death, with the exception of zymotic diseases, pneumonia and diseases of the kidneys, in which classes the percentage is somewhat below the average for all nationalities. The greatest difference in duration of insurance between the native and foreign born is found in classes of cancer, apoplexy and suicides, the difference in favor of the native born being 3.18 years, 2.82 years and 2.70 years in the three classes respectively.

The next head is of peculiar interest, viz: The Residence at Death, indicating the effect of locality on cause of death.

New England gives the highest mortality from cancer, apoplexy, diseases of the heart and diseases of the kidneys, and a very low mortality from zymotic diseases, diseases of the liver, and accidents, and, strange to say, that mortality from consumption is below the average of the total number.

The Southern States gives the lowest mortality from typhoid fever, which is in strong contrast with deaths from other zymotic diseases. We are not given the items as to the particular diseases thus included, but the two items of typhoid fever, added to other zymotic diseases, gives more than twice the mortality of any other section named.

Consumption finds its lowest mortality in the State of New York, while the Southern States, contrary to expectation, come in third in order of mortality, being somewhat greater than in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.

In the South there is a very large percentage of diseases of the liver, and a very small one of diseases of the kidney.

In tabulating the duration of insurance before death, the short term of the Southern policy-holder is remarkable as to all the diseases enumerated, being very striking in mortality from apoplexy, in which the average length of insurance was only 5.40 years.

The expectation of life, ranked according to percentage attained by occupation, shows that merchants stand at the head of the list, and physicians third, while clergymen are fifth on the list, and clerks the very lowest. In the latter occupation it is explained that deaths from consumption are great, being as much as one-third of the whole class.

The mortality from consumption, the great scourge of the human race, is a study of much interest, and we transcribe some facts deduced from the tables. A consumptive patient appearing in the

family record is of less significance than when it occurs in the personal history of the individual.

Two or more deaths by consumption among the brothers and sisters appear to exert much less influence than the death of one parent. In one group in which there was a hereditary taint in parents 37.98 died of consumption, but where there was acquired tendency combined with hereditary taint the percentage was 59.09.

BACTERIAL POISONING BY WHISKEY AND QUININE USED FOR MEDICINE.-H. P. Campbell, Ph.G. in the American Journal of Pharmacy, March, 1890, gives what will be to most readers a remarkable demonstration of the dangers of bacterial poisoning from what was considered not only a harmless mixture of quinine and whiskey, but rather considered an antiseptic mixture. A patient had a mixture of quinine and whiskey put up, but was put aside for a month before using. When it was taken it produced marked symptoms of poisoning by an irritant which led to a suspicion that the apothecary had dispensed a poisonous drug. The examination made by Mr. Campbell showed that quinine and whiskey were present. The slimy sediment he found, which did not dissolve on shaking, he examined under the microscope, and he found it to consist almost entirely of micro-organisms, with a few particles of woody matter which had served as nuclei for the formation of the many colonies. He estimated that a tablespoonful dose would contain about 2,500,000 of these micro-organisms.

DEATHS FROM ETHER-now that this agent is becoming the popular anæsthetic in New York and other sec ions-are becoming about as numerous, apparently, as deaths from chloroform, used as the surgical anæsthetic. Another death from ether is reported to have occurred in Bellevue Hospital, New York last November. No criticism is passed upon the manner of administration by the doctor. But it turns out at the autopsy that the patient-a painter, 28 years of age-would have died anyway, even if chloroform had been used, from fatty degeneration of the heart-so says Dr. Gerster. But in Atlanta, Ga., during the latter part of January, another death resulted in the practice of Dr. Westmoreland, from ether, used as the anesthetic and no one doubts Dr. Westmoreland's ability.-Virginia Medical Monthly.

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS DECIDED THAT ANY STATE HAS THE RIGHT TO REGULATE THE PRACTISE OF MEDICINE WITHIN

ITS BORDERS.

At the request of a subscriber we have reproduced enough of the case of Dent vs. State of West Virginia, to show our readers how at every point our own licensing law is sustained:

Dent vs. WEST VIRGINIA.

