principals in such food, that will furnish materials for the formation of good strong, hard, flint-like teeth! A due proportion of these three great principals must be observed, and maintained. Every tissue must be nourished!

But every tissue is not properly nourished by the use of a large majority of artificial foods. I have had much anxious thought upon this subject. How many physicians have found wet nurses thoroughly reliable? Free from all systemic infection of scrofula, tubercular, syphilitic, or psoric taints. Indeed, how many mothers there are who are unfit to nurse their own babies, from many causes. All of these conditions being true, because they are painful facts,-then it becomes an absolute necessity to furnish a substitute for the maternal breast.

Where shall we find it?

Artificial foods that have fine bolted white wheat flour as their chief ingredient, even if it has been baked long enough to convert its starch into dextrine, is deficient in one of the most important elements in baby food, namely, calcareous salts! The starch of such foods will undergo. acid fermentation during the process of digestion, and the tooth and bone materials have been sifted out of the wheat, by that device of the evil one, that is to say, by his invention of the bolting machines, found in all flouring mills.

Starch, converted into dextrine, by a dry temperature of about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, continued for some eight hours or more, presents a gummy substance-dextrine-which is more easily digested than the original starch. This process must be observed in all infant foods where cereals are used.

In infant foods we must have a sufficient supply of nitrogenous matter, or the flesh will be found to be flabby. There must be a supply of the albuminous group, such as albumen, gluten, legumin, globulin, casein, and the substances called oxides of proteine, which give firmness of texture to the muscular tissues.

How important then, that the physician shall be able to decide that his little patient shall have an article of food that shall nourish every tissue of his body, even unto his forming temporary and permanent teeth! The bones are going to come out "all right," if we furnish good building material for the teeth.

Many children seem to thrive upon condensed milk, but it should not be forgotten that the process of desiccation does not make the tough casein of the cow's milk any the more digestible; not at all!

The casein or cheesy portion of cow's milk should be made to be more easily digested. This can be done by partly pre-digesting this cheesy portion of such food, with pancreatine, sufficiently, at least, so

as to render it impossible for the casein to be formed into curds in the child's stomach.

Every physician knows that a nurse, or the child's mother, cannot be relied upon to partly "pre-digest "the cow's milk, be it in the ordinary form in which it comes from the cow, or as condensed milk.

Heat,continued heat, must be applied to assist the digestive processes. If allowed to increase much above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the pancreatic ferment is injured. Hence, if any portion of a child's food is to consist of cow's milk it ought to be partly pre-digested to get the best results.

Since no nurse can be relied upon to carry on this nice chemico-physiological process, it would be best to have some manufacturer make a thoroughly honest, and in every way reliable infant food, for bottle-fed babies. This I am happy to observe is performed by a New York concern, Messrs. Reed & Carnrick. It is known in market as Carnrick's Soluble Food."

66

In my anxious investigations of some of the many infant foods for sale, I have been flatly refused an analysis of them, and upon inquiring during conversation with the proprietors, I have come to the conclusion. that some of their so-called foods are nothing more than baked fine bolted wheat flour, with hardly a trace of lime salts for the teeth and bones, in their composition. Gluten and starch, almost devoid of nitrogenous matter, and free from any form of lime. Pulverized Boston. crackers are just as valuable a food.

Food a normal supply of
Also they furnish nitrogen-

Reed & Carnrick put into their Soluble the inorganic salts, nearly three per cent. ous matter, in partly pre-digested, desiccated cow's milk, which as I have shown above, can be easily digested and appropriated by every growing tissue.

While, in my investigations, I have been anxious, mainly to find a "babies food" containing sufficient lime salts to build up good strong and serviceable teeth, I have not been unmindful of the necessity for a large supply of nitrogenous substances, and Prof. Stutzer says that he "found in Carnrick's Soluble Food 18.22 per cent. of nitrogenous materials," certainly, a very liberal supply, and an exceedingly important consideration.

