THE exhaustion of the very first edition of this standard work shows how well it has met the needs of students and practitioners, and its eminent author has fully utilized the opportunity thus offered by subjecting his book to a most thorough and searching revision. Many chapters have been entirely rewritten, new ones have been added, and every page has been revised in order to present the most recent achievements in the entire field of surgery. Everywhere will be found the closest attention to modern pathology and asepsis. In short, the volume will be found a clear, concise, comprehensive and practical presentation of the most modern surgery, thus fully justifying its title. The rich series of illustrations has been revised with equal care, and the student or practitioner will not find a more satisfactory or valuable single volume work on this subject. THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MOD- ONE must read this excellent book to appreciate its true merit. The arti cles taken from the writings of the fearless and talented author as they have appeared in various publications are here compiled in book form. The character of the book is high, it is an expose of the humbuggery and quackish practices of the christian scientists, written in convincing style and calculated to give to a layman of ordinary judgment and sense, the true picture of this pernicious fad, which in the hands of Mrs. Eddy and her blind followers has caused such sad havoc in this day of supposed enlightenment. Christian science has its hold among the hysterical, the shallow intellects and poor, senseless fools who follow everything that has about it the air of mysticism. If he who runs will read Purrington there will be instilled some sense, and for this reason this book should be circulated among the laity; be in public libraries, and even in the Sunday school libraries, because christian science is undermining true religion as well as true science in its pernicious foolishness. Children should not be allowed to become the innocent followers of this blatant hollow mockery, and any measure which will teach them to reason for themselves should be encouraged. This book should be read and digested by layman and physician. It is timely, useful and will do great good. F. P. N. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. An Exposition of Mrs. GOULD'S dictionaries have had unprecedented sales. One hundred thousand copies, coincident with this edition. The features of this special A POCKET MEDICAL DICTIONARY, Etc., Etc. By GEORGE M. GOULD, A. M., M. D. Fourth Edition. Revised and Enlarged. 825 pages. Flexible Leather, Gilt Edges, Round Corners. P. BLAKISTON'S SON & CO., Publishers, Philadelphia, 1900. Price, $1.00. edition are the remarkable amount of literary material contained between its covers 30,000 words are defined; the method of binding and printing, and above all, its price, $1.00. It is certainly a very cheap book, and one which students and physicians will greatly appreciate. F. P. N. AMONG THE MAGAZINES. ST. NICHOLAS.-Governor Roosevelt's familiar face and figure form the frontispiece of St. Nicholas for May, the first article therein being from his pen-"What We can Expect of the American Boy." In this essay Col. Roosevelt distinguishes between moral and physical courage, and maintains that both forms are necessary to a complete and rounded character. Incidentally he praises Kipling's "Captains Courageous." In "Daubo-Links" Charles Love Benjamin describes a novelty in artistic amusements; and in "The Enchanted Adjutant Bird" Tudor Jenks tells a fairystory of a bird that had the good sense to refuse to be turned into a man. "A Little American Girl at Court," by Louise Bradford Barnum, is a tale of a truant who was not lost, as her family thought, but was hobnobbing with a German King. St. Nicholas abounds in verses and pictures, and its departments of Nature and Reading are full to the brim. BEST AGE FOR MEN TO MARRY.-Edward Bok, writing in the May Ladies' Home Journal, on "A Boy for a Husband," contends that "no young man under twenty five years of age is in any sense competent to to take unto himself a wife. Before that time he is simply a boy who has absolutely nothing which he can offer to a girl as a safe foundation for life happiness. He is unformed in his character, unsettled in his ideas, absolutely ignorant of the first essentials of what consideration or love for a woman means. He dosen't know himself, let alone knowing a woman. He is full of fancies, and it is his boyish nature to flit from one fancy to another. He is incapable of the affection on which love is based, because he has not lived long enough to know what the feeling or even the word means. He is full of theories, each one of which, when he comes to put it into practice will fail. He is a boy, pure and simple, passing through that trying period through which every boy must pass before he becomes a man. But that period is not the marrying time. For as his opinions of life are to change, so are his fancies of the girl he esteems as the only girl in the world to make him happy. The man of thirty rarely weds the girl whom he fancied when he was twenty." PAPERS for the Original department should be in hand one month in advance, and contributed to THE MEDICAL FORTNIGHTLY exclusively. A liberal number of extra copies will be furnished authors, and reprints may be obtained at reasonable rates, it request accompanies the manuscript. Engravings from photographs furnished free, Contributions, and