Every intelligent physician should at once Libraries, laboratories for chemical analysis subscribe for the Index Medicus. The act- and the manufacture of ice, reservoirs for ual cost of its publication is great, but its pure water, fish ponds, appliances for baths, value to all medical scholars is incalculable, douches, and general hydrotherapy are not and its relations to rapid professional pro- to be overlooked. Dr. Paquelin's thermogress very intimate. cautery is to be on hand to deal with the The last report of the Eastern Michigan bites of serpents. Heifers or mares ad hoc Asylum says that "ovarian insanity is fre- are to be procured to furnish animal vaccine quently the result of a repression of the nat-matter. The social evil is to be wisely regural feelings and aspirations of the sex. It ulated and superintended. Several cremais often observed in the strong minded who tion furnaces are to be afforded for the benehave endeavored to mark out careers irre- fit of such as die in the ordinary course of spective of the limitations of sex and of phy-nature. In every respect the most careful sical constitution." The same report says plans are made for the safety of such as labor "that only twelve per cent. of the inmates on this great work. of the asylum are known not to have had insane relatives. Of the alkaloids of cinchona bark we now have eighteen primary and seven secondary distinct active principles. A training school for nurses was opened November 1 in connection with the Brooklyn (N. Y.) City Hospital. It is on the same plan as the one attached to the Bellevue Hospital, New York. The Superintendent, Miss Pine, is a graduate of the latter school. The Nurses' Home is at 257 Adelphi street. Applications for admission may be made to the superintendent. The officers of the society are: President, Mrs. A. J. Perry, 30 First Place; Vice-President, Mrs. C. L. Mitchell, 129 Montague street; Secretary, Miss D. B. Robinson, 308 Green avenue; Treasurer, Mr. Wm. G. Low, 58 Remsen The title of the journal of the Anatomical and Surgical Society of Brooklyn, N. Y., has been changed to the Annals of Anatomy and Surgery. The scope of the journal will be enlarged to meet the scope of the new During the past year it has been one of the best of all our exchanges. It was scientific, viz., it told the truth in the plain est possible manner. There was no effort to obtain a cheap notoriety. In its enlarged street; Assistant Treasurer, Mrs. C. T. field we are sure that it will honor medical Pierre, 41 Tompkins Place. name. journalism, as well as greatly benefit its pro- The Medical and Surgical Reporter says jectors, the students of anatomy and surg-"that there are exceedingly few physicians ery and the profession generally. It costs but two dollars a year, so that everyone should take it. who, after they enter practice, continue their profession as anything more than a means to gain money and a social reputation. Had The American Medical Bi-weekly has been they commenced its study from more elevrevived by its former editor and publisher, ated motives, they would make these considDr. E. S. Gaillard. It is a double-column, erations secondary to others, and were such twenty-four-page journal, issued bi-weekly motives more common with students the refrom New York City at the nominal price lations between practitioners would be more of one dollar a year. We congratulate its harmonious than is generally the case.” talented editor on his recovered health and successful issue of his famous periodicals. On November 9, 1880, Prof. Von Langenbeck celebrated his seventieth birthday. Both the profession and royalty united in honoring the aged veteran. In a description of the provisions for the sanitary and medical care of the laborers of the Lessep's Canal Construction Company, Dr. Keppler at his sixth ovariotomy found. the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal three ovaries with their corresponding fallosays: "There are to be hospitals, ambulances, pian tubes. pharmaceutical laboratories, doctors, mid- The English anatomists were denied prowives, etc. Trees-among others the euca- tection until the discovery in 1828 that some lyptus-and vegetable gardens are to be fifteen murders had been committed by planted; cattle for slaughtering to be raised; Burke and Hare in Edinburgh, for the single tents and houses to be erected on approved purpose of selling the bodies of their vicplans, and fire extinguishers to be provided. tims. Mr. Lister has receiver from the Royal into a vessel containing the liquid. This is Society the royal medal in recognition of his services to surgery and physiology. essay repeated several times, allowing time for each film to dry. The collodion is now poured back again into a stoppered bottle. The film does not interfere with touch or freedom of movement. Afterwards the hands can be washed in a little ether to remove the film. Concerning medical certificate writing, a correspondent of the Med. Record makes the following note: "I will state my case briefly. I have a young friend-a rising young man not in the baking powder, drug or wine business, I am sorry to say; in case he had been, then I would have a precedent to go by. My young friend has invented a trap The Philadelphia Academy of Surgery offers a prize of five hundred dollars for the best essay on the surgical pathology and treatment of tumors or morbid growths of the testis, scrotum and spermatic cord, to be open exclusively to American surgeons. (1) The essay must be founded solely upon original investigations, be illustrated by suitable drawings, microscopical aud other, and be written