"The statute of West Virginia which requires every practitioner of medicine in the State to obtain a certificate from the State Board of Health that he is a graduate of a reputable medical college in the school of medicine to which he belongs; or that he has practised medicine in the State continuously for ten years prior to March 8, 1881; or that he has been found, upon examination, to be qualified to practise medicine in all its departments, and which subjects a person practising without such certificate to prosecution and punishment for a misdemeanor, does not, when enforced against a person who had been a practising physician in the State for a period of five years before 1881, without a diploma of a reputable medical college in the school of medicine to which he belonged, deprive him of his estate or interest in the profession without the process of law. "The State, in the exercise of its power to provide for the general welfare of its people, may exact from parties before they can practice medicine a degree of skill and learning in that profession upon which the community employing their services may confidently rely; and, to ascertain whether they have such qualifications, require them to obtain a certificate from a Board or other authority competent to judge in that respect. If the qualifications required are appropriate to the profession, and attainable by reasonable study or application, their validity is not subject to objection because of their stringency or difficulty."

"The power of the State to provide for the general welfare of its people authorizes it to prescribe all such regulations as in its

judgment will secure, or tend to sccure, them against the consequences of ignorance and incapacity as well as of deception and fraud. As one means to this end it has been the practice in different States, trom time immemorial, to exact in many pursuits a certain degree of skill and learning upon which the community may confidently rely, their possession being generally ascertained upon an examination of parties by competent persons, or inferred from a certificate to them in the form of a diploma or license from an institution established for instruction on the subjects, scientific and otherwise, with which such pursuits have to deal. The nature and extent of the qualifications required must depend primarily upon the judgment of the State as to their necessity. If they are appropriate to the calling or profession, and attainable by reasonable study or application, no objection to their validity can be raised because of their stringency or difficulty. It is only when they have no relation to such calling or profession, or are unattainable by such reasonable study and application that they can operate to deprive one of his right to pursue a lawful vocation."

"Few professions require more careful preparation by one who seeks to enter it than that of medicine. It has to deal with all the subtle and mysterious influences upon which health and life depend, and requires not only a knowledge of the properties of vegetable and mineral substances, but of the human body in all its complicated parts, and their relation to each other, as well as their influence upon the mind. The physician must be able to detect readily the presence of disease, and prescribe appropriate remedies for its removal. Every one may have occasion to consult him, but comparatively few can judge of the qualifications of learning and skill which he possesses. Reliance must be placed upon the assurance given by his license, issued hy an authority competent to judge in that respect, that he possesses the requisite qualifications. Due consideration, therefore, for the protection of society may well induce the State to exclude from practise those who have not such a license, or who are found, upon examination, not to be duly qualified. The same reasons which control in imposing conditions, upon compliance with which the physician is allowed to practise in the first instance, may call for further conditions, as new modes of treating disease are discovered or a more thorough acquaintance is obtrined of the remedial properties of vegetable and mineral sub

stances, or a more accurate knowledge is acquired of the human system and of the agencies by which it is affected. It would not be deemed a matter for serious discussion that a knowledge of the new acquisitions of the profession from time to time advances in its attainment of the relief of the sick and suffering, should be required for continuance in its practice, but for the earnestness which the plaintiff in error insists that, by being compelled to obtain the certificate required, and prevented from continuing in practice without it, he is deprived of his right and estate in his profession without due process of law. We perceive nothing in the statute which indicates an intention of the Legislature to deprive one of any of his rights. No one has a right to practice medicine without having the necessary qualifications of learning and skill; and the statute only requires that whosoever assumes, by offering to the community his services as a physician, that he possesses such learning and skill, shall present evidence of it by a certificate or license from a body designated by the State as a competent judge of his qualifications."

"There is nothing of an arbitrary character in the provisions of the statute in question; it applies to all physicians, except those who may be called for a special purpose from another State; it imposes no conditions which cannot be readily met; and it is made enforceable in the mode usual in kindred matters, that is, by regular proceedings adapted to the case. It authorizes an examination of the applicant by the Board of Health as to his qualifications when he has no evidence of them in the diploma of a reputable medical college in the school of medicine to which he belongs, or has not practised in the State a designated period before March, 1881. If, in the proceedings under the statute, there should be any unfair or unjust action on the part of the Board in refusing him a certificate, we doubt not that a remedy would be found in the courts of the State. But no such imputation can be made, for the plaintiff in error did not submit himself to the examination of the Board after it had decided that the diploma he presented was insufficient."

Judgment of the lower court was affirmed, thereby substantiating the soundness of the West Virginia law in regulating the practice of medicine.