CONSI

ONSIDERING the infrequency of a disabil ity which is known as congenital dislocation of the hip, it is strange that so much interest should attach to the visit of a distinguished orthopedic surgeon to this country,-a surgeon whose reputation is based largely upon the relief he affords to the class afflicted by this particular deformity. It should be clearly understood that the hip socket in this deformity is improperly formed at birth, and permits too much play of the head of the bone. For a great many years,at least fifty, the profession has been taught to regard the efforts at cure as a greater affliction than the deformity itself. It is closely allied to harelip or cleft palate, both of which are disfiguring, and both of which are alike amenable to repair at the hands of the surgeon.

Dr. Adolf Lorenz is one of several orthopedic surgeons who have made relentless war on all kinds of deformities and diseases which cripple a child. Where permanent lameness comes in adult life, the sympathy is not so acute as when it attacks a child in its earliest years. The appeal of the father and mother becomes truly pathetic, and it is not surprising that the best years of a man's life are devoted to the cure of these little ones. It is only within the last two or three decades that hip disease itself has been regarded as a curable malady. After all, however, the large number of cases of disease involving this joint are not so relieved that the functions of the joint are perfectly restored, and it is no wonder that thousands of children with stiff hips and shortened limbs are longing for the advent of this distinguished Viennese surgeon. If his mission to this country can be regarded as an impetus to greater zeal in the prevention of deformity after hip disease, then his name will become a household word throughout the extent of this broad land.

What many surgeons in the large cities of this country, as well as in England, have been working at for many years, under all sorts of discouragements, Dr. Lorenz has the reputation of working out with greater success. Long before he announced his conversion to the nonbloody method of reducing congenital dislocation of the hip, he was one of the foremost ex

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ponents of the bloody method, and the statistics furnished by Lorenz of Vienna and Hoffa of Wurzburg had startled the scientific world. may interest the readers of this magazine to learn that, after the profession had learned to accept his results by the bloody methods as extraordinarily good, closer analysis on the part of Dr. Lorenz, both of the immediate and the ultimate results, led him to abandon this method for the one of which the public has come to recognize him as the greatest living exponent. It may interest the readers also to learn that, at the time when he was operating by the open or bloody method, antiseptics were in vogue rather than aseptics. By the antiseptic method is meant the employment of certain chemicals which are supposed to destroy germs. By the aseptic method is meant absolute and unconditional cleanliness both in the field of operation and in the person of the operator and his assistants. Dr. Lorenz laid the foundation for his great reputation during the antiseptic period, and the report is that he suffered more from these agents than did his patients.

The non-bloody method means this: the for. cible stretching of all the soft parts about the hip, sometimes even to the point of breaking the skin (which is rare), until the head of the bone can be brought to the place where the socket should be. If one can employ enough force to bring the head into this position, it naturally follows that a great effort is made to retain the bone sufficiently long for the formation of a socket more or less substantial. Many surgeons in this country and abroad have been able to accomplish the former, and the percentage of cures (by which is meant the retention of the bone sufficiently long for this socket to be serviceable) is just large enough to enlist still greater efforts. Now this great effort has been so persistent in the hands of Dr. Lorenz that his statistics furnish a larger percentage of perfect results.

His visit will make both the parents and the children the more willing to endure long periods of confinement in plaster-of-paris, and thus the surgeon will get more of that all-important factor in the attainment of success, home co

DR. ADOLF LORENZ.

operation. The stages of treatment are as follows: (1) The exaggerated position of the bone as related to the pelvis, extending over a period of from six to twelve months. (2) A less exaggerated position, wherein the thigh is brought midway between what is known as extreme abduction and the vertical line. This period ex. tends over from three to six months. (3) The limb is brought into a normal position when the fourth stage of treatment is begun,-namely, massage,--active and passive movements, until the function of the joint is made normal.

Many patients weary of these long periods of confinement, and parents are unwilling to subject their children to such treatment when they know how active they were before such

measures were adopted. When the writer of this paper was serving his apprenticeship in the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled as interne, his attention was frequently called to the grace with which a young girl or a young woman with double dislocation of the hip went through the mazy dance. And even now, in the midst of all good work that is being done for this deformity, he is often compelled to dissuade mothers from subjecting children with double dislocation to the course of treatment.

