Reviews and Bibliography.

The International Medical Annual and Practitioners' Index. A Work of Reference for Medical Practitioners. Contributors: Herbert W. Allingham, F. R. C. S.; Fletcher Beach, M. B., F. R. C. P.; James Cantle, M. A., F. R. C. S.; Prof. H. D. Chapin, M. A., M. D.; J. E. Cooney, F. R. C. P., D. P. H.; T. D. Crothers, M. D.; E. Harry Fenwick, F. R. C. S.; W. Saltan Fenwick, M. D., F. R. C. P.; T. Colcott Fox, B. A., F. R. C. P.; J. Dundas Grant, M. A., M. D.; F. de Haviland Hall, M. D., F. R. C. P.; Prof. G. M. Hammond, A. M., M. D.; Henry Handford, M. D., M. R. C. P.; David Hardie, M. D.; Irving S. Haynes, Ph. B., M. D.; Robert Jones, F. R. C. S.; Richard Lake, F. R. C. S.; Priestly Leech, M. D., F. R. C. S.; Prof. W. Oliver Moore, M. D.; Thomas More Madden, M. D.; A. Mitra, F. R. C. P., F. R. C. S.; George Lane Mullins, M. A., M. D.; William Murrell, M. D., F. R. C. P.; Prof. Theophilus Parvin, M. D.; Joseph Priestly, B. A., M. D., D. P. H.; Prof. A. W. Mayo Robinson, F. R. C. S.; A. D. Rockwell, A. M., M. D.; Prof. Robert Saundby, M. D., F. R. C. P.; Samuel G. Shattock, F. R. C. S.; James Shaw, M. D.; Prof. W. Gilman Thompson, M. D.; Charles E. Todd, M. D.; A. H. Tubby, M. S., M. D.; Charles Lloyd Tuckey, M. D.; P. Watson Williams, M. D., M. R. C. S. 1898. Sixteenth year. 740 pp. Price, $3. New York and Chicago: E. B. Treat.

Not only does the Medical Annual of this year, as of others, give a review and conspectus of progress during the year, but also brings such subjects of interest up to date as seem to require fuller elucidation than the history of the year gives. The special feature of this manual is the thorough digestion that it gives to the material furnished.

The collating has been excellently done, and it is pleasing to note the movement away from or the disregard of fads, though now and then some overenterprising novelist gets in with a cranky suggestion.

The good showing in this respect is probably due to the fact that the collaborators have learned to discriminate among reporters, and to reject the reports of those who do their curing with tongue and pen.

Especially and severely is that vile class of editors of fake medical journals overlooked who, as a condition of getting advertisements, sign their names to reports of personal experiences with new concoctions which neither they nor any one else ever had.

D. T. S.

Hand-Book of Materia Medica for Trained Nurses. Including Sections on Therapeutics and Toxicology, and a Glossary of Terms with Dose and Use of Each Drug. By JOHN E. GRAFF, Ph. G., Apothecary in the Rhode Island Hospital, Providence. 235 pp. Price, $1.25 net. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1898.

This is a work of only 235 pages, and claims to be only a compilation, and yet if every medicine not mentioned in its pages were thrown into the sea, how little would be the loss, and even how much of this might be thrown away! One often wonders what department of human enterprise would come most under Max Nordau's description of conventional lies. If all that is false and deceptive among the pursuits of men in religion, in law, in

medicine, or almost any calling, were stripped away, down to the naked truth, the change in a moment from summer to winter, stripping the trees of their foliage, and cutting down all grass and weeds, would be as a breath to a hurricane in comparison. Oh, how painfully afraid we are that some old fraud will die while we are burdening the list with new!

But while our author was honestly and properly and confessedly borrowing from larger works, we should like to know where he learned that the unit of the metric system originated in a measurement of the earth's circumference from the north around by the south to the north again!

