Reviews and Bibliography.

An American Text-book of Genito-Urinary Diseases, Syphilis, and Diseases of the Skin. Edited by BOLTON BARYS, M. D., Consulting Surgeon to St. Luke's Hospital and the City Hospital, New York, etc., and W. A. HARDAWAY, A. M., M. D., Professor of Diseases of the Skin and Syphilis, Missouri Medical College, etc. Illustrated with three hundred engravings and twenty full-page colored plates. 1229 pp.

Some notion of the task of editing such a work as this may be gathered from the fact that, aside from the editors, it numbers forty-five contributors among the leading specialists in the principal cities throughout the country. For though the editors announce that they have not restricted the contributors in regard to the particular views set forth in its pages, but have offered every facility for the free expression of individual opinion, yet it must needs require a vast amount of work to prevent overlapping and confusion among so many. That the work will be found fully up to the highest standard of attainment in its field to be found in this country, and that means any country, goes without saying.

The publishers, who have come so rapidly to the front in medical publications, are to be congratulated, not only in having added another superb number to their series of American text-books, but in having contributed another educational feature in the way of typographical beauty. D. T. S.

Medical Diagnosis. A Manual of Clinical Methods. By J. J GRAHAM BROWN, M. D., F. R. C. P. E., F. R. S. (Ed.), Assistant Physician to the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh; Lecturer on the Principles and Practice of Medicine in the School of Medicine of the Royal College, Edinburgh. Fourth edition, revised and enlarged. With 112 illustrations. 428 pp. Price, $2.25 net. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co.

1898.

To one who has need to make the diagnosis of an obscure case of disease an exhaustive treatise is almost indispensable. But it often happens that the pointing out the salient features of a disease is sufficient for the diagnosis, and it is then that a work like this comes in most aptly. Another advantage of a work condensed and yet clear is that one can read and re-read, whereas a large work can not usually be read more than once, and after that used only for reference.

This work is given us by one who could much more easily have written an exhaustive work, and who out of his broad attainments has given us the kernel of what is most worth knowing. A work of the kind from a man in the author's position must be thorough and up-to-date, and a demand for a fourth edition proves it attractive as well. It can not easily be too highly commended.

D. T. S.

Yellow Fever: Clinical Notes. By JUST TOUATRE, M. D. (Paris), former Physicianin-Chief of the French Society Hospital, New Orleans; Member of Board of Experts, Louisiana State Board of Health. Translated from the French by CHARLES CHASSAIGNAC, M. D., President New Orleans Polyclinic; Editor New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, etc. 206 pp. New Orleans: New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal. 1898.

Many doctors and many more patients will find occasion to thank the author and the helpful translator for this little monograph, if its lessons are taken to heart and put into practice, as they deserve to be.

The points Dr. Touatre appears anxious to impress are, first, right diagnosis by a study of the patient and his symptoms, and second, the simple treatment of the bath or rather of sponging and drinks of mild mineral waters, after first 'securing copious perspiration.

This, indeed, seems now the settled treatment in New Orleans, where yellow fever occasions less of dread than anywhere else out of the tropics. In addition to the test of Faget's law, which is the divergence of the temperature and the pulse rate, the Widal reaction with Sanarelli's bacillus is relied on to confirm the diagnosis. Seventy-five times out of a hundred, says the author, agglutination of Sanarelli's bacillus occurs in yellow fever.

He regards the diagnosis of yellow fever as exceedingly easy, though he devotes some thirty pages to the subject. The truth is, nothing is easier than the diagnosis of yellow fever after one knows it is in the neighborhood. It is safe then to diagnose almost any thing yellow fever. But at the beginning much difficulty is everywhere found. One can hardly read the reports of a medical society or association anywhere in the yellow fever belt of America, that is the belt where it is endemic, without meeting with discussions of the differential diagnosis between yellow fever and the remittent form of malarial fever.

The book is written with the zeal of one who is in love with his subject, and not at all at cross-purposes with himself. The naivete of the personal feature is conspicuous, and we would not like so much of it in all the books we have to read, refreshing as it is in this.

The translation reads like an editor has made it, the press work could hardly be improved upon in Philadelphia, and altogether it is such as in French, English, or Spanish ought to be in the hands of every doctor in yellow fever territory.

D. T. S.

Inflammation of the Urinary Bladder and Urinary Fever. By C. MANSEll Moullin, M. D., F. R. C. S., Surgeon and Lecturer on Surgery at the London Hospital, Examiner in Surgery at the University of Oxford, etc. 156 pp. Price, $1.50 net. It is a fortunate thing to have attained such standing in the world that the naming of the source of a production is the highest commendation to be given. Yet such is the station of the author of this treatise.

The author gives as his reason for writing the book, the fact that it is not yet admitted everywhere, as a matter of common knowledge beyond dispute, that inflammation of the bladder is always due to micro-organisms,

which in the majority of cases have invaded it from without, and that what is called urinary fever is nothing but septic intoxication or septic infection occurring under special conditions. It is a work that room can well be made for on the shelf of every surgeon and every physician.

D. T. S.

Atlas of Methods of Clinical Investigation, With an Epitome of Clinical Diagnosis and of Special Pathology and Treatment of Internal Diseases. BY CHRISTFRIED Jakob, formerly First Assistant in the Medical Clinic at Erlangen. Authorized Translation from the German. Edited by AUGUSTUS A. ESHNER, M. D)., Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, Physician to the Philadelphia Hospital, etc. With 182 colored illustrations upon 68 plates and 64 illustrations in the text. 259 pp. Price, $3.00 net. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. 1898.

