ible theory. Excretion, secretion, respiration, the circulation and the entire being is regenerated most perfectly during a state of repose. In conclusion, I will say that in order to appreciate the subject you must visit some of our modern sanatoria where quiet and comfort appear the highest aim, and the surroundings with the trained nurses are so inviting to those who are afflicted. It makes one feel like he would rejoice to see every cottage home a sanatorium and every mother a trained nurse, instead of the ordinary experience of poor hygiene and a house filled with noisy, sentimental friends. I give you one example in which rest was my last resort. I had a lady patient some eighteen years ago who had typhoid fever, and on the thirty-second day of the fever she had hemorrhage of the nose for ten or twelve hours, in spite of all I could do. Finally I sent for a doctor. Before he arrived, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep, and when he came he suggested to let her rest, and possibly nature would do the work. I submitted, and for four hours we quietly waited until she awoke. The hemorrhage in the meantime ceased and her fever subsided, and she made an uneventful recovery. The doctor taught me something. A Parody. BY FRITZ LANHAM, AUSTIN, TEXAS. Once upon a midnight dreary I was dreaming, weak and weary, And a little crimson border round my budding face they wore; ""Tis a serenade!" I stuttered, as between their stings I shud dered, While they warbled as I muttered, "Only this and nothing more!" Many hours I kept on blinking while they stimulated thinking By their systematic soundings deep into my flaming nose; Fagged and drowsy, I was musing on the germs they were infusing As, a striking climax using, they aroused me from repose. Eagerly I wished the morrow to secure surcease of sorrow From the balms that I might borrow which the neighbors had in store; But that crowd of suckers humming never ceased their constant drumming, But with reinforcements coming kept it up forevermore. As a sweet, inviting calling still they deemed my painful squalling, more. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Happy that the morning gleaming all about the chamber streaming more. DR. D. L. PEEPLES, Navasota, major and surgeon Texas National Guard, has been elected professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dallas, Texas. DR. Z. T. BUNDY, of Millford, Texas, has been appointed surgeon to the Confederate Soldiers' Home, Austin, Texas. Dr. Bundy was a Confederate soldier, serving with Forrest's Cavalry when a mere lad. This is a most excellent appointment. "LAST week a delinquent subscriber said he'd pay if he lived. He died. “Another said he would see me tomorrow. He's blind. "Still another said he'd pay me within a week or go to the devil. He went." "There are hundreds," writes the country editor who read these lines, "who should take warning from these procrastinators and pay up now."—Ex. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. THE MEDICAL OFFICERS of the STATE. The policy of removing an experienced and efficient medical officer from any position without good and sufficient cause, is to be emphatically condemned. When it is done simply to make room for some personal or political favorite, or for some one in recognition of political services, it is simply outrageous. These positions should be filled by the ablest, best and most experienced men in the medical profession: and when the State has secured the right kind of men they should be retained by all means. Capable alienists are scarce. It requires long years of special study and experience to qualify a physician to deal with the insane; and such officer must combine also with his special knowledge an administrative and executive ability of no small degree. He must manage a big institution, very complicate in its machinery, with efficiency and economy. He must disburse large sums of mony appropriated by the State, and, in fact, do many things that require a special training and fitness. It is hard to find such men; and when they are found they should be retained indefinitely. We have such men now, in charge of these great charities, and in the health department. It is manifestly to the best interest of the State, looked at from an economic standpoint, and beyond question, for the best interest of the insane population that few or no changes should be made in the management of these institutions. The insane are suspicious, and readily conceive a dislike to a person. They often have a suspicion that a certain person is an enemy who seeks their destruction; that is a characteristic delusion. They are easily excited, and the upsetting of an arrangement and a management to which they have become accustomed, the removal of familiar and friendly officers and employes has the same effect on them as stirring up a hornet's nest. It is not unattendel with danger. The folly of such policy and the appointing to the superintendency of an insane asylum of a man inexperienced in such work and not acquainted with the characteristics and peculiarities of the insane, was horribly