that was made of it in English literature being that made in the British Medical Journal for November 16, 1889. The reagent may be used either as a solid or as a liquid. According to Dr. Reese, the tests by this substance for albumen in urine were most delicate: the reaction is prompt, the manipulation is not difficult, and no discoloration or colored zone is produced in the specimens.-New York Medical Journal.

CHLORIDE OF SODIUM IN FACIAL NEURALGIA.-In the Edinburgh Medical Journal for January, 1890, Mr. George Leslie claims that nearly every case of facial neuralgia, toothache, and earache, as well as neuralgic headaches, may be cured by the application of powdered chloride of sodium, common table salt, to the nasal mucous membrane. The salt may be used by the patient as a snuff, a pinch being taken into the nostrils of the affected side, or it may be applied by means of the insufflator. If we examine the list of cases which Mr. Leslie reports, three of supraorbital neuralgia, five of toothache, three of facial neuralgia, three of nervous headache, one of neuralgia following herpes, one of neuralgia accompanying glossitis, cephalalgia accompanying tonsillitis, and one of bronchial asthma, it would appear that chloride of sodium possesses unsuspected properties as a universal panacea. We are naturally inclined to be sceptical as to the properties of a remedy for which so much is claimed, though it is possible that there may be a good deal of truth in Mr. Leslie's claims for common salt.-Therapeutic Gazette.

-In a recent case in Philadelphia the judge ruled that in the oath required by a witness, kissing the bible was not necessary to render the oath valid, that it was, in fact, a relic of idolatry, and should be abolished. There are a good many of these relics of idolatry clinging to the forms and ceremonies of life with no meaning, pernicious to health, and which should be abolished. The old duty bible upon which the oath is taken has been pressed to the lips of hundreds in every grade of life. Lips filthy with disease leave their poisonous imprint where, a few moments after, the poison can be transmitted to the pure lips of innocence, tainting the body with a loathsome disease. The custom of holding some sacred object in the hand while taking the oath is of Pagan origin, and is continued simply because judges have never thought of the utter uselessness of the action and of the absolute indelicacy and danger of its being observed. One reason why in the Catholic Church the priest partakes of the wine for the people, instead of the cup being passed from one to the

other, as in other churches, is undoubtedly that the symbol is just as well carried out, and in a much more cleanly manner.-N. Y. Medical Times.

NAPHTHALIN AND CATARACT.-Dr. Kolinski, writing in Von Graefe's Archiv, Band xxxv. 2, points out that naphthalin, which is coming a good deal into use from the powerful effect it seems to have on the micro-organisms existing in the intestines in some cases of diarrhoea, possesses also the property of producing changes in the nutritive power of the blood, thus being liable to set up degeneration of the blood-vessels. As the eye is one of the most highly vascular organs, it is one of the first to show any of the changes induced by interference with the nutritive property of the blood. Naphthalin is said, first, to cause small extravasations in the choroid and in the ciliary body, then ecchymoses and white patches in the retina, aud finally cloudiness in the lens and crystals in the vitreous.-Lancet, November 16, 1889.

A CAUTION ON SOAPS.-In the treatment of skin affections soaps invariably make matters worse. There is no gainsaying the fact that there is but one soap fit for the human skin, and that is one which is superfatted. Dermatologists are in union upon the point that rashes, pimples, and, indeed, most skin affections, are often induced, and almost always aggravated by the soaps in common use. Some of the highly-scented soaps in the market are as objectionable as they can be. Science has now given us a soap devoid of free alkalies, and containing some free cream, instead of free alkali to irritate and inflame and dry the skin--Dr. Miner Fothergill.

CHOLERA MORBUS VS. HOMICIDE OR SUICIDE.-Dr. W. S. Janey (Medical and Surgical Reporter) says: No healthy man or woman ever dies in this climate from cholera morbus That is, persons of average strength and vitality and with no organic disease, dying with symptoms of cholera morbus, always die of poisoning, usually arsenic. All persons of previous good health, dying of cholera morbus, should be examined for poison which has probably been taken with criminal intent.

A REMEDY FOR THE GALVANIC TASTE.--Dr. Leslie Phillips (British Medical Journal) has found that a little pinch of coffee chewed from time to time is an efficient antidote to the disagreeable taste consequent upon galvanization of the head and neck.

The Medical Tribune.

ROBERT A. GUNN, M.D., EDITOR.

VOL. VI.

JUNE 15, 1890.

No. 4.

INSANITY: ITS CAUSES AND PROPER TREATMENT.

IN childhood I once was reading a novelette in our weekly newspaper, when I came upon a scene in which the hero of the story was depicted as having refused to surrender his father's will to the man who had seized upon his estate, for which he was entrapped and placed in a madhouse. Next day his persecutor visited him and offered to liberate him on condition that he would give up the paper. This not being done, he utters the threat: "Remain here then, your entire prospect, these four walls; your clothing, chains; your only sport, the lash; your only hope, the grave !"

