The Editor's Bookshelf.

THE BOY; HOW TO HELP HIM SUCCEED. A Symposium of Successful Experiences, by NATHANIEL C. FLOWER, JR., Boston, 1902, Oakwood Publishing Company.

This is an exceedingly interesting work, not only on account of the clear and forceful style of the writer, but on account of the personal experiences of three hundred and nineteen American citizens of more than average accomplishments who have given their advice and opinions as to how to succeed.

To the doctor, it is interesting to note that a number of very eminent physicians have contributed their views and from these it may be well to quote, that the reader may gain some idea of the character of the advice offered by these many prominent men in all lines of business and professions.

Dr. John B. Murphy maintains that he attributes his success in life to integrity of purpose, persistence in action, indefatigable labor, devoting attention to live and active topics and prompt action. He advises the boy to enter the business toward which he has a natural leaning, that the boy be not forced into any calling, he advises the country boy to come to the city if he is a boy of strong character, if weak, not. He believes that ability is far more potent than experience, and holds that ability will ride over experience and teach the fallacy of traditions.

Dr. George W. Gay, of Boston, believes that his success is due to hard work, that ability is far more important than experience, that the boy with little ambition should seek a trade rather than a profession and he says that his message to boys would be, "Be honest and truthful, work hard and stick at it. Be a gentleman. Keep good company. Spend less than you earn."

From the eminent divine to the successful cow-boy, in every class of men, we find this little book containing the messages of advice. from those who have done things to those who are to do things. The book is not so much for boys as devoted to the training of boys.

One of the interesting illustrations of the weakness of human nature to be found in the work is the willingness to advise on those things of which the advisors know nothing. Gates, the steel magnate, glibly advises what sort of boys to pick out as good material for the professions (and the choice is not very flattering to the professions) while learned scholars and bookish folks tell what boys will be wonders in the commercial world.

On the whole, the book is interesting and unusual.

G. T. P.

INTERNATIONAL CLINICS.

A Quarterly of Illustrated Clinical Lectures, and specially prepared Articles on Medicine, Neurology, Surgery, Therapeutics, Obstetrics, Pædiatrics, Pathology, Dermatology, Diseases of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, and other Topics of Interest to Students and Practitioners by leading Members of the Medical Profession throughout the World. Edited by Henry W. Cattell, A. M., M. D., Philadelphia, U. S. A., with the Collaboration of John B. Murphy, M. D., Chicago; Alexander D. Blackader, M. D., Montreal; H. C. Wood, M. D., Philadelphia; T. M. Rotch, M. D., Boston; E. Landolt, M. D., Paris; Thomas G. Morton, M. D., Philadelphia; James J. Walsh, M. D., New York; J. W. Ballantyne, M. D., Edinburgh, and John Harold, M. D., London with Regular Correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Leipsic and Vienna. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London. Cloth, $2.00; Volume 4; Series 12th.

The chief feature of this volume of the International Clinics is the monograph on "The Blood in Health and Diseases," by Thomas R. Brown, M. D., of John Hopkins. This article consists of ninety-five pages, and contains practically all that is recent in literature on the very important subject under discussion.

Health Resorts of the United States.

CITRONELLE, ALABAMA.

A century and a quarter ago (1777), William Bartram, a botanist, took a canoe trip of thirty miles up the river from Mobile

to find a plant which his Indian allies assured him would cure him of malaria. He found the plant and named it "Citronella" and to this day it is still a favorite domestic remedy in Alabama households. Perhaps it was still more popular some fifty years ago, and

at any rate citron

ella then grew in profusion on a plateau thirty miles from Mobile, through which the Mobile and Ohio Railway passed and where they appropriately named a station Citronelle. All this we learned after we had gotten there, for somehow we had gotten it in mind that "Citronelle" was a diminutive of Mignon's "citron land"; but one glance would convince one that there are no orange trees there. It is the land of the pine and the live oak and to Northern eyes it looks, in the dusk of your first arrival, somewhat barren and unpromising.

Except in the way of hotels the town does not seem to have made startling progress during the fifty years of its placid existence. There is one long wide street, after the fashion of Southern towns, on either side of which are ranged the stores, churches, residences and hotels, two of which, the Hotel Citronelle and the Hygeia, we can speak of with pleasant memories, not the least of which was the surprise which greeted our eyes on waking the next morning. Instead of the conventional railroad and one long street of the previous night, we found ourselves looking from our chamber down into a gigantic bowl on whose eastern rim is perched Citron

elle. As far as the eye could reach the horizon bounds the upper margin of this Titan's chalice, filled to its uttermost rim with piney woods, live oaks and red earth, and redder earth we have never

seen.

You cannot find the luxury of the Waldorf-Astoria or the social gaieties of Naragansett Pier at Citronelle, and if you look for these we advise you not to seek for them in the piney woods of Alabama, but if you want rest, the breath of spring with ozone in the air

with such creature comforts as are necessary for peace of body as well as of soul, all these may be found in Citronelle, together with spring water, the like of which, probably, cannot be duplicated in America.

There are several chalybeate and other mineral springs near Citronelle, one of which, Dr. Duffield informs us, is of great diuretic value, but the water which chiefly induced the representative of THE CHICAGO CLINIC AND PURE WATER JOURNAL to take a journey of nearly a thousand miles, is the one supplying the Hotel Citronelle. The American water which most closely approaches the

CITRONELLE, ALABAMA.

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Citronelle water is that of the Poland Springs of Maine, which owes its deserved reputation to its comparative freedom from mineral salts.

Were these springs situated in Germany or in some of the European countries they would be exploited by their paternal government which would proceed at once to erect spring houses and provide proper attendants and medical men to supervise the use of the waters. The picturespue glen, in which the springs arise would be taken in hand by a government landscape gardener and made a "thing of beauty and a joy forever." Near by you would find a casino, bath houses, a band stand, a lake and kunanetalten, all under government subsidies and to its subsequent profit.

For more than fifty years the value of these springs and the salubrity of the Citronelle climate have been known to the American people. To-day there is the one long street and about five hundred inhabitants and Alabama-"Here We Rest"-perpetual Alabama in Citronelle until its Citizens' Association becomes thoroughly interested in the value of the waters, its climate and the beauty of its location where tired women and weary men learn again that life is, after all, worth living.

M. P. H.

CITRONELLE, ALABAMA, is on the main line of the Mobile and Ohio Railway, about thirty miles from Mobile. From Chicago and the North, East and West close connections may be made at St. Louis by taking the Wabash Railway.

The situation is one on a high elevation, reputed the highest point at similar distance from the gulf of Mexico, overlooking the the great basin of the gulf. The country is covered with pine, the air is salubrious, the climate good at all times of the year and well suited to disorders of the respiratory tract, even incipient phthisis yielding in many instances.

The mineral springs are many and interesting, ferruginous and remarkably lightly mineralized waters being found. The Citronelle Hotel spring has a most liberal flow and shows the following analysis, according to Professor Arthur W. Palmer, of the University of Illinois: