same. Our spheres of action, our pur- a clergyman, and preach; a navigator, suits, are varied according to talent, taste, and capacity. If a woman wishes astronomer, horticulturist, farmer, pomologist, why not? Who has authority to prevent? Men choose their own call- | enjoyment, and happiness. True Chrisings, and we find great, stalwart six-footers behind counters selling needles, pins, tape, bird-seed, and tobacco-pipes! We find 66 "" man milliners selling ribbons, fitting basques to ladies' waists, and fitting slippers to ladies' feet! We find them cooking, washing, sewing, and doing sundry other sorts of work which woman can do just as well. Is it to be objected that woman may run a locomotive if she be capable and wishes to do so? We are advocates for the equal rights of all who are, by organization and culture, equally capable of usefulness, tianity, as well as true Democracy, proclaims the emancipation of all men and all women. Let women drop their frivolous following of foolish fashion, and strike for freedom-for a higher education; aye! and when circumstances compel, for self-support. Then open the doors to her, and bid her come in and take her place by the side of her brother in all the studies, and in all the pursuits she may desire to enter upon, in which to earn an honest living, and acquire the luxuries which come of learning and of labor.] THE TWO JACKS. To a fine old cotton plantation, on Broad River, came in 1869, two young | white men, in the character of rentors. The owner, a physician celebrated for his skill in that part of the country, found a sufficient income in his practice to make him careless in regard to that derived from his farm, and since his negroes had been freed he had left even the supervision of the place to an agent, under whose management it seemed in a fair way to deteriorate into a wilderness. Scarce a fence was left that would turn a cow; the fields were grown up in jimson-weed (stramonium) and cockle-burr; the wells had filled up and gone dry; several corn crops had been eaten up by the incursive stock of the neighborhood; the dwellings on the place had become leaky and dilapidated; the cribs infested with enormous rats; there were no suitable conveniences for feeding stock, the corn and fodder being thrown into a trough hollowed | from a cypress log, set up in the middle of the lot, where mules, horses and cows promiscuously fought and tried to eat. It seemed a received axiom among the rentors that it didn't pay for them to try to keep up the place; therefore, the orchards might bend with overloaded boughs before their eyes, and no impulse possess them to shake off the superfluous fruit and save the trees from breaking down; gates fell from their posts and lay rotting, and drains clogged up; but nobody put a hand to restoring the one or cleansing the other. Yet it was a desirable plantation, as rich, free soil, yielding abundantly corn, cotton, wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, buckwheat, clover and rice; and the finest timber for rails, boards or building was to be had for the cutting. The heroes of this story were city boys, who, having found it hard to secure clerkships, had concluded to try the country awhile. Each rejoiced in the euphonious name of Jack; but a greater contrast in person, mode of life, ideas and history than they afforded, would have been hard to find. Jack number one was a slender, active, wiry fellow, with a constant flow of animal spirits. Always cheerful, you might hear him whistling the cloudiest morning when arranging matters in regard to his rent. He selected a little hut in one of the fields in preference to another offered him in a grove, with an eye to escaping somewhat from musquitoes, which, even in swampy lands, are not so annoying in open clearings as under the trees. His first business was to rake and sweep away the debris from under and about his cabin, to construct a small drain, and then whitewash his miniature premises. He took advantage of wet weather in the Spring to cut and haul plenty of wood for his stove and fireplace. He was forced to rely for his supply of water on a small, muddy spring; this he carefully cleansed, lined the bottom with rocks and clean sand, and skimmed off the green slime which floated on the surface. He then supplied himself with two cheap water buckets, one of which he punctured with augur holes at the bottom, lined with flannel, which he coated with powdered charcoal; through this he filtered all his drinking water into the other bucket, set just beneath it. Jack number one rose half-an-hour before day in the morning and made a fire in his chimney-place, returned to bed, and dozed and lazied delightfully till dawn, then started the fire in his stove, and prepared his simple breakfast by sunrise. It was nothing but a corn griddle-cake and a bit of broiled beef, yet it had cost the young man some trouble to provide these materials; his city corn proved to be musty and dark, and he had succeeded in exchanging a few sacks of it for fresh home-raised corn on the cob only by persevering endeavor. A clever German rentor on the place, the last person he applied to, exchanged willingly, and insisted that Jack should select only large, sound ears; and, carrying his corn to mill himself, he had got the same corn