BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS RECEIVED. BOOKS.-A Practical Treatise on Obstetrics. Vol. IV. Obstetric Operations. The Pathology of the Puerperium, By A. Charpentier, M. D., Paris. Illustrated with lithographic plates and wood engravings. This is also Vol. IV. of the "Cyclopedia of Obstetrics and Gynecology" (12 vols.), issued monthly during 1887. Price of the set $16.50. New York: Wiliam Wood & Co.-Practical Urine Testing. By Charles Godwin Jennings, M. D. Detroit, D. O. Haynes & Co., 1887, 16mo., pp. 124, cloth.-What to do in Cases of Poisoning. By William Murrell, M.D., F. R. C. P., First American from Fifth English edition. Edited by Frank Woodbury, M. D., Philadelphia Medical Register Co., 1887, 8vo., pp. 158, cloth, $1.00 post-paid.-On the Pathology and Treatment of Gonorrhea and Spermatorrhea. By J. L. Milton, New York, Wm. Wood & Co., 1886. 8vo.; pp. 484; cloth; $4.00 -American System of Gynecology. Edited by Matthew D. Mann, A. M., M. D. Vol. I. Illustrated with three colored plates and two two hundred and one engravings on wood. Philadelphia, Lea Brothers & Co.. 1887, 8vo., pp. 789, sheep.-A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Hair and Scalp. By George Thomas Jackson, M. D., etc. New York, E. B. Treat, 1887. 8vo., pp. 356, cloth, $2.75. PAMPHLETS AND REPRINTS.—A Unique Case of Bilateral Athetosis. By C.H. Hughes, M.D. (Alienist and Neurologist.)-Report of Proceedings of Illinois State Board of Health, Quarterly Meeting, Chicago, July 8, 1887.-Polar Method of Electrotherapy in Gynecology. By Geo. J. Engelmann. (Med. News, May 14, 21, 28.)-Galvanic and Faradic Electricity in Treatment of Uterine Displacements. By Geo. J. Engelmann, M. D. (Courier of Medicine, March and April.)-The Use of Electricity in Gynecological Practice. By Geo. J. Engelmann, M. D. (Gynecological Transactions, 1886.)-Annual Announcement of Trinity Medical School, Toronto session of 1887-8.-Twelfth Annual Announcement and Catalogue of Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn., 1886-87.-"Renal Colic Parasitic and Calculus." A Criticism. By J. B. Marvin, M. D., etc. (Southwestern Medical Gazette, June, 1887.)-College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York. Annual Catalogue and Announcement, New York, July, 1887. Some Important Points in the Treatment of Deep Urethral Stricture. By F. N. Otis, M. D., etc. (N. Y. Med. Jour., Feb., '87.)-The Technique of Tracheotomy and Intubation of the Larynx. By Charles Godwin Jennings, M. D., etc. (Trans. of Mich. State Medical Society, 1887.)-Observations on Police Service and Physique in St. Louis.-Essential Individual Hygiene of a Municipal Police Force for the Prevention of Pulmonary Diseases. By Geo. Homan, M. D. 8vo., pp. 20; paper. -Address in State Medicine. Recent Advances in Preventive Medicine. By Geo. H. Rohé, M. D., etc. (Jour. of Am. Med. Assoc., July, 2, '87. INEBRIATES IN AMERICA.-DR. CROTHERS says that not less than two thousand inebriates are under treatment in hospitals in America, over a thousand being in special hospitals. They represent most largely the incurable cases; persons who have tried every means found in the pledge, prayer and by moral suasion, and exhausted every resource of home and friends, and come as a last resort expecting extraordinary change and cure. They have been victims of this disease from five to thirty years, and present the most complex and varied degrees of physical and mental degeneration. Yet notwithstanding this fact, the experience of the few scientific bospitals in the results of treatment is exceedingly promising. Statistics of over three thousand cases, which have been under treatment at different hospitals, indicate nearly forty per cent restored, and temperate after a period of from six to eight years from the time of discharge from the hospital. The best authorities unite in considering thirty-five per cent of all who remain under treatment one year or more as permanetly restored. In view of the chronic character of these cases, and the imperfect means of treatment, these statistics are encouraging, and indicate great possibilities in the future from a better knowledge and control of these cases. AMERICAN NEUROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.-The thirteenth annual meeting of this association was held at Long Branch, N. J. July 20, 21 and 22. Though this association is not large in numbers the meeting was an interesting one for those present, and the discus sion of the papers was quite animated. The following are the officers for the coming year: President, J. J. Putnam, Boston; Vice-President, Wharton Sinkler, Philadelphia, and B. Sachs, New York; Secretary and Treasurer, Graeme M. Hammond, New York; Councillors, Geo. W. Jacoby, New York, and Rob't. T. Edes, Washington, D. C. The treasurer's report showed a balance in the treasury of $110. REPORTS ON PROGRESS. MEDICINE. Antipyrin and Antifebrin.