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Economy in the Household

through its various astronomical cycles.

Considering the awful stretches of time during which these regular pulsebeats have never ceased for one moment, is it any wonder that our bodies, born as they are of the same material which has been thrilled and quickened by these never-ceasing cycles-is it any wonder that our bodies are so keyed and tuned as to respond to every changing mood of our solar system?

Above the eastern horizon appears every morning the same sun that for untold ages has appeared without a second of variation, bringing to the sons of men renewed vigor, new aspirations, and a flush of physical energy. Every evening without any mistake or skip the sun has sunk below the western horizon, leaving behind the physical languor and mental restfulness that has been repeating itself ever since. the dawn of creation.

Our bodies, our minds, our spirits, respond with absolute fidelity to every change of moon, to every new combination of planetary influences, to every astronomical epoch, be it great or small, serious or trivial. The pulsebeat and temperature of the human body rise and fall with the utmost regularity with the rotation of the earth on its axis. The ebb and flow of animal magnetism, and nervous energy find their true explanation in those ever-recurring vicissitudes through which our earth passes every year in its magnificent and tremendous orbit about the sun.

Every perturbation of the earth in its orbit finds quick response in the mental life of the inhabitants of the earth. Our very heartbeats keep time with creation. Our hopes and fears, our triumphs and despair, our seasons of rest and unrest are but the echoes of what has happened to this mighty macrocosm which gave us our being.

In the great orchestra of the heavens not one instrument is out of tune. The stars sing together, the human hearts respond, sometimes to plaintive melo

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dies, again to martial symphonies that make the pulses bound with a mysterious renewal of life.

The universe is at once our mother and creator. We are yet the unborn children of the physical universe. Her blood is our blood. Her moods are our moods. Her shudders are imparted to us. Her music thrills our nerves. What wonder is it then that the condition of our solar system on that most eventful day of our life, our birthday, should determine in some degree those peculiarities of mind and body by which we shall ever after be distinguished from others?

Upon this conjecture the science of It is the oldest astrology is based. science known to the world. It was born ages and ages before astronomy was thought of. To know exactly the day and the moment in which a person began that independent physical existence which begins at birth, the astrologist claims he can decipher the bodily peculiarities and mental traits which inevitably follow. At first this seems an audacious proposition, but the more we reflect upon our intimate relation to the changing moods of the physical universe the more the claims of the astrologist seem to rest upon a solid foundation.

How One Woman Economizes

By CLARA NEWMAN MURRAY, 2003 San Antonio St., Austin, Texas.

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HE never wastes the crumbs of bread left on the board when cutting it. All bits of meat and left-overs are worked up into appetizing dishes. Cold potatoes, a small piece of bacon, or ham, a little chicken, canned salmon, or fish left from a meal, or almost anything in the way of left-overs, she minces, adding hard-boiled eggs if needed, seasoning with salt, pepper, onion, a stalk of celery, or anything convenient, and heats thoroughly for a supper dish, or makes it sour with vinegar for a salad, decorating the dish with slices of egg, pickle, beets, cucumbers, lettuce or anything at hand that is suitable.

If she has a little mashed potato left she beats in one or two eggs and fries in hot fat, and a plate of nice fritters is the result. She mixes cold rice and other left-overs as well as a few bread crumbs with the potato sometimes, using plenty of eggs if they are cheap. She saves steak and other bones for soup, and uses left-over vegetables, macaroni, rice and other things in it; almost anything can be used in soup.

She chops together cold meat, potatoes, fritters, adds small left-overs of rice or breakfast foods, for hash, which when nicely seasoned is an appetizing supper dish. She makes dainty puddings of stale bread, crackers, cake, cold rice, cream of wheat, grits or oatmeal, adding fruit or not, as she likes. Stewed or dried fruit she adds to material for mince pies. Dried bread of all kinds she makes into nice dressings for roasts and poultry.

She saves her fruit parings and rinsings from her preserving kettles for the vinegar jars. The best apple parings she cooks and strains for an occasional glass of jelly. She cooks them in a very little water, and adds one cup of sugar to each cup of juice, and boils until it jellies.

She is instant in season and out of season in her care of things-the stitch is always taken in time. Tea, coffee and spices are kept in tight receptacles and do not lose their strength. All groceries are put away where they belong, and where mice and vermin cannot reach them, as soon as they are received. When mornings are chilly, she takes the chill out of the room by burning bundles of old papers that she has put away for that purpose. Often a little warmth in the morning in our Texas climate is all that is needed, and our solar system will do the rest.

