He freely uses adjectives, properly and improperly, speaks of "office seeking mania" established head-quarters "most ridiculons pretentions advanced even, in the eyes of the candidates friends" and much of like tenor. When it comes to pass that a member, who is pressed by his friends, for any position in the gift of the Association, cannot have a room in the hotel to lay his head, for fear of having it styled headquarters by Dr. H. must go on the sidewalk or walk the streets, we think that it has come to, a pretty pass. There were no headquarters for any candidate that we know of, unless it was at the rooms of the man who wanted to be the next Editor of the Journal. His criticism will have little force when we recall the fact, that not within our recollection, has this same Editor refused any office however, large or small, in the gift of his professional or political brethren. Not that we wish to be understood as saying that the Doctor ever engineered or sought an office himself, God forbid, as that might be a libel, but it has been always noticed, that he has stood close to the inside door, ready at all times to gratefully accept anything that might happen along his way. used his high position as Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and Surgeon General of the Marine Hospital service to vent a private spleen. We would advise the new Editor, that he will derive more credit if he will write editorials in a more scientific and less personal strain. Since the above was written, we notice in a short editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that in view of the fact that Congress has made the appointment of Surgeon General Marine Hospital service a life term, and doubled the salary, Dr. Hamilton, following the dictates of conscience, feels called upon to give up the Editorship and go back to Washington. We think it a wise step, for Dr. Hamilton has shown no ability which would entitle him to the high position, besides we think there is more money in Marine Hospital practice. By the by, it looks as though the A. M. A. and its Journal had been used to boost Dr.Hamilton into his new position. Does it not seem as though the trip to Chicago, editorial resignation, &c., &c., were all a little by-play for a given effect? BRIGHTS DISEASE, by Alfred L. Loomis, M. D. Geo. S. Davis, Detroit, Mich., 1889. It is also well to remember that BOOK NOTICES AND REVIEWS. the gentleman at whom this ungramatical editorial was intended for, happened at the election of Pres. Cleveland four years ago, to be a candidate for the position of Surgeon General, of the Marine Hospital service which it was supposed that Dr. Hamilton would vacate. The fact that any one should deem himself competent to occupy any position that he, Dr. Hamilton, had filled, was such a grave offence in his eyes, that he never forgave it, and con. sequently as in this instance, he has This book like those which have been written by this eminent author is of practical value to the practitioner. It is one of the few works which we can most cordially recommend to the readers of the Monthly, as being well suited to abreast of the times in everything which the progressive doctor who wants to be pertains to his profession. INTERNATIONAL POCKET MEDICAL WITH APPENDIX. It FORMULARY contains Nosological Table, Formula for Inhalations, &c., &c., by C. W. C. Sumner Witherstine, M. S., M. D., Philadelphia and London, F. A. Davis, 1889. This is a convenient little book for the vest pocket and one which will be a companion to every practitioner. Its size is convenient and contents put in a cincise and readable shape for ready references. HAND BOOK OF MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS, compiled for the use of students preparing for examination, by Culthbert Bowen, M. D., B. A., editor of Notes on Practice, etc., etc., Philadelphia and London. F. A. F. A. Davis, 1888. This volume aims to furnish candidates for examination in the medical schools, with a gist of the knowledge. pertaining to this branch up to date. While this sort of book does not aid the education of the student, this one seems to be a very good one of its class, and free from many of the objections usually pertaining to cramming books. HAND BOOK OF THE TREATMENT OF THE SKIN, by Arthur Van Harlingen, M. D. Second edition, enlarged and revised, with eight full paged illustrations. Philadelphia. P. Blackiston, Son & Co., 1012 Walnut Street, 1889. This edition of this popular little work comes to us in an enlarged and improved form, and we feel that it will prove very acceptable to the many readers of the previous edition. It is concise, practical and well up with the times. The subject of diseases of the skin is one full of interest to the general practitioner as well as the specialist, and anything which will throw light on this important branch of practice, will prove acceptable to the profession. Professor VanHarlingen has achieved an enviable reputation in this class of diseases and his little book will be royally received by the doctors of America. The publishers have done their part of the work well, as the paper, press-work, illustrations and binding are of a high order. EXPLORATION OF THE CHEST IN HEALTH AND DISEASE, by Stephen Smith Burt, M. D., Professor of Clinical Medicine and Physical Diagnosis in New York Post Graduate School and Hospital, &c. