ROCHESTER STERILIZING OUTFIT AN INSTRUMENT STERILIZER. A WATER STER- A DRESSING STERILIZER. sities in one apparatus. Additional Water Sterilizer if desired. All fitted to a neat, strong, heavily enameled stand, pipe or angle iron. both for infants and for adults. The work in hand is well worth perusal by the medical fraternity for this reason. DISEASES OF THE BREAST, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CANCER. By William L. Rodman, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Surgery in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia; Professor of Surgery in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania; Surgeon to the Medico-Chirurgical College Hospital, The Woman's College Hospital, The Philadelphia General Hospital, The Jewish Hospital, and to The Presbyterian Hospital; Fellow of the American Surgical Association; Member de la Societe Internationale de Chirurgie, etc. With 69 plates, of which 12 are printed in colors, and 42 other illustrations. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1012 Walnut Street. 1908. Price, $4.00 net. When we think of diseases of the breast, our thoughts turn instantly to cancer. And so it is in this work of Rodman's; while he gives a good description of the anatomy and physiology of the breasts, and deals at length with some inflammatory and benign tumors of the mammary glands, the book is mainly devoted to a consideration of the question of carcinoma mammæ, its pathology, diagnosis and treatment. There is a splendid description of the pathologic anatomy of cancer of the breast, both macroscopic and microscopic, well illustrated. There is a good text description of the various operations for the radical removal of cancer of the breast, with full illustrations of the same. The writer gives the fruits of his long experience in dealing with this condition, and lays stress upon the point which he had learned long ago from his great teacher, Samuel Gross, of Philadelphia, one of the pioneers in breast surgery. Gross emphasized the necessity of wide incisions in removing the breast, and this A New Commode Bed. An ingenious contrivance, devised by Mr. Heatley, of Edinburgh, for use in the hospital or sick room, has been patented and put on the market. It consists of a hospital bedstead, having an opening in the center about the position occupied by the pelvis. Underneath this opening is a carrier holding an enameled iron bed pan, which is lowered or raised into position by means of a lever. Raising the pan brings it through the opening in the bedstead into a corresponding space in the mattress, all draught being excluded by means of a metal plate, where the pan is brought into the exact SAL HEPATICA The original effervescing Saline Laxative and Uric Acid Solvent. A combination of the Tonic, Alterative and Laxative Salts similar to the celebrated Bitter Waters of Europe, fortified by addition of Lithia and Sodium Phosphate. It stimulates liver, tones intestinal glands, purifies alimentary tract, improves digestion, assimilation and metabolism. Especially valuable in theumatism, gout, bilious attacks, constipation. Most efficient in eliminating toxic products from intestinal tract or blood, and correcting vicious or impaired functions. Write for free samples. BRISTOL-MYERS CO. Brooklyn New York. Massage, as a method of treatment, is as old as surgery, and "its origin has been lost in the night of antiquity." No remedial agent dates from such a venerable past, no other has gained so much renown and found such widespread, useful application as massage. In ancient times the uncultured tribes of Africa and of the South Sea Islands, the Chinese and the Hindus used some form of it as the universal remedy in disease. "Cong-Fou of the Tao-Sse," a work written in Chinese about 1000 B. C., and translated into French, undertakes to explain the procedures of massage. The Romans made use of it in connection with their splendid and magnificent baths. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, called it anatripsis. Galen, whose authority in medicine was supreme in Europe for a thousand years, used it and gave minute directions for its application. Peter H. Ling (1776-1839) organized these manual movements into a system of procedures, and in 1813 established, at Stockholm, the Royal Central Institute, where for nearly a century past, physicians from all parts of the world have made pilgrimages to become conversant with these methods of physical therapy. In more modern times, and in our own country, S. Wier Mitchell, Graham, Taylor, and others, have applied these movements to theraeputics, and have been the means of the practice of massage passing largely from the hands of rough and ignorant empirics into those of educated physicians. By a careful application of its methods to diseased states, it has been raised to its proper dignity as a therapeutic measure, and placed alongside electro-therapy, photo-therapy, hydro-therapy and dietetics. Massage, as a scientific agency, possesses certain curative powers, and, when properly applied, definite physiological results may be expected. To obtain these results the treatment needs to be given by a physician well versed in the art, or given under his direction by a masseur thoroughly trained in the technic of massage, and acquainted both with the anatomical structure and physiological workings of the human body. Now the life of the body is contained in the blood; each living cell of the many billions composing the body selects from the blood stream the pabulum best suited to its growth and repair. This would necessitate the production of a quality of blood containing those elements best adapted to the varying needs of the individual cells. In the differentiation of the cells of the body we have resulting nails, hair, cartilage, nerve, bone and muscle, each demanding of the blood those elements best suited to its own particular needs. The essential element of inorganic life is the crystalline structure; the growth of such matter differs widely from that of organized life. The growth of a stone, for example, is by accretion; the process of gathering to itself matter of its kind, of adding to its volume, is from without. While the essence of organic life is the cell, the individual cell, with its protoplasm and limiting membrane, and its growth and repair are maintained by the process of intussusception; that is, from within. Each cell, bathed in its nutrient fluid, has ever at hand those elements, "the brick and the mortar," by which its structure is reared, kept in repairs, and reproduces its kind. This emphasizes the overpowering necessity of maintaining from the earliest moment of foetal life until dissolution of the body composite, a constant rhythmatic equalized circulation of the blood throughout all portions of the tissues and organs of which the body is composed. Action is the very condition of life, and habitual action of the muscular system. is nature's method of maintaining life by thus forcing along in their channels the lymph and the blood. Note (The ancients supposed the arteries to be filled with air—which was right to a certain extent-hence their names, which still cling to them.) Exercise, to be of material benefit, must be taken daily, not exercise of but 30 per cent of the muscles, as is obtained in walking, but exercise of all of the muscles, as is obtained in spading, hoeing and in digging. But conditions of modern life are such that the majority of mankind can not lead the life of a husbandman, so in our cities there is need of adapting some system of gymnastics that will bring into play unused muscles. However, through illness or lack of training, there are those who can not avail themselves of even this system; massage here finds a place in building up the forces of the body, so as to prepare one to take exercise, or it may serve as a substitute for exercise. In massage there is secured to the invalid the benefits of exercise without the usual expenditure of energy necessary to secure such benefits. In this way we conserve nerve force, a means of storing up energy in the nerve cell, for the patient, by conservation. Again, the brain and spinal nervous system draws its aliment from the muscles. The nutritive centers of the nerves are in the muscles. In other words, the nerves feed upon the muscle fibers. So, if the muscles are developed to proper proportions the nervous system will, more likely, be kept in normal tone. This is a recognized fact frequently made use of by the intelligent physician in the treatment of functional, and even organic diseases of the nervous system. Their patients are put through a series of active and passive movements. which develop muscle, and, secondarily, increase nerve force. Passive movements having the advantage in this class of cases, as in active movements, in order to derive these benefits, there is a certain amount of energy, both muscular and nervous, expended, while in massage movements this nerve and muscle energy is saved to the patient. Massage has proven to be a great aid in the treatment of valvular lesions and dilatation of the heart, and by massage we embrace those active, passive, assistive and resistive movements called "Swedish movements." Massage reflexly influences vaso-motor nerve centers, and the vasodilators, acting over considerable surface of the body, will tend to diminish total blood pressure, and for this reason, massage has been used with such great success in these cases; and also when the heart is undergoing a strain, as in pneumonia and typhoid fever. In these diseases the increased leucocytosis induced by massage is highly desirable. General massage causes a slight rise in blood pressure, quickly followed by a permanent fall of pressure, due to peripheral resistance being lessened through arteriole dilatation. Superficial massage causes a rise and deep kneading of the muscles causes a decided fall. Stewart says, that "in cases of cardiac dilatation the area of cardiac dullness diminishes perceptibly during each administration of massage; that the cardiac sounds, the rhythm and strength of the pulse correspondingly improve; that the patient usually experiences a sense of comfort, and feels the better for the treatment; that repeated applications of massage bring about a permanent diminution of the area of dullness, with improvement of pulse and the patient's sensations." There is an equalization of the circulation of the blood stream by which the capillary circulation is improved, and, congestion of internal organs removed, massage supplements the heart force by the dilating of these surface vessels, and thus lowers blood pressure, and diminishes the pulse rate, when excessive. Increased oxidization results through those chemical changes taking place in the tissues, by which food products are disintegrated and waste products oxidized. Through massage the blood is enabled to take up a greater amount of oxygen, by increasing the chemical changes taking place in the tissues. More heat is induced through both mechanical and chemical means, and often we have, through the increased nutrition, abolition of pain. Through manipulation of the tissues, reflexes are induced which, through the nerve centers in the brain and spinal cord, are transmitted to other structures, especially acting upon the glandular system, thus increasing both secretion and excretion. There is induced a greater flow of the digestive fluids, of bile, and of urine. |