in scholarly English. (2) The shall be the property of the Academy, which shall, at its option, permit the author to publish it at his own risk or expense. (3) Each essay must be accompanied by a motto and by a sealed letter containing the author's (4) The essay must comprise an amount of matter equal to two hundred and fifty pages octavo. (5) The award will be made at the meeting of the Academy in January, given certificates as to its wonderful work1884, by a committee of the fellows. All ing. My friend lacks capital to fairly put essays should be forwarded to the secretary the article before the public; he offered me of the committee, at a date not later than October 15, 1883, J. Ewing Mears, 1429 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa. name. a rat trap--a most extraordinary contrivance, sure to catch every time. It retails at fifty cents; wholesale, twenty-five cents. A liberal deduction made to ministers and their families. Although not yet fairly in the market, over one hundred ministers have It a partnership, provided I furnished the money. On the matter of business, I believe the code of ethics is very explicit if it is not, the spirit is, and that is what we are all after just now I understand. The partnership I did not seriously entertain, partly because I have not just now the ready money, and of course on account of the code. strack me that, my professional reputation being somewhat enviable, I could give character to the trap enterprise by a suitable certificate. I know I could conscientiously write such a certificate and testify to the fact that it is an entirely original invention, that my friend is perfectly trustworthy in everything he says, and that I know the iron of which it is made comes from Sweden and The inaugural message of the Governor of Michigan for 1881 makes the following statement respecting the expenses of the several departments of the State University: "In the literary department there was expended for salaries of instructors and its proportion of current expenses, $63,515.90. From this deduct $17,694 for fees collected from students, and it leaves $45,821.90 as the net expenditure for 448 students, or an average of $102.28 for each. In the law department the net expenditure for each student was $4.68; in the department of medicine and surgery, $30.75; in the school of pharmacy, $86.34; in the dental college, $61.59; in the homoeo- is the purest in the market. Also, that no pathic medical college, $117.69. Thus it appears that each student at the University of Michigan costs the State, each year, for simple instructors' fees and incidental expenses, from $4.68 to $117.69. Why does not the State make a similar donation to every boy and girl in its domain? Such is the question often put to us, and we find ourselves unable to give answer. A writer in the Chemists' Journal suggests the use of flexible collodion as a means of protecting the hands during post-mortem examinations. The hands are to be dipped I am rat has as yet escaped from its jaws. The wine or other proprietary article intended to be used as a nostrum or remedy in disease.' Hence, I believe I am beyond the reach of the code, at least, and I wish to think so in the interest of a really useful invention." Dr. David P. Smith, professor of surgery in the Yale Medical School, died December 26th. Gross, in a very earnest letter, denies the statement, and suggests that the writer's statement can only "be explained on the supposition that he is the very fellow who, by the grace of God, obtained a degree from the college without ever having seen a case; his indolence and indifference not having permitted him to avail himself of the precious pearls that are daily thrown before such swine in the ample amphitheatres of the Dr. G. W. Lawrence, of the Hot Springs of Arkansas, says that these springs are death to consumptives. As he is not inter- Philadelphia hospitals." ested in any cemetery or undertaker's estab The Toledo Medical Journal, November, lishment of that place, he advises persons 1880, has some truthful remarks respecting thus afflicted not to go there for relief. The U. S. Army Medical Museum and jealousy in the medical profession. Thus: The U. S. Army Medical Museum and "It is difficult to say in which communities Library contains 20,000 specimens, very com- this feeling runs more nearly rampant. Our pletely illustrating military surgery and the diseases of armies. The library contains 51,500 volumes and 57,000 pamphlets relating to medicine, surgery and allied topics. While the classes at Louisville are smal older cities have their college cliques and fraternal combatants; our towns and villages keep up their share of petty bickerings and fratricidal warfare. It would seem that ler than in former years, owing to the rise every dung-hill must have its particular cock, whose peculiar business is to strut in fees, the receipts from students are much about with flapping wings and impertinent larger. Thus the change has proved success-crowing, warning more unfortunate roosters ful in a financial point of view. We doubt away." As to the causes for this the writer not that the quality of the classes is also gives: (1) Overcrowding in the profession, better than under the old low fee system. by which two or more try to live upon the It is said that certain English publishers field which is incapable of supporting more have re-published Blakiston's American than one. (2) Professional pride subordinHealth Primers. They call them "Ward & ates itself to the trade instinct. Of the adLocke's Long Life Series." Further, all that vice given by our brother