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of a large well to do clientage. It is not a work of charity. They do not serve the poor who cannot pay. They deliberately engage in a business which depends upon cut rates and is demoralizing in its effects upon general practice. Are they any better, are they not worse, than the fakirs who come to town and advertise to treat all patients for five dollars a month? If there is any difference, it certainly is in favor of the fakir in this instance. Is it not an evil of such vast proportions that the mere mention of it should arouse the profession to the adoption of energetic measures for its suppression?

THE OMAHA MEETING.

The meeting of the American Institute of Homeopathy to be held in Omaha next June, should be largely attended by western physicians. Aside from any question of loyalty to the West and to homeopathy, as a reason for attending this meeting, we desire to impress upon our readers the many profession. al advantages to be gained by participating in the work of our National Convention. There is much to be learned at these gatherings of the brightest and wisest men of our school. To read the reports of proceedings, gives but a faint idea of their real importance. Personal contact and acquaintance with physicians from all parts of our land, give increased interest in the cause, broaden our own views and stimulate a desire to aid the great work yet to be done in advancing the cause of homeopathy. The American Institute has not only done more to promote the spread of homeopathy in America than all other forces combined, but its influence has gone beyond our borders, and strengthens the hands of our friends in other lands.

This great work has been done by a comparatively small number of noble and devoted men. Many times have they asked us to come and help them, and some have responded, but

many have not. Our numbers are yearly increasing, and our interest in the Institute should correspondingly increase. The American Institute should be upheld by every one in the profession, and the only way to do this successfully is to become members of it. Now it is to meet in our midst. Its purpose in coming is to aid and strengthen us of the West. Our duty is plain. We should not only welcome it to our hospitality, but every man and woman of us should go to Omaha and join the ranks of the faithful.

THE ONLY PEBBLE ON THE BEACH.

It is so seldom that our esteemed contemporary, "The Clinique" affords its readers anything in the way of amusement that we abstract the following from the December issue as a sample of genuine humor:

"With such hospitals as the 'Old Hahnemann' of Chicago, and such advantages as it really affords, there is no longer any need or excuse for sending our patients or our pupils to the small concerns that are teaching hospitals by courtesy only and not in fact, or to those of the old school, in which our medical tenets are either over-looked or abused."

We are sincerely of the opinion that at the next meeting of the American Institute of Homeopathy, the materia medica prefix may be omitted with profit to everybody.

The one-time-noble Klebs-Loeffler bacillus, which formerly dwelt only in the throat of the aristocratic kid, is becoming decidedly plebian in its habitat, and is now often discovered in the ear, nose, rectum, urethra, appendix, cecum or "any old thing" with a hole in it.

A half dozen enterprising physicians in San Francisco are trying to induce five hundred families to pay $15.00 per annum

each in return for all medical services.

Now no one will question the unethical and unprofessional character of such a scheme, and condemn it accordingly, but really this is much more honorable than the methods everywhere practiced by the so-called railway surgeons who give medical and surgical attendance for four dollars and eighty cents a year to thous. ands of employes.

Since the profession is slowly awaking to the fact that the corporation doctors (by courtesy, surgeons) are receiving large incomes from the forty cent per month assessment on employes, it has been hinted that at the next convention of "Railway Surgeons" an attempt will be made to reduce the per capita tax to thirty cents. That's right, gentlemen; go on, and cut the life out of general practice by your cheap fees. The rank and file of the profession are so blinded by your pre-eminent superiority that it will be some time before they fully realize that you are professional pirates of the very worst sort.

Dr. Pemberton Dudley, Ex-President of the American Institute of Homeopathy, says in the December North American: "I also discovered that, of the hundred and three new members received at the Detroit meeting, only four were konwn by sight to the presiding officer, and only one of these four was registered as being actually present."

Would Dr. Dudley have us infer that a personal acquaintance with the presiding officer is a pre-requisite to recognition in the work of the Institute? If so, we move that hereafter a committee on Introduction be appointed at each meeting, whose duty it shall be to make the presiding officer acquainted with the new members. It would not take more than two hours of each day's session and would relieve the president of the embarrassment of having to refuse appointments to men to whom he had not had the pleasure of a formal introduction. "Bah!"

