Correspondence.

The Editor cannot hold himself responsible for any views expressed in this Department.

TYPHOID FEVER IN RELATION TO MILK SUPPLY.

To the Editor of THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY:

DEAR SIRS,-Realizing, as we do, that some of the typhoid fever cases in the city may be due to the milk supply, we have been making special efforts to ascertain if the sources from which we obtain our milk are free from the disease. As far as our investigations have gone, we are pleased to state that there is extremely little typhoid fever in the districts from which Toronto's milk is drawn, and none whatever on the farms from which we obtain our supply. Both our veterinary and dairy inspectors have made a thorough inspection of all the farms and report no sickness. We have also inquired of the leading doctors in these districts, who state that cases of typhoid are extremely rare this autumn and that they have no cases among our patrons.

Notwithstanding these encouraging reports, we are having a most complete and rigid bacteriological examination made of all the milk received at this dairy, and if any milk is found to be tainted it will at once be shut off. We are following this up systematically, taking the milk from twenty-five farms per day, so that in the course of a week or ten days we will have our investigations completed. Yours very truly,

CITY DAIRY CO., LIMITED.

Ten days later we heard again from the company to the following effect:

Dear Sirs, We have now completed our investigations and beg to report as follows:

1. That no typhoid fever exists on any of the farms supplying us with milk, and so far as we can ascertain, there have been no cases for over a year.

2. The sanitary conditions of the farms, while open to im

provement in some cases, are still as good as can be expected, the water supply, with one exception (as is explained below), being free from contamination with bacteria known to cause disease.

3. A complete and exhaustive bacteriological examination of the samples of the milk received from the different farms has proved that, with one exception, the milk was free from contamin

ation.

4. This one exception was found to be contaminated with bacillus coli and possibly typhoid bacillus (as is well known, it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish between them). This discovery was made by our bacteriologist on the 14th inst. The milk received that morning was at once heated to 212 and dumped down the sewer, and the cans subjected to a very severe sterilization. Word was then sent to this farm, the milk stopped, and the case reported to the Health Department. A subsequent test of the water on the farm found the well water to be contaminated with this class of bacilli. While we thoroughly wash and steam our cans before returning them to the farm, it is presumed that the pails were washed and rinsed in the well water and the milk contaminated in this way. We have since ascertained that the owner of this farm had typhoid fever himself about eighteen months ago.

These facts are of interest to the profession as showing that the City Dairy Co. are using every effort to supply a bacteriologically pure milk to its patrons.

“A VICIOUS RELIGIOUS MONOMANIA.”

To the Editor of THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY.

DEAR SIR,-In your November number appears an article in which the writer refers to Christian Science as a "vicious religious monomania," "a menace to the health of the community," and "absurd cult," and other names equally as uncomplimentary. I am sure the writer of the article has never studied Christian Science, or he would not make such statements, for which he offers no word of proof. Would he condemn the teachings and practice of Jesus the Christ as a "vicious religious monomania"? Yet that is practically what he does in condemning Christian Science, which

is based wholly on the Master's teachings. Possibly some of the doctrines of Christian Science may seem ridiculous to him, as they did to almost everyone who has accepted Christian Science, when they first heard of it, but a close, unprejudiced study of the subject will show that it is not only reasonable and logical, but absolutely demonstrable.

As is well known, the Christian Science churches are made up largely of persons who have been sick and despondent, many of them having been given up as hopeless by medical men. Yet Christian Science has brought up the standard of these people to such a point that the clerk of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, with a membership of over 22,000, was able to report that the mortality rate of that church for the year was only 2.32 per thousand, being 17.38 per thousand less than the rate for the city of Boston during the same period. Other Christian Science churches all over the United States and Canada would present much the same record. Is a system which will produce such results "a menace to the health and well-being of the community"?

In regard to the lectures of the minister referred to, against Christian Science, it is only necessary to say that he has never studied the first principles of Christian Science sufficiently to heal a single case of sickness by its means, and is therefore entirely unqualified to explain its philosophy and practice intelligently. Until he does so understand it, his arguments cannot possibly have any weight with thinking persons.

Thanking you for your courtesy, I am,

Yours respectfully,

Toronto, 20th November, 1902.

C. R. MUNRO.

The Physician's Library.

BOOK REVIEWS.

Manual of Antenatal Pathology and Hygiene. The Foetus. By J. W. BALLANTYNE, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. Edin. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. 1902.

