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1895. Edited by R. Harvey Reed, M. D., Columbus, Ohio. Chi-
cago:
Am. Med. Assn. Press. 1896.

The present report contains about 100 pages more than the first one. The papers generally are practical and scientific. We are pleased to note the progress and increase in fellowship of this young but excellent association.

Diet for the Sick.-Contributed by Miss E. Hibbard, Principal of Nurses' Training School, Grace Hospital, Detroit, and Mrs. Emma Drant, Matron of Michigan College of Medicine Hospital, Detroit. Second Edition. Enlarged. Limp Cloth, 16m0., 100 pages. Price 25 cents, Postpaid. Detroit, Mich.: The Illustrated Medical Journal Co. 1896.

In this little book there is, besides the useful formulæ for "Sick Dishes," foods and cooling drinks for convalescents, quite complete diet tables for use in anemia, Bright's disease, calculus, cancer, chlorosis, cholera infantum, constipation, consumption, diabetes, diarrhea, dyspepsia, fevers, gout, nervous affections, obesity, phthisis, rheumatism, uterine fibroids. It also gives various nutritive enemas. The physician can use it to advantage in explaining his orders for suitable dishes for his patient, leaving the book with the nurse.

A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis by Microscopical and Chemical Methods. -For Students, Hospital Physicians and Practitioners. By Charles E. Simon, M. D., Late Assistant Resident Physician Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In one very handsome octavo volume of 504 pages, with 132 engravings and 10 full-page colored plates. Cloth, $3.50. Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia and New York. 1896.

Dennis' Surgery.

It is pleasant to note that the general excellence of Dennis' "System of Surgery" has been sustained throughout the fourth volume. The work as a whole is a credit to American medical science and enterprise. It has the merits of conciseness combined with thoroughness, and in this respect compares favorably with those foreign publications which have heretofore stood far in advance of surgeries published in the United States. In the article on tumors, Dennis is opposed to the theory of the parasitic origin of malignant neoplasms and inclines to the view that "changes of an inflammatory nature are responsible for their development." He places the value of heredity as an etiological factor at from twelve to fifteen per cent. The surgeon is cautioned against placing too much reliance upon microscopical diagnosis unless coupled with clinical history. While admitting the value of Coley's treatment by injection of erysipelas toxines, the writer declines to give it his positive sanction at present.

Bull and Coley contribute the really excellent chapter on hernia. llustration and text combine to make an exceptionally clear exposi

tion of the subject, especially as regards the methods of radical cure, Bassini's operation rightfully heading the list. The surgery of the alimentary canal is handled in a satisfactory manner by Richardson and Cobb. In gastrostomy the immediate opening of the stomach is advised in most cases, the preferable operation being that of Witzel, in which a tube is inserted obliquely through the stomach walls. The use of Senn's plates and the Murphy button are carefully described and well illustrated.

The section on appendicitis in general is by Frank Hartley, while the surgical treatment is considered by McBurney. These are among the best articles on the subject which we have seen. Palliative measures are advocated in mild cases (Deaver to the contrary notwithstanding), to the exclusion, however, of cathartics and opiates. "No purely medical treatment," says McBurney, "of actual value has yet been presented to the profession." "Not all cases of acute appendicitis by any means demand immediate operation," "nevertheless every acute attack deserves the closest observation." "If by the end of thirty-six hours there are no well marked signs of abatement of the disease, operation is usually indicated." These statements are certainly conservative and deserving of attention in face of the extreme views presented by some surgeons.

Surgery of the large intestine is treated exhaustively and satisfactorily by Pilcher in something over one hundred pages.

The article on the liver, although perhaps unduly condensed, is clear and to the point. The use of the Murphy button in cholecystenterostomy is strongly recommended. Some 350 pages are devoted to gynecology. While admitting that the subject is as well handled as it can be in so limited a space, one may doubt the propriety of admitting it at all to a work on general surgery, it being so universally admitted to be a subject for special consideration in books devoted to gynecology alone.

Robert Weir, in considering goitre, speaks favorably, although not enthusiastically, of the use of the thyroid extract.

An unique and interesting chapter is by Matas, on the surgical peculiarities of the negro. He consider cocaine peculiarly adapted to the constitution of the colored race, and has performed many capital operations under its use.

The division on diseases of the female breast, by Dennis, will be found satisfactory in every respect.

A timely chapter on the use of the Roentgen rays in surgery, by Keen, with illustrations, indicates that an effort has been made to bring the work up to date as far as possible.

L. F.

Reading Notices.

