ABSENCE OF ILL RESULTS FROM CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES IN JAPAN. An interesting contribution to the study of consanguineous marriages occurs in the paper of Dr. Baelz on the Japanese, in the Sei-IKwai. He says: "Near the bathing resort, Atami, there is situated a small island named Hatsushima. The inhabitants of that island, nearly three hundred in number, have for more than two hundred years exclusively married amongst themselves; strange blood has never entered the island. Those people live by fishing, and from the proceeds of a small trade with the neighboring coast. They are physically and mentally quite normally developed, and their statistics show a larger number of births, and a smaller number of deaths in proportion than any other part of the Japanese empire."-Phil. Med. News.

A NEW HYBRID.—Before the St. Louis Medical Society Dr. Funkhouser exhibited a specimen of an embryo five days old, the result of the union of a rooster and a duck. This was the only fertile specimen of sixteen such eggs hatched in an incubator. The doctor thought his experiment tended to upset prevailing ideas about species, general orders, and classes. All sources of error with regard to the roosters and ducks had been carefully avoided. He regarded it as an extraordinary event that a member of the order of swimmers, being crossed with the order of scratchers, should have produced a living result, thus jumping over not only species, but also further. The duck and the rooster are of the same class, but belong to different orders.-Phil. Med. News.

M. S. To be used on the hands every night before going to bed; and in cold weather to be applied before going out into the open air; the hands being first washed and dried.-Med. World.

Liquid Glue.—Fill the vessel (glass) with the best broken up glue, and fill up with acetic acid. Keep it in hot water for a few hours until the glue is melted, and you will have a most excellent glue always ready. -N. E. Med. Monthly.

THE LOWEST TEMPERATURE ON RECORD.-Dr. C. W. Suckling reports in the Lancet the case of a woman dying from myxedema, whose temperature the day before ranged from 66° F. to 76° F. The pulse was 36; respirations, 12.

TEST FOR BILE IN URINE.-Chloroform, as a test for bile in the urine, is ready, delicate, and certain. All that is necessary is to agitate a few drops of it in a test tube, along with the suspected urine. If bile be present, the chloroform becomes turbid and acquires a yellowish hue, the depth of which is in proportion to the amount of bile present in the urine. If no bile be present, the test-fluid remains limpid.

SHARPENING HYPODERMIC NEEDLES.-A fruitful cause of abscesses

in hypodermic medication is dull and rusty needles. The rust may be avoided by wiping the needles from time to time with rouge or crocus cloth, purchasable from any cutlery or hardware establishment. The finest emery cloth is too coarse for this use. Every physician ought to be able to sharpen his needles himself. The best hone for the purpose is that known as the Hot Springs or Washita razor hone. Thrust the needle with the wire in it, through a bit of soft velvet cork long enough to come within a quarter of an inch of the commencement of the bevel point of the instrument. The cork will serve as a handle for the fingers and at the same time holds the needle stiff and taut. It is also a guide in preserving the proper bevel of the point. A few light rubs upon the hone will put a keen point on the dullest needle.—St. Louis Med. and Surg. Journal.

MIXTURE FOR CLEANING GREASE SPOTS.-Equal parts of stronger ammonia water, ether, and alcohol form a valuable cleaning compound. Pass a piece of blotting paper under the grease spot, moisten a sponge, first with water to render it "greedy," then with the mixture, and rub with it the spot. In a moment it is dissolved, saponified, and absorbed by the sponge and blotter.-Scientific American.

A SIMPLE TEST FOR ARSENIC IN WALL-PAPER.—A simple and easilyapplied test for arsenic in wall-papers has been devised by Mr. F. F. Grenstted. No apparatus is needed beyond an ordinary gas-jet, which is turned down to quite a pin-point, until the flame is wholly blue; when this has been done, a strip of the paper suspected to contain arsenic is cut one-sixteenth of an inch wide, and an inch or two long. Directly the edge of this paper is brought into contact with the outer edge of the gas-flame a grey coloration, due to arsenic, will be seen in the flame (test No. 1). The paper is burned a little, and the fumes that are given off will be found to have a strong, garlic-like odor, due to the vapor of arsenic acid (test No. 2). Take the paper away from the flame, and look at the charred end-the carbon will be colored a bronze-red, this

is copper reduced by the carbon (test No. 3); being now away from the flame in a fine state of division, the copper is slightly oxidised by the air, and on placing the charred end a second time, not too far into the flame, the flame will now be colored green by copper (test No. 4). By this simple means it is possible to form an opinion, without apparatus and without leaving the room, as to whether any wall-paper contains arsenic, for copper arseniate is commonly used in preparing wall-papers. Tests I and 2 would be yielded by any paper containing arsenic in considerable quantities. Brit. Med. Jour.

REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES.

Manual of Differential Medical Diagnosis. By Condict W. Cutler, M. S., M. D., Physician to the New York Dispensary; Assistant Surgeon to the New York Hospital, out door department; late House Physician to Bellevue Hospital, etc. 16mo., pp. 161. New York and London, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1886. Columbus :-A. H. Smythe. Price, $1.25.

In this little manual the author contrasts the symptoms of diseases that are most likely to be confounded with each other, choosing such symptoms as will most readily lead to a correct diagnosis, and limiting himself to those that afford the most striking contrast. The book is an excellent one for one so small, and will be appeciated by those who have not time or facilities for reference to larger works.

Diseases of the Nerves, Muscles and Skin, being Vol. III. of Dr. Hermann Eichhorst's Handbook of Practical Medicine, and Vol. X. of Wood's Library of Standard Medical Authors, 1886 (consisting of 12 vols., price $15.00). Sold only by subscription. William Wood and Company, New York.

It is unnecessary to speak in particular of this volume. In excellence it fully equals the volumes that preceded it, of which we have spoken in terms of high praise. The number of illustrations is unusually large.

The two series of articles, "How I was Educated," and "Confessions" of members of several religious denominations, which have attracted a good deal of attention in the Forum, are to be followed soon by two other series. In one of these will be presented the views of many different schools of thought, as the Agnostic, the Evolutionist, the Positivist, as well as those of Christian theology, Protestant and Catholic,

upon the question, "What is the Object of Life?" In the other, many of the most notable men of the day will contribute instructive and interesting chapters out of the history of their own lives, under the title, "Books That Have Been Useful to Me."

Vick's Floral Guide is by far the handsomest seed catalogue that is issued in America. It is handsomely bound, and contains illustrations enough of flowers and vegetables to make the amateur gardener crazy.— Address: James Vick, Rochester, N. Y.

How to Work with the Microtome, and a method of demonstrating the tubercle bacillus. By James E. Reeves, M. D., of Wheeling, W. Va. Price, 50c. Rochester, New York. Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., 1886.

This is an intensely practical brochure for all who work with the microscope. Its author is not only well known as an expert in microscopy, but in the technique of staining, cutting and mounting, he stands without a superior and with few rivals.

An Epitome of the Newer Materia Medica. Fourth edition. Revised and enlarged. Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit, Mich., 1886.

This epitome embraces not only the new drugs but also the standard medicinal products and fine pharmaceutical specialties introduced and manufactured by Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co. It contains a full property and dose list of all their extracts, German tinctures, normal liquids and concentrations, and the formulæ of their pills.

This enterprising firm has added so much to our Materia Medica that is new and valuable, that the busy physician feels the need of some book like this for quick reference. A copy, in paper covers, will be sent free on application.

The Healing of Arteries After Ligature in Man and Animals. By J. Collins Warren, M. D., Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard University; Surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital; Member American Surgical Association; Honorary Fellow Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. One Volume. 184 Pages. Superbly illustrated with Twelve Full-page Plates in Black and colors. Parchment Muslin Binding. Price, $3.25. William Wood and Company, New York.

This is the most thorough work, on this important subject, that we know of. The author is entirely competent to undertake the task, and he has worked out the problems with most pains-taking care. The plates are unusually fine.

BY STARLING LOVING, M. D., COLUMBUS, O.,

Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, Starling Medical College, from a Lecture delivered in Starling Med. College, Dec. 22, 1886.

The discovery by Wunderlich, in 1851, of the value of the thermometer in diagnosis, prognosis, and management of acute diseases has exercised as much influence in the direction of scientific accuracy and intelligent therapeutics as any discovery of the present century, and though appreciated and applied, there is room for belief that the limits of its usefulness have not been reached, and that further investigation may develop new fields from which valuable additions to existing knowledge may be gathered.

Until it was demonstrated how infallibly the thermometer determines the febrile state, the medical profession had no certain standard by which to estimate the intensity or even the existence of fever. They were obliged to depend on the acuteness of the sense of touch, which varies so much with atmospheric and other conditions; upon symptoms of one or another kind which have not uniformly the same significance and which are not always present; but mainly upon the increased frequency, and other qualities of the pulse. It is therefore not possible to