Miscellany Prevalence of the Heroin Habit. Heroin, which is derived from morphin, is according to The Journal of the American Medical Association so frequently employed in the treatment of various diseases that the question of formation of habit from its use is a serious one. It is often prescribed for cough, the result of irritating conditions in the air-passages, and physicians not infrequently tell their patients what drug they are prescribing, so that indirectly the patient comes to look on heroin as a harmless remedy for his cough. Even physicians are not sufficiently alive to the danger of habit from its use. In one instance a patient told a physician, who was called to treat him for an attack of laryngitis, not to give him anything that contained opium, because he had formerly been a slave to this drug. The physician replied: "I will give you some heroin; there is no danger of habit from that." This the patient took, with the result that he later had as much difficulty in breaking away from the heroin as from the opium habit. Some patients who are addicted to the use of morphin substitute heroin because it is easier to obtain. A further reason for the use of heroin is that firms advertising preparations containing this opium derivative call attention to its harmlessness. In a recent issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. John Phillips of Cleveland calls attention to the fact that heroin is being used extensively by means of "snuffing," in the tenderloin districts of large cities. One patient said that he knew at least twenty of his associates who used the drug in this manner. The dangers of this practice should be known, as the heroin habit is just as bad as the morphin habit. The Potomac Gorge. The great Potomac gorge, one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the country, was formed by the gradual erosion which took place during thousands of years. According to a report of the United States Geological Survey, the plain was once much lower, being prac tically at sea level, and the river moved sluggishly in its course to the sea. Later when the interior of the continent became more elevated, the rivers took the course of least resistance and cut their channels first through the soft detritus which had accumulated in the flat valleys, and then through the hard rock. Deeper and deeper it wore the rock away during the ages until it finally produced the beautiful gorge. No Inaugural Ball. Newspaper reports are to the effect that there will be no inaugural ball held in connection with the inauguration of President-elect Wilson, that in fact the President-elect has made it known that he does not approve of an inaugural ball as a feature of the inauguration of a President. For this he is to be heartily commended. A function in connection with the inauguration of either a President or a Governor or the induction of any public official into office that is open only to a certain exclusive class is not in keeping with the spirit of our institutions, and should not be tolerated. Automobile Signal Noise Nuisance. Los Angeles, Cal., seems to be dealing with the noise nuisance of automobile signals in a way that bids fair to result in its effective regulation. A large percentage of automobiles are equipped with warning devices that emit a noise so discordant and so objectionable as to be exceedingly trying on some nervous systems. This is a nuisance that very few cities have thus far attempted to abate. A report from Los Angeles is to the effect that the council of that municipality has undertaken to solve the problem through the enactment of an ordinance directed against this type of signal devices. The ordinance demands the use of an adequate warning signal and defines such as one producing an abrupt note, sufficiently loud to be heard under all traffic conditions but restricted to times when it is actually necessary as a warning of dan ger. It is predicted that many cities will follow the lead of Los Angeles in this particular. Defective Vision in School Children. An examination of forty children from two public schools in New York City show some striking results. According to a report in a recent issue of the Journal of The American Medical Association the forty pupils examined were the worst that could be found in the two schools; eighteen of them being so stupid that they were in ungraded classes, eleven were so stupid that they required three terms to do the work of one term and eleven were delinquent. All of the forty children had defective vision. They were fitted with proper glasses and after six months it was found that thirty-two of them had made astonishing progress. These thirty-two were under as many different teachers. A report of this work has been made to the Board of Education recommending that the entire care of the school children, mental, moral and physical, be vested in one department with a single head and that that should be the Board of Education, that a sufficient number of doctors be trained to deal with all defects of school children who are at present in the category of ungraded, backward or disciplinary cases; that any child whose work is unsatisfactory for one term should be examined and all defects of structure and habit corrected as far as possible. Interstate Commerce Commission Report Shows An Appalling Casualty Toll-Safety First-Defective Locomotives. Casualty Toll. The report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the year ending June 30, 1912, has just recently been issued. The report in its discussion of accidents for that period contends that the exercise of proper precaution and the employment of suitable devices and good equipment could have averted many of them. Figures are given which show that of the total 8,215 derailments during the year ending June 30, 1912, 1,877 were caused by defects of roadway and 3,847 were due to defects of equipment. This indicates an increase of 652 in the number of derailments due to defects of roadway and 1,023 in the number due to defects of equipment when compared with the figures for the