-DR. G. W. BARR gives the results of a quite extended series of observations made upon himself during a five weeks' illness from neurasthenia complicated with malaria. For a considerable part of the time he made notes every fifteen minutes as to the conditions present. Comparing the effects of the two drugs antipyrin and antifebrin he gives the following table: ANTIPYRIN. Dose 15 to 30 grains. Tolerance from continued use. ANTIFEBRIN. In an hour or more. Effect lasts six hours. More diuretic. No after-effects. Dose 5 to 15 grains. He thinks that antifebrin is much to be preferred in continued fevers because the dose is one small capsule instead of three, the effect lasts so much longer, the tonic stimulation excels the depression and after malaise, and the cost is one-fourth that of antipyrin. The only objection is its relative slowness of action. Whenever one can wait an hour for the antipyretic action to begin he greatly prefers the antifebrin. He thinks the tonic or stimulant effect is of value with weak patients. The Paris correspondent of The "London Lancet," April 30, says that Prof. Germain Sée has found antipyrin a most valuable agent for the relief of pain, especially nervous pain, as neuralgias, neuritis, locomotor ataxia, the pain accompanying cardioaortic disease, Prof. Sée, gives 3 to 6 grammes daily. If too much is given etc. at one time, nausea and giddiness may supervene, but when the whole amount is divided into small repeated doses of half a gramme, no disagreeable effects are observed. Antipyrin, he says, may be given and continued for a length of time with but little risk. Antifebrin, on the other hand, is dangerous when administered in doses exceeding one gramme.-Therap. Gaz. June, 15. The Etiology and Mechanism of Asthma.-No subject in medicine has given rise to greater discussion or criticism than that included in the term "Asthma." It was indiscriminately applied by the older writers to dyspnea arising from various causes, and at the present time, although the majority confine the term to paroxysmal dyspnea, accompanied by characteristic physical signs, still we find it used in a loose way to describe dyspnea due to entirely different pathological conditions. In a study on the etiology and mechanism of asthma, Dr. William C. Glasgow confines the term to the paroxysmal dyspnea, which is always characterized by positive physical signs, and he considers asthma to be a disorder of vascular irritability; that the paroxysm is directly due to a partial occlusion or cylindrical narrowing of the lumen of the bronchi through the swelling of the bronchial mucous membrane; that this swelling is caused by a vasomotor spasm of the arterioles with a saturation of the tissues by the liquor sanguinis; this condition is accompanied by a general high blood pressure. With this theory we find a complete explanation of all the physical signs of asthma. We see the possibility of the rapid changes of physical signs observed during the paroxysms, and we have in it the physiological action of all the drugs which experience proves to be of value in allaying the paroxysm-the nitrite of amyl, morphia, chloral, lobelia, and iodide of potash in their action allaying the spasm at the same time that they tend to reduce general blood pressure; whilst drugs like the bromides prove of little value in breaking the paroxysms when once in force, although they are serviceable in preventing a recurrence.- Am. Jour. of the Med. Sci. July, 1887. Phosphate of Sodium in Diarrhea.-The Therapeutic Gazette (July 15) calls attention to the value of the phosphate of sodium as a remedy for summer diarrheas. In the summer diarrheas con nected with a lack of digestive power, with clay-colored or greenish stools the remedy is particularly favorable in its action. In nursing children ten grains may be given in each bottle of milk, or it may be given in a little water soon after eating, small doses frequently repeated have a better effect than a single large dose. In cases where there is habitual constipation alternating with diarrhea it has a favorable action. Cold Baths in Summer Diarrhea.-Some years ago, Dr. C. G. Comegys, of Cincinnati called attention to favorable results obtained by the use of cold baths in the diarrheas of young children in hot weather with more or less pronounced elevation of the temperature of the body. He found that the cold baths often sufficed for a cure without any medication and sometimes where all other measures had failed. The bath should be given as often as the child's temperature rises, rarely every three hours, generally two or three times a day being sufficient. The temperature of the water should be 80° or thereabout, and immersion should be continued long enough to produce a distinct effect. The editor of the Therapeutic Gazette (July 15) thinks that when properly managed these baths are valuable in cases of diarrhea due to extreme heat. Salol.-GEORGI, of Görlitz, and SAHLI of Berlin, have been using salol, or salicylate of phenol quite extensively, and have published the results of their experience in the Therapeutische Monatshefte. They say that they have not observed the unpleasant after effects reported by other practitioners. The carbolic acid coloring of the urine persisted during the entire time of administration. The average dose which they used was 3ijss-iij. In general there was little advantage over salicylic acid. For antipyretic, action the dose was grs. xv—xxx. They gave it in powder on the tongue to be washed down with water or in tablets compressed with a little starch. Some of those who have tried this new remedy in our own country prefer it to salicylic acid or the salicylate of sodium. It is insoluble in water or in the acid secretions of the stomach and hence causes no nausea, but on passing into the duodenum and being acted upon by the pancreatic juice it is claimed that it is decomposed into salicylic acid and phenol. Sahli claims good results from its administratien in rheumatic |