The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-19
MEDICAL NOTES.

There is a good deal of complaint in the New
York medical journals as to the abuse of medical
charity in that city. There is series of dis
pensary tramps of every age and both sexes who
make the rounds of the free clinics and dispense
rles. Those who are good illustrations of certain
diseases dwet upon by tho medical specialists
who hold college clinics are at premium: they
are sought for eagerly and gathered bv various
devices. Some of them are 'puffed nm with
pride if their ailments are such as
to draw the attention Of distinguished
member of the profession" and take a real or
fancied delight in their ailments What. with
the college clinics the free dispensares the out
door clinics and the like, of the various schools,
there is little need for the poor to go undoctored
and undrugged. And in some cases people we'll
TODD will attend the clinics to save medical
fee. They have even come to the free clinics in
their own carriages. Between the established
practitioners, who only treat those who can and
do pay promptly, and the colleges and dispense
ries, which take whatever comes, the struggling
young doctor can scarcely attain a foothold
British conservatism, or rather stubborness,
is shown in the persistence of the antivaccina>
ton people in not submitting to vaccination as a
preventative to the scourge of smallpox This
disease is spreading in certain localities in Lon
don because of this unwillir gness to be vac
cinated. The power Of the courts is occ aston
ally invoked to compel persons to submit them
slves and their families to vaccination, but still
certain obdurate ones will submit to be inn
prisoned rather than to yield. There
is vigorous agitation Of the question,
and some highly educated people still insist that
vaccination is harmful and barbarious The
opposition is led usually by some veteran
maiden phianthropist. who issues a monthly
serial and foots the bills. 1t was by the aid Of
this class that vivisection was restricted by the
English Parliament, and SO all well directed anG
useful physiological inquiry made impossible.
There has been little opposition to vaccination In
this country, and curiously enough what there
has been, has had Mr. Bergh as its mouth piece
and advocate.
Statistics regarding cancer of the tongue and
mouth have greater interest at the present than
ever before. If patient has a ragged tooth and
a smarting or liberated tongue, as a result
cancer is feared Fortunately the mental con-
dtion aptitude has little to do with the
induction of cancer in any form. The report Of
the MiddleseX Hospital for 1888, contains tabu-
lated histories and statistics of nine cases of
cancer of the tongue, eight of the lip and two of
the mouth, out of a total of III cases reported.
vi the nine cancers of the tongue, eight were in
maes the age ranged from thirty five to seventy.
two most being over fifty years Little could
be learned as to the cause; one was from long
holding clay pipe; no family history or consti-
tutonal faint appears to have existed in any Of
the cases. rive uleO In the nOSpltal within three
months to two years. In one case where the
disease involved the floor of the mouth. the
lower jaw and the tongue, the patient lived
little over year Operation seemed to have
little effect in staying the course of the disease.
DR.. Elkanah Williams of Cincinnati, reported
to the recent meeting of the American Ophthal-
mological society two cases of quinine amauro-
sis Qoss of power of the optic nerve. or retina,
without perceptible alteration in the organza-
ton of the eye) In the first case man took
one ounce-437 erans-in the course of four
days this produced total blindness and deafness.
Sight returned in six weeks, but the hearing was
not restored after eight years The second case
was that of a boy who took four large doses, and
was totally blind for several days.
Reports made by the Army Medical Bureau
show that the per cent. Of scrofulous children.
the scrofula being due to a specific faint, in
various professions is as follows: Editors, 0;
teachers, 3; clergymen, 7, and soldiers IL per
thousand. We knew that the doctors were
ahead