Lee & Shepard have surpassed themselves in their calendar for 1892. It is composed of twelve heavy gilt edged cards, each containing not only the calendar but an exquisite design in color, of some appropriate idea for the month. The cards are bound together by a silk cord and a delicate, silvered chain. attached by which they may be hung on the wall or elsewhere; forming a useful and beautiful work of The Texas Sanitarian. A journal of preventive medicine and hygiene, published at Austin, Texas, by The Texas Sanitarian Company, with Dr. T. J. Bennett as managing editor, has made its appearance, and a striking one it is too. of merit on subjects of interest; it is handsomely gotten up and reflects great credit on its editor and publisher. Its future will be a bright one if it maintains the high state of excellence secured in the first number. art. Its pages are filled with papers Book Reviews. ANNUAL OF THE UNIVERSAL MEDICAL SCIENCES, a yearly report of the progress of the general sanitary sciences throughout the world. Edited by Charles E. Sajous, M. D., and seventy associate editors, assisted by over two hundred corresponding editors, collaborators and correspondents; illustrated by chromo-lithographs, engravings and maps. Five volumes. 1891. F. A. Davis, Philadelphia. The fourth series of the Annual has been presented to the profession, and is in every way up to the high standard of the former issues, not only in the value of individual articles, but also for the careful manner in which they are arranged for rapid consultation. At the end of each volume there are reference numbers which is certainly a great aid in examination of the work. Volume I. includes such well-known writers as Whittaker, Griffin, Johnston, Holt, McKee, Leidy, Allen Smith, Wilson, Cohen, Starr, Lewis Smith, and N. S. Davis, also a valuable article written by the late Professor Joseph Leidy upon animal parasites and their effects. It was written by the best. authority upon this subject in the scientific world, and contains many practical suggestions, especially to practitioners. Volume II. has among its many contributors the following eminent writers: Landon Carter Gray, Birdsall, Knapp, Brush, Frederick Henry, Mundé, Montgomery, Baldy, Parish, Currier, Starr, and Minot. This volume is well illustrated, especially the article on "Diseases of the Ovaries and Tubes," by E. E. Montgomery, the author showing the great value of operative measures in very many diseases of those organs. Volumes III., IV., and V. contain some of the best known writers of the day. Among the many who have in the three volumes alluded to, given so much value to these works may be named Packard, Gaston, Mears, Kelsey, Keyes, White, Martin, Sayre, Conner, Stimson, Laplace, Seguin, Tiffany, Barton, Wolff, Oliver, Turnbull, Sajous, Witherstine, Delevan, Cohen, Ingalls, Draper, Gihon, Ernst, Jackson, Griffith, Hare, Rockwell, Rohé, Hamilton, Wyman, Sudduth, Sangree, Young, Howell, and many others. The contributions are of the utmost value to all prac "A Guide to the Clinical Examination of the Urine." By Farrington H. Whipple, A. B. (Harv.) Boston, Damrell and Upham, 1891; pp. 206. This little work, as stated by the author, is a condensation of the essential features of larger and more diffuse works, and therefore presents the subject in a more readily accessible and practical form. Frequent reference is made to the works of Roberts, Hoffman, and Ultzmann, Tyson, Birch, Hirschfeld and Foster, also information derived from Dr. Ward, of the Harvard Medical School. Although there have been quite a number of works published on this subject, we know of none that will be more acceptable to the student and practitioner. THE COMSTOCK CLUB. By C. C. GooDWIN, Editor Salt Lake Tribune. Tribune Job Printing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah. The Comstock Club is a story without a plot, but it will repay the doctor who, tired of hard work and close thinking, wishes to relax for a little while and enjoy not one but many laughs. It is from the pen of Judge C. C. Goodwin, the talented editor of The Salt Lake Tribune. Seven miners employed in the Comstock mine at Virginia City, tired of boarding house life, rent a house, hire a Chinaman and form a mess. They have foregathered from the ends of the earth and each man's experience has been rich and varied. The pictures of their like, their after supper talks and the men themselves are drawn by a master hand. The book sparkles with wit, abounds in humor and has within its covers more good stories than were ever compressed in the same space before. But this is not all. Life is not all humorous in the west. The bour of trial, of distress and death comes to the Club. Its circle is broken. Bad luck once begun increases and of the seven but four are left. It is in dealing with these scenes that the author is at his best. He shows the pathos, pure and spontaneous, which is the birthright of every true humorist and without which none can arrive at real greatness. The play of fancy, the word painting, the beauty and truth of the pictures of men and things, the bubbling fun, the flashes of wit and touches of pathos show a versatility given to few men and prove the writing to have been