who contend that there is really no such thing as that particular cure. Others will feel confident that there is such a cure, and that similia is the law of it. Others (I fancy they will constitute a very large number) will discuss as questions of opinion, whether there really exists such a cure, and whether, if it exists, similia similibus curantur is the law of it.

HOMEOPATHY SCIENTIFIC.

By L. D. Rogers, A. M., M. D., Chicago, Illinois.

A remarkable confirmation of the homeopathic principle of treatment has just been reported from Berlin. It was discovered several years ago by Binz that the number of white blood corpuscles could be increased four times by giving the individual tincture of myrrh. The normal number of white corpuscles in a healthy person is 7,500 to the cubic millimetre. When the number is temporarily above 9,000 the condition is abnormal, and the term leucocytosis is used to designate it. Now, surgical pathology teaches us that leucocytosis is confirmatory of the suspicion of pus in the system. For instance, if a deep abscess were conjectured in some part of the body, as in the appendix, the lung, the liver or brain, the condition of leucocytosis would absolutely confirm the opinion. On the contrary, the absence of leucocytosis is positive proof that there is no suppurative process in any part of the body, whatever the other symptoms may be.

The Berlin correspondent of the Therapeutic Gazette for January, 1898, says that the most remarkable fact in therapeutics in the city at the time of his writing was the treatment of the mixed infection of diphtheria with tincture of myrrh. Out of eighty cases thus treated only one died. Reports from three hundred cases showed remarkable results. The cases of mixed or secondary infection are those complicated with pus germs. In all pus cases we find leucocytosis. In these the remedy that has been so successful produces leucocytosis when given to a well person. The tincture of myrrh is given also in small doses; four drops are mixed with eight drops of glycerine

and two hundred drops of water. To infants a coffeespoonful is given every half hour, to children under fifteen, one to two teaspoonfuls, and to adults proportionately larger doses.

It is evident that the principle is homeopathic, namely, to give to the sick that drug which, given to the well, produces symptoms similar to those possessed by the sick, the size of dose or strength is homeopathic, about 2x, and the frequency of repetition is homeopathic. We predict that within another decade the homeopathic law will be fully demonstrated by means so scientific as to place its validity beyond dispute by any physician proficient in the science of medicine.

DIPHTHERIA.

The Klebs-Loffler Bacillus in Apparently Normal Throats and Noses. GROSS, H. W.--(Gaillard's Medical Journal, March, 1897.)

Though it be generally admitted that the chief etiological: factor in true diphtheria is the Klebs-Loffler bacillus, yet the absence of it in many cases suffering from the disease and, on the other hand, the presence of it on many apparently healthy mucous membranes, surrounds this organism with a certain amount of uncertainty, and too often puts doubt in the minds of those whose work has not let them into the personal study of the organism.

Out

From the investigations conducted on apparently normal. throats and noses, it was shown that out of 316 cases, the total number examined, 26 at one time or another showed the presence of Klebs-Loffler bacillus. This gives a percentage of 8.2. of these 26 cases showing the organism, 2 may be said to have had clinical diphtheria. Omitting these 2, we may say that out of 314 normal throats and noses examined 7.9 per cent. contained the bacillus of diphtheria. The average peristence of the bacillus on the mucous membrane was 15 days: the shortest time was one day, and the longest 103 days, or over three months. Of these cases, the nose was the principal habitat in 17 cases, or 65 per cent.; the throat in the remaining 35 per cent. In one case the Klebs-Loffler was found, together with

other organisms in the ear, the child suffering from otitis media, which may or may not have been due to this bacillus.

These experiments and other investigations in this line seem to indicate that diphtheria bacilli, purulent or non-purulent, are present in an unfortunately large percentage of apparently unaffected nasal and pharyngeal mucous membranes, SCHEPPEGRELL.

Many of the above investigations were no doubt of the pseudo diphtheric bacilli variety, which are found to be identical with the true Klebs-Loeffler bacilli in biological and morphological characteristics, but lacking in the power to destroy the lives of susceptible animals.

The pathogenic properties and powers of the bacilli produce a great variation as to time of infection. Abbott says: "it was observed that the genuine, virulent diphtheria bacillus was liable to fluctuate in the degree of its pathogenic properties, at times possessing these to such an extent that, when inoculated into guinea-pigs, death resulted in from thirty-six to forty-eight hours, while again the period of inoculation was much longer, often reaching five or six days, and in not a few cases organisms were obtained from undoubted cases of diphtheria that failed to give more than a temporary local reaction when inoculated into these animals."

