EDITORIALS.

BENNETT COLLEGE.

A correspondent asks, "Why do you not extol Bennett College more in your journal? See how much space is devoted to the institutions at St. Louis and Cincinnati by their respective journals."

In reply, we might give several reasons. Two, however, will suffice. First, it is our conviction that the office of a medical journal is to convey to its readers the latest and best of everything that pertains to the practice of medicine and surgery. Our subscribers do not pay us to bolster up this or that medical institution. In the second place, Bennett College does not need bolstering up. It stands upon a firm foundation; its reputation is national; its success assured. The advanced stand which it has taken in behalf of a higher medical education is already appreciated, and its prospects were never so bright as they are to-day.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION.

Some one has truly said that the strength and influence of an educational institution rests in great part with its Alumni. A united, wide-awake, enthusiastic Alumni, filled with the spirit of devotion, ensures prosperity to the alma mater, and, on the other hand, the prosperity of the institution of learning re-acts in substantial benefits to the graduates.

In view of these facts, it has been suggested from time to time that the graduates of Bennett College should take steps to organize an Alumni Association.

The graduates of the Class of '79 voted to initiate such a movement, and appointed a committee to draft a constitution. and by-laws; but so far as the writer's knowledge extends, that committee have failed to report. The present seems a most favorable time to take steps toward organization. The "National" meets in Chicago next summer; many of our

graduates will naturally attend the meeting, and many more might be induced to come if it were known that there would be an Alumni meeting also.

The editors of THE TIMES propose to make a move in the matter, and see what can be done. First of all, we want the name and post-office address of every living graduate, the same to be enrolled in a register, that we may correspond with each whenever there is anything of interest to write.

Please send your name and post-office address by postal card to MEDICAL TIMES, northwest corner State and Madison streets, Chicago. Also state the year of graduation. When the list of names is complete, arrangements can be made for a meeting next June.

CALIFORNIA MEDICAL COLLEGE.

Our brethren in the Far West are making a good showing for themselves and for the cause which they represent. From small beginnings, they have steadily advanced to an assured position, a position which is one of the substantial proofs of the progress of eclecticism.

A college has been organized and incorporated with a strong Faculty and Board of Trustees. An elegant and commodious building has been erected in the city of Oakland, far superior to anything of the kind west of Chicago. This building was dedicated July 7, with appropriate ceremonies, the address being delivered by the President, J. Milton Bowers, M. D. We are constrained to make one quotation from it, because it embodies a principle upon which all medical colleges should be conducted, but which some seem wholly to ignore :

To the principle embodied in the motto 'Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri '-(not bound to swear to the dogmas of any master) of our seal, I may add another, suitable for all sects of every profession, though neglected by most, viz., to consider nothing human as foreign to us, or, in other words, to consider the claims of humanity and suffering as superior to all others; for, though ours is a secular institution, whose wants have to be met in the ordinary business way, you will

not, therefore, understand it as a commercial one started for gain, but rather as one that is the outgrowth of necessity and the index of that spirit of benevolence which strives by concerted efforts to mitigate the manifold evils of man's condition."

We shall always feel a lively interest in the new college, and hope to see it pre-eminently successful. Its Faculty comprises some of the best men from our Alumni, men of energy, men of education, men of sound principles, men who are above the petty strifes and meannesses which too often belittle great undertakings.

CHICAGO AS A MEDICAL CENTER.

To the student who contemplates an investment of time and money in the acquirement of a medical education, it is of importance not only to investigate the merits of rival colleges, but also to carefully consider the advantages of the respective places where the colleges are located.

It is gratifying to us to be able to state that, as a medical center, Chicago is far in advance of all other Western cities, and ranks high in comparison with Philadelphia and New York. Six medical colleges are located here: one eclectic, two homœopathic, and three "regular," so-called. The presence of so many in one place generates a spirit of rivalry and is a constant stimulus to both teachers and students.

Five medical journals are published in the city, recording much that is valuable of clinical experience, and eliciting important discussions upon medical and surgical topics.

Our hospitals are ten or more in number, to which all medical students have access.

The largest, most important and most valuable for clinical purposes is the Cook County Hospital, which stands on a block of twelve acres of land, and has recently been erected at a cost of nearly half a million of dollars.

It consists of two large pavilions, each four stories high, and one hundred and eighty feet long-a large clinical amphitheater-separate buildings for the kitchen, laundry, bakery

and steam-heating apparatus-all connected by long covered corridors.

The amphitheater of the hospital, with a seating capacity for six hundred persons, is the clinical room in which all surgical, medical and special clinics are held.

Seven clinics are here conducted each week: two surgical, two medical, one gynecological, one eye and ear and one autopsy. These clinics are open to all medical students without respect to school or creed, and are conducted by the most skilled teachers.

Two thousand eight hundred patients were treated at the hospital during the past year; nearly one hundred and fifty important surgical operations were performed, of which twenty were capital amputations.

In the rear of the hospital is the Mortuary or Necropsy Theater, in which are held all the post-mortem examinations of the hospital, of which more than one hundred were made during the past year. Most ample opportunities are given for the complete study of the gross as well as of the microscopic appearances produced by disease.

The Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary is of hardly less interest to the medical student or practitioner.

During the past year, nearly two thousand patients have received treatment at the infirmary. An excellent opportunity is afforded for studying the diagnosis and the medical and surgical treatment of diseases of the eye and ear.

We might speak of other hospitals and dispensaries in detail, and much might be said of the live and flourishing medical societies, than which there is none more vigorous than the Eclectic Medical Society of Chicago. But our object is simply to call attention to the fact that to eclectic students and practitioners Chicago offers greater advantages at a less expense than any other city in the United States.

OUR readers will be glad to hear of the safe return of Prof. H. D. Garrison, after an extensive tour in Europe and the East. He will assume his old position in Bennett College, and

his lectures-always highly interesting and instructive—will, no doubt, be greatly enhanced by the results of study and investigation abroad. Prof. G. will also occupy the Chair of Materia Medica in the Chicago College of Pharmacy, and has been elected editor of the Pharmacist and Chemist. In this connection, we take pleasure in announcing that the introductory address to the regular term of lectures, at Bennett Medical College, will be delivered by Prof. Garrison on Wednesday evening, October 1, 1879, at 8 o'clock.

BI-SULPHATE OF QUINIA.

We have lately received and tested samples of this preparation, sent to us by McKesson & Robbins, and are greatly pleased with the results. Its superiority over officinal sulphate of quinia consists in its greater solubility. While the latter is only soluble in 700 parts of water, the bi-sulphate is soluble in only 10 parts of water.

Its advantages over ordinary quinine are at once apparent, and it seems to be especially adapted for hypodermic use.

THE Eclectic Medical Journal, for August, current year, is at hand, devoting some four pages, more or less, to personal abuse, and berating nearly everything outside of Cincinnati. Those who have, for years past, as many have, noted the fierce onslaughts made by the proprietor of that journal and the Eclectic Medical Institute upon everything not bringing grist to his mill, will not be surprised that he considers his mongrel Homœopathy the only legitimate system of medication in the world. To avoid similar future difficulties, we would prescribe R Spec. Tinct. Fel. Bov. gtt. v, Aq. iv. M. Sig. Dose, a teaspoonful between the 20th and 25th of each month. If this does not succeed, it only proves, as is stated on another page of the same journal, that "Such cases will come in the practice of every one, and shows the necessity of further study."