editor we quote: could show their American origin has been « Beware, brother physician, how, in an evil cut out, and it is announced that the series is day, you say to yourself, 'I will arise and go "written and edited by distinguished mem- hence; I will seek a place among the brethbers of the medical profession," while the ern of the cities. No more shall my happinames of the writers, etc., are omitted. ness be blighted by the hum of bees or the lowing of kine upon the hills. I will go where I can with the brotherhood and find a place prepared for me, a cordial welcome among my kind.' Let us advise-don't do it; but if you do, how sad will be your disappointment. And if to the crime of being Walsh's Retrospect, in discussing the meager support of physicians, describes a class of practitioners thus: "There are med ical men in each community who seem to hunger after patients; not that they may realize a comfortable and legitimate support; not that they may gratify a proper scientific a physician you add the double one of being enthusiasm; not that they may minister to a charitable impulse, but that they may swell their list beyond those of other physicians around them." Such men are dead weights upon any effort to reform. young, so much the worse for you." The writer admits that there are some noble physicians, but he fears that the majority are of the other metal. The code of ethics may not be openly violated; no word may be spoken that the laws may deem a violation, but the shrugging shoulders, the damning with faint praise, will sting where open enmity fails to injure. Concerning all this, "Pity 'tis true; true, 'tis pitiful." After all, it is about the same in the legal profes The venerable Professor sion and in the ministerial professions. It Some time since a correspondent of the London Lancet wrote "that he was assured that at Jefferson College, which is one of the leading schools in the country, a man might take his degree in medicine and go forth to practice his profession, without ever having seen a case." stamps the physician as human; very human; more human than humane. Editor's Book Table. The Books Noticed in these Pages are for Sale by THORNDYKE of Fever.* It may be a matter of interest, in view of the fact that some legislatures are consider- Wood on the Normal and Morbid Physiology ing how they shall meet the needs of chronic inebriates, to read the following. It is from the pen of Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, and was published in the Washingtonian, Oct. 17, 1877: The work before us is the outcome of a vast amount of experimental labor covering the leisure hours of several years. The views and facts of other workers in the same field are quite fully presented. The whole work is worthy of far more careful study "The second class of institutions should be specially adapted to the wants of those we have included in the third group of drinkers than it is likely to get. Still, students of -the chronic or persistent inebriates. this part of physiology and pathology will These should be established and maintained give it a most cordial welcome. The under State or municipal authority; and, in author's own statement of the facts as he addition to the means of intellectual, moral, has gathered them will be best given in his social and medical treatment belonging to the first class of institutions named, these own language: should have regular systematic and useful 1st. In man there is a fixed mean and work provided for all the inmates. Admis- normal variation of temperature having a sion to these should be through legal process, regular rhythm, and this variation is beyond. with legal authority to detain for a certain the control of all disturbing causes which do length of time to admit of thorough renova tion and recovery. Our whole system of not force the organism beyond the condition police management of drunkenness should of health. be changed. Instead of repeated arrests, 24. The maintenance of the normal tem 3d. So far as our present knowledge goes, the chief factor in controlling heat dissipation is the vaso-motor nerves, including, petty fines, and thirty, sixty or ninety-day perature and its rhythm is dependent upon sentences to Bridewells or prisons, in direct contact with other criminals, which all past the nervous system, which, within certain experience has shown only aggravates the limits, controls both the production and disevil, the law should provide for having com- sipation of heat. plaints against all of this class lodged with the Judge of the county, or other court of record, and such Judge should be authorized, on the certificate or testimony of two competent and well known physicians, to in man, such nerves as control sweat secrecommit the party to an asylum such as we tion; these nerves being able by contracthave indicated, for a term not less than one ing the capillaries of the body surface, and nor more than five years, unless sooner dis- by drying the secretion of the skin, to recharged for good conduct and full recovery, duce the loss of heat to a minimum, and by by the superintendent in charge of the institution. Under such a system of manage-a reverse action to increase it to a maximum. ment, this class of institutions could be 4th. The only nerve center proven to exmade very nearly or quite self-supporting, ist capable of influencing the heat production and a very large proportion of those brought without affecting the general circulation, is under their influence permanently restored to health and good citizenship. Such a syssituated in the pons or above it, and whilst tem would place the legal