Assistant Surgeon M. K. Johnston, detached from the New York and ordered to duty with the Vicksburg.

Assistant Surgeon R, Spear, detached from the Naval Laboratory, New York, and ordered to New York.

October 14, Sugeon C. Biddle, detached from marine rendezvous, San Francisco, ordered to Washington in charge of patient, then report at the Navy Department.

Discellaneous Items.

IT HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT.---The following from Boston is on the authority of that bright and witty editor, Rev. Dr. Dunning. A well-known business man of the Hub was discovered by a friend to have his underwear inscribed with the legend, "I have had my vermiform appendix removed." Questioned as to his motive, he replied, "These are the palmy days of surgery. man faints on the streets or falls in a fit, he is rushed off to a hospital and his appendix taken out before he can recover consciousness. I have this notice conspicuously displayed, as I have been through the operation. The Medical Herald.

The Tenth annual meeting of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association will be held in St. Louis, November 9, 10 and 11. The program issued by the Secretary, Dr. W. E. B. Davis, Birmingham, announces many interesting papers.

NECROLOGY.

DEATH OF PASSED ASSISTANT SURGEON W. D. BRATTON, U. S. MARINE HOSTITAL SERVICE.

The following is the announcement, issued by Surgeon General Wyman, of the death of Passed Assistant Surgeon W. D. Bratton, which sad event we noted in a recent issue:

"I have the painful duty of announcing to the officers of the Service the sudden death of Passed Assistant Surgeon William

D. Bratton, which occurred at Sabine Pass, Texas, on the 2d instant, under peculiarly distressing circumstances.

In the pressing need of medical officers for active work during the present yellow fever epidemic in the South, Passed Assistant Surgeon Bratton, though an invalid, and therefore on waiting orders, promptly volunteered his services to meet the emergency, and the tender was accepted in the spirit in which it was made. He was ordered to Sabine Pass to assume charge of Service matters relating to the quarantine service at that port, where he arrived and reported himself on duty the 28th ultimo. On the 1st instant he had been superintending the disinfection of a vessel and returning to the ship to reassure himself upon the work done, he fell through a ventilating hole, striking his head on an iron knee, producing concussion of the brain. He remained undiscovered for several hours, and when found was unconscious and remained so until death occurred, eighteen hours after the uufortunate accident.

William Du Bose Bratton was born in Fairfield County, South Carolina, June 23, 1860, the son of General John Bratton, of Winnsboro, in that State. His early education was acquired in Mt. Zion School, Winnsboro, and at Abbeville, South Carolina, In 1874 he was matriculated at the Carolina Military Institute at Charlotte, North Carolina, remaining two years, and then entering the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, where he received the degree of B. S. in 1880, after a three years' course. He at once began the study of medicine, and was graduated at the Medical College of South Carolina, March 1, 1884, and for the year following was House Surgeon at the Charleston City Hospital.

He was commissioned as assistant Surgeon April 1, 1885, and assigned to duty at New York. His subsequent stations while in that grade were San Francisco, Cal., as medical officer of revenue cutter "Corwin" for service in Alaskan waters, and then for temporary duty at Port Townsend, Wash. He was commissioned a Passed Assistant Surgeon April 2, 1888, and again assigned to duty as medical officer on the revenue cutter "Bear" for service in Alaskan waters. In May, 1889, he was ordered to duty in command of the Service at Portland, Oregon, where he remained two years, and was then assigned to duty at

Chicago, Ill. In 1893, he was placed in command of the Service at Buffalo, N. Y., where he remained until January 9, 1894.

In the fall of 1893 he first became aware of the condition of health which gradually disclosed a tuberculous character, and after the Bureau had been officially informed of it, he was sent to Wilmington, N. C., for its favorable climate, where he remained several months, doing meanwhile temporary service at Delaware Breakwater quarantine, but later he was placed on "waiting orders," (January 1, 1895), taking up his residence in Arizona, and finally at Albuquerque, New Mexico, to obtain the advantages of the southwestern arid region. After a two years' residence there he reported, in March, 1897, his gradual return to a state of health, which justified him in asking for an early restoration to active duty, but further delay was advised in order that he might have the benefit of a longer residence, and, if possible, a permanent cure.

