Editor's Items.

It is claimed that cases of tuberculosis have been traced to the use of public telephones.

O 111 deaths in Los Angeles during November last, 22 were due to pulmonary consumption.

Of fifty deaths in Salt Lake City during December, 1896, only three were from phthisis pulmonalis.

The Baroness Hirsch will donate $400,000 to establish a hospital' for consumptive children in the Riviera.

According to the local health department, there are now about 20,000 cases of pulmonary phthisis in the city of New York.

It is stated that nearly fifty per cent. of the dairy cows of San Francisco need to be slaughtered on account of tuberculosis.

Benzosol in five grain doses four or five times a day has often proved successful in arresting the diarrhea of intestinal tuberculosis. Health signs are being placed in Chicago street cars, warning the public against their spitting therein under penalty of fine and imprisonment.

The noted Parisian ophthalmologist, De Wecker, is opposed to enucleating for ocular tuberculosis. He removes only the infected'

area if accessible.

During the past year the Massachusetts cattle commissioners condemned 5,198 head of cattle as tuberculous, for which $173,000 was paid to the owners.

The North American Medical Review states that Dr. G. W. Fraker, of insurance fame, has come to Colorado Springs, to start a consumptive sanitarium.

As early as 1866 Hoffman showed that tubercles were present in the bodies of flies which had made their habitat in the room of a consumptive patient.

Matthieu, in the British Medical Journal, states that he has obtained excellent results in the vomiting of phthisis from small lumps of ice swallowed just after eating.

Says the Am. Med.-Surg. Bulletin: "Dr. Mary Walker, of bloomer fame, and the only woman surgeon in the army, has come out with a consumption cure of her own."

J. Hilton Thompson reports in a late number of the British Medical Journal several cases of early catarrhal phthisis much benefitted by systematic inhalations of oil of cinnamon.

Dr. W. H. Weaver, of Chicago, in the Am Med. Ass'n Four., speaks very highly of the good effects of Marmorek's antistreptococcic serum in the treatment of suppurative phthisis.

Mr. George S. Davis, of the firm of Parke, Davis & Co., has retired from active participation in the great business with which he has been so long connected and is seeking rest in California.

Bouchard has used the X-rays with success in the diagnosis of tubercular consolidations and cavities, getting definite results in a few instances where the physical signs had not yet developed.

Says Johnson Eliot in the Va. Med. Monthly: "Creosote (or its derivatives) is contraindicated in phthisis florida of febrile type, tubercular pleurisy, enteritis, nephritis, great heart weakness and albumin in urine."

We are in receipt of the initial number (January, 1897) of the Practical Druggist published at 108 Fulton Street, New York, for $1 yearly. It is all that its name implies, being also a pharmaceutical review of reviews.

The health authorities of Alameda, Cal., "make assurance doubly sure" as regards the sale of tuberculous meat, by pumping a gallon of kerosene oil into the carotid immediately after the condemned animal has been killed.

Dr. C. M. Rosser has resigned his position as superintendent of the Ferrell branch of the Texas state lunatic asylum. Press of private interests was the cause. Dr. Rosser has already achieved a

national reputation as an alienist.

Dr. Rossel, superintendent of the children's department of the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases, states that forty per cent. of the patients under ten, who have come as a rule to be treated for diphtheria, were afflicted with tuberculosis.

The guaiacolate of piperidine is a new synthetic remedy used in pulmonary phthisis in the dose of from five to thirty grains thrice daily. It combines the properties and advantages of guaiacol and piperidine and is soluble in thirty parts of water.

Thoma, in the Lancet, advocates enemata of creosote in codliver oil for pleuroperitoneal tuberculosis in children. The dose, at first a half gramme of creosote in 150 of emulsified oil, is increased in a week or ten days to a gramme of the creosote.

From the Medical Review we learn that the city government of St. Louis has sanctioned the ordinance prepared by the health commissioner requiring all cases of consumption to be reported, and all premises vacated by consumptives to be disinfected.

The first award of the Weber-Parkes triennial prize of $150 will be made this year by the Royal College of Physicians, on the subject, "The Means, Prophylactic or Curative, deemed by the author to have value in the control of tuberculosis, special regard being had to their application to human tuberculosis."

Somatose Biscuit. -The Somatose biscuits have been prepared with a view of supplying an agreeable and nutritious food for invalids, feeble persons, etc. They form an important addition to the diet of consumptives and anemic patients, and we should think would be very desirable for convalescents. They are readily digested and assimilated.

The free use of creosote has in a few instances proved fatal. The toxic symptoms resemble those of carbolic acid poisoning, including headache, giddiness, nausea and depression. A characteristic warning sign is the dark color imparted to the urine. Creosote poisoning should be treated with magnesium sulphate, emetics and stimulants.

Serum therapy in tuberculosis is again on the ascent. The antitubercle serum which seems now to promise most is the antitoxin derived from the horse after artificial immunization. The originator of this method, Dr. Paul Paquin, of St. Louis, (Four. Am. Med. Ass., Jan. 30) records 226 cases of pulmonary phthisis treated with this serum. with 40 apparently complete and permanent recoveries.

