The curiosity of the American people as to the amount in fees made by Dr. Adolf Lorenz, during his recent visit to America, has at last been satisfied by a statement from the great orthopedic surgeon to the effect that the amount paid by Mr. Armour was $30,000, and that other fees for private cases just about met his personal expenses. The doctor further adds that this is only equal to his losses from his own practice at home.

"Dr. Lorenz thinks Chicago is provincial-he can't forget that license," says The Record-Herald (Chicago). According to this reasoning Dr. Webster is a rube and Dr. Egan a hay seed.

Dr. Fenton B. Turck has raised a wail in a local newspaper against the corset and the prevailing fashions in women's clothing. What's the use, doctor? The bachelor, raised sisterless and whose mother had died in his infancy might see some use in this lament but we of a hundred mothers, aunts, nieces, wives, daughters, mothers-inlaw and other kinswomen more distantly connected but yet kin (for we have originated in Kentucky) have long ago had the fact forced upon us that if these ladies choose to bisect their livers, squash their stomachs and do other things essentially practical but unnice, they will do them to their hearts' content—or their livers' discontentand we are helpless. We may smoke our cigars and sip our highballs in silent protest; but women will not do what is not best for them.

It is now stated that much of the ice cream offered for sale is loaded with streptococci lanceolatus-which is quite immaterial at the present stage of temperature; but which will be quite lamentable if remembered until next summer. A gentleman from Michigan has discovered six new poisons and this young "lady from Maryland” has announced new dangers in ice cream, some of the learned gentry have advised us of the danger of kissing, others have told of breaking ribs in a too ardent embrace. Are these people public benefactors or just pesky meddlers who want to take all the joy out of life?

Henry Phipps, of New York, has given $300,000.00 to found a hospital for the study and treatment of tuberculosis at Philadelphia.

To the Editor:

The Editor's Mail Bag.

CHICAGO, January 10, 1903.

By someone's oversight, the following description of the curette was omitted from my article on Abortion in the December number of THE CLINIC. As the matter was important, will you kindly insert the following:

SHARP & SMITH. CHICAGO.

SHARP & SMITH CHICAGO.

This instrument is much longer than the ordinary curettes, being from 12 to 14 inches in length, very strong and will not bend under greatest pressure. The canal through the instrument is about 3 inch in diameter so giving a large flow for douching while curetting. The spoon of the curette is gradually curved upward, is broad and when in use always presents a broad, flat surface to the uterus, making it impossible to perforate the uterine wall. The cutting edge is 12 to 8 of an inch broad, and dull and will only remove foreign bodies from the uterine wall. I have used this in 744 cases of all kinds of uterine conditions, including septic hydadiform mole, post partum hemorrhage, abortion, etc., and have never perforated a uterus.

Several gentlemen have sent me equally good reports, and so making a total of several thousand cases with happy results. This curette in treating abortions is far superior to the finger for cleaning out the uterus, more aseptic, can be used in a smaller diameter of the os than the finger and can, in the majority of cases, be used without an anesthetic. It is very valuable in curetting for bits of retained placenta after full time pregnancy and when used will stop almost every case of post partum hemorrhage.

100 State Street.

MARK T. GOLDSTINE,

With the January number of 1903 The Archives of Pediatrics enters its twentieth year and E. B. Treat & Company, of New York, the publishers, announce that with the twentieth year great advances will be made which will maintain the high standard of this excellent journal and extend its sphere of usefulness.

LABORATORY EXERCISES IN BACTERIOLOGY. An Outline of Technical Methods Introductory to the Systematic Study and Identification of Bacteria. By ALLEN J. SMITH, M. D., Professor of Pathology in the University of Texas, Philadelphia, 1902. P. Blakiston's Son & Company.

"Unending and unvarying commendation in the criticism of books," says Opie Reade, "Becomes intensely monotonous," and yet the unwarranted condemnation of a work is to be deplored. There are those who believe that it is the duty of the book reviewer to spill as much bile as possible in a book review and who regard their duty that of detecting flaws, literary, logical, typographical, artistic or in binding.

In this day it is true that the average book which meets with the commendation of the well trained readers of the large publishing house, is well worth reading, while the typography and book making. can be relied upon to be all that is necessary.

