The Nose and Throat.-The Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Nose, Throat, Naso-Pharynx and Trachea. For the Use of Students and Practitioners. By Cornelius G. Coakley, M. D., Professor of Laryngology in the University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. New (Second) Edition. In One Handsome 12mo. Volume of 556 pages, with 103 Engravings and 4 Colored Plates. Cloth, $2.75 net. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York. 1901.

Prof. Coakley's compendious work has achieved immediate popularity and wide usage. It has many merits and few defects. Its clear and concise presentation of facts, principles and directions render the book of special value to students and general practitioners. The revised edition has been enlarged by a new chapter on the affections of the upper respiratory tract in the infectious diseases, and by the insertion of new plates and figures. The work is highly practical and entirely trustworthy.

Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900.-Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre. By George Henry Makins, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital, London; Late one of the Consulting Surgeons to the South African Field Force, etc. 25 Plates and 96 Illustrations in the Text. Octavo. Cloth, $4.00 net. l'hiladelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co.

This volume is a masterly account of actual findings and results in the great clinic of war, by a man who was there through the worst. The volume is very interesting and instructive. beautifully illustrated with skiagraphs, photomicrographs, photogravures and other figures. We commend the work especially to those of our readers who have considerable to do with casualties.

Favorite Prescriptions of Distinguished Practitioners. With Notes on Treatment. Edited by B. W. Palmer, A. M., M.D. Seventh Edition. Price, $2.00. New York: E. B. Treat & Company, 241-243 West 23rd Street. 1901.

This manual has been compiled from the published writings or unpublished records of Drs. Fordyce Barker, Roberts Bartholow, Samuel D. Gross, Austin Flint, Alonzo Clark, Alfred L. Loomis, F. J. Bumstead, T. G. Thomas, H. C. Wood, Wm. Goodell, Wm. Pepper, A Jacobi, J. M. Fothergill, N. S. Davis, J. Marion Sims, Wm. H. Byford, L. A. Duhring, D. Hayes Agnew, E. O. Janeway, J. M. DaCosta, J. Solis-Cohen, Germain See, Meredith Clymer, J. Lewis Smith, Floyd M. Crandall, W. K. Thomson, D. Duncan. Bulkley, C. E. Brown-Sequard, M. A. Pallen, Alex J. C. Skene, Geo. H. Fox, W. A Hammond, E. C. Spitzka, L. Emmett Holt,

H. A. Hare, etc. A good index affords ready reference to any formula in the book, and blank spaces are left in each section for additional prescriptions. The practical value of the work is attested by its popularity.

Progressive Medicine, Vol. II., June, 1901.-A Quarterly Digest of Advances, Discoveries and Improvements in the Medical and Surgical Sciences. Edited by Hobart Amory Hare, M.D., Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Octavo; Handsomely Bound in Cloth, 460 pages, with 81 Engravings and One Full-Page Plate. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York. Issued Quarterly. Price, $10.00 per year.

The second volume of the series for 1901 is well up to the previous standard of this practical publication. No surgeon should fail to study the illustrated resume of new methods in the surgery of the intestines, stomach, liver and spleen, by Dr. William B. Coley. The parasitic origin of malignant growths, the utility of spinal anesthetization, the relation of the ovarian circulation to menstruation and ovulation, and other topics of gynecologic interest, are ably discussed by Dr. John G. Clark. The chapter on the blood, ductless glands and hemorrhagic and metabolic diseases is contributed by Dr. Alfred Stengel, and contains much original matter. Progress in ophthalmology is presented at length by Dr. Edward Jackson in his usual thorough and impartial manner.

Operative Surgery.-By Joseph D. Bryant, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery, Operative and Clinical Surgery, University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Vol. II. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1901.

This volume completes the set and is taken up with operations on the mouth, nose, esophagus, the viscera connected with the peritoneum, the thorax and neck, scrotum and penis and miscellaneous operations. The various modern methods are described in the most natural and explicit way. The text is very profusely elucidated with 827 illustrations, 40 of which are colored. The two volumes of the work fulfill every practical need of the practicing surgeon and are perfect typographically.

The Detroit Medical Journal. -We welcome to the fold this, "The only purely medical magazine in North America," published by the J. F. Hartz Company, general purveyors of medical merchandise, and edited by Dr. G. Archie Stockwell.

SELECTIONS.

New Orleans Polyclinic.-Fifteenth annual session opens Nov. 4, 1901. Physicians will find the Polyclinic an excellent means for posting themselves upon modern progress in all branches of medicine and surgery. The specialties are fully taught, including laboratory work. For further information, address Dr. Isadore Dyer, Secretary, New Orleans Polyclinic, P. O. Box 797, New Orleans, La.