same period of 1911. "The larger number of derailments in the class reported under defects of equipment," says the report, "was due to broken flange, there being 627 from that cause out of the total of 3,847," and irregular track was responsible for the larger number under defective roadway, causing 531 out of a total of 1,877." The report contains some startling statements as to the enormous loss of life on American railroads. It shows that the number of casualties for the year on steam roads was 180,123, of which 10,585 is the number of persons killed and 169,538 the number injured. This shows an increase of 189 in the total number of persons killed and 19,379 in the number injured. Defective Locomotives. The report also shows that out of the 74,234 locomotives examined by the inspectors of the commission under the chief inspector of locomotive boilers during the period it covers, 48,768 were found defective. Three thousand three hundred seventy-seven locomotives of this number were ordered out of service for repairs. "This work," says the report, "has been accomplished without the necessity of resorting to the courts in a single instance to enforce the requirements of the law or the lawful orders of the district inspectors." Of the 3,377 locomotives ordered out of service it was necessary to appeal but five cases to the chief inspector, in three of which the orders of the district inspectors were sustained and two were reversed. Harrisburg Telegraph Issues Year Book. We are in receipt of a copy of the Year Book and Almanac issued by the Harrisburg Telegraph [Harrisburg, Pa.] for 1913. The book is very interesting and contains much useful and valuable information. The Telegraph is to be commended on its enterprise in placing in the hands of its readers such a substantial momento. The Harrisburg Telegraph is one of the longest established daily newspapers in the country. It was founded in 1831. Pellagra. Much valuable information as to the cause of pellagra and the extent to which that disease prevails in the United States has recently been made known by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Journal is authority for the following on the subject: The Cause of Pellagra. to prevent any possible infection should not be neglected. If pellagra is infectious, then one source of the infection, and probably the most important, is the pellagrous patient, so that the necessity of preventing the spread of the infection by direct and indirect means needs no emphasis. Pellagra in the United States. There were from 30,000 to 50,000 cases of pellagra in the United States within the last six years, with a death rate of about 39 per cent. These figures constitute only a rough estimate of the number of cases, owing to the defective machinery for securing vital statistics in this country. There are two views as to the cause of pellagra. According to one, pellagra is a disease caused by an undue use of corn in the diet or by the use of spoiled corn. This view places pellagra in the same class with beriberi and scurvy. According to the other view pellagra is an infectious disease, the infecting agent Lavinder, of the United States Public being as yet unknown. From a consid-Health Service, has gathered figures on eration of the facts at hand in regard to the occurrence of pellagra in general, Sambon felt warranted in asserting that certain species of black fly or sand fly are carriers of the infection, but so far no convincing evidence has been obtained to support Sambon's view. Recently the idea has been advanced that pellagra may be due to an infection of the intestinal canal and that a diet insufficient in animal protein may aid in the development of the disease. This conception rests on the frequent occurrence in pellagra of inflammation and ulceration of the intestinal lining, on evidences of a general intoxication, and on the fact that the diet in hospitals for the insane in which pellagra has developed, and of the Italian peasantry which has suffered so greatly from the disease, has been rather low in animal protein. If this theory is correct, pellagra can be prevented by means of proper diet or by the prevention of the infection, whatever its nature may be, and most effect ively by the combination of these methods. So many cases of pellagra have been discovered in the insane hospitals of the United States during the last few years, and it is so difficult to control the diet of the individual insane patient that it would seem evident that measures the prevalence and distribution of pellagra in the United States. Figures have been secured from State authorities, from public institutions and from private sources. A map shows that pellagra has been reported from every State in the Union except New Hampshire in the East and the group of Western and Northwestern States comprising Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, the two Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. The greatest prevalence is found in the group usually spoken of as the Southern States. In only one State is the disease reportable by law. Pellagra cannot be compared in prevalence with such a disease as typhoid fever, for example, yet the large number of cases and the high mortality rate, together with its wide and apparently increasing distribution make it a disease of national importance, and afford an additional reason why every State not already having adequate vital statistics laws should at once enact such laws. The aid which accurate figures and facts concerning this important disease would give in the solution of the problem of pellagra should alone be sufficient to demand the enactment of such laws in the coming Legislatures of every State not now within the registration area. .Communications intended for publication should reach this office not later than the 10th of the month to insure their appearance in the following issue. Write on one side of the paper only. Sign name and address in all instances, not necessarily for publication, but as evidence of good faith. Correspondents may, if they desire, use a