This was fiction, it is true; but no fiction finds place acceptably in our literature except it is a copy and similitude of fact. It is a characteristic feature of our era and even of our civilization, that the insane person has been to a great degree a virtual outlaw, for whom courts and legislation afford little protection. The Constitution of the United States declares that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Yet in the face of these provisions the certificate of one or two medical men has been regarded as sufficient to warrant the arrest of any individual, his incarceration in a lunatic asylum, and the taking from him the right to manage his own property.

An example in Philadelphia several years ago, one selected from a multitude, is an illustration of this fact. A man was conveyed to the Frankford Lunatic Asylum, kept a close prisoner, denied the usual privileges of the establishment, and refused all intercourse with everybody who had known him. No reason was offered for this atrocious treatment, except that "such were the

instructions of his friends." He had been imprisoned upon the certificate of a physician who had never been his medical adviser, and who had not seen him for four or five months previous to the time when it was granted. The man's wife was party to the proceeding. His property was sold at public auction, and his books, furniture, and clothing divided among the individuals who had conspired for his kidnapping and incarceration. An uncle of the unfortunate man waited upon them with remonstrances, and was met by the threat that if he dared make any attempt in the case, they would proceed against him too as insane, and so blacken his reputation that he would not be able to walk the streets.

Such a threat is not without force. In the early part of the century a surgeon of high professional standing in London refused to declare it his belief that the valet of a Royal Duke had come to his death by suicide. At once the innuendo was stealthily whispered that he had exhibited symptoms of insanity, and as a consequence, his professional practice began to diminish, and continued to fall off till it became a pittance, and he died in reduced circumstances. This inmate of Frankford Lunatic Asylum did finally escape, and afterward instituted proceedings for damages. The testimony at the trial abounded with fearful disclosures, both against his persecutors and against the officers of the asylum. Signatures were denied, orders repudiated, minutes kept back, records vitiated or altered, letters destroyed which would have proved the man's sanity and the entire scheme of the conspiracy-burned while the trial was going on, so that they might not come up in evidence. One manager testified that the superintendent could not look beyond the papers of admission, and had no power to discharge an inmate, no matter how long his cure had been established, except by consent of the friends who had placed him there. Another manager declared under oath, that "on the mere certificate of any doctor whatever, he would consign any one of the hundreds then in the court-room to incarceration in the Frankford Asylum !"

In another instance a man of an æsthetic and literary turn of mind, fond of books, pictures, and elegant furniture, was arrested on the certificate of a physician who had not seen him for seven weeks, and was conveyed to the Pennsylvania Hospital for the InAfter strenuous efforts, he was liberated, but to find that his property had been sold and the proceeds divided by his creditors, who had instituted the proceedings.

sane.

We can enumerate such cases by the score near home. They have their precedent in the lettres de cachet, or royal warrants, that Louis XV., of France, furnished in blank to his concubines and other favorites, by which they caused individuals to be arrested, without allegation of crime, and incarcerated in the Bastile, often never knowing why.

In this matter we have a right to demand legislative protection. Only persons proficient in such matters should be asked for opinions and expert evidence, and then from actual knowledge; and the rulings of the court in proceedings for lunacy should always be, as far as prudent, in favor of the person accused. A trial by jury should be always afforded. When the widow of Abraham Lincoln was arrested at Chicago, May 19, 1875, a jury was impanelled, and she received a trial by due process of law.

In addition to this, there should be an efficient system for the visitation of asylums, and every reasonable opportunity afforded for the inmates to prove their fitness to return to the outside world. All proceedings taken in such cases should be subject to review, and where the evidence has been insufficient and the motive of the prosecution unworthy, somebody else than the person whose liberty has been assailed should be made to bear the expense. The present jurisprudence of insanity is a blotch upon our civilization. It directly contravenes the purpose of civil government; it creates general insecurity of person and property; invests irresponsible physicians and magistrates with extraordinary powers; and deprives persons of liberty and property without due process of law. In former centuries when there were proceedings for witchcraft, individuals that were in any way obnoxious were never more in danger than those now accused of this malady.

Yet while we deprecate the arbitrary character of the jurisprudence of insanity in many of our States, we must in candor acknowledge that there have been causes which opened the way. Our lunatic asylums it should be borne in mind were never established for the purpose of enabling individuals to get rid of obnoxious relatives and neighbors. They were devised by individuals of philanthropic motives, as substitutes for the jails and poor-houses where lunatics were formerly kept, and the more violent of them chained and confined in cages fiithy beyond description, sometimes utterly naked, and often with insufficient clothing, food, or other comforts of life.