long detained, but she has now brought suit against Dr. Purdy for damages, alleging that the business in which she was engaged has been seriously injured by the fact that her old customers, having learned of her misfortune, shunned her shop; and further, that Dr. Purdy's diagnosis was erroneous, since she did not have small-pox, but simply a dermatitis of the face, caused by a preparation containing acetic acid having accidentally come in contact with it. She sued for ten thousand dollars damages, and a jury awarded her five hundred dollars.

The New York Medical Journal regards this verdict in the light of a "miscarriage of justice." We think it eminently just, and the doctor should be assessed the full amount of the woman's loss, with damages for being taken to a pest house. The merest tyro in medicine should be able to diagnose a case of small pox from a dermatitis of the face, and possessed of ordinary skill he should be able to diagnose it from any other disease.

It is true that physicians may be so wrapped up in their regularity that the only thing they seem to know is their own self-importance. Probably this was the case with Dr. Purdy, as he is named as an esteemed practitioner. We had an example in Cincinnati some three winters ago. A young lady was attacked with small-pox in a college of music where there were a number of young lady boarders. An esteemed physician was called, then a second in consultation, then a third. They called the disease malarial fever, but scouted the idea of small-pox, though it was suggested more than once. Three of the young ladies died with the disease, and it was carried with them to their homes where they were buried.

If these "esteemed" physicians had been sued and mulcted in heavy damages, they would only have gotten their desserts. As it lightened their pockets it might have increased their modesty.

In the case of a criminal who has grown his small-pox with croton oil, the "esteemed" physician may be pardoned for a failure in diagnosis.

In my opinion the public need protection, not by laws organizing boards of health to regulate physicians, but by well devised laws making the physician responsible for mal diagnosis and mal-practice. The "esteemed" physician needs to be looked after as closely as the one without a diploma.

Pneumonia during Pregnancy.

OLEAN, N. Y.. Dec. 4th, 1885.

J. M. SCUDDER, M. D.-Dear Sir: Will you have the kindness to furnish me with the details of any case of pneumonia that may have occurred during pregnancy in your practice? I should also be pleased to have your opinion as to the cause or causes of abortion when it occurs in consequence of an attack of pneumonia; and to what do you attribute the fatal character of pneumonia? Yours, W. H. PAPE, M. D.

In answer to the above inquiry, I reported three cases: one occurring at about the fifth month, a second at the seventh month, and a third at near full term. In all these cases no motion of child was felt after the first day. Death of foetus was evidently the cause of miscarriage and labor. In the first two cases the women recovered. They were stout, VOL. XLVI-3

rugged women, both very sick, typhoid symptoms marked, and a very slow convalescence. In the third case the patient died four hours after delivery, but there was hardly a hope from the first that she could live through it.

The extraordinary fatality of pneumonia in pregnant women has not been accounted for thus far, but I have thought of it in this way: One of the unpleasant consequences of an inflammation of the lungs is an imperfect aeration of the blood-this may account for the death of the foetus. I think every one who has had much experience will nave noticed the extremely unfavorable influence of pneumonia upon all surgical operations and injuries. A very slight attack of pneumonia will stop the processes of repair, give rise to unpleasant changes in the discharges from a wound, and in cases of amputation or other large operation, may cause sloughing.

It is true I speak from a limited personal experience, but I have confirmed my observations by reports of cases in our medical exchanges. If it is true that the impairment of the blood by the pneumonia exerts this influence in surgical diseases, we can well imagine its influence on the large trumatic surface of the uterus.

In regard to the treatment of these cases, I do not know that anything profitable can be said. It is evident to every one that the safe plan is to check or modify the course of the pneumonia. If the inflammation of the lungs progresses, abortion may be confidently expected. If the foetus is dead, the sooner it is expelled the better it is for the mother. To relieve uterine irritation Macrotys may be given early, and the antiseptic group will be looked over carefully to meet the septic symptoms that are sure to arise. My favorite in these cases is chlorate of potash in moderate doses.

Regular Persecution is no longer safe.