D. T. S.

A Compendium of Insanity. By JOHN B. CHAPIN, M. D., IL. D., Physician-in-Chief Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, etc. Illustrated. 234 pp. Philadelphia:

W. B. Saunders. 1898.

The avowed aim of this work has been to present, in a concise and condensed form, a compendium of diseases of the mind for the convenient use and aid of physicians and medical students, with the hope that it might also be useful to members of the legal profession and others who may be desirous of practical knowledge, presented in a form easily understood by the non-professional reader.

The writer has been fairly successful in so far as the scope of a work of this compass can extend, and he presents the subject in a manner easily understood. The article on feigned insanity is particularly pertinent, especially the point he makes about malingerers beginning at the wrong point in the disease.

It is incredible how criminals have feigned insanity beginning suddenly in the very latest stages of the disease, and yet found physicians willing to swear that they were insane. The print of the work is clear and large, and its reading easy.

D. T. S.

Manual of Physical Diagnosis. For the Use of Students and Physicians. By JAMES TYSON, M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, etc. Third edition. Revised and enlarged. With colored and other illustrations. 278 pp. Price, $1.50. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co. 1898.

In this edition of Prof. Tyson's manual some improvements have been incorporated, and it has been somewhat enlarged. The section on the examination of the blood has been enlarged so as to meet more completely the requirements of modern blood examination. A number of new illustrations have been added, materially increasing the accuracy and usefulness of the book.

The style of the work is heavy and lacking in clearness. Such expressions as "auscultation discerns," "auscultation may also be negative," etc., are hardly under any excuse admissible. Auscultation reveals, but does not discern, and its results may be negative, but itself is neither positive nor negative. The work is authoritative and correct, but the student must look elsewhere for style and attractiveness.

D. T. S.

Elements of Histology. By E. KLEIN, M. D., F. R. S., Lecturer on General Anatomy and Physiology, and J. S. EDKINS, M. A., M. B., Joint Lecturer and Demonstrator of Physiology in the Medical School of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. With 296 illustrations. Revised and enlarged edition. 500 pp.

Among the investigators who have held up the Anglo-Saxon end of the scientific lever, Dr. Klein is one of the foremost, if not the very first. As a careful, keen investigator, he has few superiors in any country.

But not only does this work embrace his own painstaking and rigid investigations, but also a selection of whatever is best in the works of students of histology everywhere.

Both in the text and in the illustrations he has managed to lend a charm to one of the most difficult of subjects.

The illustrations are presented to an unusual advantage by the excellent quality of paper employed, which also brings out delightfully the letterpress. The very high place it must take can not be matter of conjecture.

D. T. S.

The Office Treatment of Hemorrhoids, Fistula, Etc., without Operation. Together with Remarks on the Relation of Diseases of the Rectum to Other Diseases in Both Sexes, but Especially in Women, and the Abuse of the Operation of Colostomy. By CHarles KelsEY, A. M., M. D., Late Professor of Surgery at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, etc. 12mo, cloth, 68 pages. Price, 75 cents net. E. R. Pelton, Sixteenth Street, New York. 1898.

This work consists of a series of lectures, and contains somewhat that the busy practitioner would be glad to escape, though probably quite appropriate as a padding for lectures. He speaks of cure of fistula by tent drainage, and a treatment that it is hard to get the point of for hemorrhoids, and of the treatment of ulcers and fissures without divulsion, and favors much less frequent operation for colostomy in favor of extirpation.

It is to be hoped the author will write another book and put all the good points of this, and there are many, in one lecture.

D. T. S.

The Physician's Visiting List (Lindsay and Blakiston's) for 1899-1900. Fortyeighth Year of its Publication. Regular Edition with Special Memoranda Page for 25 Patients per Day, $1.00; 50, $1.25. For 50, 75, and 100, in two volumes, $2.00 and $2.25. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co.

This visiting list contains the calendar, table of signs, the metric system of weights and measures, table for converting weights and measures, asphyxia, thermometers, and gestation period. It seems to have reached the limit of comeliness and convenience.

D. T. S.

The Medical News Visiting List, 1899. Thirty Patients per Week. Philadelphia. This long-time favorite, in addition to the usual valuable memoranda of useful and urgent information, is also provided with thumb marks for ready reference. It is one of the very few that for usefulness and attractiveness seem to have been left to occupy the field to the exclusion of all others.

