are not intended for ordinary dissections, tissue scissors should not be used for cutting bandages, nor bandage scissors for plaster of Paris.

A scroll-saw, with an assortment of a dozen saws, can be purchased at the hardware store for twenty-five cents; it is ideal for resection of the small bones of the hand and foot, for amputations of the digits, etc. Well tempered carpenter's chisels and gouges, and a carpenter's wooden mallet answer the purpose admirably for bone work. A useful bone drill can also be selected from the stock of a hardware dealer. A gardener's pruning knife and a carpenter's miter saw are the best tools for the removal of plaster dressings. A cheap potato knife, rough sharpened on a stone, is excellent for cutting through starch bandages. Crochet needles are most useful for lifting buried stitches out of a sinus.

An

Knitting needles find another purpose as a means of rupturing the membranes when this is needed in obstetrical work. Sharp and blunt retractors may be fashioned, in an emergency, by bending the tines of a fork and the handle of a spoon, respectively. A teaspoon is also useful as an elevator of the eye, when resection of the superior maxilla is performed. inverted tea-strainer is useful in the dressing after colostomy, to prevent pressure of the gauze upon the gut. A spoon-shaped potato cutter may be used, in an emergency, as a wound curette. Similarly, applicators, probes, and depressors may be improvised by twisting stout copper wire. The multiple surgical uses of the hairpin are also well-known. Of stouter material, if necessary,

a small self-retaining speculum can be quickly made from steel wire; it often obviates the need of an assistant when searching the hand or foot for a foreign body.

A wedge of hard wood makes a gag quite useful, often, when administering anesthesia. A discarded thermometer case (or a hard rubber douche point) is a serviceable handle in which to mount, with candle grease or adhesive plaster, a stick of silver nitrate. Steel spring tape-measures are better than the wires. generally sold for the purpose, for conducting to an X-ray tube

the current from the coil or static machine; easily kept taut, and quickly adjusted, they are safest for the patient and most convenient for the operator; that they are not insulated is inconsequential the coverings on the regular wires do not insulate the induced current. Cheap powder blowers, such as are used for insecticides, may be employed as insufflators in surgical work, and pepper boxes are useful for dusting powders.

Wooden skewers are serviceable nail-cleaners. Rolling pins and kitchen towel racks are very convenient for adhesive plaster, rubber tissue, etc., especially for hospital dressings. Grocers' bags are the most serviceable receptacles for soiled dressings. Tar-paper is a smooth, fairly waterproof material to tack on the floor when preparing a room for operation.-Americal Journal of Surgery.

CANCER.-W. L. Rodman, Philadelphia (Journal A. M. A., September 30), considers the parasitic theory of cancer as far from being proved, and also thinks that there may be some overestimation of its increase in recent times. If parasites are present, it is probable that they play a secondary part and are not the primary cause of the disease. The transmission of a cancer from one individual to another, he believes, is simply a case of successful grafting, and the rare, if not unheard of, infection of operating surgeons is also against the parasitic theory. The old theory of continued irritation of epithelial structures is still largely valid, and the minimizing of heredity has, as with tuberculosis, been carried too far. Probably more than one cause is usually operative. Comparatively little of what is written or said in regard to precancerous conditions, Rodman thinks, is based on indisputable facts. Paget's disease of the nipple, for example, is generally believed to be precancerous, but he considers the association is infrequent, and when it does occur the areolar disease is apt to be secondary. He also questions any necessary connection between phimosis and cancer. That gastric ulcer is often followed by cancer is undeniable, and that cancer of the cecum frequently follows repeated appendiceal infection he

has not the slightest doubt. In case of suspicious mammary tumors prompt operation is certainly desirable and exploration is easy, safe, and quick. In any case, a thorough operation should be prepared for as the safest course. Three conditions of mam

mary cancer are too much overlooked, he thinks: (1) The pathologic character of the growth influences the prognosis, schirrus and ancephaloid being less favorable than adeno-carcinoma. (2) The age of the host; metastases being more rapid in the young. (3) The location of the growth, the inner hemisphere of the gland, on account of the danger of mediastinal infection, being most dangerous and requiring most prompt operation. Rodman emphasizes the importance of complete operation in cancer, and holds that the supraclavicular glands should be explored and removed if enlarged, in all cancers situated in the upper part of the mammary gland.

