M., M. D., Professor of ElectroTherapeutics in the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hosp:tal; Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, etc.

Doctors Beard and Rockwell's writings are too well known to the profession to need any extended review, and this work on Neurasthesia, is in keeping with the excellent work accomplished by these gentlemen heretofore. In defining its scope we cannot do better than quote from the Author's and Editor's preface.

Neurasthenia is now almost a household word, and equally with the term malaria, affords to the profession a convenient refuge when perplexed at the recital of a multitude of symptoms seemingly withont logical connection or adequate cause.

In spite of its frequency and importance, although long recognized in a vague way among the people and the profession under such terms as "general debility," "nervous prostration," "nervous debility," "nervous asthenia," "spinal weakness," it is beginning to find recognition in the literature of nervous diseases. It is the most frequent, most interesting, and most neglected nervous disease of modern times.

Among specialists and general practitioners alike, there has been, on the whole subject, a fearful and wondrons confusion of ideas.

The present work is the result of the experience and study of my entire professional life in the subject to which it relates.

The diagnosis of neurasthenia, moreover, is often as satisfactory to the patient as it is easy to the physician, and by no means helps to reduce the number who have been duly certified to as neurasthenic, and who ever after, with an air too conscious to be concealed, allude to themselves as the victims of nervous exhaustion. The doctrine to be taught and strongly enforced is that many of the patients are not

neurasthenic, and under any hardly conceivable circumstance could they become neurasthenic. They do not belong to the type out of which neurasthenia is born, either mentally or physically.

Many of them are unintellectual, phlegmatic, and intolerably indolent, and are pleased at a diagnosis which

touches the

nerves rather that the

stomach, bowels and liver. Instead of need mental and physical activity, less rest, quiet and soothing draughts, they rather than more food, depletion rather than repletion.

TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT of Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane State of Connecticut, 1889.

From the Superintendent's Report to the Board and embodied in this volume we learn that during the year there have been admitted to the Middletown Asylum: Males, 375, Females, 395. Total 770. Discharged Males 330, Females 294. Total 624. Then together with what was left over last year, made treated in the Hospital during the year 1,292. Of these 1,179 were committed to the Hospital by the Probate Courts, 12 were committed by their friends as private patients, 17 were committed by the Soldiers' Hospital Board, 21 were committed by the Governor's order, 3 were committed by the County Commissioners, 46 were committed by the Superior Court, 14 were committed by the Police Courts. CLINIC LECTURE ON CERTAIN DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, by I. M. Charcot, M. D., Paris. Geo. S. Davis, Detroit, Mich., 1889. DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS, by Dujardin Beaumetz, M. D., Paris. Geo. S. Davis, Detroit, Mich., 1889. HYSTERIA AND EPELEPSY, by J. Leonard Corning, M. D., New York. Geo. S. Davis, Detroit Mich., 1889.

These are three of the Physician's Leisure Library series, and are most excellent books. If the publishers continue to give such numbers as these they may rest accured of their success.

While this work is compiled only for the use of the State Board of Health of Pennsylvania, it is a valuable addition to the literature as it shows precedents established by the courts which may prove valuable in any state.

SECONS DE GYNECOLOGIE OPERATOINE, PAR VULLIET, PROFESEUR A LA FACULTE DE MEDICIN DE GENEVE, ETC. Et Lutand Professeur libre de Gynecologie a l'ecole pratique, etc. Arec. 180 figures intacales dans le text. Paris, Librarie. J. B. Balliere, et Fils, 19 Rue, Hautefenille, 1889. Gynecological works seem to be the rage just now, some good, (a few) some tolerable, others bad-very bad. This book is a good one, very good, and we compliment the joint authors on the success which has crowned their arduous

We

labors. It is beautifully illustrated, well up to the times, gives credit where credit belongs, a rather rare trait for a foreign book, and especially a French one, and is written in a very pleasant manner. The cuts are good. heartly commend the work. L'ENSEIGUMENT ET L'ORGANIZATION DE L'CORT DENTAIRE AUX. ETATS UNIS, Rapport adresse, a Monsieuer le Ministre del' instruction publique, Par le Dr. Kuhn. Paris, Octian Doin Editeur, 8 Placi de l'Odeon, 1888.