We all expect great things from Dr. Lorenz, and it is to be regretted that we shall have to wait so long for the realization of our hopes. American students who have profited by his instruction in Vienna return impressed with his zeal, with his honesty, and with his enormous capacity for work. When the first reports of his operations by this method came to this country, his admirers told, in dramatic terms, of the peculiar click with which the head of the bone was thrown into its place by his magic touch. The reports

of his work since his arrival in October have but confirmed these earlier statements. While the restoration of the head of the bone to its normal position is so easily accomplished in children under five or six years of age, it is sad to think that those beyond the age of eight or nine can get no such relief. For these children recourse must be had to the open operation, unless men like Lorenz and Hoffa and Paci can devise a more attractive method.

The mission, then, will be the earlier recognition of this disabling deformity, the more general adoption of the method which promises such a happy outcome, and during the next decade there must needs be fewer children who fail to profit by the visit of Dr. Lorenz to this country.

THE

HE figure of Benjamin B. Odell stands out prominently against the background of the autumn's harvest of campaigns. He has been conspicuous in the affairs of the Republican party in New York State for a number of years, but he now stands before the nation. That a strong party man,- -a machine man as was supposed prior to January, 1900,-could be elected governor for one term was a matter of course, but that such a man could be reëlected against a strong opposition, and by an increased vote in a majority of the districts, is by no means a matter of course. It forces the candidate outside the realm where partisan motives rule, and sets him in the other realm where men rule by virtue of what they are, the realm of character.

His recent victory, then, is far more significant than the earlier one. When the returns came in it looked for an hour as though Mr. Odell's defeat were assured. New York City turned against him with unexpected vigor. But the city's rejection of him was doubtless very largely due to local conditions.

The rest of the State, however, turned to him. Heartily disgusted with the method used against. him, they rebuked it heartily. They declared their confidence in his personal aims. They expressed their cordial approval of his administration of State affairs. His home county illustrates the temper of the State. Orange increased the vote of 1900 by more than a thousand, and the city of Newburgh, which had at the earlier election expressed her pride at having one of her sons as governor by giving him a splendid majority, gave him four hundred more votes this fall.

And the test has been severe. The governor's administration has been along business lines. He had dared to reform much of the State's finance. This had thrown many out of the easy berths to which the occupants felt they were properly entitled, and had made each of them a center for anti-administration influence. The reduction of the tax rate, however, won him many friends, who were counted at the polls. He had utterly failed to show sympathy with the liquor men. They were naturally out of sympathy with him. Besides this, in the conferences with the coal operators no man had been more outspoken in his denunciation of the capitalists'

methods and motives than this same governor. In that issue he distinctly espoused the cause of the public as against the trust.

In spite of all these influences, which tended to weaken the support given at the earlier election, Govenor Odell was reelected. Men in New York State wanted him as governor. He stands therefore conspicuous, not so much as a party man, but rather as a public man, whose service of the public has been markedly independent.

Character is a product. The treasure that most men give to the world they lay up in their early years. Out of the good treasure of their hearts they bring forth good things, and if the treasure has been evil they bring forth evil things. The home, then, can tell the secret of this man's power. When election day came the governor was at his father's house in Newburgh. There, in the library, he received the returns that night. His wife, children, sisters, brothers, and father were about him. It was characteristic that he went home to receive the returns. His own residence was dark. He was at his father's house.

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This father, whose name the governor bears. is a patriarchal figure in the community. little lad who came to town at holiday-time, a couple of years ago, saw him on the street, was impressed with the strong face set off by snowy hair and flowing beard, ran quickly up to him and queried, "Are you Santa Claus?" It is needless to say that before he left town the little lad was sure he had found the saint. Seventyseven years of life have been his, but his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated. Alert, with rapid, springy step he walks down to the familiar office every morning and puts in a long day attending to business.

His life has been full of activity. He worked his way up from the farm. County and municipal politics interested him. For more than forty years he has been in active service. He was one of the last trustees of the village of Newburgh, and in 1866 was one of the aldermen who organized the newly chartered city. He served the county as supervisor and as sheriff, and served the city as its mayor for six terms. The city park, which extends over many acres. and occupies the highest ground in the city, a site commanding an extended view of Orange

and Dutchess counties, while in the foreground lies the Hudson, held by the Beacons, Storm King, and the Narrows, as it sweeps down against the West Point peninsula,this the ex-mayor wants to be known as his monument. Such is his interest in the better life of the city. The oldest son claimed the birthright in public affairs, took up his share of the inheritance, and has worked it well.