AUTOMATIC SAFETY-VALVE STOPPER-A DEVICE PREVENTING THE BURSTING OF PEROXIDE OF HYDROGEN BOTTLES.

The great trouble with peroxide preparations is that if the containers are tightly corked, the oxygen which separates and is set free, slowly but constantly, as time passes, accumulates, until the bottles can no longer stand the pressure and burst, or the corks are driven out. Of the two alteratives, the bursting of the bottles is the most objectionable feature on account of the danger attached.

Containers of the hydrogen peroxide, U. S. P., which is a comparatively weak solution of H2O2, yielding but 10 volumes of oxygen, may be closed with a wooden stopper, which, by the porous

T

a

(a) Puncture.

Cut No. 1.-Illustrates the cross section of the safety valve rubber cork, showing the wooden top and the puncture at the bottom. A thin strip of paraffined paper is inserted into the puncture.

nature of the material, permits the escape of the gas almost as soon as it is set free, thus avoiding exglosion and rupture of the bottles or the driving out of the corks.

While these wooden stoppers answer very well for solutions of H2O2, responding to 10 volumes of oxygen or less, with stronger solutions, such, for instance, as Marchand's peroxide of hydrogen. medical (15 volumes), or his hydrozone (30 volumes of oxygen), they are quickly attacked by the solutions, as are also the ordinary corks, and within four months are completely oxidized, not merely bleached, but rendered so soft that they cut like pot cheese. From that time the goods are unfit for sale.

In order to prevent these difficulties and especially to obviate the bursting of the bottles containing hydrozone, Mr. Marchand, the manufacturer of that article and other well-known brands of peroxide

Cut No. 2.-Illustrates the cross section of a bottle corked and capped with vegetable parchment and paraffined muslin; no wire

of hydrogen, has devised an ingenious stopper which he calls the "automatic safety-valve rubber cork," and which is shown in the illustration.

The material of the stopper is vulcanized rubber. The beveled end is punctured through in such a manner that when the pressure in the bottle rises above 5 to 8 pounds to the square inch (according to the thickness of the rubber at the bottom, which may vary slightly), the excess of free oxygen finds free egress and thus relieves the tension.

This device is first inserted, and a plug of porous wood is then driven in, thus stiffening the rubber and completing the operation of "corking."

The capping consists of vegetable parchment covered with paraffined muslin, no wiring being used or needed.

It is easily seen that this style of closing the bottle obviates the possibility of bursting. Assuming even, that through some imperfection of the stopper, the puncture should close, as soon as the pressure rises to a point far within that required for rupture of the bottle, the stopper, not being wired down, will yield and be forced out.

Retail druggists who have for so many years been the chief sufferers and losers from the bursting of the peroxide containers, and the deterioration of the substance otherwise from the causes indicated above, will welcome Mr. Marchand's invention as a happy solution of what has to them been a very serious problem in the past, since it will enable them to supply their trade with the higher solutions of hydrogen peroxide, and especially that preparation of Marchand's, for which the stopper was particularly designed, "hydrozone," which carries 30 volumes of oxygen.

The device described above the automatic safety-valve stopper-having entirely obviated the danger arising from the explosion of bottles in handling, there is certain to be a largely increased demand for Marchand's concentrated solutions of the peroxide of hydrogen (which alone will be corked with the patented stopper), since physicians anxious to obtain quick results will never prescribe anything but the most active solutions, or those richest in active oxygen, and since druggists will be protected absolutely against loss by deterioration or explosion. The medical profession is being thoroughly advised of Mr. Marchand's new method of closing his bottles of "peroxide of hydrogen medicinal" and "hydrozone," and will be certain to avail themselves of the advantages thus guaranteed them.-April, 1901, issue of National Druggist of St. Louis.

NOTE. Remember there is no popping when corks are removed.

Hay-Fever, Its Cause and Cure.-The celebrated laryngologist, Sir Morell Mackenzie, said in his brilliant monograph on that subject: Hay-Fever though not dangerous to life, causes at times such extreme discomfort as to make the victims quite unfit for their ordinary pursuits and render them utterly miserable during the most agreeable season of the year." One of the most singular features of this complaint is that it is almost exclusively confined to lithemic individuals. Therefore the treatment should be palliative and curative. The palliative treatment must be directed to the parts attacked, viz: the mucous membrane of the eyes, nose and