a labor of love. It is to be hoped that this will not be the last contribution from Judge Goodwin, for his long life in the West, his knowledge of its life and its people fit him particularly for its portrayal. The mechanical work was done by the Tribune job office, Salt Lake City, and is of a character rarely found outside of the great publishing centers. Items of Interest. A French statistican, Mennier, estimates the consumption of gold for purposes of dentistry to amount annually in the United States to 1,800 pounds. Mennier declares that a century hence American cemeteries will contain more gold than now exists in France. A dessert spoonful of vinegar taken undiluted, but with a little powdered sugar in it, will often arrest persistent hiccough. Turpentine is most valuable in the latter stages of typhoid fever with dry tongue, given with mucilage, ten to twenty drops every two hours.-Med. Summary. A case has been reported by Dr. F. C. Heath, of Lafayette, Ind., in which a bit of steel remained in iris about midway between the pupil and sclero-corneal junction for twenty-seven years. There were two attacks of iritis, but eyesight was unimpaired. Dr. Weir reports after extensive experiments in the New York hospitals that pyoktannin has no effect in controlling cancer. In the Medical Department of University of Texas the salaries of professors range from $2,500 to $3,000. In the Illinois State Building at the World's Fair the women physicians, pharmacists, and dentists will prepare an exhibit. A diet of oatmeal and brown bread is said to greatly promote the growth of hair on the bald scalp. In Montevideo, South America, there is a charity. hospital, with an income of $2,500,000, yearly, which is chiefly derived from the sale of lottery tickets. There has been a law recently enacted in Ohio as follows: "Physicians in the discharge of professional duties shall be permitted to ride, at their own risk, upon freight trains between stations where such trains stop, paying therefore the regular passenger fare." Physicians often lose much valuable time waiting for a passenger train and such a law would be useful in every State. 1. Foreign diplomas were barred out by the Illinois State Board of Health for the following reasons: The diplomas of medical schools and universities do not entitle the holders to practice in these countries. 2. The Prussian Staats Examen Commission rejected in 1890 more than forty per cent of the graduates of the University of Berlin, more than forty seven per cent of the Breslau graduates, more than thirty-one per cent of the Griefswald and Halle graduates and, in fact, more than twenty-nine per cent of the university graduates that came before the commission. Many of the rejected candidates come to this country. 4. Many such graduates, fearful of failing in the gov ernment examinations in their own countries, come to this country to enjoy a privilege denied them at home of practicing medicine simply on their diplomas. 5. 3. The Illinois State Board of Health feels that it should not place upon such diplomas a higher valuation than is given them in the countries in which they are granted. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York has three fellowships, supported by the Alumni Association, and are to be held two years at an annual value of five hundred dollars each. They are open to graduates who have shown special aptitude for scientific research in anatomy, pathology, and physiology. The Grand Medical Council of England has issued an order compelling medical students to five years' study, hospital attendance and lectures, before being qualified to appear for the final examination. Dr. L. Webster Fox will lecture at the Franklin Institute, January 29, on "Eyesight, in middle life and old age, with a few hints for its care and prevention." -Times and Register. The above gives rise to the suspicion that the Doctor would be a valuable consultant to foreign noblemen who desire to avoid the divorce courts. Dr. F. L. Sim, the able editor of the Memphis Medical Monthly, has submitted to an enucleation of his left eyeball for detachment of the retina and choroiditis. That he bears the application philosophically is demonstrated by his editorial on the subject in the current number of the Monthly. ANDROLOGY.-This name has been applied by the American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons, to their specialty of genito-urinary diseases, and a section of andrology has been formed in the congress of American physicians and surgeons. It is the object of the association to place andrology upon a plane with gynecology, ophthalmology and dermatology. Acids should be mixed with water by pouring the former into the latter. If the water is poured on the acid an explosion of steam may occur. Tenhora A. Cordia, who has just graduated from the Medico-Chirurgical School of Medicine of Lisbon, is the first woman admitted to the medical profession in Portugal. Seventy-five to eighty per cent of the Russian He brews arriving at the barge office in New York have either a single or double rupture. A qualitative and quantitative examination of antikamnia shows it to contain ten parts of caffeine, twenty parts of sodium bicarbonate and seventy parts