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1889. A practical guide for the general practitioner and one which will be frequently consulted with pleasure and profit. It is one of those eminently satisfactory books which have of late years become so scarce. WOOD'S MEDICAL AND SURGICAL MONOGRAPHS. William Wood & Company, New York, Vol. I. No. 2, February 1889. The contents of this number of this excellent series of popular medical works are: "Gonorrhoeal Infection in Women," by William Japp Sinclair, M. A., M. D.; "On Giddiness," by Thomas Grainger Stewart, M. D., and “Albuminaria in Brights Disease," by Dr. Pierre Jaenton. All valuable and instructive papers which will prove a most worthy addition to the physicians practical library. CURRENT LITERATURE. "A Defence of Electrolysis in Urethral Strictures, with Documentary Evidence." by Robert Newman, M. D., New York. Reprint from the Medical Register. "Electrolytic Decomposition of Organic Tissues," by George H. Rohe, M. D.. of Baltimore, M. D. Reprint from the Mew York Medical Journal. Proceedings of the Twelfth Convention of the Empire State Association of Deaf Mutes held in the City Hall, Rochester, N. Y., August 29th and 30th, 1888. "Osteotomy for Anterior Curves of the Leg," by DeForest William, M. D., read before the American Orthopaedic Society at Washington, September, Reprint from the Journal of the American Medical Association. 1888. "Food versus Bacilli, in Consump tion." An open letter from Dr. Ephriam Cutter, M. D., LL. D., to his son, John Ashburton Cutter, M. D., with answer. Reprint from the Virginia Medical Monthly. "The climate of the Southern Ap palachians," by Henry O. Marcy, A. M., M. D,, LL. D., Boston. Reprint from the transactions of the Ninth International Medical Congress. "Repression of Menstruation as a curative agent in Gynaecology," by Eugene C. Gehurung, M. D., of St. Louis. Reprinted from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Children. Message of Gov. Robert L. Taylor to the Forty-Sixth General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, Thursday, Jannary 10th, 1889. "The Treatment of Epithelioma with Mild Caustics," by Daniel Lewis, M. D., New York. Read before the New York Dermatological Society. "Pulmonary Consumption Considered as a Neurosis,' by Thos. J. Mays, M. D., reprinted from the Therapeutic Gazette, Geo. S. Davis, Publisher, Detroit, Mich. "The Histology and Surgical Treatment of Uterine Myoma," by H. O. Marey, A. M., M. D., LL. D., Boston. Reprint from the Transactions of the Ninth International Medical Congress. In "The Popular Science Monthly" for March the more elaborate papers are pleasantly varied with briefer articles of a lighter character. Dr. Andrew D. White's "New Chapters in the Warfare of Science," with which the number opens, is pungent throughout, and will not be dropped til it has been read to the end. It concludes the subject of of "Demoniacal Possession and Insan "Why Electrolytic Treatment of Stricture Does Not Succeed in All Hands," by G. C. H. Meier, M. D. Reprinted from the International Journal of Surgery aud Antiseptics. "Placental Developement," by Henry O. Marcy. A. M., M. D., LL. D., Boston. Reprinted from the Transactions of the Ninth International Medical Congress.ity," and shows how the clergy of the "On Corpulence, especially Its Treatment by a Pure Milk Diet," by George N. Rohe, M. D., of Baltimore. Reprinted from the Maryland Medical Journal. The Sanitary Volunteer, a monthly journal in the interest of healthful homes and communities, the official organ of the New Hampshire State Board of Health, Irving A. Watson, A. M., M. D., editor. This is a most excellent popular scientific journal and one which will prove a deal of advantage to every subscriber and community. It is most ably edited by one of the best posted sanitarians in the the country. different churches not long ago vied with one another in vexing the victims of insanity, and how medical science slowly introduced more humane treatment, and finally drove back superstition from this part of the field. Dr. Andrew D. White will conclude, in the March "Popular Sicence Monthly," the subject of "Demoniacal Possession and Insanity," which forms one of his "Few Chapters in the Warfare of Science," now publishing in that magazine. The forthcoming article will tell how the Roman Catholic Lutheran, and Calvinistic clergy vied with eath other in exercising and persecuting the unhappy victims of insanity, and how medical science slowly introduced more humane treatment and finally drove back superstition from this part of the "The Surgical Advantages of the Buried Animal Suture and its Adaptability to Special Purposes," by Henry O, Marcy, A. M., M. D., LL. D., Boston. | great battle-field. SOCIETY REPORTS. ALLEGHENY COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. Special Meeting, December 18th, 1888. J. CHRIS LANGE, M. D., VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. Dr. Duff reported a "peculiar case": I was called this evening to see a girl thirteen years of age. Two years ago she was down with inflammatory rheumatism. She came home last Wednes day from school, complaining of slight pain in one of her ankles. There was no perceptible swelling, her mother stated, but the pain increased slightly until Saturday, when the other ankle became affected. On Sunday a papillary eruption appeared on the first ankle, and on yesterday morning a very free eruption appeared on the other ankle. Yesterday afternoon the wrist and elbow on the right side began to swell and pain her, and simultaneously with the swelling, this papillary erup. tion appeared on both the joint of the elbow and of the wrist, and about this time the eruption became pustular upon ankles. This afternoon she was taken worse, and simultaneously with the appearance of the pain, the swelling on the other arm and papillary eruption appeared. This evening I found her with a temperature of 140°, pulse 120, pustular eruption on both ankles, and upon the elbow and forearm on the left side there is a mixture of papillary and pustular eruption; whilst on the right arm it is papillary. I do not remember that I have ever seen anything like it. I report it as I found it, and would be glad to have the opinions of others. I have just been asked whether there was any local application made to the