The work forms the third of the series of Wood's Library for 1881, and needs no commendation of ours to gain a most cordial reception.

A MANUAL OF THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. Designed for the use of Students and the General Practitioner. By HENRY C. MOIR, M. D. New York: Steam Press of the Industrial School, H. O. A. 187 and 189 East Seventy-sixth street. 1881. Price, $2.50.

We have had occasion many times to express our disapproval of "vade mecums " and "pocket editions" designed to help students throug examinations. The tendency of such works is to foster a spirit of superficiality and laziness which is everywhere to be condemned, but more especially in medicine. At first sight, we were about to class this little manual of 450 pages with the books above referred to, but a more careful examination convinced us of the injustice of such a verdict. By the use of strong, thin paper, and an admirable classification, the author has given us a good work on practice in a very small compass. Since the appearance of "Hartshorne's Essentials," no little work has impressed us so favorably. We have read most of it with great interest, and it promises to be a most useful book of reference. The author makes no pretense to originality, but calls his work a "resume" of such standard works as Niemeyer, Roberts, Loomis, Da Costa, Bristowe, Hartshorne and others. The compilation has been well done, the important points being clearly brought out. In a work of such brevity, there must necessarily be more or less of incompleteness, but, in the space allotted, the wonder is that so much appears.

In the last pages of the work there are about four hundred prescriptions therapeutically arranged. The work will be a valuable addition to any medical library, even though it should already contain the more important larger works on practice.

EATING TO LIVE: THE DIET CURE. The Relations of Food and Drink to Health, Disease and Cure. By T. L. NICHOLS, M. D., editor of the London Herald of Health.

The titles of the twenty four chapters of "The Diet Cure" Health-Food-Water-Blood-The Natural Food of

are:

ཎ

tity-The Question of Quality Principles of the Diet Cure-Medical Opinions on the Diet Cure Of Diet in Acute, Scrofulous and Nervous Diseases-The Diet Cure in Obesity-Vis Medicatrix Naturæ-The Diet Cure in Various Diseases-The Water Cure-Waste of Life -The Life of the Race-The Population Question-Some Practical Illustrations-Air and Exercise Of Psychic Force -National Health and Wealth-Personal Advice.

There have been, from Hippocrates to Dr. Gull, many sensible physicians, and some of the best of them are quoted in "The Diet Cure," which teaches that pure food makes pure blood, and pure blood builds up a healthy body.

This book is handsomely printed, bound in cloth, and will be sent by mail for 50 cents. M. L. Holbrook, publisher, 13

and 15 Laight street,, New York.

WHAT EVERY MOTHER OUGHT TO KNOW. By EDWARD ELLIS, M. D. Philadelphia: Presley Blackston. 1881. Chicago: W. T. Keener, 96 Washington street. Price, 75 cents.

There has been no lack of works of the above order, and we have wasted time in reading some which were worse than useless. From Dr. Ellis we naturally expected better things, and we have not been disappointed. This little work is the best of its kind, and should be in every household. It does not usurp the province of the physician, but, on the contrary, tells the mother when she ought to send for the doctor. The rules laid down in regard to seeking medical advice will meet with universal approbation. Diet, hygiene, accidents, are topics well discussed in plain and comprehensive language.

The following pamphlets have been received, and can be obtained in most instances by inclosing a stamp to the author: GANGLIASTHENIA. By E. HALSEY WOOD, A. M., M. D., Hersey, Mich. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PERINEUM DURING LABOR, AND THE IMMEDIATE TREATMENT OF LACERATIONS, AND THE OBSTETRICS AND GYNÆCOLOGY OF WILLIAM HARVEY. By FRANCIS H. STUART, A. M.,.M. D. Brooklyn, N. Y.

EIGHTH BIENNIAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES, SUPERINTENDENT AND TREASURER OF THE ILLINOIS ASYLUM FOR FEEBLEMINDED CHILDREN, at Lincoln, Ill.

EXCISION OF THE RECTUM FOR MALIGNANT DISEASE. By N. SENN, M. D., of Milwaukee. Reprinted from the International Journal

THE

Chicago Medical Times.

WILSON H. DAVIS, M. D.,

THE SYMPTOMS AS EXPERIENCED BY ONE WHO HAS SUFFERED FOR FIFTEEN

YEARS.

BY JAMES TAYLOR, M. D.