Passed Assistant Surgeon Bratton, during the period of "waiting" became much interested in the climatic treatment of con sumptives, and wrote several reports on the arid regions of the southwest as the best locality for such work, recommending the establishment of a sanitarium in that section for the treatment of patients of this Service suffering from the disease.

His literary and scientific attainments were of a high order, and his studious habits and keen facilities enabled him to maintain in the Service a reputation for unusual professional knowledge and skill in practice. Officially, devotion to duty was always a paramount consideration with him, and his conscientiousness in respect thereto was a marked characteristic of his work.

Personally, he was of modest and reserved manner, yet frank and manly in his demeanor, and actuated by a high sense of honor in all relations with his associates. He was in every respect a noble officer.

Reading Motices.

DANGEROUS SPURIOUS IMITATIONS, So-called Coca wines which are a source of danger.---The attention of the medical profession is earnestly directed to the various dangerous decoctions masquerading as Coca wine. These decoctions are intended as

meretricious imitations of the standard French preparation, "Vin Mariani," which has been so widely indorsed by and whose merits are so well known to the medical fraternity, that it would be superfluous to enter into any enumeration here of its virtures. Investigation discloses that these so-called coca-wines are generally variable solutions of the alkaloid cocaine, in sweetened wine of a low grade, (artificial wines), Quantities of such socalled coca-wine have been seized upon by various Health authorities and destroyed. Any physician will realize the danger ensuing from the use of decoctions of such a character.

These spurious and dangerous preparations are having the effect of causing misapprehension and working an indirect injury to a really valuable drug, for the real usefulness and value of Coca, when conscientiously prepared and properly administered, have long since been recognized by the medical fraternity. Physicians will not encounter disappointment whenever using "Vin Mariani" the standard French Coca wine, as an adjuvant in treatment, as a tonic stimulant, and as a restorative in cases of profound depression, anæmia and exhaustion. It has stood the test in practice during nearly thirty-five years, and during that period has been strongly endorsed as a reliable and standard preparation by many of the most honored names in the medical profession, both in this country and in Europe.

Physicians are, therefore, ernestly urged, when prescri bing Coca, to insist that their patients procure "Vin Mariani," thus avoiding any failure in results and insuring postively no unpleasant or dangerous after-effects.

There has been placed on file by Mariani & Co. more than 8000 endorsements from leading practitioners, all coinciding as to the merits of "Vin Mariani." It can be claimed, "Never has anything been so highly and justly praised."

The usefulness of good Hypophosphites in Pulmonary and Strumous affections is generally agreed upon by the profession. We commend to the notice of our readers the advertisement on page 6 of this number. "Robinson's Hypophosphites" also "Robinson's Hypophosphites with Wild Cherry Bark" (this is a new combination and will be found very valuable) are elegant and uniformly active preparations; the presence in them of Quinine, Strychnine, Iron, etc., adding highly to their tonic value.

DOCTOR: Your library is not complete withou the H NOTIC MAGAZINE. Cost of this handsome monthly, including premium book on SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS is only one dollar ($1.00) a year.

THE PSYCHIC PUBLISHING CO.,

56 5th Avenue, Chicago.

MEDICAL JOURNAL.

A SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND

SURGERY.

VOL. XLI

WILMINGTON, NOVEMBER 20, 1897.

No. 10.

Original Communications.

SUGGESTIONS THROUGH THE PROFESSION TO INVALIDS SELECTING WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AS A HEALTH RESORT.

NATU

BY DR. CHARLES W. HUNT, Brevard, N. C.

ATURE has given to this section the climatic elements necessary for the thorough renovation (so to speak) and build

ing up of the entire nervous system, the healthy action of which is all important for the prevention, amelioration or cure of any affection with which, through our misfortunes ignorances and vices, and the ignorance of ages, the human family is afflicted.

While the locality has proven, by its beneficial climate, the wisdom of those eminent leaders in the profession who acknowledge and teach the benefits to be derived from a suitable climate, it is important to observe certain general laws as regards health and certain (so to speak) special laws or rules necessary for each individual climate; of these it is my purpose to write.

All so-called constitutional or systemic disease should not exist were we sufficiently conversant with, and obedient to the laws of health. There are many patients seeking relief from climate, the treatment of whose cases should have been directed to parent and grand-parent. The great strides and successes of preventive medicine have developed laws that warrant me in this statement.