A new work by such a voluminous writer on foetal pathology as Dr. Ballantyne may well be examined with interest, and requires perhaps more than the ordinary space of a review article to do justice to it. The present work is devoted to antenatal pathology and hygiene, the author reserving for a future volume the subjects of Morbid Heredity and Teratology. The author divides his book into two sections, the first being taken up with a discussion of the relations of antenatal to neonatal and postnatal pathology, the second being devoted to the pathology and hygiene of the foetus proper. The opening chapters of the first section are given to such general topics as the relations of foetal pathology to other branches of medicine, and one cannot help feeling that here, at least, the book is somewhat padded with reflections and diagrams which are hardly necessary in a scientific work. Succeeding chapters of this section consider types of neonatal disease, illustrating the intrusion of the antenatal factor, such as traumatisnis, intra and neonatal infections and disturbances resulting from neonatal readjustments such as icterus neonatorum. The first few chapters of the second section are devoted to the subject of the normal anatomy and physiology of the foetus, then follow chapters upon types of transmitted disease, in which we find, as would be expected, that those upon foetal tuberculosis and syphillis are perhaps the best in the book. The concluding pages are given to questions of therapeutics and hygiene.

To the work which he has given us, Dr. Ballantyne has brought not only the fruits of his own extensive investigation, but also the results of his no less extensive reading, and the pathologist who reads the book will find in it a very full reference to all of the most important literature upon the subject, which he may look for in vain in other works. In this, perhaps, lies the greatest value of the book, because a perusal of it leaves one with the feeling that the subject of foetal pathology is still in such a hazy condition that much more careful investigation must be devoted to it before a satisfactory manual can be written.

It is a surprising fact, that notwithstanding the ease with which material is obtainable for the study of the pathology of the

foetus, so little accurate knowledge exists upon the minute pathological anatomy, its relations to normal histogenesis and their bearing upon antenatal and neonatal physiology. We believe that this is the fault of the pathologist rather than of the obstetrician, in that he has neglected this most interesting and important branch of his subject. The obstetrician naturally approaches thé subject from the practical side, and has neither the time or the training necessary to take up questions of morbid histology. Dr. Ballantyne's book is certainly written more from the standpoint of the obstetrician, and will consequently be read by the latter with more interest than by the pathologist, but the pathologist will, nevertheless, find in it a mine of interesting information, and he cannot fail to be impressed with the unsatisfactory state of the subject, and the need for more purely pathological investigations into antenatal conditions.

The book is well illustrated, and the publishers are to be complimented upon its general make-up.

J. J. M'K.

A Reference Hand-Book of the Medical Sciences, embracing the entire range of scientific and practical medicine and allied science. By various writers. A new edition, completely revised and re-written. Edited by ALBERT H. BUCK, M.D., New York City. Volume V. Illustrated by chromo-lithographs and 576 half-tone and wood engravings. New York: Wm. Wood & Co. 1902. Canadian Agents: Chandler Massey Limited, Toronto and Montreal.

Volume five has a very large list of contributors, amongst them being very prominent members of the profession in almost every country. We find, for instance, such names as Drs. Herbert S. Birkett and A. D. Blackader, of Montreal; Dr. J. Price Brown, of Toronto; Dr. Jos. D. Bryant, of New York City; Dr. M. D. Crockett, of Buffalo, N.Y.; Dr. C. G. Coakley, of New York City; Dr. H. J. Berkley, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; Dr. F. J. Finley, of Montreal; Dr. W. F. Hamilton, also of Montreal; Dr. T. C. Janeway, New York City; the late Dr. Wyatt Johnston, of Montreal; Dr. A. B. Judson, of New York City; Dr. E. B. Lane, of Boston, Mass.; Dr. Roswell Park, of Buffalo, N.Y.; Dr. A. G. Nicholls, of Montreal; Dr. F. J. Shepherd, of Montreal; Dr. B. Small, of Ottawa, and Dr. N. J. Ponce de Leon, of Havana, Cuba. It will readily be seen, therefore, that with such talent to draw upon, it is little wonder that the Reference Hand-Book is so replete with the most recent information upon almost as many separate and distinct subjects as a medical dictionary contains. Volume V. embraces almost every subject from the letters Inf to Mos, and is fully up to the standard of the first four volumes. The space devoted to the subject of leprosy may be considered as a short, boiled-down, and yet up-to-date chapter, the