MISCROSCOPY, BACTERIOLOGY AND HUMAN PARASITOLOGY. By P. E. Archinard, A. M., M. D., Bacteriologist, Louisiana State Board of Health and City Board of Health, New Orleans. New (Second) Edition, Thoroughly Revised. 12mo, 267 Pages, With 100 Engravings and 6 Plates. Cloth, $1.00, Net. The Medical Epitome Series. Lea & Febiger, Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1912. As a concise presentation of the essential points of Bacteriology and Microscopy this little work has won the favor of students and practitioners. In its new edition the scope has been broadened to include some of the protozoa, an improvement which should increase its usefulness to the practicing physician and to the advanced student. The features which gained for it the approbation of its readers have been continued in the present very thorough revision. PROGRESSIVE MEDICINE. Progressive Medicine for March, 1912, Consists of a Review of the Literature of the Past Year On the Surgery of the Head, Neck and Thorax by Charles Frazier; Infectious Diseases, Including Acute Rheumatism, Croupous Pneumonia and Influenza, by John Ruhrah; Disease of Children, by Floyd Crandall; Rhinology and Laryngology, by Dr. Braden Kyle, and Otology, by Arthur B. Duel. It would be impossible in this brief review to consider all of the valuable subjects that are considered in this number of Progressive Medicine and so mention will be made of only the more important. In the first chapter the articles on brain puncture, hydrocephalus, exophthalmic goitre, crevical lymphadenitis, persistent thymus and intratracheal insufflation are especially noteworthy. The second chapter opens with a review of the advances made in our knowledge of the infectious diseases. A review of an article by Hill, calling attention to the unnecessarily high death rate from diphtheria in the United States, is worth reading. He believes that the reason for this is that in districts apart from the large medical centers diphtheria is not recognized in a sufficiently large number of cases and that antitoxin is not used in sufficiently large doses or sufficiently often. One reason for this, as he says, is "the recent agitation concerning anaphalaxis; however, the danger of death from diphtheria is incomparably greater than the occasional death from serum disease and of the two evils we should certainly choose the lesser." The articles on hookworm disease and malaria are interesting and instructive, as are the articles on meningitis and poliomyelitis. Hecht's test for scarlet fever, pinching the skin of the chest and holding it under pressure for five to ten seconds, when small petechial hemorrhages will be found, is reviewed. Mention is made of an article by Bennecke, calling attention to this sign, which he says is a good negative test, but when positive one has to consider other acute infections in which the sign may be noted at times. Tuberculosis is reviewed at some length and the controversy as to whether the disease may be acquired from the milk of animals affected with the disease is considered; no absolute conclusion being reached as yet. The use of antiformin in the examination for the tubercle bacillus and the prognostic value of Arneth's method of blood counting in tuberculosis are among the interesting subjects taken up under this head. Purulent infections of the urinary tract in infants, gastric disorders in infants, infant food and feeding are among the more important subjects considered by Ruhrah under diseases of children. Vasomotor disturbances of the nose, purulent rhinitis ozena, nonsuppurative disease of the ethmoid sinus, the ocular symptoms of sinus disease and the relation between the tonsils and tuberculosis and other in fections are reviewed at some length in the section on diseases of the nose and throat. Otosclerosis, a review of the literature on diseases affecting the labyrinth, and a review of an article by Beck of Vienna on "The Organ of Hearing and Multiple Sclerosis" are the most important subjects considered under otology. Beck has long thought it probable that in this disease changes analgous to the changes found in the optic nerve also occurred in the auditory nerve. His paper is an extensive study of two cases, with the idea that in many cases this ear condition might aid in the early diagnosis of this condition. Frank M. Conlin (Omaha). DORLAND'S AMERICAN ILLUSTRATED MEDICAL DICTIONARY. A New and Complete Dictionary of Terms Used in Medicine, Surgery, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Chemistry, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Biology and Kindred Branches; with new and elaborate tables. Sixth revised Edition. Edited by W. A. Newman Dorland, M. D. Large octavo of 986 pages, with 323 illustrations, 119 in colors. Containing over 7,000 more terms than the previous edition. Philadelphia and London. W. B. Saunders Company, 1911. Flexible Leather, $4.50 net; thumb indexed, $5.00 net. W. B. Saunders Company have just issued a new (16th) edition of their Illustrated Catalogue which describes some forty new books and new editions published by them since the issuance of the former edition. The books listed in this catalogue cover every subject of interest to the medical man. The descriptions and illustrations are such as to enable the reader to select easily just the book he wishes on any branch. It is really an index to correct medical literature-an index by which the practitioner, the surgeon, and the specialist can acquaint himself with what is new in the literature of his subject. This edition also contains an illustration and description of Saunders' new building, now being erected on Washington Square, Philadelphia's new publishing center. Any physician wishing a copy of this handsome catalogue can obtain one free by addressing W. B. Saunders Company, 925 Walnut street, Philadelphia. SILLY QUESTIONS. While he was in Chicago recently Strickland W. Gillilan, author of Off Again, On Again, Gone Again-Finnegan, told a number of his best stories at a dinner. "Over at Leipsic, O., last winter," he said, "I sat at the same table with the man who had charge of the lecture course there. During the conversation I remarked that I would like to have a glass of water on the stage that night while I was talking. 66 "To drink?' he asked. "No, I make a high dive in the second act,' I replied."-Chicago Tribune. JOHN'S WHEREABOUTS. A San Francisco woman, whose husband had been dead some years, went to a medium, who produced to her satisfaction the spirit of her dead husband. "My dear John," said the widow to the spirit, "are you happy now?" "I am very happy," John replied. "Happier than you were on earth with me?" she asked. "Yes," was the answer. "I am far happier now than I was on earth with you." "Tell me, John, what is it like in Heaven?" "Heaven!" John replied, "I'm not in Heaven."-National Monthly. NOBODY LOVES A DOCTOR Nobody loves a doctor, Nobody cares for him, We hate his pills and curse his bills He's but a shameful fakir, A quack and fraud is he But when we're ill, in language shrill "Oh, doctor, doctor, doctor! Please come right over quick! I've a terrible pain in my throbbing brain And I fear I'm awful sick. Oh, doctor, doctor doctor! Hurry as fast as you can. Please hear my cry-I'm about to dieAnd I want a doctor-man." Nobody loves a doctor, He cures less than he kills, For one he saves, a thousand graves With poison'd stiffs he fills. He is a hardened sinner, A liar, knave and cheat, Some day he'll die and then he'll fry, But meanwhile, we repeat: "Oh, doctor, doctor, doctor! Pray hark to my distress, My baby's crying and maybe dying, Oh, doctor, doctor doctor! I've had an awful fright, But 'twas a pin that scratched its skin Nobody loves a doctor, The world would better be If all his clan, to the last man, He's but a vain pretender, An addle-pated drone, And yet some day we'll likely say "Oh, doctor, doctor, doctor! Please, doctor, I need you, The stork is near-it's almost here- Oh, doctor, doctor doctor! If you'll but hurry, I won't worry, -Glenn Robert Guernsey. |