an excellent and reliable remedy, and when a physician is satisfied with the effects achieved, he usually holds fast to the product. That is the secret and mainspring of the Antikamnia success. It is antipyretic, analgesic, and anodyne, and the dose is from 5 to 10 grains, in powder, tablets, or in konseals taken with a swallow of water or wine. When prescribing Antikamnia, particularly in combination with other drugs, it is desirable to specify "in konseals," which are rice-flour capsules, affording an unequaled vehicle for administering drugs of all kinds.

Beviews and Book Notices.

WELCH AND SCHAMBERG ON ACUTE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. A Treatise on Acute Contagious Diseases by WILLIAM M. WELCH, M. D., Consulting Physician to the Municipal Hospital for Contagious and Infectious Disases; Diagnostician to the Bureau of Health, etc., Philadelphia; and JAY F. SCHAMBERG, A. B., M. D., Professor of Dermatology and of Infectious Eruptive Diseases, Philadelphia Polyclinic; Consulting Physician to the Municipal Hospital for Contagious and Infectious Diseases, and Assistant Diagnostician to the Philadelphia Bureau of Health, etc. In one very handsome octavo volume of 781 pages, illustrated with 109 engravings and 61 full-page plates. Cloth, $5.00, net; leather, $6.00, net; half morocco, $6.50 net. Lea Brothers & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1905.

The authors, from years of faithful study and abundant clinical experience, are peculiarly well equipped to furnish precisely the practical information which the every-day physician needs, and they have succeeded in presenting this knowledge fully and clearly in a style of diction which makes reading a pleasure as well as a profit. The Philadelphia Municipal Hospital offers almost unlimited opportunities for the consideration of contagious diseases, and the work is based upon the personal study of the many patients who come daily under the charge of the authors; thus there have been studied nearly ten thousand cases each of smallpox, scarlet fever, and diphtheria, in addition to the very many cases of the other diseases discussed, such as vaccinia, measles, chicken-pox, rubella, typhus fever, etc.

Diagnosis and symptoms are given the thorough attention they deserve, and as the volume is intended primarily to be a

practical guide to the practitioner who may not have had the advantage of a large clinical experience in this field, treatment both medicinal and non-medicinal, hygienic measures, disinfection, etc., are all covered with careful, complete details.

In illustrations the book is rich indeed; the pictures alone are easily worth the price of the book. It is a work which should find a readily accessible place on the shelves of every practicing physician.

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN DIET AND NUTRITION. By MAX EINHORN, M. D., Professor of Medicine at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, and Visiting Physician to the German Hospital. 8vo, cloth, pp. 64 Wm. Wood & Co., Publishers, New York, 1905.

This little booklet consists of six very practical chapters, being a collection of papers written by Dr. Einhorn which have appeared in medical journals, and will be of considerable interest to both students and practitioners, who as a rule do not pay sufficient attention to so important a subject. In fact, we are rather too prone to rely far too much on the administration of drugs, devoting too little attention to dietetics and other hygienic meas

ures.

SURGICAL DIAGNOSIS, A Manual for Practitioners of Medicine and Surgery. By Orro G. T. KILIANI, M. D., Surgeon to the German Hospital; Member of the New York Surgical Society; of the Surgical Society of Berlin (Germany), etc., etc. 8vo, cloth, pp. 449. Illustrated by fifty-nine full-page plates and engravings in the text. Wm. Wood & Co., Publishers, New York, 1905.

In this most excellent addition to medical and surgical literature the introductory chapter gives the various methods of examination and how to carry them out properly. The special part has been arranged in anatomical order, beginning at the head, after the method of von Bergmann's Handbook of Surgery.

In most instances he gives the concensus of opinion of the best recognized authorities, and where surgical questions are of too recent date to have been decided definitely, he gives his own. personal opinion, founded on experience.

The tables are all original except in a few instances, where

proper credit is given; and with the exception of a few figures, re-drawn after illustrations in standard works, the cuts are original.

It is a most excellent and valuable work, and will enable the practitioner to decide definitely and correctly many questions decidedly difficult as to whether an operation is advisable or not. The operations which may become necessary, and the selection. of the particular operation, as well as the prognosis, have been mentioned only when important for the practitioner to know them when proposing operation to the patient.

The opinions are lucid, the statements concise, and the language plain and simple.

