children, and the lovers as you journey along. Be glad that you are alive; enjoy the rainstorm; take pleasure in passing a word with the friends you encounter and sit down by the roadside and converse with them now and then. Say to yourself, "This is very cosy and cheerful. I will be happy with my friend,' and all the time rejoice that you have a goal toward which you are pressing.

"Get something out of the journey every day-some hour of enjoyment, and even if some accident prevents you from reaching your dreamed-of destination, or delays you long, still you have some golden hours of pleasure strung upon the thread of life. And, better still, you have formed the habit of enjoyment you have practiced being happy! And when you do reach your goal you will know how to appreciate the things you have longed for.

"Do not tell me that you have nothing to enjoy-nothing to be glad of in your present; I know better. God never made a day that did not possess some blessing in it if you look for it. Learn to be happy while you strive for things to make you happier."

THE INFLUENCE OF TEA ON DIGESTION.

DR. JAMES W. FRASER has recorded the result of an interesting series of experiments on the action or our common beverages on stomachic and intestinal digestion. The results obtained from an exhaustive series of experiments and analyses show:

"I. That it is better not to eat most albuminoid food-stuffs at the same time as infused beverages are taken, for it has been shown that their digestion will, in most. cases, be retarded, though there are possible exceptions. Absorption may be rendered more rapid, but there is a loss of nutritive substance. On the other hand, digestion of starchy food appears to be assisted by tea and coffee; and gluten, the albuminoid of

flour, has been seen to be the principle least retarded in digestion by tea. From this it appears that bread is the natural accompaniment of tea, when used as a beverage at a meal. 2. That eggs are the best form of animal food to be taken along with infused beverages, and apparently they are best lightly boiled if tea, and hard boiled if coffee or cocoa, is the beverage. 3. That the casein of the milk and cream taken with the beverage is probably absorbed in a large degree from the stomach. That the butter used with bread undergoes digestion more slowly in the presence of tea, but more quickly in the presence of coffee or cocoa; that is, if the fats of butter are influenced in a similar way to oleine."

FOOD VALUE OF FRUITS.

IN recent years the growing of fruits has assumed great commercial importance in many regions of the United States, says C. F. Langworth, Ph.D., in Sanitary Home. especially in the south and on the Pacific Coast. The amount of fruit has undoubtedly increased with the greater production and facilities for shipping and marketing.

Many stations have reported analyses of fruits and made extended studies of the different methods of growing fruit trees, their soil requirements, enemies, etc.

The stone fruits constitute an important group, and have been studied for a number of years by the California and Oregon Stations. Fresh peaches, apricots, cherries, prunes and plums are general favorites, while enormous quantities of these fruits are canned, dried or preserved in some way. It is interesting to compare the composition of these fruits, fresh and dried, with each other and with some of the staple articles of diet.

It must not be forgotten, however, that fruits are valuable for other reasons than the nutrients which they furnish. They contain acids and other bodies which are believed by physiologists to have a bene

ficial effect on the system and, doubtless, very often stimulate the appetite for other food. They are also useful in counteracting a tendency to constipation. Another point and one entirely apart from food value-should not be overlooked. That is, fruits add very materially to the attractiveness of the diet. It is not easy to estimate their value from this standpoint, since often the appearance of food has a value which cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

ACIDITY OF THE MOUTH DURING SLEEP.

THE dentists tell us that an acid condition of the fluids of the mouth plays an important part in the etiology of dental caries: also that the causes of that affection are particularly active during the hours of sleep, when saliva stagnates, so to speak, instead of being subjected to the agitation and renewal incident to the chewing and other movements that to some extent are almost continuous except during sleep. However carefully we may cleanse the teeth and rinse them with antiseptic solutions on going to bed, therefore, we are guarding but temporarily against decay, it gains on us while we are asleep. Possibly those who suffer with insomnia may snatch a crumb of comfort from this reflection, but we fear there is in it no consolation for the mouthbreathers, for the desiccation of the mouth which takes place in them during sleep, while enough to give rise to considerable discomfort on their waking, is quite insufficient to hamper pathogenic bacteria in their work of destruction.-New York Medical Journal.

VEGETABLE DIET.