This is the report of Dr. Kuhn to the Minister of Public Instruction of Paris, who visited this country in order to study the art and practice of dentistry. He was appointed commissioner to attend the ninth International Medical Congress held at Washington in 1887, and he embodies a report of the doings of the section on dentistry at that time. The volume is one of great interest and is very complimentary to the dental profession of the United States.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY, 1888, 97 Annual Convention, held at New Haven, May 23rd and 24th. New Series Vol. IV. No. I.

The scientific work of this State

Society has been improving every year for some time, and we feel assured that the present volume is second to none of its predecessors. The papers are valuparts of the States, and show good able contributions, coming from all work. If it was not for the unseemly discussions over the amendments to the constitution the volume would seem as

nearly perfect as it is possible for a production of a State Medical Society. THE MEDICAL BULLETIN, VISITING

LIST OR PHYSICIAN'S CASE RECORD, arranged upon an original and convenient monthly and weekly plan for the daily recording of professional visits. F. A. Davis, Philadelphia,

1888.

In two sizes; $1.25 for 70 patients a week or month and $1.50 for 105 patients.

This Visiting List contains a calendar for the last six months of 1888, all of

1889 and 1890; Table of Signs to be used in keeping Accounts; Table of Fees; Dr. Ely's Obstetrical Table; doses in a given R, etc. etc., for conTables for calculating the number of verting Apothecaries' Weights and Measures into Grammes; Metrical Avoirdopois and Apothecaries' Weights; Number of Drops in a Fluidrachm; Graduated Doses for children; Graduated Table for Administering Laudanum; Periods of Eruption of the Teeth; The Average Frequency of the Pulse at different ages in Health; Formulæ and Doses of Hypodermic Medication; Use of the Hypodermic Syringe; Formulæ and Doses of Medicines for Inhalation; Formula for Suppositories for the rectum; The Use of the Thermometer in Disease; Poisons and their Antidotes; Treatment of Asphyxia; Anti-emetic Remedies; Nasal Douches; Eye Washes. It is certainly very convenient and will be found a very useful companion.

POCKET MEDICAL FORMULARY arranged Therapeutically by Alexander Hazard, M. D., revised and enlarged by Abraham S. Gerhard, A. M., M. D., Professor of General Pathology, Medical Jurisprudence and Clinical Medicine at the Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, with an appendix containing formulæ and doses of Hypodermical Medication,a table of Eruptive Fevers and poisons their symptoms, antidotes and treatment. Second Edition. Philadelphia, A. L. Hummel, M.D., Publisher, 224 S. 16th St., 1888.

This is a really useful book, convenient in size to carry in the side pocket, arranged under Clinical headings, with cut index, making it really a vade mecum for the busy doctor. The type is clear, the paper good and the binding flexible, showing that the energetic publisher has done his work well indeed. We cordially commend it a valuable book.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Editor New England Medical Monthly: In your issue of December 15th, we noticed an article headed, "Can these Pills be Accurate?" In as much as you solicit inquiry into the subject, we presume that the manufacturers of the pills in question will be entitled to a reasonable amount of spece in which to throw as much light as possible upon the subject.

Your query is a very proper one, as every manufacturing pharmacist ought to be held accountable for the perfect adaptbility of his products to the requirment of the dispenser, and if for any reason, the pills in question cannot be accurate, the dispenser is entitled to such knowledge. If, on the other hand, we can show that pills not only can be, but are made with the greatest degree of accuracy, it is but just to the manufacturers in question that this also be shown.

Since the time of the introduction of our goods to the profession of pharmacy and medicine, they have been received

by both the pharmacist and the physician with a degree of favor very gratifying to us, and in the same proportion terrifying to other manufacturers in the same line. It is evident, that they must possess some peculiar merits to so soon bring themselves prominently before such critical classes of men. But to answer your query: It would seem that the editor ean readily see that, for such remedies as quinine and rhubarb, the method in question is reasonably appropriate; so we need not discuss those articles, but touch more particularly upon the poisonous remedies so frequently used in medicine.

