The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal recently entered vigorous protest against the circulation of a certain work, written for the laity on the management of pregnancy, in which all women are encouraged in expecting to secure a painless labor, provided they follow a certain regimen.

This work, if we read aright, has of late been extensively advertised by the secular papers in general and the religious papers in particular, and, promising to make painless that ordeal which is the dread of woman's life, has doubtless brought to its author's coffers a big harvest of coveted dollars. Another harvest, one of disease and death in the innocent offspring of the mothers who read the book and follow its pernicious precepts, would seem to be now ready for the reaping. A first fruits or sample sheaf appears in the following from the Northwestern Lancet: "The regimen referred to consists principally in the avoidance of 'bone-forming foods,' so called, a most pernicious piece of advice, which, if rigorously followed, may indeed make labor easier, but at the expense of the child, which is like to be puny and rachitic. We have seen within a year

such a case, where the mother, after reading some such work as 'Tokology,' lived entirely upon fruit and vegetables during gestation. The child's skull was soft as parchment; it was ill developed, and the rosary of rickets was well marked. It perished of acute bronchitis after a miserable existence of a few weeks. An older child which had not been experimented upon was healthy and vigorous. These cases are not rare, and such works as 'Tokology' should be interdicted."

DR. CORNELIUS R. AGNEW.

This eminent ophthalmologist died at his home in New York City on the 18th ult. His death was due to perityphlitic abscess. Dr. Agnew was fifty-eight years of age, and up to the day of his fatal illness was in the full vigor of manhood, and actively engaged in professional work.

Few men have had greater personal popularity with the profession at large, and few have been held by the people in greater confidence and esteem. As a scholar, Dr. Agnew was profound; as an operator in his department of surgery, facile princeps; as a man, brave, gentle, sincere, and charitable. He was the author of many able and original papers, which, when edited and classified, will take high rank in the literature of his specialty, and the deviser of several operations which bear his name and will perpetuate his fame. In works of charity he was especially active. The Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital, founded in 1868, and the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, founded in 1869, owe their existence to his influence, labor, and liberality.

EARS. According to Aristotle large ears are indicative of imbecility; but happy is the man who has square ears, for they are a sure indication of sublimity of soul and purity of life. Flat ears denote a course and brutal man; small ones announce bad temper and madness, while those of fairest promise are firm and of middling size.Medical Record.

Notes and Queries.

PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS OF THE CONGRESS OF AMERICAN PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS. This Association will hold its first triennial session in the city of Washington, during the 18th, 19th, and 20th of September next. The meetings of the Congress will be held in the evenings, beginning at 8 P. M., and those of the societies composing the Congress will be held during the daytime, according to the programme each may respectively provide. The sessions will be open to the profession.

The local Committee of Arrangements of the Congress has secured places of meeting for the Congress and each society in close proximity, so that the members of the respective societies can interchange attendance at pleasure, without inconvenience.

It is the purpose of the Executive Committee of the Congress to print the programmes of all of the societies, provided copies be supplied on or before August 15th.

The local committee requests the secretaries of the societies to forward the names of those of their invited guests who have accepted their invitations, designating them as Foreign and American.

The Committee of Arrangements is composed of one member of each society repre. sented in the Congress, as follows:

Samuel C. Busey, Association of American Physicians, Washington.

Samuel Theobald, American Ophthalmological Society, Baltimore.

S. O. Richey, American Otological Society, Washington.

A. T. Cabot, American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgery, Boston.

Inquiries may be addressed to the Chairman, Dr. Busey, at Washington, or to the representative member of each society on the committee.

It may also be stated that the Committee of Arrangements of the American Gynecological Society, which will hold its next annual meeting in Washington at the same time, is composed of Drs. Busey, Taber Johnson, and King.

OBITUARY: SIDNEY A. Foss, M. D.-Dr. Sidney A. Foss died at his residence near Pleasure Ridge Park, Jefferson County, Ky., on the night of February 15, 1888, in his sixty-fifth year.

He was the son of Cotton and Cynthia Foss, nee Miss Reynolds, and was born in July, 1823. His parents were married at Grafton, New Hampshire, and moved to Lake County, Ohio, several years before Sidney was born. Owing to his father's failure in business young Sidney was thrown upon his own resources at the age of sixteen. He worked on a farm to earn money to complete his scholastic education. He then, at the age of eighteen, obtained a certificate of qualification of the afterward celebrated Vallandigham at Warren, Ohio, and taught school one year, when he moved to

R. T. Edes, American Neurological Asso

ciation, Washington.

Mount Washington, and studied medicine with Dr. Johnson of that place.

He attended his first course of lectures at

W. W. Johnston, American Climatological Association, Washington.

his second at the Buffalo Medical College, and graduated in 1847. His alma mater at the latter institution included the late cele

A. Sidney Roberts, American Orthopedic Association, Philadelphia.

ilton, and Austin Flint.

