It is said that one cent a pound added to the price of sugar in this country, nets the manufacturers about forty million dol. lars; and that two cents on oil aggregates about sixty million dollars to the producers. When we consider the great army of railroad employes in the United States who are paying forty cents a month for medical services, we get some idea of the fearful inroads made upon professional resources by the cheap railroad doctors.

Our contract doctors know what they are about when they agree to treat thousands of men (the more thousands the better) for forty cents per month each. The individual tax is small, but the resulting aggregate to the doctor is enormous.

The employes who have entered into this scheme have unconsciously violated the very spirit of all labor organizations, which are primarily and always formed for the purpose of maintaining wages at fair rates, and to prevent the encroachment of cheap, or as they say "scab" labor. But how is it with the medical profession? We also have our unions, called medical societies. We establish rates for our services in the form of "fee bills" and every member of such medical society is pledged to abide by said fee bill, except for charity. Now what is the position of the doctors who engage in contract work at cut rates? Do they not violate the vital principle of the unions and of the medical associations to which they have pledged support and loyalty?

Are the men engaged in this nefarious business the poor struggling beginners who are doing their utmost to eke out a bare living? For such there would be some show of reason for cutting the regular rates under stress of circumstances, but these are not the ones to violate their fraternal obligations. The doctors who engage in the contract business, are men of means and influence; men who have acquired some degree of

reputation; have built up paying practices and formed personal friendships which enable them to secure these fat contracts. These are the men who deliberately violate their obligation to their professional associates, and engage in a practice which injures every member of their fraternity, by diverting thous ands of dollars from the regular and legitimate channels of medical practice. In the meaning of the Trades Unions, these forty cent doctors are the "scabs" of the medical profession.

We ask the profession to look about and observe the class of men who constitute our railroad surgeons, the smelter doctors and the corporation doctors everywhere. It will be found that they are men who always go to medical societies, hold surgical conventions, read long papers, are sticklers for medical ethics, and always ready to accept office. Their real object in all this is to blind the rest of the profession to the true inwardness of their scheme. Then ask yourselves if this system does not materially reduce the income of every practitioner in the country except the "forty centers"? It takes business from the surgeon, from the medical man and from specialists in every department by methods most dishonorable and unprofessional,

This is not a question of sentiment, or school, or section, but one which threatens the very foundation of true fraternity and involves the immediate welfare of the entire medical profession.

The employes who are made the unwilling objects of the cheap fee system, would if left to their choice of medical advisers, distribute their patronage among a large number of physicians and fair rates of remuneration would thus be maintained.

The contract fee system presents many features of interest which will be more fully developed in future issues of the

CRITIQUE. It is a matter that should not be left to the medical press. National, state and local societies should handle it with the vigor which its importance deserves. The men who are engaged in this iniquitous business are all members in good standing, of various medical societies; many of them are officials thereof (the head of the system in Denver is president of the Colorado State Medical Society) and yet they have consciously or unconsciously engaged in the business of treating large numbers of prosperous laborers at forty cents or less per month, in direct violation of their professional obligations. Not only this but their methods tend to bring the profession into a sort of contempt in the minds of the employes thus favored, who come to consider the practice of medicine a mere competitive trade instead of an honorable profession.

We are glad to see the NORTH AMERICAN follow our lead in this war against the destructive cheap fee system, but hope it will get to the real merits of the case instead of fighting the free dispensary and a few unimportant medical clubs which are a mere bagatelle in contrast with the actual strongholds of the evil. The greatest evil is carried on behind the corporations, in huge proportions; the railroads, the smelters, the street car systems and large factories everywhere. In order to succeed we must penetrate beyond the outposts and attack the nefarious business at its source. As the NORTH AMERICAN truly says; "A crisis is upon us! and in all agitation of this tenor the medical press is more than justified."

THE SECRET OF SEX.

Professor Schenk of the Vienna University, startled the reading world last month with the announcement that he had discovered a means of treatment whereby mothers could be

made to bear male children only. Dr. Schenk has refused to divulge his secret, but said to the New York World correspondent at Vienna; "I gave the treatment under seal to the Vienna Imperial Academy of Science, where it will be tested and published." He says his treatment has no other purpose than to cause boys to be born. That he made the discovery many years ago, and that he has tested its accuracy in his own family and among relatives and friends to an extent which leaves no doubt in his own mind.

While awaiting the investigation and report of the Vienna Academy of Science, we may content ourselves with the belief that, even should it be shown that a discovery has been made, humanity will not be benefitted thereby. The old way is good enough for us, and we are not going back on the girls for another decade or two, at least.

"Why do Homeopaths constitute a distinct body?" is the title of a paper by Dr. Charles D. Mack, which we produce in this issue of "THE CRITIQUE." In the paper referred to, he uses the term "rational medicine" in a way that is quite confusing and altogether unwarranted. It is fair to presume that he means by "rational medicine" allopathic medicine, and to this we feel at liberty to take exception. We believe it is always better in such discussions to say just what you mean; "to call a spade, a spade." It simplifies matters and avoids confusion. The only rational medicine we know any thing about, and the only system that can justly lay claim to such a name, is homeopathic medicine. As well call a donkey a gazelle as to call allopathy rational medicine.

Dr. Mack's paper contains much that is worthy of attention, but, in our opinion, its force is very much weakened by the use of a meaningless term which has no place in the discussion.

The Medical Era for January appears with a surgical department under the title "Surgical Era". The Surgical Era will be edited by that accomplished surgeon, Charles Adams, M. D., professor of surgery in the Chicago Homeopathic Medicel College, and already gives promise of success. The first number contains among other good things, a paper by Howard R. Chislett on "Hepatic Surgery" and "Notes on Suture and Ligature Material" by the editor, which are of more than usual interest to the surgeon.

I DON'T KNOW YOU, SAH!

A sample of American Institute appointments may be found in the transactions for 1897, just distributed to the members. In the "Auxiliary Committee Representing States and Colleges" we find, as Colorado's sole representative the name of a man who does not belong to any Colorado medical organization, State, County or City, and who does not represent any body or anything in the slightest particular. This, notwithstanding the fact that we have a strong state society, a flourishing city society with forty active members, and a prosperous college with a well-known faculty of twenty nine capable teach

ers.

As to the College, it was given no place on the committee whatever. We have no desire to fathom the animus of this exhibition of littleness, preferring to leave it to the judgment of the profession. Seeing in it the confirmation of a former conviction that our late presiding officer possesses more hair than wit we will let it go at that.

HOMEOPATHS AS DIAGNOSTICIANS.

Homeopathic physicians should be good diagnosticians. If any are not such, it is not because of lack of opportunity. The more familiar a physician becomes with unmodified disease effects, the better will he understand disease. On the other hand, if the physician is in the habit of seing modified