To us who are familiar with all the details of manufacture under our process, it seems exceedingly strange that there should be a question as to their accuracy. We realize, however, that the wording of the patent does not give, nor was it intended to give, the minutiae of our methods; nor was it intended to cover all the various processes in pharmacy, such as trituration, etc., but it was intended to cover the simpler elements of the theory of manufacture. It is not essential, of course, that the whole ground of pharmacy be covered in such a patent.

To illustrate our meaning: It would not be required of any manufacturing pharmacist that he make into a pill 1-30 gr. of strychnia, without adding some triturant or diluent to increase the size. Let us assume that it is required to make a hundred thousand granules, a definite amount of strychnia would be thoroughly triturated with a required amount of some triturant, and the resulting triturate divided into the desired number of granules. By the old process, this triturate would be mixed with some adhesive excipient, and some triturate is made into a hundred thousand granules without such adhesive excipient. It is assumed that in either case the number was correct, and that each pill was the size of its neighbor. It would necessarily follow that each

cannot be denied, but he thinks that the air, excreta faecal matter and contact with the patient should also be taken into account. The air in particular seems to have been an undoubted vehicle for the transmission of the morbid germ. The author agrees with Mr. Collin that the waters of the Seine and the Ourg should no longer be distributed for drinking and looks upon them as being the cause of the increase of the disease in Paris.

In the France Medicale of the 15th of March Dr. Louis Boucher describes a case of hepatic erysipelas. The patient was a woman of 63. Eighteen years ago she received a blow on the right side of the abdomen. Bilious fever with intense icterus, gastric disturbance, and obstinate constipation ensued. In 1879 the patient was attacked with erysipelas, consecutive to violent hepatic pains, which lasted two days.

On the 3rd of Jan,, 1887, the patient was attacked with fever and tremors, and hepatic pain. Temperature 39°2C. (102°4F.); pulse 120. The urine was deep red, the tongue white. The hepatic region was painful and hot, as if it were. the seat of inflammation. No deformation was detected. A laudanised poultice was applied; a sedatine was administered for the night.

The following day the patient was much disturbed; sleep was interrupted by nightmare and starts; fever redoubled. Ten centigrs. of extract of digitaline were administered every hour. Towards night the pain in the linea disappeared. The throat was dry, there were pains in the ear, the face became swollen. On the 6th of Jan. well marked erysipelas declared itself; it extended over the right side of the face, from the lobe of the ear. The temperature was lower; 38°C. (100°-4.) The patient recovered within a few days. The amelioration in the patient's condition consecutive to the appearance of the exanthema on the skin, led Dr. Boucher to consider the hepatic dis

ttrbance as a primitive manifestation of erysipelas. The author is of opinion that the erysipelas proceeded through the intestinal gastric and sapliagian passages to the pharynge, thus causing the dryness of throat and pains in the ear, which were the premonitory symptoms of the cutaneous manifestation.

At a recent meeting of the Surgical Society, M. Despres stated that he had practised operations upon 466 patients in his ward during the year 1886. Of these only thirty-seven succumbed.

ABSTRACTS.

THE TREATMENT OF ULCERS WITH PHOSPHORIC ACID.-The treatment of ulcers with phosphoric acid was first given in detail by Dr. Grossich, in the London Medical Record. Since his description of the treatment was published, others have commented on on it quite favorably. He employs a ten per cent solution of the pure phosphoric acid in distilled water. The ulcer being washed clean with hot water, a piece of lint is dipped in the solution and then laid on the ulcer. This may be done four or five times a day. The application at first seems to irritate the ulcer and produces a burning sensation. In twenty-four or thirty-six hours the ulcer cleans and looks better. Inflammation or eczema of the surrounding parts disappear, and all pruritus ceases. The ulcer cicatrizes rapidly and the cicatrix is firm and healthy.