increasing its efficiency. These are the Agnew memorial wing to the hospital, the William Pepper clinical laboratory and a main ward to the maternity hospital, that will connect with the smaller wings already constructed. The clinical laboratory is endowed by Dr. William Pepper as a memorial to his father. It is to be used for post-graduate study and original scientific research. It will be four stories high with a basement. In the latter will be placed the heating and ventilating apparatus. The first, second and third stories will be fitted up as laboratories, and the fourth will contain rooms for the curator and janitor.

The Agnew memorial will be erected by the widow of Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, and will be equipped as a complete surgical department, without regard to expense.

The addition to the maternity hospital will contain a basement, kitchen and dining-room, while wards and baths occupy the three stories above, for the accommodation of patients previous to their treatment in the present wards.

The University of Pennsylvania will soon boast of the most complete medical department in America, if not in the world.

IN THE Kansas City Medical College Dr. David R. Porter has resigned as professor of principles and practice of medicine and clinical medicine, and Dr. Joseph Sharp has been chosen to succeed him. Dr. J. D. Griffith has been appointed dean, vice Dr. D. R. Porter, resigned. Dr. Frank W. Rathbone has been chosen to fill Dr. Sharp's former chair, that of professor of therapeutics and clinical medicine. Dr. George Mosher has been made professor of obstetrics, and Dr. Herman Pearse, who is Dr. Lanphear's successor as editor of the Medical Index, has been advanced to the professorship of anatomy. Dr. Andrew Fulton takes the chair of operative and clinical surgery. Dr. T. J. Beattie is appointed lecturer on diseases of women and children, and Dr. A. H. Cordier is advanced to the lectureship on abdominal surgery.

THE medical department of the University of Wooster, at Cleveland, O., has a new hospital and dispensary almost completed. New laboratories also have been equipped, and that for bacteriology was ordered from Europe alone costing over $3,000. The faculty also has been greatly augmented in numbers, as will appear by consulting the card on page xxiii. of the JOURNAL.

Academy of Medicine notes.

THE treasurer's report, read at the annual meeting, showed an excellent condition of the Academy finances.

THE officers of the Academy for 1894-1895 are: President, P. W. VanPeyma, M. D.; vice-presidents, C. C. Wyckoff, M. D., Marcell Hartwig, M. D., M. D. Mann, M. D., S. Y. Howell, M. D.; secretary, A. L. Benedict, M. D.; treasurer, E. A. Smith, M. D.; trustees, Roswell Park, M. D., F. W. Bartlett, M. D., H. R. Hopkins, M. D.; curator of museum, F. S. Metcalfe, M. D.; librarian, F. W. Bartlett, M. D.; council, the above mentioned officers with the secretaries of the different sections-Drs. Sherman, Gilray and Metcalfeconstitute the council of the Academy.

Book Reviews.

AN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM OF ELECTRO-THERAPEUTICS, for Students, General Practitioners and Specialists. By HORATIO R. BIGELOW, M. D., and Thirty-eight Associate Editors. Thoroughly illustrated. In one large royal octavo volume. 1,160 pages; extra cloth, $6.00 net; sheep, $7.00 net; half-Russia. $7.50 net. Philadelphia : The F. A. Davis Co., Publishers, 1914 and 1916 Cherry street. 1894.

Everyone familiar with the literature of medicine during the last few years, must have become impressed with the fact that there has been a remarkable attempt on the part of a coterie of enthusiasts to force electricity into a prominence which no other alleged therapeutic agent possesses. One need not go far to find a reason for this. In the first place there is something about the mysterious that always appeals to certain minds. We remember an old dictionary, in defining mesmerism, stated it was "practised by the weakest, meanest, sometimes the most infamous of mankind." This will not apply to the electromaniacs of the present day, many of whom are thoroughly conscientious men and we hope all of them are honest in their purposes.

So little is known about electricity as a therapeutic agent, that the temptation is very great to appeal to it when other remedies fail, in the hope that by some magic, unseen and unknown influence it may effect a cure. It is an agent that is applied in all fashions and ways, from the simple toy and useless plaything called a pocket battery to the imposing static machine. With how much science these several machines are used depends largely, we

may say almost entirely, upon the man who applies them. But a factor in their successful employment is also to be found in the patient who receives this subtle and mysterious dosage. If faith goes a large way toward effecting cure with any agent, it certainly has an opportunity to work the marvelous with electricity.

These remarks are not intended to apply to certain well-defined and known principles of its application, as instanced in the electrocautery, and, further, in its diagnostic uses in certain nervous diseases. But we speak more especially of its employment in the thousand and one conditions, all the way from sore nipples to fibroid tumors of the uterus.

A work of the magnitude of the present one which aims to be encyclopedic in character challenges criticism, first, from the men who create it,-editor and contributors-and, second, from the material that they present. . The editor-in-chief of this system has been a frequent contributor to journalistic literature, but we are not aware that he has substantially advanced or improved the science of medicine by his writings. While many of the associate editors have achieved prominence, a number of them are quite unknown, and several of them are more or less visionary or enthusiastic in their advocacy of electricity as a therapeutic measure applicable to almost every known malady.

The introduction to the volume is written by William J. Herdman, of Ann Arbor, and contains, perhaps, all that need be said in an introductory chapter. We note, on page xxvi., that the "practicing" physician needs not to be a pharmacist, in order that he may "skillfully" administer his remedies, etc., which is a method of spelling not usually adopted in the present day. Professor Duff's section on electro-physics is a most instructive exposition of the subject, as is also the next section on animal electricity, writ ten by Wesley Mills.

