Sanatoria for consumptives in the United States and the Canadas by Clark Bell, Esq., LL.D., of New York City-president Medico Legal Society, secretary American Congress of Tuberculosis. We have received this pamphlet containing a great deal of valuable data in regard to this important subject. Mr. Bell is doing a useful work in disseminating this information. The Orange County Medical Association held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, August 8, at the resence of Dr. W. B. Wood, of Orange. There was a large attendance and the host read a paper on "The Doctor," which was followed by a discussion on various medical matters. An e'ab. ra e supper was then served at which Mrs. Wood presided. We hope in the next issue of the Southern California Practitioner to present a picture of the Elizabeth Bard Memorial Hospital, which Dr. Cephas L. Bard, and his brother, United States Senator Bard, are erecting in memory of their mother. This institution will be open in about three months. At the joint meeting of the Northwestern Wisconsin and Fox River Valley Medical Societies in Waupacca, August 13. Dr. Byron Robinson of Chicago was honored with a special vote of thanks for his valuable medical discoveries and his original contributions to the science of medicine. Fickle Uncle Sam: The divorce rate in Canada is 1 to 63,000 marriages; in berculosis at Fort Bayard, New Mexico. We have received a copy of a publication entitled "Journal of the New York Medical Pharmaceutical League," which is certainly worthy of a place in any waste basket Dr. Walter M. Boyd has been laid up for a few days at the California Hospital in Los Angeles, with an abcess of the ankle. He is now improving. The Manila Board of Health offers one and one-half cent for every rat. They believe that this will be an effective method of eradicating the plague. Dr. Kellogg of Bakersfield, was at the California Hospital, Los Angeles, in consultation with Dr. Taggart in some surgical cases. Dr. B. F. Church of Los Angeles will spend some months in post-graduate study in Eastern cities. COLLECTILE INVESTIGATION OF To the Members of the Medical Profession: In 1892 the undersigned began a collective investigation of the action of cold in the treatment of acute pneumonia and there is reason for believing that this procedure which resulted in gathering four hundred cases of this disease thus treated, with a death rate not quite 5 per cent., was an important factor in calling attention to the utility of that treatment, and in introducing it to the profession of this country. That research was based on the conviction that no remedy can be called truly successful until it has passed the exacting crucible of clinical experience, and it is now proposed to apply the same ordeal to silver-injection treatment the phthisis, which, in a large hospital, of dispensary and private practice, reaching over a period of three years, and during which many thousand injections were administered, has given me greater satisfaction than any other method that I have ever employed. In keeping with the above expressed feeling a cordial invitation is herewith extended to those members of the profession who have the inclination and opportunity to investigate this method of treating phthisis and to whom a reprint on the subject with full information and blanks to report cases, will be cheerfully sent on application. THOMAS J. MAYS, M.D. 1829 Spruce street, Philadelphia, Pa., August 15, 1901. THROOP POLYTECHNIC INSTI TUTE. This well-known Pasadena School, noted for the elaborateness of its manual training and laboratory equipment, opens its next year of work Sept. 25. With the addition of a thoroughly organized Commercial department, five complete departments of study are offered by Throop-Commercial, or Business College; Academy, or high school; Normal Sloyd, Art and Domestic Science, and Collegiate. The Institute is thus prepared to impart a sound and practical education to young people of both sexes, fitting them for literary careers or for mechanical and scientific pursuits. Its scholastic studies are made efficiently practical by daily work in wood sloyd, in iron, in the chemical, physical, biological and electrical laboratory, in wood-carving, ciay-modeling, drawing, etc. The modern' languages are also taught; due attention is given to Latin; courses in elocution are offered, and at the completion of the College Course the degree of 'B. S. is conferred. 'The Secretary will doubtless be glad to send catalogues to all applicants. FITZGERALD A POET.