Such is the "World of Suspicion," whose citizens belong in all clases of our everyday world, and occupy positions from the most menial to the most exalted. Unhappy, indeed, is the man who has been so unfortunate as to belong to it.

The Use of
Cocaine.

BOTH medical and lay press have devoted considerable space to the growing number of victims of the cocaine habit and ruinous effects, moral and physical, of the drug on those who employ it habitually. As an agent in the physician's hand there is no more important drug at his command than cocaine; its discovery is one of the notable of advances in the realm of medicine, it has made possible other advances which are of almost inestimable importance, and were its use confined to the hands of the physician too much could not be said of it as a boon to medicine and surgery. But, unfortunately, it is quite as guilty of evil as of good, even in remote sections its pernicious effect on those who have contracted the habit are familiar; the cocaine habit is the most degrading, dangerous and hopeless of drug habits. The remedy for this seems to lie only in the possibility of putting the drug out of the reach of the laity; it has been the purpose of legislation in almost all the states to accomplish this, but legislation seems to be utterly unable to control it. We know of no section where such a law is effectively enforced. A sense of moral responsibility seems to be awakened in a part of the duggists, but so large a number have an eye only to the commercial and the profitable that it would seem that we may expect to succeed only when we make an effort in which the druggist is ignored. We believe that the end of the evil lies with the doctor, and the sooner we shoulder our responsibility and make an end of prescriptions containing the drug, the better for a vast number of people who under a continuation of existing conditions will become "cocaine fiends." The problem is troublesome, but of such grave importance that trouble should not stand in the way of its solution. We are not converted to the idea that the physician should dispense his own drugs, always, but we do think that no prescription containing cocaine should ever be placed in the hands of a patient, this drug should be dispensed by the physician himself and its nature concealed from the patient. By doing this the physician can control its use, and will at least feel a freedom from responsibility. The use of cocaine as a placebo is of course immoral and unethical, and should rank with the most flagrant quackery. From the earliest time social ethics have impressed it on us that we are indeed our brother's keeper and that the strong must consider and care for the weak; in the presence of this drug there are no "strong;" wisdom, financial standing, social position, have little power against it; those who know the evils that lie in its wake must make it their business that no one may be able to trace his first acquaintance with the habit to the one he would naturally look to for protection from it.

The Wreck of
the Illinois
Medical
Practice Act.

IF "some little bird" or some little wee bit of a politician would only tell the tale of the boy (the secretary of the State Board of Health) who stood on the burning deck when the medical practice act went down it would be a story of wreckage worth hearing. We wonder if this little boy was the pilot who while apparently steering the course of the barnacled (with politics) ship did not know just where to strand. it (in the committee room). Was he a, brave little boy? He would have us all believe that he was, for says he to the legislative committee of the State Medical Society" I am trying to save it," while down in the hull he had some fellow (Shurtlift) boring holes to beat the band. He knew she was "a goner, " and while he stood on the burning deck eating peanuts by the peck and keeping away doubtless it will hardly be worth the salvage, yet we can have something from the heat, he knew when to jump, so that it never touched him."

Well, in the good old summer time, this wreck will be lifted and while upon which to build and the good new ship will try to sail the perilous seas of the legislature. In the meantime organization on the part of the medical profession of the State will be perfected and then the boy pirate chief and his cohorts will have to watch out.

He is now like McCutcheon's boy on a raft" beset with perils, "he will until after the election of 1904 "be as good as he can be. Riley says it is always so with boys "just before Christmas.'

We are going to let him know that he will walk chalk if he expects to stand for re-election. He has been totting a chip on his shoulder-the medical profession (at least the Illinois State Medical Society) has knocked at it, and before the dawn of 1905, this chip will be in the waves of despondency, sailing, sailing. The bold brigands will have left the seas of legislation once more to saw wood, and like the Sultan of Sulu, sing "Remorse." F. P. N.