Much as we appreciate the American Homeopathist in a general way, there is one feature of its make up that is posi

tively annoying. Its materia medica miscellany is interesting and valuable except in the matter of reference by numbers, which is an abomination. We cannot all be expected to keep an index medicus or an index Krafticus, but something of that kind seems to be necessary in order to trace the source of the information tendered us in its columns.

CORRESPONDENCE.

DEAR DR. SMYTHE:-In the language of the editor of the Hahnemannian Monthly for the current month, "The time has come to speak with unmistakable plainness." A few of the eastern journals delight in quoting Dr. Porter's figures to show the growth and attendance of the Institute. Why do they not tell us that the average attendance for the year 1891-2-3 was 605, and the average attendance for 1895-6-7 was only 318?

Ward politics have no place in the discussion of this question, which is of vital importance to the A. I. H.

I join the editor of the Hahnemannian when he says "take down haphazard two or three volumes of the transactions for the last ten years, and scan carefully the list of officers and the membership of the standing and special committees, and of the various sections, and then answer for yourself." If the unbiased observer finds what he says-that the new member as a class is not ignored—he reads differently from the majority of those concerned. I defy any one to successfully controvert the figures given in my original article as to the extent to which he is ignored. Less than 7 per cent, by actual count, of those joining in the past five years have been assigned any duty in the A. I. H.

If further proof is needed to show that the new member is not cared for in the A. I. H., Dr. Dudley gives it in his letter to the North American Journal published in the December issue, when he says: "I discovered that of the 103 new members received at the Detroit meeting, only four were known by sight to the presiding officer, and only one of these four was registered as being actually present at the meeting." And thus we are cooly told that none of the 103 members were assigned anything to do because, forsooth, they were not personally known to the president, but we are not informed of any effort, either on the part of the presiding officer or of the Institute to learn of their capabilities or desires. Under these conditions it would be very strange indeed should some of these poor forsaken members think themselves neglected!

When you have looked over the records for the past five years, and have learned that 59 appointments have been divided up among 721 members joining in that time, kindly turn to the following names:

I. T. Talbot, and see that in the past 10 years he has been on 54 committees and one section. Then go back 30 years and find him holding several important positions yearly.

H. M. Smith, with 33 committees in the last ten years.

Conrad Wesselhoeft, with 30 committees and two sections in the last ten years, and not a year without one or more committees for at least ten years more.

T.Y. Kinne, with 19 committees, 7 sections, and the vice-presidency and presidency in the past ten years.

B. W. James, with 17 committees and 6 sections in the past ten years, and scarcely a skip for the last 30 or more years.

T. F. Allen, with 17 committees and 5 sections in the past ten years, with scarcely a skip for more than twenty years.

O. S. Runnels, with 16 committees and 6 sections in the last ten years with scarcely a skip for more than twenty years.

J. P. Drake, with 28 committees in the last seven years of his life.

And so you may go down the list of T. F. Smith, Pemberton Dudley, F. H. Orme, J. H. McClelland, A. W. Woodward, T. G. Comstock, A. R. Wright, etc., etc., and when you are through if you are not convinced that there is room for improvement looking toward the recognition of the new member in the way of division of labor, Write a letter to the editor of the Hahnemannian Monthly encouraging him in his liberal course.

DAVID A. STRICKLER, M. D.

Denver, Colo., Jan. 6th, 1897.

NOTES AND PERSONALS.

Dr. M. M. Hatfield has removed to 1734 Broadway.

Dr. J. J. Hinkley has removed his office to 2743 Curtis Street.

Dr. Pearl B. Wheeler will have charge of the Ladies Relief Home for 1898.

Dr. J. H. Beals, dentist, room 9, El Paso Building, Cor. 16th and California Streets,

Dr. Floyd Nutting, class of '97 has permanently located at Santa Monica California.

Drs. King and Fraser of New York will publish a new work on electrical therapeutics in the Spring.

Dr. D. E. Spoor has located at Grand Junction where the outlook for another Homeopathic Physician is good. Dr. W. Capps is already doing a good business there.

At Gheel, Belgium, is located the State Insane Assylum. The town is thirty miles in circumference, the patients are kept in cottages and the treatment is said to be the most merciful of any place in the world.

The Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital has lately been the recipient of eighty thousand dollars for a nurse's home, and thirty thousand dollars for hospital improvements, and recently the Boston University has been endowed with three-quarters of a million.

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