In cases of cholera infantum, marasmus, dental irritation, and children who have a weak digestive apparatus, this food is invaluable !

89 South Portland Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y.

BOOK REVIEWS.

A HANDBOOK OF GENERAL AND OPERATIVE GYNECOLOGY. Volume I. BY DR. A. HEGAR (University of Freiburg) and DR. R. KATTENBACH (University of Giessen). In two volumes. This is also Vol. VI. of "A CYCLOPEDIA OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY" (12 vols., price $16.50), issued monthly during 1887. NEW YORK: WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY.

In order to ensure the completion of the encyclopædia of obstetrics. and gynecology in the autumn, the publishers announce that the different volumes will be issued as rapidly as they come from the editors without regard to numerical sequence. Volume 5, owing to about half the volume being original with the editor, will probably be the last issued.

The present volume considers gynecological examinations, minor therapeutic manipulations and elementary operations, operations on the ovaries, with an introduction by Hegar.

The author, while a thorough gynecologist, does not lose sight of the fact that a woman is not all sexual organs, and that there is a possibility of her having a disease outside of those all important organs. "By no means," he says, "the worst therapeutic results are sometimes obtained when we discontinue treatment, at last all local treatment, of even marked sexual diseases, and devote our attention to the improvement of the general condition and to the relief of individual annoying. symptoms. The busy gynecologist sees many women who are supposed to be suffering from uterine disease, but in whom this does not exist or at least is of a trifling character."

The work is particularly well adapted to the use of the general practitioner, both as a handbook and a book of reference and deserves commendation as the most complete work of the kind ever attempted.

ON THE PATHOLOGY AND TREATMENT OF GONORRHEA AND SPERMATORRHOEA. By J. L. MILTON, Senior Surgeon to St. John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin, London. Octavo, 484 pages. Illustrated. Price, bound in extra muslin, $4.00. NEW YORK: WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY.

This work contains in an abridged form, the substance of the earlier editions, with additional papers upon the subject. The opening chapter is an interesting resume of the history of Gonorrhoea, from which it appears that this disease can not be satisfactorily traced back to very early times. From the experience of the author he believes that gonorrhoea until quite recently was of comparative infrequency in England except. in the large cities. The second chapter treats of the pathology and the remaining portion is devoted to the treatment. Regarding the latter, the author says: nothing has been recommended by myself in this work but what has stood the brunt, not merely of experience, for that I rate rather low, but of special observation. My aim was, as far as possible, to separate clearly what might be looked on as established from what was doubtful, and not merely to prove every assertion, but to place it on such a basis that it could not be disproved. Spermatorrhoea has

been similarly treated, the history, pathology, and treatment being exhaustively given. Regarding this affection, the bulk of the work presented is essentially clinical, the fruit of observation rather than of reading.

THE MEDICAL GENIUS; a Guide to the Cure. By STACY JONES, M. D., practicing physician, obstetrician, and surgeon: Published for the author. PHILADELPHIA: JOHN C. WINSTON & Co.1887.

From the inapt title of this book it might be supposed to be the record of some brilliant luminary of the medical skies, rather than an exposition of the art of medicine as seen by the author, who has been actively engaged in the pursuits of the medical profession in Eastern Pennsylvania during the last thirty-three years. The work is unique in many respects, from the dedication "To all those who prefer curing disease, to contending about dogmas," to its arrangement, and the positive assertions of the author. The prominent purpose of the book is to "exhibit the pure genius of our drugs as attested by undoubted cures effected by them, in doses both minute and massive. Thus to constitute the work a mirror, in which the advocate of each mode of medication, may see how the other cures. There is a middle belt between the extremists of the two dominant schools of medicine, comprising a noble class of the medical fraternity, who, without let or fear of any faction aim straight for the cure; with these is sacredly preserved, in its entire vitality, the very pith of all the pathies-the sole purpose of healing the sick. It is with these that the author has hoped that his book might find favor: mainly for these, it was written."