This is the first volume of Saunders' reproduction of Lehmann's Medical Hand Atlases. These books have already become famous for scientific accuracy, pictorial beauty, and compactness. The colored plates have been executed by the most skillful German lithographers; in some cases as many as twenty or more impressions were taken in order to obtain the required result.

These atlases offer a ready and satisfactory substitute for clinical observation, and in some respects surpass that means of study, since it might require years of ordinary clinical attendance to meet with so large a variety of forms.

By reason of their projected universal translation and reproduction, affording international distribution, the publishers have been enabled to secure for these atlases the best artistic professional talent, to produce them in a most elegant style, and yet at a price of unsurpassed cheapness. They have already been translated into nine of the principal languages of Europe, and will have yet a much wider distribution.

Such a work must not only be extremely helpful on account of its accuracy and thoroughness, but by its vivid presentation of subjects treated must add also to the zest of the student, enabling him to do a much larger amount of work with the same effort.

D. T. S.

Modern Gynecology. A Treatise on Diseases of Women, Comprising the results of the latest Investigations and Treatment in this Branch of Medical Science. By CHARLES H. BUSHONG, M. D., Assistant Gynecologist to the Demilt Dispensary, New York, etc. Illustrated. Second edition, enlarged. 404 pp. New York: E. B. Treat. 1898.

The effort of this book is to place before the physician a clear, commonsense statement of the symptoms of the various diseases of the sexual organs. The author is quite right in his contention that duty and circumstances require that the family physician should take a larger part in directing and controlling the surgery of female diseases. It is too commonly the case for the beginner in practice to get a few cases, report them with reprints which are widely circulated among the laity, and then begin to

inveigh against the ignorance of the general practitioner. From such specialists it is the duty of the family physician to protect his patients. At the same time there are a number of serious ailments that are apt to be neglected until it is too late for helpful operation, and these the family physician alone is in a position to have given timely attention.

Now that Dr. Bushong has written so suitable a book for the family physician, let him or some other benevolent spirit write one wholly devoted to the equities of the patient.

D. T. S.

A Compend of Diseases of the Skin. By JAY F. SCHAMBERG, A. B., M. D., Associate in Skin Diseases, Philadelphia Polyclinic, etc. With 99 illustrations. 307 pp. Price, 80 cents. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1898.

This work, like the others of the series, is not presented in the form of questions and answers, but is made up of direct statements. The subject is presented in a succinct and at the same time lucid and attractive form. Especial attention has been paid to the differential diagnoses and treatment of the more important affections.

With very few exceptions the author has followed the classification and presentation of the subject pursued by Duhring. The drawings are well made, and the press-work as the rule of the house is excellent. D. T. S. Proceedings and Addresses at a Sanitary Convention held at Detroit, Michigan, December 9 and 10, 1897. Lansing, Michigan: Robert Smith Printing Co. 1898.

Foreign Correspondence.

LONDON LETTER.

[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Suggested Public Slaughter-Houses for London; Tinned Food; Tuberculosis; Aid for the Prince of Wales; The Hospital Sunday Fund; The Vaccination Act; A New Hospital; Professor Virchow to Lecture; The Dum Dum Bullet.

The Medical Officers of Health to the London County Council have strongly pointed out the inadequacy of the inspection of meat consumed in London, and further to insure the proper inspection of carcasses, it is absolutely necessary that all animals should be killed in public abattoirs. At present the greater number of animals are slaughtered in private establishments, and consequently escape the necessary inspection. As a consequence of these reports the Public Health Committee of the London County Council has issued a report in which they deal with the desirability of the establishment of public slaughter-houses throughout London,

A special committee of the London Chamber of Commerce has for some time past been engaged in investigating cases of alleged poisoning through eating tinned foods, with the result that it has generally been found that such allegations were unfounded. The latest case investigated was that of a young woman whose death was said to be due to ptomaine poisoning consequent on eating tinned salmon; the contents of her stomach having been analyzed by Dr. Stevenson, of Guy's Hospital, the well-known government expert. Dr. Stevenson's opinion was that the death was due to poisoning by nitre, and could not be attributed to ptomaine poisoning through eating tinned salmon. In the course of his evidence Dr. Stevenson said that if, as had been stated, as many as 200,000,000 tins of food were consumed in one year, the cases of poisoning were infinitesimal. His opinion was that so far from ptomaine poisoning being specially identified with tinned provisions, it also arises in connection with fresh meats of all kinds.

From the reply of the President of the Board of Agriculture to questions put to him in the House of Commons, it appears that the labors of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis are not to lead to any immediate action on the part of the Government. The President not only said that it was not contemplated at present to take any action on the recommendations of the commission, but also that he would not make the Board responsible for the circulation of information or warnings upon the subject.

The Prince of Wales has been inundated with offers of assistance while he has been confined to his bed with a fracture of the patella. An equine bone-setter writing from a Park Lane mews criticises the diagnoses of the surgeons in attendance. Three well-known peers urge his employment of some different persons "whose cures are marvelous," one recommending a Scotch gardener whose fingers are reputed to possess magnetic strength. An Irish Baronet is prepared to come immediately "to exert a something which has been in the family for years and cured my grandfather's game leg." A countess sent a bone which cured some family connection "by rubbing in a circular fashion over the weak spot," but the family treasure has been returned without a trial.

At the meeting of the council of the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund held at the Mansion House it was recommended that awards should be made to one hundred and eighty-six institutions, the total amount available for grants being £34,304. It was pointed out that, although the amount was smaller than that raised in the previous year, the committee were to be congratulated on the result. Many subscribers had either transferred their contributions to the Prince of Wales fund or had divided them. It was further remarked that the work of begging for funds for the hospitals was becoming intolerable, and that the hospital authorities should be relieved of this disagreeable work, some organization being needed for collecting a voluntary rate, which might be distributed by that council..