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not admit syphilitic infection, but in private practice practically all his patients admit the infection.

Instead of the ataxia gait there is often anesthesia of the extremeties. There is ataxia where we find "a syphilitic history, absent knee jerks, lightning pains, Argyle-Robertson pupils and a paretic bladder."

Argenticum intricum 3× and chloride of gold and sodium 2× will often be found useful where there are no characteristics of such remedies as phosphorus, zinc, picric-acid, nux vomica and strychnia nitrate.

FISTULA

F. W. Brierly, M. D., Philadelphia, in writing

IN ANO. on Fistula in Ano says:

Though many of the patients having fistula have also pulmonary tuberculosis, the old idea that phthisis is a contraindication to operation is long since exploded.

SUCCESSFUL

Medtcal Arena.

Prof. A. E. Newmeister of Kansas City HomOPERATIONS. eopathic Medical College, records three cases of successful vaginal hysterectomy, one by the ligature and two by the clamp operation. He also records three laparotomies for the removal of ovaries.

LIFE

In an editorial on Homeopathy and Life AsINSURANCE. surance, referring to the much talked of article of Dr. D. A. Strickler, published in the Denver Journal in September, says:

"We need not indulge the vain hope of establishing a better order of things till we have cut off the source of revenue of the old line of insurance companies from homeopathic sources."

AUTO-INTOXI

OF ECZEMA.

New England Medical Gazette.

An article on Disorder of Digestion as a Cause CATION CAUSE of Eczema, by John L. Coffin, M. D., of Boston, and read before the Massachusetts Medical Society, appears in the first pages of the Gazette. The author takes the ground that digestive disorders are a common factor in the cause of eczematous diseases. Of 54 casee, "fifty per cent showed indigestion, either gastric or intestinal; and 37 per cent were the unhappy victims of constipation more or less chronic." Dr. Coffin states that treatment for these derange

ments, digestion was followed in nearly every case by either a cure or marked improvemeni of the eczematous conditions.

The author makes the statement that:

Auto-intoxication then, this "slow intoxication of the whole system" above alluded to, which results from the production of poisons within the economy, which in their turn are due to improper kinds and quantity of food and general disobedience to all hygienic laws pertaining to eating and drinking, accounts in very large degree for the occurrence of eczema in the adult.

PECULIAR BIRTH MARK.

A New Yorker returning from a western trip, reached his home somewhat the worse for wear-his face was lacerated as if by finger-nails; the court plaster only served to intensify the effect.

"What's the matter?" inquired a friend.

"A birth-mark!"

"What?"

"A birth-mark!"

"Well, I like that-I've known you for ten years, and I've never seen it before!"

"It's a birth-mark just the same!"

Then he explained: “On the first night out from Pueblo, I rose to get a drink, and going back, I blundered into a Denver woman's birth!"

Subscribe for The Critique, $1.00 per year.

THE CRITIQUE.

Formerly THE Denver JouRNAL OF HOMEOPATHY.

SAMUEL S. SMYTHE, M. D., Editor.

W. A. BURR, M. D., Associate Editor. J. WYLIE ANDERSON, M. D., Managing Editor.

All books for review, magazines, exchanges, correspondence and articles for publication in this Journal should henceforth be sent to Dr. S. S. Smythe, Editor, 403 California Building, Denver, Colorado.

All business communications should be addressed to Dr. J. Wylie Anderson, 16 Steele Block, Denver, Colorado.

CORPORATION DOCTORS.

During the past two years so much has been said in our journals about the evils of the free dispensary, that everywhere a feeling of more or less antagonism to a worthy institution has been aroused. A fair investigation will, we are sure, serve to convince any unprejudiced person that the College free dispensary is not in any sense an evil, but is, on the contrary, a most desirable feature in our educational work and a potent means of relieving the profession from the importunities of a class of patients who do not and cannot pay for medical and surgical attendance. The proportion of dispensary patients who might pay a physician is so small as to be really insignificant and not worthy of serious consideration.

While pursuing our dispensary investigations we discovered the existence of a most glaring evil which seems to have wholly escaped professional notice. An evil so wide-spread and of such vast proportions as to be startling in its scope and magnitude. An evil so manifestly detrimental to the general practice of medicine as to create a feeling of wonder that its existence has not been recognized, and means taken for its suppression. An evil which has been cunningly inaugurated and

actively developed under our very eyes without the slightest protest, notwithstanding the practice is calculated to, and does actually take from the field of practice a very large number of patients who can well afford to pay a reasonable fee for medical and surgical services.

The evil referred to is the almost universal custom among large corporations in this country of employing "Corporation Doctors" to look after their employes. A little consideration of the methods in vogue will show that we do not exaggerate the magnitude of this evil, or over-estimate the extent of the imposition which is being practiced upon the profession. In Denver with a population of not more than 150,000, many thousands of well paid and well to do mechanics are provided with medical and surgical attendance for themselves and families at an average cost of about forty cents per month. And who is doing this? The Corporations? Not by any means. It originated in the fertile brain of some thrifty doctors who induced the companies to adopt the plan. The employes are taxed to supply the funds. The forty cents is regularly deducted from the month's wages. It is enforced taxation without representation. The men are not consulted in the matter, and we are credibly informed that many of them are opposed to the scheme but cannot help themselves.

What is the result of this system? What is the effect upon general practice? Suppose for illustration, that ten thousand employes are taxed forty cents per month each, making a total of four thousand per month,-forty eight thousand per year. This expresses the aggregate financial result of this enforced taxation. Now who gets the benefits? The men? Yes, in a way, but in a most outrageous way, and at the expense of enforced medication by physicians, not of their choice and often against their wishes. Having been taxed, it is but natural for them to take advantage of the privilege of securing

cheap doctors at the cheapest of cheap rates, and with this we cannot find fault.

The great benefits of this system accrue to the hired doctor of the corporations, and herein we discover the great wrong which is being practiced against the profession. The aggregate amount collected from the employes is paid to a very few physicians (by courtesy called surgeons) who receive large incomes for doing professional work at cut rates for men who are able and willing to pay a fair remuneration for professional services, were they permitted to do so. Under ordinary conditions these ten thousand men, whose average income is greater than that of the average doctor, would contribute to the sum of professional resources at least one hundred thousand dollars per annum. One doctor in Denver is said to receive annually from this system of corporate taxation more than twenty thousand dollars, and this is but a fair illustration of what is going on in all our large cities.

In Denver alone, through reduction of fees by the corporation doctors, more money is diverted from the legitimate channels of general practice than through all the free dispensaries in the United States, and Denver is a very small factor in the aggregate result of this system.

Formerly the vicinity of large manufacturing establish. ments was a desirable field of practice for many physicians but under the prevailing system, business can no longer be secured in such localities, because the company doctor does the work at so low a rate as to drive out all competitors.

Who does this "Cheap John" business? So remunerative has this practice become to a few, that physicians every where permit themselves to use the most strenuous efforts and the most powerful influences to secure appointments, totally ignoring all ethical obligations, and the fact that in following such a practice they are robbing the profession by a system of cheap fees,

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