mies' country, and of waging it with the weapons of science, accurate observation, laborious experiment, lucid and original exposition, and self-sacrificing devotion to principle? Appeals to the lay element to revive questions of general and abstract right, organization, the founding of hospitals, colleges, and dispensaries, and all the arduous labor connected with the defence of our position against a powerful and wily foe, are necessary, indispensable, and not to be neglected for a moment; but as physicians and followers of a school whose only claim to existence rests upon its progressiveness and reformatory principles, wo owe, each individually, a higher duty towards our profession, that of adding to its positive knowledge and greater useful

ness.

Does any man ask how that duty is to be fulfilled without ample leisure, the control of large public institutions, endowed professorships, etc.; let him open the writings and contemplate the labors of Hering, of Jahr, of Hinverson, Drysdale, Dudjeon, of Grauvogle, Hirschel, Hausmann, and hosts of others in every civilized land, but above all, Hahnemann himself, and then decide whether the evident improvement in general medical practice is traceable, in the first instance, to salaried professors and eloquent expounders, or whether it has not rather dribbled to them, little by little, from the writings and observations of private practitioners, whose claims to recognition we are bound to uphold, and whose example it is our sacred duty to emulate. The laxness the want of originality, the diversion of powers to other and less noble objects than strictly professional ones, exhibited in New England by our school, are but manifestations of the general status here of all medical thought and labor.

In the old school as well, the foremost men are, at best, to be counted only among the luminaries "that shine, but warın not with their powerless rays "; and the extinction of their personal influences will be the end of men's knowledge concerning themselves and their works. While elsewhere, among leading and independent minds, the year 1874 has discovered numerous and unmistakable signs of an approximation to our principles, with the revulsion against the scepticism in therapuctics still so largely fashionable, the general attitude everywhere of the old school towards our own remains the same as it has been throughout the last fifty years. Such being the case we can be guilty of no greater folly than to seek any conciliation with it that is not founded on mutual respect, or for any identification of our particular aims and our manner of reaching the truth with those of our

opponents. Both parties profess to be earnest in their endeavors to advance medical knowledge, but, while the dominant one is beating towards the objective point driven by the adverse winds of rationalistic deduction, and weighted down with self-deceiving pride, conflicting theories, and ancient routine, we have chosen the straight course of scientific empiricism, and are borne on by sound experiment and observations at the bedside. As a matter of course this applies only to the science of therapeutics, and to this only in so far as it deals with the administration of medicine; and here our thoughts cannot be their thoughts, nor our ways their ways. One fact above all others, the general drift of medical thought during the past year, more than in any before it, bids us bear continually in mind the fact that it is the therapeutic age which is now dawning in medical history. As anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and pathology arose successively, from crude and confused beginnings, to the height of noble sciences, bringing with them vast improvements in surgery, obstetrics, and hygiene, each one in turn was hailed by suffering humanity as the deliverer of their older sister, therapuetics. But instead of raising her up to new life and light by their growing strength, she has been smothered and stinted while they were being lavishly fed at her expense. As surgeons, as obstetricans, as scientific physicians, called upon to deal with all the varied influences affecting the public and private health, we are bound to cultivate these sciences with the utmost diligence, but in the present and in the future, as it has been in the past, we, as healers of the countless daily diseases, as relievers of suffering, and averters of imminent danger, have a special mission, that of raising to its rightful position the highest in all the range of the sciences, the science of therapeutics. For this are we homeopaths; other meaning our existence as such has none. It is on the field of therapeutics that the future battles in medicine will be fought; and, as we were the first to throw down the gauntlet in this holy war, it is for us to attack it whenever we see it raised in challenge and defiance.

These are among the reflections the season suggests. They are neither new nor forced, but come unbidden as we contemplate the position of affairs relating to our school at the end of the year. As we lack none of the elements essential to progress here in New England, except, perhaps, some small modicum of energy, there is no proper reason why the apprehensions of any danger to our status among our colleges in other parts, should be verified.

Let it be remembered that THE GAZETTE is open to the discussion of all the important questions now agitating the minds of medical men,

to new and original observations, to the best thoughts, indeed, of all who will but take the trouble to put them down, and no one who keeps upon the level of the best professional literature of the day while practising medicine can fail to have thoughts well worth recording. And herewith we wish our readers, one and all, a happy, prosperous New Year.

NEW YORK STATE HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICAL SOCIETY.

THE Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of this Society will be held at Albany, on Feb. 9th and 10th. The Annual Address will be delivered by Wm. Tod Helmuth, M.D., of New York City.

ITEMS AND EXTRACTS.

ON TRANSFUSION OF BLood. · In the early numbers of the Centrablatt für Chirurgie are several papers on the subject of transfusion of blood, which it may not be uninteresting to grasp together. In the first is an account of experiments made by Nicolai Taboure, of St. Petersburg, by transfusing the blood of one animal into one of a different species, either immediately or after allowing it to stand for some time, but in either case, after defibrination. He injected two cats with the blood of dogs, seven dogs with the blood of calves, one dog with cat's blood, and one sheep with dog's blood. All the animals had been previously bled, and in all the effect was actually beneficial, except in two cases in which calves' blood had been used, and in these death followed in about twenty hours: in one case, from paralysis of the heart, while in the other, oedema of the brain and lungs was found at the autopsy. In another set of experiments, the defibrinated blood of another animal was injected within ten to thirty minutes after the amputation of a limb, the animals experimented upon being eight dogs. In all cases death followed from uncontrollable general oozing from the stump. The author concludes that the substitution of defibrinated for normal blood sets up a sort of homophilia, and renders its employment after capital operations not only useless but mischievous.

