DR. SCHENCK DEPOSED.-Dr. Schenck, of the University of Vienna, has been forced to sever his active connection with that institution. This result was brought about by the demand of the other members of the faculty They doubtless realized that Dr. Schenck's book, published a year ago, in which he claims to have discovered means by which the sex of the unborn can be controlled, was unscientific and brought discredit upon the faculty. And in this they are perfectly right. The days of the miraculous are past. The medical profession is always ready to welcome and adopt any truly scientific advancement, but it is slow to receive the untried, and is very certain to resent anything that is tinged with charlatanism. Woe to the physician, however high may be his standing, who does not realize this fact, for should he violate this unwritten law his years will be few and full of trouble.

A number of medical journals, so-called, have been decoyed into advertising "Ripans Tabules," so well known to readers of newspapers and to passengers in street cars. Are these journals able to hoodwink their readers either into the attitude of employing medicine that is advertised chiefly to the public or into the belief that it is proper for self-respecting journals to carry such advertisements? Such fatuity in a medical editor hardly seems credible. The most disgusting feature of this business lies in the fact that, in their eagerness for advertisements of some kind regardless of quality, medical journals will risk their reputations (if they have any) by accepting an advertisement of this particular nostrum and agreeing to receive in payment a copy of a newspaper directory together with a free insertion of their card in the same. It would be bad enough to carry such an advertisement for cash, but necessity of meeting bills might be pleaded in some extenuation. To insult their readers by publishing such matter in return for an almost worthless consideration seems to be the lowest step in the degradation of medical journalism. The profession should scorn the journals that are so careless of medical honor and that hold so cheaply their own characters.

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MEDICAL ETIQUETTE AND A LEGAL DECISION.-We have heard of medical etiquette occasionally being the subject of attack and ridicule in court proceedings, but a recently decided case shows that it has at least a legal sanction. A physician was called to a case and rode six miles only to find another physician in charge. He therefore refused to treat the patient, but sent in a small bill for his time. Being obliged to sue for his pay, he was met with the defense that he had rendered no service and was therefore entitled to no pay. The county judge, however, held that the observance of medical etiquette was legitimate for the physician, and that when called to see a case and finding it in charge of another, the law implied that he was not obliged to take the case. The decision was, therefore, in the doctor's favor, the judge recognizing even the finer points in

medical ethics, which are not always duly appreciated by jurists.Jour. Am. Med. Asso.

QUACKERY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.-The British Medical Journal for January 20th, citing, through Janus, an article by Dr. Leopold Senfelder in the Wiener klinische Rundschau, says that in 1469 the faculty of Vienna threatened the Minorites and Dominicans to refuse them all medical assistance if they did not refrain from unqualified practice. The chief offenders, however, were women and Jews, and Dr. Senfelder relates several anecdotes of struggles between them and the faculty. In 1442 a baptized Jew, John Gabriel, was, at the request of the burgomaster, admitted to examination. He failed to pass, but requested another opportunity, which was granted, and he was even permitted to choose the questions himself. Instead of appearing, however, he declared he was a surgeon and not a physician, and therefore required no examination, and the faculty had to content itself with proclaiming him a "perfidissimus Judæus, inimicus et blasphemator domini nostri Jesu Christi et ominum Christianorum."

OUR LIBRARY.

The Principles of Treatment and Their Application to the Practice of Medicine-By J. Mitchell Bruce, M.D., F.R.C.P., Lecturer on the Practice of Medicine in the Charming-Cross Hospital, London; Examiner in Medicine, Royal College of Physicians. London. Revised to conform with the U. S. Pharmacopeia by E. Q. Thornton, M.D., Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. In one octavo volume of 625 pages. Cloth, $3.75 net. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. 1900.

The perusal of this work is a pleasure, indeed. It takes one away from the thoughts usually inspired by the ordinary text-books on practice and treatment with their "iron-clad" rules and the monotony of often-reiterated directions for diagnosis, unchanging pathology and multiple methods of treatment. The author assumes no therapeutical laws, but proceeds to find them in the familiar facts of etiology, pathological anatomy and the clinical characters of disease. Having mastered the most simple therapeutic principles the reader is led up to higher generalizations, which relate to the nature of disease and its proper relation to treatment.

Part First is devoted to "Principles of Treatment," which usually are difficult to discuss and still more difficult or impossible to clearly appreciate without illustrations of them in connection with individual diseases. The author, realizing this difficulty, makes no statements of principles without referring to some familiar instances in which they apply.

The author presents in a separate section-Part Second-"Illus

trations of the Principles of Treatment," where they may be read in a more connected form, at the same time serve as reliable guides in practice, making clear the art of treatment, including prescribing. The author does not intend the work to be a complete guide to the practice of medicine, only so far as the lessons taught can be applied in the treatment of some of the most familiar, best marked or most important diseases. The book is printed on good paper, clear type, heavy cloth binding, with beveled edges.

A Practical Treatise on Materia Medica and Therapeutics, with especial reference to the clinical application oft drugs-By John V. Shoemaker, A.M., M.D., LL.D., Professor Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine and Clinical Professor of Diseases of the Skin in the Medico Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, Physician to the Medico Chirurgical Hospital, Member of the Medical Association of Pennsylvania, etc. Fourth Revised Edition. 1071 pages, heavy cloth bindings. The F. A. Davis Co., 1914-16 Cherry street, Philadelphia.

The appearance of several repeated editions of Dr. Shoemaker's book in rapid succession gives evidence of its popularity and practicability, and its value in this respect is of the kind that commands the appreciation, not only of practitioners, but teachers and students alike. Dr. Shoemaker recognizes the emphatic need of to-day in this field of medicine-namely: a work giving a more thorough knowledge of drugs, their properties, preparations, therapeutic actions, etc.