PERHAPS no stronger argument could be advanced in favor of a vegetable diet than the enormous bulk, strength and endurance

of the Japanese wrestlers. Imagine a set of men, the tallest not more than five and a half feet high, with weight ranging from 200 to 300 pounds, chest girth varying from 44 to 58 inches, and lung capacity reaching as high as 6,000 cubic centimeters! Yet the staple food of these men is rice, with a little fish; but, withal, they can hold their own against the picked men of any of the flesh-eating peoples, both for strength and endurance. The writer has frequently seen the coolies handling cargo on the Bund in Yokohama, working ceaselessly from 6 A. M. until 6 P.M., and at midday has seen them produce their simple meal of a few ounces of rice and fish, packed in a tiny piece of matting, eat it with the utmost gusto, and then resume their labors, like giants, refreshed. Meat is certainly not indispensable to produce and maintain brawn and muscle, as witness the splendid physique and staying qualities of the Scotch and Irish peasantry, whose principal articles of die: are oatmeal and potatoes!

"NOISELESS MILK."

A DAIRYMAN whose dairy was near Indianapolis, says Southern California Practitioner, was taken sick and went to the Hoosier capital for treatment, and, while there, lying in bed convalescing, he was greatly annoyed by being awakened at an unearthly hour each morning by the man delivering milk. This caused him to improve his convalescing hours by developing a scheme to furnish noiseless milk. As soon as he got well he had all of his milkmen shod with rubber-heeled and rubber-soled shoes, and rubber tires put on all of his wagons. He presented each one of his customers a rubher mat upon which to set the milk can by the door, so that there was no noise from that, and he had his horses all shod with rubber shoes, and then began to exploit his noiseless milk. The result has been immense. His business has quadrupled and

There is a lesson in the above instance that I believe will be of great benefit. Let us all endeavor to reduce the noises of our cities. The rubber-tired vehicles have reduced greatly the noises on our streets. Many people are learning the personal advantage of wearing rubber-heeled shoes; this is materially lessening the street din. One physician in Los Angeles told us that his buggy with the rubber tires would last four times. as long as one with metal tires. We do not doubt this, and on the same principle we believe that the man or woman who wears rubber-heeled shoes will be protected and life will be prolonged, as is the life of the buggy with the rubber tires. The cement and stone walks of our city are not the walks that nature made for us. They are hard and unyielding, and every step is a shock to the human system, but with the rubber heels this unnatural inelasticity of the city sidewalk is counterbalanced and the person steps lightly and briskly along, feeling that it is a real joy to be alive. We believe that there is

people than to overcome their general nervous condition, and the use of rubber heels is an important step in that direction.

VALUE OF MEAT IN THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.

F. PARKES WEBER directs attention to the infrequency with which tuberculosis and gouty diseases are found in the same individual, and suggests that there may be some substance circulating in the blood of gouty subjects, in minute quantities, yet sufficient to have an antagonistic action toward the growth of growth of tubercle, and that this is likewise the case in persons taking an unusual amount of food. In accordance with this view he advocates the use of a preponderatingly proteid rather than carbohydrate diet in tuberculous individuals, laying stress on the necessity for seconding the treatment by abundant out-door exercise.

THE people of average, and especially those of more than average, intelligence in every community are, every year, becoming better informed in relation to the laws of health and the nature of the commoner forms of disease. As a result they may not be less respectful to real medical talent, but they are becoming critical of the practical results of prevailing medical practice, and are demanding reasons for much that was formerly accepted without question. Physiology, hygiene and sanitation, such as it is, is being taught in all the schools; hundreds of laymen have become regular subscribers to medical journals, and these, in turn, are gradually introducing more or less matter that is adapted to lay reading; in addition to which scores of "health" journals address themselves wholly to the laity. It is becoming a common thing for families to own and use a fever thermometer and a well-stocked medicine cabinet. To such an extent has this business increased within a decade that the great army of medical practitioners begin to sorely feel the inroads that are being made in their incomes. In a large majority of the minor complaints the people treat themselves, and they do not hesitate to assert that they are quite as successful as the average practitioner. Nor is this to be wondered at when we realize that all the quacks, and their name is legion, and, more's the shame, many of the reputable members of an honorable profession secretly resort to tricks and dishonorable methods to increase their fame and their incomes.

To this cause is attributable the immense increase in the number of proprietary medicines and secret nostrums, and the almost

incredible amount of capital now represented in the manufacture of these seductive preparations.

