namely, ermium, holmium, thulium, didymium and samarium, and have shown conclusively that none of these can be regarded as elements. In fact it appears from their investigations that not less than about twenty new elements will have to be assumed to take part in their constitution.

THE LEGAL TREATMENT OF INEBRIETY.-The American Lancet makes some excellent points on this question, deduced from a discussion by Dr. T. D. Crothers in the Journal of Inebriety, as follows:

"The legal treatment of inebriety is unchanged to-day. Although it occupies two thirds of the time of the courts, all teachings of science and a larger knowledge of the inebriate and his malady are ignored.

"The ruinous error of punishment by fine and imprisonment of inebriety, and petty crime associated with it, which notoriously increases and perpetuates the inebriate and criminal, is a fact demonstrable in every community.

"Thus public opinion, through medieval theories and laws, is training and preparing a class of inebriates who first commit petty, then capital, crime, with a certainty that can almost be predicted.

"From a scientific study of these cases it is clearly apparent that they are diseased and incapacitated to act sanely. Alcohol has palsied the brain and made them madmen. The very fact of continued use of alcohol is evidence of mental impairment and unreasoning act and thought.

"Among the mentally defective, the insane and inebriates, the death penalty is followed by an increase rather than a diminution of crime.

"The inebriate murderer should be confined the rest of his life in a military work-house hospital. He should be under the care of others, as incapacitated to enjoy liberty, and incompetent to direct his thoughts or acts.

"A change of public sentiment and law is demanded, and a readjustment of theory and practice called for. The crim inal inebriate occupies a very large space among the armies of the defective who threaten society to-day, and his care and treatment must be based on accurate knowledge-not theory.

"Inebriate murderers should never be placed on public trial, where the details of the crime are made prominent. or the farcical questions of sanity are publicly tested. They should be made the subject of private inquiry, and placed

quietly in a work-house hospital, buried away from all knowledge of, or observation by, the world.

"The contagion of the crime and punishment would be avoided, and his services might repair some of the losses to society and the world."

BRAIN-WORKERS. -The Medical Age says that the most frequent fault of the brain-worker is excessive application to work. "The most intense and fatiguing of toils is pursued almost uninterruptedly, food is neglected, and the claims of exercise and sleep are but imperfectly admitted. hours' exercise in the open air, daily, is probably a minimum, and might prudently be exceeded. The brain-worker must live sparingly rather than luxuriantly; he must prefer the lighter classes of food to the heavier, and he must be very prudent in the use of alcohol. Tobacco and tea are apt to be favorites with him, and their immoderate use may require to be guarded against. It is a nice question whether he needs more or less sleep than other men. Many men of genius are light sleepers; probably in some cases a misfortune; but there seems some ground for the notion that more than a moderate indulgence in sleep is unfavorable to successful mental effort.'

A commentator upon the above remarks says that he can not fully agree with them. Mental effort, he says, and we agree with him, causes waste of tissue-elements quite as much as bodily exertion, and this demands a full supply of food. What with dyspepsia and absence of appetite, the results of deficient exercise, and the influence of preconceived ideas as to the use or disuse of special articles of food, the brain-worker is very apt to receive too little nutriment to make up for the waste. Especially is this the case when he, unconsciously, perhaps, replaces food by the use of tobacco, tea, alcohol, or opium.

Some advise to go supperless to bed. This is a wrong notion. It is a fruitful source of insomnia and neurasthenia. The brain becomes exhausted by its evening work, and demands rest and refreshment of its wasted tissues; not by indigestible salads and fried abominations," but by some nutritious, easily-digested and assimilated articles. A bowl of stale bread and milk, of rice, or some other farinaceous food, with milk or hot soup, would be more to the purpose. Any of these would insure a sound night's sleep, from which the man would awaken refreshed.

The man who desires to realize from his stock of brains and from his bodily vigor to the utmost possible amount must regulate his life by rigid precepts. He must eat food suited to his needs and the powers of his stomach; he must eschew artificial stimulants; he must keep the Sabbath, at least physiologically. He must keep his mind free from. financial worry; he must steel his heart against the allureinents of Bacchus and Venus.

THE CINCINNATI SANITARIUM.-We have received the "Fifteenth Annual Report of the Superintendent" of this institution, located at College Hill, near Cincinnati. It contains, as usual, no little interesting information. Dr. Orpheus. Everts, a distinguished expert in mental affections, is at the head of the medical department. It is for the year ending November 30, 1888.

There were 69 patients remaining in the hospital at the end of the last preceding year, November 30, 1887, and 70 at the close of the present year, November 30, 1888.

Ninety-eight men and fifty-three women were admitted within the year, making the total number 151 admissions, and an aggregate of 220 patients treated within the year.

