to the Post-office and the public from its enactment into law were so evident that it seemed as if it must be taken up at once and passed without debate. It was referred, however, to the House Postal Committee, and there it remained. Several of the Committee favored the measure, but they said that the majority were so opposed to it or to any proposition for an improvement of the merchandise post that it would be very difficult to get a hearing on the bill; its enactment into law during that session of Congress would be an impossibility. Their prophecy proved correct. Finally, despairing of any action by the House of Representativs, we turned to the Senate, and a little later Senator Crane, of Massachusetts, wrote us that the Senate Postal Committee had agreed to an amendment of the Postal Appropriation Bill covering our proposition. When the bill came before the Senate, however, Senator Crane's amendment was rejected on the ground that it was a revenue measure that ought to have been introduced in the House. On the 6th of December, 1905, Mr. Henry re-introduced our bill as H. R. 4549 of the Fifty-ninth Congress, endorsed on this occasion not only by the Postoffice Department, but also by the legislatures of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, and by the lower houses of New York and New Jersey, thru resolutions requesting their respectiv representativs in Congress to use every effort to secure the immediate enactment of this proposition into law. At the hearing on the resolution, endorsing the consolidation of the Book Parcels Post and the General Parcels Post-third and fourth-class matter-before the Committee on Federal Relations of the Massachusetts Legislature, one of the manufacturing jewelers of Salem, Mass., testified that the proposed reduction of the general merchandise rate to the book rate would be worth to his firm alone $10,000 a year. Postmaster-General Cortelyou urgently recommends the proposed consolidation of our double-headed parcels post, saying that the reduced rate on four-pound parcels of general merchandise "would afford a great opportunity for distributing light packages to a multitude of places not reached by express companies and at a charge sufficient to reimburse the government for actual cost of carriage." I believe I am safe in the statement that the United States was the first of modern nations to establish a parcels post. In any case, our four-pound parcels service of 1874 preceded the establishment of the International Parcels Post Union and of the French domestic Parcels Post by six years, and of the English Parcels Post by nine years. 1 Mr. Cowles writes me: "I think that if our friends will help us this winter we may at least succeed in securing the consolidation of the third and fourth classes of mail matter" (as per the Henry bill above mentioned-restoring the law of 1874). But this will not be done this winter, nor at any other time, if the express companies can help it, and I guess they can-they always have. I suggest that you clip this portion of the "Talk" and send it to your Congressman or U. S. Senator, and ask him if he is in the service of the express companies or the people. That railroad book which Prof. Parsons and I have been working on so long, is now partly in type. I will here present a few paragraphs from chapter 9, which is entitled "The Railways and the Postal Service." In order to present here only small and scattered portions of the excellent matter which Prof. Parsons has prepared, I will again have to use the smallest type, but you can have younger eyes read it to you, if necessary: The census of 1890 affords the means of a very broad and instructiv comparison. From that census we learn that the express companies paid the railways $19,327,000 for carrying 3,292,000,000 pounds of express matter, or 6-10 of a cent a pound. The same year PostmasterGeneral Wanamaker reported the weight of the mails, paid and free, to be 365,368,417 pounds, or one-ninth of the express weight, and by no means all of this was carried by the railways, yet they received $22,102,000 for less than a tenth of the weight the railways hauled for the express companies for several millions less money. The rate per pound on mail was fully ten times the rate per pound on express. The average haul for express estimated at 25 to 50 percent less than for mail. So that the ton-mile rate for mails appears to have been at least five times as much as for express, according to the data of the census and the PostmasterGeneral. Since 1890 the express companies have carefully refrained from allowing the census people or any |