Are the psuedo diphtheric bacilli found in false diphtheria or in throats of individuals who have never had diphtheria, and who have not been exposed to it, the true Klebs-Loffler bacilli deprived in some way of their virulency or become modified or attenuated in their poison producing power, and thereby noninfectious?

These investigations must be carried further, and let some Klebs-Loeffler rise up and tell us how to differentiate between the true and false diphtheria bacilli. A true diagnosis will aid us very much in the treatment and isolation of the patient from the other members of the family. S. S. KEHR, M. D.

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MATERIA MEDICA.

Conducted by Clinton Enos, M. D.

Professor of Materia Medica in the Denver Homeopathic Medical College.

HEPAR SULPHUR.

The Hepar patient is a vehement patient. He is excitable and full of impulses. He has impulses to commit murder or to set things on fire. His irritation knows no bounds. He is extremely sensitive in all things.

He is sensitive to cold. All complaints are worse from cold. He is sensitive to pain. Slight pains bring on fainting, and he becomes unconscious. He is sensitive to touch. The flesh feels bruised and sore, and the eruptions are extremely sore to touch. The pains are cutting and sticking in character; jagging like splinters. There is genral aggravation of complaints in the evening and at night, although he is worse in some respects in the morning. All discharges are offensive or smell like old cheese. The patient is not a healthy person, but a weekly, chilly, sensitive individual with a temper. His complaints tend outward towards the skin and mucous membranes. He has an internal turmoil with outward manifestations.

There is

Upon the skin there are eruptions of all sorts. great itching, burning and smarting. There is great sensitiveness to touch and to the slightest cold. Every slight injury suppurates. Boils, ulcers and abscesses form and are exceedingly sensitive to touch, with sticking, cutting, throbbing, burning pains.

All the glands of the body become enlarged and indurated. They are obstinate; they will neither absorb nor break down and suppurate. Scrofulosis is a marked feature in a typical Hepar

case.

In the eye there are troubles of all sorts. Ulcers and abscesses form in profusion, with purulent discharge. Iritis as well as troubles with the lachrymal sac and duct and the lids, come within the range of Hep. Here you have the characteristic pains and modalities of the remedy.

In the nose there is catarrh with purulent discharge and crusts. Sensitive to air; it burns. Sensitivness in bridge of nose; bones slough out. Most comfortable when filled up; burning and rawness when crusts are blown out. There are crusts in posterior nares and on uvula with burning and sticking pains.

The Hepar ulcer looks as if covered with tallow, with burning, sticking and jagging pains, and exceedingly sensitive. It may be upon skin or mucous membranes.

In the throat there are ulcers of this kind after the enlarged tonsils have broken down. Every cold settles in throat and tonsils and suppuration takes place. Here there are the peculiar kind of jagging and stitching pains, and sometimes described as if a splinter or fishbone were in the throat. The pain extends to the ear upon swallowing.

This trouble may extend into the larynx and produce hoarseness and great soreness, etc. In the night comes a rattling of mucus in the larynx with deep, rough, barking hoarse cough and suffocating spasms, This may be a mucus croup or pseudo-membranous. Now apply the generals. The child is one who is very sensitive to cold air, and who wants to be covered warmly. Being weakly it does not come down so suddenly as does Acon., nor is there so much restlessness; nor does he crave cold water.

This remedy has a hoarse, rattling, suffocative cough, with choking and gagging. It is worse at night and from cold: even putting the hand or foot from under the cover causes a bad spell of coughing. Where there is much rattling the expectoration is abundant. It may also be used where there are suppurating cavities in the lungs, and in such cases the expectoration is apt to be dirty, purulent or bloody mucus with very offensive odor or like old cheese. In the chest there are great soreness and stitching. To this add the generals.

In the stomach there is a great deal of trouble. He has an empty, week feeling that is relieved by eating. There is a great deal of bloating and tenderness to pressure; must loosen the clothing. He gets relief from belching and by passing flatus. There are burning and cramping pains in stomach and abdomen. With this there is a great deal of sour vomiting. He