Graduate School of Medicine, etc. Octavo, 555 pages, with 42 illustrations and 21 plates. Cloth, $4.75, net. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York, 1911.

This book serves the purpose of a practical tretise, it deals only superficially with etiology and pathology but covers at length the various forms of treatment. Special attention is given the use of antilytic serum and bacterial vaccines.

A chapter is denoted to the subject of analysis of the stomach contents and contains the tests best suited to diagnosis and treatment. The lack of an exhaustive amount of surgical technique is to be commended.

The neurologic element is given ample consideration and is dealt with in a very fitting manner. The book is concise and to the point and we believe well fitted for the use of the general practitioner.-E. G. Barnhardt, Omaha.

THE TREATMENT OF FRACTURES.

With Notes Upon a Few Common Dislocations. By Chas. L. Scudder, M. D., Surgeon to the Massachusetts General Hospital. Seventh Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Octavo Volume of 708 Pages, with 990 Original Illustrations. Philadelphia and London; W. B. Saunders Company, 1911. Polished Buckram, $6.00 net; Half Morrocco, $7.50 net. One of the most comprehensive books it has ever been our pleasure to read.

The X-Ray photographs and their explanations are of great value to the average man in studying the Roentgenographs of his cases. Points of exceptional interest are: fractures of the skull, nasal bones and spine, damage of the musculospiral nerve, etc.

The book is one that no one dealing with injuries should be without. -E. G. Barnhardt, Omaha, Neb.

COLLECTED PAPERS.

Collected Papers by the Staff of St. Mary's Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, 1911. W. B. Saunders Company, Publishers, Philadelphia. Price, $5.50.

A review of this book falls very far short of usefulness by simply stating that it consists of a collection of fifty-five papers, by various authors, and on various subjects. Papers which have already appeared in the Medical Press, they nevertheless gain an additional and surpassing value in this book, because they testify, as nothing else could, to the successful work of this institution.

Emphasis upon the labors of the distinguished Chiefs of this Clinic is superfluous. A superficial perusal of the essays of their learned colaborators readily convinces one of their earnestness and thoroughness. But the key note of their usefulness is sounded by one of the writers himself, Charles H. Mayo, who in his own contribution: Diagnosis of Hyper-Thyroidism or Exophthalmic Goiter, says:

"The responsibility of the operator being great, the diagnosis of the condition, the accurate estimate of the stages of the disease, and the approximate condition of the gland and essential organs, must now be weighed with much more care than when the condition was considered purely medical and a death from it the "will of God."

Fourteen of the papers deal with diagnostic points, covering nature of the diseases as well as prognosis, as to gravity and results. This book, then, at once assumes the dignity of a textbook, in the limits of its contents. For the accomplished surgeon it becomes a measure of his own capacities and practices, but for him, who is just entering the ranks of the specialists in surgery, it becomes a standard for his abilities, let him read this book and then let him seriously inquire whether he has attained sufficient erudition to do the work before an operation, the operation itself and its post operative treatment, anywhere within the possibilities of

one man's capacity. The requirements are very great; if he doubts his ability to do fairly, what is done at the Mayo Clinic with such excellence by the many, then let him beware, else he profane the Deity and ascribe his many failures to the "Will of God."

The typography, the paper, the binding and especially the excellency of the many illustrations are typical of the pains taking labors of the publishers. The engravings of histological objects particularly, usually so very difficult of execution, are well done-and many of them are bits of art. -A. S. von Mansfelde, Ashland, Neb.

GREEN'S PATHOLOGY AND MORBID ANATOMY.

