Apeil 15, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



527 



communications are usually filed, for future 

 reference, which means that the file box will 

 become their grave ; but one of them, by the 

 persisting energy of its author, has recently 

 attained the status of a senatorial document, 

 No. Ill, 2d Session 55th Congress. In this 

 communication, E. B. Leach, M.D., of Min- 

 neapolis, Minn., 'prays that a test made of the 

 Arsenization method of treating the disease of 

 Cholera. ' No advertising pamphlet ever dem- 

 onstrated more definitely to the non-medical 

 reader the modus operandi of its eulogized 

 nostrum in neutralizing the foul humors of the 

 human system than this memorial demonstrates 

 how incontrovertible is the theory of the cura- 

 tive and preventive action of arsenic in Asiatic 

 cholera. 



The argument of the memorial is based on 

 the principle: Similia similihus curantur • but 

 science is slow to accept this principle, and 

 scientific medical practitioners give relief to a 

 sleepless patient by other means than those 

 which will prevent sleep. But the principle 

 being granted, it is shown in the memorial how 

 arsenic produces all the symptoms that charac- 

 terize an attack of Asiatic choleVa from its 

 earliest stage, technically that of invasion, to 

 its latest, that of collapse. It is submitted, in 

 fact, that as belladonna is the similimum of 

 scarlet fever and vaccinia of smallpox, so is 

 arsenic ' the legitimate successor of all anti- 

 choleraic inoculations thus far promulgated ' 

 and the sure cure and preventive of cholera. 

 Q. E. D. 



The memorialist submits that by this drug we 

 may not only ' be protected and finally emanci- 

 pated from the ravages of Asiatic cholera,' but 

 also be enabled ' to hope for relief from the 

 pernicious theory of inoculations with animal 

 extracts or viruses as now advocated by many 

 ill-advised students of preventive medicine, ' as 

 Behring, Roux, Sternberg and other notable 

 men who have been prosecuting with the best 

 lights of modern science the important subjects 

 of causation and immunity. He allows that the 

 work of the bacteriologists is based on a theory 

 as plausible as that of Jenner, but holds that 

 success cannot attend their efforts because they 

 use products of the same disease and not of a 

 similar disease for tentative immunization, and 



he claims superiority for arsenic because we are 

 familiar with its potency and antidotes, while 

 those of the germs and toxins are unknown. 

 As showing the memorialist's want of famil- 

 iarity with this part of his subject, it need only 

 be stated that the word antitoxin does not once 

 appear in his argument. 



His claim that arsenic for cholera is compar- 

 able with belladonna for scarlet fever does not 

 give strength to his position, when we consider 

 that although the alleged prophylactic value of 

 belladonna has been before the world for more 

 than a generation, and although belladonna is 

 to be found in every drug store, the prevalence 

 of scarlet fever has not been materially less- 

 ened. 



Jenner applied to his theory the experimen- 

 tum crucis. He vaccinated a child, and proved 

 protection by a subsequent inoculation with 

 smallpox, and since his time this, as far as pos- 

 sible, has been the experimental method of all 

 scientific investigators into the causation and 

 prevention of disease ; but the memorial before 

 us urges that on the Q. E. D. aforesaid the 

 government of the United States should under- 

 take the testing of this theory at an estimated 

 expense of $10,000 annually for five years. 



It would be almost cruel to the memorialist 

 to close these remarks on his proposition with 

 a suggestion which might raise up a number of 

 imitators and competitors in his particular line, 

 but we must state that arsenic is not the only 

 irritant poison which produces shock, vomiting, 

 purging and collapse. Similar memorials might 

 be drawn up by an intelligent medical student on 

 the action of almost any of the many irritants, 

 such as tartar emetic, corrosive sublimate, cro- 

 ton oil, colocynth, elaterium, colchicum, etc., 

 but we trust there will be no more such puerile 

 documents printed. 



EEPEINTS OF EAEE WORKS ON METEOEOLOGY 

 AND TEEEESTEIAL MAGNETISM. 



To this series, which has been noticed several 

 times in Science, Dr. Hellmann, of Berlin, has 

 just made two important additions, viz.: No. 

 10, Bara Magnetica, and No. 11, Ueber Luftelek- 

 tricitat. The first-named is a fac-simile repro- 

 duction of the rarest works on terrestrial mag- 

 netism between 1269 and 1599, that is to say, 