D. T. S.

This journal is devoted solely to the advancement of medical science and the promotion of the interests of the whole profession. Essays, reports of cases, and correspondence upon subjects of professional interest are solicited. The editor is not responsible for the views of contributors.

Books for review, and all communications relating to the columns of the journal, should be addressed to the Editor of THE AMERICAN PRACTITIONER AND NEWS, Louisville, Ky.

Subscriptions and advertisements received, specimen copies and bound volumes for sale by the undersigned, to whom remittances may be sent by postal money order, bank check, or registered letter. Address JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY, Louisville, Ky.

LEPROSY IN AMERICA.

At the recent meeting of the American Public Health Association in Ottawa, Canada, the existence and progress of leprosy in America was presented by two of the essayists.

One of the papers was by Dr. J. Ramirez, of Mexico. He said that "in the greater part of America leprosy had gradually disappeared, although it had left extensive foci, one in Colombia and the other in Brazil. The disease was rarely found in Canada, although well established cases had been seen. In the Uuited States there were still a few small foci, which were found especially in Louisiana, Texas, California, Minnesota, Oregon, etc., but the recent annexation of the Sandwich Islands placed vaccination in an especial condition to at once undertake measures of defense against that immense focus of leprosy, which was so well known and dangerous. He recommended a full investigation of the lepers of North America."

The other paper was presented by Dr. H. M. Bracken, of Minneapolis:

He said that the State Board of Health of Minnesota had knowledge of fifty-one lepers having resided in that State. Of these, seventeen had died before 1890. Of the thirty-four added to the records since 1890, eighteen were first reported upon in 1891, two in 1892, three in 1893, two in 1894,

two in 1897, and seven in 1898, to date, September 15th. Little is known of the nationality of the seventeen who died before 1890, but from various reports he said it was safe to presume that they were all from Norway. Of the late thirty-four cases, twenty-nine were probably from Norway, and five from Sweden. Of the five from Sweden, one was reported first in 1894, the other four in 1898. Of the thirteen lepers known to be living, he could give but an outline of the present condition of only six. He drew attention to the following facts as emphasized by the records:

(1) The impression that leprosy immigrants from the Scandinavian peninsular were all from Norway was a wrong one, as five of eleven lepers placed on file by the Board during 1897 and 1898 were from Sweden.

(2) The feeling that physicians could quarantine against lepers by watching immigrants was an unsafe one. The family history of all immigrants from the country where leprosy prevails should be secured before they are allowed to embark for America, and no member of a leprous family should be permitted to land on our shores.

(3) It would appear that the conditions antagonistic to the spread of leprosy in Minnesota were also opposed to sterility, as borne out by the families of several lepers. Some of these had children (as was shown by the following figures-five, five, six, six, four, six, four, five, and eight.)

(4) It was quite possible for leprosy to die out in certain favored sections of the country, such as Minnesota, without segregation, provided the importation of lepers was discontinued.

(5) Even in Minnesota, one has but to visit some of these lepers to feel that segregation should be insisted upon in all cases. One can not but feel, on entering a filthy home and seeing a leprous mother careless in her habits, that the children are not safe.

(6) Segregation in single States is not practicable. It would tend simply to drive lepers from States enforcing such a practice to those that were not carrying out the system.

(7) A Federal Home should be provided for these unfortunates. They could thus be cared for more economically and more satisfactorily than through any State provision.

(8) In spite of all precautions taken, there will be some leprous individuals in this part of the world for many years to come. The Scandinavian peninsula did not furnish all leprous individuals found in the United States.

Great care must be exercised in dealing with lepers in the future. That we had been constantly importing this disease was a recognized fact, and that the chances of importing it would probably be increased rather than decreased unless great care was taken in dealing with infected countries. All the lepers that came to America did not settle in the Northwestern States, and all sections of the country might not be so fortunate in affording such poor soil for the spread of the disease as did Minnesota. It was altogether probable that there were some lepers in Minnesota not registered by the State Board of Health.