A Manual of Pathology and Morbid Anatomy. By T. Henry Green, M. D., F. R. C. P., Consulting Physician to the Charing-Cross Hospital, etc., London. Revised and enlarged by W. Cecil Bosanquet, M. A., M. D., F. R. C. P., Assistant Physician to the Charing-Cross Hospital, etc., London. Large 12mo, 642 pages, with 250 illustrations. Cloth, $4.50, net. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1911. Green's Pathology is one of the perennial and rarely successful books. Just forty years have elapsed since its appearance in a thin volume, sufficient to present its subject at that period. Its singularly clear and attractive style, and the ability shown in reflecting the really essential knowledge, made it at once a favorite text-book, and eleven editions in Great Britain and twelve in America have been necessary to supply the demand. Thus at frequent intervals the opportunity recurred to effect revisions representing the

revolutionary developments in this great field. This is true of the new edition, a goodly volume of 650 pages, and American students are again supplied with an admirable and compact text-book possessing all the characteristics that have made it famous. It is admirably illustrated.

A MANUAL OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS

By Means of Laboratory Methods. For Students, Hospitals Physicians and Practitioners. By Charles E. Simon, M. D., Professor of Clinical Pathology and Experimental Medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore. Seventh edition, enlarged and thoroughly revised. Octavo, 780 pages, with 168 engravings and 25 plates. Cloth, $5.00 net. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia and New York, 1911.

The new edition of this standard work contains a strickingly original feature which will distinguish it from the host of books that have followed since it began almost as a pioneer. Hitherto the plan of all works in this field has been confined to the exposition of laboratory methods of diagnosis, the applications following incidentally and without systematic grouping. The development of exact methods has now reached a point justifying a new departure, which has long been in the author's mind, but which hitherto seemed to offer insuperable difficulties in exposition. He has found a solution of this problem, and now presents, in a wholly new section occupying nearly half of the work, the laboratory diagnosis of each disease, arranged under its name in alphabetical order, so that the reader desiring to compare a case with the diagnostic picture of a disease can at once find it given systematically and connectedly, instead of having to piece it out from scattered sections as heretofore. The ease of thus utilizing precise methods is obvious. The previous edition, consisting entirely of methods, has been thoroughly revised and condensed into the first section of this new edition, so that the physician and student now have at command in a single volume the whole subject ideally completed. The two parts are cross-indexed, so that the reader can use the book in either direction, whether he desires to proceed from methods to their application, or from the diagnostic pictures to the methods of making the various tests. This new edition therefore bridges for the student the hiatus between the laboratory and the bedside, and it serves the physician equally well in stepping in the opposite direction, from his actual cases to the methods of accurate diagnosis.

WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW

Published Monthly by WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW COMPANY, Omaha, Nebr. Per Annum, $2.00 The WESTERN MEDICAL REVIEW is the Journal of the Wyoming State Medical Society and is sent by order of the Society to each of its members.

OFFICERS:

Dr. A. G. HAMILTON, Thermopolis, President

DR. W. H. ROBERTS, Cheyenne, Secretary

DR, NEIL DAVID NELSON, Shoshoni, Treasurer

All matter for publication in this section should be sent to

FRED W. PHIFER, M. D., Editor, Wheatland, Wyo.

COLLABORATORS—SUBJECT TO REVISION.
WYOMING SECTION.

Pestal, Joseph. Douglas; Keith, M. C.; Casper; Marshall, T. E., Sheridan; Nelson, N. D.; Shoshoni; Wicks, J. L., Evanston; Wiseman, Letitia, Cheyenne; Young, J. H., Rock Springs.

Vol. XVII.

CHEYENNE, WYO., MARCH, 1912.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

President's Address.

*By N. D. NELSON, M. D., Shoshoni, Wyo.

No. 3

Were it not for the motive of duty and gratitude which I owe to this society, I would be tempted, like the school boy, to play truant to save myself the responsibility of delivering the annual address which custom has established as a duty on the president of a state medical society. I can modestly voice the sentiment of Antony in Julius Caesar: "I have neither wit nor words nor worth, action nor utterance, nor the power of speech to stir men's blood, I only speak right on."

Being one of the younger members of the medical profession in the state; having acquired my collegiate education at the Wyoming State University; having been reared and developed into manhood in this our commonwealth of Wyoming I, perhaps, can feel more deeply than any of my worthy predecessors, and appreciate more keenly the high honor of being elected president of the Wyoming State Medical society.

