BOOK NOTICES.

IV. Bericht über die neueren Leistungen in der Ohrenheilkunde. Von Dr. Louis BLAU, Specialist for Diseases of the Ear in Berlin. Leipzig, Verlag von Hirzel, 1902.

This is the fifth series of general reviews on the progress of otology, by Dr. L. Blau, comprising the literature of the years 18971900 in systematic arrangement. They have acquired the reputation of being the very best of their kind, a judgment heartily endorsed by the reviewer. The present report is a neatly printed volume of 330 pages, containing the following parts:

I.—Anatomy and Physiology, pp. 2-36, treating chiefly of the inner ear, criticising Helmholtz's theory of sound perception (Beckmann and Zimmermann). The function of the tensor tympani muscle is considered by HAMMERSCHLAG, in agreement with Hensen, Bockendahl, and Pollack, to be a reflex action, a convulsive motion from sound excitation. Opposing this view, OSTMANN considers the tensor tympani as a protective apparatus of the ear, like the sphincter of the pupil.

The stapedius muscle, according to Ostmann, is the true apparatus of accommodation of the ear.

CYON pretends that the semicircular canals are the organ of equilibrium only in so far as they enable animals to orient themselves in space: man and other animals with three pairs of semicircular canals have a conception of a three-dimensional space; animals with two pairs of semicircular canals, for instance the river-lamprey, lamper-eel (Petromyzon fluviatilis), have sensations of two dimensions only-up and down, or forward and backward; whereas animals with only one pair of semicircular canals, as the Japanese dancing-mouse, orient themselves only in one direction right and left. Helmholtz's theory of tone sensations has been modified by Ebbinghaus in so far as the single fibres of the basilar membrane do not vibrate only as a whole but also

by the formation of nodes, causing an excitation of the fundamental tone and its harmonics, which may be taken up by the manifold splittings of the ends of the acoustic nerves and carried to one cell in the spiral ganglion, according to the anatomical investigations of Held.

Other theories of sound perception are detailed: Gray's, Rutherford's (the telephone theory), Ewald's, Dennert's who proved that tone and noise were not fundamentally different sensations (Arch. f. Ohr., xlv., p. 27, 1898).

II.-Pathology and Therapeutics.

A. General Hearing Tests, pp. 37-106.-Statistics and etiology of ear diseases.

Ear affections in scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, influenza, mumps, tuberculosis, epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis, brain tumors, diabetes, endocarditis, rachitis, leukæmia, pernicious and simple anæmia, purpura, nephritis, tabes dorsalis (changes in the peripheric unravelling of the primary neurons of the cochlear nerve). Another category of auditory affections in tabes is the apoplectic deafness (Ménière's disease), referred to a disease in the nuclei of the acoustic in the medulla oblongata. Further, there are detailed the ear diseases in hysteria (including traumatic neuroses) and syphilis. Then follow a general symptomatology and therapeutics of ear disease.

B. The External Ear is treated in the same way, reviewing carefully the publications during the period of three years.

C. The Middle Ear, with its connections and the complications of its diseases, their diagnosis and treatment, occupies the greatest and most elaborate part of these detailed reports of actual cases and observations, with the author's views on many differences of opinion presented in sufficient detail and with unbiassed judgment.

D. The Inner Ear, pp. 305-330.-After some general remarks, the author describes the injuries of the inner ear, Ménière's symptom-complexus, labyrinth-necrosis, disease of the auditory nerves, and deafmutism.

Any aurist if possessing only a reading acquaintance with the German language, will be delighted with the thorough, scientific and practical digest of the newest works on otology.

HERMAN KNAPP.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

Announcement of the Seventh International Otological Congress.-The French Committee charged with the organization of the Seventh International Otological Congress has determined that the meeting shall be held at Bordeaux, France, from the 1st-4th August, 1904. At the head of the bulletin the following questions has been selected for general discussion:

1. Choice of a simple and practical Acoumetric formulæ.

2. Diagnosis and Treatment of the Suppurations in the Labyrinth. 3. Technique of the Opening of Otogenous Brain-Abscesses and their After-Treatment. The latter will be introduced by Mr. MACEWEN, of Glasgow, Mr. SCHMIEGELOW, of Copenhagen, and others.

President, Dr. E. J. MOURE, Bordeaux; General Secretary, Dr. LERMOYEZ, 20 bis, rue de la Boëtie, Paris (8); Treasurer, Dr. LANNOIS, 14 Rue Emile-Zola, Lyon.

ERRATUM.

Dr. WENDELL C. PHILLIPS desires to state that among the microorganisms to be known as producers of suppuration in the middle ear, the smegma bacillus described by him at the end of page 3 in the February number, 1903, of these ARCHIVES, was mentioned before him by CIMA as observed in the otitis media of little children, and published in the Arch. ital. di otol., ix., 1, p. 72, 1899.