FORMALIN IN WHOOPING-COUGH.-The Bulletin of the Health Department of Chicago for the week ending February 7 contains the following: "The frightful mortality from whooping-cough this winter induces the department to call public attention to the claim of Dr. Cenex, of Bohemia, that the vapor of formalin is a specific and preventive of the disease. After citing a number of cases in which the cough was cut short within twentyfour hours, he concludes that (1) by the proper inhalation of the vapors of formalin it is possible to destroy the germs of whooping-cough, those existing on the mucous membrane of the respiratory organs, and also those in the surroundings of the patients. By this means the disease is cut short and further infection inhibited. (2) In accordance with these experiences it seems advisable that schools, hospitals, churches, and other localities should from time to time be thoroughly disinfected. It is hardly necessary to add that the treatment should be directed or administered only by a medical practitioner."-Med. Age.

The Reviewer's Table.

Books, Reprints, and Instruments for this department, should be sent to the Editors, St. Louis.

APPLIED SURGICAL ANATOMY REGIONALLY. Presented for the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine. By George Woolsey, A.B., M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Clinical Surgery in the Cornell University Medical College; Surgeon to Bellevue Hospital; Associate Surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital; Fellow of the American Surgical Association and of the New York Academy of Medicine. With 125 illustrations, mostly colored. Philadelphia and New York: Lea Brothers & Co., 1902.

This work deals with anatomy from its practical side, giving us the facts in very natural relationship and application to every-day work. We must all have a good working knowledge of anatomy if we are to do good work in practical medicine and surgery. This work rightly eliminates very many of the details, but at the same time gives a careful selection of the most important features of the modern science of anatomy.

We would call special attention to the table of contents, which shows large thought in arrangement. Beginning with the head the whole body is taken up by regions, and each region is carefully sub-divided. This work would make an admirable basis for a classification of surgery. The matter contained in the book is eminently practical, and is made doubly valuable by a large number of well-selected illustrations, most of which are printed in colors, in order to more fully bring out the points to be illustrated Such a book is equally valuable to the general practitioner as to the surgeon, and will no doubt find its way on the shelves of all who care to be supplied with the best on anatomy, as applied to surgery DISEASES OF THE RECTUM AND ANUS. Designed for Students and Practitioners of Medicine. By Samuel Goodwin Gant, M. D., LL.D., Professor of Rectal and Anal Surgery at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital; Formerly Professor of Gastro-intestinal Surgery at the University and Woman's Medical Colleges, Kansas City, Mo.; Attending Surgeon for Rectal and Anal Diseases to the New York Post-graduate Hospital, St. Mark's Hospital, Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum, and New York Infant Asylum; Member of the American Proctologic Society, American Medical Association. Second edition, rewritten and enlarged with thirty-seven full-page plates, twenty of which are in colors, and 212 smaller engravings and half-tones. Pages 687. Royal Octavo. Philadelphia, Pa.: F. A. Davis & Company, Publishers, 1914-16 Cherry street. (Extra Cloth, $5.00 net; Sheep or Half-russia, $6.00, net, delivered.) This volume, though nominally a revision, is practically a new book, so complete has been the revision and so many have been the additions to the text. As it now stands the book gives a complete and practical exposition of all that is properly within the domain of rectal medicine and surgery. The excellence of his first edition has been so completely eclipsed that the present should not be judged by what is known of the first.

In the volume before us the chapters on "Colostomy" and "Cancer" have been rewritten by the author and new chapters have been introduced on "Diseases, Injuries and Tumors of the Coccyx," "Venereal Diseases of the Ano-Rectal Region" and "Recto-colonic Enteroliths and Concretions, subjects which contribute materially to the completeness and value of the work. The text as a whole is pleasing, the author is happy in his manner of presentation and at the same time gives a good clean, clear and scientific demonstration of his subject. The illustrations are the best we have seen in any book on this subject and are of material assistance to the reader. The book is handsomely and durably gotten up and reflects quite as much credit on the publisher as does the text on the author. It is our belief that the profession will generally find Gant a practical guide, and that the book will have a place among the books which are denominated the "working books" of many libraries.

A TREATISE ON SURGERY, By American Authors. For Students and Practitioners of Medicine and Surgery. Edited by Roswell Park, M. D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Buffalo, New York. New (3d) edition, revised and enlarged. In one royal octavo volume of 1408 pages, with 692 engravings and 64 full-page plates in colors and monochrome. (Cloth $7.00, net; leather, $8.00, net. Published also in two volumes at $3.75, net, per volume in cloth.)