relations and it may be a muscular vaso-motor center, it personal liberty of the confirmed inebriate is more probably an "inhibitory heat cenon the same level with the insane, with insti- tre," and whichever it may be, it must act tutions specially adapted to effect his refor- through the subordinate centres situated in mation, and, at the same time, protect their friends, families, and the whole community the spinal cord. from the depredations and crimes, so constantly being committed by the class to which he belongs." The foregoing well expresses what could and should be done for this wretched class. The present annual productions of quinine is as follows: America, 63,000 lbs; Germany, 56,250 lbs; Italy, 45,000 lbs; France, 40,000 lbs; England, 27,000 lbs; India, 12,500 lbs. 5th. Fever is a nutritive disturbance in which there is an elevation of the bodily temperature, and also an increase of the production of heat by an increase in the chemical movements of the accumulated material of the body; this increase being sometimes *FEVER: A Study in Morbid and Normal Physiology. By H. C. Wood, A. M., M. D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1880. Cloth, p.p. 258. Illustrated. sufficient, sometimes insufficient, to compen- inhibitory centre does not exert its normal sate for the loss of that heat which is derived influence upon the system, and consequently directly from the destruction of the surplus tissue change goes on at a rate which results food in the body, very little or no food be- in the production of more heat than normal, ing taken in severe fever. The rise of and an abnormal destruction and elimination temperature in fever is, therefore, not de- of the materials of the tissue. At the same pendent altogether upon increased heat time the vaso-motor and other heat dissipaproduction, as in fever there is sometimes tion centres are so benumbed, that they are less production of heat in the organism than not called into action by their normal stimuthere is at other times when the bodily tem- lus (elevation of the general bodily temperaperature remains normal; also excessive heat ture) and do not provide for the throwing production may occur even at the expense off the animal heat until it becomes so exof the accumulated materials of the organism cessive as to call into action, by its excessive without elevation of bodily temperature. stimulation, even their depressed forces. Finally, in some cases of sudden and excessive fever, as in one form of the so-called cerebral rheumatism, the enormous and almost instantaneous rise of temperature appears to be due to a complete paralysis of the nervous centres presiding over heat production and dissipation." 6th. In fever, a daily temperature variation occurs which is parallel to that seen in health, and differs from the normal variation only in having a higher mean. 7th. In fever, vaso-motor paralysis, when produced, is followed by an immediate fall of temperature, similar to but greater than that which is produced by a like disturbance in health. 8th. The decrease in heat production which follows section of the cord is much greater in the fevered than in the normal animal. 9th. The so called inhibitory heat nervous system is not paralysed in fever, but is less capable than in health of answering promptly and powerfully to suitable stimuli; in other words, it is in a condition of paresis or partial palsy. 10th. The clinical succession and phenomena of a febrile paroxysm, such as that of an intermittent, seem plainly to depend upon the nervous system for their arrange ment and relation. 11th. In most cases of fever, and probably all cases of serious, there is a definite poison circulating in the blood, the poison sometimes having been formed in the system, sometimes having entered into the organism from without. Thus it appears that the views of the author are much the same as those he has held for years. The facts by which they are maintained are largely increased. Of the practical bearing of these researches we cannot here speak. The volume is issued as No. 357 of the published "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." It is a royal book, and right royally issued. Buck on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Ear Diseases.* This work was written in the main for general practitioners. The author tells us that he has mainly followed the plan of using only the material stored up in his own case books, and of describing only those methods of treatment which he has tested and found both safe and efficient. Thus the work is appropriately called "Buck on the Ear." As such, it very well represents the present state of our knowledge of this branch. It differs from the works of Rosa and Burnett, in that it gives far less space to a consideration of From these facts the author frames the the anatomy and physiology of the ear. The following theory of fever: space thus gained is devoted to the diagnosis "It is simply a state in which a depressing and treatment of ear diseases. Respecting poison or a depressing peripheral irritation the use of the syringe, the author greatly acts upon the nervous system which regu- limits its use. Thus, he says: To the phylates the production and dissipation of sician who possesses a steady hand and a delianimal heat; a system composed of diverse cate touch, my advice is to emancipate himparts so accustomed to act in unison continally in health, that they become, as it were, one system, and suffer in disease together. Owing to its depressed, benumbed state, the *THE DIAGNOSIS and Treatment of Ear Diseases. Bv Albert H. Buck, M. D. New York: William |