i88 
Teaching  of  Therapeutics. 
Am.  Jour  Pharni. 
March,  1920. 
to  be  due  to  a  persistent  one-sided  development  of  these  layers. 
The  bacterium  itself,  as  distinct  from  the  sheath,  measures  about 
0.5  ix  in  diameter,  and  varies  from  0.5  ju  to  5.0  }i  in  length,  the 
sheath  being  often  ten  times  the  diameter  of  the  cell.  These 
thickened  walls  occur  in  many  of  the  Nostocaceae,  especially  in  the 
Oscillatoriae.  The  ginger-beer  plant  can  be  dried  and  shrunk 
up  into  a  horny  mass,  in  which  condition  it  can  be  stored  for  future 
use. 
Mr.  E.  R.  Nichols,  of  Middlesbrough,  who  recently  sent  me  a 
specimen,  writes  that  it  is  largely  used  in  that  district  in  preparing 
a  drink  called  a  wine.  For  this  purpose  4  ounces  of  sugar  and  4 
ounces  of  treacle  are  mixed  with  1V2  pints  of  warm  water  to  form 
the  mother  liquor.  Small  pieces  of  the  plant  are  then  added,  and 
the  mixture  is  kept  in  a  warm  place.  Each  day  about  a  teaspoonful 
of  sugar  is  added.  There  is  brisk  fermentation,  and  a  palatable 
drink  is  soon  ready.  The  ferment  quickly  increases,  and  can  be 
used  to  prepare  a  fresh  batch. 
THE  TEACHING  OF  THERAPEUTICS.* 
By  Hobart  Amory  Har^,  M.D., 
PROFESSOR    OF    therapeutics,    MATERIA    MEDICA    AND    DIAGNOSIS,  JEFFERSON 
MEDICAE  COLLEGE,  PHILADELPHIA,  PA. 
I  am  writing  this  paper  because  I  am  hopeful  that  it  may  direct 
attention  to  what  is  a  crying  fault  in  medical  education  to-day, 
namely,  the  neglect  of  teaching  students  how  to  treat  patients  for 
the  alleviation  or  cure  of  disease.  I  am  hopeful  that  some  good  may 
come  of  it  because  the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  for  years  past  has  been  endeavoring 
to  inform  physicians  regarding  the  use  of  proprietary  products 
and  to  persuade  them  to  prescribe  drugs,  proprietary  or  not,  in- 
telligently. 
The  work  that  the  Council  had  done  is,  of  course,  praiseworthy 
in  intent,  and  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes  in  one  line,  to  wit,  to  improve 
medical  practice  among  graduates;  but  the  prime  difficulty  lies  in 
the  teaching  of  practical  therapeutics  to  the  imdergraduate  and  to 
the  hospital  intern.    This  embryo  practitioner  in  almost  every  medi- 
*  Reprinted  from  Jour.  American  Medical  Association,  Feb.  7,  1920. 