* us Dear Editor:-I recently wrote these lines of poetry which had been suggested after reading a letter which my old friend Dr. Z. T. Martin, M.D., had sent to the Lathrop Monitor for publication, in which he gave some very interesting information anent the workings of the Missouri Penitentiary, and to which institution the doctor is surgeon, under appointment of Gov. Dockery. Inasmuch as most if not all of poor doctors shall never have that privilege-I mean of residing therein, in any capacity whatever-this letter of the doctor's is of greater moment to us outsiders, not "in it" just now. I am heartily glad that my friend and erstwhile townsman has secured this position, and confidently hope that he may make a success of it-I mean in so far as it can be such. The refers in his letter to the long lines of striped breeches, brings to my mind what I saw a few days ago about a couple of Paris girls; who became infatuated with the idea of heads photographed coquettishly stuck through a torn newspaper, visited a photographer for that purpose. the However, when pictures were finished, they were horrified to behold what they had before failed to notice. The paper through which they had stuck their heads was a Chicago sheet and just beneath their shining faces was a big display advertisement of a Jew clothing firm, which announced "Our pants are lined in the seat." doctor I may say that the "Coleman" in of mine the poem is an old friend and he is brother-in-law to the doctor. "Dan and Uncle Joe" are oldtime friends, and in were put for filling, mostly. Gov. Dockery, I have The following has come to us from Dr. O. D. Fitzgerald of Los Angeles.-Editor. BOOK REVIEWS. SURGICAL PATHOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS, by John Collins Warren, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Surgery in Harvard University; Surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital. Illustrated. Second Edition with an Appendix containing an enumeration of the scientific aids to surgical diagnosis, together with a series of sections on regional bacteriology. Philadelphia. W. B. Saunders. 925 Walnut Street 1900. Price, cloth, $5.00 net. m. $6.00 net. Too much cannot be said in favor of this work which has been written, not alone as a student's volume but equally applicable to the want of the great number of practicing physicians who graduated in medicine at a time when little attention was paid to pathology. The attempt is also successfully made to associate pathological conditions with the symptoms and treatment of surgical diseases. This object is accomplished in a more thorough and readable manner than by any similar work with which the reviewer is acquainted. The illustrations are nearly all original. In the first chapter from pages 17 to 43 the subject of bacteriology is discussed in such a concise and clear manner that it is easily grasped by any graduate of medicine to whom the subject has hitherto been an unsolved problem. The role that the phagocyte theory of Metscnikoff plays in immunity is discussed, and on page 41 a statement is made that "the general weight of opinions seems at present to be opposed to this very attractive theory in its entirety, and to lean to the view that predisposition to disease means a favorable culture-soil for the bacteria in question, and immunity from disease means a soil unfavorable to those organisms." "The chemical constitution of the blood-serum is, therefore, probably a more important factor in resisting or in favoring the invasion and growth of bacteria than any peculiar powers possessed by the white blood corpuscles." Chapter II discusses briefly the different surgical bacteria. On page 61, speaking of the bacilli of tuberculosis, the statement is made that "the bacilli may retain their vitality in the dry state for a period of three years." On page 65 occurs this statement: "The question of the microbic origin of syphilis has been extensively discussed and investigated, but as yet no definite conclusions have been reached which are generally accepted by bacteriologists." A little further on "although no satisfactory demonstration has been made. it seems highly probable that syphilis is of bacterial origin and that the organism is a bacillus; but the necessary identification by culture and inoculation has not yet fully been worked out." With regard to anthrax, the author says that protection against it by vaccination as demonstrated by Pasteur constitute one of the most brilliant scientific feats of this great pathologist. Following bacteria the subjects "Hyperemia," "Inflammation (simple and infective,) are taken up in successive chapters after which follows a chapter on the "Process of Repair." The balance of the book is given up to the pathology of the different diseases, not the least interesting of which are the chapters on "Carcinoma," "Sarcoma" and "Benign Tumors." The appendix devotes considerable space to the "scientific aid to surgical diagnosis." |