the progress of medical reform, and increase the demand for the liberal, scientific Eclectic practitioner. NECROLOGY. DEATH OF DR. MASON. Dr. John D. Mason died from inflammation of the brain, July 3d, 1880, at his residence, Arlington Heights, Mass. He was born in Mechanicsburg, Pa., Aug. 20th, 1827. He was educated in Philadelphia, but soon after receiving his medical degree commenced the practice of medicine in Boston. His father, Dr. John Mason, practiced mediciue in Boston for many years. Dr. John D. Mason was a man of varied attainments and sterling worth, and filled with honor the places of trust to which he was called. Every one who knew him acknowledged him to be an honorable gentleman, and his patients regarded him as a skillful and faithful physician. His genial manners endeared him to his many friends, and his memory will long be cherished by others, and blessed by the many poor and suffering who were relieved by his advice and aid. From the time of his election to membership in the National Eclectic Medical Association to his death he was one of its warmest supporters. He was a member of the Massachusetts Eclectic Medical Society, of which he was Librarian. He was also a member of the Boston District Eclectic Medical and Surgical Society, and one of the charter members of the Boston Eclectic Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. Gov. Henry Gardner appointed him Surgeon of the Boston Lancers, in July, 1856, which position he long filled with honor. He was a member of Hiram Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of West Cambridge, Mass. He left a widow, a son, and two daughters. National Eclectic Medical Association. PART II. Scientific Reports and Other Papers. "The President, within three months from the holding of the annual meeting, shall designate members to prepare papers or reports to be submitted at the annual meeting next ensuing. Every member of this Association shall, at his earliest convenience, communicate to the Association or its Secretary all interesting cases, improvements, discoveries and suggestions as he shall consider useful, and prepare papers and essays on topics connected with medical science or practice; which may, whenever judged of sufficient importance, be published with the TRANSACTIONS."-Constitution.-Article VI. "No report or paper presented to this Association as herein provided, shall be excluded from the printed volume of Transactions except for the following reasons: 1. Imperfect preparation. 2. Indecorum of language. 3. Unfriendly expression toward the Association. 4. Want of importance, or of pertinency to the subjects within the province of the Association. 5. Insufficient means in the possession of the Treasurer to liquidate expense of publication. "All papers read or submitted to the Association are its property, and shall be deposited with the Secretary within thirty days; or else they shall not be acknowledged except by express vote or authorization, in any journal of proceedings. But this Association is not to be regarded as approving unqualifiedly, or sanctioning to their full extent, the several doctrines and sentiments set forth in the papers thus presented and published by its direction."-By Laws.-Article X. (A.) SURGERY AND ANATOMY. RECENT PROGRESS IN SURGERY. By A. J. HOWE, M. D., Cincinnati, Ohio. The year past has not been prolific in surgical invention, though several novel ideas have been introduced, and claims made for their recognition as substantial improvements. "Listerism" leads as a chirurgical topic, and is likely to command more and more attention for years to come. Yet, admitting so much, I still feel that the methodical and elaborate system of the distinguished inventor will never be carried out in the general surgery of the world. In making this statement I would not be understood as underrating the discovery, or as being opposed to its practical application. Listerism will do an infinite deal of good even if it be not scientifically applied. It has emphatically taught the novice in surgery that sepsis is the bane of our art. Blood-poisoning is to be guarded against most vigilantly. Wounds must be sealed or freely drained; and if a Lister apparatus be not at command, an approach to it must be kept in mind when a surgical dressing is applied. If the habiliments of an obstetrician be poisoned by attending a woman sick with metritis or puerperal peritonitis, so that he endangers the life of every parturient patient he attends, as I believe he does, then, for analogous reasons, the surgeon should not attend a septicemic case and immediately expose another patient to the risks of zymosis. The surgeon, after exposure to septic virus, should be literally purified before attending to a susceptible or impressible person; he should not only be purified, but his implements should be rendered innocuous in some manner. In fact, every surrounding should be above the suspicion of septic influences. UNWHOLESOME DWELLINGS. It is commonly supposed that the average farm-house is laudably wholesome, but I openly declare that it is not. Recently, I visited the country to perform a surgical operation. Before proceeding to execute it I ventured to examine the sanitary conditions of the premises. The "parlor" or "spare room," in which was the bed where the patient was to be for weeks, was close, damp, and musty. Perhaps it had not been sunned and aired during the season. The woolen fabrics, including upholstered chairs, gave off a forbidding odor. Not twenty feet distant was a pool of putrid sink-washings. There was a smell of sour milk coming from a swill-barrel that would overwhelm a buzzard, if the ill-omened bird possesses an olfactory sense. A pig-sty not far off, added its foul odors and pestilential stenches to the otherwise unsavory quarters. Such a place would breed dysentery, typhoid fever, erysipelas, diphtheria, and kindred ills without number. Such farm-houses furnish the rural practitioner with lucrative bills, and the sanctimonious undertaker with abundant business. I could easily enlarge upon this topic, but a word to the wise is sufficient. Let the country practitioner see that Listerism be enforced to a practical extent in every house he professionally visits, and he will execute a philanthropic work. Not long ago I treated a woman in a rented house, for erysipelas; in a week a grown-up son had diphtheria; and a few days afterward a daughter was attacked violently with dysentery. My suspicion of foul surroundings had been aroused, but not till this third case appeared was I impressed to investigate the premises. I found upon personal inspection that the privyvault had no outlet, and late rains had caused it to overflow into the cellar. I said to the family: "Leave this infectious dwelling; it cannot be rendered wholesome again." In a few days "For Rent" was pasted on the outside of the front door -a bait to allure some unsuspecting family to sickness and death. Will the Christian (?) landlord ever renovate that house or change its sewage? Not of himself-not for the good of his race-not till the strong arm of the law falls heavily upon him. We must have "Boards of Health" to reach such worse than Shylocks. THE PLASTER-OF-PARIS "JACKET." Dr. Sayre's Plaster-of-Paris method of treating curvature of the spine is meeting with only partial success. The principle involved in the treatment is that of managing a broken thigh with the starch bandage or any other stiff dressing, and has, therefore, commendable features. But a mobile vertebral chain is not like a fractured femur. In the one condition sliding shoulder-blades, respiratory movements, and yielding abdominal viscera are incompatible with fixation; in the other the flesh surrounding the severed thigh-bone is firm, and nothing opposes a rigid dressing,-a leg may be at rest for weeks, and the visceral functions be carried on without disturbance. A patient while breathing must have an unrestricted range of chest-motion, or some harm is done to the citadel of life.' The stomach and bowels present different states of distention |