In two dogs transfusion was performed, in one case with the blood of another dog, and in the other with that of a calf, twenty-four hours after an operation. One died of acute blood poisoning and the other recovered. In another dog the loss of blood and subsequent transfusion were made to precede the amputation by two days and a half, and the animal was healed in twelve days. The last three experiments would seem to show that transfusion may be safely performed a day before or a day after an amputation. The author does not approve of direct transfusion, which he considers inconvenient and dangerous.

In the fourth number is the description of a new instrument, introduced by Dr. Paul Schliep, of Berlin, for transfusion, which is supposed to combine the advantages of all previous inventions. It consists essentially of a tube, with a pumping apparatus attached, which is to pass directly from one artery to another say the carotid of a sheep and the radia of a man. Sufficient pressure is attainable to force the blood through the arteries and capillaries of the receiver, and not allow time for the coagulation of blood in the transmitting tube. The pump is made on the same principle as the English stomach-pump. Dr. Schliep objects to all methods of injecting defibrinated blood. His apparatus may be employed as the surgeon prefers; either from artery to artery. artery to vein, vein to artery, or vein to vein. It may be used with very slight assistance, and this recommends it for military practice.

Prof. Gius. Albini brings forward another new apparatus in Ol Morgagin, 1874, F. i, pages 19 to 20, which is received in the fifth number. In this, one perforated needle passes into the artery of the animal which is to supply the blood, and another into the vein of the receiver. The needles are connected by an india-rubber tube, into which is fitted an arrangement such that by turning a tap in one direction, the blood is allowed to escape externally, and by turning it in the other, to flow into the vein of the receiver. The author, while he considers it as not less than proved that there is some danger in the transfusion of one animal with the blood of one of another species, still does not think any fluid obtained by defibrination is worthy of the name of blood. He does not see much to choose between arterial and venous blood, except that the latter is loaded with materials destined for elimination, and is not under sufficient pressure to make transfusion easy. He also points out the danger of phlebitis, which is run

by the donor.

On the other hand, we have the evidence of Dr. Suigi Tassarini, of Berlin, in the same number of the journal, that he considers the direct transfusion from animals to man as proved to be dangerous from Panum's experiments, and so he discards it. He relates, however, a case of malarial fever, in which direct transfusion from man to man was performed six times, the patient ultimately recovering. He looks upon transfusion as specially applicable in cases of malarial fever, and he thinks that the quality of the blood, as well as the digestive power, is decidedly improved. He considers it important that the blood he taken from a healthy, young man, a drinker being especially eschewed, and that if symptoms of increased arterial tension, as e. g. headache, dyspnoea, etc., occur, the patient should be bled to the amount previously injected. Transfusion, in many cases, causes rigor. There is no objection to the patient leaving his bed after the operation, if he was in the habit of doing so before; and he concludes by saying that there is no need to warm the blood, and that it is quite as efficient after as before definibration.

Immediately following is an account of five cases of direct transfusion from arm to arm, by Dr. Paolo Postempski at Rome. They were performed by means of perforated needles inserted into the veins of

donor and receiver. connected by an india-rubber tube. The amount of blood was calculated from the rapidity of its flow in a given time. and the known contents of the apparatus. The first case was one of intermittent fever, which had resisted quinine, iron, and arsenic, but disappeared immediately after the transfusion. The second and third were cases of caseous pneumonia and cancer of the uterus, both of which were much benefited. The fourth was a stricture of the pylorus, which was at first slightly benefited, but died on the sixteenth day; and the last one of morbus Weslhofie, who had a severe loss of blood on the night after the operation, and died in two days. He refers to the advisability of making an examination of the urine, since it has been shown that an increased amount of hæmatin occurs in it almost in proportion to the amount of blood injected. — London Med. Times and Gazette, Sept. 5, 1874.

DISLOCATION OF THE HIP IN A WOMAN SEVENTY-THREE YEARS OLD. Dr. Kline communicates to the Medical Record, June 15, through Professor Hamilton, the particulars of a very remarkable case. He was called to a woman aged eighty-six, who had fallen down while crossing the room. Instead of the fracture of the neck of the femur which he expected, he found a fracture just above the condyles. Extension was made by means of a four-pound weight and pulley, balanced by the weight of the body. The case went on very well, so that by the sixteenth day union was quite firm. There was no excoriation of the limb or body, and as a matter of precaution the weights and splints were continued a little longer. This firm and prompt union in one so aged is sufficient to render the case one of interest; but the reason of its being recorded is, that while Dr. Kline was examining the limb under the supposition of intracapsular fracture, he discovered that the head of the femur was resting on the pubes, and pushed up towards the anterior inferior spinous process of the right ilium. She stated that thirteen years before (when seventy-three years old) she had fallen down a flight of steps about three feet high, and dislocated her hip. No attempt was made at reduction; and she said that she had often pushed the lump down in the groin, thereby moving the whole leg. She always walked with the foot so strongly everted that it formed a right angle with the other, having commenced walking six months after the dislocation. Professor Hamilton believes that with the exception of a case reported, Gauthier, eighty-eight years, this is the oldest person recorded in whom the accident has occurred. Med. Times and Gazette.

GRAPHITES IN SCROFULOSIS.-M., eight years old, the son of a family in which scrofulosis prevailed, always enjoyed good health, till, suddenly, an eruption developed itself in the face, extending rapidly, and finally covering every part of the face with the exception of the forehead. The eruption was crusty and discharging; the cast-off crusts showed beneath them a suppurating, irregular surface, which soon covered itself again with crusts, and soon offering with the bleeding surface a disgusting aspect. The whole face was lymphatically swollen