Getting Better Results Every Day. Gentlemen:-You ask me my experience with Pineoline. Well, here it is. Pineoline does the work every time in skin diseases, such as acne, barbers' itch, herpes, eczema, etc. It is simply a specific, I have used it in the skin clinic in the hospital, where we treat hundreds of cases each month. and know just what to expect. In erysipelas it is a remedy par excellence. I have also given Pineoline a good trial in catarrh and hemorrhoids with good success. Pineoline is a wonderfully good thing. Almost every day I find some new use for it. The other day I prescribed it for granulated eyelids, and even in this case it is doing good work. You have given the medical profession a really good medicine in Pineoline. Yours truly,

ROBERT DE HUFF, M. D.

Prevalent Malarial Conditions.-When two such well known drugs as antikamnia and quinine are offered to the profession it hardly seems necessary to indicate the especial class of affections which call for their use. Antikamnia may now unquestionably be called a perfect substitute for morphine, for internal administration. It has complete control over pain, while it is free from the undesirable after-effects of the alkaloid of opium. But antikamnia not only possesses the good qualities of morphine without the bad, but it also has the properties peculiar to the coal tar series. In cases of malarial fever the combination of antikamnia and quinine should be given as a prophylactic and cure. For all malarial conditions quinine is the best remedy we have. But associated with this condition there is always more or less pain, which often renders the life of the individual uncomfortable, if not positively miserable. Antikamnia will remove these unpleasant symptoms and place the system in the best condition for the quinine to do its work. There are a number of ailments,not closely defined, that are due to the presence of malarial poison. All such conditions are greatly benefited by the use of this combination. "Antikamnia and Quinine Tablets," each containing 21⁄2 gr. antikamnia, 21⁄2 gr. sulph. quinine, meet the indications most frequently. In headache (hemicrania), in the neuralgia occurring in anemic patients who have malarial cachexia, and in a large number of affections more or less dependent upon this cachetic condition, the regular administration of these tablets will produce the most happy results.

A Sedative Antipyretic.—In most cases of pyrexia there is a

condition of over excitation of the nervous system, requiring the administration of a sedative. As Dr. G. F. Lower (Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic, July 4, 1896) points out, whenever we have a pyrexia that requires suppression we always have a nervous rather than a feeble pulse and overtaxed nervous system, and hence it often becomes necessary to make a perceptible impression upon the entire organism, It is, therefore, highly advantageous to administer a remedy which combines both the properties of a febrifuge and nerve sedative, and for this reason as emphasized by Dr. Lower, phenacetine, which possesses these combined actions, is of double value. He remarks as follows:

"For example, to reduce a temperature of 105 only one degree and fold our arms in satisfaction is languishing and inexcusable treatment. It is a reproach upon the science of therapeutics and a trifling with human life.

"In proper doses it is always safe, with the infant as well as the octogenarian, and in all stages of disease. There is no functional trouble or organic lesion and no age in which this drug is contraindicated.

"To a child I give two to five grains every one or two hours, and 10 an adult five to twelve grains at the same intervals. From one to three doses is nearly always sufficient to produce free diaphoresis and thereby reduce the temperature three to four degrees in that many hours.

"In addition to this practice hydrotherapy, and especially in children, cold applications to the head and hands."

W. A. Ward, M. D., New Edinburg, Ark., says: I have used Aletris Cordial in threatened miscarriage, in several instances with the best results; in one case in particular, the lady was of nervous temperament and very easily excited, but by giving Celerina combined with Aletris Cordial for a short time, she passed over it safely. I am of the opinion that any physician prescribing Aletris Cordial, in such cases as it is indicated, will not be disappointed in the result.

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BY BYRON ROBINSON, B. S., M, D.,
Chicago, Ill.

Professor of Gynecology in Post-Graduate Medical School,

Successful surgery is built upon its faults. To-day the chief question is not, will a case of abdominal surgery recover, but how will it recover? Will the case be restored to health or be an invalid. or have the inconvenience of a fistula, tender spots, periodic pains. from old visceral adhesions, wasting hemorrhages or some hernial protrusion. Improvement of the patient is not sufficient in abdominal or gynecologic surgery. The risk of operation demands success. I have often thought during the past half a dozen years of writing out what seems to me to be the faults of abdominal and gynecologic surgery and to attempt to suggest measures which observation and many experiments indicate as to the removal of these faults. I am sorry to say that few surgeons expose their faulty results in public articles, and I am convinced that it has not enhanced my finances to report my failures, as I have carefully done for some seven years. But for ten years of special abdominal labors I have noted failures every year along similar lines of work. It is true now that our deaths are less and defects are less than ever. But the occasional return of old patients with defects arouses anew the determination to remove the faulty technique that produced the post-operative afflictio. Careful observation of operated cases forces the fact only too plainly that all patients on whom we have operated are not in perfect health. I have some now who wish

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