Vol. XXIII. No. 3.] 



POPtrLA:^ scTE^c:E KEWS. 



45 



n^ediciije aijd Pljarnjacy. 



THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



The life of a large community presents 

 many curious and interesting resemblances to 

 the natural phenomena of the human body. 

 The city is but an expanded individual. In 

 the body there is a constant waste and renewal 

 of its particles, so in the city, individuals are 

 continually dying or moving away, and new 

 ones are born to take their places. The 

 streets and avenues represent the veins and 

 arteries through which circulate all the sup- 

 plies needed to keep the citizens in life and 

 health, and through which the debris or ox- 

 idized and excretory matter ofthe social organ- 

 ism passes away to a locality where it can do 

 no harm. 



The persons constituting the government of 

 a city, may be coinpared to the nervous system, 

 with the mayor and aldermen representing 

 the brain and spinal cord, and the minor offi- 

 cials the nerves through which the force is 

 transmitted that governs and regulates the 

 whole. This comparison is, perhaps, a faulty 

 one. In the healthy individual this governing 

 power acts with perfect regularity and 

 efficiency, but, unfortunately, our municipal 

 governments ought more often to be com- 

 pared to the shattered condition of a victim of 

 "nervous prostration." 



Comnnmities have their diseases too, as well 

 as persons. A heavy fall of snow may stop 

 the forwarding of supplies and cause a condi- 

 tion of social ansmia, while mobs and riots 

 will produce a highly congested and inflam- 

 matory condition of the social and corporate 

 organism.- Strikes will occasionally break out 

 and spread like an epidemic disease, and in 

 such cases the highly appropriate term "scab" 

 is applied to those who come to the rescue, 

 and protect the community from the dangers 

 that threaten it, and who are, too often, cast 

 ofl" by those they have aided after they have 

 served their purpose, just as the natural cov- 

 ering of a bodily wound is removed after the 

 healing process is complete. Medicine for 

 there troubles is applied in. the shape of the 

 police and military forces, and is sometimes 

 effective and sometimes not, like the drugs 

 and chemicals administered to the diseased 

 human body. 



The buildings of a city maybe compared to 

 the cells of an organized being, and we know 

 about as little of the actions taking place in 

 such cells, as we do of what is taking place in 

 the houses of a street through which we are 

 passing. Yet, as the cell is the ultimate basis 

 of life, so is the family the unit upon which is 

 formed our modern social systems. 



The higher we ascend in the scale of life, 

 the more the cells become specialized and 

 differentiated, so the greater the degree of 

 civilization, the more the functions of the indi- 

 vidual arc developed, and the less those of the 



community or state as a whole, while at the 

 same time the general progress and welfare 

 are the more increased. 



Cities and nations rise and fall, as human 

 beings are born and die. Not a single city of 

 ancient times retains its former grandeur and 

 importance, while most of them are but heaps 

 of ruins. We can hardly conceive of London, 

 Paris or New York, falling into decay and 

 ruin, but the citizens of Babylon, Athens and 

 Rome, doubtless thought that those cities 

 would continue to grow in wealth and power 

 forever. A rise of a few feet in the coast line 

 of New York, would destro}- its harbor and 

 turn the current of its immense commerce in 

 an entirely different direction. This same cycle 

 of growth and decay takes place in states and 

 nations as well as smaller communities, and 

 almost seems dependent upon some unknown 

 but irresistible law. 



The human system is liable to the attacks of 

 bacteria, which produce various diseases ; so 

 the social organism is preyed upon by pau- 

 pers and criminals, who, unless promptly sup- 

 pressed and removed, would cause its ruin. 

 The most powerful social antiseptics have 

 hitherto failed to entirely eradicate these dele- 

 terious individuals, and we are obliged to be 

 satisfied with preventing their ravages in part 

 only. 



An individual must have a certain amount 

 of freedom and space in which to exercise and 

 grow. When a community or nation in- 

 creases in numbers beyond the power of the 

 land to feed and support it, then its troubles 

 commence, and war, pestilence, famine, and 

 a host of lesser evils spring into existence. 

 Fortunately, in this country we are free from 

 the conditions prevailing in the over-populated 

 regions of Europe and Asia. Our own nation 

 has plenty of room in which to grow and 

 flourish for many years to come, and it is not 

 unreasonable to expect it to develop a civili- 

 zation and a national and social organism 

 superior to any yet known in the history of 

 the world. 



♦♦♦ 



AN EXTRAORDINARY BEARD. 



We give below a portrait of Louis Coulon, 

 a Frenchman, who, at the age of sixty-three 

 years, is the possessor of a beard seven feet 

 and nine inches in length. This unusual ca- 

 pillary development commenced at the early 

 age of twelve years, when he was obliged 

 to shave regularly, but the growth soon be- 

 came unmanageable by the razor, and he al- 

 lowed it to attain its present length. 



Coulon is a miller by trade, and has always 

 refused to put himself and his beard on exhi- 

 bition. There is no apparent reason for the 

 remarkable activity displayed by his capillary 

 glands and he can only be set down as a freak 

 of nature, in contrast to those less fortunate 

 persons upon whose head and face the natural 

 covering refuses to grow at all. There are 



numerous traditions of persons living in for- 

 mer times with beards even exceeding in 

 length that of Coulon, but they are not well 



authenticated, while the example here illus- 

 trated is taken from an actual photograph, 

 and is, undoubtedly, truthful in every partic- 

 ular. 



fOrijfinMl in The Popular Science Kews.] 



MONTHLY SUMMARY OF MEDICAL 



PROGRESS. 



BY W. S. WELLS, M. D. 



Dr. Schmidt (Jierliii Klin. Woch.) in an article 

 upon diseases of the Antrum of Highniore, describes 

 a simple method for diagnosing collections of pus 

 or other fluids in this cavity. Shut in by bony 

 walls, catarrhal or purulent inflammations of the 

 mucous lining of the antrum may continue a long 

 time, causing only obscure pains in adjacent parts, 

 which may be attributed to neuralgia. 



When the natural opening into the nasal cavity 

 is closed, and when the patient objects to losing a 

 tooth, or has no upper tooth on that side to lose, 

 the method of Dr. Schmidt is advisable, 



It consists in placing a small pledget of cotton, 

 saturated with a 20 per cent, solution of cocaine, 

 just below the antrum end of the lower turbinated 

 bone, and leaving it in that situation for ten min- 

 utes, after which, with a very strong syringe-needle, 

 the anterior end of the turbinated bone is raised and 

 the needle is driven diagonally outward in the di- 

 rection of the external opening of the ear. If the 

 first attempt fails, another should be made a little 

 higher and further back. 



In most cases the wall of the antrum may be 

 pierced at one or other point, and pus maybe drawn 

 into the syringe. Careful disinfection is enjoined. 

 The syringe-needle used in this operation should be 

 twice as long and more than twice as thick as the 

 ordinary hypodermic needle, with a curve like an 

 ear catheter. Its point should be rounded, with a 

 sharp edge. The operation is almost painless, and 

 has no disagreeable consequences ; but for repeated 

 irrigations and prolonged drainage, a large opening 

 through the alveolar ridge is better than a large one 

 through the walls ofthe nasal cavity. 



The question as to the propriety of surgical opera- 