Dr. Foss commenced the practice of medicine at Laconia, now Pleasure Ridge Park,

Dr. Forrester of that locality. At the time.

of his location physicians were sparsely settled through the country, which gave the doctor an extensive range of territory to ride over. Being a man of great energy and fine physical health, he proved to be equal to the task of a large and laborious practice, which he maintained for over forty years. I do not suppose any physician ever had a more devoted clientele than Dr. Foss.

The writer had the pleasure of being intimately acquainted with the deceased from the time he commenced the practice of medicine up to the time of his death, and can truthfully say he never had a better friend. He was possessed of fine social qualities, a good talker, full of anecdotes, and understood well the art of entertaining his friends.

Notwithstanding his numerous professional engagements he was a great reader, keeping well abreast of his profession. He possessed a remarkably retentive memory, and could quote passages from different authors by the hour. He was very fond of the English poets.

In his professional intercourse he was always pleasant, yet dignified, both toward his patients and fellow-practitioners. He and the writer met many times at the bedside and attended the sick conjointly, and there was never an unpleasant feeling existing

between us.

Dr. F. represented Jefferson County in the legislature in 1859 and 1860, but after that time never ran again for office. Although of Northern parentage he was a true Southron in sentiment, and warmly sympathized with the South during the war of the States. He was in every respect a true man -true to his patients, true to his friends, and true to all the principles that go to make a gentleman. He was a liberal man, and, although not a member of the church, his home was always open to clergymen, to whom he was a free contributor.

Dr. F. was a member of the Kentucky State Medical Society, and also of the American Medical Association.

He was attacked with erysipelas of the face about two weeks before he died, and it was hoped by his friends that he was con

valescing a week after, but a relapse ensued in which death ended the scene.

His death is a great loss to the profession, and will be long lamented by his friends and patrons.

Dr. F. married Miss Bettie Bell in 1850, who survives him with two children-a son and daughter. The latter married Mr. Horace Moorman, a leading farmer of Jefferson County; and his son, Dr. Sam Foss, is a promising young physician, possessing many of the good qualities of his father, and will take his place in the practice of medicine.

His family has the warmest sympathy of the writer.

WEST POINT, KY.

T. B. GREENLEY.

HEALTH OF AMERICAN CITIES.-Philadelphia, Pa-Smallpox. phia, Pa-Smallpox. Eighty-two cases and five deaths were reported up to April 26, 1888.

Florida. Dr. A. W. Knight, in his report referred to in the last abstract, states that "on the 17th and 18th of April I was at Plant City, Fla. Two cases of yellow fever still remaining. One of these convalescent and out of danger. One case critical on the 18th. No other cases there or at Lakeland, Seffner, Ybor City, or Tampa. Tampa and Ybor City unusually healthy. No cases at that date, either at Bartow or Micanopy. No excitement in any of the towns nearest Plant City. I visited these points per order of the Board of Health of Duval county." Key West, Fla. Small pox. One new case reported during the week ending April 21, 1888.

very same class of merchandise, bearing a foreign name and recommended by foreign authority. The success of one or two German chemicals, the products of synthesis, opened the doors for a flood of antiseptins, antifebrins, antipyrins, and other "antis" ending in "ol" or "in." They come to us covered all over with patents-patents covering the names, the process of manufacture, the ingredients (save those which are kept absolutely secret), the modes of dispensing, the package, the label-in short, every thing that a patent can be made to cover. In a word, they are patent medicines in the very widest and strictest sense of the term; and yet they are received with enthusiastic welcome by press and practitioner, and are given, gratis and gladly, advertisements that money could not purchase for a home product, even though ten times more valuable, and not one tenth so much patented.

One of the proprietors of a drug of this sort, recently established in America, on being approached by the solicitor of advertising for an American medical journal, answered very curtly that "they didn't have to advertise their article. They got all the advertising they wanted for nothing, in the shape of laudatory communications in the reading matter of the medical journals." Which was true, every word of it, and that in spite of the fact that it was a patent medicine. The very journal for which the agent was soliciting, and in the very copy which he carried as a specimen, contained no less than six laudatory notices of the drug in question-one of them, a communication, covering several pages and heralding its virtues in almost every known form of dis

ease.

Per contra, the same journal had enjoyed for years a handsome revenue from the advertisement of a reputable proprietary medicine house of this city, but had persistently refused to admit within its reading matter a little notice commendatory of one of its specialties, the formula for which was printed on every bottle.