The faradic current, electro-magnetism, electro-massage and instruments, forms the subject of the next section, and is written by Engelmann, of St. Louis, of whom there is none more competent. Cataphoresis is interestingly handled by Peterson, of New York, who is one of the pioneers in this method, and whose experiments have been published in detail in the journals. Ectopic gestation forms the subject of a section written by Carter S. Cole and George W. Jarman, and revised by Egbert H. Grandin. Our opinion in reference to the employment of electricity in this condition, has often been expressed before in the columns of this journal, hence need not be repeated in detail here. We do not believe that electricity has any place here. This is essentially a surgical condition, and should be treated surgically, with all that the term implies. In an editorial review on Mr. Tait's lectures on Ectopic Pregnancy, on page 462 et seq., Volume XXVIII., will be found a full elaboration of the subject, to which we refer those of our readers who may be interested.

Facial blemishes forms a brief but interesting section by

Henrietta P. Johnson. Electricity has a special application here, and we should be pleased to see the subject enlarged upon. Diseases of the nose, naso-pharynx, pharynx and larynx form another field where electricity is especially applicable, and is ably considered by Charles E. Sajous, the well-known editor of the Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences. Electro-thermal surgery-that is, the galvano-cautery considered with reference to its surgical uses-is ably considered by the veteran John Byrne, of Brooklyn, than whom there is no more competent authority. It must be confessed, however, that Byrne's most famous operation-amputation of the lower segment of the cancerous uterus-has been almost wholly supplanted by its total ablation per vaginam, known as vaginal hysterectomy. One of the most curious chapters in the book is contributed by Mary Putnam Jacobi, under the title of electricity in diseases of childhood. There is hardly any of the diseases treated of in this chapter by the distinguished author that do not belong to advanced youth or adult age. Yet it is learnedly written and is really one of the most interesting and instructive chapters in the book. We are at a loss to understand why the final section, that treats of adhesions in the acute and chronic inflammatory disorders of the female pelvis, has been presented. It is written by J. M. Baldy, of Philadelphia, who is well known as a surgeon of distinction, and who has little use for electricity, especially in the conditions of which this subject treats. He goes into considerable pathological detail in this chapter, but has little to say in regard to electricity. He sums up his opinion as follows:

To speak dogmatically, we may say (1) that the electrical treatment finds its greatest usefulness in cases of simple, acute inflammation with exudation of plastic lymph; (2) that in chronic processes in which an acute inflammation with exudation has supervened, the latter is amenable to the treatment in just the same manner and to the same extent as a simple case without chronic disease; (3) that chronic, fully-organized adhesions are rarely benefited, and may be deleteriously influenced; and (4) that friable, unhealthy, degenerated deposits are not at all benefited by this mode of treatment.

The chapters mentioned represent whatever there is of excellence in the work, though in some of the others there are paragraphs of interest. An examination of the treatise cannot fail to impress the reader with the fact that an attempt is making to treat almost every disease of the economy, from the most trifling to the gravest, with electricity. And what is still more impressive is that enthusiasts are claiming cures in the majority of instances.

The American Electro-Therapeutic Association is an outgrowth of this enthusiasm, and has as much reason for existence as would an association formed on the basis of any other single therapeutic measure. This treatise is a natural sequence to that association, and we presume that its members will regard it with special favor as, indeed, many of them are contributors to its pages.

We observe that this system is intended for students, general practitioners and specialists, and, as these three classes cover the entire field of medicine, if they should all conclude to purchase the book it would exhaust the first edition speedily.

There is the usual display of illustrations, in which batteries and electrodes figure without number; the articles of Dr. Mills and Dr. Byrne, however, contain cuts of another nature. The volume is well printed, and, no doubt, will command ready sale.

TUMORS INNOCENT AND MALIGNANT. Their Clinical Features and Appropriate Treatment. By J. BLAND SUTTON, F. R. C. S., Assistant Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, London. In one 8vo volume of 526 pages, with 250 engravings and nine full-page plates. Cloth, $4.50. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co., Publishers. 1894.

A new work on one of the most important pathological subjects, by one of the foremost pathologists and surgeons of London, must certainly attract considerable attention and be carefully perused by physicians generally. For many years the author has been collecting material and data for this work, and has made very interesting reading of an otherwise difficult and perplexing subject.

Virchow's classification is adopted with a few changes, notably the exclusion of the infective granulomata and the inclusion of the myomata, neuromata and angiomata under the histoid or connective tissue group. Sutton thus arranges tumors: (1) connective tissue tumors; (2) epithelial tumors; (3) dermoids; (4) cysts. Each group has several genera, each genus has one or more species, and of each species there may be one or more varieties. The connective tissue group is described at some length, notably the sarcomata, and each genus is described in the author's peerless style as to appearance, location, clinical features and treatment. Many rare and unusual cases and specimens, especially those preserved in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, are nicely illustrated.

Under the head of epithelial tumors are classed the papilomata, epitheliomata, adenomata and carcinomata--the latter only being regarded as cancers. Considerable attention is given the psammomata, occurring in the brain and spinal membranes, while the cholesteatomata are dismissed with the remark that it is urgently necessary to drop the name.

An interesting chapter follows the psammomata, on cutaneous horns, with illustrations of exceptional cases occurring in man and in the lower animals. These more properly come under the head of freaks. The carcinomata and adenomata are treated together, both constructed upon the type of secreting glandular tissue, but differing in the regularity of their structures. The various organs of the body prone to carcinomatous encroachment are discussed and treatment is advised. In the majority of cases the knife is recommended, and many statistical tables are presented giving the result of operative procedures.