Those of our readers who have the earlier editions of Park's Surgery will agree with us that its excellence is a sufficient guarantee that it will continue in its third and in future editions one of the most popular works on this subject. We have expressed our pleasure in the work in reviewing it in its earlier editions and we find all and more that is satisfying in its revised and enlarged form. From scientific, literary and artistic points of view it is a beautiful work. Associated with Dr. Park in authorship of the volume are twenty-eight of America's most prominent and successful surgeons and teachers, such men as Delavan, Dennis, Gerrish, Hardaway, Hare, Mudd and Matas, a list which explains the practical excellence and attractiveness of all that is between the covers. For the student and physician and surgeon the work is eminently suited, the text is clean, clear, accurate and complete; the illustrations are beautiful and each tells a definite story, and the work of the publisher leaves nothing to be desired.

HOW TO SUCCEED.-The Southern California Practitioner says: "The work by Dr. J. M. Mathews, Ex-President of the American Medical Association, telling how to succeed in medicine, is very clever, but at the same time, the only way for some men to succeed is to get some new parents and be born over. It is very easy for a forceful man with the delightful personality of our Louisville friend- having that greatest heritage of all, an honorable, intelligent ancestry-to tell others how to succeed, but the only way left for some men of unfortunate heredity is to make a terrific struggle with unrelenting fate."

NOT SO MANY AT LARGE NOW.-According to a return issued, the number of lunatics in Scotland has increased from 5,824 in 1858 to 16,658 this year. While the population has increased by 50 per cent, the number of lunatics has gone up by 186 per cent. It occurs to us that a lunatic stood a better chance of being at liberty in 1858 than he has now.

INFERNAL MACHINES AND OCEAN TRAVEL-One of our exchanges suggests that if people are going to ship infernal machines by the big ocean liners, as was attempted in New York the other day, European travel is likely to be light this year. If to the horrors of sea sickness is to be added the constant dread of being blown into eternity the delights of ocean travel will be materially curtailed, and the home summer resorts will experience a boom.

THIRTY-SIXTH MEETING OF THE C. M. A.-The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association will be held in London, Ontario, under the Presidency of Dr. Walter H. Moorhouse, on August 25, 26, 27 and 28. Dr. James Stewart, Professor of Medicine in McGill, will deliver the Address in Medicine; Dr. Alexander Hugh Ferguson, the Address in Surgery, and Dr. Matthew D. Mann, the Address in Gynecology. The meeting was held in Montreal last year.

THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD.-According to the latest census China has a population of 426,447,000. Thus the Chinese Empire contains more than a quarter of the inhabitants of the globe, being only approached in this respect by the British Empire, which has a population of 396,000,000 which includes over 231,000,000 in India. Russia comes next, with a population of 129,000,000; then the United States and her dependencies, with 84,000,000; then France and her colonies with 65,000,000 and then Germany and her colonies, with 62,000,000.

CHOLERA IN MANILA-Under date of May 16 it is stated that the deaths from cholera in Manila average about 8 a day. The authorities are delaying the enforcement of a general quarantine, as they hope the virulence of the disease will soon be modified. The Health Board of Manila is making preparations to inoculate the 50,000 Chinese residents with bubonic plague serum in order to prevent a spread of the plague. During the month of January, 1662 cases of cholera occurred among the provinces, with 1180 deaths, almost 71 per cent. In the city of Manila there were but 4 deaths from cholera during January, 1903, out of 7 cases.

AMERICANS OBJECT TO THE NOISE. The ringing of the many church bells of Manila, at all hours of the day and night, with the many "fiesta days, which seem to be largely celebrated by bell-ringing, has caused the passing of an act by the Commission for the abatement of loud and unusual noises. Hereafter the jangling of bells at unseemly hours in Manila, which has been a source of great annoyance to the nervous and those desiring to sleep, will be stopped. The bell-ringing for the early mass, which is celebrated before daylight, has been a special cause of complaint from foreigners.-Medical Record.