“ATONIA GASTRICA" (Abdominal Relaxation). By ACHILLES ROSE, M. D., and ROBERT COLEMAN KEMP, M. D. 12mo, cloth, 215 pages, illustrated Price, $1.00, net. Funk and Wagnalls Co., Publishers, 44-60 East 23rd St., New York, 1905.

The object of this book is to present facts which demonstrate the relations of abdominal relaxation to a number of pathological conditions, and to show the importance of these relations in regard to the etiology, pathology, and therapy of the diseases of the stomach, the abdominal organs in general, the organs of respiration, of circulation, and the nervous system. The book also describes and treats on the significance of the plaster strapping as the most rational therapeutic measure.

ARNEILL'S EPITOME OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS AND URINALYSIS. A Manual for Students and Practitioners. (Lea's Series of Medical Epitomes. Edited by VICTOR C. PEDERSEN, M. D.) By JAMES R. ARNEILL, A. B., M. D., Professor of Medicine and Clinical Medicine in the University of Colorado, Physician to the County Hospital and to St. Joseph's Hospital, Denver. In one 12mo volume of 244 pages, with 79 engravings and a colored plate. Cloth, $1.00, net. Lea Brothers & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1905.

This is the seventeenth volume of Lea's Series of Medical Epitomes, and Dr. Arneill has furnished a fit companion to the others of this series.

It contains an enormous amount of up-to-date information on laboratory investigations and clinical diagnosis, skilfully condensed, simply and clearly stated. The sections on the blood and urine are very full, but sufficient consideration is also given. to the examination of stomach contents, feces, sputum, many bacilli, cerebro-spinal fluid, milk, etc.

Illustrations are freely used wherever they can help to a better understanding of the text.

Selections.

WHY DOES THE SOUTHERN NEGRO ESCAPE THE RAVAGES OF SYPHILIS? - When we compare the effects of syphilis on the white and colored races, we are struck with the remarkable fact that the negro escapes the disastrous sequela of late constitutional poisoning almost entirely; and added to this we may say, whether he is treated or not for the malady.

Of course this broad statement is likely to be questioned by those who have not given the subject careful study, and who have assumed that syphilis affects all alike and runs about the same course in the average case.

But the negro of the South, especially the out-of-door laborer, is not an average case he is an exception — and as far as we have observed, the black negro (we do not mean mullattos and mongrels), whether in or out of doors, possesses a remarkable immunity to the graver constitutional forms of syphilis. It is true, primary syphilis attacks the negro with even more severity than it does the white man, but it practicallly goes through himaffects him thoroughly, gives him cutaneous lesions, and knocks him around generally. But the negro who lives on good, plain food, leads an out-of-door life, especially in the sun, avoids overindulgence in alcoholics, wisely avoids saturation with the iodides in fact, neglects standard lines of medication -- will, after one summer of sweat and sunshine, find himself with a sleek hide and all of his syphilis left behind.

We have treated thousands of cases of syphilis in white and colored patients, and this has been our observation. According to the conditions existing among the colored race, there should be ten times as much syphilis among them as among the whites. According to the ignorance and carelessness of those afflicted with the disease, there should be ten times as much constitutional trouble as we would find among the whites; and yet how many negro children do we see born with hereditary syphilis? We will venture the assertion that it is an extremely rare thing to find a negro baby with hereditary syphilis, though the idea is very prevalent that the negro race is all syphilitic. It is a popular belief, but an erroneous one, certainly so far as chronic constitutional infection goes.

Now what are we to learn from this observation?

The first important lesson is that there is a decided difference between a negro and a white man! Some people seem to think there is none whatever! Apart from any facetiousness, we wish to say that it teaches us that syphilis is eliminated from the system by the emunctories, and is not antidoted and neutralized altogether by drugs administered. We believe that the negro sweats out his poison, and improves his reconstructive elements by his exercise and labor in the open sunlight, which stimulates digestion and assimilation.

The next lesson and the most important one is the minimum amount of drug poisoning he gets in treatment. We have for many years seen the direst results follow over-zealous and indiscriminate drug administration in the hands of inexperienced practitioners, and many woeful cases have fallen into our hands in which the mercurial and iodine poisoning had wrought havoc which was charged to a malady which could have been cured long before by milder and more rational and scientific measures.— C. A. Bryce, M. D., in Southern Clinic.

THE DISORDERS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ARISING IN THE COURSE OF CHRONIC NEPHRITIS.-W. M. Leszynsky says that, aside from the various neurasthenic manifestations occurring in patients with chronic nephritis, many of the transitory subjec