She saves the chips, pieces of bark, stray lumps of coal, and even cobs and bones, for her heating stove. All of these save in her fuel bill. She sees that her stove dampers are adjusted so that heat is not wasted. She makes

her own and her children's clothing last by mending, cleaning and pressing and putting them away when not in use and by changing her dress when she comes home from an outing before undertaking any work likely to soil it. She does not wear a clean white or light colored dress when she has occasion to black her stove; or scrub her kitchen; but dresses according to her work, thus saving her clothes and time. and strength in the laundry.

She might be called a graduate in the school of economy; but she has kept her family comfortable on an income that would have manifested to the world the direst poverty, had it been managed by some women.

Hard work and time? Yes; and much expenditure of brain force.

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reason.

No matter how strongly one may believe in the virtues of these nostrums, no benefit is derived from their use, or for that matter from the use of any other drug. Health is a product of Nature and cannot be purchased with money, but is granted only to those who are willing to work for it in a natural way.

It will be well to celebrate the coming of warm weather by taking a vapor bath. Eat moderately of graham bread, fruit and green stuff. If plenty of water is drunk the body will easily and naturally cleanse itself through the skin, kidneys and bowels.

Exercise in the gymnasium will be found valuable, but liming the out

Courts Favorable to Physicians

buildings, working the garden or cleaning up the back yard is what is required to give the "thrill which the pill never will."

By all means don't forget to take long walks. Ramble over the fields

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and visit the woods. Interview Nature and delight in her wonders. Banish hate, fear and worry. These things poison the blood, shatter the nerves. and place the joy of perfect health beyond your reach.

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LAW AND MEDICINE.

By FRANKLIN RUBRECHT, ONTINUING our subject of last month: "What Legal Presumption Exists Against Him?" and further illustrating the liberality with which physicians and surgeons are treated in the Courts, the following cases are cited:

In another case, in Indiana, the same rule was followed:

A surgeon was employed to set a broken arm of a boy of ten years of age.

It was charged that the surgeon was unskillful, negligent and unprofessional, that the arm became inflamed to such an extent that it mortified and had to be amputated.

It was claimed that the boy contributed to the condition of the arm after the operation and, therefore, the alleged agreement to cure did not con

trol.

The Court held that the complainant must prove his case in order to be entitled to recovery, and that no presumption existed against the surgeon in such a case.

In another case in Pennsylvania, where a surgeon abandoned a patient who had a broken leg, after treating it for a short time. The Court held that the fact (abandonment) must be stated in the bill of complaint and proven and can not be presumed or testified to under an allegation of unskillfulness or carelessness in the treatment.

In another case, in Maine, against a surgeon for negligence in treating a dislocated and fractured ankle and foot, which became inflamed, sore and festered, and finally permanently stiff and fixed in an unnatural position, by rea

Attorney, Columbus, Ohio.

son of alleged want of ordinary care and skill in the treatment, it was held that proof that he gave assurance to the effect that he possessed and would. exercise extraordinary skill and effect a cure, was not admissible to support the declaration, since recovery can be had, if at all, in accordance with the allegations of the petition.

In another case, in California, it was held that in an action against surgeons "for malpractice, by reason of which the amputation became necessary," evidence that plaintiff was caused great bodily pain and suffering was inadmissible, because the surgeons were not sued for causing bodily pain and suffering by their negligence or carelessness. They were sued "for malpractice by which amputation became necessary."

The Court held that if amputation was not necessary by any malpractice of the surgeons, the plaintiff, under the state of the pleadings of the case, could not recover.

What Legal Liability Attaches To Free Service? The general rule of law is that if a person holds himself out to the public as a physician or surgeon, he must be held to ordinary care and skill in every case of which he assumes the charge, whether in the particular case he has received fees or not.

There can be no good reason why the degree of care to be used by the physician or surgeon should be less in case his services are gratuitously rendered.

It does not make any difference whether the physician or surgeon ren

der a bill and has been paid for his unskillful, careless, inattentive or posiservices or not. tively negligent.

Many cases have demonstrated this rule, but one case will be sufficient for our purpose.

In a case, in New York, a physician was called in to treat a case of miscarriage, and it was a charity patient

case.

It seems he treated her so unskillfully and abandoned her after two or three visits, that she became seriously ill and had to call in other physicians, and afterwards she brought suit against him for damages.

He tried to escape on the ground that it was a charity case, but the Court held him to liability for his unskillful treatment and abandonment of his patient without notifying her of his intention to do so. And it was held error to permit the question to be put

the plaintiff, whether or not the physician or surgeon had been paid for his services.

General Reputation: A physician or surgeon can not defeat an action for damages for malpractice by introducing testimony as to his general reputation as a physician or surgeon.

What

The issue in each case is: degree of skill, care and attention are used by him in that particular case, and if want of such ordinary skill and attention as required by law, or negligence, were shown, by testimony, it would be no answer to say that the physician or surgeon had a good reputation for skill and learning.

