Medical Association, occupying the chair, and those assembled for the symposium acting as a committee of the whole, proceeded to organization, and elected the following officers for the year 1912-1913: President, James T. Gwathmey, of New York; vicepresidents, Charles K. Teter, of Cleveland, F. H. McMeechan, of Cincinnati, Yandel Henderson, of New Haven; secretary, William C. Woolsey, 88 Layfayette avenue, Brooklyn; treasurer, Harold A. Sanders, of Brooklyn. The constitution and by-laws were ordered to be drawn by the executive committee and submitted to the society at its next meeting for adoption; all names submitted for membership, if qualified in the estimation of the executive committee, shall be considered as charter members if presented within a period of sixty days and accompanied by the levied due of three dollars. The National Society. of Anesthetists in this notice, calls all those who are actively interested in this work to join its ranks and assist in developing the subject of anesthesia to greater perfection and more uniform safety. MINOR INTELLIGENCE. SIR WILLIAM OSLER, formerly professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, now regius professor of medicine at Oxford, has been appointed. to the Silliman lectureship at Yale for 1912. DOCTOR DARIUS NORFLEET BARRETT, of Detroit, died recently in Chicago following an intestinal operation. Doctor Barrett was fortytwo years old and during the last five years he has practiced in Detroit. Formerly he was a professor in the Chattanooga Medical School. DOCTOR LEWIS M. EARLY, a millionaire physician of Columbus, Ohio, has offered $2,000,000 to any one who will cure him of cancer. Surely this offer should stimulate scientific research along the lines of biologic chemistry, radium and allied ray activity in combating cancer, and to a more careful investigation of the germ and cell theories. THE Wayne County Medical Society was the recipient of a beautiful mahogany, grandfather's clock, presented by the Michigan State Medical Society as a token of appreciation for the splendid entertainment given the society at its last meeting. Doctor Frederick C. Warnshuis, of Grand Rapids, presented the gift which was accepted by Doctor Henry O. Walker. DOCTOR WOODS HUTCHINSON, better known as the "magazine doctor," is ill. For several years the pen of this writer has been busy dispensing health advice. He has shown the relation of the peanut to appendicitis and faithfully depicted the misery of the inmates of modern health resorts. It was Doctor Hutchinson who laughed at the dyspeptic and called him a neurasthenic; it was the same physician who elucidated the plan of working twenty hours without fatigue. Now that this famous laugh dispenser is ill, those offended by his words are crying, "physician, heal thyself." . DOCTOR KATHERINE STUART SNYDER BUSSE, who was graduated from the medical department of the University of Michigan in 1888, died at her home in Madison, Indiana, on November 26. Doctor Busse practiced for twenty years in Evansville, Indiana. She was a member of the staff of the Southern Indiana State Hospital and later she was appointed on the consulting staff of the Southeastern Indiana State Hospital at Madison. She began her medical career as physician to the State Public School at Coldwater, Michigan. An innovation in combating the white plague was completed recently when Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt's apartments for tuberculous people were opened in New York. This is not a charitable enterprise but is intended to place tuberculous patients under conditions favorable to recovery. Open-air balconies connect apartments and the roof is a garden and playground. The rooms are ideally arranged and hygienic principles are applied throughout. Roems rent for $1.25 to $2.00 a week and the cheapest apartment-two rooms and bath-cost $2.50 a week. It is expected that this plan will yield four per cent on the investment which is to be used in combating tuberculosis. GOVERNOR TENER, of Pennsylvania, has appointed the following men to investigate the history, nature, and pathology of smallpox and vaccination: Doctor William Welch, Doctor Jay F. Schamberg, Porter F. Cope. Secretary of the Antivaccination League of America, John Pitcairn (also an antivaccinationist), ex-Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker, G. W. Pepper, and Emil Rosenberger of the law profession. This commission being so well balanced should at the end of their investigation, on February 1, 1913, present a very interesting report which will not only affect the State of Pennsylvania but the whole country. With scientific investigators, vigorous antivaccinationists, and skilled judiciary officers working upon this problem the facts concerning vaccination and smallpox should be known. RECENT PUBLICATIONS. REVIEWS. THE AMERICAN PRACTICE OF SURGERY. THE eighth and last volume of this work by Bryant and Buck, is devoted to regional surgery, the law in its relation to the practice of surgery and administrative surgical work. This great work, covering more than eight thousand pages, establishes a landmark in this particular branch of medical science, but opportunity is always present and investigation forges ahead so rapidly that some of the articles have already become a matter of history and new methods of doing things have taken their places. There is an excellent chapter on intrathoracic surgery, but the basic principles of this work are already being applied in new ways to improve the method and extent of operations. Surgery of the adbomen and pelvis is the last chapter of the section. This does not include surgery of the alimentary canal as that is placed in the preceding volume. While surgery of the pancreas has not been exhaustively treated, a full reference to all recent articles upon this subject follows the text. Surgery of the liver, gall-bladder and biliary passages written by Doctor G. W. Stewart, of New York City, is concise. The cream of the subject is presented in a few pages. More space should have been given to this important branch. Three hundred pages are required to explain the relation which the diseases peculiar to women hold to surgery, but they are well written by Doctor Benjamin R. Schenck, of Detroit, Michigan. The obligation of the surgeon to his patient is of such manifest importance that a chapter has been written setting forth these medicolegal relations. This article is written by Stephen Smith, M. D., and Sydney Smith, of the New York bar. It is based upon the reports of medicolegal trials, which have from time to time been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These extracts are so concisely written that a wide field is covered, thus giving the reader an interesting account of the subject, to help familiarize himself with such relations. Administrative surgical work comprises hospital building and hospital management. It gives special rules, which should govern hospital construction of various