These rudiments of pharmacology are systematically arranged for convenient cf study. First, the name of the drug is considered; preparations and doses follow. Next, active principals, physiological actions, toxic effects and antidotes and finally therapy, separate sections being devoted to pharmaceutical preparations and their process of manufacture and to prescription writing. At the close of each chapter he gives an outline of Practice which gives the general management of the case from its beginning to its termination. Under this outline of practice is given many excellent prescriptions. This is unquestionably a very fine feature of the book. We know of no work that has been published that will be of more universal value and aid to all classes of physicians than the one before us. It is unquestionably one of the best works that has ever been given to the medical profession, and we feel it our duty to beg all progressive medical men to peruse its pages.

On the whole the volume furnishes one of our complete and practical text-books on materia medica. The book is printed and bound attactively.

Elements of Clinical Bacteriology for Physicians and StudentsBy Dr. Ernest Levy, Professor in the University of Strasburg, and Dr. Felix Klempner, Private Docent in the University of Stras

burg. Second Edition enlarged and revised. Authorized Translation by Augustus A. Eskner, M.D., Professor of Chemical Medicine in the Philadelphia Polyclinic, Physican to the Philadelphia Hospital. 425 pages; cloth binding; price $2.50 net. W. B. Saunders, 925 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa. 1900.

If one has ever had the extreme good fortune to eat a Chinese dinner-a real Chinese dinner, not a luncheon-then one has some sort of an idea of some of the sensations of enjoyment and surprise experienced in receiving the second volume of this Manual of Clinical Bacteriology, by Drs. Levy and Klempner. Chinese dinners are famous for their surprises, and this work is full of anticipation which is outstripped by realization, giving it a sort of a friendly feeling. There is an air of confidence in the method of handling subjects, which, to say the least, is grateful and comfortable in these days of high falutive rhetorical strain. In the second volume the authors have kept close to their original plan of simplicity, intelligibility and common sense, and there is no place in the book any effort to display excessive despiriting knowledge of bacteriology. The authors have attempted to group their results of bacteriological investigation from a clinical point of view. Bacteriology has lately become more and more indispensible as an aid to medical art, and has enlarged our knowledge of the nature of infectious disease and established their prophylaxis diagnosis and treatment upon a broader and firmer basis. In this, the second edition, chapters have been added on plague and botulism, and those on immunity, diptheria, typhoid fever, actiniomycosis, examination of air and water, and others have been radically revised and brought up to date. The general practitioner cannot be expected to be a trained and practiced bacteriologist. Still he must have a working familiarity with the subject of bacteriology in order that he possess clear conceptions as to the etiology of disease and the nature of the resultant morbid processes and prophylaxis of treatment. The student or practitioner, in going over this work instructively, feels that it is the product of men who know what they are writing about; that it is all practical, and the procedures proper and to the point. It would far exceed the limits of space allowable to adequately review this work. Mr. Saunders sends it from his press-rooms on good paper and handsome binding. It is a very practical book and ought to be in the hands of every reading, practicing physician.

Saunders' Question Compends No. 2-Essentials of Anatomy, together with a full description of the handkerchief and roller bandage, arranged in the form of questions and answers prepared especially for students of medicine by Edward Martin, A.M., M.D., Clinical Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases in the University of Pennsylvania. Illustrated. Seventh Edition revised and enlarged with an appendix. W. B. Saunders, 925 Walnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.

The appearance of seven editions of this pocket companion in such rapid succession gives evidence of its practicability and popularity. Over 175,000 copies of these self-helps have been sold. Such enormous sales is undisputable evidence of the value of these self-helps to students. In the last revision the author has added a section in the modern treatment of appendicitis. The appendix contains full directions and prescriptions for the preparation of various materials used in antiseptic surgery, as well as several hundred receipts covering the medical treatment of surgical affections. 335 pages; cloth binding; price $1.00. 1900.

Progressive Medicine-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 the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia; Physician to the Jefferson Medical Colloge Hospital; Laureate of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium; of the Medical Society of London, etc.; assisted by Charles Adams Hoider, M.D., Assistant Demonstrator of Therapeutics in the Jefferson Medical College. Vol. I, March, 1900-Surgery of the Head and Neck and Chest; Diseases of Children; Infectious Diseases, including Croupous Pneumonia; Laryngology, Rhinology and Otology. Bound in cloth, 404 pages, 36 engravings and 1 colored plate. Issued quarterly. Price $10 per year. Philadelphia and New York: Lea Brothers & Co.

It is with much pleasure that we take up the first volume of Progressive Medicine in its second year.

That some authoritative summary of current medical literature presented in a narrative form was needed by a large number of the profession has been satisfactorily demonstrated by the success of the publication during its first year with the profession.

This new quarterly makes undoubtedly the best, completest and most authoritative review of advances in scientific medical literature, with special reference to its practical applications, that has yet been made. The editor is to be congratulated on the set of contributors secured, the contributors on their thorough, painstaking work, and the publishers on the excellent combined result that editor's, contributors' and publishers' efforts have reached.

It is utterly impossible, in a short review, to call attention to all the commendable features of this volume. The reviewer cannot avoid mentioning some of the most striking discussions of practical subjects. Dr. J. Chalmers Dacosta, in the section on Surgery of the Face, Neck, Lips, Tongue and Mouth, gives thoroughly up-to-date practical reviews of such subjects as "Tuberculosis of the Lymph Glands of the Neck," "Carcinoma of the Lip," "Cleft Palate," and "Nævæ." In the section on Surgical Operations about the Chest Dr. Dacosta leaves nothing unsaid about Caricoma of the Breast and Methods of Operation. In the section on the Skull and Brain we