back, ground in the miller's best style. The beef he had got from the city, as pork and bacon were almost the only meat used by the country people. He resolutely set his face against drinking either coffee or whiskey, though everybody told him he couldn't live without a stimulant in that region-he'd die with the chills. Nevertheless, soon after sunrise Jack might be seen cheerfully 'winding his way to the field, undismayed by the prophecy of the congestion lying in wait. He was so hungry by dinnertime that he found even cold corn-bread, dried beef and raw mustard delicious, and thoroughly enjoyed his Graham cracker and butter-milk supper. Jack number two was a fat specimen of the Lymphatic temperament, fond of 179 good eating above all things, and constitutionally opposed to exertion. Nevertheless, he was aspiring, and proposed to make a round sum of money farming the first year. Quite a rivalry sprung up between him and Jack number one, as to which should do the neatest job of fencing, cut the most effective drains, and make the best crop. Notwithstanding the native indolence of Jack number two, when he got to work he kept steadily at it; and, like the tortoise, progressed, though slowly. This young man, very early in the season, bought a jug of whiskey, into which he put wild cherry tree, root and dogwood bark, and from this he faithfully took a draught, more or less deep, three times a day. Of coffee he drank several cups at each meal, and was much addicted to batter cakes of extreme toughness and as greasy as the hog's lard they were fried in. Pickles he doted on, also crapped collards and bacon. About June, Jack number two began to look as if he had the jaundice; his nose grew red and full of little "worm heads," and his face was full of pimples. By the end of the month he was down with bilious fever, and, very much frightened, sent for a doctor, who dosed him with blue mass and quinine. He eventually got up," but continued to have "spells" of chills about every nine days till frost, quite unfitting him for farmwork, and causing him to lose half his crop for lack of gathering. Meantime Jack number one, the "cold water man as they called him, didn't have a single chill, and was not sick a single day. He gathered his crop unaided, and was livelier than ever when the fall brought trees-full of squirrels and clouds of wild ducks. He learned to be quite an expert marksman, and found squirrel stew savory and wholesome. Then occasionally he saw deer tracks in his pea field, and one morning succeeded in wounding a doe, which he captured and presented to a young girl living on the place, whom he had come to regard with admiring eyes. She was a little German. maid, whose blithe voice sounded sweetly as she warbled in time to the strokes of her churn.dash. "A sweet, smart, thrifty little creature," said Jack number one, as he saw her making the soapsuds fly, while she washed clothes at the spring, swept the yard, and trained vines over the door. 66 The cold water man got to dropping in of an evening to talk with golden-haired Gertrude, and was astonished to find this maid of all work" familiar with the works of Goethe! Now Jack was exceedingly fond of poetry, and he found it very pleasant to repeat his favorite verses to a sweet, blue-eyed appreciative listener by the light of a fair Autumn moon! The course of true love ran so smooth, that before the Christmas fires were lighted, Jack number one had made an offer of his true heart and hard-working hand, and been "taken up" as the Hoosiers say. practical truths, which commend themselves to the sound judgment of every sensible reader. No rushing into print," no magnifying of the names or fame of any man, will do when the real necessities require a new and better knowledge, which is eagerly sought for by all who take and pay for journals. Sad is the disappointment when a monthly is searched only to not find any or but little aid in the practical duties which overtax the practitioner's body and brain. Ignore it as we will, every useful and good pursuit should pay. "The workman is worthy of his hire." Therefore, it is the plain duty of them who write to have something new and valuable to say, or never think of imposing their smatterings upon the readers. All the flourishing and embellishments of good rhetoric fail to afford satisfaction, and even these leave an aching void, when needed food for the medical mind of a plain and substantial kind is hungered for and eager Only the day after Gertrude was under the painful necessity of refusing a similar offer from Jack number two. "Hely sought after. All turn with disgust got no sense, ," said Gerty's German mother, "He no sport himself, he loses him fodder, hogs eat up half him corn, he no gather near all him cotton, him sick most de time-What him do wid a wife?" VIRGINIA DU PAUL COVINGTON. from mere superficial instructions, however brilliant and assuming. All are seeking real culture from every source in order to make themselves first-rate practitioners; to distinguish themselves and make their profession pay. This is right in the very fitness of things, for any bus HOW TO MAKE A GOOD MEDI- iness which cannot be made to yield a CAL JOURNAL. ALL interested in editing and writing for a medical journal must understand the real wants of our