Of course, his general qualifications might serve to shed light on the propriety of practice in a particular case, but it is a light which would be less likely to lead to a sound conclusion than to lead astray.

The best test is to ascertain, assisted by medical witnesses, what the treatment was from the treatment itself and not from remote consideration of the professional reputation of the physician or surgeon.

His general reputation might be of the highest and best, yet his conduct or treatment of the case might also be

And he may be very skillful, yet without being very diligent or careful.

He may be diligent and careful without being very skillful or experienced; and he may be all of these, skillful, diligent, careful and experienced, and yet be guilty of some act or the omission of some act which would constitute negligence for which he might be liable in damages.

In our next number we will treat of the subject, "Who Judges of Skill?" Address all communications to the writer, in care of The Columbus Medical Journal.

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Color Cure For Insanity.

EORIA, ILL.-Two cottage buildings erected by the State of Illinois on the site of the Illinois Hospital for the Insane at Bartonville at a cost of $100,000 and equipped with eight solariums for the work of phototherapy, inaugurated by Superintendent George A. Zeller, were dedicated Thanksgiving Day, 1908.

Two of the solariums are equipped in ruby, two in violet, two in amber and two in opal. The incandescent lamps are of these colors, also the decorations on the walls.

The doctor has found that despondent insane patients are enlivened when placed in the red room and violent patients soothed when in the blue room. Opal is antiseptic and aids the consumptives.

It gives me great pleasure to read the above newspaper report. I am glad that the insane in one hospital at least are to be given the benefit of the "color cure." Generally our poor, defenseless insane patients get the "club cure" oftener than anything else. I have long advocated colored lights and windows and wall paper as a remedy for the insane, the nervous, and in some of the acute diseases such as smallpox, measles and scarlet fever.

A further account of Dr. Zeller's new enterprise was received by mail from one

Origin of Man Unknown

of my correspondents who is especially interested in this humane work:

"The two cottages cost $100,0 and are equipped with eight solariums, and the work was inaugurated and the buildings dedicated Thanksgiving Day. Dr. Zeller, who is in charge of the experiment, was the first to throw away locks and bars in an insane asylum and trust to more modern and humane methods of dealing with mental afflictions.

"According to Dr. Zeller there are four colors that are especially curative and soothing in their effects on certain patients. These are ruby, violet, amber and opal. In the cottages at Bartonville there are two rooms, or solariums, devoted to each of these colors. The incandescent lamps, the glass through which the light enters, as well as the decorations, are all similar in each of the two rooms devoted to a certain color, and patients will be treated in each as their cases may demand. Dr. Zeller finds that the despondent become cheerful in a red

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solarium, the violent ones are soothed under the influence of the blue rooms, while opal and amber are found to aid consumptives and certain others.

"The idea of phototherapic treatment for its influence on mind and body is not new. Every one knows that green, the green of grass and fields and forests, is pleasing and calming to the eye and mind; that the opaline tints of water as seen on lakes or ocean are restful, and that red is stimulative in its effects upon the passions. The idea of solariums and the use of different colored glass in the treatment of disease has also been applied in Denmark for perhaps twenty years or more. The first American experiment on a large scale in the treatment of the insane by phototherapy will therefore be watched with interest."

God speed the day when more such institutions for the humane treatment of the insane will be erected.

T

MAN'S IMMORTALITY.

By R. C. BAYLY, A. M., M. D., D. S. T., 3029 Franklin Ave., St. Louis, Mo.

HE earth, sea and sky are all the same to-day they were in the remotest depths of antiquity, and it is certain that the human family knows absolutely nothing of the origin of any of these magnificent, useful and beautiful manifestations of Nature. It is said that the earth and man are six thousand years old, but in fact a thorough knowledge of history, as geology, astronomy and the like, teaches us that man can not really tell anything definite of his origin or of the earth, the sea or sky.

The truth seems to be that the more he knows about it the further he gets from any certainty on the question of the first creation. The thought, therefore, of the origin of the earth and man is so deep, wide and incomprehensible that the eye of intellect is incapable of seeing the location of origin, if any, in the vast field of contemplation. Therefore, so far as we know, the earth

and man have no origin; if they have we are utterly unable to find it.

I do not think that they have any beginning. Put your mind upon the line of thought and go backwards until all open space and time will carry no further, if possible, and you are no nearer the commencement or beginning than when you started out. You can not by thought, ability and activity get to the origin or place of beginning; and to finite beings, then, there is no origin. Such is a practical look backward on the past time of existence.

If we take the present view of Old Time, we shall find ourselves equally at sea without chart or compass. We can not tell when the presence of man began, only some of the changes through which he has passed or is now passing. History gives us a great many periods or vicissitudes or episodes of the past and present, but ever

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