SALICYLIC ACID IN CHOLELITHIASIS.-According to Stiller (Wien. med. Woch., No. 1, 1905) and Chauffard (Berlin. klin. Woch., May 8, 1905) sodium salicylate is of decided value in cholelithiasis. It is given between the attacks in doses of seven grains four times daily. Fifteen one-hundredths grain extract of belladonna is usually added. The medication is continued for three or four weeks, hot applications being made over the liver for two or three hours every morning and evening. It is said to have about the same effect as a course at Carlsbad, providing the salicylate be dissolved in warm Carlsbad water.

SAW PALMETTO IN TONSILLITIS AND ENLARGED TONSILS.— J. L. Van Zandt (Medical Record, June 17, 1905) has had good results in tonsillitis and enlarged tonsils from the internal use of half-grain doses of the fluid extract of saw palmetto thrice daily.

THE PAINFULNESS of withdrawing packings that have dried in a wound may be avoided by soaking them with peroxide of hydrogen.

DISCREDITING MEDICAL EVIDENCE.-The Illinois Supreme Court holds in C. & E. I. R. R. Co. vs. Schmitz that where a physician testifies for the plaintiff in a personal injury case it is not proper on cross-examination to ask questions in regard to professional opinions he has given in other personal injury suits. nor to attempt to show by direct examination of other witnesses that he was interested as a medical man in a large number of personal damage suits against corporations.-Illinois Reports.

A MEDICAL JOURNAL Vouches for the following story: A woman who was seriously ill awoke one night to find the nurse sitting on the foot of her bed smoking a cigarette and reading a novel. Greatly startled, the patient raised herself up in bed and cried out, "What in the world are you doing, nurse?" To which the nurse replied: "Good gracious! I thought you were dead!" -Ex.

THYROID EXTRACT IN SCLERODERMA.- Menestriér has recently reported (Archives gén de Méd., July 4, 1905) a case of scleroderma in which, despite mitral insufficiency, thyroid extract was well borne and resulted in complete recovery.

TINNITUS AURIUM, present only in the recumbent posture, is suggestive of aneurism of one of the posterior cerebral vessels.

SURGICAL TUBERCULOSIS, no less than pulmonary tuberculosis, calls for the most careful general treatment, post-operative and otherwise.

THE TEMPTATION should not be yielded to to incise a psoas. hip, or other "cold" abscess, except in isolated instances, and then only under the most rigid asepsis. The production of a mixed infection means chronic sinus, chronic invalidism, and often amyloid disease.

PICRIC ACID IN ECZEMA.-Meyer (Deut. med. Wosh., No. 16, 1905) adds 1/4 to 1 per cent. picric acid to pastes and ointments ordinarily employed in the treatment of various forms of acute and chronic weeping and pustular forms of eczema, with most excellent results. He has never observed any irritating action or toxic effect following its use.

TOO POLITE.—Mrs. Jaspar—“ I shall never send for Dr. Veriswell when I am ill."

Mrs. Jumpuppe-" Why not?"

Mrs. Jaspar "Because he is so excessively polite that if he found me at death's door he would hasten to open it for me."

IN THE TREATMENT OF FRACTURES of the forearm no consideration is more important than the avoidance of contractures of the fingers, by the intelligent use of splints and by means of early active and passive movements.

INVOLUNTARY URINATION very often means a distended bladder, and in old men it should at once indicate an examination into the condition of the prostate. Vomiting, too, is often caused by distension of the bladder.

IN THE PRESENCE OF ANEMIA or of faintness, without other apparent cause, inquire concerning the passage of black stools. The condition may result from hemorrhages due to an ulcer or neoplasm of the small intestine.

BEFORE OPERATING FOR PHARYNGEAL ADENOIDS or hypertrophied tonsils make sure that these are not merely an expression of status lymphaticus. If they are, do not employ an anesthetic. Also determine whether the patient is a hemophiliac. If he is, do not operate at all.