Philanthropists deplore the condition, and medical men predict the direct results in the near future, but neither of them propose a practical remedy. There is no question but that thousands of sudden deaths occur every year that are directly attributable to this growing habit of self-medication chiefly by means of some of the loudly-extolled and plausibly advertised "cures." Since quick results are insisted upon the promulgators of these panaceas aim at this effect regardless of subsequent injury to the insistent recipients, however serious this may prove to be.

A careful analysis of the more popular of the secret nostrums now in use shows them to be based on sedation or stimulation. Bromide or chloral, juice of the poppy or product for tar, the endless changes are constantly rung on possible combinations of these universal sources of narcotism, and on the thousand and one forms of the spirit of wine or the spirit of corn. The one obtunds the sensations and lulls the patient to ease, which is easily and ignorantly mistaken for betterment. The other prods the flagging forces to a semblance of new life, for both of which effects deluded mortals are willing to pay twice, once in the cost of the panaceas and once in the ultimate loss of vital force. Faith in the false inspiration of the still and in the "curative" power of drugs is strictly in proportion to the prevailing ignorance and superstition. Competent and candid medical students have finally admitted that the province of the physician is to

provide the necessary material, remove obstructions, and assist in directing natural processes, while Nature herself ultimately does all the curing. Not that this fact by any means cheapens the physician's skill; rather, it requires more acumen and better judgment than ever.

The manufacturing proprietors have taken up the question of materials, and are supplying food products of every conceivable kind, in forms adapted to every condition of the system. Their efforts are giving brilliant results, because they give jaded and ailing digestive organs that complete rest. which often turns the scale. But since the arm tied up in a sling, and kept at perfect rest, eventually becomes atrophied and helpless, so, the stomach that has all its work done for it soon becomes unable to act for itself.

It is useless to shut our eyes to the existence of this evil of the domestic practice of medicine, or to the fact that it is rapidly assuming more and more extensive proportions. It is not that the people have learned too much, but that they know too little. A better knowledge of the nature of disease and the action of drugs will go far towards abolishing the practice of self-medication. The people would be more than glad of a safe guide in matters of health. They are afraid of the quacks-except the very unctious fellows who have an unsuspected gift of "od force" or hypnotism-and they are almost as much afraid of a certain class of doctors who deceive and impose upon them by insisting upon scare diagnoses and making exorbitant charges for insignificant services. The better classes, all the more intelligent, are quite willing to pay for adequate attention and honest skill, but they never feel quite sure that the doctor is not magnifying his office for the sake of his fame or his fees, in at least half the cases to which he is called. In yielding to this feeling of distrust they often make the fatal blunder of neglecting to call the doctor in cases of great gravity until it is too late, even with the aid of the best medical skill, to save them.

There is a limited circle within which the layman may treat himself and family. Beyond that circle it is neither prudent nor economical to go. Outside that limit the very best obtainable medical skill is none too good, and should be promptly invoked and implicitly obeyed. The promonitory symptoms of some of the most dangerous diseases are very obscure and insidious. To the unskilled eye and touch they mean no more than the passing symptoms of a slight cold, or the flush of an ephemeral fever. The skilled eye, ear and tactile sense of the trained physician detect the lurking danger in time to forefend it. Sometimes it is a specific poison or infection that must be counteracted; sometimes it is an explosive crisis in connection with some inherited or acquired diathesis, and again it is merely an accumulation of obstructions that need to be swept away, or it may be some special nutrient principle that the system is clamoring for.

No one will dispute the assertion that most people take too much medicine. Dosing for every trifling ailment becomes a chronic habit. Failing of relief from the use of one vaunted cureall or concoction, they try successively, perhaps, a dozen others, in the vain hope that some one of them will "hit the case."

In a measure the doctors themselves are to blame for this state of affairs. They have both talked too much and schemed too much; and in this respect there is no distinction as to schools, regulars-there never was such a thing as an "allopath," except in the lively imagination of Hahnemann and some of his early disciples-homeopaths, eclectics or what not, all have been more or less culpable. The principal sinner, however, has been the druggist. He began by prescribing over the counter; he will end by going under the counter! His shelves groan with their load of "patent" and proprietary remedies, and his showcases and display spaces are a-glitter with sensational advertisements. For a time he made money rapidly. To-day he has to scratch hard and twist in all directions to make the two ends