Of the whole number treated within the year, seventy-four -fifty-eight men and sixteen women-were discharged as having recovered;" showing a ratio of recoveries equal to fifty per cent. of the number admitted. This showing, it will be generally conceded, in the light of the fact that a great many patients are committed to private hospitals for the insane experimentally, or with expectations of speedy recovery, and are withdrawn because of the inability of friends to discharge the necessary pecuniary obligations for a longer and somewat indefinite term, often before experimental treatment has been fairly tested, is in accordance with the most liberal expectations. That a larger number would have recovered, had not so many patients been thus removed, may be inferred from the fact that forty three patients were discharged as "improved" within the year, some of whom have since recovered. Twenty-five patients. were discharged as "unimproved," and eight died.

The report is not composed of a great many pages, as is the case with the reports of a great many State institutions for the insane, filled with various tables showing the occupations of patients, places of nativity, social state, etc., but

contains much practical information in regard to insanity of great interest to all intelligent persons. In fact, we consider the report worthy of preservation for reference and study. Dr. Everts, the Superintendent, has had a long and extensive experience in the treatment of insanity, and has amassed a large amount of valuable information in regard to the disease, so much so, in fact, as to be justly considered a high authority in all pertaining to it.

As regards criminal conduct Dr. Everts makes the following interesting remarks: "Whatever sentimental immunity may be extended to criminals because of a fuller and clearer recognition of the relation of their conduct to structural peculiarities, defects, or depravities, as acted upon by environments, society will not hesitate to protect itself from the defective or diseased, when seen in their proper light, with greater wisdom and efficiency, perhaps, than has characterized its measures of defense in past ages, however differently actuated. Society in ceasing to be savage and vindictive, does not necessarily become impotent or effeminate."

As regards suicide the Doctor makes the following statement: So irrational, indeed, is suicide when physiologically considered, that it may well be questioned if those apparently exceptional cases of self-destruction, having for their motive escape from unbearable physical pains, or inevitable disgrace, should not also be recognized as morbid, having a basis of disease, or structural disorder, from which suggestions of conduct spring."

In another paragraph in which he alludes to the religious views held by many in regard to suicide, he expresses it as his belief that the taking of one's own life is prima facie evidence of insanity.

We would be pleased, for we feel sure that our readers would be greatly interested thereby, to review this recent Report of the Cincinnati Sanitarium at still greater lengthquoting still further the views of Dr. Everts on different manifestations of mental phenomena-but our space will not permit. We think the friends of the Cincinnati Sanitarium can congratulate themselves that they have so distinguished an alienist as Dr. Everts in charge of it. Persons who com

mit their friends to the institution for treatment can feel that every means known to science for their restoration to mental health will be employed. There is no like institution in this country that has a more able, if so able, a physician at its head.

CONVENTION FOR REVISING THE PHARMACOPŒIA. - Dr. Robert Amory, President of the Convention of 1880, calls upon the several incorporated medical societies, incorporated medical colleges, incorporated colleges of pharmacy, and incorporated pharmaceutical societies throughout the United States of America, the American Medical Association, and the American Pharmaceutical Association, to elect a number of delegates, not exceeding three, and upon the SurgeonGeneral of the Army, Surgeon-General of the Navy, and the Surgeon General of the Marine Hospital Service, to appoint, each, not exceeding three medical officers, to attend a General Convention for the Revision and Publication of the Pharmacopoeia, to assemble in Washington on Wednesday, May 7, 1890, at noon. The several bodies, as well as the Medical Departments of the Army, Navy, and Marine Hospital Service, are requested to submit the Pharmacopoeia to a careful revision, and to transmit the result of their labors to the Committee of Revision at least three months before the meeting of the General Convention. The several medical and pharmaceutical bodies are requested to transmit to the President of the Convention of 1880 the names and residences of their respective delegates as soon as they shall have been appointed; a list of these delegates will be pub lished, for the information of the medical public, in the newspapers and medical journals in the month of March, 1890.

THE Emperor of Austria has conferred on Pasteur the order of the Crown of Iron, which gives him the right to the title of Baron, and the insignia of nobility.

MESSRS. ELI LILLY & COMPANY, of Indianapolis, have issued a work entitled HAND BOOK OF PHARMACY AND THERAPEUTICS. The aim, as stated in the introduction, is to furnish the busy practitioner a reliable means of ready reference, at once concise, systematic and authoritative, to which he may refer with confidence in cases of doubt. Younger members of the profession and medical students will find this work full of suggestions. It will be sent free to any physician, druggist or medical student by addressing Eli Lilly & Co.. Indianapolis, Ind., mentioning this journal.