nom de plume, but no attention will be paid to anonymous communications. The Editor and Manager reserves the right to revise or reject any communication if he deems it to the best interests of the Brotherhood to do so. Obituary notices and resolutions and detailed accounts of events of a purely local nature can not be published. Pictures are published only when same are of general interest. All orders for subscriptions should be sent direct to the Editor and Manager. Members when changing their address should immediately notify the Magazine office. All changes for the Directory should reach this office previous to the 10th day of the second month of the quarter in which it is desired that such changes should take effect. Inquiries for the address of or any information concerning another, should be made through the secretary of the lodge nearest the residence of the person making such inquiry. STRIKE VOTE-RAILROAD MAGNATES ALONE RESPONSIBLE-THE EASTERN MOVEMENT A statement issued by our Eastern tion of our representatives as shown by Federated Board embodying the history of our present Eastern Movement up to the point of taking a strike vote appears elsewhere in this issue. the substantial concessions made by them in the hope of reaching a compromise it will be clear to all that with the Railroad Companies alone will rest the responsibilThis statement sets forth facts which ity for the industrial upheaval sure to redemonstrate that the lengthy and trying sult from a favorable strike vote in case negotiations between the Conference the Managers persist in maintaining their Committee of Managers and our Eastern present attitude. It must be clear to all Federated Board have been characterized who are familiar with the facts in the by patient, painstaking effort, earnest case that with the recent arbitration experseverence and high class diplomacy perience of the Brotherhood of Locomoon the part of our representatives. They tive Engineers before them our Commithave resorted to every honorable expedi- tee took the only proper course in declinent to obviate the necessity for a strike ing the arbitration proposition of the and at the same time effectively guard General Managers and proposing arbitraand conserve the interests placed in their tion under the Erdman Act-arbitration charge. In view of the unreasonable at- as provided for by United States law, titude of the Conference Committee of but which the General Managers refused Managers and the conciliatory disposi- to consider. The course of our represent atives all through the negotiations is in marked contrast with the perverse obstinacy with which those who dictate the policy of the railroad companies adhered to tactics of delay and obstruction. Every one who knows anything at all about the situation realizes: That our men employed on the roads involved in our present Eastern Movement are entitled to a substantial increase in wages; That the exceedingly high and constantly increasing cost of living makes an advance in their compensation imperative; That there is no justification for the discrepancy which exists between the wages paid by the Eastern and Western railroads; That the commonest humanitarian considerations demand two firemen on modern locomotives; and That in view of their great prosperity the railroad companies can well afford to grant these concessions. The wages of the firemen on these Eastern roads are shamefully, disgracefully low and the employment conditions of all firemen on the North American continent are cruelly severe. All railroad officials know of the hardships to which firemen are continually subjected, the self-denials and privations which the irregularity of their work involves, the danger to which when on duty they are constantly exposed, the uncertainty of their rest and meals and resultant liability to health impairment, their long hours of duty and the laborious and exhausting character of their work. view of this fact the attitude of the magnates the men higher up-who have been directing the course of the Conference Committee of Managers in these negotiations certainly does not speak well for their sense of fairness. Their tactics of evasion and their final refusal to meet our committee's honest arbitration proposition, viz., to arbitrate in accordance with the Federal Arbitration Law, are In absolutely unjustifiable and inexcusable. One thing is certain and that is that the wages of the firemen on the Eastern railroads must be increased and their employment conditions improved. Another thing is certain, and that is that our Brotherhood will if necessary exert its every power and exhaust its last resource in an effort to secure justice for these men, and if the railroad companies are determined to enforce hostilities they and they alone will be responsible for the consequences and public opinion will so regard them. One Hundred Per Cent. One hundred per cent. standard of organization on every railroad should be our watchword. Let every man co-operate with our Organizing Department for the accomplishment of this great purpose and hasten the day of a fair wage, two firemen to an engine and eight hours in yard service. Important Union Meeting to Be Held in Jersey City, N. J., on February 22d and 23d. A union meeting of special importance to our members in the East will be held in Teutonia Hall, 580 Newark avenue, opposite Hudson County Court House, Jersey City, N. J., on Saturday and Sunday, February 22d and 23d. union meeting will be held under the auspices of Lodges 3, 13, 149, 155, 309, 339, 349, 363, 291, 496, 543, 600, 666, 765 and 253. The sessions will be held as follows: This Bro. W. S. Carter, International President, Bro. Timothy Shea, Assistant Presi dent, and many other Grand Lodge officers will be present on this occasion and will have a message of special importance to the brothers of the Eastern District. No brother can afford to neglect the opportunity of attending at least one of these sessions and should be present at all of them if possible, as matters of great importance to every member will be discussed. |