The Blakiston's have not fallen below their standard in presenting this practical work of Smith's. It is a volume which will commend itself not alone to the medical student but to the medical practitioner who would cultivate himself along the lines of bacteriologic lore-a subject upon which there is none too much knowledge in the profession: as a whole.

This work, which is interleaved for the taking of notes, is a

comprehensive manual with which any intelligent student or physician may properly equip and conduct a bacteriologic laboratory.

In illustrations it is so complete, in detail it is so exact and in precept it is so sound that it would seem almost indispensable to him who would have a laboratory of his own without having had the benefits of good college instruction in technique. G. T. P.

BOOKS RECEIVED FOR LATER REVIEW.

REGIONAL MINOR SURGERY. By GEORGE GRAY VAN SCHAICK, M. D., New York, 1902. The International Journal of Surgery Co. Pp. 226. Illustrated. Price $1.50.

THE PRACTICAL MEDICINE SERIES OF YEAR BOOKS. Edited by DR. G. P. HEAD, Volume II, 1902. GENERAL SURGERY, by DR. JOHN B. MURPHY November, 1902, Chicago. The Year Book Publishers.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE, by JOSEPH MCDOWELL MATHEWS, M. D., LL. D., Late President of the American Medical Association. Louisville, 1902, John P. Morton & Company.

Dr. Mathews, who has for a quarter of a century been connected with the medical schools of Louisville, who, in his busy life has always had time to spare for the counsel of younger men in the profession, who has offered the fruits of his experience in the business side of his professional life to his students so frequently both in lecture and in private conference, has yielded to the solicitation of his many former students and devoted admirers and has written this charming and practical book

It is, in a way, largely retrospective; the book of a man who has successfully lived his life and who now pauses in a comfortable spot well up toward the pinnacle of success to write for these younger men, warning against the pitfalls into which the doctor may stray and pointing out the practical lines of betterment which lead to success.

It is the doctor as a man in the consideration of whom Dr. Mathews has made this book most valuable; for the doctor, as Dr. Mathews would have him, is the personification of all that is clean and honorable and square. In character he must be honest, even to the extent of confessing lack of knowledge to the patient, even though the patient be lost thereby; must be just "even to your fellow practitioner though he happen to be your rival;" must be generous, realiz

THE EDITOR'S BOOKSHELF.

25

ing that "a "thank you' often means more-much more than monetary reward;" must be humble in his attainments, "whatever may be your position, however mighty, be humble, seeking no place above your fellows;" must have decision, "for there is no trait in a man's character that goes further to insure success in any undertaking than decision of purpose." Added to these, he urges, that the doctor who would succeed must have perseverence, good habit, ambition, cheerfulness, courage, patience, winning manner and one inspiring confidence and diplomacy.

This book about the doctor himself and his means of success is not a book written for the sake of supplying the printer with work to do it is one of the few works written because the writer has a message to give to his fellow men; a work which will be read on account of its intrinsic value to him who needs its inspiring counsel and sound advice. G. T. P.

THE ISLE OF CONTENT AND OTHER WAIFS OF THOUGHT. By DR. GEORGE F. BUTLER, 1902.

From the artistic front cover to the back, over each page of the excellent hand-laid deckel-edge paper, the reader is carried by genuine interest through these very artistic essays and poems of this wellknown author-physician.

The essays are for the most part short-mere pastels in delightful coloring of word and thought-dainty and artistic wanderings in literary channels by one who is a master of expression and an artist in the construction of word pictures.

Those who have known Dr. Butler's writings in The Medical Standard, of which he was once editor, or in The Doctor's Magazine which he now edits, have enjoyed the delightful productions of his keen imagination, and will find in this book the best of his essays and verses at any rate, the best in the opinion of the doctor's daughter, to whom the volume is dedicated.

The verses inspired by Denslow's weird drawing, "What's the Use ?" is particularly clever and will hold a place in the list of verses written by the busy physician.

If there is any criticism of these delightful essays, it is of the rather extravagant use of superlatives, a prodigal extravagance of words: but these essays are poems and to my own mind are gems of thought and fancy.

If the average medical man, in the midst of his rugged life of hard work, could be carried away into the enchanting realms of