I came to Wyoming in my early teens and have grown up with the country; have been a student, teacher, and a physician in this state; hence I feel that I belong to Wyoming.

By being elected to the highest office in our society you

Delivered before the Wyoming State Medical Society, at Casper. September 28, 1911.

have not only conferred a favor on me personally, but you have displayed a patriotism and loyalty to this state, and particularly to my first Alma Mater, the University of Wyoming, faithful mother, to whom every alumnus looks back with love and gratitude in his heart for that kindly care as he journeyed from youth to manhood.

The theme of the president's address for this occasion should be of such a nature as to open a field of thought accompanied with suggestions or recommendations that might prove of some value to the individual physician as well as to the society.

The road a physician has to travel during his active professional career is far from being well paved, without obstacles, or strewn with roses. As a matter of fact it is often rough and uneven. His mind and body are frequently taxed to the utmost. Worn and weary from administering to the relief of his patients, often being the subject of keen tension for hours, yes, for days and nights while in constant attendance on a patient or patients who are hovering between life and death, exercising all his resources mental and physical to save his patient; and perhaps in the midst of it all having to contend with the gratuitous advice, unjust criticism, and discourtesy of a knowing clientele, and sometimes disregard for Medical Ethics by a fellow practitioner, his body and soul long for solace and

repose.

It shall be my endeavor in this address to point out briefly a few rules in ethics which, to my mind, would make the professional as well as the social life of the physician brighter, better, and consequently happier.

To the well established city physician who enjoys a practice in a field where the machinery of medical organization has been properly adjusted and thoroughly tested, the subject of medical ethics may seem of minor importance; but to physicians in frontier towns where the younger men go to make their start it means a great deal.

We not infrequently have to contend with discourtesy among physicians; some who have very little regard for modesty, honor, and truth, and who would not hesitate to deviate from the straight path of medical ethics or stoop to underhanded means in reaching their goal. But unethical physicians often survive, prosper, reach a prominent position in their communities at the expense of their conscientious, modest, and ethical colleagues. The doctrine of the "Survival of the Fittest" does not always hold true in the medical profession, for

it is often the quack, the unethical and the dishonest man who prospers. In fact more frequently do we find that such a one meets with success, accumulates wealth far more easily, and in the opinion of the laity is regarded as the best physician in the land.

If the "Golden Rule"-"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you," was practiced by the laity in their relations with the physician, or by the physicians in their regard for each other, the physician's life would certainly be more pleasant than it is.

It is true that many a physician is too prone to worry over the discourteous conduct of the laity in their disregard for the profession, by their ingratitude, misrepresentation and calumny; yet, when he has given time and his skill, has put himself to the expense of drugs, surgical dressings, livery hire, etc.; has sacrificed his needed rest and has accomplished good results, for compensation he receives nothing but ungratefulness. This experience is almost enough to make one curse himself for choosing the practice of medicine as his vocation, for the physician's bill is the last one to be paid and the hardest to collect.

This unpleasant experience of the physician with the laity can, however, be easily borne if medical ethics between physicians themselves is observed.

The motives which prompt a physician to violate the established rules of ethics are varied. He may perhaps have a hard struggle for existence, be financially embarrassed, and in order to better his condition may resort to stealing his colleagues' patients from him by making detrimental remarks (direct or indirect) which tend to detract from his colleagues' trustworthiness; advertising his treatment and going out of his way to be particularly agreeable to patients or families who employ some other physicians; and he may persistently continue to do so until he has secured their patronage. He will take special pains to make himself conspicuous on the streets or in public gatherings, put on airs, and completely ignore modesty.

We might sympathize to a certain degree with the physician who resorts to these means while he is getting out of this strenuous struggle a mere livelihood, but there is another method far more dishonorable than those mentioned, and that is the desire for empty social honor and prominence. A person so inclined will make a grand outward display, make believe that he has an enormous practice, boast of his wonderful cures, while if the truth were known he is but of ordinary