“With kindest regards, I am,

“Fraternally yours,

“Emil Schwarz, M. D.,

“Director, Leipsic Institute of Medicine.”

“Most happy to meet you, Dr. Reinstrom,” I greeted the new arrival, as he entered our office.

For several minutes we sat and chatted of things medical here and abroad.

“What is it, Doctor,” I asked finally, “that interests you most in America?”

“Oh,” he replied quickly with an expressive gesture, “it is the broadmindedness with which you adopt the best from all over the world, regardless of prejudice.  For instance, I am very much interested in the new twilight sleep.  Of course you have borrowed it largely from us, but it interests me to see whether you have modified it with practice.  In fact I have come to the Hillside Sanitarium particularly to see it used.  Perhaps we may learn something from you.”

It was most gracious and both Dr. Thompson and myself were charmed by our visitor.  I reached over and touched a call-button and our head nurse entered from a rear room.

“Are there any operations going on now?” I asked.

She looked mechanically at her watch.  “Yes, there are two cases, now, I think,” she answered.

“Would you like to follow our technique, Doctor?” I asked, turning to Dr. Reinstorm.

“I should be delighted,” he acquiesced.

A moment later we passed down the corridor of the Sanitarium, still chatting.  At the door of a ward I spoke to the attendant who indicated that a patient was about to be anesthetized, and Reinstrom and I entered the room.

There, in perfect quiet, which is an essential part of the treatment, were several women patients lying in bed in the ward.  Before us two nurses and a doctor were in attendance on one.

I spoke to the Doctor, Dr. Holmes, by the way, who bowed politely to the distinguished Dr. Reinstrom, then turned quickly to his work.

“Miss Sears,” he asked of one of the nurses, “will you bring me that hypodermic needle?  How are you getting on, Miss Stern?” to the other who was scrubbing the patient’s arm with antiseptic soap and water, thoroughly sterilizing the skin.

“You will see, Dr. Reinstrom.”  I interposed in a low tone, “that we follow in the main your Freiburg treatment.  We use scopolamin and narkophin.”

I held up the bottle, as I said it, a rather peculiar shaped bottle, too.

“And the pain?” he asked.

“Practically the same as in your experience abroad.  We do not render the patient unconscious, but prevent her from remembering anything that goes on.”

Dr. Holmes, the attending physician, was just starting the treatment.  Filling his hypodermic, he selected a spot on the patient’s arm, where it had been scrubbed and sterilized, and injected the narcotic.

“How simply you do it all, here!” exclaimed Reinstrom in surprise and undisguised admiration.  “You Americans are wonderful!”