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 8.-The libel suit of Dr. Henry W. Taylor, of Terre Haute, against Dr. Harrison J. Rice, of Rockville, on trial in the Federal Court for two weeks and more, came to an ending to day-the jury, after brief consultation returning a verdict for $10,000 damagesthe heaviest judgment ever given in a similar suit in this court. The plaintiff is a homoeopath, and the defendant one of the leading old school practitioners in the western part of the State. Some two years ago, at the instance of defendant, Dr. Taylor was indicted for criminal practice, growing out of the death of Mrs. Nevino, of Parke county, and on a subsequent trial he was acquitted, there being no case against him. He then sued for damages for malicious prosecution, claiming $25,000, and in the prosecution he was represented by Judge McNutt, of Terre Haute, and Hon. D. E. Williamson, of Greencastle. Ex Senator McDonald and Major Gordon cared for the defense. A motion for a new trial has been made, and it is likely the case will go to the Supreme Court of the United States. Cincinnati Enquirer.

Good for Dr. H. W. Taylor. The doctor is a graduate of the Eclectic Medical Institute, and has fighting blood in him. The time has been when our opponents had things pretty much their own way, but we have grown stronger, and it is now the part of prudence to treat us decently.

The International Medical Congress.

Our regular friends who have been fighting over this bone will please take notice that we will give them another bone to pick when they have settled the code-or-no-code controversy.

The President of the International Congress says: "The only qualification required was that the member be a legally acknowledged practitioner in his country. Our homoeopaths who were legally acknowledged practitioners were actual members, and undisputed members, of our Congress."

We will send a representative man to this convention, if it is held in the United States. One who is broad shouldered and the peer of any physician in America. He will claim his seat, and will get it.

The Illinois State Board of Health in Hoc.

Though the mills of the gods grind slow, justice is sure to result in time. This "Board," which has assumed so much, and has terrorized the profession for several years, has at last come to grief. And this is but a beginning, for worse things will happen to them when other points are brought before the courts. We quote the decision of the highest court in Illinois as reported by the Chicago Tribune of Dec. 5th.

"The opinion of principal public interest among those delivered by the Appellate Court yesterday was that in the case of Dr. Lucas R. Williams, who was tried in the Criminal Court some time ago, convicted, and adjudged to pay a fine of $50 for alleged violation of the act entitled "An act to regulate the practice of medicine in the State of Illinois." approved May 29th, 1877.

"The defendant Williams was a graduate in medicine prior to the passage of the act, he receiving a diploma from Rush Medical College Feb. 16. 1875, and after the act went into force, Nov. 7, 1877, he duly presented his diploma to the State Board of Health, who issued their certificate. Afterward the Board, Feb. 6, 1880, declared the certificate revoked.

"Judge McAllister delivered the opinion of the Court, which went to extreme length in sustaining Williams, and the effect will be to deal a very severe blow at the State Board of Health, The Judge said that the statute in question being penal must be strictly construed; its several parts must be construed so as to give effect to all, and no construction should be put on it not supported by the words, even though the effect should be to defeat the very object of the law. The State Board of Health was not a judicial body, and as respected the duty and function of verifying diplomas, its officers fell somewhat short of the true character of ever quasi judicial officers, they had so little left to their discretion. Their only powers were derived from the statute. Their duties related to two classes, those who had diplomas and those who had not. As to the first class the only duty of the Board was to verify their respective diplomas in a certain way, and identity the persons. That done the Board must issue its certificate. As to non graduates, however, the Board had unlimited power of examination. It was evident the object was to stimulate applicants to study medicine in medical colleges so as to obtain diplomas. When a certificate was given on a diploma the function of the Board ended. Sec. 10, relating to the right of the Board to revoke certificates, only applied to those who had obtained certificates after examination, and not by diploma. Williams had a diploma, hence the Board had no right to revoke his certificate. It was

highly improbable that the Legislature intended to vest the Board with absolute power over the reputation and fortunes of all that other large class of persons called graduates in medicine, there being neither notice nor right of appeal provided for but the delusive right of appealing to a political non judicial body. That the Legislature should attempt to vest such unguarded, irresponsible power in that Board, through which it might select whomsoever and so many of those graduates as it pleased, and by its own mere fiat at once strip them of all the fruits of their study and sacrifices, of even the means of a livelihood, without redress, seemed shocking to contemplate. The decision of the court below would therefore be reversed and the case remanded."

