TEXT-BOOK OF CHEMISTRY, for the use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy.- By WILLIAM RUSSELL JONES, M. D., Ph. G., Professor of Medical Chemistry and Toxicology, and Lecturer on Medical Diagnosis in the University Medical College; visiting physician to the Virginia Hospital, Richmond, Va., 8vo., cloth, 462 pages, illustrated. Price, $2.50. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Publishers, 1012 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 1905.

The author has endeavored to include in this volume all that is needed in chemistry for students of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy, and, at the same time, care has been exercised to avoid the introduction of unnecessary material.

The text is based upon a system of teaching which has been successfully followed for nine years; and the subject is presented in an inductive manner, commencing with simple statements and avoiding technical terms, until the student has begun to acquire familiarity with his work. The great trouble with most teachers of chemistry for medical and dental students, is, that they have attempted to teach too much not that too much can be acquired, but in the effort to overtax the students in these sciences, but little if any good is obtained.

From an examination of the work, we can most heartily commend it. It is fully brought up with the latest decennial revision of the U. S. Pharmacopeia, and is in every way a fully up-to-date book.

A SYSTEM OF PHYSIOLOGIC THERAPEUTICS, A Practical Exposition of the Methods, other than Drug-giving, useful for the Prevention of Disease and in the Treatment of the Sick.-Edited by SOLOMON SOLIS COHEN, A. M., M. D., Senior Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in Jefferson Medical College; Physician to the Jefferson Medical College Hospital, and to the Philadelphia, the Jewish, and the Rush Hospitals, etc., etc. Volume VII. Mechanotherapy and Physical Education, including Massage and Exercise, etc. 8vo. cloth, 420 pages, illustrated. Price $2.00. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Publishers, 1012 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 1904.

In this volume of "Physiologic Therapeutics" the subject of Mechanotherapy and Physical Education, including Massage and Exercise is ably handled by Jno. K. Mitchell, M. D., Physi

sian to the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases. Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, director of physical training in the public schools of Greater New York, also has some valuable material on Physical Education by Muscular Exercise, with special chapters on Orthopedic Apparatus by James K. Young, M. D., Professor of Orthopedic Surgery in the Philadelphia Polyclinic. Corrective Manipulations in Orthopedic Surgery (including the Lorentz Method) is considered very ably by Dr. H. Augustus Wilson, Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery in Jefferson Medical College. The volume concludes with a consideration of Physical Methods in Ophthalmic Therapeutics, by Walter L. Pyle, M. D., Assistant Surgeon to the Wills Eye Hospital of Philadelphia.

The volume contains 229 illustrations, all of the highest degree of art and science. Those illustrating massage and physical exercise are especially instructive.

A SYSTEM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL THERAPEUTICS, A Practical Exposition of the Methods, other than Drug-giving, useful for the Prevention of Disease and in the Treatment of the Sick.- Edited by SOLOMON SOLIS COHEN, A. M., M. D., Senior Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in Jefferson Medical College; Physician to the Jefferson Medical College Hospital, and to the Philadelphia, the Jewish, and the Rush Hositals, etc. Vol. V. Prophylaxis - Personal Hygiene - Civic Hygiene — Care of the Sick. 8vo. cloth, illustrated, 539 pages. Price $2.00. P. Blakiston's Son & Co., Publishers, 1012 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 1903.

This work, published in 1903, has just reached us, but from an examination we find it fully as valuable as any of the series. The following well-known writers were engaged in getting up the material, which was edited by Dr. Solomon Soles Cohen, viz: Dr. Joseph McFarland, Dr. Henry Leffman, Dr. Albert Abrams, and Dr. W. Wayne Babcock.

A chapter of "special interest" in this volume is that on the various insects that are so influential in interfering with the health, happiness, and prosperity of the genus man; and Madam Stegomyia Fasciata gets the benefit of a full consideration.

But the sub-title of the volume, Prophylaxis, Personal, Hygiene, Civic Hygiene, and Care of the Sick, all so important and

so vital in their relations to mankind, is quite sufficient in itself to commend this particular volume to the interests of all medical men.

Selections.

SURGICAL SUGGESTIONS.— Nitrous oxide narcosis can, in most cases, be continued "smoothly," with no cyanosis and with fair degree of relaxation, even for an hour. A laparotomy may be thus performed, if ether and chloroform are contraindicated. To secure such a narcosis it is best to use an apparatus that permits exhalation into the gas bag, and which has a valve for the admission of air. The bag should not be distended fully. After brief air and gas administration, air is turned off and the patient breathes NO and his own CO At short intervals, and whenever there is any cyanosis, a single breath of pure air is allowed.

During narcosis, when stertorous breathing calls for exten sion of the jaw, it is well to hold it forward first on one side, then on the other, alternating at short intervals. Long, continued pressure at the angle or angles of the jaw produces much soreness. Often the jaw can be kept forward by catching the lower incisor teeth in front of the upper ones (if they are strong); a single finger on the chin is enough to maintain this. position.

Warming a laryngeal mirror prevents condensation of the breath upon it only for a short time. The mirror will remain. bright, however, throughout a prolonged examination if, instead of warming it, its surface is smeared with an invisible film of soap.

When scissors become "catchy" their edges can often be surprisingly smoothed by carrying each blade repeatedly from lock to tip between the firmly pressing thumb and forefinger. Each kind and size of scissors has its own capacity, and should be used only for what it is intended. Ophthalmic instruments.

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