The work is divided into sections, each section with a few exceptions, being devoted to the consideration of a remedy, giving the indications for large and small doses, although, as it is said of a woman's letter, the pith is often to be found in the postscript. Thus in section I, Acacia, we find as addenda, "Ethusa cynapium, taken every hour or two, is baby's best remedy for vomiting of breast milk in thick curds, with threatening of spasms."

The author is positive in his assertions concerning the efficacy of his remedies in the treatment of disease, as where he "cured 85 per cent. of all cases (cholera infantum) with resorcin, I to 3 grain doses," more so than we have ever dared to be.

We have read the book with interest and have no doubt that those who are in doubt regarding the old treatment of disease and who are looking for something better, will find the book full of valuable hints. DISEASES OF THE FEMALE URETHRA AND BLADDER. By F. WINCKEL, M. D., of the Royal University, Munich; and, DISEASES OF THE VAGINA, by A BREISKY, M. D., of the Royal University, Vienna. Edited by EGBERT H. GRANDIN, M. D., of New York. These two treatises constitute Vol. X. of " A CYCLOPEDIA OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY" (12 vols., price $16.50), issued monthly during 1887. NEW YORK: WILLIAM WOOD & COMPANY.

This volume deals with a comparatively neglected art, the bladder being left out of consideration in connection with the female genitalia, and the literature of the subject is correspondingly scanty. The intro

duction treats upon the anatomical and physiological peculiarities of the female urethra and bladder, the examination of the female urethra and bladder and statistical inquiry into the frequency of occurrence of the various diseases of the female urethra and bladder. From the figures given it appears that urethral and vesical diseases are much more frequent in men than women, being in proportion more than two to one. In a number of autopsies made by the author twenty-five-per-cent. were found to have some affection of the bladder. Part I, treats of malformations. and diseases of the female urethra. Part II. Defirmities and diseases of the female bladder, and Part III. of the diseases of the Vagina.

The subject is exhaustively treated and the present volume sustains. the impression conveyed by the preceeding volumes of the value of this encyclopedia and the enterprise of Messrs. Wood & Co, in furnishing. for almost nominal cost so through a treatise upon obstetrical and. gynææcological art.

ABSTRACTS.

FIBROID TUMORS of the Uterus treated by Electrolysis.-By FRANKLIN H. MARTIN, M.D.-In Journal of American Medical Assosociation the term "electrolysis," as applied to the treatment of disease, has been by many, for some unaccountable reason, greatly misunderstood. Because an electric battery is one of the requisites of treatment by electrolysis, the term has become synonymous with any form of elec trical application, whether of the galvanic, faradic or static variety. This is a mistake. To successfully treat any particular diseased condition by electrolysis, certain scientific principles are involved, that are as necessary for us to understand as it is for an inventor to understand certain scientific principles before he can successfully construct an electric motor.

Electrolysis is simply an expression for an electrical phenomenon. It is necessary for us to have certain conditions present in order to obtain this phenomenon: 1. A continuous current of electricity. 2. An electrolyte. 3. Means of conveying the current through the electrolyte.. And unless we have present in every case upon which we operate these requisites, and bring them into such relationship that the electrical current conveyed through the electrolyte by means of suitable conductors will dissolve the molecules of the electrolyte into their constituent elements, we do not get electrolysis.

So far as the phenomenon electrolysis has been utilized in medicine, it has been for the purpose of removing abnormal tissue. In order to accomplish this, certain other requisites are necessary. 1. The tissue to be dissipated must be an electrolyte or contain electrolytes. 2. The tissue must be in a position where it may be electrolysized without endangering neighboring tissues. 3. Its surroundings must be such as will favor the removal of the ions by absorption or otherwise, that have been freed by the electrolytic action. 4. Some means of ascertaining the strength of the current must be at hand.

I wish to refer to two other phenomena of the constant galvanic current, which do not properly come under the head of electrolytic action,