types, both of this country and abroad. Military surgery gives an outline of the relation of medical service in imlitary organizations, and an outline of the duties in a general way for those who may be called upon to enter such service. Naval surgery is treated in much the same way. The book ends with a chapter on blood pressure and its use in modern surgery. While the outline and the arrangement of the various parts, which constitute this great work might be criticized, the task has been well done. Not only the editors, but the contributors deserve great praise for the excellent manner in which they have performed their parts. c. c. D. Published by William Wood & Company, New York City. SURGICAL CLINICS. THE second number of "Surgical Clinics," by John B. Murphy, M. D., shows a vast improvement over the first, not only in the selection of cases, but greater care in presentation. Nineteen subjects have been presented, which are as follows: Ununited Fracture of the Tibia (Transplantation of Bone), Charcot's Ankle-Joint, Ununited Fracture. of the Neck of the Femur, Arthritis of the Knee-Joint, Pelvic Tumor, Ununited Fracture of the Humerus (Transplantation of Bone), Lengthening of the Tendo-Achillis, Inoperable Sarcoma of the Face Treated by Salvarsan, Cutaneous Syphilis, Gastric Ulcer-Secondary Operation, Ankylosis of the Knee-Arthroplasty, Volkmann's Contracture, Ankylosis of the Hip-Arthroplasty, Prolapsus Recti, Exploratory Laparotomy, Appendectomy, Megaduodenum, Plastic Operation on the Face, Cyst in the Left Iliac Fossa, Cystadenoma of the Breast, ⚫ Anastomosis of the External Popliteal Nerve. These are all important and well considered. One finds many short sentences worth remembering, for example, "Every compound fracture must be converted practically into a simple fracture regardless of the deformity," "You never have inversion of the foot in a bad result for Pott's fracture," "One limb abduction is no abduction at all." Many such might be mentioned, but it is unnecessary, for you expect to read the book. * W. B. Saunders Company, Publishers, Philadelphia and London. PREPARATORY AND AFTER TREATMENT IN This volume of six hundred and fifty pages concerns itself with the consideration of preparatory and after treatment of operative cases. The writer believes that as surgery has rapidly developed, the general practitioner has not kept abreast with the advancement, and in most cases he is not able to properly attend to the preparation necessary for an operative patient nor to manage intelligently the postoperative convalescence. The volume is intended as an aid to the general practitioner who does not have daily experience with surgical or operative cases. The volume is very broad and wide in its scope. It considers the relation of incidental affections to surgical work, and discusses under this head the conditions which may contraindicate an operation. Various procedures for preparing patients are discussed, and this includes the preparation of the room, bed, as well as the patient. Preparation of clean and infected cases are contrasted. Several chapters are devoted to the methods of preparation and sterilization of dressings, instruments, suture material, solutions and operating rooms. The preparation of the operator and assistants and the apparel required are also described. Three chapters deal with the question of drainage, suturing and dressing of operative wounds. The postoperative complications and their treatment are also considered. The writer then takes up regional surgery and discusses the preparation and after treatment for operations on the head, face, neck, thorax, spinal column, abdomen and pelvis, rectum, kidney, extremities, et cetera. The entire field of operative surgery is covered. As the title indicates, the book is not a text on surgery or surgical technic. It concerns itself chiefly with the preparation and after treatment of operative cases. For this reason, although it covers a wide surgical field, yet it is also somewhat limited. This particular phase of surgery is, however, somewhat neglected, and there is a distinct need of such a volume. The writer has given the results of his personal experience and observation and the methods described are all very practical. One feels that it will always be safe to follow the advice. given in the volume. A book like this would be valuable to any one dealing with operative cases, and we recommend and endose it. *By Herman A. Haubold, M. D., Clinical Professor of Surgery and Demonstrator of Operative Surgery in the New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New Yok; Visiting Surgeon to Harlem and New York Red Cross Hospitals, New York, et cetera. With four hundred twenty-five illustrations. Price: Cloth, $6.00; half leather, $7.00. D. Appleton & Company, Publishers, New York and London. DIAGNOSTIC AND THERAPEUTIC TECHNIC.* THIS volume of almost eight hundred pages is something new in medical literature. The writer has collected into one volume all the methods or procedures employed in making a diagnosis and in instituting appropriate treatment. There are many little details which are often not otherwise described and are usually left to the imagination. But in the present volume all the small details are explained. This is the valuable part of the work, and in this respect it fills a need felt by all diagnosticians. About a hundred pages are occupied by the consideration of anesthetics. The technic of administering the various general anesthetics is carefully described. All the known anesthetics are discussed with especial reference to technic of administration. Local anesthetics are also considered. The simple drawings help to explain the technic of administration and show well the anatomic parts to be considered. A small chapter is given to a consideration of blood pressure observations. Even so simple a procedure as the taking of a blood pressure is minutely described. Two full chapters describe the technic of transfusion of blood and infusion of salt solution. Crile's method of direct transfusion is described, and various modifications of this are also given. The technic of intravenous infusion of salt solution is well illustrated. Nothing is considered too simple to explain and illustrate. Chapter VI describes the administration of drugs by hypodermic method, and also considers vaccination, acupuncture, venesection, scarification, drainage for edema, cupping, and leeching. The technic of some of the methods would be hard to find in most textbooks on medicine. Most texts will speak of cupping as a therapeutic measure, but few say just how it should be done. In this volume it is carefully described and illustrated by a few simple drawings. In chapter VII Bier's hypodermic treatment is fully discussed. Although principles and indications are mentioned, the valuable phase of the discussion is the minute description of the technic. A chapter is devoted to methods of collecting various discharges and excreta for examination. |