It is useless to plead that these imported

patents are so valuable that the profession must have them and must use them, secret nostrums though they be. This is not true, nor is it true that the manufacturers over there are any more honest or frank as to the nature and origin of their wares than are the American manufacturers of similar drugs. In proof of this assertion we call the attention of our readers to Gawalowski's

merciless exposure of a new compound which is getting ready in Germany to make a descent on Europe and America in the style of its predecessors-the antiseptic kreolin, of the wondrous value of which the advance guard of certificates have already commenced to appear in our journals. Will the latter be warned in time, or will they swindle themselves out of thousands of dollars by giving it the usual American welcome and gratis advertising? Dr. F. L. James, National Druggist.

DR. STERNBERG ON YELLOW FEVER.-The extravagant claims made by Domingos Freire, of Brazil, some months ago, to the effect that he had discovered not only the germ of yellow fever but a vaccine against this disease, aroused considerable interest in his work and a warm discussion concerning its value. There were many who believed Freire an enthusiast and a self-deceived fraud, while others were willing to accept his statements as correct. Acting under a strong professional pressure, the President was induced to send Dr. Sternberg to Brazil to investigate Freire's methods and to report on their scientific value. Dr. Sternberg has spent the past year in Brazil and Mexico in pursuance of his allotted task. He first proceeded to Rio de Janeiro where he made himself acquainted with the work of Domingos Freire, and after his return from that country proceeded to Mexico, where the methods of inoculation practiced by Carmona y Valle were investigated. Dr. Sternberg returned to this country a short time ago, and during his stay has been induced to make a preliminary report in a paper read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In this paper Dr.

Sternberg analyzes Freire's and Carmona y Valle's work in detail, and shows that the claims of these two men can not be substantiated. He is forced to arrive at the conclusion that the discovery of the germ of yellow fever has not been satisfactorily demonstrated, and there is no evidence to show that the method of inoculation practiced by Freire has any prophylactic value. Dr. Sternberg will shortly go to Havana for the purpose of continuing his researches with reference to the etiology and prophylaxis of yellow fever.

The preliminary account published indicates that he has given extremely careful and painstaking study to the work assigned him. We may expect important conclusions from his stay in Havana.-Maryland Medical Journal.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF OBSTETRICIANS AND GYNECOLOGISTS was recently organized at Buffalo, New York. Its membership is limited to obstetricians, gynecologists, and such surgeons who are interested in abdominal surgery connected with these specialties. The following officers were elected President, Dr. W. H. Taylor, Cincinnati; Vice-Presidents, Drs. E. E. Montgomery, Philadelphia, and J. H. Carstens, Detroit; Secretary, Dr W. W. Potter, Buffalo; Treasurer, Dr. X. O. Werder, Pittsburgh; Executive Committee, Drs. Thomas Opie, Baltimore; J. H. Etheridge, Chicago; C. Cushing, San Francisco; M. Storrs, Hartford; and Byron Stanton, Cincinnati. The new Association will hold its next meeting in Washington, D. C., September 18 to 20,

1888.

MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD, whose death only recently occurred from heart disease, is said to have had mitral and aortic trouble for a quarter of a century. "Twenty-five years ago," says the British Medical Journal, “he consulted Dr. (now Sir Andrew) Clark, and was told that he had valvular disease of the heart, but advised that if he exercised reasonable care it need not at all interfere with his career. For many years he rigidly

adhered to the recommendations as to regimen and exertion which were given to him, and it is interesting and encouraging to recall that nearly all his serious work in criticism, education, and theology was done. within the last twenty-five years. Such a life is a striking proof that heart disease, even of a type generally accounted seriousfor Mr. Arnold had disease of the mitral and aortic valves-need not interfere with the labors or the enjoyments of a successful career, provided only that the limitations and moderate restrictions to which the individual must submit are frankly recognized."

Dr.

DR. THOMAS KEITH, EDINBURGH. Keith, the eminent ovariotomist, and Mr. Skene Keith, are just on the eve of leaving Edinburgh to begin practice in London. General regret is felt that Edinburgh is about to lose the services of a man of the

commanding skill of Dr. Keith, whose work in connection with the advances in abdominal surgery has gained for him a world-wide reputation. He was one of the first to undertake and perform the operation of ovariotomy, and the success which has attended his performance of it is well known to all our readers. He arrives in London this week, and takes up his residence in Charles Street, Mayfair. We are sure Dr. Keith will carry with him the best wishes of his Edinburgh brethren and friends for all success in this new undertaking.—Medical Press and Circular.

THE TREATMENT OF TYPHOID FEVER has been recently discussed by the King's County Medical Association, New York. Stress was laid upon the diet. Milk was admitted to be the most available nourishment, but ordinary cold milk is very indigestible, and frequently distresses the patient, causing the temperature to rise and aggravating the symptoms. Peptonized milk is more readily appropriated by an enfeebled digestive apparatus, and will supply the requisite nourishment. When, for any reason, this is not available, the milk