THE INDEX MEDICUS.

The suspension of the publication of the Index Medicus was the occasion of a great deal of regret to the studious members of the medical profession and the announcement that the work is to be taken up in France will undoubtedly cause a great deal of pleasure. The first number of Bibliographia Medica, with Dr. Marcel Baudouin as editor-in-chief, has appeared. It is to be a monthly, containing about 4,000 titles properly classified in each number, or 50,000 per year.

The subscription is 50 francs ($10.00) for France and 60 francs ($12.00) for other countries in the postal union. The address is Institut de Bibliographie, 93 Boulevard St. Germain, Paris. We wish it a long life and hope that it may meet with abundant support.

He certainly accomplished his first purpose. The question arises, In what way were the second and third purposes accomplished, and what light has been thrown on them?

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A decision was handed down in a Massachusetts court which is exciting a fair amount of interest. The case decided was a suit brought against a North Adams doctor by a young woman. The suit resulted from a skin-grafting operation. The plaintiff agreed to furnish some of the skin needed, and her claim is that more skin was removed from her body than she allowed. The court found for the

doctor, on the ground that, before the operation, the young woman did not restrict the amount of skin that could be removed, nor the place from which it could be taken. The plaintiff has taken an appeal and will carry the case to the State Supreme Court.

The official report of the Honolulu health board shows there were seventy cases of plague there up to March 26, sixty proving fatal.

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Manila advices, dated March 6, say it is estimated there have been 200 cases of bubonic plague in and around Manila. Eighty cases proved fatal, but there is no panic. The disease made its 'first appearance in Cavite. The first cases in Manila were discovered within a stone's throw of Otis' headquarters. Three deaths occurred before the nature of the disease was ascertained. Hundreds of inspectors were put to work, and large forces of Chinamen and Filipinos immediately began the work of cleaning up the city. The same advices report a smallpox epidemic in Bell's famous Thirty-sixth volunteer regiment. Lieutenant Tonerary and Lieutenant Wine and several soldiers are dead.

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It was noted in the Journal for February that Chas. H. Vivian had been charged by the Colorado State Board of Medical Examiners with practicing without a license. He was found guilty in the West Side Court February 14. In the testimony it was shown that he had also treated a Mrs. Steicher for supposed appendicitis from December 18, 1899, to January 1, 1900. She died. The treatment given was pronounced atrocious.

Vivian was sentenced to the county jail for thirty days, the maximum sentence. In sentencing him, Judge Butler remarked that there were much lighter crimes punished by heavier sentences. In his opinion the penalty provided by law was much too small.

CLINICAL LECTURES

EASES OF THE HEART, LUNGS AND PLEURA. Designed for the use of Practitioners and Advanced Students of Medicine. By Joseph M. Patton, M. D., Professor of Internal Medicine, Chicago Polyclinic, Chicago. The Clinical Review Publishing Co.

In this thin volume (its size being due to the character of the paper used, there being nearly four hundred pages) we have a series of clinical lectures covering the field indicated in the title. Case histories are freely made use of to illustrate the thoughts desired to be emphasized, and numerous prescriptions given in detail here and there, as the author deems advisable. Therapeutics is given its proper importance, instead of being hurried over and slighted, as is the tendency on the part of many authors. The make-up of the book is not equal to its contents, an inferior quality of paper of at least two different kinds being employed. This, however, we can overlook more readily

than we could the reverse conditioncontents inferior to the mechanical workmanship.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A REBEL SURGEON. By Dr. E. E. Daniel, Editor of the Texas Medical Journal. Dr. Daniel has given, in a most agreeable and pleasant way, recollections of his long-past war days. The many and various amusing incidents, which are so naively told, can not fail to draw forth an appreciative smile, which will be but the precursor of a hearty laugh from even the most sober and serious practitioner.

Dr. Daniel has graphically penned the difficulties which a surgeon during the civil war necessarily encountered in performance of his medical duties, yet at no time do.these recitals become either dull or prolix.

Few authors possess the charm of description, in the use of the colloquial dialect, which Dr. Daniel has interspersed as occasion demanded. We sincerely trust that "Recollections of a Rebel Surgeon" will find a duly prominent place not only in the physician's library, but also on the office table, to be enjoyed by his patients.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. An Exposition by William A. Purrington, Lecturer on Legal Medicine in the University and Bellevue Medical School, Etc., New York City.

This excellent little volume, comprising less than two hundred pages, embodies the arguments set forth by Mrs. Eddy and her disciples, with the respective replies and discussions by the

author.

A leading medical journal deemed it a sufficient criticism to reprint from Mr. Purrington's Exposition the frontispiece, which is the photo of a gangrenous foot, trusting that its subscribers would draw those inferences which would commend the book.

The arguments of this little volume are pithy and straight to the point; every quotation from the daily press, pulpit or elsewhere has been deftly inserted with direct relationship to the text. No space has been allotted to the dreamy preachings of a one-sided intellect, as is so often observed in books

of those authors who undertake to correct the mishaps of some perverted. mind, and further persecute a sympathetic reader with their own arbitrary views.

It would be well for not only every physician to read this treatise on Christian Science, but see that his clientele find time to faithfully peruse its pages, in order that they may better understand those fallacies which have been foisted on a credulous public by Mrs. Mary Moss Baker Glover-PattersonEddy.

Frederick A. Packard, M. D.; The Diseases of Children, by Alexander D. Blackader, M. D.; Pathology, by Ludwig Hektoen, M. D.; Laryngology and Rhinology, by A. Logan Turner, M. D., F. R. S., and Otology, by Robert L. Randolph, M. D. Each chapter will appeal to the reader specially interested in that subject, as being the best and most interesting, and each chapter will ap peal to each reader as an exceedingly interesting and valuable resume of the recent advances made in its subject.

PROGRESSIVE MEDICINE. A quarterly digest of its Advances, Discoveries and Improvements. Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M. D., assisted by Charles Adams Holder, M. D. Volume 1, March, 1900. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York, Publishers.

This is a work each succeeding number of which deserves commendation. Its purpose, to tell "a well-told tale of medical progress in all its lines of thought, told in each line by one well qualified to cull only that matter worthy of his attention and necessary to his success," is well carried out in the present volume. Not the least commendation is the fact that each contributor has been requested to use the narrative form, and express not only the views of the author cited, but his own opinion as well. This adds greatly to the interest and fascination (for so it may be expressed) of the work. The following chapters are treated in the present volume: The Surgery of the Head, Neck and Chest, by J. Chalmers DaCosta, M. D.; Infectious Diseases, Including Acute Rheumatism, Croupous Pneumonia and Influenza, by

THE SEXUAL INSTINCT, ITS USE AND DANGERS AS AFFECTING HEREDITY AND MORALS. By James Foster Scott, B. A., M. D., C. M., 1899. Price, $2. New York; E. B. Treat & Co., Publishers.

This review is somewhat belated. The book was received by the Western Medical and Surgical Gazette during its slumber. The work has lost none of its value, however, during the short time which has elapsed since its publication; it is as well worth reading now as then. As the author says in the preface, it "contains much plain talking." It treats of matters usually avoided by medical men, and handles them without gloves. It is a powerful protest against unchastity in both sexes, but especially in men, and is to be classed with the popular medical works. It is rather to be regretted that the author has approached his subject rather from the theoretical theological standpoint than from the strictly scientific, but it is possible that it will in that way have a greater effect upon a greater number of readers. The work is an interesting one, and one which the physician can readily place in the hands of the laity.