The governor's attachment to his home was cemented long before politics concerned him. To this home he brought President Roosevelt, that the eyes of his mother might rest on him, and she might share to the utmost the good things that filled up her son's life. This mother was a Bookstaver, a descendant of one of the staunch Dutch settlers of the county. A strong character occupied her vigorous body and voiced itself through an unusually alert mind. Her hands toiled for her children. She seconded her husband in his enterprises and helped him gather a comfortable fortune. She pushed the education of her children and started them in the world with three strong things,strong bodies, strong minds, strong wills, and these three under the strong control of the Christian religion. The family went to church,-the old Reformed Dutch Church, that led the procession of denominations on Manhattan Island and up the Hudson, the church to which the President also declares allegiance.

To these elements of the home life there has been added a deal of heart training. The accidental death of the first Mrs. Odell, the mother of the governor's sons, broke up his home for a time, and the boys were welcomed into the fam

ily of their grandfather. A few years later the home was reconstituted, with the present Mrs. Odell as its mistress. The husband was then leading the quiet life of one of Newburgh's business men, with a large interest in local politics.

Soon after this Walter, the oldest son, then attending the academy, was stricken with paralysis after a vigorous game of football. During the six years that he lived Walter's life was the life of the mind. The body, as soon appeared, could never become normal. The intel

lect, keen at the beginning, grew wonderfully acute during the following years. The father's interest broadened, the scope of his political aims widened, and the boy breathed the atmosphere of his father's busy life. He went to Washington with him, met men of mark, and soon became skilled far beyond his years in

MR. BENJAMIN B. ODELL, SR.

theoretical and practical politics, while he enjoyed a widely cultured outlook upon the world's life.

Until he had drained the bitterness of these sorrows Mr. Odell lived a quiet life. He had shown no marked ambition, but was simply the intelligent citizen, industrious, respected, but not at all on the highway to renown. Now the eagle's nest was stirred. He became ambitious to gain wealth. He wanted place and power, not chiefly for himself, but for his son's sake. He wakened to intense activity. Larger business affairs were laid hold of. Concrete financial problems attracted him. Naturally a man of strong will power, he laid hold of everything he touched with a master hand. He picked up

the old one-horse street railway of the town, and shortly after it was a busy trolley line. He promoted the affairs of the electric system and soon bought out the competing company. One business matter after another he handled successfully, and all the while he was becoming a growing factor in politics. He was State committeeman, then chairman of the State Committee, then sent on to do valued work as a member of the Assembly. He was elected governor for the first term. Now, as the reëlected governor, he stands conspicuous before the nation as the champion of right for the people. But it was the impetus of sorrow that sent him on his way.

Here, at home, we know him as a modest, unassuming man, who takes life seriously. He is too strong to feel the need of outdoor sports. and too busy to need them as a time-killer. His own residence is not on one of our high hills, surrounded by a broad domain, but in one of the city streets, where he can walk to business or the City Club. His spare time, if he spares any from the exacting duties of his office, is spent at home. When he wants rest he travels. The governor first governs himself. He must look upon the man who is consumed with pas sion as we look upon wild beasts. Sober-minded, he will not eat too much, drink too much, nor talk too much. He holds himself in command. while forethought and foresight are the twin qualities of his mind. Reserved, he listens to you as you put your case, and when you cease talking you know he has decided. If a monosyllable is enough for answer, why multiply words? He is fitted with a rapid-fire judgment. yet he does not form his judgment till the evidence is in. He attends to business, and there fore dispatches business. He has no time or inclination for small talk.

He is used to conflicts; they do not disconcert him. Once his mind is made up, only the access of new facts can make it over. Opposi tion he rather likes,-it draws him out. He is not tossed about with every wind. You are sure that he has his root in himself.

Yes, the governor's character is a product. It was placed in a home where it was directed by the teachings of Christianity, exercised in the direction of practical interest in the welfare of others, and informed by a wide and intelligent interest in public affairs. Then it was thrown into the crucible of sorrow, whence it has come forth solid, stable, strong, to stand for the highest things in public life.