I was born of a healthy family, some of my ancestors, both on the paternal and maternal sides, living to the age of eighty or ninety years. I enjoyed uninterrupted good health from childhood until I was about forty years of age, when serious pecuniary losses, occasioned by the depreciation of my investments, gave a great shock to my nervous system and produced a dyspepsia which for a time resisted all treatment. I sought change of scene, visited different watering-places, and by the aid of careful diet, cheerful company, and the great healer, Time, I was restored to health after suffering somewhat more than a year.

Fifteen years later, in the fall of 1865, I was residing on my estate in Wisconsin. In that year, I had raised an acre of tobacco in addition to the ordinary crops. It was the first tobacco I had ever seen grown, and when the season of "priming" arrived, I dried some of the leaves, and, after a few days, put some of the tobacco in my pipe and smoked it. I had

ORM

that

smoking at a short distance from the house, when I was sized with a pain in the breast; the pain seemed to diffuse useif upward, to take hold of the lower jaw, and was so severe at the time I apprehended the possibility of locked-jaw. At the same time I had a burning pain in the epigastrium and esophagus like that of heart-burn. After a few hours, the pain in breast abated, but from that day I have not been able to walk my ordinary pace without producing pain in the breast more or less violent. The pain begins beneath the sternum and spreads to the arms, extends to the elbows, wrists, and to the finger ends. For a time, I attributed this disorder to the use of that uncured tobacco, but I discontinued the use of tobacco for years without any favorable result; therefore, I may have been wrong in this conclusion.

For five or six years, the only inconvenience I experienced was a violent pain in the breast when walking; by standing still, the pain subsided. I was very careful of my diet, and endeavored to take care of my general health, hoping that nature might come to my assistance. But no, there seemed to be an insidious progress of the disease, the paroxysms increased in frequency, intensity and duration.

In 1872, 1 met with disappointments which seriously affected my pecuniary circumstances. It had such an effect upon me, that I got home with great difficulty, the agony was Ho great that I was two hours in going two blocks, and suffered greatly for two weeks. Medical treatment gave me no relief. I was examined for heart disease, but was told my heart and lungs wore sound. After awhile, there was some little improvement; perfect quiet seemed to be the only condition which mo immunity from pain. But I had my living to earn, and gave have, therefore, been compelled to strive and to endure.

The disease has continued to grow upon me; the paroxysms have so increased in intensity that at times I suffer such an agony as would seem to be beyond human endurance. I have often thought it impossible to get through alive. The paroxysms last from one to three hours. The attacks are now more frequent; they come on without any assignable reason,

time, until I am afraid to move or even think, lest the agony should come upon me.

During this long time, I have consulted many physicians, but no light has been thrown upon the cause, and no remedy has been found. My health has been interrupted during the last two years, in various ways; the bowels have been very irregular, sometimes constipated, at others too lax. I have suffered with erysipelas of the scalp; a concentration of inflammation produced an abscess at the back of the head, very much in character like a carbuncle, having several cores, and a mealy discharge-not inflammatory pus. Whether this has any connection with angina pectoris, I am unable to say.

Treatment has necessarily been to allay symptoms, and at the present time the bowels are regular, but there lingers still beneath the scalp a tingling sensation, which may be a remnant of erysipelas, after fifteen months of treatment. There appears to be a change in the character of the paroxysms, they are much longer; there is first a sweating stage, when the perspiration is profuse, and the abdomen distended; then comes a chill, and the pain somewhat abates; an eructation of flatus follows and the pain gradually subsides; after that there is a disposition to sleep, and if this can be indulged for half an hour, all pain ceases and nothing remains to indicate what has taken place. This peculiarity of paroxysmal stages I have experienced only during the last year. The pulse during the struggle is not much disturbed generally, but sometimes it is more disturbed than at others. The breathing is sometimes difficult; still in the height of a paroxysm, I can inhale a long breath. In November last, both legs and both feet were very much swollen for two weeks, and then the swelling subsided. Sometimes the paroxysm is ushered in by a cough and a considerable secretion of a tenacious mucus, that seems to fill the air passages. There is, indeed, so much variation in the different attacks that a full description of one is not a full description of another; yet the striking pathognomic symptoms and leading feature of the disease are, pain in the breast and in the arms. These are paroxysmal, and will come on with the slightest excitement