AMENORRHEA.--Dr. C. C. Alernathy writes: "I placed sample bottle of Dioviburnia (Dios) in the hands of a young lady who had been suffering from amenorrhea for six months, with instructions to use it and report result. At the expiration of two months she wrote me, 'You can safely recommend Dioviburnia -it has entirely relieved me' Encouraged by this gratifying result I procured through our druggist a dozen bottles and have used them all and more in the treatment of dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia and leucorahea, in all of which there is generally congestion of the womb, and ovaries and I am pleased to say that it has acted well in every case. I shall continue to use it."

I have found Cactina Pillets useful in cases of functional disorders of the heart. One lady with anaemia and a very rapidly beating heart (after moderate exertion) has felt obliged to use the Pillets daily. They have steadied her heart, relieved her nervous anxiety and have done her much good.

C. H. BROCKWAY, M.D., Worcester, Mass.

BOOKS.

Principles or Guides for a Better Selection or Classification of Consumptives Amenable to High Altitude Treatment and to the Selection of Patients Who May Be More Successfully Treated in the Environment to Which They Were Accustomed Previous to Their Illness.— By A. Edgar Tussey, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Diseases of the Chest in the Philadelphia Polyclinic and School for Graduates in Medicine. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son and Co., 1012 Walnut St. 1896. Price $1.50.

The author of this little volume has very decided views upon the subject of the climatic treatment of tuberculosis. He maintains with vigor that the true test of advisability of a change of residence is not so much the stage to which the disease has progressed as it is the vital resistance and general morale of the patient. Though somewhat diffusive, he has much to say that is well worthy of perusal, and in the main his reasons and deductions are, we think, logical and correct.

The Treatment of Pulmonary Consumption.-A Practical Manual by Vincent Dormer Harris, M.D., Lond., F.R.C.P., Physician to the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, etc., and Edwin Clifford Beale, M.A., M. B. Cantab., F.R.C.P., Physician to the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest and to the Great Northern Central Hospital, etc. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., No. 1012 Walnut St. 1895. Twelvemo, 483 pages. Price $2.50.

The compact volume before us is rightly termed a practical manual, both as regards the subject chosen and its presentation. The medicinal and hygienic treatment of the different varieties and complications of pulmonary phthisis in the various stages is delineated with a detail not to be found in works of a more general character. The authors seem to have steered safely between the Scylla of therapeutic nihilism and the Charybdis of credulous fadism. Climate and diet receive their due share of attention. Only so much of pathology and etiology is given as is essential to an accurate grasp of therapeutic indications. Two interesting short chapters are those on the history of the treatment and pathology of pulmonary consumption.

On Diseases of the Lungs and Pleurae, Including Consumption.-By R. Douglas Powell, M.D. Lond., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; Physician Extraordinary to H. M. the Queen; Physician to the Middlesex Hospital; Consulting Physician to the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest at Brompton. Fourth Edition. With Illustrations. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1012 Walnut St. 1893. Price $4.00.

The present edition of this very able contribution to medical

literature has been revised with care and enlarged and contains a new chapter on actinomycosis of the lung. The author's views are thoroughly comprehensive; his manner of writing is lucid and attractive. The chapter on the physical examination of the chest is especially clear and helpful. The sections on consumption treat also of the laryngeal, meningeal and intestinal forms of tuberculous disease and include many clinical records of instructive illustrative The colored plates are excellent. The book is one of the most useful that the practitioner can possess.

cases.

McKesson & Robbins' Physician's Vest-Pocket Formula Book, 14th Edition, is a useful little book for the medical practitioner. It contains tables of weights and measures, antidotes to poisons, incompatibles, solubilities, dietaries, eponymic signs and diseases, and composition of foods and liquors. There is also a complete list of the McK. and R. pill formulae and a description of some of the newer pharmaceutic preparations. A copy of the book may be had by physicians free of charge on application to McKesson & Robbins, 91 Fulton St., New York.

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine.-Being an Encyclopedic Collection of Rare and Extraordinary Cases, and of the Most Striking Instances of Abnormality in All Branches of Medicine and Surgery, Derived From an Exhaustive Research of Medical Literature From its Origin to the Present Day, Abstracted, Classified, Annotated and Indexed. By George M. Gould, A.M., M. D., and Walter L. Pyle, A.M., M.D. Imperial Octavo, 968 Pages, with 295 Illustrations in the Text, and 12 Half-tone and Colored Plates. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 925 Walnut Street; 1897. Prices: Cloth, $6 net; Half-Morocco, $7 net; Sold Only by Subscription.

This is indeed a book of wonders, and is moreover the first of its kind of any degree of completeness. It is a genuine treasury of medical curiosities so classified and arranged as to be immediately available on any mooted point of abnormality and atypicalness. All the marvelous deviations from the normal in mental and bodily structure and function, every authentic great feat of endurance in various ways, each remarkable recovery from excessive trauma, the devastations of epidemics, anomalous diseases and idiosyncrasies, ethnologic traits and phenomena-are here at the instant command of the reader according to his need or caprice. Aside from its more practical value as a work of ready reference for medico-legal, medico-literary and other purposes, the scope and the style of this book makes its reading a fascination and delight, for after all the "highest study of mankind is man," and extremes have a unique and powerful charm for most of us. So far as is