of him quickens you, and you are glad to hear him chat; and you know him thus to be a lovable, sympathetic man-he's the man for your doctor, your confidential friend-find him, trust him.

THE Perfect Physician.-" This body must be your study and your continual care-your active, willing, earnest, willing care. Nothing must make you shrink from it. In its weakness and infirmities, in the dishonors of its corruption, you must still value it, still stay by it, to mark its hunger and thirst, its sleeping and waking, its heat and its cold, to hear its complaints, to register its groans.

"And is it possible to feel an interest in all this? Aye, indeed, it is; a greater, far greater, interest than ever painter or sculptor took in the form and beauties of its health.

Whence comes this interest? At first, perhaps, it seldom comes naturally; a mere sense of duty must engender it; and still, for a while, a mere sense of duty must keep it alive. Presently the quick, curious restless spirit of science enlivens it, and then it becomes an excitement, and then a pleasure, and then the deliberate choice of the mind.

"When the interest of attending the sick has reached this point, there arises from it, or has already arisen, a ready discernment of disease, and a skill in the use of remedies. And the skill may exalt the interest, and the interest may improve the skill, until, in the process of time, experience forms the consummate practitioner.

"But does the interest of attending the sick necessarily stop here? The question may seem strange. If it has led to the readiest discernment and the highest skill and to form the consummate practitioner, why need it go further?

But what if humanity should warm it? Then this interest, this excitement, this intellectual pleasure, is exalted into a principle and invested with a moral motive, and passes into the heart. What if it be carried still further? What if religion should animate it? Why, then, happy, indeed, is that man whose mind, whose moral nature, and whose spiritual being, are all harmoniously engaged in the daily business of his life; with whom the same act has become his own happiness, a dispensation of mercy to his fellow creatures and a worship of God.

"Such a man any of you may be; but you must begin by learning to stand by the sick-bed and make it your delight."-Latham.

MOBILITY of the Heart.-Dr. M. M. Shershevski publishes in the Vrach a paper on the mobility or displaceability of the heart. The fact that the heart's position is liable to slight changes, according to the position of the body, has been recognized by Bamberger, Gerhardt, Luschka, and other observers, but they have none of them formulated the conditions under which it takes place. Dr. Shershevski gives details of the examination of forty persons, all of them free from cardiac and pulmonary affections, in whom he noted accurately the position of the heart's boundaries in the upright, dorsal, left lateral, and right lateral positions. The chief mobility was toward the left side, but the heart was often quite perceptibly displaced to the right, as well as downward and even backward. The chief conditions under which this occurred were youth, nervous states, and freedom of the vessels from signs of sclerosis. Dis

placement backward was found in nearly half the cases, and this shows that the heart ought to be examined in the upright posture. The writer specially remarks on this when the examination is made as a prelude to the administration of chloroform, whereas, as a rule, the stethoscope is applied when the patient is lying down and in a very agitated frame of mind, which latter condition always renders the organ more easily displaced; and the diminished diameter due to this may lead to erroneous conclusions if the measurements be not previously taken in an upright position. This has reference chiefly to young persons. In the case of subjects over sixty years of age, and of much younger persons whose arterial system had already begun to show signs of degeneration, there was little or no displacement produced in any position.—The Lancet.

NEW Sign of Pregnancy.-A rather peculiar objective symptom of pregnancy has been described by Dr. Jas. S. Wintermute, which, as he first observed it, depended on a pathological condition, but which he proposes to make use of in all cases. The women had a semi-fluid discharge filling the cervical canal, the result of an endocervicitis. He noticed that this bulging mass of muco-purulent matter received an impulse which corresponded to the maternal heart-beat, and attributed it. to pregnancy. The woman had gone beyond her menstrual period but a few days, so could not have been more than four weeks pregnant. He proposes, as an explanation, the probable impulse of the embryonal sac, which impulse is communicated to the discharge, and therefore suggests that a soft probe of some suitable material be made to rest in the cervical canal against the embryonal sac, and thus receive its pulsations. -Med. Rev.

NOVEL Treatment of Phthisis.-Dr. Bergeon, of Lyons, recommends a method of treating phthisis which has, at any rate, the merit of novelty. His plan is to utilize the effects of sulphuretted hydrogen, and this he proposes to do by injecting carbonic acid gas, saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, into the intestines. If care be taken to secure the absence of atmospheric air, no inconvenience, it is said, results from the injection even of large quantities of the mixture, absorption into the venous system and elimination by the lungs taking place very rapidly. It is claimed for this procedure that, by its means, the use of sulphuretted hydrogen is unattended with any toxic effects, and exerts its influence directly on the lungs themselves. It has been employed in a number of cases at the hospitals of Lyons, Bordeaux, and Paris with great benefit to the patients, even in very advanced cases, and, latterly, similar observations have been made in the consumption hospitals of London, the results of which have not yet been made known. The method has been very much simplified by the introduction of an ingenious but simple apparatus whereby the carbonic acid gas is generated, and saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, ready for use.-Brit. Med. Jour.