parts. I made particular inquiry about that, and the mother stated that there was not, except that she used a little camphor liniment. Dr. Davis reported a case of About two weeks since, a strong, able-bodied Pole was admitted to Mercy Hospital, this being his history: He was admitted on Tuesday. On the preceding Friday, while coupling cars in a coal works near Punxsutawney, his arm crushed. He brought a letter from the was caught in the coupling and slightly doctor who attended him at the time, Dr. Williams, of Brookville, or Punxsutawney, stating that the blood supply to the hand had no doubt been entirely cut off, and that he had urged amputation, but that the man had positively refused to have this done, and perferred to go to the city and get advice. The bandage on his arm, I presume, had been none too tight; when I saw it the hand was perfectly black. On looking at the arm, every evidence of gangrene was present. The arm was swollen to almost twice its normal size, with the peculiarly marked discoloration of progressive mortification, with the blistering down near the elbow. The line of demarcation had extended over the top of the shoulder. The resident at the hospital, who had seen him two hours before, assured me that when he had noticed it, it was not within at least. four or five inches of the shoulder, and yet in two hours it had advanced to the shoulder with a high elevation, so that by passing the finger over from the healthy tissue to the diseased, you could readily discern the line of demarcation. The man's temperature was about 105, his countenance anxious, his whole appearance that of one who had suffered an extreme shock to the system, and in whom disease was progressing rapidly. His condition was really critical, so critical that I felt that all hope of his life was surely gone. I called in some of the other gentlemen of the hospital, and we concluded, at all events, not to let the man die with that black arm, as an amputation was really the most we had to hope for. I amputated the arm at the middle by the circular method, cutting through tissue absolutely black, cutting down through the fatty tissue of the arm and down to the muscular parts, the muscles having become not as yet thoroughly involved. I removed the arm, and then applied almost boiling hot water, and then bichloride solution, 1 to 1,000. I pressed out with the bandage as firmly as I could from the shoulder down all this material, and then filled the conical cavity full of iodoform, put a piece of cotton around, and left it. The man is rapidly improving, and will recover. I know that usually the surgeon who would have done this with any expectation of the recovery of the patient would have been considered very ignorant indeed; but I believe recovery was owing to the powerful antiseptics used, and to the use of the boiling water and the solution of bichloride. Dr. Murdoch: A very interesting case, I think, has been reported by Dr. Davis, and one that in instructive to us all. The old rule in surgery in regard to amputations in such cases was that in gangrene which arose from a constitutional cause, such as is the case in senile gangrene or as is the case where gangrene attacks a patient suffering from diabetes, to wait until the line of demarcation was formed; but in cases of injury, like the one related by Dr. Davis, I think that the rule was never thoroughly observed by the best surgeons, and that even the older surgeons advocated amputation in certain cases in vigorous patients while the gangrene was still progressing in cases of injury. But previous to the introduction of the antiseptic method of treatment, no surgeon would have thought of amputating through or so near dead tissue as Dr. Davis 'did in this case, and if he had done so without such treatment, he would not have been successful; the gangerene would have extended. For that reason this is a very interesting and instructive case. There is another point which is very instructive and useful, suggested to my mind by the report of this case. Dr. Davis tells us that the arm was bandaged very tightly above the wound, but he does not think the bandage had anything to do with the gangrene. Whether it had or not, I wish to call attention to something that should be known and well observed by surgeons. It has been my fortune, since I have been connected with the Western Pennsylvania Hospital and before, to see patients brought to the hospital with tourniquets on limbs pressing entirely too tightly above the wound for the purpose of arresting hemorrhage. I have seen several cases brought, where gangrene has resulted from the tightness of the bandage above the wound, applied in one case by a doctor, and in several other cases by those not professionals. I know of one case where a man was brought not far from here, with a not very severe wound of the leg. A tourniquet had been on the thigh twenty-four hours, and the limb was in a state of gangrene. This was owing entirely to the tightness of the bandage. I have known several such instances where patients have been brought with very slight wounds, there being only wounds of veins, the tight bandage distending the veins. Now these frequent accidents justify the belief that if there was none of this tight bandaging, there would be more lives saved than lost as a result. I think more people are injured by the tourniquet applied to wounds than are benefitted. This is my experience in these This practice arises from faulty ideas in the minds of the people, which have emanated from the profession. The profession is accountable for the education which the people have, and the reason these cases are frequent is owing to the fact that the people cannot be instructed how to apply a bandage in case of a wound. We know there are books circulated in the community, and all over the world, that instruct the cases. |