with the secretary or recording officer of their university or college a certificate showing that, prior to entering upon the prescribed three years' study of medicine, he passed an examination conducted under the authority and in accordance with the rules of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, in arithmetic, grammar, geography, orthography, American history, English composition, and the elements of natural philosophy, and such certificate shall be signed by the secretary of the regents and countersigned by the principal or commissioner conducting said examination." The law does not apply to students who have already matriculated; but all persons hereafter intending to get medical degrees in the medical colleges of New York must pass a preliminary examination. now. THE EISNER & MENDELSON COMPANY, of New York, are occupying an unsavory position before the medical profession of the country just They are the American agents of a firm, one of the partners of which has just been convicted in a Berlin court of circulating a false court decision, and of making affidavit that the same was a true and correct copy. According to a communication from Messrs. Tarrant & Co., printed elsewhere in this issue of our journal, it appears that the Eisner & Mendelson Company were parties to the circulation of these misleading documents. They have done themselves irreparable injury. When such disreputable business methods have to be engaged in to sustain a preparation, it is high time the preparation were thrown overboard. There is every evidence to believe that the Hoff's Malt Extract imported by Tarrant & Co. is the original and genuine article. The communication headed "False Swearing" is worth reading, and every physician who prescribes malt as a nutrient should give it a perusal. SCIENTISTS recognize the importance of vital statistics to the individ. ual and the State, and politicians are slowly following in their wake. Massachusetts has a new statute for securing a more perfect record. All physicians are required to report, and are allowed a fee of twenty-five cents for each case reported. The fee is small, but it covers expenses and recognizes the fact that the State has no more right to call for gratuitous service from the medical men than from other members of the body politic. HOW MUCH SHOULD A CITY PAY ITS HEALTH OFFICER ?-The Michigan State Board of Health has recently published a paper by its secretary, Dr. H. B. Baker, in which he asks the question how much the average city or village can afford to pay its health officer. He answers the question in this way: Statistics which cannot be questioned prove that in those localities in Michigan where the recommendations of the State Board of Health are carried out about eighty per cent, of the deaths from diphtheria and scarlet fever are prevented by the thorough isolation of all infected persons and the thorough disinfection of all infected persons, things and places. Statisticians usually value a person in the prime of life as worth to the community about one thousand dollars. Dr. Baker thinks that in a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants a health officer can easily save the lives of two children and one grown person in each year, and he concludes that such a village can well afford to pay its health officer two thousand dollars for the prevention and restriction of scarlet fever, diphtheria and typhoid fever, and make money by the transaction. "Probably no THE Popular Science News is correct when it says: therapeutic agent has been so much abused or so little understood as the use of Electricity in Medicine. We have always claimed that it possessed little or no medicinal value in itself, but that its action was merely mechanical, being that of a stimulant of muscular contraction. We now notice that the medical profession is beginning to take this ground, and at a recent discussion at a meeting of the New York Academy of Medicine, the conclusion was reached that the field of electro-therapeutics is a very narrow one, that its effects have been much exaggerated, and its results very uncertain. Although there is a definite field for the employment of electricity in medicine, we are of the opinion that its use will be much more limited in the future than even at present." DR. WM. ALEX. GREENE, Macon, Ga., writes: I cheerfully state that I have tested the virtues and efficiency of "Colden's Liquid Beef Tonic" in my private practice, in cases of general debility, weakness, depression, dyspepsia, loss of appetite and nervous afflictions when medicine had proved more than useless. I have found it the best remedy I ever used in chronic alcoholism, when the stomach is always irritable, and food required to nourish and invigorate the drooping strength and nervous depression, also appeasing the thirst for more alcohol. A REPORT ON CIGARETTES.