ATROPINE in Nocturnal Earaches of Children.-In the nocturnal earaches to which so many children are subject, and from which they frequently cry a greater part of the night, the application, by dropping

into the external cavity, of a few drops of a solution of atropine (two grains to the ounce of water) will give prompt and effectual relief.

METHOD of Inducing Respiration.-Dr. Enos Blackwell reports a method of resuscitating the new born infant in an asphyxiated condition. It has as one very decided merit, that of immediate application, but is as Dr. Blackwell says, a procedure which embodies the principles of the Marshall Hall method. The child is laid on the palms of the accoucheur's hands, and then rapidly tossed with a quick motion, this being done while the placenta is still attached. The rapid movement makes the arms fly up, thus lifting the chest walls, and the infant takes air with a sudden sob. Although a rough and ready method, the author has found it highly successful in many instances.-Med. Rev.

PRESSURE on the Brain at Birth.-In delivering an infant through a distorted pelvis by means of the long forceps, pressure is first made upon the superior parts of the cerebral hemispheres, which must obviously force the brain toward the base of the skull. When delivery is effected by drawing the infant through the pelvis after turning, the brain is forced upwards from the base toward the vaulted portion of the cranium. Thus there would appear to be a greater chance of organic injury being produced by turning than by the use of the long forceps, as in the former case the pressure is first made just above the base of the skull, where the most important parts of the brain and nerves are likely to be forcibly raised from this portion of the cranium.-Med. World.

IMPROVED Method for Compressing Air.-Dr. E. L. Oatman, describes a simple and apparently very effective method of compressing air for use in atomizing fluids. In the cellar or basement a common galvanized iron range-boiler is placed, and connected by two pipes, entering it below, with the main water-supply and with the drain. At the upper end a tube is attached, which passes up to the physician's office. All the pipes are fitted with stop-cocks. To charge the reservoir, this air-tube and the discharge-pipe are closed, while the supplypipe is opened. The water now rushes in, and places the contained air under a high pressure. When the water ceases to flow, the supply-pipe should be closed. The compressed air may now be used when required by opening the air-pipe, the stop-cock of which is placed in the office. When the pressure is exhausted, the reservoir may be emptied by opening both the air-tube and the discharge-pipe, and the air may then be again compressed as before, by closing the latter pipes and opening the supply-pipe. The discharge-pipe 'should be of large calibre, say two inches, so that the apparatus may be quickly emptied. The arrangement would be improved, Dr. Oatman writes, by using two connecting reservoirs, allowing the water to enter only the first, which should be the larger of the two, thus compressing the air in the second, where it can be kept ready for use. The water may now be discharged from the first, for which purpose it should be provided with a second air-tube, leaving it ready for instant use when the pressure is exhausted in the

second reservoir. All the cocks governing the tubes of the apparatus may be placed in the office, if desired. Ten dollars will cover the entire cost of the apparatus-Med. Rec.

BOOK REVIEWS.

ORIFICIAL SURGERY, AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES.-By E. H. PRATT, A. M., M. D., Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery in the Chicago Homœopathic Medical College, etc. Chicago: W. T. Keener, 1887. Pps. 139. This volume comprises the substance of a series of lectures delivered to the class of the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College during the past winter upon a subject, which, since the presentation of a paper by the author before the Cook County Homœopathic Medical Society, has attracted the general attention of the profession, and which has incited considerable discussion pro and con. We find it receiving on the one hand unqualified praise from some progressive rational practitioners, and on the other, as unqualified condemnation from some who apparently believe that no good thing can come out of Nazareth; and who condemn it simply because it is presented by one who is outside of their pale of regularity. As treated in the present work (the author promising a more extensive treatise in the future), orificial surgery applies only to the lower openings of the body. The proposition which the author presents is"in ail pathological conditions, surgical or medical, which linger persistently in spite of all efforts at removal, from the delicate derangements of brain-substance that induce insanity, and the various forms of neurasthenia, to the great variety of morbid changes repeatedly found in the coarser structures of the body, there will invariably be found more or less irritation of the rectum, or the orifices of the sexual system, or of both." Upon this prep sition the author has based a system of surgery which he claims to be efficacious in the treatment of chronic diseases. The matter is well presented, and will be found interesting reading, even though one is not disposed to accept the author's conclusions.

TAKING COLD.-(The Cause of Haif our Diseases) Its Nature, Causes, Prevention and Cure; Its Frequency as a Cause of other Diseases, and the Diseases of which it is the Cause, with their Diagnosis and Treatment. By JOHN W. HAYWARD, M. D., M. R. C. S., M. D. [Hon] New York Homœopathic College. Author of “ Allopathy and Homœopathy Constrasted. Etc., Etc. Seventh edition revised and London: E. Gould & Son, 59, Moorgate Street, F. C.

This little book having reached its seventh edition has evidently filled a previously existing vacancy, and served a useful purpose. If the laity to whom it is addressed, could be induced to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest its wise counsels it would be to their manifest advantage, as the so called "taking cold" is a prolific cause of disease, and it may be said that the diseases for which domestic treatment is available are mostly the result of cold. It possesses in a marked degree the merits of brevity and simplicity, and is deserving of commendation as a model