of acetanlid. Death has resulted from twenty-four grains taken at a single dose by mistake. The Parisians are imitating the Irish Peasants and are enjoying the intoxication ether gives. They improve upon the original custom and take theirs with brandy. Salicylic acid is accused of causing a diminution in virile power. Hon. John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior, in a letter to the editor of The Cincinnati Lancet Clinic, strongly favors the establishing of a Department of Public Health. He points to the growth of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Education and expresses the opinion that the public health is of more importance than either of them. Drs. Nicholson and Stockson have retired from the Southern Medical Journal. They are succeeded by Drs. J. McFadden Gaston and Willis F. Westmoreland. The report of the insanity of Qui de Maupassant is the text of a most readable letter on the illustrious insane of Paris in the Lancet Clinic of Jan. 30, 1892. DEATH FROM PORALDEHYDE. A death from paraldehyde is reported in the Nashville Journal of Medicine and Surgery. A girl of twenty, by mistake took six or seven drachms of the drug, became unconscious in a few minutes and died in a few hours. The Journal of Gynecology, published at Toledo, Ohio, has changed its name to The American Gynecology Journal. There has been organized in Chicago a medical association, with Dr. Nicholas Senn as President, who intend to visit Rome in 1892 and attend the Interna national Medical Congress. They will charter a steamer for the trip, which will cover about six weeks of time. Perfumery used on handkerchiefs during an attack of hay fever is said to act as an excitant and excessive sneezing is the result. A STRONG BUT INNUTRITIOUS DIET. An autopsy made on the body of an Arab stowaway found on a ship in the Thames furnished no signs of disease in the brain or the chest, except a few old adhesions in the left pleural cavity. The gall bladder was very distended and full. Three small ulcers existed on the anterior coat of the stomach. Several patches of inflammation were found in the small intestine. In the cæcum were found twenty trousers buttons, three cog wheels (apparently out of a watch, two of them one inch in diameter-these were doubled), one 2-inch steel screw bent double, and one 1-inch screw, six pieces of a lock (the biggest piece was 11⁄2 inch long and 1⁄2 inch broad), a circular piece of brass (134 inch in diameter folded into four), several pieces of iron wire (four were 11⁄2 inch in length), brass and lead, and two key tallies on a ring, one inch in length. In the ascending colon, about five inches from the cæcum, were found a piece of steel wire one eighth of an inch in diameter and three inches and a half in length, bent double, and one small cog wheel. The weight of these bodies together amounted almost exactly to half a pound. The body was much emaciated; no subcutaneous fat was present in chest or abdominal walls, or any fat round the kidneys. The deceased was quite unknown; no particulars could be discovered by the police employed to obtain evidence for the purpose of the inquest. There was no perforation of intestines, or any sign of disease in the colon. The Lancet. Maxims. First: Get the prescriptions, get all you can, and dispense nothing but the best drugs. Second: Copy nothing for another to dispense without most carefully checking it. Third: Never use the names of patients or physicians in discussing the symptoms or treatment of disease without the knowledge or consent of those you mention. Fourth: Never pay percentage for custom or prescriptions, let every prescription be written by a physician; no sailing under false colors. Fifth; Never overcharge the poor or undercharge the rich, because the one is credit and other cash, unless there is some absolute necessity for so doing. Sixth: Fight for your own goods, but don't decieve by saying they are prepared wholly or solely by you. Seventh: Support your university if you have one, but do not think all the good men are in it and all the bad ones outside of it. Eighth: Above all, know and believe that chemistry is advancing, and that there is progress in materia medica and therapeutical affairs, and that in this branch of study more than any other the future will be greater and better than the present or the past.— Drug Topics. Man's Relative Height and Weight. Five feet one inch should be 120 pounds. Miscellaneous. POISONING BY BAD POTATOES.-Twenty-three soldiers in Lyons were taken ill with symptoms resembling those of belladonna poisoning. They all complained with headache, fever, great debility and diarrhea; some also of dizziness, nausea, dilated pupils; others had tinnitus aureum, defective vision with photophobia and partial spasm. It was found that these men had all partaken freely of unripe new potatoes, which on examination were found to contain a large quantity of solanin. Experiments on the lower animals with the same potatoes produced similar poisoning symptoms.-Allgem. Med. Centr. Zeitung, 21, 1890. HOW TO TREAT THOSE WHO ARE OVERCOME WITH GAS.