- Mr. Willis G. Tucker, in his report to the New York State Board of Health, on the result of his examination of various popular brands of cigarettes, says that careful analysis of tobacco and paper failed to reveal any poisonous ingredients, other than the tobacco itself, and that most cigarettes contain pure tobacco and good paper. The evils of cigarette smoking are due to the fact that cigarettes are cheap, convenient, and can be used in large and excessive quantities, that the smoke is usually inhaled, and that children and immature persons so freely use them. BROMIDIA.—I have used the Bromidia (Battle) and the results ob tained have been really excellent. It certainly combines all the advantages of other preparations of this nature, while at the same time it possesses none of their disadvantages. The fact that it produces no unpleasant sensation or awaking, renders it specially valuable.—Dr. Lud. Marc, St. Nazaire sur Loire, France. ADDINELL HEWSON, M. D., a distinguished physician and author of Philadelphia, died at his residence in that city, Sept. 11, in his sixty-sixth year. MANSFIELD, through its energetic health officer, Dr. R. Harvey Reed, sends out a most creditable report of its health department. DR. H. S. CONKLIN, of Sidney, Ohio, died July 19, aged seventyfive years. FOR SALE. Practice and house, in a fine country railroad town, in Indiana, of 500 inhabitants. No competition. Excellent roads. Box 52, East Germantown, Ind. 143 Treatise on Surgery-Its Principles and Practice. By. T. Holmes, M.A. Cantab., Consulting Surgeon of St. George's Hospital, Etc. With 428 Illustrations. Fifth Edition. Edited by T. Pickering Pick, Surgeon to and Lecturer on Surgery at St. George's Hospital, Etc. Philadelphia; Lea Brothers & Co. 1889. 8vo. Pp. 1008. Leather, $7; Cloth, $6. This excellent work on Surgery is too well known to our readers to require a detailed review. The general arrangement of the work resembles that of former editions, though many of the chapters have been carefully rewritten, and the whole work thoroughly revised. The chapter on Inflammation is exceedingly clear and concise, while those on the Bones and Joints, Tumors, Abdominal Surgery and Intestinal Obstruction, and Diseases of the Breasts, have been thoroughly revised, so as to include our latest knowledge and the best methods of treatment. Ophthalmology, which of late years has assumed such proportions as to demand separate and specific treatises, is entirely omitted in this edition: a very proper omission. As a text-book for the student, or for reference by the general practitioner, this work will be found safe, satisfactory and reliable. Wood's Medical and Surgical Monographs. Volume III, No. 3, September, 1889. 8vo., pp. 288. New York: William Wood & Co., 56 and 58 Lafayette Place. Price, single number, $1.00, or $10.00 a year. The ninth volume of this series of medical publications is in every way equal to the preceding ones in interest and importance. The titles are: Congestive Neurasthenia and Nerve Depression, by E. G. Whittle, M. D.; the Art of Embalming, by Benjamin Ward Richardson, M. D.; The Etiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Tuberculosis, by Dr. H. Von Ziemssen; Psycho-Therapeutics, or Treatment by Hypnotism, by Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey; Sexual Activity and the Critical Period in Man and Woman, by Dr. Louis De Sere. The index to volume III accompanies this book. If any physician is not already familiar with this series, he should become so, for he will find here an opportunity to obtain much useful literature at a very low price. On Disordered Digestion and Dyspepsia. By Frank Woodbury, A. M., M. D., Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Honorary Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, etc. 12mo., pp. 82. Detroit, Michigan: George S. Davis. 1880. Price, paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. Syphilis of the Nervous System. By H. C. Wood, M. D., LL. D. 12mo., pp. 135. Detroit, Michigan: George S. Davis. 1889. Price, paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. These two brochures are a part of the well known Physician's Leisure Library. The subjects they treat upon are of such vast importance, and the authors so eminent, as to commend the books at once to studious physicians. The enterprise of the publisher in furnishing such valuable literature at so cheap a rate, is deserving of all encouragement and praise. A Laboratory Guide in Uninalysis and Toxicology. By R. A. Witthaus, A. M., M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Physics in the Medical Department, University of New York, etc. Second edition; pp. 75; cents; cloth. William Wood & Co., publishers, New York, 1889. This little work is simply a plain laboratory guide in urinalysis and toxicology. It is reliable, conveniently arranged and inter-leaved, and cannot but prove useful in the investigation of urinary diseases. In the part devoted to toxicology, in addition to the various tests, the most reliable and ready antidotes are given. Inebriety: Its Etiology, Pathology, Treatment and Jurisprudence. By |