profession. They must have a clear and distinct knowledge of what will aid those in daily practice, on whom the trying responsibilities of caring for those in great peril to health and life. The best possible way known to human acquirements, and beyond what can be found in the books-the conceded and settled authorities are looked for in the fresh journal of each returning month. These must keep in advance of the latest and best published works, which every good physician is supposed to have already at his command. Writers must rise above glittering generalities, sophomoric declamations, and deal out plain, good and respectable remuneration, when wisely and energetically pursued, is unworthy of life's devotion and sacrifice to it. All brag, boast and cant about being called, preferred to others, all railings against our competitors of our own or other sects in medicine are outside of all sympathy in the strictly scientific and professional mind and bearing, and must not mar, disfigure and disgrace the fair and costly pages of journalistic litera ture. What all want is to be shown the better and more successful way to practice, no matter from what source such knowledge comes. avail themselves of every possible channel for instruction, and much that is valuable comes from very humble and unlooked for sources. All shrewd observers All sensible persons 1873.1 DISEASED LIVER AND SUICIDE. 181 are alive to all around them, everywhere, for the credit and good of our profession. and glean and absorb invaluable practi-St. Louis Medical Journal. cal thoughts as much or more from passing events than from the stores of authorities, much of which is mere "old plunder," hypotheses, exploded ideas, or worse. We want articles from those who are known to excel in some one branch of their profession, whatever that may be. "One science alone can one genius fit, So broad is human knowledge, so narrow human wit." For any man to spread his thoughts over a general practice makes his knowledge too superficial to enable him to write on any one special subject to the profit and instruction of others about it. If we seek out a branch of practice for which we have aptness and adaptation, an average talent can excel in it, and impart good to others less advanced. Toward these all eyes are turned for instruction in these avenues of practical thought. All great minds have distinguished their usefulness in a single channel of investigation; not in all, certainly. None are equal to such a task. Let us write on prevailing maladies, on grave and perplexing diseases, on destructive epidemics, on the best management of diseases that are slaying great numbers around us; show a better way to treat consumption, asthma, scrofula, syphilis, cancer; how to become adepts in special surgical diseases and operations-the stern responsibility that baffles and often tries us to the very verge of despair. Any new light made to shine in our pathway on these very common maladies will be gratefully appreciated by all. Three things must be thought of to write a good article: 1. Is it new and useful? 2. It must have a beginning, middle and end; simple, clear and to the point. 3. Without flourish or redundancy of words, subserving a real practical want and good. It is unnecessary to add, our profession is prolific in these subjects, and in writers, modest, cultured and capable. Such are invited to the front, and others are implored to keep in abeyance until they can assume such an attitude only, [Now, if our Western cotemporary will substitute the word health for medical, THE SCIENCE OF HEALTH fills the bill as to "How to Make a Good MedicalHealth-Journal." Our writers are both wise and brilliant; our practitioners Hygienic are ever-so-far in "advance » of those of all other schools, and subscribers are glad to "pay"-not for poisons, but-to learn how to keep well, and escape the drug doctors. We hope in good time to bring the world up to our "advanced" views, when there shall be no more pills, plasters, bitters, and other die stuffs administered to poor, jaded, sick and worn-out human stomachs. We like what our cotemporary says about "what all want is to be shown the betHe will find the "better way" in THE SCIENCE OF HEALTH.] ter way," "etc. DISEASED LIVER AND [DR. TRALL contributes the following sensible article to the Philadelphia Star, from which we transfer it to the SCIENCE OF HEALTH, and commend it to desponding invalids.] THOMAS OLCOTT, of Albany, N. Y., wealthy and estimable citizen,” happy in his domestic relations, and fortunate in his social surroundings, committed suicide, a few days ago, at a water-cure establishment in New York City. His friends say that he had a diseased liver, which affected his brain. How and why it is that disease of the liver predisposes to suicide may seem very strange to most persons, yet the rationale is very simple. To understand the problem we have only to consider the office of the liver in the vital economy, and trace the consequences of an interruption of that office. Every adult person knows, or ought to know, that it is the office of the liver to cleanse the blood of certain waste matters and impurities which are excreted in the form of bile. This bile is a thick, viscid, bitter fluid, which, in the condition of health, passes off from the liver and |