Note these points: "The State Board of Health was not a judicial body, and as respected the duty and functions of verifying diplomas, its offices fell somewhat short of the true character of even quasi judicial offices, they had so little left to their discretion." "As to the first class, the only duty of the Board was to verify their respective diplomas in a certain way and identify the persons. That done the Board must issue its certificate."

This is the plain reading of the law, and I was as certain what the ultimate decision would be when the Board assumed extra judicial powers as I am now when the Appellate Court has given its decision. All State laws regulating the practice of medicine will come to grief in the same way.

Catarrh Remedies.

There are a few internal remedies so good in the treatment of chronic catarrh that they should be well known. While the disease may be cured with the nasal douches or the spray, the chances are much better if the right internal remedy is employed.

The first of these remedies is the sulphide of calcium. I employ a second trituration in order to get rid of its irritant properties. This may be given in doses of five grains four times a day. Occasionally a first trituration may be employed, especially where the mucous membranes are thickened and a large amount of pus is secreted.

The second 18 Phytolacca. It is used when there is a tendency to sore throat, with enlargement of the lymphatic glands of the neck. It may be used of the strength of 3j. to water iv.

The third is sulphite of soda. The patient has facial eczema to some extent. The tongue is pallid and dirty, and there is a bad odor from the breath.

The fourth is Iris. The patient has comedones, acne, or similar skin disease. If a woman, she has fullness of the thyroid gland. Tonsils enlarged; the urine is cloudy with phosphates.

The fifth is podophyllin (usually the pill of podophyllin 1 20 grain, hydrastia gr.) The patient complains of fullness in the head, dull, heavy headache, dizziness; there is fullness of tissues and especially of veins.

One can not manage too many remedies, and the five good remedies I have mentioned will start the physician in the right way. We soon recognize the advantage of internal treatment, and will enlarge our materia medica in this direction.

Some Points to be Remembered in the Treatment of Consumption.

I believe that a wrong of the digestive tract precedes most and is associated with all cases of phthisis. Examine your first case, and you will find a peculiarly red tongue, an irritable throat, tenderness on pressure or percussion over the epigastrium, a complaint of a sense of rawness down the oesophagus and through the entire intestinal tract.

This irritation precedes the deposit of tubercle in the lungs. As it increases, the disease progresses rapidly, and the symptoms are severe. As it is relieved, all the symptoms are mitigated, and the disease progresses slowly. If it is entirely relieved, and the mucous membranes assume their natural color, and the tenderness disappears, the disease is arrested, and the patient may make a permanent recovery.

If these are facts, and any one may convince himself that they are, the necessity of directing remedies to the relief of this irritation is apparent. Relieve the irritation of mouth and throat, and the patient relishes his food. Relieve the irritation of fauces and throat, and you relieve the cough to a very considerable extent. Relieve the irritation of stomach and bowels, and food is taken and digested.

Most of our readers will remember an article published some months since, urging the use of an oesophageal tube, through which food might be passed into the stomach without the unpleasantness of swallowing. The necessity of food to sustain life was clearly seen. the impossibility of taking it in the usual way acknowledged. This inability to take food was due to faucial irritation, the act of deglutition causing nausea or disgust.

The next point we wish to notice is, the necessity of growing a better skin. The consumptive, or the one having a tendency to consumption, has a skin so enfeebled that it will not protect him against alternations of temperature. He chills easily, catches cold easily, has his circulation. deranged by a rise or fall of the thermometer or barometer. The contact with the cold sheet on going to bed causes irritation of lung and cough, and the chill air on getting out of bed in the morning gives him a morning cough. No person with a tendency to phthisis can escape unless he grows a good skin; no person can recover from consumption unless he is given a good skin.

Croupal Diphtheria.

This is the season of the year when cold and dampness develop throat and respiratory affections; and a dangerous combination is a diphtheria which extends into the larynx and trachea, and creates a whistling and crowing sound of a croupal character. The morbid combination may be designated as diphtheritic laryngitis, but the transposition of a name does not alter the character of the disease. In one instance the diphtheritic form of the malady may be predominant, and in another the croupal phase will be most pronounced.

Sporadic cases of diphtheritic croup occur at all seasons of the year, but an epidemic form of the disease is to be encountered mostly in Win