books for review, should be sent to the Editors, 312 Century Building, St. Louis. Signature of contributor, for reproduction, should be sent with every article, on a separate slip; use heavy Ink, and allow autograph to dry without applying blotter. COLLABORATORS. LEWIS H. ADLER, Jr., M. D., Philadelphia. CHARLES W. BURR, M. D., Philadel- DILLON BROWN, M. D., New York. HOBART A. HARE, M. D., Philadelphia. F. J. LUTZ, M. D., St. Louis. FRANKLIN H. MARTIN, M. D., Chicago. J. M. MATHEWS, M. D., Louisville. E. E. MONTGOMERY, M. D., Philadel- EDWIN WALKER, M. D., Evansville. W. E. WIRT, M. D., Cleveland. H. M. WHELPLEY, M. D., St. Louis. Remarks on Vasectomy Relative to Enlarged Prostate and Bladder Atony. IN BY REGINALD HARRISON, F. R. C. S., LONDON, Surgeon to St. Peter's Hospital. Na recent article I ventured to state that "if vasectomy and castration in relation to prostatic hypertrophy had done no more than direct attention again to its pathology they would have served a useful purpose,' and I then took the opportunity of illustrating some varieties in shape and structure that were included in this term. Hence I urged that it was about as rsasonable to expect to find a uniform treatment for it as it would be in the case of what "enlarged breast" might be made to express. The mass of material which the student of morbid anatomy has now within his reach calls from time to time for its application to the purposes of classification and treatment. In no department of work is this more necessary than in the case of the urinary organs from whatever portion of the entire apparatus it is viewed. It has been extremely interesting to follow the various communications that have been made during the last few years relative to the employment of vasectomy and castration in the treatment of prostatic hypertrophy. In some cases the results have been admirable, in others doubtful, whilst between these two extreme there have been various gradations. In my own practice since my advocacy of vasectomy in 1893, I have performed the operation in over 100 cases, and I can say that whatever effects were exercised upon the prostate I have never seen any harm result or heard of any regret expressed from what followed other than that arising in a few instances, from failure to obtain, by comparison, all the good that might have been anticipated. A number of these case have now been under observation, or cognizance, for from one to seven years, so that ample opportunity has been permitted for noting what happened during considerable intervals after operation. I have already referred to a previous communication, in which stress was laid on the fact that there were structural conditions of the prostate when enlarged where shrinkage was unlikely to happen after either castration or vasectomy, as illustrated by carcinomatous, fibrotic and adenomatous glands. These all simulate the commoner form of prostatic hypertrophy, and though vasectomy does no harm it is rarely followed in these instances by appreciable good. The present communication has for its main object the demonstration of the existence of certain physical changes in the bladder arising out of chronic prostatic obstruction, which are sufficient to negative or minimize the effects that would otherwise follow the induction of shrinkage of the prostate by such means as under consideration. This point presents itself in three ways: (1) From the examination after death of persons who had undergone vasectomy or castration for hypertrophied prostate. (2) From the exploration of the interior of the bladder by suprapubic cystotomy under similar circumstances; and (3) From the examination of collected specimens illustrating various kinds of atonic bladders in persons who had been more or less dependent on the catheter with enlarged prostates. Of the first mentioned I have met with two examples and of the second four. In five of these vasectomy had been practised, and in one castration some months previously in every case. In none of them was death caused, or the operation of cystotomy necessitated by the vasectomy or castration, these events being brought about by independent derangements of the kidney or the bladder, which arose out of the original state of chronic prostatic obstruction. All instances showed evidence of varying but marked degree of prostatic shrinkage, though the complications mentioned were uninfluenced. All had benefited to some extent from the shrinkage of the gland which had thus been artificially induced, though the improvement was chiefly confined to matters relating to catheterism and washing out the bladder, but none of these six had resulted in the restoration of the natural function of micturition, or of catheter independence. The examination of the third group, which included a considerable number of atonic bladders associated with enlarged prostrate removed after death from patients who had been more or less dependent on the catheter for long periods of time, indicated the nature of the commoner lesions met with in the bladder under the latter circumstances. From one or other of these sources I was able to demonstrate (1) That the usual effect of vasectomy is to induce shrinkage of the hypertrophied prostate. (2) That though this shrinkage affords a readier access to the bladder for catheters and such like purposes it did not necessarily follow that voluntary and natural micturition was thereby restored, failure in this respect being mostly due to structural changes in the bladder itself arising |