-Several suggestions were made by different speakers at the recent meeting of the American Gas Light Association, at Toronto. The most practical were those quoted on the authority of a prominent physician, Scientific American, December 8, 1888: 1. Take the man at once into fresh air. crowd around him. 2. Keep him on his back. nor turn him on his side. 3. Don't Don't raise his head, Loosen his clothing at his neck and waist. 4. Give a little brandy and water-not more than four tablespoonfuls of brandy in all. Give the ammonia mixture (one part aromatic mixture to sixteen parts of water) in small quantities, at short intervals --a teaspoonful every two or three minutes. 5. Slap the face and chest with the wet end of a towel. 6. Apply warmth and friction if the body or limbs are cold. 7. If the breathing is feeble or irregular, artificial respiration should be used, and kept up until there is no doubt that it can no longer be of use. 8. Administer oxygen. College and Clinical Record. Wit and Humor. Patient (at Christian Scientist's office) "Is the healer in?" Attendant. "Yes, sir; but she is sick to-day and can't do any business." Teacher." In the sentence, 'The sick boy loves his medicine,' what part of speech is love?" Johnny. "It's a lie, mum."-The Medical World. The doctor was asked.-Why should you avoid. prescribing castor oil for wealthy patients? He gave it up. Because it is only used for working people was the explanation. Presence of Mind. The morning after the recent snow storm, a big policeman walked into the W. R. U., and said: "Too much snow in front of your building. Who looks after the paths?" "They will be attended to," answered a quick-witted student, "just as soon as the pathology professor gets here." "All right," said the blue coat, and walked away perfectly satisfied. A Metamorphosis. -- Walker-"Good gracious, Wentman, how you have changed-only a ghost of your former self! What have you been doing?" Wentman.- 66 Following out the Health Hints' in the newspapers." O! how our salivary glands (sublingual and parotid) dotted! How fragrant was the smoky air, like incense heavenward rising, Trichina S., nor bacilli, nor deadly micrococcus, Disturbed our gustatory joys, nor hungry visions haunted. While distant, growling, hostile guns, presage to-morrow's battle; They had asked Dr. Sandblast, the eminent surgeon, to carve the festal fowl, and he stood over it with the carving knife delicately held in the first position. "The incision, you will observe, gentlemen,' he began dreamily, "commences a little to the left of the median line, and-oh, excuse me, Mrs. Parmalee, I thought I was in the-may I help you to a little of the femur?"—Puck. BETTER WAIT AWHILE.-Patient: "What would you think of a warmer climate for me, doctor?" "Good Lord, man, that's just what I'm trying to save you from ! A patient says, "Doctors may differ, but they don't disagree half as much as their medicines do." Teacher. What are parasites?" Boy.-"People who live in Paris." GRIP'S GREETING. I am La Grippe ! Grip, for short, But I get there just the same ! And the way I get there Knocks the stuffing Out of the annals of pathology! I am no respector of persons, And silk, or satin, or broadcloth Has no more influence with me Than a width of Brown muslin has! I lay for the woman Who runs around bareheaded And the way I swipe a man Is perfectly astonishing! And as a microbe incubator I may say, without fear Of successful contradiction, That I am beyond competition! For all it's worth! I and the doctors With the doctors Getting all the gate money! However, I'm not in it For boodle, A WRONG DIAGNOSIS.—“You are evidently worried over business matters," diagnosed a young physician, "What you need is peace of mind." "My dear sir, replied the patient, "I get a piece of mind every day." --Epoch. A SPECIAL FAVOR.- Bereaved Widow (to country editor) "Do you charge for obituary notices, Mr. Shears?" Country Editor--"As a general thing, we do, Mrs. Bently; but your husband and I were very old friends, and I will only be too glad to publish his obituary for nothing." Awent the recent birth of a Chinese baby of a white mother in Philadelphia, as a result of maternal impressions induced by a Sunday school class of Chinese, which the lady was teaching, a good joke is related: The wife of a physician in this city read the account of the Chinese impression to her husband and asked him his opinion of it. "Humph!" he growled, "possible." "And," his wife resumed, "I read a short time ago, of a lady who had been chased by a negro and was afterward delivered of a negro child. Do you think such a thing could happen?" "Yes," replied our cynical doctor, "if the nigger caught her." "My pa," said one small boy, "is a preacher, and is sure to go to heaven." "Huh!" said the other small boy, "that ain't nothin'. My pa is a doctor, and can kill your old pa." Customer (to druggist's clerk): "In a business like this I presume you have gained some practical knowledge of therapeutics?" Druggist's Clerk (filling prescription): "Thunder, yes! I had 'em when I was ten years old. Broke out all over me."-Chicago Tribune. Press me closer, all mine own, Dower'd with hope, with promise blessed, Closer still, for I am thine, Burns my heart, for thou art mine, Thou the message, I the wire, I the furnace, thou the fire; I the servant, thou the master, -Burdette. |