emphasized in the slaying of Superintendent Reeves some years ago by Purnell, an inmate of the asylum, who had been there many years, but was known to be dangerous, and was accordingly watched by former superintendents. The experiment of putting in new men has been disastrous in other instances, and more than one resignation had to be asked for. It stands to reason that no physician capable of filling such positions can afford to leave home and an established practice, break up and take such an office for two or four years. Hence we have had some ephemeral incompetents. In many States, most States, I believe, the superintendent and assistants have a life tenure of office. Prior to the administration of Sayers, it was the policy to make a pretty clean sweep, by changing everything at the asylum, from superintendent to laundry women and servants. It was attended with discord and dissatisfaction. Sayers and Lanham had the good sense and wisdom to retain all who had proved themselves competent, and I am sure that it would be the part of wisdom, and no doubt Mr. Campbell will do it, to profit by past experience. The superintendent of our four insane asylums and their assistants have demonstrated their fitness for the position and are all men of long experience; men who have had their schooling in our great psychopathic hospitals. They have brought the institutions to a high state of efficiency and economy and they are a credit to Texas. In my deliberate judgment it would be exceedingly unwise to disturb them. In thus emphatically expressing myself, I believe I voice the unanimous sentiment of the medical profession of the State. NOTICE TO DELEGATES-RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION TO THE NEW YORK NOVEMBER CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS-ONE FARE AND A THIRD ROUND TRIP TO NEW YORK AND RETURN. The management announces that arrangements have been concluded with the Railway Trunk Line Association, by which members and delegates can secure transportation for the round trip on the certificate plan, at one fare and one-third to New York and return, for the American International Congress on Tuberculosis, November 14, 15, and 16, 1906, provided at least 100 persons shall have obtained the necessary certificate and paid the fare one way. Special care must be taken to secure the certificate from the railway agent before starting. Without this certificate the return ticket can not be obtained. Members and delegates wishing to avail themselves of reduced rates will please send their names and address to CLARK BELL, Esq.. Treas. and Sec. of Council, 39 Broadway, New York City. STATE INSANE ASYLUM, AUSTIN. Dr. B. M. Worsham, superintendent, in his report for 1905-6, shows the total number of patients for the fiscal year ending August 31, 1905, as 635 males, 533 women; total, 1172. For the year 1906 to August 31, 624 males, 547 women; total, 1171. Two hundred and fifteen were admitted; 232 were discharged, 137 died. Of the movement of population Dr. Worsham says: "The movement of population has been slow because during the past four years the character of the cases admitted has not been favorable for much improvement. Many of the cases whose transcripts show that they have been insane for only a short period, turn out to be cases of high grade idiocy, or even worse, as far as any chance of permanent improvement of their mental condition is concerned. Such patients when admitted make up a large percentage of the standing population of the institution, their death. being their only chance to leave it, and as this class of cases is as a rule exceedingly long lived, the percentage of moving population. is necessarily cut down more and more each year. Of the 215 patients admitted during the year ending August 31, 1906, 113 were males and 102 females. Only eleven of this number were colored, five of whom were men and six women." The report shows that of the deaths 36.2 per cent were from consumption; seven deaths from paresis, senility 6. In his recommendations Dr. Worsham says that the law governing the admission of patients should be changed and modernized. "The plan of admission as it now stands," says Dr. Worsham, "on the statute books was arranged many years ago when conditions in this State were entirely different. The system is too expensive, and deficient in many ways. The court trials should be done away with, except when demanded by friends and relatives who question the advisability of the person being placed under restraint. A law similar in many respects to the one governing the admission into the epileptic colony would meet the requirements and be much less expensive to the different counties." Continuing Dr. Worsham says the law should be amended so that the State should be divided into three separate asylum districts, each district arranged in accordance with population. Dr. Worsham also recommends, in addition to the regular appropriations, that the next Legislature appropriate $85,000 for one new building to accommodate 500 new patients, and one additional boiler and machinery to cost $10,000, and $10,000 for the erection |